Nearly two years ago NPR profiled Usama Canon, a celebrated Muslim preacher facing his own mortality. He'd been public about his diagnosis of Lou Gehrig's disease, or ALS, a degenerative neurologic condition that robs people of their ability to move, to speak. Eventually it takes your life. The reaction to the news, an outpouring of grief from thousands of American Muslims that looked to Canon as a spiritual guide and to his nontraditional Muslim space, Ta'leef, as a place that felt welcoming without judgment. It's in the motto "come as you are, to Islam as it is."
At that time Canon reflected on his legacy.
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