Local Entrepreneurs Peddle Their Wares at ICNA-MAS Convention

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The Qu’ran encourages opportunity pursuit, risk-taking, and innovation, but bringing new ideas to the market is a tough road for many Muslim entrepreneurs. It takes passion, living and breathing the business to bring a dream into reality. Conventions are prime places for Muslim entrepreneurs to showcase their wares. Many new companies from the DC Metro area capitalized on a major Islamic convention being hosted at a local convention center- ICNA 2015 in Baltimore, MD.


 

 

 

The Muslim Link highlights four up and coming local businesses which embody the best of Islamic ethics in their business.


Tazkiyah Coffee, based in Annapolis, Maryland, brings single origin, fair trade, organic coffee directly from the source to your coffee pot. Imam Mikaeel Smith and his wife Ustadha Sarah started Tazkiyah in February 2015. The word Tazkiyah means purity; they believe drinking coffee from sources which oppress farmers contributes to impurity of the soul. Prophetic tradition calls for ethical buying and selling and often farmers are forced to sell at prices that they are not happy with when selling to large multinationals.  “We at Tazkiyah feel that purity is the essence of all good things. And good coffee is included in that as well. The purity of the body and the soul is very much dependent on the purity of that which is placed into the body. So that’s what we are about –  pure, clean wholesome coffee.” Coffee connoisseurs can purchase rich Sumatra Aceh Takengon , the floral Tanzanian Peaberry and chocolaty Brazilian, the delicate Panama Geisha, Kenya AA, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, and Colombian S beans ranging from $13- $15 for a 12 oz. brown bag. “Our roasters know the importance of perfection when it comes to coffee. We only roast in small batches to ensure that same taste in every bean.”


Coffee was an Islamic tradition. According to Lost Islamic History, “according to the historical record, in the 1400s coffee became a very popular drink among Muslims in Yemen, in the southern Arabian Peninsula. Legend goes that a shepherd (some say in Yemen, some say in Ethiopia) noticed that his goats became very energetic and jumpy when they ate beans from a particular tree. He had the courage to try them himself, noticing they gave him an energy boost. Over time, the tradition of roasting the beans and immersing them in water to create a sour yet powerful drink developed, and thus, coffee was born.” The Turks often said it was with this drink with which we memorized the Qu'ran.


“As Muslims we need to think about the spiritual effects of what we are eating and drinking,” says Imam Mikaeel. “The love makes the coffee better, you want to spread that kind of love and share that kind of coffee.” Long-term plans include a café and a bookstore. “Our scholars used coffee with the right intention so they could stay up at night to study and make dhikr.”

 

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Yasmin of Virginia is the creative mind behind Muslamic play rugs. This is the first play rug ever with a masjid and a place to grab halal food made from recyclable, latex free material. Muslamic rugs offer a village, a town, a city and beach scene. The rugs are skid free.


“I got this idea from my two sons, they used to play on the one I had for hours,” says Yasmin. “They always asked me which building is the masjid?” “Now your children can enjoy hours of play in their own little kingdom where they can pass by the masjid on their way home or go shopping at the Halal store, go to school, visit a friend's house, take the bad guys to the police station, or take their ambulance to the hospital.”


She designs the rugs and orders them especially for the Muslim market but she says that many of her customers on Amazon, where she sells the rugs for $60, are people of other faiths. She was selling them at ICNA for a special price of $45.


Another one of Yasmin’s offerings is the first Islamic baby mobile which plays the Quran and a selection of nashid in Arabic and English. Her product is a soothing alternative to baby mobiles which are usually loaded with musical instruments.


Aqua Bean is a Falls Church based company run by three professionals, including co-founder Sonia Rehman, which makes the revamped American ‘lota’. Rehman, a mother of two, bought and decorated her first home but says when it came to the bathroom, she was stuck with the ‘ugly old-fashioned’ water jug. The idea of modernizing the jug hit her seven years ago. When she was potty-training her boys, it was clumsy for the young hands to use so she redesigned it to have a small handle that is easy for young children to use as well as adults. “The response has been amazing,” says Rehman, who started selling her product two months ago and exhibited them for the first time at ICNA.

 

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“Our safe careers gave us everything we thought we wanted but somehow ceased our ability to achieve something bigger than ourselves. In turn, we decided to utilize our knowledge, risk-taking behavior, and perseverance towards venturing into social entrepreneurship,” state the entrepreneurs. With a vision to protect the environment and to create a nature-friendly toilet experience that will enhance personal hygiene, they started Aqua Bean.  Stylish and user friendly, the lotas (the term used by Indo-Pakistanis for the bathroom water jug) are designed in the USA and made in China. There is a BPA-free plastic variety that retails for $14 and holds 1100 ml, a heavier ceramic version for guest and adult bathrooms (this comes in 6 different colors) and a fold-able travel version made from food grade silicon.The company was incubated in Affinis Lab- geared towards Muslim startups that are trying to improve Muslim life in the United States. Founded by Shahed Amanullah, a former senior adviser for technology at the State Department, and Quintan Wiktorowicz, a former senior director for community partnerships at the White House’s National Security Council, Affinis is currently working with eight businesses nationwide.

 

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Another superb exhibit at the ICNA bazaar was by Wafa Islamic Arts. Ouafae Taame is a video game designer extraordinaire and an artist who specializes in Digital Arts, Islamic Arts, and Calligraphy—trained at the National Institute of Fine Arts in Tétouan, Morocco. She is a former senior artist and art director at Ubisoft, where she worked on popular games sold around the world, including Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia.  She creates crisp, clean custom Islamic art for her online store- Wafa Islamic Art, where she also sells stencils, framed prints and canvas. Taame also teaches Islamic Art classes in her studio in Maryland and sells canvases of her art online and at conventions. Recently her work was auctioned and received rave reviews at the Howard County based Tarbiyah Academy fundraiser.

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