TGA's version of the Shaolin Temple...

 

Taqwa Gayong Academy (TGA) was founded on three components that were crucial to aid the reformation of our wayward students.

First and foremost is Taqwa which is the Islamic concept of "God-consciousness" or higher consciousness. Having taqwa allows a person to be constantly aware of both God's all-encompassing knowledge and attributes and a reminder of their relationship and responsibility to God as his creation and servant. The scholars explain that the way to taqwa is through obedience of God, avoiding disobedience, and striving to stay away from doubtful matters. It is awareness of God as one moves through life.

When the students arrive at our doorstep, religion wasn't even in their vocabulary. Take Yusuf and Malik,(aged 6 and 8 respectively),for example, two brothers of Sudanese origin who were left to fend for themselves for two weeks in the thick of winter in front of a seven-eleven store. When they came to the school, the only thing Islamic about them were their names...

Then, there were also those who were fostered by Christian families, like Sharon and Amando, aged 5 and 7, who in return for their kindness, brought these unsuspecting foster families to the brink of nervous breakdowns. Sharon's mom and sister died of AIDS when he was 5 and although he wasn't infected at that time, the doctors didn't leave anything to chance and prescribed anything and everything under the sun to ensure that he wasn't infected with the disease. Dad, meanwhile was serving a 15 year sentence for rape...So, when Sharon came to us at 6, he brought with him his case file, which was about 6 inches thick and a whole x-large ziplock bag of pills to be taken everyday...By that time he was also taking Ritalin as he was diagnosed with ADHD. The first thing we did was send the bags of pills home with the foster mom and though it was difficult for him at first, as he had to quit, cold-turkey!! But he nevertheless persevered and was drug-free for the rest of the time he was with us.

Amando, meanwhile had been suspended from kindergarten 6 times!! The first thing we did for these kids was to make them Muslims. At this point their foster parents didn't care if they were Jews or Muslims..."Make them something!!" they pleaded with us. I remember one weekend Sharon's foster mom took him home and a few hours later, we received a frantic phone call from her, begging to send him back. "If you don't allow me to send him back, I'm gonna shoot him, Brother Sulaiman!!" she begged hysterically on the phone...

With cases like this, the first treatment was to inject them with high doses of taqwa. They were taught to purify themselves physically first by ablution and taught to perform solat. Each morning, I'd wake them up through the intercom and we'd perform Solatul-Fajr together and after that sit for an hour reciting the muamalat which is a compilation of Surahs from the Quran, salawat nabi (which was about 17 pages long...), Dua jamilah, Ganzal Arsh and Dua Akasah. After this session, they would recite Muqaddam and Quran, and learn Quranic Vocabulary for Juz Amma. In the evening, after Solatul Isha, we'd read them stories from "Irshad" or Tales of the Prophet. They loved these stories and could be heard re-telling them to newcomers.

Their accomplishment in this particular component was truly amazing. Some of the senior students were not only able to memorize the entire Juz Amma in a matter of three months but the meaning of each word in English as well. For their tests, I would mix words from all the surahs in Juz Amma and they were able to translate them word for word. And if one were to recite a long surah like Surah Balad, for example, another could be heard translating it in English...

By instilling Taqwa in these kids, I, myself found the beauty of Islam as I was able to witness their transformations through my teary eyes. When they first came, all we heard was "f this and f that" and rap songs which were riddled with profanities but three months into their stay, they were singing songs from Raihan and reciting Asma-ul-Husna. Unbelievable!!

The next element in the academy was of course the gayong component which was an extremely grueling and physical form of Silat. This was done after school. Class was over at 3 pm and at for three solid hours they'd be subjected to exercises, drills and warrior arts skills. The students really enjoy these sessions with Aimen and their spirit reverberated through the entire tiny town of Paulsboro. There were times the neighbours would call the cops on us because the students would sometimes train after Fajr (which in New Jersey could be as early as 4am in the morning!!) Amando was the most resilient of them all. He was only 6 at that time and could leap over 9 adults!!

Next came the third component which is academic. Since most of our students were expelled or suspended from public schools, we had to homeschool them. So even if technically they were, for example, supposed to be in 5th grade, we'd probably have to pull them two grades back so they could recover whatever they missed in school. With only the two of us as teachers, Aimen and I would split the kids into two groups and teach them everything ourselves from English to Social Studies. It is also worth noting that when Sharon left our school we pulled him back to third grade but because of his excellent scores, he was able to enter the fifth grade.

So, TGA became like a Shaolin Temple for these kids. They got to live with their teachers, eat with their teachers, pray with their teachers and train with their teachers. Prior to this, most of them would be roaming the streets till 2-3am in the morning and at times cops had to be summoned to round them up. At TGA however, they couldn't even make it past Isha for I remember one night, as soon as we gave salams at the end of the prayer, a few of them didn't even make it pass the first sujud as they were already sound asleep!!

At one point they got rather big-headed. We treated them to the greatest Shaolin show called "The Wheels of Life" that was held in Atlantic City and guess what they said after watching that show, "We can dust them anytime, Sister Liza!!"...