The 2nd Annual Journey of Faith Conference | July 4th-5th | Metro Toronto Convention Centre

Here's an exciting message from the organizers of the Journey of Faith Conference:

After the thousands left the extravagant Metro Toronto Convention Centre and the weekend had come to an end, one thing was for sure, Journey of Faith made history in Toronto, Canada on July 12-13th, 2008. An epic 1st Annual Islamic Conference held by Journey of Faith proved to set an example for all other Islamic Conferences to come. The organization successfully drew in over 4500 attendees from all over North America for a 1st annual initiative, which is nothing short of impressive and a true blessings from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. As one of the conference attendees reported:

â€œSo far, the conference is really really good masha Allah! Awesome turnout! Really well organized and inshallah weâ€™ll be back next year!â€

The conference aimed at bringing the love, respect and honour of the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam back into the hearts of the Muslims. The intent of the conference was beautifully summed up by Dr. Bilal Philips in his opening lecture:

“Today we have dedicated a conference to rasool Allah sallalahu alayhi wasalam, one in which we seek to reacquaint ourselves with his role in our lives, to bring him back to a position of reverence [and] honour…”

The conference took the 4500 plus attendees on a journey which left many in tears and many more in contemplation and excitement to start fresh with Allah, to start fresh with this new found love for the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam. As one of the attendees mentioned:

“It really made me think a lot about my love for the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam and where I lie in my faith and it made me evaluate myself as an individual…”

Take a moment to live some of the other parts of the incredible journey:

The foundation was laid last year with the love of the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam. This year Journey of Faith intends on taking its 10,000 plus attendees to another level by journeying to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That's right! The 2nd Annual Journey of Faith Conference is set to take place on July 4th-5th at the Metro Toronto Convention Center and the theme is nothing short of exciting! The meticulously prepared one weekend program will entrain you and your family on a Journey of true love for Allah through knowledge in matters of spiritual rebirth, repentance, the numerous pleasures of Jannah, the mercy of Most Merciful, and much more!

The excitement doesn't stop there. Along with the program and theme, the organizers have brought together a list of scholars and speakers that will indeed help make history once again this July! Leading this incredible journey to Allah on July 4th-5th is Dr. Zakir Naik! Alhamdolilah, its a great blessing for our communities to have the opportunity to benefit from Dr. Naik. His last visit to Canada was almost five years ago and only Allah knows when he will be able to visit us again. Along with Dr. Zakir Naik, we are pleased to announce that Sh. Muhammad Hussein Yacoub, the well known Egyptian scholoar, will also be joining us for the 2nd Annual Journey of Faith Islamic Conference! Also joining us this year are: Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick, Dr. Bilal Philips, Sh. Waleed Basyouni, Sh. Tawfique Chowdhury, and many more!

See what Sh.Tawfique Chowdhury had to say about his visit to Toronto for the 2nd Annual Journey of Faith Islamic Conference:

The 2nd Annual Journey of Faith Conference is right around the corner, only 3 weeks away! The world will be watching as Journey of Faith makes history this summer, but the question you need to ask yourself now is: â€œwill I be a part of it?â€

HOSPITALITY PACKAGE
Exclusive out-of-town hospitality packages available! Let Journey of Faith take care of your transportation, lodging, and food.

A Journey to Allah
A Journey to understanding His Majesty
A Journey of the heart and soul

Be there!
July 4th-5th at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for the 2nd Annual Journey of Faith Islamic Conference.

Follow JOF on the web:

Get more information at: http://www.journeyconference.com
Become a fan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Journey-of-Faith/99841438221?ref=mf
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/journeyconf
Subscribe to the YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/journeyconference#

Tags: Bilal Phillips · JOF · Journey of Faith conference · tawfique chowdhury · waleed basyouni · zakir naik

About MuslimMatters

Muslimmatters.org began in 2007 as a collaboration between various Bloggers and Shuyukh in order to bring attention to issues faced by Muslims, especially in the West. We have focused on issues of Religion, Society, Ethics, Sex Education, Politics, Civil Rights, Family, as well as the random issues that pop up from now and then, all with some ranting and humor mixed in.

We challenge ourselves and our readers to engage in discourses that touch our lives as citizens of the West, while maintaining our individual Islamic identities: Ultimately to cooperate, but not to compromise.

http://muslimmatters.org/author/amad/ Amad

This appears to be Canada’s version of the Texas Dawah mashallah… even bigger.

If I wasn’t out of the country, I don’t think I could have missed this… may Allah give the conference tons of success and make it a source of barakah and ajar for the organizers, speakers, and attendees…

http://muslimmatters.org/about/mm-associates/#HS haytham

This appears to be Canada’s version of the Texas Dawah mashallah… even bigger.

Nothing is bigger than Texas Dawah yaar lolol … joking… this seems to be a very very nice convention and if it wasnt for the financial burden (coming from New Mexico) I would have came …

I wonder if they have any recording that would be published? TV? anything for those who are not coming?!

abd al-Ahad

Complete lecture series from the conference will be available in both CD and DVD. Also, if you visit the JOF facebook fanpage, they are releasing parts of last years lectures as well.

http://muslimmatters.org/about/mm-associates/#HS haytham

Would we have the option to buy the CDs and DVDs online?

Mustafa

As salamualykum,

Yes, last year lectures CDs and DVDs are online for sell.
You could get them at store[dot]journeyconference[dot]com
InshaAllah, this year lectures will be there online soon after the conference.

Danish Hasan

alhamdulillah alHamdulillah….
http://mezba.blogspot.com Mezba

The thing is – people should attend these conferences but realize not everything the speakers say may necessarily be correct – they too are after all human.

It is our responsibility to conduct our own knowledge and try to learn the truth.

http://muslimmatters.org/author/amad/ Amad

True. That is the case with any scholar or any speaker. But as laymen, we have to take someone we trust and rely on them, otherwise it may lead us to fatwa (s)hopping.

http://mezba.blogspot.com Mezba

I would suggest a post (seperate) on this topic itself. Is there anything wrong with fatwa hopping, provided each ruling is soundly made by a qualified person?

Normally people say “one shouldn’t fatwa hop” because then “we are picking and choosing parts of Islam” – which isn’t true as each of the opposing parts are both in Islam.

Anyways this is a bigger topic on its own, so just a suggestion.

Abû Mûsâ Al-Ḥabashî

I wonder what you’re getting at with this comment?
Moazzam Ali

I totally agree to your opion that we sould not accept anyspeech blindly because at last they are human being and they may be wrong sometime. At the same time, we should respect evry scholar of islam and listen to them. We should not fight within ourself. We should realise that every one except Quran and Hadith may be wrong because a common man has no connetion with ALLAH. The only connection and goudence is through Quran and Hadth. so we should consult it for guidence and always pray to god to show us the right path. We should pray to ALLAH to grant us the wisdom in order to differenciate between HAQ and BAATIL.

anonymuslim1

Salams Amad,

I think you’re quite right. It can apply to anyone from the people of knowledge – fo course the more a person knows and righteous s/he is, the more they can be relied upon with ease – in general.

My only contention – while asserting that my intent most certainly isn’t to turn any of this into a madhhab/taqleed argument or even discussion; but just as an aside – is where it said

“..we have to take someone..”

I personally have felt at ease using that approach in my questioning – and I think practically speaking that is what normally will happen anyway, and that’s fine inshallah.

However I recommend listening to this inshallah

http://www.islamictube.net/watch/b2aeb0a83b570188d5a1/All-about-Madhabs

In addition to what’s explained in it by Sh. haitham haddad I’d like to remind that that statement is a legitimate statement from some of the people of knowledge. But it is not the majority opinion at all.

An-Nawawee explains in al Majoo sharh al mahaddab’s intod. that in the shafiee madhhab a layman is allowed to depart from the saying of his imam/shaykh for that of another scholar/mujtahid’s statemtn due to him/her feeling that it is more supported by a proof. BUT he should not do this out of following rukhas (dispensation) or desires.

Shaykh’l islam in fact points out that this is the approach and opinion of the malikis, shafiees, Hambali’s and the majority of the hanafees. So only a group of the Ahnaf held the approach you promulgated – which is fine, so long as we all are aware that it is not a case of all of us *having* to rigidly stick to one.

if all the ummah had a lack of taqwa to the extent that we could not go from one scholar to another ever then the ‘ulama of Islam would havee told us that unanimously or as a majority.

As a further aside, the clip above points out that according to Sh. Haitham, from the laymen there will be some, educated (- perhaps such as someone who took the time out to study a madhhab ..? -), who will be able to make a type of ittiba’ on *some* issues where the matter is more accessible for the laity, while in others – such as where it is totally dependent on the lugha (Arabic) derivation for instance, he may have to make complete follwoing of the scholars he trusts.

It’s a case of fearing Allah to the best of one’s ability – and knowing that He never places a burden on a soul greater than it can bear.

Allah knows best.
anonyMuslim

BTW does anyone here know where the search engine for articles etc has gone :) I really wanted to find some articels but couldn’t :(

May Allah make the event a success!

amad

If you look at the top menu… where all the categories are shown… there is a field on the right corner with a search clipart next to it.

http://www.journeyconference.com Emad

The facebook fan page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Journey-of-Faith/99841438221?ref=ts
http://muslimmatters.org/author/amatullah Amatullah

SubhanAllah, why do we always have something to say…

I pray that JOF only increases in khayr. I was gifted with the DVD set when I went to Toronto a few months ago by the awesome crew of volunteers, mashaAllah it was really awesome.

http://muslimology.wordpress.com Dawud Israel

SubhanAllah, why do we always have something to say…

If we didn’t…what would we be?

If people want everyone to just shush up, nod their heads and not ask questions or make remarks, thats a fantasy land and by no means, is that something desirable. We need to live in reality sister.

One reason why we are so screwed up is because we imagine people having nothing to say to be ideal…which is worse.

Hala

There’s a difference akhi. Saying something for the sake of saying something (i.e. serial blog commentators- the annoying kind) is different from adding substance to a conversation.

http://muslimology.wordpress.com Dawud Israel

In sha Allah…with time, substance and commentary will become more beneficial and thoughtful. I think everyone is developing still and its a learning process…

Growing pains. :)

http://muslimmatters.org/author/amad/ Amad

the serial annoying commentators do help keep the hits up ;) the only good unintended consequence :)

http://muslimmatters.org/about/mm-associates/#HS haytham

^^ +1

Back to the topic…

I think they have an All Stars line up of speakers and a really nice venue mashaAllah…..

I wonder tho… do they have any accommodations for outta of towners?

Mustafa

Bismillah,

Yes, they do have accommodations for for out of town visitors.

Please check JOF blog: http://www.journeyconference.com/blog/?p=86

For all out-of-town visitors, special accommodations available:
http://www.journeyconference.com/hospitality/

kamran

is the audience going to be segregated between male and females? bcuz I have a nonmuslim female friend that I wanna take only if it’s not segregated cuz I don’t want her to sit by herself. any1 know if it was segregated last year?

Hala

There were 3 sections. Brothers, Sisters, and family members (mixed gender).

kamran

so if I sit with her in the family side there would be no problem? Its just that I really want her to be there.

Hala

Yeah, they will allow you to sit with anyone pretty much.

kamran

sweeeeet
http://muslimmatters.org/author/amad/ Amad

I imagine that this would be a wonderful dawah opportunity for the friend. Especially if you can hook her up with some “wise” and practicing sisters.

There are always a few conversions at these events… may Allah guide her to Islam on this occasion.

Visitor

Ma sha Allah! I’m always amazed at what the youth of this ummah can accomplish. We should all sincerely make du’a for the success of this conference and goodness for the organizers in this duniya and the next.

A much needed conference in the ummah…subhanAllah.

http://muslimmatters.org/author/amad/ Amad

I agree… these “startup” successful conferences are usually brainchild of some adventurous young person, and he/she usually assembles a youthful team and they are able to accomplish/execute so much more than 10 experienced uncles (including doctors and engineers) would be able to :)

That is why I strongly object to being called uncle, at least until I am forty… thats several years away (optimistically speaking) :)

I encourage everyone to give such new/fresh conferences a chance. Sometimes there is more excitement and more energy in these than the regular, established ones. In fact, you will hear this a lot about conferences from regular attendees— they “used to be” exciting. Join the excitement in the early stages… that’s when you can be part of something special.

http://www.journeyconference.com Ahmed

Salam,

here is Shaykh Yasir Qadhi inviting you all to the conference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrGz0P_E23k

Hope to see you all there!

http://muslimmatters.org/author/amad/ Amad

who is Yasir QaHdi? Evolution of Kazi -> Qadhi -> Qahdi… i think we should just call him Q.

Shaykh Dr. Q. Sounds almost as cool as Dr. X.

J

Professor Q.

Visitor

Inshallah shaykh Yasir Qadhi will be available to attend the 3rd Annual Journey of Faith Islamic Conference!!!

SubhanAllah…the excitement…less than 3 weeks leftt!!!

BTW…prices are goin up after Friday I believe..if you are coming grab your tickets soon.

http://www.journeyconference.com Emad

Thats right… prices go up after June 19th. You can purchase the tickets online using a paypal account or just your credit card!! Its so easy! Go to http://www.journeyconference.com to register now!!

http://muslimmatters.org/author/amad/ Amad

From my experience, if you intend to do a good thing and make yourself and your family be part of a conference, then it is best to go ahead and sign up ASAP. Because if you procrastinate, you can be shaytan will give you a thousand excuses to skip. Once you have made a commitment with money, your heart will be settled and you will move other things around since you’re down with the event.

I am not part of the organization putting this up, but based on the speakers’ list, I am quite confident that this will be outstanding… I’d just go to see Dr. Naik!!

kul

Assalam Alaikum Emad

I am a regular viewer of Muslimmatters site.

I cannot find the facebook fanpage from the link you gave. Would appreciate your help.

Wassalam
Kul

http://www.journeyconference.com Emad

Walaikum Assalam Kul

Just click the link below to go to the Journey of Faith facebook page..

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Journey-of-Faith/99841438221?ref=ts

Mehdi

$40 for single entry ($45 if you buy the ticket later)

Is this an event for affluent muslims only? Even when the real shuyookh come to the west I haven’t seen such outrageous fees. Nice to know we’re separating the classes. These brothers study for free in madeenah (or wherever in Saudi) but then they charge to dispense what they learn. Thats a bargain.

http://muslimmatters.org/about/mm-associates/#HS haytham

haha…

wait… that was a joke right?!!

You do understand that these “brothers” who study for free still need to feed their family right?! Come on man… be real!

Mehdi

akhi you might be made of money, but many of the brother’s I know are not. $40 is an outrageous sum to ask Muslims to pay, so its obvious that poorer muslims are being sifted out. You think $40 is a low sum cause its the West? Go to some of the muslim areas in Toronto and see how many are able to spare $40. My issue is not that money is being charged, but that efforts have not been made so that those who don’t “have” are rightfully included.

Next time you decide to open your mouth, think about how money opens are closes gates. These brothers were fortunate enough not to have needed to spend money to get the knowledge they earned, and yet the only ones who will be able to go to this even are professionals and people who are able to enjoy the luxury of listening to them.

http://muslimmatters.org/about/mm-associates/#HS haytham

Mehdi… dude… I am not made of money… nor is anybody that I know around me….

Conventions isnt the only mean to get the knowledge…. so dont come here and act as if ALL the knowledge being withheld from our brothers who dont have enough money.

You have the internet that has LOTS of authentic books open freely for download like the books of Ibn Uthaymeen and lots more… go download them and read them… if one cant afford the internet… then they can go to public libraries… if you dont have a library card… get one…

Point is…. poor or not… the knowledge is still accessible wa alillahi alhamd…

As for those who charge for it… they too need to pay their bills.. and if they dont find their means of rizq in spreading the knowledge… they will leave spreading the knowledge for the sake of getting a job to pay the bills… we dont want that to happen now… do we?!!

I will go to sleep at night tonight not feeling any injustice being committed towards our brothers and sisters who cant afford conventions…. not only coz knowledge is open for them… but also because those “conventions” and classes… offer scholarships and free admissions for those who cant afford it…

so…. to sum this up…. I make dua for my brothers and sisters who are in patience working and waiting for the rizq of Allah to make their pass to Paradise a lot more smoother and quicker than others…. Ameen

PS: I had the honor of discussing this very point with three of the shiyook of Canada when I was up there.. and their unanimous reply was……… where are those student of konwledge? we are in the masajid waiting for them… looking for the committed of them… but they dont show up… we ask them to commit to reading a full book… but they show up for one or two weeks and then quit…

Bottom line …lets bare our own responsibilities as well..

:) Peace …
wassalam
Emad

Salaam Alaikum Br. Mehdi,

I hate to argue on public forums but I cannot allow you to the blame the organizers of the conference.
How can you say that efforts have not been made to cut down the ticket prices? Can you prove it?
I personally know some of the organizers and I can attest that they have made a lot of effort to cut down the prices. If not for their effort instead of $40 you could have seen a price like maybe $50 or more. This is after all of the organizers are volunteers, imagine the cost if people were being paid to do the work they are doing!!
Instead of arguing over the price and what not why don’t we make dua to Allah to make a way for everyone to attend the conference and benefit from it. !

JazakAllah Khayr…

Hmmm

Subhanallah, why is it that people automatically think negative of brothers and sisters at the first drop of the hat? Why can’t we as muslims support the efforts of dawah? Why does money always have to come into it?

The way I look at this and anything that requires money relating to deen is the following:

Our programs, our conferences, our schools, our masjids, our youth groups, our associations deserve our money…If we don’t support them, where else will they get the ability to spread the dawah in such a manner? Every last penny goes to the aid of spreading the message of Islam…is this not a worth while cause to support? The prices are not outrageous when you take into consideration the multitude of costs associated with doing such a grand event.

We should be a people who support and seriously, as was mentioned above I believe, we should make du’a for the flourishment of such dawah activities in North America. May Allah bestow upon us all khayr and guide us towards His love and mercy.

http://muslimmatters.org amad

If these conferences break even, it will be considered a major breakthrough!

Trust me, with Texas Dawah, we always ran huge deficits, and the registration was slightly more. If you add up all the costs associated with travel, location, marketing, $40 is a bargain. Compare that to any other educational or motivational conference… one easily plunks thousands on those.

i can understand that 40 may be too much for a small minority of people, but I am sure if these brothers/sisters contacted the organizers, there may be some way to help. Or one can ask the local masjid or local dawah organizations to sponsor. Where there is a will, there is a way! May Allah make it easy for everyone…

Uzair

People who complain about fees have little to no clue of the expenses of this conference. My comment back to Mehdi is, try finding a place to hold 10,000 people, market to them all, pay for all the costs involved in getting the speakers here, pay for all the miscellaneous costs and then inshallah we can do this for free.

As you can already see this cannot happen in this society. Please wake up and smell the coffee. Not charging this much would mean we don’t have this conference and even if we had it and charged less, we would run massive deficits, which isn’t good is it?

If we want change in our society, we have to work together and pool together financially as well to generate the greater good (i.e. such as this massive da’wah effort).

If you are truly having issues with coming up with the money, inshallah email info@journeyconference.com and we will try to help you out with whatever we can or point you in a direction of sponsors that may be able to help.

http://mezba.blogspot.com Mezba

I also thought $40 is too high per person (think of how many people are out of jobs nowadays). I personally know many Muslims who used to work in the Alberta oil sands projects and are now collecting Unemployment Insurance. They had always gone for RIS – $40 – but not going to this one as it’s too expensive.

I understand there are costs involved in running an event of this magnitude. But two questions.

1) What is the need of this event when we already have RIS – which is big, goes on for 3 days and costs the same?

2) Can the organizors not make up the deficit by having a bazaar section and through corporate sponsorship? Or make the the shortfall from a lower ticket price by higher turn over?

http://muslimmatters.org/author/ahmad-alfarsi/ Ahmad AlFarsi

1) What is the need of this event when we already have RIS – which is big, goes on for 3 days and costs the same?

The need for more da’wah is always there. I don’t think we can ever say that we have filled the void for spreading knowledge and giving da’wah. The more the better inshaAllah.

abduallah

salams

there are always some who keep complaining about the FEES. they dont realise that the examples they give are evidences against themselves.

the example given above mentioned that brothers study in medinah uni for free and yet charge to dispence that knowledge. what the complainer doesnt realise is that there is nothing free in this world really. the study in medinah is not free per se. someone has to pay for it all (the books, teachers, maintaining the offices, bills, etc etc). it just happens that from the mercy of Allah the the saudi government is paying for it. if they didnt then there would be no ‘free’ uni.

organising conferences are a huge cost. which king is going to pay for it? the only way the organisers can fund such an event is by selling tickets and donations.

some people just expect to stay at home and food to desend on their plates from the heavens without any effort on their part. we need to wake up and smell the coffee.
Uzair

Sh. Yasir Qadhi has just been confirmed to come to Journey of Faith!

Get ready for a slamdown with Zakir Naik, Yasir Qadhi, Dr. Bilal, Dr. A. H. Quick, Sh. Tawfique and all the speakers!

Abu Abdullah

Journey of Faith Conference,

With all due and respect to all speakers/Shuyukh of the conference, Yasser Qadhi, another splendid speech, another splendid perormance, he blew it away!!! Tony Blair himself would envy YQ’s oratory at the conference.

The topic was “How do you talk to your Lord?

Just to summarise this amazing speech:

-It is one of attributes of Allah, al-Kareem, ar-Rob that He provides to all of our needs.
- Servitude, humility: It is the attribute of a human being, thus it befits him to beg Allah with Dua. Dua is the pinnacle, crest, highest point of a sign of a Servitude towards the being who is The Absolute Provider, Cherisher, Nourisher, and all Mercifull.

-al-Hayi – is one of the attributes of Allah, i.e He is to shy not not respond to supplication of His servant.

-Thus, there is NO dua that is not answered. If one is not granted what he asked for, let him know Allah will replace that with something far better.

If one were to ask Allah, to grant him for ex., a sister A for a marriage. Allah will either give that one individual for marriage or He will give him someone better than her. Because Allah knows best what is best for us. If Allah were to give him a sister B instead of A, then one should thank Allah because Allah knows what we do not know and He always gives us the best decision.

I encourage all of you to purchase the DVD of this talk at http://www.store.journeyconference.com/servlet/StoreFront 2009 conference should be available in a few days.

Wassalam alaikum wa rahmatullah.

http://www.alhudainstitute.ca Yasir Hilal

An Evening with Dr. Zakir Naik at Al Huda – Free Admission – 6 July, 2009 at 6:00 pm

http://www.alhudainstitute.ca/pdf/drZK_alhuda_blue_1D.jpg

Al-Huda Islamic Centre of Canada
5671 McAdam Road.
Mississauga, ON
Canada L4Z 1N9
Tel: 905-624-2030
Email: info@alhudainstitute.ca

MuslimMatters

About MuslimMatters

Awards

Social networks