WHY IS ISLAM?

The Fastest Growing Religion In America?

This is the second week I've done the 'Da'wah Table' for the MSA (Muslim Student Association.) And subhanallah!

Last week we did it the "old way," the way we've traditionally done the table in the past, with a slew of brochures sitting on the table sitting kind of out of the way, a Qur'an or two, and some fliers about the MSA. It didn't really get a lot of action, never had. Some people would stop by once in a while to pick up fliers or brochures, ask where the mosque was... very few people... a handful, over a couple hours. Sometimes we'd display (awkardly) a banner that said "Muslim Student Association."

Today we had a banner... and some posts to hold it up. It said Why is Islam the fastest growing religion in America? It was red with white writing, WHY IS ISLAM in the big letters, the rest somewhat smaller. We had a couple posters (I'd made the stands for them, but they wouldn't hold up in the wind.) In fact, the banner wouldn't hold up in the wind, and we'd placed bookbags on the bases to anchor it, but it still needed people to hold it. Normally we've got two people manning the table. But this week... we had a bunch of people. Four people to start, who stayed out at the table (helping us to anchor the banner) and many people who stopped by and hung out. (Sarah's trying to eliminate loitering, though... there tends to be a crowd of Muslims that stop by occasionally.) We now have only 3 different brochures, and 'A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding the Qur'an.'

But so many people stopped by today, especially right as we set up when the brickyard was most crowded. The banner really caught people's attention. They'd stop by and read, talk to us (there were a bunch of us, most of the time), some non-Muslims took the brochures we gave them. We even had a big prayer out there, too.

There was dialogue with some non-Muslims, more than usual I guess because of increased visibility. But plenty of people just coming by to ask questions. Lots of great dawah that we've never been able to do before! Amazing. We also caught the attention of more Muslims, too. Alhamdulillah. The brother from the Dawah Committee at the masjid also came out to take a look at how it was running. We eventually moved the table and banner to against a wall where the wind wouldn't blow it over (but it still needed people to hold it.) When I left it was slowing down (during class as well,) and I'm not sure how the rest of the "shift" went, but while we were there it was pretty amazing. All these people getting active with the table that never wanted to, before.