The passing of sister aminah

>>Salam,
>>For those of you who don’t know our dear sister, Aminah Assilmi, who
passed away this morning in a fatal car accident, she was recently
chosen as one of the top 500 most influential current Muslims in the
world. She can be credited with getting us the Eid Stamp in the United
States. And she has spoken often at mosques and Islamic conferences
across North America; she has also been a champion of da’wah efforts,
bringing many people into Islam by God’s will. May Allah have mercy
upon her soul and make her grave a meadow of Paradise.
>>
>>
>>Her detailed life story is below.
>>
>>
>>Renowned female Scholar: Aminah Assilmi
>>
>>
>>Aminah assilmi is a renowned female scholar of Islam she travels around
the United States to give lectures , her personal story has admired
hundreds of individuals ,she is also President of International Union
of Muslim Women , the organization that has many achievements under
its belt.
>>"I am so very glad that I am a Muslim. Islam is my life. Islam is the
beat of my heart. Islam is the blood that courses through my veins.
Islam is my strength. Islam is my life so wonderful and beautiful.
Without Islam I am nothing, and should Allah ever turn His magnificent
face from me, I could not survive." Aminah Assilmi
>>It all started with a computer glitch.
>>She was a Southern Baptist girl, a radical feminist, and a broadcast
journalist. She was a girl with an unusual caliber, who excelled in
school, received scholarships, ran her own business, and were competing
with professionals and getting awards â€" all these while she was going
to college. Then one day a computer error happened that made her take up
a mission as a devout Christian. Eventually, however, it resulted into
something opposite and changed her life completely around.
>>It was 1975 when for the first time computer was used to pre-register
for a class in her college. She was working on her degree on Recreation.
She pre-registered for a class and then went to Oklahoma City to take
care of a business. Her return was delayed and she came back to college
two weeks into the class. Making up the missed work was no problem for
her, but she was surprised to find that the computer mistakenly
registered her for a Theatre class, a class where students would be
required to perform in front of others. She was a very reticent girl and
she was horrified to think about performing in front of others. She
could not drop the class for it was too
>> late
>>Failing the class was also not a choice, for she was receiving a
scholarship that was paying for her tuition and receiving an ‘F’
would have jeopardized it.
>>Advised by her husband, she went to her teacher to work out some other
alternative to performing, such as preparing costumes, etc. Assured by
the teacher that he would try to help her, she went to the next class
and was shocked by what she saw. The class was full of Arabs and
“camel jockeys”. That was enough for her. She came back home and
decided not to go back to the class anymore. It was not possible for her
to be in the middle of Arabs. “There was no way I was going to sit in
a room full of dirty heathens!”
>>Her husband was calm as usual. He pointed out to her that God has a
reason for everything and that she should think about more before
quitting. Besides, there was the scholarship that was paying her
tuition. She went behind locked doors for 2 days to think about. When
she came out, she decided to continue the class. She felt that God gave
her a task to convert the Arabs into Christianity.
>>Thus she found herself with a mission to accomplish. Throughout the
class, she would be discussing Christianity with her Arab classmates.
“I proceeded to explain to them how they would burn in the fires of
hell for all eternity, if they did not accept Jesus as their personal
savior. They were very polite, but did not convert. Then, I explained
how Jesus loved them and had died on the cross to save them from their
sins. All they had to do was accept him into their hearts.” They still
did not convert, and so she decided to do something else: “I decided
to read their own book to show to them that Islam was a false
>> religion and Mohammed was a false Prophet”.
>>At her request, one student gave her a copy of the Qur’an and another
book on Islam. With these two books she started on her research, which
she was to continue for the next one and half years. She read the
Qur’an fully and another fifteen books on Islam. Then she came back to
the Qur’an and re-read it. During her research, she started taking
notes that she found objectionable and which she would be able to use to
prove that Islam was a false religion.
>>Unconsciously, however, she was changing from within which did not
escape the attention of her husband. “I was changing, just in little
ways but enough to bother him. We used to go to the bar every Friday and
Saturday, or to a party, and I no longer wanted to go. I was quieter and
more distant.” She stopped drinking and eating pork. Her husband
suspected her of having an affair with another man, for “it was only
for a man that a woman changes”. Ultimately, she was asked to leave,
and she soon found herself living in a separate apartment
>>"When I first started to study Islam, I did not expect to find anything
that I needed or wanted in my personal life. Little did I know that
Islam would change my life. No human could have ever convinced me that I
would finally be at peace and overflowing with love and joy because of
Islam."
>>Throughout these times, she continued studying Islam and although she
was changing subtly from within, she remained a devout Christian. Then
one day, there was a knock on her door. It was a man in traditional
Muslim robe, who appeared to her as a “man in a long white night gown
with a red and white checkered table cloth on his head”. His name was
Abdul-Aziz Al-Sheik and he was accompanied by three other men in similar
dress. She was very offended by Muslim men coming to her in nightgowns
and pajamas. She was further shocked when Abdul-Aziz told her that he
understood that she waited to be a Muslim. She replied that she was a
Christian and she did not have any plan to become a Muslim. However, she
had some questions to ask if they had the
>> time.
>>At her invitation, they came inside. She now brought up the questions
and objections that she noted down while she was researching. “I will
never forget his name”, she said of Abdul-Aziz who proved to be a very
patient and soft-mannered person. “He was very patient and discussed
every question with me. He never made me feel silly or that a question
was stupid.” Abdul-Aziz listened to every question and objection and
explained it within the proper context. “He explained that Allah had
told us to seek knowledge and questions were one of the ways to
accomplish that. When he explained something, it was like watching a
rose open â€" petal by petal, until it reached its full glory. When I
told him that I did not agree with something and
>> why, he always said I was correct up to a point. Then he would show me
how to look deeper and from different directions to reach a fuller
understanding.”
>>It would not be long before she would externally submit to what she had
already been submitting to internally during the last one and half
years. Later in that same day, this Southern Baptist girl would declare
in front of Abdul-Aziz and his companions: “I bear witness that there
is no god but God and Mohammed is His Messenger.” It was May 21, 1977.
>>Conversion to Islam, or to any other religion for that matter, is not
always a simple thing to do. Except for a few fortunate ones, a new
Muslim usually face consequences. The convert may face isolation from
family and friends, if not pressure to go back to the family faith.
Sometimes, a convert may even face sever economic hardship, as in the
case of those who are asked to leave the house because of converting to
Islam. Some converts are fortunate to continue to be well respected by
family and friends, but most of them face minor to severe hardship
especially during the first few years after the conversion.
>>But the difficulty that Aminah Assilimi had to go through and the
sacrifice that she had to make for the sake of her conviction and faith
is almost unheard of. There are few who could rely so much on Allah as
she did, standing firm and meeting the challenges, making sacrifices,
and yet maintaining a positive posture and influencing people around
with the beauty of what she found and believed in.
>>She lost most of her friends, for she was “no fun anymore”. Her
mother did not accept her becoming a Muslim and hoped that it was a
temporary zeal and that she would soon grow out of it. Her “mental
health expert” sister thought that she lost her mind. She attempted to
put her in a mental health institution.
>>Her father was a calm and wise man. People would come to him for advice
and he could comfort anyone in distress. But when he heard that his
daughter became a Muslim, he loaded his double-barrel shotgun and
started on his way to kill her. “It is better that she be dead rather
than suffering in the deepest of Hell”, he said.
>>She was now without friends and without family.
>>She soon started wearing hijab. The day she put it on, she was denied
her job. She was now without family, friends, and job. But her greatest
sacrifice was yet to come.
>>She and her husband both loved each other very much. But while she was
studying Islam, her husband misunderstood her for her apparent changes.
She became quieter and stopped going to the bar. Her changes were
visible to him and he suspected her of having affair with another man,
for whom she must have been changing. She could not explain to him what
was happening. “There was no way to make him understand what was
changing me because I did not know.” Eventually he asked her to leave
and she started living separately.
>>After she openly accepted Islam, it went worse. A divorce was now
inevitable. This was a time when Islam was little known, much less
understood for what it is. She had two little children whom she loved
dearly and whose custody should have rightfully be given to her. But in
a grave violation of justice, she was denied their custody just because
she became a Muslim. Before giving the formal verdict, the judge offered
her a harsh choice: either renounce Islam and get custody of the
children, or keep Islam and leave the children. She was given 20 minutes
to make a decision.
>>She loved her children very dearly. It is perhaps the worst nightmare
that a mother can have: asked to willfully leave her child - not for one
day, month, or year, but forever. On the other hand, how could she keep
the Truth away from her children and live as a hypocrite? “It was the
most painful 20 minutes in my life”, she said in an interview. Those
of us who are mothers and fathers, especially of young children, little
imagination is needed to feel the pain and torment that she must have
passed every second in those 20 minutes. What added further to her pain
was that according to doctors, she could never bear another child
because of certain complications. “I prayed like I had never done
before … I knew that there was no safer place for my children
>> to be than in the hands of Allah. If I denied Him, there would be no
way in the future to show my children the wonders of being with
Allah.”
>>She decided to retain Islam. Her two dear children â€" one little boy
and one little girl â€" were taken away from her and given to her
ex-husband.
>>For a mother, is there a sacrifice greater than this â€" a sacrifice
that is done for no material reason but only for faith and conviction?
>>“I left the court knowing that life without my babies would be very
difficult. My heart bled, even though I knew, inside, I had done the
right thing” . She found comfort in the following verse of the Qur'an:
>>There is no god but He,-the Living, the Self-subsisting, Eternal. No
slumber can seize Him nor sleep. His are all things in the heavens and
on earth. Who is there can intercede in His presence except as He
permitteth? He knoweth what (appeareth to His creatures as) before or
after or behind them. Nor shall they compass aught of His knowledge
except as He willeth. His Throne doth extend over the heavens and the
earth, and He feeleth no fatigue in guarding and preserving them for He
is the Most High, the Supreme (in glory). (Quran 2: 255)
>>Perhaps the air of Colorado was too thin for justice. Or perhaps there
was a plan in Allah’s greater scheme of affairs. Aminah Assilimi later
fought back and took her case to the media. Although she did not get
custody of her children again, a change was made in the Colorado law
that one cannot be denied child custody on the basis of his or her
religion.
>>Indeed Allah’s love and mercy engulfed her so much that, as if, she
has been granted the touchstone of Islam. Wherever she goes, people are
touched by her beautiful words and Islamic manners and become Muslim.
>>By accepting Islam, she became a changed person, and a much better
person. So much so that her family, relatives, and people around her
started appreciating her mannerism and the faith that brought about such
changes in her. Despite her family’s initial reaction, she remained in
touch with them and addressed them with respect and humility, just as
the Qur’an enjoins the Muslims to do. She would send cards to her
parents on different occasions, but she would always write down a verse
from the Qur’an or the Hadith without mentioning the source of such
beautiful words of wisdom. It was not long before she started making a
positive influence among her family members.
>>The first to become Muslim was her grand mother. She was over 100 years
old. Soon after accepting Islam, she died. “The day she pronounced
Shahada, all her misdeeds had been erased, while her good deeds were
preserved. She died so soon after accepting Islam that I knew her
“book” was bound to be heavy on the good side. It fills me with such
a joy!”
>>Next to become Muslim was her father, the one who wanted to kill her
after she became Muslim. Thus he brought alive the story of Umar ibn
Khattab. Umar was a companion of the Prophet who persecuted the early
Muslims before he converted to Islam. When he heard one day that his
sister became a Muslim, he went out with an open sword to kill her. But
upon hearing some of the verses from the Qur’an that his sister was
reciting, he recognized the truth and went straight to the Prophet and
accepted Islam.
>>Two years after she (Assilmi) accepted Islam, her mother called and said
that she appreciated her faith and hoped that she would keep it. Couple
of years later, she called again and asked her about what one would need
to do to become a Muslim. Assilmi replied that one had to believe that
there is only One God and Muhammad was his Messenger. “Any fool knows
that. But what do you have to do?”, she asked again. She replied that
if that is what she believed, then she was already a Muslim! At this,
her mother said, “Well … OK. But let’s not tell your father just
yet”.
>>She was not aware that her husband (Assilmi’s step father) had the
same conversation with her a few weeks earlier. Thus the two lived
together as Muslims for years in secret without knowing that the other
was also a Muslim. Her sister who wanted to put her in mental
institution accepted Islam as well. She must have realized that becoming
Muslim is indeed the most healthy and sound thing to do.
>>Her son, upon becoming adult, accepted Islam. When he turned 21, he
called her and said that he wanted to become a Muslim.
>>Sixteen years after the divorce, her ex-husband also accepted Islam. He
said that he had been watching her for sixteen years and wanted his
daughter to have the same religion that she had. He came to her and
apologized for what he had done. He was a very nice gentlemen and
Assilimi had forgiven him long ago.
>>Perhaps the greatest reward for her was yet to come. Assilmi later
married another person, and despite the doctors’ verdict that she
could never conceive another child, Allah blessed her with a beautiful
boy. If Allah (swt) makes a gift to someone, who can prevent Him? It was
truly a wonderful blessing from Allah (swt), and so she named him
“Barakah
>>The sacrifice that Assilmi made for the sake of Allah (swt) was
tremendous. And so Allah (swt) turned in mercy to her and rewarded her
with enormous blessings. Her family discarded her after she accepted
Islam, and now by Allah’s mercy, most of them are Muslim. She lost her
friends because of Islam, and now she is being loved by so many.
“Friends who loved came out of nowhere”, she said. Allah’s
blessings came upon her so much that wherever she goes people are
touched by the beauty of Islam and accept the Truth. Both Muslims and
non-Muslims now come to her for advice and counseling.
>>She lost her job because of wearing hijab, and now she is the President
of the International Union of Muslim Women. She delivers lectures
nationwide and is on high demand. It was her organization that
successfully lobbied for the “Eid Stamp” and had it approved by the
United States Postal Service, but it took many years of work. She is now
working on making the Eid Day as a national holiday.
>>She has tremendous trust on Allah’s love and mercy and she never
looses faith on Him. She was once diagnosed with cancer some years ago.
Doctors said that it was in an advanced stage and that she would live
for another year. But her faith in Allah (swt) remained strong. “We
must all die. I was confident that the pain I was experiencing contained
blessings.” As a brilliant example of how much one can love Allah, she
mentions about a friend of her named Kareem Al-Misawi who died of cancer
when he was in his 20’s:
>>"Shortly before he died, he told me that Allah was truly Merciful. This
man was in unbelievable anguish and was radiating with Allah’s love.
He said: “Allah intends that I should enter heaven with a clean
book.” His death experience gave me something to think about. He
taught me of Allah’s love and mercy."
>>All praise is due to Allah, she continues to live in good health. She
now thinks that having cancer was the greatest blessing that she ever
had.

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