First published on Indigo Jo Blogs in response to the New Muslim Series.

The first article [in the Muslimmatters.org's new Muslim Series] is about how the Muslim community accommodates converts, and the issues that have long been discussed on various websites including the blogs that sprung up in the mid-2000s (most of them now defunct): among them, the different groups that compete to take new converts under their wing and “teach” them how to practice Islam their way, as well as well-meant but incorrect advice and unwarranted interference (such as a total stranger giving a new convert an Islamic name, which is usually not necessary). One thing this article does not discuss is the financial support of converts who are in need, particularly if they have a disability or are estranged from their family, or both.

We all have read about the tortures some of the early Muslims suffered when they embraced Islam against the will of their pagan families, although that kind of abuse against converts nowadays is fairly rare, to my knowledge, people who convert to Islam (or for that matter, any other religion) being rejected by their families is not at all unknown — I recall hearing a taped speech by one brother who had been expelled from his home by his Hindu father not long after I converted to Islam in 1998. The situation is worse when the family is attached strongly to another religion; families that are not religious tend to be less hostile. We all know that women who convert to Islam whose husbands don't are required to leave their husbands (something that many other Muslims will waste no time in telling them), but to do that, they need to have a place to go.

The situation for converts who have some kind of disability is even more worse. A major reform of the welfare system was recently passed in the UK, and this includes drastic changes to the disability support system. The reform is ostensibly intended to improve consistency and reduce error; what it will do is transfer money from those in need to bureaucrats and contractors. The losers will be those with disabilities other than the classic physical disabilities such as spinal cord injury and cerebral palsy; those with fluctuating severity of disability or mental health problems and intellectual disabilities that make coping with normal life difficult will also lose out. The reforms have been supported by a media campaign that portray disability benefit claimants as scroungers, among them a story that was on the front page of 'The Sun' the other day in which a woman who was claiming benefits for a bad back was seen going on fairground rides (probably by a nosy neighbor who sold her story to the paper). The truth is that she probably had a fluctuating condition, and was able to do the kinds of things she was pictured doing on some days and not others. This is normal with a whole range of well-known physical conditions.

The effect of cutting support payments to disabled people is that it entrenches their reliance on friends and family, with the obvious effect of making any decision that would offend their family very difficult. The family may even be in a position to physically prevent someone from carrying out their religious activities or even visiting (or being visited by) friends who are associated with their new religion. If the person has serious mobility problems, the home they are living in may have been adapted for their needs when they were a child, but they might not own it, and the majority of houses and flats which are not very recently built are inaccessible to people in wheelchairs and many of those that are available are reserved for elderly people. The same is often true of a disabled person needing to escape an abusive relationship: the house or flat they live in may be accessible, but most refuges aren't.

We know that mosques collect a lot of money from regular worshipers; we also know that a lot of it gets sent abroad, often to the Indian subcontinent in the case of mosques in the UK. How much of it could be spent on making sure that converts in need are provided for in this country? Some mosques have rooms that could be rented out for new converts while they find a place of their own to live, if living with their family is not an option (and lodging with a friend often is no option either, particularly if the person who needs a home is a man, the friend is married and does not want a non-family male living under the same roof as his wife). Simply finding a new convert a spouse from within the existing community is not a good option: the couple may be entirely unequipped to deal with the others' cultural differences and the expectations they have of each other. It also adds the element of dependence, which may be used against the newcomer if the relationship proves to be abusive and serve to prevent them escaping — precisely the situation they may have found themselves in when they first entered Islam — or allow guilt to be used to make someone do something they feel uncomfortable with. A female online friend with a chronic illness told me that a man had approached her for marriage, but just before it was to take place, told her that she would have to take bay'ah with his spiritual leader, something she had no intention of doing. The fiancé then reminded her that they had been willing to accept her even with her illness. In the event, the marriage did not happen, but it goes to show the kind of guilt-based manipulation that can happen in a relationship of dependency.

There are a number of ways the community could accommodate newcomers with special needs. There is the need of making mosques and Islamic schools accessible. There is also the need of educating people who come in about someone's condition that may affect how they practice, particularly if they have mental health issues. A mentoring scheme like the one described in the article may help, but they need to understand the individuals' needs and be able to fend off unwarranted and not very helpful “help” and advice from people who do not understand either their needs or the religious rulings related to them, or sectarian elements who want to recruit them. The community needs to be taught that certain disabilities which are presumed to be the result of jinn (spirits) or witchcraft (or similar), or of poor imaan (in someone who has just decided to become Muslim!) are in fact simply medical problems and that they should not approach the affected person to tell them otherwise. The community should be reminded of hadith no. 572 in this collection, so they do not encourage people with particular disabilities to harm themselves doing acts of worship that may be harmful to them (for example: rubbing themselves while doing the ablutions, which is mandatory in at least one of the four schools but may be seriously harmful to people with certain skin conditions; other examples are long fasts for diabetics and others it may cause to become ill).

Accommodating new converts with disabilities does not just take understanding, though; it takes money, and if it does not already exist, there should be a fund for needy converts so that they do not end up homeless or seriously ill. I would not advocate a charity specifically for disabled Muslims (unless it catered to specifically religious needs) as it would leave us open to accusations of being generous only to our own people, but a group home of some sort which catered specifically to Muslim dietary and other religious needs probably would not (there are Kosher old peoples' homes, for example), nor would a fund targeted at those whose needs relate specifically to their religion. The Muslim community cannot afford to address all the most complex needs of all Muslims, even converts, and may not need to, but should prepare to support some of those with less complex needs who may be left high and dry by the incoming benefit reforms.

BFTF : Welcome to the show Yaseen! To start off, could you give a small clue about what Emmanuel House is and the project that Karimia has been involved in.

MY : Well, I first came across Emmanuel House when I was working for the local authority. I used to work at Carlton Street for the Youth Service. I used to run the “Youth Shop”. Carlton Street is the street that runs directly behind Nottingham City Council building in the square and it you go over the top of the hill and drop down as though you were heading towards the Victoria Market, you come across EH right at the bottom of the hill where the traffic lights are…

It's an old fifties-sixties kind of building and I remember always seeing people who looked homeless in fact. You could tell that some of them were alcoholics, some of them would have been just very shabbily dressed and they would be hovering outside this building.

Having said that, I think there may be some listeners out there that might be able to reflect on the principle of helping people who are homeless, people who are poor, people who are needy. We come across this all the time. When I was last in Pakistan, people would go to a darbar(shrine), they would give, they would volunteer, donate money, a goat or something. So I don't think it is an alien concept to look after people who are hungry, who are poor. But to do it in this country, that is a departure.The reason I got to know about this project at least 10-15 years ago, was because every time we used to do events at our premises in the Youth Shop for young people, we would have food and other things left behind at the end of the event. Some of the volunteers used to say “shall we just take this stuff down to Emmanuel House?”. Well, it did occur to me one time to say “Well, I'll take it down with you” just to find out what this place was and when I went down I realised that it was essentially an advice and support type service for people who were homeless and then I realised who all these people were that were standing outside waiting to go into this building. They obviously had a timetable for when they had to go in. And essentially, that was my first introduction to Emmanuel House. But I didn't know what the service was, in terms of who it was organised by, why there were volunteers there. And it wasn't until Dr. Musharraf called me and said that through the Christian-Muslim Forum, a request has come to see if the Muslim community might support this organization which is meeting the needs of people who are homeless in the city of Nottingham, that I realised that there was a connection on the other side with the churches. So I think their church is supportive of the work that they are doing. This is slight departure from the type of routine work that Muslims would tend to get involved with.

What's happened with Emmanuel House is that with these current financial cutbacks that the local authority has decided that it was going to make some cuts to Emmanuel House's budget – and these were really significant, they were to the bone to be honest. There was some sense that the whole of the operation helping homeless in Nottingham might collapse and their Chief Executive decided that she would start a local campaign to see if she could generate community support for it. Their (the community's) initial responses were that people would come in with tins of money, children would come in with piggy banks and that's when they realised that actually the community is very supportive of supporting people who are really vulnerable and likely to get into even more trouble, at worst, die on the streets of Nottingham City. So they approached Karimia Institute and said “Do you think the Muslim community would support this?”. I think that is a really big challenge. On the one hand I thought it was quite cheeky that the churches, who are so wealthy, would have the gall to ask the Muslim community “Would you like to support something that we are supporting?”.

But after I had thought about it, you know, who are the beneficiaries? Is the church the beneficiary here, or is it the people? And whom are we supporting? Are we supporting the church or are we supporting the people? It wasn't very difficult for me to conclude that our intention is the most important thing. So what is our intention? It is to help people to safeguard themselves, to help them get out of poverty, to get a roof over their heads and to feed people as well. So when I met with their marketing manager, she asked me how the Muslim community would view supporting a charity like theirs. I said that frankly, we have a very great spirit of feeding people who are hungry and that would be a really excellent mission and something that I think Muslims would feel empathy for. And if there was anything we would want to support. So I kinda narrowed it down a bit because I thought that I wouldn't feel comfortable about seeing my donation propping up the churches work, as it were, and there mission. I wouldn't want it to be seen in that way, if I was going to help people I would want to help people who are really in need.

To help your neighbour is important, They have rights over us so we have a responsibility to them and, in the same way, people who are living in Nottingham on the streets, they are our neighbours. We walk past them, drive past them, sometimes taxi drivers will see them lying in the street. These people are our neighbours. We have a responsibility, as Muslims, to do something about that.

With the support of Zameer from Radio Dawn, we decided to launch a small campaign to support them. We were very keen to make sure that we supported the aspect of work which was going to have the greatest impact. It is admirable that all those people (who donated) looked beyond the initial thing that they saw, which was a white non-Muslim charity that was doing work, to the people that it was going to benefit.

I remember my father telling me that Christianity did well because they gave the Bible with one hand and bread with the other. You show humanity when you feed people, you show that you care for people – and if you can show that you care for people you can influence their perception of what you are and what you believe, and maybe that is one of the ways we can bring people to Islam.

This project is not the first time I have come across this practice. When I was a student in Bradford University, I was cajoled by some of my student colleagues into doing some volunteering that would “blow my mind”. They took me to an underground hall of a church and in the underground part of the church and when I went inside, Lo and Behold, there were all these Muslims who were cooking and preparing food and I asked “What is going on here?” and they replied “Well, the church is allowing us to have this space so that we can feed homeless people” and that was for me the first shock – I anticipated that I would see white non-Muslim people walking through with a tray, with food, picking up an apple and some fruit and going back to a table and eating. And the number of Pakistani people, men and women walking through – and I could tell that they weren't people who had homes, they were genuinely homeless, you could tell from their dress. Some had mental health problems, that was very apparent, and it dawned on me that I was feeding people here that were not just Muslims but there were other people as well.

I was just given an apron and told, put the food on the platter, smile, give them some water and let them pass by. And after one hour of doing that I was asked to take my apron off and pass it to the person who was walking through the door. What they had was a rota for three hours and a local businessman, who has a relationship with Nottingham as well, was located in Bradford was sponsoring this and paying for the food to be served every single Thursday evening.

So that was really my first experience of actually feeding people, so when I heard about other brothers in Nottingham wanting to do the same, I can support that 100%. For an hour a week, to make that much impact on that many people's lives who were walking through, was the backdrop for what I was seeing that needed to be done with Emmanuel House.I was dragged in as a student to do this one hour and after that I used to go back every Thursday and I did that for six-seven months. That work in Bradford is still continuing today.

That's one of the things I've tried to implement with many of the things done here at Karimia Institute. Things like the Scouts, I'm asking volunteers to come forward and I'm saying to them, “Give one hour a week. Don't give me two, I don't want two, just give me one. Just come here, do something good, enjoy yourself working with young people, making a difference in their lives and go home feeling like you have actually done something. If everybody just gave me one hour, I'd be a lucky bloke!

BFTF : Regarding the fact the some people may say that we need to help our community first. It's not an either/or, you can do two things at once. It's like saying that we shouldn't have gone to the Moon because we should have solved hunger on earth, but I don't think that if we had not gone to the Moon, the problems of hunger would have been solved. What would be your perception on that viewpoint ?

MY : I think that one of the issues with people saying that we should do something for our own is that what they don't realize is that there is a ripple effect. And things happen to us as a consequence of we not taking responsibility. For example, if we had taken responsibility over CFC's, we wouldn't have damaged the ozone layer – and the damage to the ozone layer affects not just Muslims, it affects everybody so to do something about that is important. Similarly there are plenty of examples where, you have someone who is so desperate that they might be forced to rob somebody and somebody might get hurt there. Now, if they weren't so desperate, because they had had a meal in their belly that evening, they might not need to have to do that. It's often the case that people say “It's not going to happen to me” until it happens to you and then it's like “Why did this happen to me?” and the reason is that globally, as a community, we failed to do something. And so I think that feeding people who are homeless, who have no home, no food, no livelihood, no work, no place that they can use as an address, can't get access to benefits – are basically completely detached. Well, those people are human being and they are going to want to fulfil some of their basic desires and that might be getting money from somewhere. Somebody could get held up, somebody could get injured, somebody could be killed – and if that outcome happened because we didn't feed somebody, that's our responsibility.

BFTF : Can you give a little more detail on what Emmanuel House does?

MY : Well they do all sorts of advice. Essentially, when you walk through the door they provide you with a free meal, access to a nurse to deal with any injuries you may have sustained and they arrange for you to have a roof over your head. They will also wash your clothes so that you can put some clean clothes back on. These are the very foundation stones of decency in our society.

Our campaign was not about the whole of the Emmanuel House organization, we felt that the best thing that we could do was to feed those people who are hungry and that that would be an excellent thing to do. And that is essentially what we have done, we fund raised quite a large amount of money for them and that money is going to be dedicated to spending on food for people who are homeless.

We raised about £6000, but they need a lot more than that, their target spend – just on food, is around £13,000. I think this is the first time that the Muslim community and the Christian community have collaborated on a programme like this and consequently it's clear that the Muslim community are prepared to put their hands in their pockets and are prepared to see beyond the structural differences between the communities, see through that fog to the people who really matter who are those lonely souls walking around on the streets during the day thinking about where they are going to sleep that night.

Imagine if this was your bedroom every evening…

BFTF : If people are interested in this project, how can they donate?

MY : They can send a check to Emmanuel House directly, or they can send it to us at Bobbers Mill Community Centre and we will forward it to them. Or the same thing can be done via a cash donation.

BFTF : What has been the response from the Non-Muslim community, the churches etc.?

MY : I don't think they expected us to come forward as we did and, as always, when Muslims rise to the challenge, people are astounded. If anything, we have demonstrated that we are not easily put into a box. Muslims are much more globally thinking, they are charitable, we are very, very generous compared to many other communities. We both look after our own community and we are prepared to look after other communities. In some ways it is a really valuable lesson to give to people who are non-Muslims because where they have had stereotypes about the Muslim community, about us being insular, not interested in other people, wanting to live parallel lives – that is not the case. I think we are part of our community, part of the city of Nottingham. We reflect both an eagerness to support people who are vulnerable, who are homeless, we are at the front-line.

No-one should be under the impression that Muslim communities are only interested in themselves or that they do not have any part to play in British society. British Muslims are interested in everybody in this country, as we are for people overseas as well.

Some people may think that Muslims are only interested in foreign affairs, well this is a really good example of how we are interested in home affairs – very close to home affairs in fact.

BFTF : BFTF often seen individual Muslims working in a whole range of voluntary organizations, but what is unusual is to see a Muslim Organization stepping forward to work with the wider society.

MY : What we have done here is to trail-blaze for other Muslim organizations in the city. We can demonstrate that we have an interest in helping people and we are building bridges and links with other organizations and I think there is a level of respectability that comes from this as well. Rather than us always being seen, dare I say it, terrorists or radicals and extremists in society, what we can be seen as is humanitarian people who think about their neighbor, who think about other people around them and can appropriately respond when needed.

I hope very much that anybody who contributed to the campaign, whether they were givers or supporters, will realize that when we are talking about working with people who are vulnerable, we have vulnerable people in our own community. We have people who are getting into drugs or alcohol, we have young people going to prison – at one of the fastest rates of any community in the UK and there is very little understanding of why we should be sympathetic to their needs. It's almost like “they have brought it on themselves, so they should pay for it” – but we forget that when these people come out of prison, their behaviour and what they do in society is likely to have an impact on us. So if you get burgled and you find that it was someone on drugs, you may also find out that that person may have been a Muslim. So when we talk about supporting people who are drug addicts in our community, people should not turn their noses up at it and think “That's their own fault”. . . How do we respond to ALL vulnerabilities in our community? Should we be open handed with them? Should we think about supporting those causes?

Because there are so many of those (causes) but the Pakistani and Muslim communities does not tend to focus on them. But this one campaign with Emmanuel House has, I think, demonstrated that there is a soft spot, a soft underbelly within the Muslim community that is prepared to look at that.

BFTF : What are your plans for the future of this project?

MY : Emmanuel House are the drivers and what they asked us to do was to support them with their campaign and that is essentially what we have done. Karimia does not have any plans to set up feeding services and I think this is primarily because this was our first trial run at seeing what the community is likely to be interested in doing.

For the future, an idea would be to put people on the street, we are already working with Radford Road Police Station to look at some of the issues with Muslim Youth in Forest Fields, there have been so many complaints and so many arrests carried out of young people involved in anti-social activity and crime that the Police Station is absolutely overrun with cases and they have approached us and said “Is there any way you can help?”so we have come up with a project, we haven't launched it officially yet, but I'll give listeners an inkling as to what it is about. The idea is that we are going to have “Imams on the Street”, the idea would be that we have people who are strong in their Iman (faith) who feel that they want to make a difference to their community and they will go out on the street and they will engage people and support them to divert them from crime and anti-social behaviour. That's our starting point and I am really fortunate to be supported by about 30 people so far, men and women, who have come forward to take a youth work qualification which we have laid on to NVQ level 2. We are appealing to these people to, when they have completed their qualification, to become part of this team of people who will go out onto the streets of Nottingham. Not just in Forest Fields but wherever this issue occurs, where Muslim youth are being led astray or going astray themselves – to interject, to make a difference in their lives.

BFTF : Why do you think this is happening now? Why not 10 or 15 years ago.

MY : Certainly 10 years ago, we didn't have the same rates of crime, anti-social behaviour and unemployment. There was a higher degree of control by families in terms of supporting their children. I think as time has gone on, certainly into the last decade, more and more people are thinking about working, the cost of living is going up, so there are lots of socio-economic factors that are affecting the make up of our community and also the impact that it is having on the different elements of the community, whether they be the elderly, middle aged parents, young people or even children. So, in some ways, to ask why this kind of work didn't happen earlier, we are reacting to current needs and maybe 10 years ago these weren't current needs.

But engagement with young people was, and maybe Karimia is in a good position to be able to boast that we were doing youth work . I can certainly remember when I was working in the local authority delivering camps at Overton Park . We would take young people and families camping and they would be able to see the countryside, some young people had never seen the countryside.

BFTF : On a slightly separate subject, I noticed that you were involved with a recent Himmah Institute “Big Supper” event, where they provided food for local homeless people. What's your perception of their work?

MY : It's interesting that you ask me that question because I was cajoled into supporting that one as well. I think that it is a very good connection by Muslim young people and I think that it is admirable that it is young people who are at the forefront of this one. The work that they have done is building bridges with organizations that wouldn't know the Muslim community and certainly they do know the Muslim community now. You know, if you maintain a clear Niyat (Intention) as to why you are doing it then it both benefits us and it benefits them. Perhaps what they should do is to have a calendar of events and invite people along to it, so if there are people out there who are thinking that they could give some time to volunteering, perhaps an hour or two, that might be an ideal way of doing it. Perhaps if they could produce such a calendar we could put it out on the airwaves.

“The Big Supper” for local homeless people

 BFTF : Lastly, could you give feel for the quality of mentoring that you and Perwaise do in the Youth Club as listeners may not be aware of everything that goes on behind the scenes.

MY : We are really keen to start supporting and helping young people achieve. As you know, Karimia Institute is about education, our mission statement says very clearly that we are about education.

We are about keeping people in education for a start. Many of our young people are beginning to find themselves in positions where they are excluded and not only that, they are not succeeding in achieving their 5 GCSE's and so were are hoping to support that education effort through our tutorial classes.

But in the Youth Club itself, that is an opportunity for youth workers, older young men and women to build a relationship with young people. So if those young people have got issues and they want to talk to someone, they should have someone who they can talk and look up to. I can remember years ago people used to organise events and I would get invited along to them and they would show an interest in me, and as a young person, I used to value that. And that is what we still need to provide – an appropriate adult who can be both a role model to young people but also show an interest and care for young people because that is what they don't have. Many of them are lacking in people who care and love them for who they are – and certainly in the Youth Club, people may think that the Youth Club is all about playing games but it's more than that, it's about building relationships with other people and if these people are building relationships in a place like a masjid (mosque) then that is phenomenal because that says that coming to the masjid is cool, its OK. So we don't need to cajole young people to come here and if they come to the Youth Club and the Azaan (call to prayer) goes then it is the norm that that they will say their Salat (prayers) and then come back to the Youth Club. We don't want to create an environment where you HAVE to go to the masjid and it has to be done with a stick – how it should be done is through love and association and the youth club provides that, and certainly the youth workers here are working with parents to address issues that the parents have identified. So if the parents are concerned and worried about their son, as has been the case – I can think of numerous examples of where people have come to see me and said “Look, I am really concerned, my son continually gets arrested by the Police and I'm really unhappy about that”. So when does he get arrested? “He gets arrested in the evenings”. So if he comes to the Youth Club he is active in those hours when he would be getting into trouble, then we are diverting him from crime.

So we are doing things that people do not see, normally. People see young people in our centre and they think “what are all these young kids doing here, running around” – well actually, they are running around in a good place, in our masjid and that is a really good thing.

Interview with Mohammed Yaseen, Director of Youth Services, Karimia Institute, on 29th June 2011 on Radio Dawn 107.6FM was originally posted here.

Emmanuel House have, quite reasonably, commented that Emmanuel have “moved away from being such a strongly Christian organization. It has a much broader base of support now.”

I read MuslimMatters articles from time to time but don't really comment on the things much. However, I felt it would be of some benefit to comment to this particular article, 'How Much Should Islamic Clergy Make?'

Allāh blessed me to be around a very good masjid that was active and firm on the Sunnah in my late teen years. The Imaam was very respected by all of us and he was there for me even at the wee hours of night if I had any problems. Masha'Allāh the community understood the importance of knowledge and taking care of the one giving out the knowledge so that he is able to dedicate 100 percent of his time to the da'wah rather than getting a side job to support himself and his family. He was our Imaam for about 5 years. We used to have regular full-fledged explanations of texts and also would invite well known shuyookh (scholars) from USA for weekend workshops every now and then. On top of that, we would also have regular tele-conferences with the scholars in Jordan, Kuwait, etc.

In those 5 years the masjid produced 4 full-time du'aat, one of them being myself Alhamdulillah. I'm finishing up my degree soon and another brother from that masjid is about half-way done at Madinah University. The Masjid was always the hub for the Muslims. Unfortunately, only in recent times have the Muslims forgotten the importance of the House of Allāh. Who wants to deal with ignorant bullies who run the Masaajid these days? That's why we find so many Masaajid across the United States that are void of duroos. They just have daily prayers, a Jumu'ah, and a terrible Sunday school structure, yet we see people flocking to these institutes because that is the only choice they have.

Alhamdulillah I've had the opportunity to visit quite a few states and universities for da'wah programs during the majority of this past decade. I've also served as an Imaam for a few Masaajid and had the privilege to work with an Islamic organization/school. I noticed a few people raised concerns that imams/teachers shouldn't be paid but should do da'wah and look after a community for free because that would prevent them from corruption. Fear of corruption is great concern, but that also applies to fame. We've seen many tullaabul'ilm change as they got more and more famous. And as Imaam Ahmad said so fittingly – the less people know you, the better. In any case, I want to share my story with you all so that you realize what extreme cases exist out there.

My father is a scientist, MashaAllāh and my entire family is very well known in my country for their wealth and education. I've seen more money in my life than any of these Masaajid in USA can “tempt” me with. Ever since I broke the news to my family that I want to become a Da'ee bi idhnillaah, and I felt I can do more for this ummah by dedicating my time to seeking knowledge and spreading it, I became the black sheep of the family. From the moment I wanted to pursue being a Da'ee full-time, I had in my mind that I will do da'wah for free since my family has so much wealth. I wanted to spend a few days a week giving time to all the various family businesses with my uncles (even though my dad thought I should forget that and da'wah and just focus on being a doctor!) and the other days giving classes at the Masjid from whatever little I knew. Qaddar Allāhu maa shaa afa'al, my family treated me like dirt and said since I'm in Allāh's path I should help expand their businesses as an act of sadaaqah towards them. After all, helping your kin is a great deed in Islam. So yea that plan didn't work out, Alhamdulillah! My father, who does not pray, thinks science is bigger than religion (may Allāh guide him) and  gave me a terrible time as I grew up. I never knew how to pray, never knew how to read one ayah from the Qur'an. It was through that Masjid that I mentioned in the beginning, that I learned how to pray, read and develop a love for Islam and more specifically the Sunnah. There were times my dad severely beat me for going to the Masjid and I would show up for the duroos severely bruised. Our Imaam would shed tears looking at me and told me no matter what happens he would always have a special kind of love for me and would give me more of his time whenever I needed it. As I grew older, obviously all that torture stopped. My parents moved back to the city where I grew up and my dad traveled a lot between the United States and other countries due to his work as he also was part of the government in the country he's from.

While visiting my mother after a couple of years, I gave a few duroos and khutbahs at a local Masjid where she lived. One of them offered me to be the Imaam for them since they had nobody. They noticed the youth really liked me and thought I would benefit them. Let me tell you briefly about this specific community. They had teens doing drugs 20 feet away from the Masjid, pre-teen girls getting pregnant by kuffaar men and fornication that happened inside the house of Allāh! The only reason why I made the move was because my mother had developed an incurable disease and her condition was terrible. I thought being with my mother and doing da'wah work is a huge chance for me to earn reward bi idhnillaah. Nevertheless, I was part of the community for approximately 1 year. For the first three months they did not pay me a penny. I complained to them that I cannot be doing this full-time and not be given anything in return. So they told me to take over a new project which was to teach kids Qur'an & Islamic studies and I'd be paid for being a teacher. I agreed. I continued to be the Imaam for free and took money for just the weekend school. They paid me $300 a month for teaching 45 kids by myself.

Alhamdulillah, I really wanted to help and I didn't care about being an Imaam for free. I wanted to make a difference in the lives of these children and young adults. The day I said in the Masjid, “Ar-Rahmaanu 'alal 'arsh istawaa” was the day I got fired. I don't know how they can call it “fired” when they never even hired me in the first place to be the Imaam. Hire would mean you pay a salary to the one designated as an Imaam but I was doing it for free! The admin started complaining that I ruined their kids,  made them into “wahabis” and that I needed to go. So their kids doing drugs and committing zina was much better for them then to have their kids learn that Allāh is above us. SubhanAllāh! To this day, children and teenagers that I taught and counseled regularly keep in touch with me through emails and tell me how much they miss me, thanking me for the help I happily and readily gave to them. Many of them still remember everything I taught them and they carried it throughout their lives growing up, mashaAllah.

While being part of that community I visited other Masaajid regularly. So after I left them, I became the Imaam at a suburban Masjid. I was the Imaam there for three years.  I faced a lot of resistance continuously from about 30 people out of 250; but the admin was on my side and Alhamdulillah, together we were able to do a lot of good in just three years. We even had to expand the Masjid to accommodate more attendees at Jumu'ah. My salary was not that great at all. I was getting $1,600/month for those three years. During that time I visited my native country to see my relatives. While I was there, my own father (who was part of the government) wanted to imprison me with the excuse that I was a fanatic. Let me be clear, I know very well that killing non-combatants, women & children is not the Islam brought by Muhammad .  He wanted to do that so I couldn't come back to the USA and continue da'wah work. He thought keeping me in prison would be the best way to make me give up the path of da'wah. Alhamdulilah, he was not successful in his malicious ways and I made it back safe to the United States.

I never complained nor ever made any demands. I did not get into this field for the money. If I loved money so much, I could have just stayed with my relatives. I was a single man. I did not have rent to pay since I was living in my parents' house so I rarely had any expenses. Rather, I lost out in something great. Marriage! I simply wasn't able to afford to get married. I got rejected by about 7-8 prospects because of my financial situation. Alhamdulillah after being patient for 7 full years trying to get married, I finally got the wife of my dreams. I was invited by the MSA of a university in New York to do a non-Muslim da'wah program. I did it, and from there I got re-invited another two times at their local Masjid. It was when I went there that a sister from the administration asked if I was married or not. So I told the sister I'm looking. She suggested the daughter of her friend for me. So I took the girl's father's number and after a month I called him up. My wife is Arab and I'm a desi, but Alhamdulillah there were no racial problems because her father told me that he does not care simply because of what my profession is. The marriage cost me an arm and a leg. Both our families wanted to have typical weddings that cost thousands & thousands. Alhamdulillah, the only good thing my dad ever did after I took this path was pay for all the wedding costs. I truly believe it was from Allāh and a reward for my efforts over the years.

My wife, mashaAllāh, understands what it means to be the wife of a da'ee extremely well. So now that I was married, obviously $1,600/month was not going to cut it. The Masjid got taken over by those same 30 people that were always being resistant to the da'wah. They played some sly games to prevent the good brothers from being re-elected. It took them three years to plan this out, but they finally were successful. They got rid of every previous member from the administration as well as me. This is the reality of typical dirty Masjid politics. After that I moved on to another Masjid. I signed a contract with them, but obviously typical Muslims don't care about any contracts. The contract was for $2000/ month. They only paid me $1,200/month. If I did not care about the image of Islam and only cared about money, I could have taken them to court and sued them for not complying with the signed contract. Instead, I made Du'aa to Allāh to remove myself from this situation and to guide the brothers to Haqq. HasbiAllāhu wa ni'mal wakeel.

I and my wife still made it by simply because we didn't have rent to pay. But my parents' house was 1 hour away from the Masjid and it was not feasible for me to travel such long distances every day. In spite of everything I still did this for 6 months. I then told them I needed a pay increase so I can afford an apartment closer to the Masjid. I never tell people about my family background because I know how people can be and what I worried about came true. One of the admins found out the wealthy state of my family and told the rest of the administration. At the next meeting, the administration told me, “Your father and family are very rich, why are you asking for a raise? Just take money from your family.” HasbiAllaahu wa ni'mal wakeel.

My mother, even though being permanently disabled, is the ONLY person in my entire family that truly understood what I do in my life. She told me that I could not live like this any longer and have to think about myself and my wife. My mother didn't know the exact details of my finances but she knew it wasn't a lot to live fairly and comfortably with a family. I made a very good relationship with a lot of youth in the city and I just didn't want to go to a different city. I knocked on my family's door again and asked him to give me my inheritance so I can do something with my wealth. That way I can do da'wah for free and not have to deal with ridiculous administrations. My father wrote off about $10-$12 million worth of property (meaning what I'm supposed to inherit from him) to my paternal cousins. He did that right in front of my eyes and then said to me – “ You're in the path of Allāh, so Allāh will take care of you, you said you live in this world for Islam so go and live your life.” To this day, I will never forget these words.

I moved to a different state and took a job with a famous Islamic organization. QaddarAllāhu maa shaa afa'al I had a big car accident which limited my mobility for more than six months. I showed up to work as much as I could. But guess what happened? I eventually had to quit because I simply could not take hearing the things I was hearing around me and even behind my back. You would expect RELIGIOUS Muslims to be more understanding. Staff members would tell my wife (not knowing whose wife she was) “this new brother that Sheikh fulaan got, he is so lazy, doesn't show up every day, doesn't deal with the youth properly, he's probably just getting the free money that he's getting.” I just couldn't go back because of the way staff members were looking at me and talking about me behind my back and criticizing me without knowing the full truth. It was not going to work out and so I had to quit on them.

There have been times where I was invited to deliver khutbahs or do weekend programs in other cities but I refused to accept the invitation because I could not even afford the gas money. I have been prevented from doing what I love to do for the sake of Allāh due to malicious games and beliefs that shuyookh and du'aat should not be paid. Where is the logic in that? In between I developed diabetes, liver problems, arthritis and few other things. No health insurance, no medication. I even had to sit helplessly at home while my wife suffered through a life threatening illness without proper medication because I could not afford it.

I summarized a lot of details in between because many people do not know the reality and the suffering a sincere Da'ee/Sheikh/Imaam/Taalibul 'ilm go through. I've been physically tortured for wanting to seek knowledge, nearly imprisoned and cut off from any family wealth for being a Da'ee, mistreated by terrible masjid administrations, wrongfully accused by the so-called religious community, insulted even by my friends — but I do not regret this life even for one second. I will never ever be able repay what Allāh has blessed me with. I do not mean repay Allāh, I mean repay society for what Allāh blessed me with. Giving me access to Shuyookh who taught me to be this way and what it truly means to follow the Salaf. No matter how much effort I put in, I will never be able to do justice in spreading Islam.

So no, I'm not in it for the money… but it is my right just like everyone else who does work to be fairly compensated. No, I will never dilute the Sunnah for a better life and to be accepted by the society. Alhamdulillah, all my physical problems are gone except for diabetes and arthritis and I know my financial difficulties will be gone very soon, too. WAllāh my dear brothers & sisters, the greatest gift you can get from this world is a spouse who truly understands the Sunnah and a mother who will constantly make du'aa for you and encourage you never to stop working for Allāh's sake. Mistreatment from people will not make me give up doing da'wa. The only sorrow I have in my life is that I was never able to convince my own father to come to just one dars that I gave and the fact that I have cousins who do not even know how many raka'aat to pray in which waqt. After marriage, Allāh gave me in-laws that are equally ignorant about the religion as my own family and added to the “headache caused by family!” I always make sure that none of my relatives nor my wife's relatives find out about my intricate financial difficulties. I firmly believe that knowing how difficult the lives of du'aat can be is not good for the hearts of those who are not serious about their deen. Shaytaan will make them think “see this is what religious people go through, you're doing great the way you are.” Allāh created man weak and most of us cannot handle too many shortages in life. It's upto the Shuyookh and du'aat to protect the weakness of people from causing them to go further away from the Deen. Learning the religion and doing something for this Ummah, no matter how small it may be, and having a wife who is not confused about the Sunnah…no bad situation can outweigh these good things. Alhamdulillah, I am able to eat and sleep at night without hearing bombs explode unlike the people of Somalia or Palestine. I'm not worried about anything except about whether my deeds will be accepted by Allāh or not.

I ask Allāh to make what I wrote a reminder to myself first and foremost about my purpose in life and to be of benefit to others.

Assalamualaikum wa Rahmaatullahi wa Baraaktuhu

Cradling steaming cups of coffee, a dozen or so committee members sit around four tables arranged in a square.

“Okay. For the Entertainment session . Any ideas?”

“What about a Muslim Family Feud?”

It gets quiet. A tiny voice asks, “What's Family Feud again?”

Groans erupt from the room. “Are you kidding me?”

Someone else responds kindly. “It's the TV game show with the surveys.”

Another committee member theatrically comments, “And the survey says!”

“OH! Give me a break. It's 7 o'clock in the morning!” Muffled chuckles ensue.

“It could help us be different than all the other conventions,” says one committee member after much thought.

“But if we're gonna have 2,000 people in the audience, it might get really rowdy.”

“True.”

“But it's definitely more entertaining than our Jeopardy idea.”

“Also true.”

Noor Suleiman's pen hovers over her convention notebook. The first page preserves the minutes of the very first convention planning meeting. It's dated January 2011. Thirteen months of intense planning later, Inspiring American Muslim Youth, or IamY, stands as a youth-led convention committee branching out for national support. Noor is IamY's meticulous secretary, and perhaps she knows better than anyone how far the committee has come. The drastic increase in action items as the convention date creeps closer is one visual indication.

Reaching a stalemate, Noor and the other committee members pause and look to Emad Hamdeh, the convention committee CEO. Only the slurps of coffee and tea are heard. “I think it's a good idea. But we'd need a really good family to make it fun. Look for two willing families that'd work.” The meeting is only two hours long, and Hamdeh knows there are still several other things to discuss. He pauses briefly for any objections and then plows on. “Alright, the next thing…”

By The Youth about Youth Issues

The two day family convention will begin on Saturday, March 17 and end Sunday afternoon. Located near what was once known as Giants Stadium, the IamY convention will take place at the Meadowlands Sheraton Hotel in East Rutherford, NJ. With a powerhouse line-up of speakers, an appearance by the Deen Show, an Art Gallery and Auction, bazaar, and a full-fledged separate babysitting program, IamY seeks to be an unforgettable convention.

Emad Hamdeh, the youth director of New Jersey's Islamic Center of Passaic Country, first proposed the idea in March 2011 as a way to provide Tri-state youth with a challenging project of their own. Inspired by ICNA, ISNA, and other conventions, he understood that organizing an event of this magnitude would require community members who exhibited commitment, responsibility, and, most importantly, concern for the Muslim ummah to take on the task. Despite a slow start, things soon picked up pace and committee members began to contact scholars, brainstorm potential themes, and procure a venue. But the journey wasn't without its setbacks. Originally planning for an audience of 5,000, the committee had to downsize because the venues just weren't big enough in the appropriate area.

“It was kind of dissappointing, but alhamdillah, we got through,” says Bayan Abbasi, IamY Speaker Liason. Abbasi juggles full time college coursework while simultaneously working for IamY. When asked why she'd spend her time scrambling after speakers, arranging registration drives, and giving up Saturday mornings, she says, “Every moment I have is blessing from Allah , if I don't spend it this way, what other way is there?”

The rest of the team are also college students with their own set of responsibilities and commitments, but they all heartily agreed to receive an endless stream of e-mails, attend innumerable early morning meetings, and deal with the many setbacks that inevitably come along the way. What the IamY committee lacks in experience, it makes up for with its unwavering determination and contagious enthusiasm.

Significance of IamY

Hamdeh stresses the significance of IamY as an entirely youth-organized endeavor.  When asked about his motive behind spear-heading IamY, he answered, “It's time that the youth take the initiative and lead the community.  This convention is an outlet for the youth to have their issues highlighted, as they see fit.  Most conventions have separate parallel programs for youth, while others attend the regular convention. IamY seeks to bridge the gap and have the entire community and family focus on important issues youth face.  The youth have a lot of energy, creativity, and zeal. I decided to channel that to create a project that will have a positive outcome.”  True to his word, Hamdeh leaves much of the decision-making for the convention in the hands of those less than the age of 25.

Committee members know first-hand the challenges Muslim Americans face growing up in the United States post 9/11. Many of the student organizers hope to utilize the convention, the invited speakers, and the addressed topics as a way to answer their own burning questions about their faith. What are our duties as both citizens of the United States and as Muslims? Is there a clash between the two? The convention theme is fittingly, “My Identity, My Tomorrow.” Their message is clear. Without knowing who one is, there really can be no future. And if the youth have no future, where does that leave the Muslim community?

An important component of IamY is the “trickle-down effect” they hope to create.  The name, “Inspiring American Muslim Youth” reflects the organization's mission and vision.  Through their convention, IamY seeks to empower Muslim youth as leaders in their individual communities in both the religious and public realm so that they may “inspire” others.  A chain reaction results and an abundance of benefit flows into communities across the nation. After all, communities are built up of societies, and societies are built of families. By reaching out to families and educating them about the different dilemmas that plague their children, IamY hopes to rejuvenate the Muslim community and ultimately pave the way for a brighter, more successful future.

With less than a month until opening day, the excitement is palpable amongst organizers and convention registrants alike. IamY committee members labor tirelessly to finalize all the details and crank up advertising. Though feedback from the community has mostly been positive, some have complained about the timing. Many people, however, can be seen talking energetically about the convention and the powerhouse speakers who are invited. Some generous community members have already offered to volunteer as security guards, baby-sitters, and aids during the convention. Indeed, a lot of work awaits the IamY committee as March 17th nears.  However, the community's increasing enthusiasm as speaker and entertainer details are released propels the committee to ensure the convention is as enjoyable and educational experience as expected!

Slate raised the issue of the salaries of religious clergy highlighting salaries of Priests and Rabbis. Data about Imam salaries was (un)surprisingly hard to find.

The topic of imams' salaries is for some reason a touchy one, but it is not a complicated issue if approached objectively. We have previously discussed what to look for when hiring an imam. Communities though, set extremely high expectations of what they want.

If those qualifications and expectations were to be put on someone in any other working environment, I would venture to guess the salary discussion would start somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000 a year.

If your community wants a Superman imam, then they need to be ready to pay a Superman salary.

Aside from that, an imam should be assessed by any other normal scale. Check a person's qualifications. Someone with a Master's in Islamic Law and 15 years experience leading a community should command a higher pay than a fresh graduate with no experience. Most masjids though, just have a set amount that they throw at whoever fills the position regardless of qualification.

Along with qualification there needs to be a built in growth mechanism (or career advancement). As the imam gains tenure in the community, the salary should be raised accordingly based on their performance [something ideally settled on in the interview process].

The problem that we run into is we want imams who will give 80 hours a week, but be paid based on 20. In our secular fields, if we have a 4 or 6 year degree, we expect a certain minimum salary to be commensurate with our experience and education. For some reason, we feel this does not apply to imams as if studying Islam and serving or leading a community do not really count.

If we need someone to spend 30-40 hours a week in the masjid, provide 10-20 hours a week of counseling, and on top of that be constantly on-call for marriages, funerals, and other emergencies, then a pay structure should be built to reflect that. Regular jobs that have such requirements will either pay high enough that they can make someone salaried and they will deal with the hours, or there are incentives built in (overtime and on-call pay).

Unfortunately, not only are we not there yet, but we don't even offer the most basic of benefits yet such as healthcare and reimbursements for education and development. The fact that Slate could so readily collect salary data from the Jewish and Christian communities, but had no starting point for the Muslim community speaks volumes about how far behind we are.

If we truly want community leaders who lead us in prayer, deliver the khutbah on Fridays, counsel our families, and teach our children then it behooves us to make sure they are so well paid that they never have to worry about money. Buy them a house and pay them a full time salary on top of it. We need to take the benefits of a corporate pay structure and apply it to the masjid – with one huge caveat. We cannot adopt the ruthlessness and attitude that people are dispensable that permeates corporate leadership. These are our community leaders, the people we have entrusted our spiritual education to – make sure they are taken care of.

I personally feel that the imam position should be a 6 figure income (adjusted according to cost of living and so on). Smaller communities should still aim to pay at least 50-60 (if not closer to 80). These are simply rough numbers, but I want to throw them out there and move our communities past the expectation that we get tenured scholars who are on the same paygrade (or less) than most entry level positions.

Many communities are still living in a naive reality where they expect an Imam to take a pay of 30-40k just because they are “working for Islam” without any regard to supporting their family. Then we get upset when they take a second job to make ends meet, insisting instead that they dedicate their time to the community. In our non-Islamic professions we aim to secure the highest salary possible and feel insulted if someone offers less than our worth. Let's stop doing that to our community leaders.

We don't live in a Muslim country where there are endowments and government grants to support our scholars. Our communities have the money. Fund-raising is not the problem. We just need to understand that our investment in human resources should take precedence over our investment in architectural ones.

Epilogue

In the 2 days since posting this article on muslimsi.com, there has been an outpouring of feedback via comments, Facebook shares, and even personal emails. Based on that feedback I felt it important to highlight a few points.

Most obviously, this is an extremely contentious issue in our community, and it is one that must be resolved in a way that allows our communities to grow and move forward.

When it comes to opposing higher pay (or even pay altogether) for Imams, it comes from a few very specific perspectives. First is the view that people who do Islamic work should not be paid at all (a view that I feel is naive and somewhat ignorant). Second is the view that if an Imam is paid, then it means he must be a perfect human being, or at worst, be like one of the Sahabah in all his actions. Third is the view that if a board pays an Imam, then it means they somehow have total ownership of him.

In all these cases, the root of the problem is a lack of respect for the scholars and community leaders of our ummah. They are not perfect, but if they don't guide us, who will? Our responsibility as community members is to help them grow, because the more that they grow, the better equipped they are to lead our communities. Instead, we find masjids that are expecting one of the khulafā' al-rashīdūn to magically come and lead their masjid (and do so for a minimum wage salary at that). Many of our boards have yet to realize that the job description of an Imam in America is vastly different from what an imam does in nearly any other country in the world. The expectations we put on them are herculean to say the least.

This lack of respect comes from not understanding what function the Imam plays in the community. 99% of the people will never see the hours of marital counseling, family counseling, and late night phone calls that imams have to yield. They'll never see the people who randomly walk into the masjid at odd hours dealing with drug abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sometimes worse trying to find help from the imam. They won't see the hours of work that will go into preparing a 45-minute halaqah that is then only attended by 10 people.

Our communities are growing rapidly, and with that growth comes new problems and new situations that we must deal with. If we want to live our lives in a way pleasing to Allah, then it is imperative we supply our communities with people capable of leading them and helping us deal with those problems. I find instead that many masjids treat their imams even more ruthlessly than the worst of corporations, not realizing the need the community has for spiritual leadership. They nitpick at them in ways that make it appear as if they consider themselves to be angelic.

Aside from the arguments resulting from a lack of respect, the only other issue is money. I do not think money is an issue. In some smaller communities, it will be, and they'll have to work through it. But I cannot fathom how seemingly every other masjid has multi-million dollar blueprints and expansion plans, but they can't afford to invest in quality human resources. This is a joke. Without proper human resources, we will just have empty (but beautiful) structures. Put the money where it's needed most.

One of the most promising developments I have seen is that there is a surge of people who want to serve this deen full time. They want to study Islam, they want to work for the community full time. But they are held back. Their parents will not stand for them taking a career in the service of Islam and instead push them into other professions. Now it may be easy to criticize a parent and say they are being short-sighted or materialistic, but I do not think that is the case at all. I think most parents have seen the way our communities treat Imams – the most telling sign of which is their low salary (as the saying goes, “put your money where your mouth is”) – and they do not want their children to have to face that.

If our masajid do not get their acts together on this issue, then we are planting a destructive seed that will prevent our development of sustainable scholarship in this country.

(Note: Muslim Kids Matter is a monthly feature at Muslim Matters. You're welcome to send in your entries to muslimkidsmatter@muslimmatters.org!)

__________________________________________________________

I've been working on a project for kids to enjoy learning about the Qur'an and Ahadith.

Last Saturday was the first day of the Learning the Deen Class at the Zakat Foundation Community Center for this January/February session. The students from grades 3-5 (and one second-grader) were very attentive and enthusiastic during the class. I was surprised that they could learn the meaning of the ayahs in Surah Fatiha so quickly.

I told the students that their goal should be to get 100 points so that they could get a prize from the Treasure Box.  By memorizing the meanings of the ayahs, Ahadith, completing worksheets, completing Challenge Projects, and other such activities, they can get points. They also each have their own username and password with which they can go to the online website for the Learning the Deen class and can see their grades and points.

The students found the class more interesting and interactive because they could see their lists of weekly homework assignments there and they had fun taking the online quizzes.  The online quizzes were great learning tools for the students and is aimed to help them  study for their tests easily.

Even kids who don't live in Delaware and can't physically attend the class can still participate.  If you're interested in taking this free class, you can email me at nrkose@gmail.com and I'll send you the information as well as the worksheets you will need to participate in the class.  You may also send me your completed homework assignments and I'll grade them for you.

Learning the Deen Class Website:

www.wix.com/nrkose/learningthedeenl

Here is a sample worksheet from the class:

___________________________________________________

Using Lessons from Surah Fatiha in Our Daily Lives

Read the following paragraphs and answer the questions that follow:

“Sparkles!” Hafsa exclaimed when she entered her room.  “What did you do?”

Her pet cat purred and jumped up, paws dancing in the air.

“Bad Kitty!” Hafsa shouted when she saw what Sparkles had done.  “You ruined my favorite doll.  You're the worst cat in the whole world!  I don't want to take care of you anymore.”  With that Hafsa picked Sparkles up and put her in the hallway.  She slammed the door shut and locked it even though she knew there was no way Sparkles could open the door.

1.      What did Hafsa do wrong?

________________________________________________________________________________________

2.      What do you think she should have done instead?

__________________________________________________________________________________________

3.      What ayah or Hadith would you tell Hafsa to explain to her what she did was wrong?

__________________________________________________________________________________________

“Finally!” Hamza exclaimed.  “Thank you so much!”  He excitedly took the wrapped package from his elder brother and ripped off the wrapping paper.  He had been waiting to get this remote control car for so months and his brother had finally saved up enough money to buy it for him.

“Red?!” Hamza groaned.  “I wanted a blue one!”  He threw the remote control box onto the floor and stormed out of the room.

1.      What did Hamza do wrong?

_________________________________________________________________________________________

2.      What do you think he should have done instead?

_________________________________________________________________________________________

3.      What ayah or Hadith would you quote to him to tell him what he did was wrong?

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Khadijah angrily stormed into her room and slammed the door shut behind her.  Why did she always have to say mean things to her little brother and make him cry?  She hadn't meant to say anything but the words just spilled out.

“I hate you Shaytaan!” she exclaimed.  “You always tell me to do bad things.  Why do you tell me to do bad things?  Why can't you just leave me alone?”  She kicked her foot hard against the side of her bed and threw a pillow across the room.

1.      What did Khadijah do wrong?

____________________________________________________________________________________________

2.      What do you think she should have done instead?

____________________________________________________________________________________________

3.      What ayah or Hadith would you quote to her to tell her what she did was wrong?

____________________________________________________________________________________________

I've been having as much fun as the kids in preparing the worksheets, making the website look fun, and teaching them special things about the Qur'an.  I hope lots of other kids will join too, Insha'Allah.
- Nur

Domestic Violence Series: A Hidden Evil and Muslim Communities

An Imam's Guide to dealing with Domestic Violence

Psychological Tsunami: Effects of Domestic Abuse
 

By Shaykh Joe Bradford

First Half of Khutbah
God says:
“And we wrote in the Psalms (zabur), after having sent down the Torah, that “the righteous will inherit the earth”; in this is a message for the worshipful; and we have sent you only as a mercy to all of creation.” [Sūrah al-Anbiyā: 105-108]

The Messenger of God was mercy to all of creation; to Muslim and non-Muslim; to young and old; to man and woman; to adult and child. He exemplified for us merciful acts and how to realize God's mercy in our lives. He guided us to the etiquette and ethics of all we need to gain salvation in this life and the next, through submission to the word and command of God and realizing his word in our daily lives.

Was this mercy unrestricted? Was his mercy and compassion unregulated, so much that he allowed for everyone to do anything without consequence, without speaking out against injustice and wrong?

There were, on a few occasions, instances where some people had transgressed so far that the Prophet gave up on them, supplicating to God to handle them.

Here are a few examples:

a) While in Makkah, the Quraysh would harass the Prophet and throw animal remains on his back, he supplicated “Oh God, deal with Quraysh.” [1]

b) The Messenger sent a letter to Khusro, emperor of Persia, inviting him to Islam. He tore it up, so the Prophet supplicated “They will be torn apart as a nation.” [2]

c) Due to the high level or transgression, aggression, torture and enmity shown by some of the leaders of Quraysh, the Prophet supplicated against them saying “Oh God deal with Abū Jahl; deal with `Utbah ibn Rabīah; and Shaybah ibn Rabīah; and al-Walīd ibn `Utbah; and Umayyah ibn Khalaf; and Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayt.” [3]

How many of us want to take the chance?

How many of us would like to place ourselves in the shoes of Khusro, Abū Jahl, `Utbah, Shaybah, al-Walīd ibn `Utbah, and Umayyah ibn Khalaf?

How many of us could deal with knowing that the Messenger of God, whose supplications are accepted by default, has supplicated against us?

How many of us would be comforted to know that due to our own transgressions have become so despicable that the man entrusted by God himself to establish God's will on earth has called upon the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth to deal personally with us?

I'll tell you of one such man:

`Alī ibn Abī Tālib narrated that the wife of a man in Madīnah came to the Messenger of God, complaining of her husband. The Messenger of God heard her case, and said to her: “Go back and tell him that I am in the Messenger of God's protection”. So she went back, and after some time she came back to the Messenger saying “He hasn't stopped/Hasn't left me alone”. At this, the Messenger of God took his shirt and cut a piece off of it, gave it to the woman, and said “Go back to him and tell him that the Messenger of God said: This is a piece of my shirt.” (as evidence and a summons so that he could be tried for his actions) She left and later returned saying “Oh Messenger of God! He only beat me more!” He then raised his hands and supplicated:“Oh God, deal with Walīd! Oh God, deal with Walīd! Oh God, deal with Walīd!” [4]

How many of us could deal with knowing that the Messenger of God, whose supplications are accepted by default, has supplicated against us?

That we, due to our own transgressions, have become so despicable that the Prophet had given up on us and called upon God himself to deal with us?

Domestic Abuse is a reality in our communities, it is not something that affects non-Muslims alone, but all of humanity.

Did you know?

- Around the world at least one woman in every three has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Most often the abuser is a member of her own family.

- Twelve million women (25% of the female population) will be abused in their lifetime.

- Up to 35% of women and 22% of men presenting to the emergency department have experienced domestic violence.

Abuse is not exclusive to one gender, age group, ethnicity, or national origin. But it is an issue that we as a community must come to terms with, and must not tolerate.

There are many types of abuse, and many of you may be saying “The vast majority of us have never inflicted physical, emotional, or verbal abuse, never will, and can never imagine it.” Some of you may even think that this message has no weight. But it does, because like it or not we have people that frequent our congregations that abuse their families. And if, Alhamdulillah, you are not one of those people, it is your responsibility to take this message today to others and help to prevent abuse before it occurs.

Physical Abuse

When speaking on physical abuse, some of you may be saying to yourselves “I have license to do such a thing”; i.e. that mentioned in the verse 4:34.

I don't want to get into too many specifics about that verse, or even quote it here. But let's be honest, you won't find abusive people thumbing through the Qur'ān and ḥadīth to find out what he or she should or should not be doing before they lash out at their loved ones. You will find them trying to justify their actions afterwards by misapplying this verse.

Abusive people are not following God's guidance, and are certainly not following the injunctions in the verse to advise, then to separate, so-on and so-forth. But to prevent any further misuse of this verse, let's make it clear, authorities on the Qur'ān have read this verse in three ways:

1. Some held that this verse means for a man to show he is angry to his wife, nothing more. This is the explanation made by `Atā, one of the greatest scholars of the Quran. [5]

2. Others state that what God permitted in 4:34 was only after a series of conditions are met as a way of restricting already rampant abusive behavior.

3. Another restricts that to only those that have state authority to reprimand and penalize its citizenry. Just as the only person that will apply the law to men are the state authorities, the same goes with applying this verse to women. The verse, read contextually with those before and after it, point to this.

In short, arguments can be made for days on end as to which of these positions is more correct. The real test of this verse is what we as believers are going to do with it. In other words, what responsibility will you take for your actions when situations like this occur? How will we react?

Regardless of interpretation one thing is clear: those that are abusive are not in line with any of these three readings of the verse. Can anyone actively abusing a loved one honestly say that they have fulfilled any of the stipulations above?

Let's be honest with ourselves, the answer is no. Had they been, they would have sought counsel beforehand, and the problem would not have escalated.

Other forms of Abuse

While many of us may have not committed physical abuse, we have, however committed lower levels of abuse. By neglecting our loved one's needs, by raising our voices at home and not holding back anger, or by being demeaning and being condescending when speaking to our family members.
These constitute domestic abuse as well, and they embolden the anger and resentment within us to build up to the point where few who had never imagined that they would, will commit the unimaginable.

Let me ask the men in the room: If I were to tie you down in a chair, and say all of the worst things to you, things that I won't mention on the Minbar, then spit in your face, what would you want to do to me?

Let's say that you were pulled over by the police, and the policeman said the same to you. You would probably want to deck him, but you wouldn't; you'd show restraint. Why is it easy for you to restrain yourself with those that have no relation to you, but not with those that you love? These are honest questions that you have to ask yourself.

Verbal Abuse

The Prophet warned of verbally abusing each other, and our families have the most right to be safe from our tongues.
He (ṣallallāhu `alayhi wa-sallam) said: “Whoever says to his brother “Oh Kāfir”, then its applies to at least one of them.” [6]

He (ṣallallāhu `alayhi wa-sallam) also said “To curse a believer is like murdering him.” [7]

Because of this danger, he also said “Whoever preserves that between his jaws will have paradise.” [8]

Is not calling someone a disbeliever a form of verbal abuse? Why then do we use the term “kāfir” to refer to our loved ones when they do something that we feel is improper or un-Islamic? Why do we hear about men calling their wives prostitutes, or mothers and fathers using that word to refer to their daughters? Is this not verbal abuse? Would you like for people to refer to you in this way?

Emotional Abuse

We all know of the story of two of the Sahabah, one of whom his wife was distraught and in a bad physical and mental shape; the Prophet informed this women's husband: “Your body has rights, your Lord has rights, your guests have rights, your family has rights; given everyone that has a right their due.” [9]
At times we say and do things, even if we are doing something that is correct, that can cause neglect to be shown to those that we are entrusted with caring for.

Remember: Prevention is better than cure

The Prophet said “The worst of people are those that are quick to anger, but slow to self-correct.” [10]

He (ṣallallāhu `alayhi wa-sallam) also said “The best of acts is to cause another Muslim to feel joy.” [11]; can we say that the opposite is true then, that the one of the worst acts is to cause another Muslim to be depressed and sad?

He (ṣallallāhu `alayhi wa-sallam) said “The strong amongst you is not one of physical strength; the strong is the person who restrains themselves when angry.” [12]

Allāh praises restraint saying:

“Race to forgiveness from your Lord, and paradise; the expanse of which is like the heavens and earth; prepared for the believers. Those that spend in hardship and ease; restrain their anger; and they forgive the people. And God love those that strive for excellence.” [Sūrah Āl-`Imrān: 133-134]

May God make us from those that strive for excellence, restrain our anger, and respect our families.

Second half of Khutbah:

God says:
“We presented the trust to the Heavens, the earth, and the mountains; but they refused to carry it; frightened by the responsibility. But instead Man carried it; he was iniquitous and very ignorant.” [Sūra al-Aḥzāb: 72]

The Qur'ān calls human responsibility “the Trust.” God offered the Trust to all of creation, but only we as human beings agreed to carry it. The burden of this Trust is that we have the ability to create and destroy; we have the free-will that not even the Angels are endowed with, whom we can choose to be higher than in our character. We can as well, be as hard-headed and stubborn as a rock, or as low and detestable as a beast.

The Prophet said that for “Every person who betrays his trusts, a banner will be placed for him on the Day of Judgment, as long as his betrayal…” [13]

Our families are trusts from God, trusts that we cannot betray; once the Prophet got word that some people were beating their wives, he declared “Those are not the best of you”. He asked his congregation once “How is it that one of you can beat your wife, like an animal … then go and try to cozy up to her?” [14]

I want to remind you all of a very important point; that for these reasons and more, scholars of Islamic law have said that a person is innocent until proven guilty in everything, except physical abuse. If a woman brings proof of abuse against her husband, he is tasked with disproving that evidence, not the other way around.

As a community, both as leaders and lay people, we have a responsibility to ensure that those entrusted in our care are not abused. We can't hide the realities of abuse when they are known. The Prophet clearly would not hide such things; Fatima bint Qays came to him seeking his advice on marriage. She said that Muawiyah and Abū Jahm had both proposed to her. The Messenger of God told her “As for Muawiyah, he is poor and has no money; as for Abū Jahm, then he is a wife-beater; marry Usāmah instead.” [15]

Abuse is not the only thing that we need to stop; as we said prevention is better than cure. Sometimes when warning signs present themselves, we must be proactive, when the signs appear, in curbing even possible abuse.

One example of the past was family strife. This was enough to disqualify one man from his position of power.

One of `Umar ibn Al-Khattāb's employees came to him one day, finding him lying on his back, with his children playing around him. He became angry and told them to stop. `Umar said to him: “How are you with your family?” He replied: “When I come in the house those talking go silent!” `Umar said to him “You are officially fired; if you can't show compassion to your own wife and children, how can I expect you to do so with the Ummah of Muḥammad?” [16]

So I ask in closing, which of us…

… is strong enough to hold back his anger?

…is strong enough to fight his own soul instead of his spouse?

Who from amongst us can strive to be the best of us, and not act like a beast?

And if we cannot achieve that, if we can't prevent ourselves from such injustice, then we have ask ourselves:

“If the Prophet were to supplicate saying “Oh God, you deal with him” would you have anywhere to run to, and anywhere to hide from in this life or the next?

Closing Du`a

Oh Allāh forgive us our sins, and our transgressions, pardon our lapses, and make us from amongst the guided.

Oh Allāh give us happy lives, vibrant livelihoods, and make us couples whom between them is mercy and tranquility, and guide us to the best of practices.

Oh Allāh pardon those who have repented to you, and have turned away from abuse, and sought your forgiveness.

Oh Allāh, those who refuse to cease from their abuse, and do not repent, then deal with them.

Oh Allāh deal with those that transgress against their spouses and children, those that have transgressed your boundaries, and sinned against you.

Those that have harmed your servants and betrayed their trusts.

Oh Allāh forgive us all, Muslim men and women, believing men and women, and make us from those that abide by your commands, and follow the guidance of your Messenger.

References

[1] Narrated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim from Ibn Mas`ūd.

[2] Narrated by al-Bukhārī from Ibn `Abbās.

[3] Narrated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim from Ibn Mas`ūd.

[4] Narrated by al-Bazzār with this wording, aṭ-Ṭabarī declaring this isnād authentic. Al-Bukhārī declared a similar wording authentic in his Juz' Raf' al-Yadayn.

[5] See the Aḥkām al-Qur'ān of Ibn al-`Arabī.

[6] Narrated by al-Bukhārī from Ibn `Umar.

[7] Narrated by al-Bukhārī from Thābit ibn Dahhāk.

[8] Narrated by al-Bukhārī from Sahl ibn Sa'd.

[9] Narrated by al-Bukhārī from Wahb ibn `Abdullāh.

[10] From the ḥadīth of Abū Saīd al-Khudrī as in al-Amālī al-Mutlaqah. Ibn Ḥajar declared it ḥasan. A similar narration is found in at-Tirmidhī which he declared ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.

[11] From the ḥadīth of `Abdullāh ibn `Umar, Al-Albānī declared it ḥasan li ghayrihī in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhib.

[12] Narrated by al-Bukhārī from Abū Hurayrah.

[13] Narrated by Muslim from the ḥadīth of Abū Saīd.

[14] Narrated by al-Bukhārī from `Abdullāh ibn Zam'ah.

[15] Narrated by Muslim from Fatima bint Qays.

[16] Mentioned in Kitāb al-Mustatraf

Printable pdf attached

The month that we have sought out all year is here! Insha'Allah we prepared ourselves, our families and our homes to maximize the blessing of Ramadan. However, unlike stocking our refrigerators, preparing our mosques for non-Muslim visitors and members of the Media are essential tasks that we often neglect. Here are some easy last-minute steps!

Public relations is all about positively managing relationships. As you read this, please adopt the vantage point of a non-Muslim who has never been to your center. Walk yourself step by step in their shoes, starting with googling the local Muslim community, their attempts at calling the local mosques, their commute, parking, signage (especially at the entrance and in lobby area), what might happen when they enter the building, what they will do while they are there and how will the visit be concluded.

The following are key items to consider.

Section 1 – Correspondence before a visit:

Many Islamic centers fail horribly in their phone and email communication. However, the good news is technology is on your side! Create a system to respond to incoming calls and e-mails in a timely manner. Few things can be more frustrating than trying to schedule a visit at a Muslim community center, so let's streamline this as much as we can.

We have all had the experience; you know, calling a mosque and one of several things happens or fails to happen:

1)      The phone rings FOREVER! During normal business hours it is inexcusable to not have a live person answering the phone, let alone a functioning voicemail system.

2)      The receptionist is a “chacha” (uncle) or an auntie with little to no command of the English language! Nothing says welcome to the center like a complete failure to communicate.

3)      The person who answers the phone is rude!

4)      You are put on hold FOREVER

5)      You are told that you are going to be transferred … and you get the dial tone!

Enter Google Voice (it's free) or any service for that matter, just make sure that you have the following:

1)      A clear greeting. If you say Asalaam Alaikum or Ramadan Mubarak, then you have to translate it too. OK, OK, May God's Peace be with you and May you have the blessings of Ramadan.

2)      Ask the caller to leave their number; this tells them you are responsive and that you care that they called.

3)      Ask them to state why they called; this will help you prioritize your responses.

4)      List the hours of operation and any special instructions for guests or first time visitors. Try to put visitors at ease by helping them know what to expect and that visitors ARE welcome. Be sure to include Iftar (fast-breaking meal) details (explain what it is) and prayer times.

5)      Include an assurance that you will call them back within __X__ hours/days

6)      Finish by thanking them and listing your website address with the language of: Visit us online at www.yourlocalislamiccenter.com

NOTE: The same information should be posted on a “Visit Us” page on your website. It would be even better to have a “Schedule Your Visit” form that would e-mail you appointments and group details.

7)      Lastly, set up a call forwarding service that you can turn off and on when needed. This will allow staff or volunteers to take calls remotely. A good service will show that the call was originally for the mosque, alerting the answerer to use the appropriate greeting. This is important during emergency situations or when a high priority call is expected.

8)      Whoever is trusted with answering the phones should always keep a pen and notepad with them.

Section 2 – Create a welcoming committee:

Imagine that all you know about Islam and Muslims is what you've seen online and on cable news. Then, Allah (God) inspires you to visit a mosque and you get past the website, email and telephone issues. So you drive to the center and (if there is no welcoming committee) one of two scenarios are likely:

Situation #1 No one is there! The door was unlocked. So you hesitantly go inside, call out a questioning “hello?” and it just echoes. You look around, no information table, no sign that says “Welcome,” no community bulletins and no visitor sign-in sheet. In many cases, it is just a hallway with a bunch of dusty bookshelves serving as shoe racks and a bunch of random fliers for events that have already taken place in random and haphazard stacks. Then you notice doors to a big, empty but carpeted space and the only signs you see says “No Shoes.” Next to those doors you see a bathroom and you think to yourself… did I enter in the backdoor?

Situation #2 No one who is there works there! You walk in, and no one smiles. (We won't touch what might happen if a woman entered a door designated as the men's entrance.) Then, no one greets you. Next it becomes clear that there is no plan to accommodate visitors and you find out very quickly that you are in the way and disrupting people's schedules.

* NOTE: Of course there are millions of alternatives on how an unannounced visitor could play out; it may even be a very positive experience, but why risk it? Having a welcoming community that plans for visitors is a proactive, low cost way to get your community members involved in the center's success. That old saying — you only get one chance to make a first impression — is true, so let's put our best foot forward insha'Allah. Just ask yourself how you would like to be treated if you were a visitor at someone else's house of worship and then make it happen.

The Basics of a Great Welcoming Committee:

A great welcoming committee should be made up of friendly and knowledgeable Muslims and Muslimahs (Muslim women). At least one person should be “on duty” during operational hours (anytime the building is open to the public), but at a bare minimum you should have someone ready for visitors during events and community functions like tarawih (night prayers). These people need to have enough standing in the community that they could manage other community members' reactions while showing visitors around.

Example: Enter that one brother who wants to ask every non-Muslim he meets controversial questions… before he even knows their names. Your welcome committee members must be able to shut someone like this down politely and have the full support of the Imam and the mosque board.

They should be friendly, dress appropriately, have a good command of English and should be knowledgeable enough to defer difficult questions to the Imam and to admit that they don't know the answer to every question. Most importantly they must be passionate about Islam AND be well-adjusted and happy people!

Tools for the Welcoming Committee:

Printed Materials:

Have some materials about the center, Islam and Ramadan ready to offer. For printed materials about the center, be sure to use lots of photos. A simple tri-fold will serve the purpose. It should feature some historical information like when the center was founded or when it was built, what services are offered, how many attendees it currently has, include any distinguishing features or interesting facts and be sure to highlight some biographical information about the Imam and other community leaders to help humanize the center and finish by listing the website, phone number and hours of operation.

Dress Codes & Clothing:

Have a stock of extra hijabs (scarves) and clothes to offer if a visitor indicates that they feel self-conscious about the clothing they are wearing. If the center has a dress code, it should be posted and clearly visible and well thought through. Any dress code should be consistently applied and should feature minimum requirements for both males and females. You do not want to ask a non-Muslim to take on special clothing requirements and then have them see Muslims who are dressed less modestly than they are at the center. Make these items gifts. Let the person know that it is/will be theirs so they do not have to worry about hygiene. Do not force women to wear a scarf or other clothing except in extreme circumstances. 99% of the time people who will come to the mosque will be open minded and will appreciate and want to adhere to the social norms. Your guidance before visitors arrive will be crucial; people generally do not want to cause offense, especially once they arrive and are in a public setting. How we treat non-Muslim visitors will reverberate throughout the community.

Space reserved for visitors in the center and in the prayer hall:

TRUE STORY: I once was asked to make sure that no non-Muslim females entered the prayer hall if it was that time of the month during their visit!

Create a designated space for your guests. Make it a space that is not distracting for the congregation and that is also respectful of the visitors. Do not make them feel like they were shoved into a dusty corner or are being hidden from the people. Have easy-to-set-up chairs and people to answer their questions, explain rituals or even to translate, if needed, during a lecture.

TIP: Nearly everyone loves kids, so find a way to have a young Muslim child offer them something even if it is just a greeting and a smile.

Have a security and/or parking team:

Train your security and parking teams to direct people who look lost or confused to the lobby or other location where a welcoming committee member can meet them. If you are expecting guests, your security and parking teams need to know. At all times they need to know who is on the welcoming committee and who from the committee is on call at that time so they can instruct the visitors to them.

While we are on the subject of parking, take steps to be more courteous to your neighbors. This is especially important if the mosque is in a residential area. Let them know in advance when you expect a lot of traffic.

TRUE STORY: A few years back a pretty large mosque in North Texas had its first candidate forum. The major politicians for each race showed up and as did the invited non-Muslim neighbors. The event was a big success, the mosque was packed and at least half of the attendees were non-Muslims. During the Q&A session, the first question was given to a little elderly blue-haired lady who stood up, and in front of everyone asked: “How come you all are so uncivilized that you park in my yard every Friday?”

Section 3 – The Media:

With the current climate surrounding Islam and Muslims in America, the upcoming presidential elections, the 24-hour news cycle and the 10 year memorial of Sept. 11^th just around the corner, this Ramadan may present more than the normal potential for members of the media to drop by unannounced. For all visitors to your center, sections 1 and 2 above are important. However, for visitors from the mass media, who will be seeking to film your center, interview your staff and your community members and then publish or broadcast what they recorded at your center, the following steps are vital.

1)      Always have one person who can make decisions for the mosque or community center on site during events.

2)      Train your receptionist/administrator on how to handle a call from the media. More here.

3)      Train your parking and security teams for the arrival of media professionals. When they are expected have designated parking spaces for them.

TIP: make sure that no one will double-park behind them, or any visitor for that matter. Media professionals live by tight schedules and have to be able to move on quickly.

4)      Know the difference between speaking to a member of the media and being in an interview with the media. Never start answering questions without a clear understanding of the situation. Remember that all mics are always on!

5)      Know the difference between a community member speaking and a representative of the Islamic center speaking. A community member only represents themselves. At most, a community member can be seen as voicing popular sentiment. A verifiable representative of the Islamic center has a title and authority to speak on behalf of the congregation even if acting alone. You cannot prevent a willing community member from talking to the press but you can clarify who and what that person represents.

6)      Know your scope. As a local mosque, you represent your local constituents. Do not exceed your mandate, and never speak for a group larger than you really represent.

7)      Be honest.

8)      Send a thank you note for accurate and positive coverage.

Again, this was written to cover common issues and simple steps that can be implemented fairly quickly. If you have specific questions, feel free to ask them below in the comments. I will only publish questions that I believe will benefit the majority of our readers, but I will try to respond to specific questions via e-mail.

JazakAllahu Khairan and may Allah help us to improve ourselves and the image of Islam and Muslims.  Ameen.

Seeking well qualified Imam for our masjid in the middle of nowhere. New facility with 50 families. Seeking an Imam with the following qualifications:

• PhD. in Islamic Studies
• Bachelor's from American university
• Fluent in English, Arabic, and Urdu
• Charismatic khateeb (preferably with lots of popular videos on YouTube)
• 15 years of Imam experience
• Can serve as principal of Islamic school
• Can increase youth involvement
• Teach children how to read Quran
• Teach Sunday School
• Perform weekly halaqahs
• Provide around the clock marital and family counseling
• Leads Tarawih with a voice that sounds like a CD recording
• Accounting, janitorial, and website building experience is a plus
• Superman cape is optional.

So what is a more realistic way to figure out who is qualified to be the masjid imam, or community leader? That's the question we tackled in Muslim Strategic Initiative's Part 2 of Conversations About Masjid Leadership – Finding the Right Imam [for Part 1, click here: The Role of the Masjid].

Check out the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Our Muslim community first faced a crisis of survival – when the first wave of immigrants rose to the challenge and established institutions such as Masjids, community centers, and Islamic schools. The new crisis we face is one of relevancy. Our comm
unities are struggling to take the next step to make sure our community infrastructure is ready to meet the demands of the coming generation.

It is with this in mind that we are launching this important series of interviews with Shaykh AbdulNasir Jangda. We hope to cover more topics and also involve other speakers as well.

The first video is entitled, 'Role of the Masjid'.

This video covers a number of issues, among them:

• What is the true role and purpose of the masjid? (Refer to this MuslimSI article on an organization's true purpose)
• How does a community balance competing objectives with limited resources? Specifically, how to balance between the demands of Islamic schools, Sunday schools, and Friday prayer.
• How to make women's prayer space?
• What is most pressing when embarking on a new masjid project?

Enjoy the first video below. The next video will cover how to find the right imam.

Click here to view the embedded video.