Fill out a form, write your check, get your ticket, head down to the University.
Listen to Imam such-and-such speak, hang out with friends after and relax. Rinse and repeat.
This is the paradigm for Suburban Muslims which has been put forward to the youth, and it seems to be failing miserably. Everyone knows someone who has left faith at some seminars doorstep.
The foundation of this approach is based on a few unspoken assumptions which no one questions.
I will question them.
First, they should be listed:
1) American culture is the primary definition of the way we dress, the food we enjoy, the entertainment we seek (Movies, TV, video games).
2) Islam can be understood practically as a filter of the ‘bad’ aspects of the American lifestyle out of ones life. The bad aspects are the obvious haraam (forbidden actions). It can also be an encouragement of the ‘good’ aspects of American life.
3) Since Islam is a filter of good and bad, one needs to obtain ‘ilm’ (religious knowledge) in order to learn how to behave. Studying ‘ilm’ is paramount in Islam, and most ‘ilm’ is in Arabic.
4) What is taught by people in classes at seminars and ‘events’ is a translation and summarization of what is considered ‘ilm’.
5) Your status is defined by how much of this seminar-event-based ‘ilm’ you know.
6) Your source of English-’ilm’ is infinitely better than other peoples source of English-’ilm’.
7) If you learn Arabic yourself you will one day know exactly without a doubt that #6 is true.
8) ‘Ilm’ can be expensive.
9) What defines a good Muslim is how well integrated he is with Suburban-Middle-class Society (job, wife, kids, house) plus the combination of his ‘ilm’
10) With real ‘ilm’ we can combat a Non Suburban-Capitalist-Islam. The end result of Non Suburban-Capitalist-Islam is a lifestyle absent of the luxuries and principles of Suburban Capitalist Islam, primarily #1.
11) Non Suburban-Capitalist Muslims are extremists of different sorts, and Suburban Capitalist Muslims are moderate. They are moderate because they are largely indistinguishable from n0n-Muslim Americans within the workforce, except for a beard/Hijab and some dietary requirements.
12) Isa’s (AS) return, Imam Mahdi (AS) and the Dajjal are topics of events far in the future. They are so far that they are largely understood as metaphors without meaning.
13) Islamic history is something left to be studied in a superficial manner, because most of Muslim history is filled with various mistakes and evil people. It is far more important to learn about the primary sources of ‘ilm’ and attend more seminars.
14) Actual change from a Western to an Islamic society will come from those who participate in the political and economic system and give Dawah within.
15) Most immigrants have no idea about ‘ilm’, because they have never attended these seminars. Therefore most parents are without knowledge.
I will add more later. If you have some more to add, put them in comments sections and later I will flesh all of these out.
the truth on 
m.a.kidwai,CME/IND.RLY.(retd.) on 
Assalamu alaikum,
Interesting. What’s the alternative that you recommend? Don’t you believe there’s value in learning fard ‘ayn in classes and with qualified Shaykhs who have ijazah? Isn’t there benefit in the Iman-boosting, taqwa increasing and inspiring seminars and events at which many people convert to Islam and many born Muslims reengage with their faith?
If this method is failing miserably, which I disagree with, what is the solution? Should we go live in the countryside and isolate ourselves from the rest of the world? Should we all make hijrah to a Muslim majority country where we won’t be able to practice Islam as freely as we can in America?
As Americans, what other culture should we look to? Should American-born Muslims pretend they are Arab or Desi? What if the Muslim is of African-American or Caucasian and there is no “back home” culture to emulate? We should be proud of being Muslim Americans and, just like every other land where Muslims live, we should “Islamify” American culture. This process can be seen throughout the world from North Africa to Indonesia and America should be no different.
Obviously there’s a lot of haram in American culture, as in every culture, and Muslims should choose Islam over culture when the two conflict. We are all aware of the many unIslamic practices Desi and Arab cultures, for example. American culture is no different; take the good of the culture and leave the unIslamic.
Every Shaykh who practices traditional Islam will tell you that the vast majority of movies, music and video games are haram and I’ve never been to any event or class that said different. The problem isn’t the Shaykhs, the events, or the lectures they produce but the individual Muslim’s implementation of what was taught. If anything there needs to be more classes and lectures available, specifically on Ihsan or tasawwuf, helping us to control our nufs and purify our selves from the corrupting influences of the more negative parts of our environments.
BismillahirRahmanirRahim
Salamu’alaykum,
Thank you for your comment. Good questions.
InshaAllah I will address some of your points in the follow up.
Salam alaykum,
A thought-provoking post. I wonder if we will look inwardly, and sincerely beg Allah Almighty, for safety and deliverance, from this fate we’ve resigned ourselves to.
I would add to the list:
“Ilm” is learned from these seminars (or from the books/CDs sold by institutions that sponsor/run them) much like one does at university, though “it’s nice” to learn them directly from an appointed teacher.
Online “ilm” courses are an up and coming industry.
Self-purification depends only on one’s own efforts, and that in turn, depends on how much your socioeconomic bracket can afford you in obtaining books, online classes, attending seminars or conventions.
Zakat? (I don’t even know where to begin with this issue!)
Good luck to you…
I refer to the ‘ilm part of the post, and to the first comment by Sidi Abdullah.
Would the way Professor Ahmad Dallal put it in what to my mind comes across as an insightful exposition in, The Origins and Objectives of Islamic Revivalist Thought, 1750-1850, about Shaykh Sanusi be relevant?
“The significance of Sanusi’s limited individual ijtihad can now be understood in the context of his general ideology: it empowers individual Muslims enough to liberate them from the fragmenting effects of taqlid, and allows them to have a say by investing communal authority in the persons they choose. This ijtihad, however, prohibits these same individuals from judging beyond their persons or on behalf of any collectivity. It provides them the right to choose but not to impose.” (p. 358, Journal of the American Oriental Society 113.3, 1993)”
My emphasis is in “… allows them to have a say by investing communal authority in the persons they choose.”
You need to emphasize number 8 more. This is the most irksome one. It seems when ever an event or a series of classes comes around that catches my eye, meaning something I would love to know more about, and can’t read/find out about myself… I can’t afford it. It makes me feel low, inferior. I have to wonder where all those kids (?) come up with 80 a pop, or more. This leaves out all the Moms who stay at home and have no income….
Also, having been around various forums where students of these ilminars congregate, they are certainly seem cultish in their following.
AA-
Excellent post. I think #9 and #10 are a bit extreme, but I agree 100% with the remaining points, especially #11.
I might piggyback off ur post and put together my own…be assured that I will plagiarize shamelessly.
BismillahirRahmanirRahim
Alaykumsalam Aischa,
I will go into each of these point by point iA.
Alaykumsalam Br Naeem,
feel free!
Salaam ‘alaikum,
It was related to me on good authority that a well-respected Western-born Sheikh who came to Islam in his 20s and subsequently moved to the East once told his students, by way of indicating how one should approach culture, that he had “removed every remnant of western culture from my life and have found nothing but benefit in doing so.”
Salaam ‘alaikum,
As a separate point, the scholars who accept invitations to lecture at colleges and conferences were not, I believe, the subject of Yursil’s piece.
My own sheikh has told us that there is little, if any, madad in such events and that they are useful mainly for those who are removed from the Muslim community to engage in some “Islamic socializing”.
Perhaps that’s the intention of those who organize, participate and hold forth at such events, wallahu ‘alam.
The real point I’ve taken from his comments and Yursil’s is that they are not a replacement for real suhba and do not lead to spriritual progress. If anything (and I’ve only attended a handful of such events), the opposite seems to be happening.
Salamu’alaykum
ilyas is right about what I am discussing
BismillahirRahmanirRahim
Salamu’alaykum,
I am not a saint, far from it. I am not a teacher and I am, in fact, trying to be no one at all.
At the same time, I witness things around me and these are my journals of what I witness. This list is not yet even a criticism, nor is it my personal reaction (that is in other posts). This is simply how it is. Instead of debating or listing the beliefs of ‘American Islam’, I called it the way I see it: ‘Suburban Capitalist Islam’. I think some people missed that. They are equivalent to me, and I gave the list of what I understand it to be.
Does this mean I am divorced from it?
Nope. This is, again, just how it is for me and my peers. Its a reality of being a Muslim living in America.
Personally, I am finding myself, with support, to be able to turn my heart away from it, and it helps to do that after I get a chance to write down what I see.
Nonsense comments, as usual, will be deleted.
@ Abdullah: Should we all make hijrah to a Muslim majority country where we won’t be able to practice Islam as freely as we can in America?
Perhaps one should. Not necessarily to a Muslim-majority country, but at least to a country that has a significant Muslim community. Having moved to Singapore seven years ago (the Muslim community here being roughly 15% of the total population), I noted in myself an increased understanding of Islam and Islamic practice over time. The benefits from living in such a community are many: from the large number of neighborhood mosques, to the wide variety of halal groceries and restaurants, to the many educational resources (whether it is the hundreds of ustazs and ustazahs available for instruction, the madrassahs available for both children and adults, or even just well-stocked sections in regular bookstores on Islam), to the social and government services devoted to the Muslim community, to the (here) hundreds of thousands of Muslim family members and neighbors who provide friendship and moral support for living an Islamic lifestyle. In short, large Muslim communities have the support infrastructure that make an Islamic lifestyle much easier to accomplish. I would much rather live here as a Muslim, even though I am an expatriate, than back home in the U.S.
Assalamu alaikum Brother,
This was a wonderful post Mash’allah and it highlighted some very unfortunate facets of how some of us American Muslims live today. Another thing I notice is the disconnect that occurs between the wealthy suburban capitalist Muslims and the poorer urban (mainly immigrant) Muslims. If only suburban capitalist Muslims and their masajids could offer some help and guidance (and I don’t just mean financial but also social/spiritual guidance) to those less well off and who are also trying to raise their children by Deen but don’t know how to really go about doing it, especially if they are immigrants to the West and are unaware of the ways to deal with the specific issues and concerns they face living there. It’s like the attitude engendered by trying to live the American Dream in suburbia is “I gotta look out for myself, family and community only” which goes against one of the fundamentals of Islam (promoting charitable acts). Our ultimate aim in this world is to worship Allah and the way to do that is not by making ourselves a comfortable life in the Dunya but by (among other things) engaging in charity.
as-salaamu alaikum ya Yursil,
I found this post through a link on the blog of a very good friend of mine. I wasn’t sure if it was okay for me to comment here, so I wrote a few words about this topic on my own blog: Surburban-Capitalist Islam
I am very interested in this topic, because it’s a phenomenon that I’ve seen in my own city.
salaams Binti! Yursil welcomes comments as long as they’re respectful and relevent to the post, LOL. i’m gonna go read your post now!