A Conversation with Imam Osamah Salhia
As soon as I heard that MAS had hired a new Imam, I was instantly curious. Who is he? What’s his background? What are his views on life and Islam? Is he going to try and be like Imam John or will he be the opposite? When I talked to others they had similar questions and musings, so I took the first opportunity I could get to sit down with Imam Osamah Saliha and find out who this new presence in our community is and find out what his plans are for the community.
I was excited to learn that he was born and raised in New Jersey to a family of Arabic heritage. In addition to being an expert on Shariah and Fiqh he has been a hafiz of Qur’an since age 15 and has become an expert in the different methods of recitation. Further, he is an expert in the Arabic language and its structure. His Islamic education is impressive and lends his discussion to the elevated discourse of Islam and application of Qur’an and Sunnah in everyday life. As the graduate of a public school system in New Jersey he is grounded in the reality of what the average American (Muslim or not) faces on a daily basis.
He prefers to go beyond simple questions of “halal or haram” and break down the core of the issue. He wants to push people to question objectives of the question rather than merely looking at the surface of issues. He asks the Muslim community to elevate the discourse and strive for excellence in bettering themselves and their faith to ensure that we are addressing the right questions in the right way to integrate into the path toward striving to become closer to Allah (SWT).
With his scholarly background, it should come as no surprise that when I asked him about the goals he has for helping MAS and the Charlotte community he immediately brought up educational development. “I believe in specialization and I believe that our community has a lot of potential. Individuals that have great abilities in areas, such as political science, need to be empowered to represent the community on a larger scale. I can be a behind-the-scenes individual to support their endeavours if they need that support. However, my personal focus is on education and development. I don’t want to be a jack-of-all-trades sort of individual. Particularly I want to focus on the young adults.
“Many of the young adults, young professionals and those with skills feel disenfranchised and marginalized at the masjid. They feel that the masjids do not cater to their needs and that’s why we have the scary phenomenon across the nation where you find children coming to the masjid for weekend programs, growing up in the masjid and then when they hit 18 you never see them again. They either get busy with college and education or they lose faith and were only attending because of pressure from their parents. I feel that many of the masjids are not meeting the needs of young adults and professionals.
“The danger of this is that a lot of them are losing their faith. They want answers for their day-to-day experiences and questions and many masjids are failing to provide that dept. They are looking for relevancy and direction. If this age bracket is developed, they can carry Muslim work to a whole other level because of networking, involvement and their expertise. This was the conditions of the companions of the Prophet (SAWS) as many of the carriers of the message were in this age bracket.”
Imam Osamah takes inspiration from a lecture he heard from Dr. Sherman Jackson while he was a student at Al-Azhar University. Osamah explains “He said ‘It is very important for our masjids to be centripetal force rather than centrifugal force. Our Masajid are lifelines for the Muslim minority in the west. The only way that many people get to hear about Islamic teachings is within our masjids.’ So, if our masjids are pulling people in who are “on the margins” instead of pushing them out, then we will cultivate the “cream of the crop” from among Muslim young professionals.”
This concept of bringing people back from the fringe was intriguing to me as we at Muslim American strive to maintain a moderate, centralized approach and I felt we could learn from Imam Osamah’s guidance. I asked the frank question “How do you bring these people back?”
Imam Osamah’s answer was equally frank as he said “Our masjids are not equipped and not ready to address the real issues facing our youth and young adults.” He went on to explain that often when young people ask questions on controversial issues, they are not properly addressed and are pushed aside rather than being helped to develop Imaan. By elevating our understanding at the masjid level on controversial issues, we can formulate clear responses rooted in Qur’an and Sunnah which properly address the questions to satisfy the curiosity of the individual. This will prevent the marginalization effect and not only keep the teachings directly relevant, but bring people in who have previously left because of the community’s unwillingness to address such topics.
Since the former imam of MAS Charlotte was extremely active in the public eye to address anti-Islamic sentiment, I wanted to know how Imam Osamah intended on tackling this issue. “The Most successful way to address the anti-Muslim sentiment is to develop our narrative and focus on developing it along the prophetic narrative.” Imam Osamah emphasized, he continued by stating that categorical condemnations weren’t getting the job done, “I’m not to say that condemnations are wrong; but it doesn’t change people’s minds and hearts. The real question should be: How are we going to involve ourselves in the fabric of society?
“When my neighbor sees my unique character coming out, my patience and kindness, my trustworthiness as a businessman and kindness as a neighbor; this is what will change their view. But when they see a constant theme from Muslim businessmen with a lack of professionalism or taking advantage of others, cutting curbs in business practices; how are they ever going to like Islam?” Imam Osamah’s approach, rather than denouncing violence and speaking outwardly, is to develop the community and strengthen the condition of the Muslims’ conduct as productive members of society.
Ultimately, Osamah’s explanation illustrated an overall emphasis on developing relationships in society so that we have advocates and allies when there is oppression from the anti-Muslim bigots.
Turning the eye back inwardly to the community, I wanted to know what Imam Osamah’s thoughts were on the condition of the Ummah’s heart. Specifically, what he thinks is the biggest challenge Muslims have. His very clear and logical response of: “Finding the urgency to overlook our differences and work together.” Was one I did not expect, but one that made sense. As he continued to explain, “This issue is recurrent in many communities across America as people are so caught up in details that they don’t look at the bigger picture. Each group is so caught up in differences between each other, whether it is minor personal grievances, financial expenditure differences or other things that don’t even relate to Islam. Developing this urgency to move past these differences and instead focusing on building a strong community for our children is the most fundamentally important thing.”
He continued to explain that parents who do not focus on this issue of bridging gaps will start to see a condition of weakness in the community which can cause faith to wither away in children. “If we do not develop the urgency to overlook these differences, our children will inherit a frail framework in dealing with their communities.” Osamah’s thoughts on this topic extend beyond the Muslim community as he said, “We have to get to a point of maturity to respect the existence of those who do not believe as we do.”
In driving home the point of community interrelationships, Osamah referenced the following Hadith:
The Prophet (SAW) said, “The example of the person abiding by Allah’s order and restrictions in comparison to those who violate them is like the example of those persons who drew lots for their seats in a boat. Some of them got seats in the upper part, and the others in the lower. When the latter needed water, they had to go up to bring water (and that troubled the others), so they said, ‘Let us make a hole in our share of the ship (and get water) saving those who are above us from troubling them. So, if the people in the upper part left the others do what they had suggested, all the people of the ship would be destroyed, but if they prevented them, both parties would be safe.”
“This Hadith expresses that we are all in it together, we cannot view one community’s mishap or one individual’s mishap as exclusive. Rather, it affects the community entirety. We can’t say that one person’s child has nothing to do with you because that child will grow up my child, so I would care about that person’s child. You cannot say that one brother’s business has nothing to do with you because his loss is my loss as we are one community.”
In my own travels, I have seen many communities come together and many communities fall apart. I have seen strength in the most diverse group of people coming together as Muslims and I have seen weakness among groups of Muslims who quarrel over which tribe one person or another comes from. It is intensely refreshing to meet an Imam who casts such a clear light on the need for community unification and strength. I look forward to more conversations and more lessons from this wonderfully approachable and intelligent Imam.
May Allah guide him in this new position here in Charlotte, NC.