By Bassam Tariq
Singing songs of praise in West Virginia.
South Charleston is West Virginia’s largest Muslim community. After prayer, the imam sang a few nasheeds, Islamic songs of praise, with us in Arabic.
Khaldun Basha is a hafiz, someone who has memorized the entire Quraan. The mosque here brought Imam Khaldun from his native Syria to the community to lead them in prayer during Ramadan. When there are larger crowds at the mosque, the Imam said he likes to do some mawlids, songs that sing the praise of God and Prophet Muhammad.
“Whenever you say the name of Allah and Prophet Muhammad in a chanting way, these words become close to your heart and you’re able to make a connection to them,” the imam said.
We don’t speak Arabic, so if any of you guys do speak Arabic and would like to provide a rough translation of what the Imam is singing in a comment below, it would be greatly appreciated by us and our readers!
