Time to Move On: A Farewell Letter

Assalamu Alaykum All,

It is time for me and my family to move on to what we believe (with the will of Allah) is best for us both in this Dunyia and the Akhira. We have finally decided that inshallah we are moving back to Pakistan.

So

why are we doing this?

Alhamdulillah, this is my 12th year in the states and even though I have
enjoyed my stay here immensely, at no point in time was I able to say
that I have a sense of belonging to this land. The internal conflict
increased when we had kids and probably peaked in the beginning of this year
when my family was away for about 5 months. I realized that I have only two
options. Option one: submit to the culture and values over here and
merge in with this society. Option two: try to preserve our religion,
culture and values in our own ways. For a long time we clinged to the
second option. Personally, I always felt that we were just fighting a
losing battle. Finally, we declared truce and decided to move back to our
roots.

So what am I going to do in Pakistan?

For the first 10 months or so I will be inshallah attending a one-year
course in the Qur'an College in Lahore. This is a two semester course
designed for people who already have their degrees and want to focus on
islamic knowledge, primarily Qur'an. In this course one takes classes on
Tajweed, Arabic Language, Memorization of Qur'an, Translation of Qur'an,
basics of Hadith & Fiqh, Arabic Literature etc. During this time I will
decide what I need to do and accomplish in the future.

In summary, all I can say is that during my 11+ years stay over here (was
18 when I came here), I have gone through different phases of life all of
which was part of my "growing up".

I have learnt from my mistakes and carried on with my life. I have formed great friendships some of which I hope to keep even back home (thanks to internet :-) ). I consider myself very fortunate to belong to probably the best community in the USA. This community had offered me a lot and I feel that my mental growthe accelerated after my moving to the Silicon Valley area. It was only here that I felt that I could gain knowledge in all aspects of life: You name it and it is found here. The only concern I have always felt is that it is all in the heads of different folks who are scattered all over this town and there is no effort to get these people together on the same platform. I pray to Allah that one day the majority of muslims will realize their common goal and strive for it. Ameen!