Finding Unity in Diversity (An Interview with Imam Athif Chaudhary)

Duston Barto

In our first issue, we welcomed Imam Atif Chaudhry as he’d accepted the position as Imam at the Islamic Society of Greater Charlotte in March of this year.  Now in our 5th issue, we finally got some time with Imam Atif and really get to know his approach to communicating the deen in this community.

Imam Atif admits that while his parents encouraged him to study Qur’an, the path to becoming Imam was unexpected.  After becoming hafiz, he spent time in Pakistan more deeply embracing the meanings of the verses and then continued to study sharia after returning to the States. “Even at that point I never thought I was going to become an Imam.  That was not the purpose or the goal of my studies.  Even for my parents, we never thought this was something that I was going to pursue. It was just that door that opened and I just happened to take that chance and it was, wallahi, it was from Allah (SWT) that I ended up being an Imam.”

After intense study both overseas and at home, he had the opportunity to start khutbahs in a local Masjid; after some time, word spread of this English, Urdu & Punjab speaking young man and it wasn’t long before he was offered the position of Imam in Old Bridge, NJ at the young age of 25. He really lit up when asked about the transition to North Carolina, “When I came to Charlotte and I saw the whole community and people were together and it was beautiful.  I think because the population is much smaller over here so the people are more tightly knit.  There was just something that attracted me, so I took the offer.  Alhamdulillah, I came here.” So at the young age of 30, he uprooted his life in NJ and brought his wife, daughter and his deep knowledge to Charlotte, NC.

He then expressed, “I was actually impressed by all the things that are happening here especially that we have one city and we have seven masajid and that is not a small thing.  It’s amazing.  It’s surprising.” Imam Atif continued “There are so many people, so many different people that have good motivations and good aspirations as to improving the situation of Muslims in this community and that is a blessing.”

So with such strength, what was a new Imam to do? “I saw an opportunity to improve the masjid by starting different programs, starting different things, trying to cater to different people so that we can strengthen the masjid.

If you don’t have strong masajid or you don’t have a masjid that places a strong role in a Muslim or an individual’s life then you won’t have a strong Muslim.  So that’s the way I saw it.”

One thing that really stood out to me when talking with Imam Atif is when he explained that during Ramadan he asked a very important question. “I asked many people of this actually, how many of you actually read the translation of the Qur’an?  Not a lot of people said yes.  So what we have is a people that are reading the Qur’an from the beginning to the end in Arabic and there’s great reward.  But you kinda miss the point if you do not understand what the message of Allah (SWT) is. So we have these people who have been reading Qur’an all their lives but haven’t actually gone into the translation and into the actual meaning, the actual purpose of what Allah (SWT) is trying to convey to them.”  To address this problem, Imam Atif said “So we started the translation very recently where every weekday Monday to Friday, we do the translation of the Qur’an in English after Fajr.”

I asked him about doing programs in English when he was capable of speaking in Urdu and Punjab; why wouldn’t he do the programs in the language of the elders of the community; then he made it clear that he was making sure that the Masjid became a place welcoming to all people. I mused that with these capabilities that he could be an intercessor of sorts between the elders of the community, the youth, the converts, and etc. all because of his diverse background.

To which, Imam Atif replied “I think that’s one of the benefits when I first came and they appreciated that. That’s a blessing from Allah. It’s just how my upbringing was and I was fortunate to have.  English was a big part of it and that’s why all of our programs are in English. The tafsir that we do is in English, the translation reading that we do after Fajr is in English; the Qiyamah Al-lail lecture is in English, the Jummuah Khutbah is in English because; look, if we’re going to stay here and we want to be relevant and we want the next generation of Muslims no matter what background they come from or even converts that come to the masjid, you need to be able to properly convey to them the message of Islam.”

I asked him “With this philosophy of teaching everything in English in spite of a majority of the community being immigrant background, do you find a strong basis for this in the sunnah?”

He quickly reassured me “Well, yes.  The Prophet (SAWS) when he would send people to different parts of the world, he would make sure that they first learned the language because language is very important.”

We moved on from language and discussed the concepts that people outside of the community often have and addressed those.  First, I wanted to know if there were cultural ideologies that he finds to be at odds with Islamic teaching that he has to overcome. “No; not really, I don’t really see as big of a problem because it is a very simple criterion:  If it goes along with the teachings of Islam, it’s parallel to it and there’s nothing intrinsically haram or something that’s dangerous by the criteria of the deen then it’s fine.”

He explained a very simple test that can be applied for all people of all cultures, “Does it originate in Islam or does it originate from your local culture or something like that? Well, if we go into that then that’s just the first part of the answer.  The second part is now we know where it’s coming from but is it something that Islam has room for? Is it something that is against any main principle of Islam and if it is then of course, it’s rejected and if it’s not. It’s not something we need to fight people over that they strip away their culture or they strip away their identities which is localized or something that is different because that is part of the color of Islam. I think the beauty of Islam is that wherever it went, it was there as a foundation and then what people added to it in terms of their cultural beauty or regional differences. You know, the Muslims in America are different from the Muslims in China; Muslims in China are different from Muslims in Africa but the basic core foundation is the same everywhere because Islam allowed that.”

So what exactly is Imam Atif’s core philosophy in being the leader of the community? “Just do good; be good to the community, make sure that everyone is trying to fulfill their potentials as Muslims. That’s it. That’s the bottom-line.”

Imam Atif took the opportunity to express his belief that we could have unity in diversity by saying, “I’m not looking to fight people. I’m not looking to focus on our differences. We don’t have that many issues. If someone does something differently, then ignore it. Just look at the larger picture and you’ll see that we’re not different. We’re very similar and just to focus on small things and to nitpick for the sake of criticism or just for the sake of belittling the person or maybe sometimes just to say, ‘oh I know more than you’ is ridiculous! That, actually, is the cause of our disunity. People are just falling into different labels and different sects because we’ve reduced ourselves to smaller factions when we don’t need to. I mean of course there are differences of opinions, there were differences of opinions amongst the sahabah but the Prophet (SAWS) had room for that. His sunnah, his hadith, people were doing different things at different times and he allowed it. Is that necessarily a bad thing?”

I then asked Imam Atif about his personal spiritual journey and what his own focus is.  He considered it for a minute before explaining with humility “I know I am not perfect. My being Imam does not mean I’m the best of Muslims. The goal is to try to achieve in the pleasure and reward of Allah (SWT) through helping other people and finding Sadaqah jariyyah

in everything that I do. I might have certain problems, deficiencies of my own actions or self-worth or imaan or something like that. Hopefully I can make it up by finding contentment in the fact that there are people that I am positively affecting in this community and bringing them closer to Allah (SWT) through the works I am doing. That will be hopefully my salvation in the akhirah.

So my personal journey is to find Allah (SWT) through reconnecting people with the masjid, the house of Allah (SWT) and ultimately with Allah (SWT) Himself. Insha’Allah if I have something that I’m looking forward to is the people that I have positively affected, helped Insha’Allah they will be my forgiveness, my light, my salvation.”

My last question, as always, was to ask the Imam about his favorite part of the Qur’an. “I think it’s the verse in Surah Al-Zumar (39:53) ‘Don’t despair from the mercy of Allah (SWT)’. It is an open invitation from Allah (SWT) that no matter how grave your sins, how difficult or how dire your situation, how trapped you think you are within Shaitan’s tricks or whatever, always know you can turn back to Allah (SWT) and never lose hope in Allah (SWT). I think, for me, it just makes me happy.”

Insha’Allah Imam Atif Chaudhry will be at ISGC to share the joy he receives from the Qur’an for a long time to come.