How I Remember Br. Hakim

The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said, "The best among you are those who learn the Qur'an and teach it."

Br. Hakim was an incredible human being who I first met when I was 12 years old, at a summer camp at PGMA. He was different from the other teachers. While he sat against the same wall as all the others there would be times when he wouldn't be taking any students. In between teaching he was also learning the Quran himself, which I thought was odd at the time. I didn't practice with him much at all during that summer, and I had no idea how much this man would affect my life in the following years. 

The very next school year I took off from traditional school to attend Hifz school (full time school to learn the Quran in it's entirety). We had two teachers, and again, I wasn't one of Br. Hakim's students. My first impression of him as a teacher was slightly terrifying, he was physically imposing with a booming voice that he wasn't afraid to use when necessary. Not a day passed without him yelling at a student for something, and making him stand against the wall as punishment. I thought I was pretty lucky to not have been in his class. 

Fast forward a few months later and I'm doing terrible in Hifz school. I was making too many mistakes when reading and wasn't putting in the full effort I needed to correct them. That resulted in me moving to Br. Hakim's side of the Masjid. Again, I was terrified. I thought I would be yelled at, made to stand on the wall every time I made a mistake. I thought school wouldn't be fun any more and everyday would be terrifying.

Surprisingly, it was the complete opposite. 

When I first read to Br. Hakim he recognized where I was at, and moved me to an easier part of the Qur'an and let me work from there. He never yelled at me. I rarely had to stand. I realized that he was a disciplinarian who's main annoyance was never mistakes, but rather effort. I noticed the kids who got yelled at were given chances. They would get caught messing around, be told to stop multiple times and only then be punished. Despite those kids I learned he cared so much because he took his job seriously. He could decide to only give his attention to those who showed they cared, but he didn't. His goal was always to get through to everyone and that was one of his many traits I admired. 

I left the Hifz school after that year and saw Br. Hakim occasionally while at the Masjid. We'd talk about sports and school for a few minutes and then go on our ways.

There are kind people in this world. Then are those who posses some extra level of moral fiber woven in between their strands of DNA that push that kindness and care for others on another level. And yet to say that this was simply a trait he was born with would be a disservice to the amount of struggle he had overcome on his journey from being who he was in the past to what he ultimately became in the latter stages of his life. 

When I was in high school he gave me a call, asking me if I wanted to work alongside him as a teacher at weekend Qur'an school. He said he was moving his program to a new Masjid and could use some help. The thought of a paying job doing anything when I was 15 was great and I happily told him I'd love to help. His teaching style had not changed: he was still the hardcore disciplinarian. But he also made sure to show his fun side a bit more.

One day a student walks into class early with large Nerf sniper rifle. The thing had like 8 darts that could fit in a clip and was pretty big. Needless to say, the moment Br. Hakim walked in that thing was confiscated and the person who brought it in was punished. Instead of making him stand however, Br. Hakim used that Nerf gun and went open season on all the students. Everyone was running around and trying to hide while Br. Hakim picked em off one by one. It was incredibly fun and it was one of the many reminders to those kids that Br. Hakim does more than yell at you.

He loved those kids, and knew their entire families by name as well. He genuinely cared about everyone that set foot in that Masjid wanting to learn. It's how he managed to grow that weekend school from 5 or so students to upwards of 30 at a time. When he started he charged parents $80 for a month. He refused however, to turn anyone down. He gave discounts to anyone in need, no questions asked. Parents would take advantage of him and wait months to get current on their payments. Br. Hakim would remind them, but never turned anyone away for not paying. He never increased his tuition fee either, despite years of the School running and increasing in students and teachers. 

Despite not having money coming in from students he never failed to pay us, reaching into his own wallet if he had to. And he treated us teachers like equals. I was never as quick to punish as he was and any decision I made, Br. Hakim backed me unconditionally. I was the first one that came along, but with the increase in students he got more teachers so students were still given their due attention. 

He always cared more about us than himself. He would increase our pay as the number of students increased, but never cut down on our pay when the number of students went down during the summer time. I knew there were months where he didn't take anything for himself, and yet he still found a way to pay us every single month.

I'm convinced that the only way trickle down economics would work would be if Br. Hakim was the one running everyone's businesses. He is the only person I've met who's selfless enough to always put the needs of others in front of his own.

Despite his many years of teaching the Quran in various places he never actually finished memorizing the Quran himself, something many of his students achieved under his tutelage. A few years ago he set out to fix that. He publicly posted his "Quran Memorization Streaks" on Facebook. The goal would be to memorize at least one verse before going to bed for the night. He did this with the utmost diligence, showing his progress, and shamelessly showing his broken streaks as well. People took notice, and began posting their own streaks. It was incredible, seeing him influence not only children and youth but full fledged adults without even interacting with them.

I last remember him being pages away from finally finishing his memorization, and I'd like to think that his time came as soon as he finished reciting those last few verses from memory, finishing a goal I saw him start over ten years ago. His reverence in the community is obvious just by looking at his GoFundMe page for his funeral costs. In less than 2 hours people donated over $12,000, well past the intended goal of $10,000. All donated by people who's lives he affected for the better.

I've cherry picked examples from his life that stood out to me, but the simple fact is that you could see many if not all of these traits on a day to day basis during otherwise mundane day to day activity. I could fill a book with examples of his humanity and not come close to scratching the surface of who he was as a person.

I'm personally still reeling from hearing the news earlier today. And the best way I could think of to deal with this was to let those who may not have known him as well to have some inkling as to the type of man Hakim Leveille was. 

He was my teacher. He was my mentor. He was my friend. We will miss you Br. Hakim.

Winning is Better than Losing

Fans of the NFL's premier garbage franchises such as myself aren't thinking about playoffs in December, they're thinking of how winning and losing the next 3-4 games will affect their draft position. Many fans are of the position that wins that can't get a team to the playoffs are useless and only hurt the team for next year. There is SOME truth to that, but the facts oppose that point of view.

These are FACTS about the NFL:

• Players do not stop competing once they step onto the field.
• Coaches do not stop game planning for opposing teams.
• Players do not care about where the team is going to draft when they are on the field.
• Players have extrinsic motivation to play at 100% in these games: namely their future in the NFL.
• The goal of every single team is to show up on Sunday and win. 

When evaluating players and coaches the record doesn't suddenly get wiped clean once playoff hopes are eliminated. The losses count just the same when discussing whether to extend or fire a coach. They know this and never go into a game thinking to tank just so whoever replaces them next year has a higher draft pick to work with. 

To summarize: the players and coaches of both teams are still trying to win the game, therefore a win isn't any less significant when evaluating the roster of a team simply because the team is out of playoff contention. 

At the beginning of the season given the choice of an 8-8 team or a 5-11 team I'd choose the 8-8 in a heartbeat. Why? Because the team as-is is a mere two games away from playoff contention. An extra play maker or two can be the difference in those two or three games the 8-8 team lost that year. This means that they need less help from the draft to become a competitive team. 

This leads to my next point: the draft is the furthest thing from a guarantee as you can image. The 2012 NFL Draft was heralded as one of the best QB corps in recent memory. The best QB out of that draft was picked in the THIRD round. Luck and Tannehill haven't played in years, RG3 is out of the league and Brandon Weeden is an unspectacular backup. Those are your first round picks from that year. 

In 2013 some of the best players were taken at the END of the first round: DeAndre Hopkins at 27th and Xavier Rhodes at 25th. Pro Bowl tight ends Jordan Reed and Travis Kelce were both picked in the third round. 

In 2014 OBJ and Aaron Donald, both top 5 players at their position, were picked outside of the top 10 at 12th and 13th respectively. Steelers' stued linebacker Ryan Shazier was picked at 15th. Meanwhile guys like Blake Bortles, Justin Gilbert and Eric Ebron were taken above them. 

I could go on but you get my point: the draft is an inexact science and talent can be found outside of the top 5 and top 10. Sure you miss out on the stud prospects like Cam Newton, Andrew Luck and Matt Stafford. But if you're winning enough games to get to 8-8 either you have somewhat-competent play at QB or the rest of your roster is so stacked it can make up for a below average QB. In case one you can draft pieces to give your average QB some help and in case two trading up to get that stud QB is an option if the rest of your team is solid.

AFTER a team loses one of these 'meaningless'  games I'm totally with everyone else going "At least we're getting a better draft pick next year!" But until that point I still want the team to go in to ea

The bottom line is that every action taken between the months of February and August is done with the goal of winning as many football games in the upcoming year as possible. To abandon that goal because a superbowl isn't going to happen this year is simply asinine and not what a single NFL team does. At the end of the day an 8-8 team is point blank better than a 5-11 one and just because some of those wins came in December doesn't negate those at all. 

How to Refinance Your Student Loans

After graduating college and coming to terms with my student loan debt I figured I should share what I learned about paying them back. To be upfront I am going to be discussing two student loan refinancing companies that will give me (and you) a bonus if you happen to use either one of them. There are many different banks and companies that offer refinancing and you should definitely shop around and find what works best for your situation. I'm only discussing companies that I've directly taken loans from so I can give a realistic representation of what they offer.

Assess Your Situation

First off, document all your individual loans. Look back on your financial aid statements for each semester so you have an exact record of all the federal loans that were issued to you. Do the same for any private student loans you took out. For each loan make sure you have the date it was disbursed, the principal (original amount of the loan), the interest rate, whether the loan is subsidized, and the date the first payment needs to be made.

With that information calculate how much interest will accrue on each loan. Once you combine the interest accrued with the total principal you'll have the total balance for all your student loans.

Decide Which Loans to Refinance

This is where all those banks and loan companies come into play. You need to go and see what interest rate you'll get when you refinance. I shopped around a ton of places and LendKey gave me the lowest fixed interest rate. However, it turns out they didn't refinance ParentPlus loans because they weren't technically in my name. I ended up getting my ParentPlus loans refinanced with SoFi. Once you get your rate go back to the list of loans you've taken out and see how many of them have interest rates above the rate you were quoted from one of the companies (this will be referred to as the refi-rate). Those will be on your list to refinance.

If you have a good job out of college that pays well and you feel is relatively secure, refinancing all your loans above your quoted refi-rate may be a good option. If that isn't the case for you, federal loans might be ones you leave off the refinance list. There are benefits to those such as income-based repayment and potential forgiveness if you fall under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Those benefits may be of great use to you until you find yourself on more stable financial footing. Regardless of your situation, most private student loans don't have such benefits and if your refi-rate is lower than the interest rate on those loans then you will still be better off refinancing.

Term and Rate Type

You will be asked to select a term of repayment and a fixed or variable interest rate. The terms start at 5 years and go to 20 years in 5 year increments. The longer your term, the higher your interest rate. Fixed rates also start out higher than variable: you pay a premium to shield yourself of the risk of interest rates increasing in the future.

While it's true that you'll pay much more over the life of a 20 year loan than a 5 year loan you may consider the longer term loan for its lower monthly payments. There are no prepayment penalties so you can still pay more than the required monthly payment each month and still pay off the loan early. The advantage here is that you're on the hook for less each month so if your circumstances change you can go back to paying only the required amount. The disadvantage is that your interest rate will be slightly higher for the longer term. Choose what fits yours needs.

Gather Documents and Apply

You will need:

• Government ID
• 2 Pay Stubs (SoFi verifies this electronically)
• Proof of Graduation (can usually verify electronically)
• Pay-off statements for each individual loan

If there's anything else required from you both SoFi and LendKey have friendly people call and try to get everything resolved quickly. They are pretty helpful and U.S. based for whatever that's worth. Once everything is approved you receive some final disclosure statements which you can sign electronically. Then they send the checks to your original loan providers and you now have all your loans in one place at a lower interest rate.

Start Paying!

Seeing a large chunk of your paycheck go to paying student loans isn't fun. For many of us however, it was the only way to pay for our college education and should have been a worthwhile investment. It's likely that you didn't end up consolidating all of your loans. I still have mine split between Federal, SoFi and LendKey. I'm paying the minimum monthly payment for LendKey and Federal and putting all available extra cash toward the SoFi as it's my highest interest rate group. Once I finish paying that off I'll shift all extra cash towards paying off my LendKey loan and move on to the lowest interest rate federal loans. That minimizes the total interest I pay over the life of my loans and the emotional scarring all this debt brings with it.

TLDR: Organize all your loans by interest rate. Check with lenders such as SoFi and LendKey to get an interest rate (refi-rate). Take all loans that are currently above the refi-rate you were quoted and apply to get them refinanced. Pay off the higher interest loans first. 

Leave a comment if you have any other tips/suggestions or questions!

Faraz Builds a Garage: Prologue

For those lucky enough to have gotten my snapchats as I was building the garage congratulations on your exclusive early access! Those who know me know I enjoy working on cars, and for the past seven years have been working outside, usually in a covered driveway but still exposed to the elements for the most part. I'm used to freezing in the winter and sweating bullets in the summer. Having a completely enclosed garage would make working on cars more comfortable. Wiring the garage with electricity would let me power my tools without extension cords, and the lights would let me work at any hour of the day. It's also secure storage for my motorcycle and tools and can protect one of my family's four cars (mine) from the elements.

Rear subframe with differential removed

So before I could get started on the garage I needed to clear it out. My dad's old Toyota Highlander Hybrid was sitting in there rotting away. Something was wrong with the hybrid system and the dealer wanted around 5 grand to TRY and fix it. No guarantees. So it sat in the driveway for a year until I tried to fix it. I spent a few weeks working on it: first by swapping out a giant wiring harness that ran the length of the car.

When that didn't work I tried dropping the rear suspension and sub-frame to change the hybrid electric motor. About $2000
later and no closer to fixing it I ended up selling the car as-is for $1500. I took a gamble not knowing exactly what the problem was. If I had fixed it I'd be able to sell the car for around $5000 and be able to fund the garage from that and make my money back. You win some you lose some.

All the various automotive fluids

With the car on it's way out I prepped the driveway by cleaning it out. I had about seven years worth of used motor oil and transmission fluid stored in various containers so I got those out first. I took them to the local recycling center where I found out they had a a five gallon limit. The guy was cool though and went "If you pour it out yourself I'll pretend all that's only five gallons." So I ended up getting my hands a little dirty but I got rid of all the oil free of charge. Hooray taxes!





Finally I removed what I could to the basement and under the deck that resides right behind the driveway. Then I put whatever was left to one half of the driveway, swept up and power washed half, and then did it again for the other side. All that prep cost about three days time. After this was done I could get started on the actual construction of the garage which will be in another post! Enjoy these pictures pre-construction:

In Defense of Kirk Cousins

I know I said I was done with football articles, and I know it's been a while since I've written anything on here. However with my heart bleeding from the pain us Redskins fans became so used to over the past twenty years I felt the need to break my silence in the aftermath of the gut wrenching 19-10 loss to close out the season.

Here are the facts:

1. Cousins choked in two critical games this year. A win against Carolina would've cemented our standings in the playoffs at the time and given us control of our playoff fate. A win today would've overcome that game but he put up a stinker: throwing two devastating interceptions, the latter of which ended the game and the Redskins season.

2. He is the best quarterback to play for the Redskins since they moved to FedEx field, period. He's 6th all time in passing yardage and passing touchdowns in franchise history, 1st ever to go back to back seasons with 4000+ yards, and third in the NFL in passing yardage this year. He also led five 4th quarter comebacks -six if you want count the Lions game- this season alone. That's four out of the team's eight wins plus the tie. Last year he clinched the division by drubbing the Eagles in Week 16.

3. He is at the bare minimum an average quarterback. Few would disagree with this statement. He isn't Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. He will not win 13 games a year on his arm alone. However, by definition he is better than 15 or 16 other quarterbacks in the NFL. We can win games with Cousins at the helm. He has shown that more often than not he is accurate, capable of letting it fly and makes good decisions. Every now and again he's shown he can be clutch in the 4th quarter.

The Denver Broncos last year showed us that a great defense and mediocre quarterback play is enough to win the Superbowl. Cousins led the NFL's third best offense and the fact is you can do a lot worse than average over 400 yards of offense per game. My only point in writing this is anyone who wants a switch at quarterback is short sighted and can't see the big picture.

The Kansas City Chiefs are 12-4 with a quarterback that threw for 10 less touchdowns and around 1400 less yards than Cousins did. You can win games with competency, not excellence, at the quarterback position. If anything the end of the season gives the Redskins more leverage in paying less money for his services but they would be completely moronic to not try and get an extension at all.

There is no Andrew Luck in this year's draft. There may be a Russell Wilson or a Dak Prescott but there is no way they will perform better than Cousins will next season. The free agents options aside from Tony Romo (who is injury prone and unreliable as a starter at this point) are either garbage or unproven. And I don't need to remind Redskins fans how one season of great quarterbacking means absolutely nothing. See RG3, Nick Foles & Matt Cassel for examples.

As a final note I don't want to diminish the potential Cousins has shown. This is only his 2nd full year as a starter and his first year having gone through the off-season getting all the reps the starter gets. Cousins has similar stats to Matt Ryan, Phillip Rivers, Andrew Luck and Big Ben when you look at their first two years starting. And in general when compared with those four he has more touchdowns, yards and less interceptions in those first two years. Having around eight fourth quarter comebacks/game winning winning drives in his career demonstrates that he has the potential to be clutch under pressure and win games, it's just a matter of if he can do it just a bit more consistently as time goes on.

Ultimately Kirk Cousins is the Redskins best option at quarterback for the next season and moving forward. He provides stability the team can build around and will rarely be the limiting factor in football games, pushing the team to win more often than he holds them back.

The Florida "Muslim Free" Gun Store Ruling

A Florida gun store owner made headlines a while ago for declaring his store to be a "Muslim Free"

The gun store owner in all his confederate glory.
Image from nydailynews.com

 zone and refusing to sell guns to Muslims unless they took some kind of oath; something that the other, non-Muslim, patrons didn't have to go through. In doing so the gun store owner appears to be clearly violating Title II of the Civil Rights act, specifically by denying Muslims "full and equal enjoyment of goods, services" on the basis of religion. 

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a Muslim civil rights/advocacy group that does many things, including providing legal assistance to victims of discrimination. CAIR's Florida office filed suit against the gun store on the basis of violating the Civil Rights act. 

On November 24th U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom dismissed the case. 

As people are getting wind of the decision people are reading headlines and making assumptions, the key one being that a judge has ruled discrimination against Muslims is now legal. That's why I'm writing this piece. 

I'm not a legal scholar, I have never been to law school and I have no legal expertise whatsoever. With that being said I read Judge Bloom's 12 page ruling in it's entirety and those click-bait scare headlines could not be more false. Yes, Judge Bloom dismissed the case and the Florida gun store owner "won" and won't face any repercussions from this suit. And that's the key thing, this lawsuit was dismissed. 

There's an issue of standing in this case. In a nutshell, standing is what justifies you to bring the suit to court. If Mike gets into a car accident and destroys John's car in New York without having any insurance a guy named Chuck in Alaska can't sue Mike because Mike didn't do anything to him. CAIR filed this suit as an organization which means it falls under the rules of organizational standing. Which means an organization can sue if one of two things happens:

1. The organization itself is harmed.
2. The organization isn't harmed but is solely representing a member that was harmed.

Therein lies the reason for the dismissed claim. Because neither CAIR nor any of it's members (Muslims in general who would have tried to buy from the gun store) suffered actual harm. The definition Bloom cites as harm is that it must be "actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical." Because no Muslims actually tried to buy a gun and actually suffered discrimination Bloom says the harm in this case would be hypothetical and since that doesn't qualify, CAIR loses their standing to sue. Case dismissed. 

It makes sense if you think about it. If this case had gone trial the lack of actual facts would make a proper ruling extremely difficult. Clearly it wouldn't actually be this simple but the trial would go something like: 

 

"Your sign says you have a Muslim free gun store."

"So? That's just a joke, I've never denied any Muslims guns."

"But your policy and you yourself have said you will." 

"So? I didn't actually do anything...yet."

If there's one thing I'm trying to convey it's that this isn't a radical anti-Muslims ruling. It's well within the confines of the law. It isn't a damning precedent for all potential anti-Muslim establishments. All this case needs to actually go to trial would be for someone to actually try to buy a gun from the store and suffer the harm mentioned above. That would cement the issue of standing and the merits of the case could actually be discussed, which by all accounts looks like a slam dunk against the gun store. 

TLDR (Too long didn't read version): No one was actually discriminated against so they dismissed the case. If someone actually tried to buy a gun and was denied or made to do anything more than a non-Muslim then the case could actually be tried on it's merits. 

Disclaimer:

I had the pleasure of interning at CAIR's National Headquarters in DC a few a years ago and would like to make clear that the thoughts and opinions expressed in this article and mine and do not necessarily represent those of CAIR Florida or CAIR National. 

Judge Bloom's ruling can be read in it's entirety here: http://www.americanfreedomlawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Order-Granting-Motion-to-Dismiss.pdf

5 Tips for Making Ramadan Better for Everyone

For the past 5 weeks every single sermon on Friday has been about the same thing, our good friend Ramadan who is visiting again, as he does every year. They talked about what we need to do make sure we get the most out of this holy month but I'm going to give you five tips on how to make it better for people around you.

1. Share Your Acts of Worship on Social Media

You see, it's not enough to fast, pray taraweeh, witr, tahajjud and give charity. To amplify your blessing share your accomplishments on social media. Woke up for Fajr? Or even better, went to the masjid for Fajr? Begin by instagramming a picture of the masjid while it's still dark, as proof, then tweet and make a facebook status about how you made it to the first row and only 11 other people showed up. I recommend using a hashtag so the youth will be able to understand your posts. Not only do all your friends and followers LOVE seeing those statuses but seeing your good deeds will only encourage them do more themselves!

2. Encourage Our Sisters to Dress Modestly

I'm pretty sure there's a hadith somewhere that says modesty is a part of faith. So when we see our fellow sisters in Islam make sure you examine them fully and make sure they're modest. Remember that us men have to lower our gaze so make the most out of your first look! Then remind them to wear loose fitting clothes and to wear hijab properly. Chances are, they're never heard this before and need a quick reminder. Women can be emotional sometimes and might not take kindly to your sincere advice so tell them that women who don't wear hijab are like moldy lollipops or something, trust me they'll understand. After you inform them of proper modest dress they will be very thankful for your wisdom and be more conscious of modesty.

3. Forget About Proper Parking Etiquette

We are told in Islam to "race to do good deeds". What is more good than to pray in the masjid? Therefore brothers and sisters, race to the masjid! Literally, drive as fast as possible to maximize the time spent in the masjid. And when you reach the masjid do not waste time parking your car properly. Squeeze into the nearest parking spot, even if a car already occupies it, and get out and rush to the prayer. If you can't find a parking spot make your own. The lines in the parking lot are created by man and man is not perfect, only Allah is. If there is pavement, there is parking. If you can't find absolutely anywhere to park then feel free to block the entrance with your car. It will encourage others to get to the masjid earlier than you, and you will be rewarded for encouraging this.

4. Bring All Your Young Children to the Masjid

There's a problem in the Muslim community with teenagers who don't want to go to the masjid for various reasons. To combat this we need them to develop a love for the masjid early on, as early as possible actually. As soon as they're out of the womb they should be in the masjid, actually they should come out of the womb in the masjid itself. Bring your children to taraweeh so when everyone is dozing off their cries and screams will wake everyone up and keep them attentive to the prayers. And don't you dare put them in the free child care the masjid offers, your children should not be quietly playing with toys and making friends while everyone is praying. Keep your children in the praying area so they can help everyone maintain their focus.

5. Keep Up Your Dawah Efforts 

I've noticed many brothers who, during the other 11 months, keep in contact with many non-Muslim people, mainly of the opposite gender. This is amazing, think of all the dawah these kind brothers are giving, throughout the entire year! For some reason I see a lot of them stopping during Ramadan and then resume their dawah the first day of Eid. I don't understand? Ramadan is the month where our reward is multiplied so why stop a source of immense rewards? Brothers I encourage you to keep up your dawah at all times. Sometimes your acquaintances might want to meet, GO! Spread the message to these kind non-Muslim sisters.