I know it’s not really safe. But there’s not many cars about. From glancing down I noticed it’s  a text message from Shabeer, I haven’t heard from him a long while. He always made time for me while I was going through my depressed stage in 6^th form. I know what, I’ll just pull up on the side of the road and check the text.

SHABEERS TEXT: Salams bro, can you please call me when you have a minute, I need to discuss a concern I have about a mutual friend of ours.

Oh dear, it sounded serious, so I was glad I’d pulled my car to the side of the road. Now I could safely call him, So I switched off my engine and dialled his number.

“Hello” he answered

“Salams Shabeer, it’s been a long time. Hope you’re well.”

“Yeah, not bad thanks brother. How’s things with you. Family well? I hope I didn’t take you away from anything important with my text?”

What could be more important than repaying Shabeer with some kindness? He had done it more than enough times for me.

“Nah, it’s ok Shabeer. To be honest, I did have a feeling you will contact me soon regarding this mutual friend. It is Kaleem you’re referring to right?”

“Even though we don’t speak much since you moved out of town, we still know each other so well. It most certainly is Kaleem that I wanted to talk to you about. I’m seriously concerned about him. About how he’s moving away from Islam.”

“Shabeer, I’ve helped him through that issue. We’ve talked at length about it and even he accepts now that he’s not gay. So it’s all good. I can assure you there’s nothing to worry about. I was most concerned when he went to the LOCAL imam and brought up the issue with him and the response he got was ‘Astagferullah, get out of the mosque, there’s no place for your sort here’ “

“Yeah, I remember that, he told me about that too, I didn’t know what to suggest. It’s really bad what Imam saab done, I didn’t have him down as one of those, really thought he more enlightened than that”

“Initially I didn’t know what to suggest either, but then after thinking about it, I realised that if we let it be, he may just go down that road just for that unwelcoming comment from Imam saab. And we all know it’s a slippery slope so I HAD to do something. I mean you and I know it’s wrong, we know there’s no place in Islam for it, but how do you deal with something like that, with someone who’s still only on the fence and hasn’t really taken the plunge? I wanted it to just go away, but things don’t just go away do they? You need to address them. I really with ‘shut your eyes and it will all go away’ worked”

“How did you manage to talk him out of it?”
“I didn’t. I couldn’t. I ‘m not qualified to do anything like that. So I done the next best.., well it’s probably a better thing to be fair, I arranged a meeting with a different imam, you know the one at Central Mosque, the one who does the ‘Islam in the UK’ classes? He deals with a wider community and I spoke with him at length on the phone about the issue and gave him Kaleems whole back story. He was really understanding. Seriously Shabeer, I was so shocked at how different his approach was to that of our local Imam Saab.”

“OMG, that is a bit of a contrast, one saying get out the other saying come in.”

“But anyway, Kaleem found the difference welcoming too. So much so that he’s given up pursuing the gay tendencies and realises now that it was just shaytan pushing him in that direction; taking advantage of him having had such a terrible upbringing and having been molested as a child. He’s even signed up to the Islam in the UK classes and goes there every weekend”

“That’s good that he’s signed up to those classes. That brings me nicely onto my concern that I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Oh dear Shabeer, was it not this whole issue of him being gay?”

“No. I was going to talk to you about his studies. I’m concerned that his new found love for studying religion is leading him astray. He was telling me yesterday about how he’s started studying Buddhism. I mean, come on, what’s that all about? All the answers are in Islam. Why does he need to study other religions?”

“I don’t know why – is it even a bad thing? All I know is, he’s also studying Islam. It’s not like he’s said he’s giving up on Islam. If you genuinely feel that Islam DOES have all the answers then he’ll come to that realisation too. All you can do is suggest the right teachers to him. Keep him away from people like our Imam saab and inshallah the rest will get taken care of by Allah.”

“But what if he finds Buddhism has more to offer?”

 “Oh come on Shabeer, do you think it DOES have more to offer than Islam?”

“No, obviously I don’t, but what if he does. It really does scare me.”

“Have faith Shabeer. I know Kaleem doesn’t just randomly jump into things. If he was that sort of a person he wouldn’t have given an Imam a chance to talk sense to him, got shot down and shut out and then give a different Imam the same opportunity. He would have been straight down Canal Street, partying and living it up with the other gay chaps. Kaleem’s a learner. He wants to know all options before making an informed decision. He’s always been like that. And since you and I know that Islam is the one and true religion we have to have patience and let him come to that realisation too. I know he’s in good hands with the City Imam. I also know that the Imam has suggested a few books to Kaleem to read in his own time. So inshallah have faith and everything should be ok”

“Thanks bro, I feel a little better about it after this chat. Anyway, my dad’s calling me. I have to take him to masjid. We’ll catch up soon inshallah. Take Care”

“Salams”