.:Monday, September 13, 2004:.
What's so special about the heart of the valley?
Aight, I have had a few people ask me “well what's so special about Corvallis” so Imma try and explain. But explaining isn’t easy, its something you have to of felt to know what I mean. ‘ala kullin here is my attempt
I have been to a lot of different masajid and muslim communities in the US and I don’t think I have seen anything even close to Corvallis. The bond between the members of the community is stronger than blood relations. Many of us feel we could talk to an ‘amu (uncle) or khala (aunt) here than our own. Everyone watches out for everyone else and is there for them in a split second if they need them.
I think one of the most awesome things is that once you are part of it your always part of it. It doesn’t matter if you stayed a month, a year or a decade this is always and always will be your community. Khala Ghada and Yusif are in the UAE visiting her brother so they call Khala intisar (who lived here 7 years while her husband was doing his MS and PhD and has been gone for more than 2 years) in Oman and tell her, khala Intisar just gave birth a couple weeks ago but nevertheless her and her husband take their kids and go to the UAE just to spend a day with them and catch up on the news here!!
When someone has given birth or is sick or something everyone helps them out, cooks for them and watches their kids for them. When a Khala gives birth they cook for her for a month everyday. The community isn’t huge so everyone knows everyone, and watches out. You go to the store and some little kid will come running to you, or you’ll see a hijaabi/niqaabi. Ahh that’s another awesome thing, I’d say 90% of the Muslimahs here wear hijab, out of those 90%, 75% wear abayah, and out of that 75% more than 50% wear niqaab!!
Again like I said its really hard to explain, couse its just a feeling you know? a feeling that this is home. Well like the title said it IS the heart of the valley (btw that’s what Corvallis means lol.. couse it’s the heart of the Willamette valley). The masjid is our center of everything. It’s the hangout, the get together spot, its our life. We all connected to it alhamdulilah. One nice solid group, in every level. The khalas got an awesome group doing some awesome da’awah and helping us the youth grow up the right way. The ‘amus same thing. The bros got an awesome group, with a ton of awesome activities. And alhamdulilah us sisters same thing.
Anyways inshaAllah I wanna end off with a story, it barley shows how much we co operate with each other.. but it’s the first thing that came to mind..
After last Ramadan, ya’ani in shawaal, like right after eid al fitr.. there was an aqeeqah at the masjid. Us girls were waiting for the khalas to finish getting their food and then we would go. Most of us were fasting (make up days an 6 of shawaal) and were starting to get impatient. Anyways after a while the food ran out, and only two of us had gotten plates, also some of the khalaas hadn’t gotten either. So we were like its ok we’ll just share, so around 20 of us girls who hadn’t eaten in almost 24 hours started sharing two plates.
Me and my friend were like, mannn we gotta go get some food from the amus this isn’t working, couse ya’ani a lota people hadn’t eaten. So we go down and nock on the door between the men and women (not the main mens door but like one downstairs that leads to the women’s stairs.. anyways)… my other friends brother opens and we were like “you guys have extra food, a bunch of girls and khalas didn’t eat” and he was like “let me go check”. Comes back and says they only have what they are serving from. So we were like oh ok and were going to go up and he was like wait. So he goes and gets a plate from the ‘amus serving, and gets his plate and is like take these. We were like “no way keep ur plate” he was like “its ok Ill share” so we took them up and gave one of the plates to some khalas and took the other one to the girls..
After a while someone nocks downstairs so we send a little kid and he's like “its one of the guys and he has stuff” so me and Dania go down and its her brother (he was the one that opened for me and yassmeen) anyways.. him and some bros went to the store across the street and bought us a bunch of candy and junk food LOL… All of us were just like ‘mannnnnnn that was sweeeet” lol.. me made so much duaa for them..
Anyways that’s kinda like on a small scale how awesome it is here… couse ya, you cant describe it..
chotu-meyeh
@ 9/13/2004 01:18:00 PM
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