Wael Abdelgawad, Founder of Zawaj.com
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- Wael and his daughter Salma at the park in Mountain View
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- Wael and Salma at the park
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- Wael and his daughter at the beach in Panama
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- Wael and Salma on a boat in the Panama canal
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- Wael and Salma on a Panama canal cruise
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- Wael looking at “La Piedra Pintada”, a rock in Panama carved with pre-Columbian petroglyphs
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- Wael and Salma at Target in California
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- Wael and Salma playing around
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- Wael and Salma trying to fit into a shot for the phone camera
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- Wael squatting 225 lbs at the gym
Wael Abdelgawad is the founder, owner, designer, editor, and administrator of Zawaj.com Muslim matrimonial service.
Wael was born and raised in California, USA. He has also lived in Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Panama, and has visited many other nations around the world.
Wael’s parents, who are of Egyptian origin, are highly respected scientists who taught him the importance of scholarship. All through his childhood he read voraciously. When not reading, he played table tennis and chess, boxed and did martial arts, and consumed Mars bars and Pepsis. He began studying Islam at the age of fifteen. He was a counselor at the Muslim Youth Camp at the age of seventeen, served on the Shura Council of Masjid Fresno at nineteen, and was later active in Muslim communities in Arizona, Texas and California. He attended California State University at Fresno, and he has taught Islamic Studies in several Muslim communities.
Wael later studied web design and webmastering with the Software Training Group in San Francisco. He is now a web developer and “domainer” by trade and is the editor of this website and the founder of many other specialized websites and blogs. He is also a writer, poet, and a student of the martial arts of Hapkido, Jujitsu and Kenpo.
Wael is divorced and lives in Fresno, California. He has a beautiful young daughter, ma-sha’Allah. Her name is Salma and she was born in July 2006.
Wael likes marble fudge ice cream, science fiction novels, good Islamic books, windup toys and playing chess; he never goes out without his iPod; he can bench press 300 lbs, and once held his breath for two minutes underwater.
Wael’s most valued personal projects are:
1. AbolishTorture.com, a blog against torture, and the home page of Muslims Against Torture and Political Imprisonment Everywhere. This cause is very important and Wael hopes to establish it as a non-profit organization and to help mobilize Muslims in the worldwide campaign against torture, both in the Muslim and non-Muslim world.
2. IslamicSunrays.com, a blog in which Wael expresses his personal philosophy of Islam as a religion of hope and inspiration.
In Wael’s Own Words:
I am a young 45 and simultaneously old as a mountain, or so it feels at times. Trying to change the world & better myself every day. My joys are my daughter Salma, poetry, martial arts, & my faith of Islam. Oh, and banana splits!
I’ve lived in five different nations and visited many more. I speak three languages, two of them poorly I admit. I guess I’ve had about 30 jobs in my lifetime, but I seem to have found my calling with web design and writing. I care about human rights, disaster relief, environmental issues, hunger and poverty, Palestine / Chechnya / East Turkestan and others. I believe in taking personal responsibility for our lives and problems. I’ve seen some of the worst that people have to offer, but I still believe in the goodness of the human heart. I am strong in many ways, unstoppable even… but I’m afraid of heights. I climbed La India Dormida twice and berated myself for it each time, especially the second time!
I love El Valle de Anton, Panama, San Francisco, and Madinat al-Munawwarah. I once powerlifted 500 pounds in a squat. I teach two martial arts and study two others. I have a love/hate relationship with chess. The best birthday gift I ever got was an iPod. People seem to either love me, or actively dislike me. I’ve been told I look like Jamal from House Party 2, a dance instructor, or the guy who owns the mini-mart on Olive Avenue.
My daughter Salma is my joy and pride ma-sha-Allah. I never understood pure, unconditional love until I had a child.
- Wael
i like the Islamic community.
the people of islam have very kind and pure hearted
Hello Wael,
I did not know how to contact you but I thought you would be the kind of person who wishes to know of any offensive and misleading material on your website.
Your articles are quite good in general but I think that this is offensive and incorrect:
http://www.zawaj.com/articles/names_prohibited.html
particularly this part:
“FORBIDDEN NAMES….
…3. From the names forbidden for our sons and daughters particular to our enemies, the Jews and the Christians, like: George, David, Michael, Joseph, Diana, Jaclyn etc., since use of these names causes – sooner or later – love of them and feeling of closeness to them and imitating them in their manners and their customs and we – the Muslims – have been forbidden to imitate our enemies and to have love for them and ties of friendship.
Perhaps this is the book of some hateful extremist but I am sure, as you are from USA that you disagree with this kind of sentiment.
I did not realise that we have such “enemies” – I thought more like cousins. Surely intermarriage between “enemies” would not be allowed.
I am sure you did not notice such hateful words. I don’t like to think that my Jewish cousins/second cousins are my enemies because I love them. This is not forbidden – to love our relatives.
Regards,
Maki
Maki, you are absolutely right in everything you have said. I have removed that paragraph. I reprinted that article from another website and clearly I did not pay close enough attention to all the points being made.
Wael
Zawaj.com Editor
hi you write so beautifully ,,GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR LOVELY DAUGHTER
please may i have your email address..Regards
I sent you an email, didn’t you get it?
Bismihi ta’Ala – as salaam alaykum warahmatullahi wa barakaatuhu
Respected & Esteemed Brother Wael Abdelgawad:
it is surely and solely within Allah ta’Ala’s knowledge why it is only today, six years after I moved to, and 2 years after I left a town 40 miles away from Fresno and when my life is now in utterly ruined and no longer able to save myself. my life and my aakhirah that I became aware of your existence and your desire and efforts help Muslims. I used to travel to Fresno on personal errands at least once every month throughout the period 2006 and 2010 but I never learned of your existence … la howla wa la quwwata illa billah … If only had know of your existence 6 years ago, or five years ago or four years ago, or even 3 years ago … I might have been able to save myself and my life …. la howla wa la quwwata illa billah …. you are a good man and I humbly ask you to kindly make du’a that Allah Ta’ala forgive me, restore me to His Favor, restore my spiritual health, cure of my myopia and stupidity, and guide me back to a life of value and worth to myself and His Creation. Aameen
Brother abd’Allah,
You are very kind. I’m sorry to hear about the difficulties in your life. I will send you an email, Insha’Allah.
Wael
IslamicAnswers.com Editor