The antithesis of Religious Spirituality.
21 February 2005
I was speaking with a good friend of mine, one of who's many plans is to organize a "Muslim Prom" with her religious youth group. A plan that I have wanted to make for two years now, yet I have developed an idealology that would deter me from engaging in such.

When she first suggested promoting the event, I agreed to help out and speak with a few of my Muslim friends as well as the youth group that has been blossoming within the very community I live in, masha'Allah. But with every instance I have spoken to someone about the prom, I found myself stepping back and against the idea.

The negative connotation that "prom" has among traditional Islamic values as well as the whole idea of playing mainstream music is stirring a very good debate. I can just see it now, the horde of wrathful molvis and overprotective parents scorning the whole "liberating" idea of muslim women freely engaging in a western occasion.

One must think what is wrong with assimilating with the west and at the same time avoiding to surpass any boundaries made with Islamic principle?

But then I realized that a "Muslim Prom" is the very antithesis of religious spirituality. I can imagine a few hundred Muslim girls dancing freely with their friend to distracting music all together forgetting the importance of muslim gatherings - to spiritualize in a united effort for the sake of Him.

I hate to dissent with the very friends I have advocating the prom issue, but I must beg to differ in such a case that will dissuade me from correcting my performance as a striving muminah.


"Our problem is one of spirituality. If a man comes to speak to me about the reforms to be undertaken in the Muslim world, about political strategies and of great geo-strategic plans, my first question to him would be whether he performed the dawn prayer in its time."
-Said Ramadan