Published Friday,
November 5, 2004
Former model follows spiritual path at
Yale
After
stepping off the runway and converting to Islam, Dawood Yasin becomes
chaplain, TA and local imam
BY AMANDA
RUGGERI
Staff
Reporter
|
|
| Dawood Yasin served as a TA at Yale before he became
the imam at a local mosque. (SOPHIE PERL/ CONTRIBUTING
PHOTOGRAPHER) | |
At age 26, Dawood Yasin was almost killed.
Three times.
Back then, his name was not Dawood. He was not yet a
teaching assistant in Yale's Arabic Department, the imam of the Masjid
Al-Islam mosque on George Street in New Haven, or the chaplain of the Muslim
Student's Association of Yale.
Instead, he was a nation-hopping male
model, a man whose face and body splashed Paris billboards and Vogue fashion
spreads. His name was David and he was Roman Catholic.
But three
near-death experiences in the span of six months changed all that
In
1996 he was living in South Africa modeling in photo shoots. One night, he
said, he got into a heated discussion with some South Africans vocalizing
their unhappiness with the end of apartheid. Threats were issued. Tensions
boiled. Then the aggressors pulled out weapons.
Luckily, a member of
the group talked them out of a fight. But just a few weeks later, something
else happened. Yasin was driving from Capetown to Johannesburg. At one point
the fog thickened dangerously. The car behind him began to pass him and, at
the same time, a truck approached from ahead. His own car narrowly avoided the
horrific crash that followed.
Not long after, he witnessed another
crash -- one he might have been in had he arrived at the scene 30 seconds
earlier.
Many 26-year-olds may have brushed off the three incidences as
merely unsettling. Not Yasin.
"Thinking that you could check out at any
time made me think about spirituality," he said, sitting in Au Bon Pain Oct.
27, a dark beard covering his once-famous face.
Because his cousin had
converted to Islam two decades before and become a better person for it, he
said, the religion was already in the back of his mind. So when his brushes
with death made him reconsider spirituality, he had no qualms about taking a
look at the Koran.
"It worked for me," he said. "I find there to be
justice. In the prophetic tradition, there's no preference of the Arab over
the non-Arab, white over black, black over white."
But not everybody
sees that side of Islam. Twice since Sept. 11, 2001, Yasin and his wife,
dressed in traditional Islamic garb, have been almost run off the road, he
said. Once, the driver shouted at them to "go back to your
country."
"And my mother, my grandmother, they were born in America,"
he said, shaking his head.
Rather than let such ignorance get him down,
though, Yasin said he focuses on raising understanding of Islam. His Arabic
students said he was always very open about his life and religion. They could
ask him delicate questions -- what the Koran says about homosexuality, for
example -- and get a straightforward answer.
And because Yasin is
American, students seem more receptive to what he has to say, said Bassam
Frangieh, a professor in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Department.
"The students identify with him," Frangieh said. "He has a
very, very beautiful relationship with them."
Yasin has even welcomed
his class into his mosque. Last year, 40 Arabic students took a class trip to
George Street during the month of Ramadan. They covered themselves
appropriately, the women in head scarves. As they walked, they stopped
traffic, Frangieh said.
After attending services, which included a
sermon by Yasin, the students ate a traditional dinner in his
home.
Teaching about Islam and the Koranic tradition is important,
Frangieh said. After all, one requirement of the Near Eastern Languages and
Civilizations major is "Arabic and Islamic Studies."
Despite such
glowing reports from students and colleagues, Yasin was not always so focused
on Yale. When he came back to America after studying Arabic for five years,
teaching at Yale was not the job he had in mind, he said.
Hardly the
typical teaching assistant, Yasin does not even hold a college degree. He
briefly attended Southern Connecticut State University, but he was discovered
by a Wilhelmina Models agent during one summer break in Nantucket. At 19, his
life turned into a whirlwind of runways in Milan and Paris, photo shoots with
Christy Turlington and Brooke Shields.
"It's like, 'Wow, do I shoot a
Levi's campaign and make a lot of money, or do I go back to school and get a
degree?'" he said, chuckling. "You think about it for about three breaths."
And although he studied at a religious seminary in Damascus for five
years after "embracing Islam," the events of Sept. 11, 2001 interrupted his
education. In America at the time of the terrorist attacks, Yasin and his
then-pregnant wife decided not to return to Syria.
A friend at the Yale
Divinity School told him there was an opening in the Arabic department. At the
time, Yasin said, he laughed off the suggestion, intimidated by the idea of
teaching Yale students in a language that was not his native tongue. But when
a few weeks went by and the position remained open, he decided to
apply.
Rather than a one-on-one interview, Yasin presented himself to
one of Frangieh's Arabic classes. They loved him. Yasin was hired.
This
year, though, Yasin is on leave. Recently appointed as imam of Masjid
Al-Islam, Yasin said he is now too busy to teach classes. As religious leader
of the 300 people in the congregation, he has more responsibilities than he
had even expected.
"I'm dealing with everything from the jurisprudence
of someone's marriage, to someone asking you on the end-of-life decisions for
their two-year-old child," he said.
And he has taken on a new project,
as well -- managing a fashion company geared toward traditional Muslim dress.
The former model described the clothing line as modest, but sophisticated and
practical.
Running a clothing company is only the latest phase in his
life. From modeling, to studying, to being a TA, he said each experience has
made him who he is today.
But if his now-2-year-old daughter were to
grow up and tell him she wanted to strut down the runways in Milan, Yasin
knows exactly what he would say:
"I'd say, Tell me when you want to go
and we'll go together."
____________________________________________________________
Asalamu Alaikum wrwb,
Alhamdulillah I know this Imam. During ramadan he along with several
brothers from the New Haven masjid, Norwalk, Bridgdeport masjids came to
our masjid in Stamford Connecticut for a over night for
Itikahf. He delivered a khutbah and led fajr prayer the next morning. I highly
respect this Imam and he is highly spoken of by my Imam as well. I
never knew his background and histrory before reading this
article. May Allah grant him the highest reward for all his efforts.
Brother Daniel from Stamford,
Connecticut
***************************************************************************
{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all."
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise.
If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest".
Yahoo! Groups Links
|
