Aaron Haroon Sellars
Aaron Haroon Sellars | Audio Visual Manager, Zaytuna College (Berkeley, CA)
بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
Bi-smi llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm [with G-d’s name, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful].
Today is July the twenty seventh, 2021. And this recording is in response to the question on wholeheartedness.
Subḥānallāh [glorified is G-d]. That really got me kind of zoned out just thinking about that and even asking myself that question. What have I done wholeheartedly and put my whole heart and soul into and completely. And it really is just - I really feel the weight of that question because there are things that I think and I have wholeheartedly done, and there are things I think that I wholeheartedly do not do.
And so I just looked up the word wholehearted here on my computer, and it's an adjective meaning showing or characterized by complete sincerity and commitment, and then in the thesaurus, you see the words committed, positive, emphatic, devoted, dedicated, enthusiastic, unshakable, unflinching, unswerving, constant, staunch, loyal, stalwart. Oh, man, that just takes it to another level, just reflecting on the meanings here.
And I think. You know, something I've definitely done wholeheartedly is converting to Islam. In stating that I believe that there is nothing worthy to be worshiped except for G-d and that [Prophet] Muhammad, peace be upon him, is indeed his servant and messenger. And by including him in stating that about him, it includes all the true prophets that came before him, some of them that we've been told about and many that we haven't been told about. I feel like I declared that statement wholeheartedly. And then specifically as it relates to my work at Zaytuna College.
When I really reflect on it right now, I do feel that I have served this institution, which started as Zaytuna Institute, and then became - transitioned into becoming America's first accredited Muslim liberal arts college, ʾAllāhuʾakbar [G-d is the greatest]! This is a service I have done wholeheartedly for this institution. My work as the audiovisual manager, in particular, I have done that wholeheartedly. I refuse to give up when it seemed like I should have given up in the service of this institution. And when it really comes down to it, I think the reason I have given myself wholeheartedly to my work and service at Zaytuna College is because of the connection I feel that it has to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and his legacy, but literally the prophetic legacy, the connection I feel this work has to the Prophet Muhammad, to the Prophet Jesus, to the Prophet David, to the Prophet Moses, to the Prophet Abraham, all the way back to our mother, Eve, and our father, Adam, may peace be upon all of them.
Aaron Haroon Sellars at Zaytuna College in Berkeley, CA. Image by: Aadhil Shiraz
The prophetic legacy has it is something that has been prophesied, you know, from the mouth of the prophets themselves, they had prophesied and told us that this legacy is something that will fade as we get closer to the end times, and when I hear that, I say, well, not while I'm alive. Not while I'm alive. And being that Zaytuna College is literally about reviving and preserving and promoting and about the continuity of Islam. I have to commit myself to that wholeheartedly. I never applied for a job at Zaytuna College. I never filled out an application to work at Zaytuna College. I joined Zaytuna, my joining Zaytuna and serving at Zaytuna was simply a situation of 'see a need, fill a need', you know, in its very early stages of development. And I just felt that, you know, if this is going to be an institution founded primarily by an American convert, a white American convert Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, may G-d preserve him, and then to go on to join Imam Zaid Shakir, a Black American convert. And then Dr. Hatem Bazian, you know, a Palestinian American. Those three were going to be the co-founders of Zaytuna College. A white American, a Black American, a Palestinian American, founding America's first accredited Muslim liberal arts college, that is just incredible.
And I felt at the heart of that is the preservation of knowledge and how that knowledge is preserved, and I felt that it has to be preserved using the best means available. I want the best tools in service of the best message, and that is the message of the prophets. So this is something that's bigger than our co-founders. It's bigger than the president of the college. It's bigger than all of us because we're all going to pass, we're all going to die, but we don't want that prophetic light to die. And that's what inspires me to commit myself wholeheartedly to the work and service that I do at Zaytuna College as an audiovisual manager at the at the root, you know, I say, well, you know, we have a I say the slogan of what we do at Zaytuna audio visual is that we capture and share light. Photography and videography is based around capturing light onto a light sensitive surface. And I felt that is an exact metaphor, spiritual metaphor, of our hearts. You know, we're capturing and absorbing light on to the light sensitive surface of our hearts. And the clarity of that image depends on the clarity of our hearts and the clarity of our understanding.
And working at a college around the students that I work with and serve around they're always asked often, what is it they're going to do, you know when they graduate. And I feel that we've put too much emphasis on what we're going to do as opposed to what type of people we want to be. And that, again, is where this know my my focus on light, you know, capturing and sharing light comes into play. Because where is the seat of light in the human, light illuminates the human heart, it's the illuminator of the human heart is light, spiritual light and guidance. And we have a beautiful supplication that I want to conclude my thoughts on called the supplication for light, which is an amazing supplication that's been authentically preserved from the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, who we believe is the last of the prophets. And in it, he says, and this is what you know, if nothing else is recorded for me for this project, but this this will be sufficient for what I want to leave behind, because this supplication focuses on: What type of person you want to be? What type of heart you want to have? And in this supplication, we say:
“Oh, G-d, place in my heart light, and in my tongue light, and my ears light, and in my sight light, and above me light, and below me light, and to my right light and to my left light, and before me light and behind me light, place in my soul light magnify for me light, and amplify for me light. Make for me light and make me light. Oh, G-d, grant me light, and place in my nerves light, and in my body light, and in my blood light, and in my hair light, and in my skin light. Oh, G-d, make for me a light in my grave, in a light in my bones, increase me in light, increase me in light, increase me in light, grant me light upon light.”
And at the end of the day, I like to say I'm just a simple soul wrapped in brown skin, that's crazy about G-d and preparing to meet Him. And I pray the work that I do in preparation for that meeting with my creator, whom one of his names is The Light, An-Nūr, to be characterized by light and to be light giving and to fill other people with light. And so that that light continues to shine until that great day. As G-d tells us, in the Qur’an, chapter 57, verse 12, “On the day when you will see the believing men and the believing women, their light proceeding in front of them and on their right hands and it will be said to them, good news for you today. Gardens beneath which rivers flow to live there in forever. That is the great achievement.”
Learn more about Zaytuna College here: https://zaytuna.edu
