American Muslim

Responsibility ....

Asalaam Alaikum,

I was going through my posts in the last month and saw the one about having sabr or patience for the job search and realized .... that I forgot to tell people I got the job!! Woohoo!! Alhamdulillah! Some of you know, but I know there are a few people here who get all their Shyam-related news from the blog (Hint, hint - you know who you are :)

My new title will be Lecturer in the Dept. of Business and Social Sciences @ Georgia Perimeter College in Clarkston. This is the most diverse and international of the GPC campuses, so I should fit right in. It's also just due east of Decatur, where I lived for 2 years, and just a great area.

Inshallah, I will be moving permanently to ATL in the last week of July, but am going down next week to check out the campus and find a nice apartment or room with close proximity to the college and a mosque. The latter is even more crucial because there is a tremendous reward according to the shariah for praying in a group at the mosque. And in particular, for praying fajr (morning) and isha (night) prayers at the mosque. This will also be a big thing because mosques - already the centers of communities - became even more important during Ramadan, which will probably begin around Sept. 1st. I would like to live somewhere where I have easy access to a mosque. One huge plus is that there is a masjid only 1/2 mile from GPC-Clarkston, so I'm basically set.

I titled this post "Responsibility" because even though I'm absolutely ecstatic about the job, I know it comes with a tremendous amount of responsibility. To teach in any college requires a responsible nature, but to teach five political sciences during the semester of the biggest American election in decades, well ... I have my hands full. And that is just teaching the material - what about my responsibilities as an Islamic instructor? For the next post perhaps ...