“I AM…” is a poem by Hamza Abdul Malik who is one of our young scholars. Hamza, has memorized the Qur’an in both Warsh and Hafs and has studied Arabic and Shari’ah in Syria, Yemen, and is currently studying in Egypt. He wrote this poem after his wife’s eighty-year old grandmother took Shahada!

I AM…

I am who I am because..
Allah made me who I am

I am that dirty vagabond who sleeps in the alley,
but if it wasn’t for my prayers…
God would have punished the entire city,
but since He loves me so,
He shows them mercy and pity.
So don’t step on me when you see me sleeping
and don’t hold your nose up when you see me weeping,
For if you saw what my tears mean on the Day of Judgment
you wouldn’t be so fast in passing your baseless judgment.

I am that…
Muslim stripper that everyone hates,
who was “doomed to hell” or at least “at its gates”
but one night after the club closed I was in the streets…
and I saw a starving dog looking for something to eat,
so I used up the last of my dollars and nickels,
and I bought a hamburger and I took off the pickles,
and I gave it to the dog… and even though he still looked the same
little did I know that it was my fate that had changed
Allah saw this deed I did that no one thought of
so He gave me paradise just for me showing it so much love

I am that…
Muslim who prays five salats a day,
who stays in wudu to keep devils away,
who goes to the masjid and smiles to everyone, who..
goes to itikaf with his daughters and sons but…
eats the flesh of his sister’s and brothers and…
fights his father and curses his mother… and
doesn’t show mercy to his wife and his kids, so he…
punches his wife right under the eyelids… and he
beats his children as hard as he can cuz…
that’s only way he can feel like a man…
and Allah only gives him respite, so…
he could repent from his sins and set his record right… but
if he isn’t forgiven by his kids and his wife then…
he’s got a world of pain coming to him in the next life…

I am that…
Old woman eighty years of age whose…
got so much wisdom they call her a sage and..
she lays on the bed and before she dies she…
calls her granddaughter to come by her side… and
she tells her she’s ready to die with Islam… so
she tells her granddaughter, “go get the Quran..” and…
she reads the verse “Tell those who disbelieved: if they stop, all their past will be forgiven.”
and she stopped right there cuz her hands were shiverin’... and
she realized that she could not die a “kaffa” so she…
raised up her index and took her shahada… and
her hand fell and she took a gasp… and
that was the end because it was her last.. and
her life was sealed by that last saying so…
she went straight to Jenna without even praying…

I’m that..
orphan who never got a chance in his youth to..
share his talents and spit his truth… until
he left the hood and went to the woods to…
find seclusion and the essence of good… he
was inspired by God and was taught how to read… but
not in the way that we’d like to believe.
He.. reads the hearts, the souls and the mind
He… reads the heavens and reads its signs
He… reads the lines and he reads the lips
of.. the ancient prophets and the ancient scripts
and he… teaches the people through actions and deeds.. and he
carefully plants his wisdom in the hearts like seeds
he teaches the lesson that we can all learn…

“To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return”