PEACE BE UPON YOU...

I rolled back to San Diego to get some much needed fresh air. I met up with Jazmine, an old friend I haven't seen in years to be my tour guide for the day.


But first we had to stop by her Masjid Abu-Bakir (Mosque) for a prayer. Muslim men and women pray separately, so I just hung out with the kids.


With all the negative media towards the Muslim world, people are blinded to see how beautiful the Islamic culture is. The Art. The Music. The Architecture. The Literature. A mixture of various cultures, Roman, Early Christian, Persian, Central Asian, Chinese and Byzantine. You just have to look beyond what you see on the TV and find out for yourself. The first thing that one should know and clearly understand about Islam is what the word "Islam" itself means. The Arabic word "Islam" means the submission or surrender of one's will to the only true god worthy of worship "Allah" and anyone who does so is termed a "Muslim", The word also implies "peace" which is the natural consequence of total submission to the will of Allah.

After we headed to Point Loma, the birthplace of San Diego.




Point Loma was first discovered by Europeans on September 28, 1542 when Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese navigator sailing in the service of Spain. Cabrillo was the first European explorer to see San Diego Bay, he departed from Mexico, led an expedition to explore the west coast of what is now the United States.



Perhaps the best known landmark in Point Loma is the Old Point Loma Lighthouse, a small, two story lighthouse, an icon occasionally used to represent the entire city of San Diego. Perched atop the southern point that creates the entrance of the bay with Coronado.





The Beach






But we weren't done yet. Balboa Park, the nation's largest urban cultural park. Home to 15 major museums, renowned performing arts venues, beautiful gardens and the San Diego Zoo, the Park has an ever-changing calendar of museum exhibitions, plays, musicals, concerts, and classes.







The spiritual journey does not consist of arriving at a new destination where a person gains what he did not have, or becomes what he is not. It consists in the dissipation of one's own ignorance concerning oneself and life, and the gradual growth of that understanding which begins the spiritual awakening. The finding of God is a coming to one's self.
Aldous Huxley

Assalamu Alaykum