Lighting a Candle for Mohammed Shajahan

Twelve years ago, American Airlines flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 AM. When this happened, it took out the 93rd and 99th floors and all those in between. Marsh & McLennan occupied the 93rd through the 100th floors of the North Tower.

On that morning, all 295 employees and 63 contractors of Marsh & McLennan Companies, an insurance brokerage and risk management firm, lost their lives.

In a matter of milliseconds, a group of cowards murdered those wives, husbands, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and cherished ones. Mohammed Shajahan was one of them.

I first heard about Project 2,996 three years ago. This project is a way to help memorialize those who died on September 11, 2001, and for us to learn about those people who lost their lives. I wrote about Mohammed during a time of social upset in our country. The news media was working everyone up into a frenzy over a mosque near the site of the World Trade Center attacks and some idiot pastor in Florida was threatening to burn a pile of Qur'ans. So I chose to memorialize Mohammed Shajahan as a way of showing people that it wasn't nearly 3,000 white, American Christians who were murdered that day. The people murdered were of many backgrounds, including Muslim.

And here we are, three years later, TWELVE years later, still beating our chests in hysterical fear of anything having to do with Islam (Syria, the Million Muslim March, Iran, hijabs, and on and on). And so it will go until our generation, the generation who lived through these attacks or who watched these horrible acts played out on our TV screens, is dead and turned to dust.

From the few bits I've gleaned on line, I've learned that Mohammed, who was a computer administrator for Marsh & McLennan, was also very much a family man. The comments left on the memorial written by his company are heartbreaking. There, you see what his children and friends had to say about him and I cry each time I read them.

im one of his daughter's best friend and they always seem so myserable thinking about thier dad. i feel really bad for them and im always trying to comfort them by anyway. 

I am an ex-employee of Marsh. It is a great company to work for. I used to meet Mr Shahjahan quiet often. I always remember his words. He used offer prayers in his office. May god bless him.  

I know he was well-loved and was a wonderful father, husband, and friend. His children looked up to him and still miss him terribly. I'm sure today will be difficult for them.

Since first writing about Mohammed, I have remembered him every year by lighting a candle. I wait to see his name scroll across the bottom of the morning news shows every September 11th and I cry for his loved ones still left here on Earth. I vow to someday visit the World Trade Center Memorial and place a flower on his name. I think about that awful September day and hope that during my children's lifetimes, those of the Muslim faith will again be embraced with open arms by our countrymen.

Someday, there will be no fear. No sadness. No hatred. No generalizations. Someday, Mohammed's grandchildren and great-grandchildren will practice their faith in America without worry or trepidation.

I wish today was that day.

Project 2,996 - Mohammed Shajahan

Quran 5:2
Do not let your hatred of a people incite you to aggression.

Quran 5:32:
If anyone slew an innocent person it would be as if he slew the whole mankind and if anyone saved a life it would be as if he saved the life of the whole mankind.

Proverbs 20:22
Do not say, "I'll pay you back for this wrong!" Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.

Ephesians 4:31-32
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

I can remember sitting open-mouthed, at the end of my bed, watching the events of September 11, 2001 unfold on my television screen. I was lucky. Damned lucky. I was safe, in my home, in Georgia. My husband was safe at work a few miles away. All of our loved ones were alive and well and none of us lost anyone that wretched day.

Since September 11, 2001, our country has gone through many changes and what I see out my window today saddens me. I see hatred and complete disregard of our fellow Americans... heck, forget that. Hatred of our fellow human beings. It makes me sick and desperate for aliens to drop out of the sky so that we will have some reason to finally unite as a planet, regardless of race, creed, or past wrongs.

What we forget is that people of all colors, beliefs, and nationalities died on that infamous day. And this is why I chose to remember Mohammed Shajahan on the ninth anniversary of his death.

Mohammed was a computer administrator at Marsh & McLennan Companies, an insurance brokerage firm. He lived in Spring Valley, NY and was a loving father to his son Yusuf, daughter Shirin, and other child(ren) (I couldn't find their names, but I know he had more than one daughter). Mohammed was just 43 on September 11, 2001.

Marsh & McLennan Companies occupied eight floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, between floors 93 and 100. When American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower, those floors comprised the entire impact zone. No one at Marsh & McLennan survived that day. I can imagine Mohammed at his desk or visiting with a fellow employee, going over emails, or getting ready for the day. I can't think what his last thoughts were, but maybe they were of his family or "Why?" I don't know.

His son Yusuf and daughter Shirin wrote tributes to him on the Marsh & McLennan Memorial page:

He was a great dad to me and i will nver for get him from his son yusuf

i missed my dad and i will never ever 4get my dad. Love his little daughter Shirin Shajahan

Those make me cry, because this innocent man died for a senseless reason and now, nine years later, Americans are adding to the senselessness of his death with vitriolic hatred for a cause of which Mohammed had no part. Unfortunately, his grieving children are now lumped into this hatred because they follow a faith of which Osama bin Laden claims to be an adherent of but in no way follows. The mastermind, if you will, of September 11, 2001 isn't a man who worships Allah. He is a monster who worships hatred. I know Muslims and Osama bin Laden is no Muslim. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Sorry. I got off track. This day tends to do that to me. This is supposed to be a tribute, not a diatribe.

Others had this to say about Mohammed:

I am an ex-employee of Marsh. It is a great company to work for. I used to meet Mr Shahjahan quiet often. I always remember his words. He used offer prayers in his office. May god bless him.

Mohammed was a kind man, an excellent father, and a beloved brother. May Allah grant ease to his family and friends, and light in his grave, and justice to all those suffering from the repercussions of the tremendous loss of life on 9/11, and the events that followed.

He was a great uncle who loved his family.

I will never forget the gracious hospitality that Muhammad Shahjahan showed me on my many visits to the Jerrahi Mosque in the 80's. May Allah accept all of this and give him the pleasure of the Akhirah! Read Sura al-Fatiha for his soul.

From what I gather, Mohammed was a gentle family man who worked to provide a home, food, and life for his family. Did he come to America for a job? Was he a first-, second-, or farther generation American? Was he applying for citizenship? Did he enjoy his life here? I don't know. But what I do know is that Mohammed Shajahan should be alive today at the ripe old age of 52, watching his children enter adulthood, waiting for grandchildren, and enjoying his life. He shouldn't be walking the next world because of a senseless act.

Before this week, I didn't know you Mohammed. After today, I will remember you each year. Rest well.

Project 2,996 is a tribute to the 2,966 victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Began in 2006 with over 3,000 bloggers writing tributes to the victims, it is kept going each year.