At a celebration after Ramadan, San Quentin’s Islamic community held a graduation for 30 students who completed three spiritually based classes.
The celebration after Ramadan is called Eid-ul-Fitr, which means reoccurring happiness.
The classes taught the men spiritual unity amongst mankind, how to combat man’s vices, such as aggression, arrogance, hatred, and greed and to benefit from lessons learned.
Shaykh Atik taught the classes; Essence of Divine Unity, Purification of the Heart, and Manners of the Students. Participates devote at least three hours a week for a year to the classes. Shaykh Atik is a Hafiz. A Hafiz is someone who memorized the entire Qur’an. In the Islamic community, a Shaykh is a noted scholar.
“I was amazed at their dedication and sincerity in learning,” said Shaykh Rami, founder of Tayba Foundation who sponsored the classes through The Malcolm X Distance Learning Program. The foundation offers follow-up courses online for students interested in continuing Islamic studies once they parole, said Shaykh Rami.
Tom Martini, a prison volunteer for the Restorative Justice program at San Quentin, talked about his experience with Muslims in Sierra Leone, Africa. “Abroad, it is more spiritual, but in America there is much more pursuit of individual material success,” he said, of his views comparing Africa to the United States. However, he said he sees more of a spiritual connection inside San Quentin than in the free world.
One guest known only as Oscar “Mustafa” Pena a former gang member and now a Latino Muslim who recently returned from studying abroad, spoke strongly to remind us that our different races do not divide us.
“Keep good company with good people and seek Allah’s help with all sincerity,” said one of the graduates reading from his essay. “Shaytan (the devil) has many ways to enter man’s heart, but angels have only one: The truth.”
Keynote speaker, Shaykh Rami, spoke on the importance of freedom through education, stating, “Freedom, like in the case of Fredrick Douglass, is a state of mind. Fredrick Douglass was mentally free through education long before his physical freedom.”
“Everyone should strive to establish a meaningful relationship with God,” said San Quentin’s Islamic Chaplain Imam Husain Kawsar. “Many of us believe in God, pray to God, but how many of us have meaningful relationships with God? By this I mean, how concerned are we with making God happy in our decision making process? When you truly love someone, that love colors your every decision. You ask yourself ‘what does my beloved want to see in me?’ This is how our relationship with God should be because He, (God) sees our every action; our every action should be made pleasing to Him.”
The celebration was attended by guests Shaykh Rami Nasour, founder/director of the Tayba Foundation, Haseeb Sadat, a sixth grade teacher, Abu Taqi from Tunisia who came to observe, a volunteer from the Omega Boys Club in San Francisco, and Martini.