Sorry bro, that last post flew over my head. Can you clarify the first statement about the “leaders before him who were businessmen and true leaders (in other aspects of their daw’ah)”…? Maybe some details?

Siraaj

There were many leaders before him who were businessmen and true leaders (in other aspects of their da’wah) but weren’t able to produce the results he was able to produce. That was my point. I’m not negating that the we should throw any Yusuf with knowledge into the board. Of course they would have to have some sort of leadership skills, but at the end of the day, the people of knowledge always end up better than the ones who aren’t. And I personally would take a person who doesn’t know much about leadership but is knowledgeable over someone who is not knowledgeable but is a leader. Because the one who is knowledgeable in his deen will put his utmost effort into the community and figuring out what needs to be done to make it better and will eventually acquire the traits he needs in order for him to be the leader that drives the community forward at a much more efficient pace than when he first started. That’s self evident in my example (Know your people before you speak about them).

And with that, this is probably the longest discussion I’ve had on a blog in my life.

Asalaamu alaikum

Your example doesn’t translate into your conclusion. Imran Baig isn’t just knowledgable – he’s a competent leader and manager. The proof of that is that he’s not only dedicated to helping run the community, he runs the Sunday school at CPSA and balances family responsibilities and is a full-time professional. And that’s pretty much what I mentioned earlier – you really don’t find many, or any people like this, who are both competent (leaders and managers) and religious.

My point is simply that a group of practicing Muslims who are incompetent leaders is in all likelihood not going to be better than competent non-practicing Muslims in running the masjid. Many are the poorly organized and now broken daw’ah projects that stand as testaments to this.

And so, before everyone complains and gets in a huff about the board, I’m saying all the religious minded people need to learn to get themselves involved in their communities, deeply involved, constantly working different projects, working with people, reading books and learning, gaining as much experience and knowledge as possible before talking.

The best leadership model I’ve seen in Chicago comes from Orland Park’s masjid – competent leadership from practicing brothers who have been involved both in their communities and knew the elders well as well as getting themselves involved in their MSAs, and work professionally, and are managing all of it really well.

Of course, they’re Arab and maybe they have less family parties to attend =D

Siraaj

Not true.

I honestly believe that raising the money for a Masjid’s running expenses isn’t a big deal so long as the leader knows the right people in the community. Simple example of that is the masjid that I go to, the board has it’s differences, but the Ameer is a knowledgable individual who knows how to call the shots and deal with his people. The fact that he has the knowledge really helps because he instigates the proper programs for the community. Not to mention the fact that after almost 10-15 years of debating and chaat masala, he was the only leader able to unite the community to buy an actual new masjid by the Will of Allah (swt). The community had literally been in stand still over getting a new property and have been fighting over little things for so long, yet, when he came into ‘ameership’ it made a huge difference in such a short amount of time. The community is finally starting become a bit more healthy and united as result of this work, waAlhumdulilah.

The leadership has a lot to do with what programs that a community does and which direction the community is taken. No matter how many rogue programs you’ll try to make in the masjid, eventually someone will find that you are doing it and want it to be centralized to the masjid. If it gets centralized to the masjid then the board has a say as to what happens and we get stuck back in the loop. In my limited useless experience, I’ve noticed that the masaajid that have centralized programs are usually more successful than the masaajid that have various groups coming and making their own programs. But of course, since the board might be corrupt, the centralized programs are corrupt. So if you have a better board, you have a better program. This is what I’ve seen.

You can theorize about how to ‘take over’ the board or how to get onto the board and you maybe right OR wrong. But at the end of the day a knowedgeable board beats and unknowledgeable board hands down because it will lead to the embetterment of the community as a whole.

wa Allahu ‘Alam

Excellent article.

Unfortunately, the general rule for the American Muslim community seems to be that fitnah will exist in our masajid and the good well maintained masjid is the exception.

One thing I’ve noticed about those masajid that are well-organized and free from fitnah is that they usually have a scholar who is involved in the decision making process and fiqh issues are referred to him or other ‘Ulema as opposed to lay people making up their own opinions.

If you don’t mind, I’m going to link this post on my blog.

masalama

It was in response to what you had specifically mentioned, and I misunderstood your community position.

Regarding actual campaigning, I can’t give you a fatwa and say yay or nay as to whether it’s allowed or not. From personal experience, I can say that in the minds of most people I’ve dealt with, campaigning for a position translates into insincerity for them because we tend to associate campaigning with American politicians who also have a stereotype of corruption, nepotism, powermongering, serving corporate/special interests, etc. It’s also been my experience that the ones campaigning tend to be the insincere ones, so even if someone sincerely wanted to just help the community, those motives would come into question for some who have had experience with previous bad examples.

Siraaj

I think the disagreement many are having is with the people in the system, and their lack of religious education, which translates into poor decisions and poor interaction with other board members.

Check with your local shaykh about your local masjid’s system to be 100% sure, though.

Siraaj