I arrived in Phoenix late Thursday evening and my plan was to confirm a meeting with community leaders in Tucson. All went well, and after a light breakfast I headed to Tucson.
I-17 South brought me straight into Tucson, and I pulled up to the Islamic Center of Tucson. This mosque is in the middle of the ASU campus, surrounded by the University on all sides.
My contact here was a young man named Jameel, he met me outside and ensured me that the board had approved my presence. I set up a display table under the blazing sun and quickly ran inside to the coolness of marble floors and spiritual tranquility that is found only inside the mosque.
This week's sermon was a reminder of the virtue of patience and it was right on time, I needed to hear that! After the sermon I made my way outside and began to engage folks telling them about Saffron Road. I can't say this enough, so you will have to bear with me. When I engage the Muslim community the selling point regarding this product is the standard of certified humane antibiotic free, hormone free raising and production! All the lights go on with that phrase. Jameel introduced me to a young man and told me he was a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine and an acupuncturist. Obviously concerned with holistic well-being he listed intently to what I had to say, he remained quite until I reached the point of certified humane, antibiotic and hormone free. He smiled grabbed my hand and said, "that is what I have been waiting to hear! There has always been this mystery behind halal products, without knowing what we are buying how can you trust what you getting? May God bless you in all that you are doing. You have a customer in me!" Priceless!
Many people took coupons and listened for a few minutes, but the blazing sun was wearing at their cordialness. Next, Jameel introduced me to the Imam. An amazingly spiritual awakened individual with a warm smile and big heart. A gem from Baghdad, classically trained in the tradition of Suffi masters. The first thing he said was, "where have you been? I was expecting you last night, we wanted to take you to dinner and invite you to give a lecture!" I smiled and reminded him that we plan, but God is best of planners.
From that point on the Imam did not let me leave his side, he invited me to lunch and on route we passed by a Whole Foods. I took him inside to show him our products. He like many others, had made the mistake of thinking our products are in meat section not the frozen entree section. He asked about Costco and told me we should visit one. Back in his car again we headed out.
He was nervous that they may not let him in without a membership, I told not to worry "I got you covered." We entered Costco and headed to the frozen entree section. I grabbed two boxes for the Imam and in typical fashion he tried to snatch them from me insisting he would pay. You could say that I "threw my weight around" and the Imam had no chance of getting the boxes out of my hands. At the checkout he tried to cancel my transaction and prevent me from paying. However, he was not successful!
As the day moved on I was constantly looking at my watch, I have a tentative appointment in the evening in Phoenix at the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix. The Imam insisted that I stay for the evening prayer and at least to give a short talk on any subject I wanted. I knew how this would end, after the prayer and talk he would insist that I stay to eat and then he would tell me that it was too late and should stay with him in Tucson and leave in the morning.
Well I was right! He did insist that we ate, however I persuaded him that he not cook a meal, rather we would eat the Chicken Tikka Masala we bought at Costco. He agreed! About six of us headed to the Imam's house and as he put together a salad I took care of the Chicken Tikka Masala. I could hear the group in the other room, is this going to be enough, how will it taste, is 5mins sufficient? I was quietly laughing out loud as I prepared the meals.
We sat on floor and broke bread at 11:15pm. I asked the Imam to take the first bite, any fatigue that shown on his face was gone, once he put the first morsel of food in his mouth. He looked at me and confirmed what I already knew, "wow...this is good!" Everyone in the room except me were native Arabic speakers so the rest of the comments and expressions of joy were in Arabic and I don't want things to get lost in translation, so I will let them be! Sufficient to say the Imam told me he will let his congregation know that they need to head out and treat themselves to a bounty of halal goodness!
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