Adnan Rajeh – MWN townhall 2024
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The speakers emphasize the importance of advocating for people who do a good job and connect with others, rather than just focusing on one's interests. They stress the need for training and employment opportunities for those who prioritize personal growth over profits. The speakers also emphasize the importance of finding a balance between personal and professional growth.
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This
Bismillah Hana hemosol said I want to say no more than my daughter earlier Sofia, she made Zakon law here for coming and for being with us here today as a full employment said it's kind of mind boggling to think that we've been here for two years. And I remember when we're in basically the garage of Jeff Adnan talking about this, will this actually work? What a pilot like this be useful? Should we even attempt something like this? And we're humming and hawing for a long time, and Subhanallah the right opportunity came, and this came about, and from the moment it started until now, I have to admit that I feel it's been a blessed journey. Obviously, with a lot of ups and
downs, absolutely nothing is perfect, and nothing goes straight up. But with that journey with the ups and downs, I feel that we're all collectively coming closer to Allah subhanaw taala, which is the intent behind this place. We have a mission, we have a vision, I'll share that with you. We'll talk about what we've accomplished in the last year. We'll also go about our numbers go through the numbers of in terms of the money in money l we're trying to be as transparent as possible, because we humbly believe that this mosque, this center is yours. It's not ours. It's not shahada, nuns, not shisha navvies, it's everyone here that this mess should belongs to, that this center belongs to. So
we always you to share where we've come, and also where we plan on going in the future. And we love that advice from you. If you think that our directions, probably not where you think we need to be heading, we need you to tell us in sha Allah. So what is the Muslim wellness network, but the actual name of the organization is Muslim wellness network charitable organization, this place is called the Wellness Center, as you know, from the idea the concept of Afghan being well, and our vision when we put this place together way back when it goes much further than two years ago, was that there is a network but does exist, have Muslim to our innovative, they're productive, they're
trained, they're intelligent, they do exist. And this network is focused on service. It's that simple, on FISMA, on service of the community, for the community, and generating that vision, that direction, and that leadership for the entire community of London, not just wellness. So in terms of our machine, what we're hoping to do is what you see up here, exemplify a model of personal development and profound service, putting it together rooted in our Islamic tradition, first and foremost, to generate wellness, for you. For me, for everybody. What does that really translate into translate into a place that belongs to everybody, where you come in this place, and you feel it's
yours, you feel home, you feel like you belong? You have somebody that greets you at the door, like you would be greeted when you come to my house or shake hands help that you feel that this is belongs 100% to you. You're not just another user of a space. But this space is yours. And we try to run it this way from day one. Did we get it right? Did we get it perfect? Of course not. There's always room for improvement. And Inotia had Nan senpai has a lot of room for improvement. I'm just kidding, of course. But we all do best. That is the vision that we're working with. We're trying to create a space where we demonstrate our love to you. I know there's a heart on this slide. There was
a heart on the slide last year. And that is really to say that we love you. Ultimately, I'm here to tell you that we love every single one of you. Not in the romantic sense, of course, and I mean the brothers and the sisters, we love you in the sense that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to love every one of us here and think about it for a second. Mohammed Salah is Selim loved you so much. Love you so much, that he would sit quietly on his own. And the Sahaba This is documented in our tradition. They he would sit Salallahu Salam there, and then they'd walk by him and they see him crying, crying, tears coming down. And they say auto Sula, what's wrong? There's must be something
wrong. Let us come and fix it. And he goes, No, no, nothing. I just miss my brothers and I miss my sister. And the My beloved, I miss my beloved. And they they're like, that's weird. We're here. We're right next to you, yada. So Allah, he goes, No, no, you're my Sahaba you're my companions. You're not my brothers and my sisters. He used that in the sense. They asked them well, who's your brothers and your sisters? He meant you
He said people who will come after me, will never have seen me yet love me and follow me. And tell me that's not everybody in this room in sha Allah. Fine. And if it's not let's intend to be that person. He loved you so much SallAllahu wasallam that before your existence began, he missed you. He missed you so much. But he cried, because he missed. So the question is, do I miss him still alive or seldom do I cry when I think about him, he taught us everything that we're trying to do here. And we put a slide with a heart on it to try to demonstrate that everything that we're going to walk through inshallah the brothers and sisters that are going to show you and the numbers and the
figures and all of that truly emanate emanates from a place of love and service to every person here. And you chose to be here. You could have been anywhere else this Saturday night, or Sunday night. Tomorrow's a holiday, there's a million other places you could have been. But you chose to be in the house of Allah Subhan Allah Tala. And that in our books, is the definition of a hero, a person who is not perfect, you're not perfect, we're not perfect. But a person with their issues and faults and challenges, shows up again and again and again, and comes back to the house of Allah saying, Yara, I'm trying my best. We know that's who we are. That's how chef eigenen is the entire
team is we believe that we're struggling. But we struggle better when we're struggling together. And that's why we're here for you very quickly before I pass it on to sister Sarah is to explain who the team is who's running this organization. And if you were here last year, this slide looks very, very different. If you recall last year, it was all friends of Sheikh Zayed nun, who were Arab and have a certain weight class and a certain age class, very close to his but now hamdulillah we're a bit different. We have our beloved she had none obviously, as the leader of this organization. He's the chairman of our board, and we have a few additions cysts that are sought out he goes out who will be
presenting right after me in sha Allah, masha Allah a great resource for the entire country. She picked London because of her husband and how lucky are we? Are we for him landing a job here, but they are really world renowned. They were overseas, and they're here in London, Ontario, and we're blessed to have her Hakuna Matata, who does not need any introduction, masha Allah, he's the guy who makes everything work. We're blessed to have him sister my set aside.
You don't have there's a hidden soldier that's kind of behind the scenes but without them everything falls apart. That's her. May Allah bless her she's also a teacher. And I think that teacher attitude in her husband makes us stay on back doctorum Hermitage and Abby mashallah one of the amazing dentist he's so amazing that we can't contain him in London he's between here and Halifax and he keeps going back and forth and has gone by who literally if I can say anything if I can take a second to say I'm truly were truly blessed to have him because this method Honestly speaking, when something needs to get done it typically is given to him because he has amazing team like Hakuna
Salman who's just walking in and others who get the stuff done they are executors May Allah bless them. And these brothers, you know, the slide was so hard to put together because everybody said don't put my name there don't want my picture there No, no, no up until this morning. Like this picture was taken maybe 15 minutes ago because he refused putting his picture here. It's brothers and sisters from you for you that are trying to do their best. So we can close the gap between us and Allah subhanaw taala together collectively, with focusing on service, focusing on development and focusing on empowerment, those are the three pillars of this organization. So with that I would
ask this that Assad to come up here in sha Allah and present to us are in touch
okay, so the clock ended for coming everyone thank you again for spending your time with us. We really appreciate it Which way do I go for this one?
So I'll just run you very quickly through our programs here at at wellness. We have the I call it wellness sorry fellas, I know you want us to say the Muslim wellness network, don't call the Muslim wellness network and just give you a very quick snapshot of everything that happens every week in the center. So you know Subhanallah just how much how much Baraka you bring to the center Chawla, so the on
A program that the chief is the ship's and Abby who what mashallah coordinates about 300 students with an excellent team of volunteers about 60 volunteers Mashallah. And there's it's such a popular program that there's still about 160 people waiting on the list 106 people, students, 160 students. And underneath there's the ma'am Development Academy and that is run by Chicago men martial law, there's many people who registered for it, but 900 students who've registered and that's run mashallah by team of eight, which is a very, very impressive
the Youth Development Academy which used to be mentorship so there was brothers and sisters mentorship for ages 10 to 17 2018. We have about 250 It's on a hiatus now and we'll come back and show a live promise. But there's still people on the waiting list and that is 45 volunteers mashallah many of them who are still doing their studies. So, this is in addition to what they do, you know, all of their exams and so on so forth. So, they do a lot of work. This this mentorship is in a pilot this is for the younger sisters, many of you are here I can see you 18 to 24 and we have mashallah just about 65 students or young ladies, I guess who come every every week. And that takes
a team of 28 to coordinate with all of our mentors, mashallah
our public programs are the programs that you see on YouTube every day. So the youth the Quran, tafsir, an English and an Arabic and the Syrah which happens on every weekend, almost every weekend, almost without fail. And they are supported by about 20 volunteers. So in every one of these categories, you can see just how much effort happens behind the scenes, so many of you will come and you will sit and you will enjoy Inshallah, that's exactly what we want you to do. And in the meantime, we are taking the opportunity to give everyone a chance to serve. And the opportunity to gain a bit of, um, has an ethical law, the Convert program, it has about 30 people in it, mashallah
for the brothers and sisters who are new to Islam. And there's a team of eight that helps them go through it. There's a senior's program that just started and that has about 65 people registered with a team of seven, and then all the prayers so all the five daily prayers when you come everything is ready for you everything is clean, the bathrooms are clean, and that Masha Allah turns our doors at least about 1000 times every week. And that's supported by a team of about 20 volunteers as well.
So and this does not include, I'm going to just back that up for a second. This does not include some of the smaller programs that fit under the heading. Under the larger headings or the ones that happen more haphazardly or not every month, for example, like the sisters t talk, or The Personal MBA that happens on Saturdays after Asajj I think awesome, that runs that one, and a few other smaller programs that are still being piloted. So we try them out first and see how they go. But actually, what I wanted you to understand is that even though the center mashallah is just two years old, you make it the center that it is. So I've tried to calculate these numbers in as accurate a
way as possible. But participant engagement. So every time someone engages with the center, that happens about 3600 times a week.
And we rely on a team of about 196 volunteers. And there are still people waiting to be served in our community. And it's beautiful, because you're here. So thank you for coming. And thank you if you are a volunteer and giving your time, thank you for giving us your time, it is the most precious of commodities, and inshallah we'll keep making all of these circles bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
Exactly. I'm gonna start off, just before we get into the financials with Brother Khalid, I just want to ask her housekeeping. If we could hold the questions until the end, that way we can find it finalize all the presentations in sha Allah, hold your questions, write them down if you can on your phones. And then we can that we make sure everyone gets their chance to duckula When is the holiday?
So they asked me to do this slide because it's the most boring slide. I do want to apologize on behalf of our treasurer. We do have a treasurer who couldn't make it today. He's out of town. So I'm going to be presenting the number on his behalf and giving you a financial review with basically an income statement where we started the year where we ended the year what came in what came out, there's a lot more detail. And I know there's a few finance people that love to ask a lot of questions. We have backup slides. Inshallah, we're gonna give you all the detail you need. But this is one slide to hopefully capture the overall view of what we do here. So there's two parts to this
there. This is the income statement. So if you're not familiar with it, it lists all the income that came into the organization. So we start with the top of grants and this is where
Our sister mindset, I can't see her. There she is, may Allah bless her, we would be at zero, probably minus if it wasn't for her. But she came in and said, you don't put up her hand, I know how to do grants, and I know how to do it really well. And you guys are amazing at what you do. Let's see if we can make something happen. And she did. May Allah bless her. Basically, I didn't know that the city can give us free money, but she did. It's not free. It's strings attached. But it's money to supply us with what we do the services that we do here. So the City of London provided us with a grant for $30,000, I believe, may Allah bless them and bless you for doing it. I believe it was for
youth work and some of the mentorship that we do Youth Opportunities Unlimited. Also, were kind enough generous enough to provide us a grant of $1,000 plus, and we participated in the Canada Summer Jobs. This is an initiative by the government where they say if you're gonna hire certain people, especially students, we're willing to pay a lot of their wages. But we had about $50,000 that came through through that. So total grants was about $81,000, we've only lost data. And the bulk of our income then comes out from donation. And there's two types of donations, general donations, when you guys come up and say, here's a check for 1000 or 5000, or 10,000, may Allah
bless you, or $10 or $50 that you pass on. And we also have a facilities donation this is people who may Allah bless them said, you know, I want to support this place. I know it costs a support to have a place like this rent and facilities usage. This is my contribution, I want to continue to contribute to that toll. We broke it up into those two components. And we managed by Allah's blessings to generate about $438,000 last year 2023 from that source, and may Allah bless you all for making it happen. Because without you this place shuts down. As a homeowner, Mohammed Omar keeps reminding me these places cost money. And if people don't understand that, there will be a rude
awakening. And you guys answered the call when we said guys, we need a bit of help. May Allah bless you, you came up and you gave us the money that we needed. So the total income for us is $520,000 per month, I broke it down just to make it easier to understand. It costs us here to run what we currently run about $43,000 if we round it down, so $43,000 a month is a run rate here.
Are those people who understand how institutions work? That's actually pretty light for the amount of people that we turn through here. Because mashallah, we touch about 3500 people per week. So on a return on investment, we believe that this is a decent number to work with under law, it's not a big number yet it serves a lot of people. The second half of the equation, of course, my second half the expenses.
Expenses are not there.
So
let me see. You know what, I don't know if you can fix it within a second or do you want me to go to the very last slide? Oh, there it is. Okay, can you expand it?
Okay, I'll work with us. Sorry for the technical difficulties. Now, you know, when anything goes wrong, I say Mohamed, and then he fixes it. So Zach Lowe here. So in terms of our expenses, our center expenses are about $74,000. That's, we have a detailed list on this. So if you don't know what is that we break it down in sha Allah and the very last slide that I'm not going to go through right now, but it's available for the q&a. Things like cleaning supplies, equipment for the Masjid. Legal Professional banking fees are about $6,000. Our office administration administrative is about $10,000 utilities about $29,000 per year. All these are annual numbers, program expenses for the
specific programs that we run like the Quran program. The mentorship of Ramadan program is about $35,000. And as you guys know, we try not to charge for programs. All those expenses are basically borne by all the donut donors that donate to us. Why don't we do that? It's a philosophical outlook in terms of not trying to serve based on what people pay but serve based on need. And if people need that service they deserve we believe they deserve to get that service and let the money deal we'll deal with the money separately from people who want to support those programs.
sponsorship is where we go in empower other organizations to do great work, financially speaking. So misc is a great example. They do beautiful work in the city, we can't do that work there because of the team doesn't have the resources. So we go and fun fun them to do that great work and shop. That's one sign of our unity. And we think all organization shot lodges are doing great work in London. So total center expenses are about 167,000. Sorry, I know the numbers are small, they were supposed to be bigger, but we couldn't get that working. Our facilities, our rent expenses are in the 247,000 level. And our payroll is the third segment, the payroll expenses are actually broken
down into three segments. Funded wages are $81,000. What is funded wages? Remember the grants that I showed on the first half, this is where the government, the City of London, or the Government of Canada, or provincially would say, Okay, here's money that you can take and then go hire people. So that's what we call thin funded wages, the taxes you got to pay the taxman, unfortunately, and we love this era, all of us I know, is 36,020 9000 is unfunded wages. Basically, when we identify that we have a person, we need them established full time to do or part time to do that work.
One example of that is money, counting receipts, and all of that these certain functions require payment, they can't be done, volunteer, or they can be done volunteer, but they're going to be done really bad. So you go and hire somebody dedicated to do that. So we spent about $29,000, last year on wages. So total payroll expenses are about $147,000. Put it all together, our expenses here is 561. So in 2023, we spent of your money $561,000. To keep this, this center open and all the programs that ces that are sought talked about, what does that translate when you subtract this number 519 520 is what we bring in, and you subtract it from 561, you get a Delta of $42,000. This
is not a fundraising events, I'm not trying to say, pull out your checkbook. But in the in the spirit of transparency, there is a deficit that we're running, we're about $40,000 in the hole, which translates into about $3,500 a month. Now I do want to say Alhamdulillah, Hamdulillah, we always pay our bills, or we pay our bills, very, very generous donors, that would come up and say, I know you have an issue, let me help you with that it's happened since day one. If you notice, in the last month, we kind of pushed on you a little bit saying instead of individual, certain individuals that Allah have opened up for them and have the means we need to do our part. And I'm not
fundraising now. But I'm being honest and saying that, if we feel we this place is doing what it needs to do, and it's great work, then we have to step up and say I'm gonna put my hand up, and I'm gonna give you $100 A month or 200 or 300. She had never ran a campaign or talked about it on Joomla, saying, you know, if you want to give us one time to Zachman, Lafayette, he said, Don't give us I'll say, give us the one time no problem. But what we really need is that monthly contribution, why is that monthly contribution important? Because it allows us not to focus on the money now, and then focus on the kids and the people needing that service on the part and convert on the seniors.
So my message to you is, to the extent that you feel inspired to $3,500 is per month is where we're in the hole, and we're happy to help you bridge the gap between you and Allah subhanaw taala financially by doing your part and me doing my part. And even if it's as simple as $1 or $10 a month, everything is well. Very last slide before I pass it on to Shannon, who I think we're all here to understand from Him, LISTEN to Him and understand where we going is the breakdown in terms of where the expenditures go. So our daily and Friday prayers on our cost basis typically cost us about 16% of what we spend here. You may say hold on a second, how is five daily prayers going to
cost me 16% of your budget is because obviously it takes money to keep this place open and heated and cleaning and so on so forth. So daily prayers is about 16%. Public Programs are about 14% of where we spend our expenses, and that is for the T and the
Coffee and again the fixed costs that go with this place. We tried to convince shahadah not to give out sweets but he's like adamant we got to give people the offer. So that's the 14%. The Imam, the Quran and have is about 17% of our expenses.
And that is to supply books, it's actually mind boggling how expensive books are. If you live here, if you happen to live in Iraq, or in Egypt, the ebooks are very cheap, but to be able to get them here, they ended up costing a fair amount of money. 16% is where what we spend on that the Imam Development Academy is about 11% of our expenditures. 14% is in our mentorship. That is for brothers or sisters for the youth and for the adults about 8% or sister mentorship, and continues to grow, if I may Assata, are trying to push it down, but she pushing it up. About 5%. For the Convert program, seniors is about 2% I think you can see that number. And special events are 11.6. That's where we
spend your money in terms of those programs. And that ends up being about $550,000 per year, or about $45,000 each month. So we hope this was the level of transparency that inshallah you're looking for. We're happy to answer any questions in the q&a. And as I said, there's more detailed slides if you find it necessary. And with that, I'll pass it on to Shannon, who can tell us where we're going.
So it's been two years now.
I feel like 15 years older, that's for sure.
The years have taken a toll. Um,
I don't want to make this too convoluted. But I'll say this, a few things I want to just point out in terms of shallow where we're headed. The way I see communities being built is that you have to establish a core group of people who are willing to really give give their time and give their expertise and give their wealth to really commit themselves, which is what we've been trying to build here over the last two years. We're not there yet, so I can't act like we've hit the milestone where I feel like we can start moving on to the next phase we're still within that phase of kind of building that core group of people the brothers are a little bit quicker than sisters because
because I'm a guy and I've not trained to to help sisters all look it's it's assault on their team have been moving that piece along nicely. And we want to be able to do more events with the sisters feel as supported Inshallah, as as the boys do. But for example, last night, we had a pre Ramadan meeting, just to plan out the Ramadan schedule, I had 24 young men, all of them have fathers that were just sitting there figuring out who's going to pray what and who's going to do this, and who's going to do that. And that tells you something that we're that direction in sha Allah is a positive one. It doesn't, but it doesn't, if you think it ends there, then you have, it's completely
misunderstood. That's just where it begins, it takes it takes a long time to train these individuals, not just in the technicalities of how to do this work, but also in the spirituality of how to do it as well. So that they do it with the right intention with the right spirit with the right attitude. And they do it with the right goals of trying to observing people because holding on to the concept of service as you move forward is very tricky. It's very tricky. When you as you move along, the word service starts to kind of move and you have to bring it back every time it does, because people lose the the affinity towards it. Because you're you're growing and there's more
people and there's more individuals involved in and there's money in that. And then you have to bring it back. Look, the goal of any of this is just to serve Allah subhanaw taala through serving his communities. That's it, there's nothing else that it's as simple as that always has been, always will be. But that happens through making sure that we invest in human beings invest in all these programs that you saw up there. These are programs that have just began, they have a long way to go still the amount of wealth Academy we've been running for maybe six to five semesters so far. Yeah, this is gonna be a long road before we come to a point where we can actually graduate individuals
who have enough Islamic knowledge and have enough confidence and are trained to they can stand up and they can speak adequately about Islam and give hope wasn't run massagin which is what the goal has to be the goal has to be is producing that both men and women who are capable of offering these services and making sure that we cultivate the that we are a place where we harness the energy of human use. I'm very what I'm most proud of and within displays and probably in a good way insha Allah or the or the initiative that started here but kind of broke off into their own thing, whether it's like, whether it's misc, whether it's fun, fun, whether it's done a lot of come the Social
Innovation Lab or lab work or any of the other initiatives that have started here and ended up doing just a podcast just began recently, the caregivers or other receivers running, I love I love the fact that we're capable of doing that. That's really what matters to me. This institution only exists for that reason in my mind, it's just it's just a vehicle
goal is going to take us somewhere, if there's no value in the name itself or in the logo or the value, it is what it provides for the community in terms of those who want to do a service and need a place to start it, need those who will support them and eat them and allow them and give them a platform to do it. And then advertise and use use their network to make sure that they can move forward with it. Because at the end, the goal is just making sure that everyone gets served. And that has to kind of, you have to always recline on that and go back. And this is what we are about, we're about making sure that this OMA this knit this community finds what it what it needs, and that
the gaps are going to be filled. And that we are going to bring people to a position where they are capable of especially, especially what happened since October. Since what happened in October, there has been this collective feeling amongst us that we are very far from where we should be like that guy became very clear, maybe we had we had covered up with some carpets. And we didn't think we didn't know that was cool. But now we see this is a huge, this is a huge this is a crater in the midst of where we are in the midst of our lives where we don't, we don't have the strings to pull, we don't have the weight that we thought we did, we don't have the voice that we thought we should.
And now we're watching people pay for that people are paying for that with their lives, they're paid, they're losing, children are paying for that with their lives. And it says heartbreaking. And if you want that to change, and this is really honestly what I believe is the solution, you want that to change, then you have to you have to develop our own, we have to develop our nation that goes through developing individuals, regardless of your age group, but specifically focusing on the next generation making sure that they are growing up, they're supported, they are educated, they aren't well trained, they have mentors, they have people to turn to they can be they're learning,
they're developing skills, and they are feeling that affinity that adherence and that closeness to their dean for that they later on can take this the carry the baton after after we move move on, which may not to be may not being too far from now anyways. So that that concept has to stay fresh and has to be clear and why we're doing what we're doing. What next for me is just what you're seeing up there with all the different programs is that these programs need to grow, they need to grow in terms of not just the quantity, but they need to grow in terms of the quality as well. You have to make sure that not only are we serving more people, but we're serving them well. It's easy
to start programs with hundreds of them and no and it's just a it's just a daycare, you just drop the kid off and leave or people come and sit and they listen to something that they've heard 100 times before and they walk away. So it's about also making sure that what we're doing whatever we're offering into whatever demographic that we're offering it to that we're doing it with quality, we're putting our heart in it, and we are making sure that we're bringing in people who have something to offer See the problem is still in my opinion is that we still don't have enough people I talked about this in Gemini, specifically before this before the townhall is that we lack volunteers. There
weren't volunteer I agree with Jacqueline Abby, I don't like the word it brings on this this concept that you know it's optional. Now you can just No, it's not optional. It's not it's not optional. This is this is complete this 100% not optional. And no, you can't show up anytime you want. And no you can just sign up and then leave when you know this is a communal obligation. This is what you felt you are doing your part. No one owns you knows you and you thanks and you owe no one anything. However, we will thank you. And we will turn to you and say welcome. We're lucky and Baraka watching and for coming and for participating and for contributing and for believing in us and for allowing
us to try our best to do what we can for you and then putting up maybe with the shortcomings that come with it. But that is what we have to kind of come back to regardless of your age group, especially if you're someone who has expertise and has knowledge and has experience in life and a little bit that you're the person who has something to offer more than others. And if you look at these programs that we're running with the number of volunteers, it's actually not we need way more people who are willing to come up come and show up and bringing their expertise and help us develop it so that we can actually serve more people and serve them better that we have the next generation
the next generation has access to knowledge and has access to to professionals access to mentors, people who can help them and teach them and allow them to grow so that we have an OMA that is strong and solid and our community didn't stop maybe complaining about certain problems that that we continue to have. Which honestly in any Muslim community are the same problems just repeated and recycled every every year there's no change to them. I would really like to have other complaints or problems to complain about. I would really like to move on from the ones that I haven't come up with new problems to complain about instead of saying the same stuff every year so Hamdulillah I feel
that maybe in sha Allah to Allah with what we've been doing hopefully we're maybe a step forward a step closer inshallah to Allah trying to get get there. It is a bumpy road is there's been a lot that has happened in the last two years in sha Allah Tala, I hope that didn't show a lot of what we've been offering is reasonably want to hear from you Inshallah, and what you what you want or what, where you see this going or how you would feel, be conserve you better or what the community needs that we are not meeting in terms of the shortcomings or the or the gaps themselves. I want to end with that. I want to I have to, I need to thank everyone here for for the work that they put in,
especially the volunteers who helped run this day specifically, we're not going to look at it the people who made sure that space is is nice and clean and there's a place up front for the for the children. And throughout the year. There's a lot of people who are behind the scenes just making sure that this place can run and that we can actually actually offer some of these
services that we're offering and I'm gonna be located Without you this place would not exist altogether for he's like a lucky robotic lithic me everything that happens here Inshallah, he means that has another controllata I'll make dua for you and for your family. And make sure you keep us in your throat these days, the day wasn't, I need a little bit celebratory, but we didn't want to make it too festive. Honestly, it's hard to be in that mood with what we're what we're observing, but inshallah Allah, Allah Jalla Jalla, who gave us the opportunity to do this, to open to start something new to serve people hopefully to move the move or shift the needle a little bit and move
the ball ahead. And it's something we are if we're celebrating or sublet celebrating the aroma of Allah subhanaw taala in the bounty of Allah subhanaw taala upon myself and upon all of us, like Malala said, I want to come up with a record Hello.
Zach, located on shanann,
Ashley Cole, churches and Abby up to talk about
some of the needs that we have. And maybe if you're if you're capable to participate in some of the programming that's available.
So that Monica,
so I won't take too much of everyone's time.
But I would like to echo what you had not said, I'm not going to use the word volunteers. I just don't like the word at all. It doesn't send the right message. And that's not what I'm looking for. Because the volunteer means show up whenever you This is, unfortunately, this is how we understand it, that you're, you're on your own right, you can show up and then you can't and you can just leave whenever you you want.
This is not it. This is not optional. As Jeff had nonsense. This is a communal obligation. As you know, there's a communal out. It's called Kiva and we all know that. But there's a little piece that I would like to, to add that I can I remember the other day,
that Fartlek Keifa, when a small portion of, well, a portion or a group of of the community does think does something and then and then that set is fulfilled, everyone else is off the hook, under the condition that it works. If it doesn't work, then those who did it will be rewarded, and everyone else is not off the hook. So So I think I don't want to turn this into a like a dark thing. But I have to give you the true image. And the responsibility that we all carry. All of us every single one of us see, I look at 300 students registered ranging, I don't look at that, that doesn't, that doesn't concern me because those 300 students have been seen for two years. Some of them are
sitting here, they show up all the time, their parents are very appreciative, I know them by name, I were good. I look at the 160 students on the waitlist that I have to get, I have to look at the parents with a straight face and say, keep waiting until your child is older. And then rate I take every three months the Quran and I'm going to talk only about the Quran program, but this is all across the board. So every three months, we take a new like, I don't know maybe 10 Extra students, right? We add to the to the so 160 Every three months I take 10 So you do the math and see when your child will be seen will be will be admitted the program and start actually start memorizing. Learn
the Quran. So I think there's there's an issue there. So what I what what we need here basically, is manpower This is the word human power. This is what we need not volunteers, I need someone who is able to provide to some of their now Chef Hala Sultan spoke about, about the the financial aspect. And yes, we do need the money. We cannot run this place without without having having money. There's, let's let's be clear about that. But also this the most important is you all of us actually
have volunteering or investing our time here.
Now, the biggest issue is this is that I we need teachers to teach on for instance, if you want your child you and your son or daughter to be admitted, that has to come from you, right now teaching how to be for four students. You don't need to be a PhD in Arabic literature to do that. If you have a high school education that will teach you how to do it. People might be it might might be it might be a little bit intimidated in terms of intimidate in terms of like, okay, well I can't do it. Yes, you can. Sometimes you really can't. If you have a brother who actually knows a little bit of fun, you can tell if you can't then share this. We need people to come in commit. That's what we need.
Otherwise, I will stick to the My 300 I can we cannot expand and this work. This is true for all programs that run here. We have people to show up. When you come in and you see the same faces. Those are the people that actually hold this place on their shoulder
Right.
And we need more of that is for you, it's an obligation upon all of us. We were looking at, at a area that mosques in the US the other day, and there's some beautiful, I mean, it just something look it up on on YouTube, there are mosques in the US where they were built. I'm not even going to share all their information, but it goes, it goes to tell you how much investment in time and people and manpower and time. So so I get a lot I get a request from the from from parents saying, Okay, well, my child needs to learn Arabic. Sure, I have the knowledge, but I need more people to to help me.
Okay, so So this is, this would be the one thing that I would like to say to people, that it's, this is the this will this, this place is built on our shoulders, we make it happen. Now Money comes and goes, but time time is what I need from people to commit. And, and,
and, and, and invest. Now it's very interesting. This is this is like, from observation. You have a lot of young volunteers, if you if you'd like to use this word, but the young ones, sometimes they need to be mentored a lot I'm looking for the more fulfill the more I'm looking for someone who's older than 3035 40 Is it I need someone with experience with children, I'm someone who, with with experience in life that could share it with with, with with with others. And if not jell o hair last last Friday, he did say that he said, you do this, this age group is too busy and I understand I'm busy like you, right well are, but but maybe a couple of hours a week, we'll it will go a long way.
That's it. That's it, that's all we need. So if you can
then please volunteer, please, you know, a volunteer investor time, if you cannot then help us find you having a brother, a sister and a parent a child who can actually help us do this, we need this this and this is what what I what I have to share, I would like to 300 to be 1000 We would like this place to sound like a beehive. Everywhere you go there's pollen being being recited Inshallah, but I'm only limited by the number of teachers that I have. And this goes
I speak about, I speak about the Quran program and,
and the out of the program. But in reality, all programs are the same. We always lack people who commit and they're the, the cornerstone of it.
So I hope, I hope this is sha Allah, I would like to thank you for for being here and taking the time and I will pass them by
luck.
And please, please forgive us forgive me, I know I've had people come to say I want to do something. Sometimes we don't have the capacity to channel someone to the best stability. So please forgive us if we've ever been slow to try and integrate you into the proper avenue to get to get work we are learning in sha Allah, we do have some people involved now that are trying to better that practice for us. And with that, I'd like to introduce myself and maybe introduce
some of the people involved in that
sorry, everyone,
just like mine after being here and just always being present, Chef Batman and all of you mashallah they've, they've pretty much covered. The presence and your commitment and your support, just your presence alone is giving us all the positive.
I lost the word, motivation to continue doing what we're doing and from the law, as Brother Mohammed just mentioned briefly, we don't always have the capacity to support
people coming forward and wanting to be engaged and participating all the time. We are working on this process in sha Allah, Sister Amen. I can see her in the back there she will be part of the intake process inshallah she had my CEU if you can put your hand up so everybody can see you. Rama I'm not sure where she's hiding. She's also part of the process inshallah. And
Osama was hiding here behind me. So any of the individuals that I just mentioned, if you're interested, please
have a chat with them briefly. There is an intake form that by a promise you put up, so we'll hold him accountable if if it's not running properly, you can harass him, but inshallah this is going to be something that we're working on moving forward. So the business Allah was Your support will be
What kind of channel that
was after me
Zack Lochhead enough for your attention. And I'd like to actually hand it off to brother Khalid to field questions if there are any few save your question. If not, we have our snack to socialize until I share which is 20 minutes or 745. But Andre off to our capable hearted and wants to share anything else.
So
your brand. So, for the next 20 minutes if we have any questions, we're open book, so please feel free to ask any questions. If we don't have any questions, we're going to break for snacks inshallah I see I expected that. We're going to break out for snacks. If we don't have any enough questions before privative. Before I shall sorry, but I already see a few hands up. So most likely we'll take your questions. And then pray Aisha and after a shot we'll have some snacks and additional q&a. Either one on one or as a group as a whole in short lotto I saw your hand up so go ahead and
soundly got off the ledge lack of love for all the work you all doing. So system is I talked about the intake process that's going to be started. Is it a comm forward? I'm offering my help and will slot you or is there also an ability to to see what their needs are. So you can see a list of Zach's love it. So basically the intake is something that I volunteer and say, hey, I want to help or is there a list of things that we need done both our philosophies we'd love to the extent that we can make this happen is to tap into what you're best at. So instead of saying here are the four things that I need done, I need us off to take one of them which couldn't work. Oh, it's coming to Java and
saying, how do you think you can help us? And what you're passionate about is what we want done here. Obviously, if the goals align, and usually they do so both are available, our modus operandi is to ask you, what do you want to do what you what you think you can help. And if you say, I'm going to do anything, like hone them, how much is allowed here, I'll do anything, just tell me what you want. And I'll do it will tell you exactly where the areas of deficiencies or opportunities I should say, and slot you there. But we want people to do the work as they want to do it and get close to Allah subhanaw taala not because they have to do anything. If you're you're going to be
much more empowered when you do things that you love to do. So hopefully that answers that question. Great question. And I see a hand in the back.
Perfect,
perfect. So I'll give you this general advice above and beyond what I just said, is honestly, I know this is gonna sound weird. But get into the mindset that this is my place. This is my home, I walk into this place, like I walk in at home, and most of us walk in at home. And if they see something broken, or something spilled, would probably pick it up and fix it. You're more than welcome to do that here. And we encourage you to do that to say, Okay, what is missing? What could I improve? You know, what your sign is kind of crooked? You look at it and say, I think I can fix that. Let me come up to somebody and say, Hey, can I fix your sign? Or can I improve your TV? Or I can I do whatever.
To the extent that you do that, you're going to realize that with open arms, we're going to tell you an endless salmon, please help. Sometimes it's really hard to say, Okay, here's the 17 things that we have, you come up exactly at the right time and we make the connection, we're trying to make it that way. But often enough is just coming and asking and participating and asking again, eventually you'll find the right place for you to be slotted. The most important thing that I would say we need much more so than no money is just that the the connection that you have the DUA that you have a connection to this place and the DUA that you can give to Allah subhanaw taala to make this work
function, I know the brothers and sisters that run this place and I swear by Allah subhanaw taala This is not a modesty thing. They work many, many times harder than I do personally and I feel ashamed. And I said that to them many times before. They're leaving their time, their families, their their work, sometimes they have nothing else to do, but here. They basically finish their work and they come here for four hours, then they go home, and they do it over and over again. And that's why I volunteer because I looked at them and I feel somewhat ashamed is a bad word. But I feel like I feel sad that there's so much pain on a few brothers that I have. I owe it to this place to do
what I can. So thanks
Thank you for asking the question. In sha Allah, we'll find a process by which we can codify it correctly. But the number one thing that I would suggest is just come up and pretend this is your place, not pretend it is your place. We serve you tea and coffee because that's what I would serve when you come to my house. That's how we do it here.
Any other questions? Brothers and sisters? Yeah, maybe sister perfect. Santa Monica.
Can you tell us your name, please? Yes, Dina. My name is Dina. Yeah, I've had the opportunity to in the future work with some MPs and some work with the politics. So I kind of came here today to ask what does the Muslim community need that we need to kind of advocate on like that level? Yeah.
Perfect. Thank you for that and one of the five priorities that we talked about and Shehab nine talked about Ramadan and since then, is advocacy very, very important piece and when I'm Hamid will answer that. In Charlotte, one of the things I think we we try to do is not replicate efforts, and coordinate efforts
with others so one of the things we do is promote others that are doing an effective job at things like weather hot mess, then.com during the survey, the London commuter survey mashallah
what was it that is going off, by the way, we
got my teacher, my teacher vision on right now.
So there's hikma in London. ACMA is involved politically. They're doing advocating, there's a new group, cm PAC, I believe that's trying to get started. So things some coordination there. There's also the NCCM, that's happening at a national level. So we are really following their lead. We don't want to invent something that is being done properly.
Brother, Ahmed Arwa is employed by hikma I don't see him here, he sometimes comes here. And we've run some of their events here as well. So I would say look at khatma. And see impact is emerging now. NCCM. And then there CJ PME, which is also a national organization that does a lot of advocacy around policy and sets, Canadians and justice peace in the Middle East. So that would be the best avenue for that. If something does emerge different than that, that serves as a unique role, and we will probably promote it. But we do like to take our our guidance from the effective people that do these jobs. Exactly.
So Malika, I have a question. I'm just going to be quick. Sorry. Thank you so much. First of all, for all the work that you guys do really appreciate that. Just like Allah. Hi. My question is, are you guys open to something new? Like some of the programs that you had? It's wonderful, all of the programs actually are, are wonderful. Thank you so much. But are you guys open to some new program ideas? Is that something that we can communicate through email to somebody? The answer is yes, absolutely. We are. I don't think this is on.
That's why they gave me this mic. Because they don't want me to speak No, just kidding. Of course, the answer is yes. And she had nine out of all the Imams that I've actually met in my life. And I don't want to break his back with what I'm about to say, but I will. So try not to listen, that I have not seen any man so open to ideas, and piloting projects and seeing them feel because typically what you want is you want to start something when it's perfect, you've designed it, you know, it's low risk, of course, people are going to attend his attitude. And the attitude of the method is you know what, try it and see what happens. And if it fails, no problem, we fix ourselves up, we improve
it and launch and again, and this is how we operate all our programming. And much of what we do today was a pilot idea that and we didn't know if it's going to work or not the mentorship that you saw was just an idea of saying hey, would this actually work or not? We ran it it ran well, we had to bring it back and redesign it because we learned a lot and then we launched it but the short answer is absolutely. And get in touch with us say I have this crazy idea I think this is going to work if it's in line with our mission and vision which you can drive a truck through then our answers can you do it and can you do it yesterday and will empower you to do if it means money if it
means resources, we want to see you succeed and that's when we unlock what you're passionate about. We unlock your your miracle and your your spirit to do the great work to bring us closer to Allah subhanaw taala you've got magic and you every single person does and we're here just to empower you to unlock it and Sharma so hopefully that answers the question, Shannon Do you want to add anything
but
You're always welcome to suggest if the idea is something you want to run, then yeah, exactly what Brotherhood is. And if something you want us to run, we will take it, we'll listen to it. And if it's something that we have the capacity to do,
then for sure we entertain these things, sometimes we'll take an idea. And a lot of the stuff that we run here were ideas that weren't necessarily from me ideas, I got years before, but needed the time to actually to come to the right point where we could actually do it. So sometimes you'll give me an idea, and I like I like it, but I may not be have the capacity to run it myself or to start it immediately. But that doesn't mean we don't think it's valuable. It's just we have to work within the limitations of our capacity sometimes, but people feel well, it feels very welcome to I know I sometimes say don't bring me ideas. But what I mean by that is more is just people just kind of drop
us me like a Dropbox here, you do this. We need I you know, you can only do so much with the time that you got. So if you want if you think something's important you want it to happen. We will help you get it up and running. And then if there's a participation piece from our site, and we will we're happy to offer that as well. Yeah. So So yeah, just take a look at it. Feel free to do that. And showing that. There was a question here. Yes, brother. Can we get them on mind? Please?
Can you tell us some Lego Angelica? My name is Abdullah?
Actually, one question like every year students are graduating from the university and college is like, but a lot of people are unemployed, like they have no professional connection with them like this for the students to guide them, and to lead in a good right pathway. So is there any possible way to connect with the professionals like to get into the jobs like something like that? So if you're one of the things we spent quite a bit of time on is our weekly newsletters. And I know, some people aren't subscribed to our emails, but I linked them into our WhatsApp. The bottom of each newsletter is the jobs are all of London, and it's actually through the London immigration
partnership, believe it's called LM lip. It's a long London immigration Middlesex
partnership that actually is promoting some of our events. They saw some of the stuff that we're doing here. And they said, can we promote that, and this is a broader London.
Like I said, immigration partnership, and they have a very good jobs section. All the jobs in London, some jobs in Ontario that people aren't aware of, that we qualify for a lot of people qualify for these jobs that we're not aware of.
And there is maybe preference preferential hiring for these things. So there's there's a good opportunity there.
There is also the personal network that we have here that if you ask the brother, if there's certain field that we might know of, yeah, definitely you you bring it up to someone in our congregation, there might be a connection there. So that would obviously be the best opportunity for working. And I'll add one thing to that our name says network in it for a reason. And a network is only as strong as the connections that it has. You just ask any computer scientists and they'll explain that concept for you. And how do you build that network? It's very hard for three or four people or shahada man to go around and building that network. What's really easy is when we all do it
ourselves. So one thing that I recommend you do is get to know one person every time you come into pray Asha here you come in you pray, Aisha, somebody you don't know walk up to them and say Santa Monica. My name is Hala Sultan, what's your name? I know, it may seem weird, and nobody does this anymore. But that is the Sunnah of Muhammad Sallallahu. I mean, that's what our Sahaba used to do, and taught us. We forgot that somewhere. And that's why we become weak and she hadn't said it. You know what happened on October, it clarified how weak we are. I'm not here to make us feel bad. But it's a reality check to realize, Oh my God, I didn't realize that and I don't mean just Muslims in
London, I mean, Muslims around the world, I would even venture to say, people not in power around the world are just weak, they're weak because they chose to you know, we say hateful hate in Arabic, which is just stay by the side of the wall and get out of the way and don't cause any ruckus. That's not the way of Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam the way he taught us is to come strong and build that network. You can do it as simply as introducing yourself to somebody else every single time sake Yeah, hello, hey, I know it's gonna sound bad pronunciation and people laugh at you, but you know, they smile and then you build that connection and that that network grows. So may Allah make it easy
inshallah. Any other questions before our Aisha. We've got four more minutes we have to Okay, fondle. Schiffman books are uncommon.
Salam Alaikum. Let me get first because I can look at what you're doing. You are really only 30 minutes over. I don't know how to say it in English.
But you are filling a gap. And Alhamdulillah that you are here. We're very happy. Because you're filling this gap.
May Allah subhanaw taala give you the year, the reward that you you want. Just we've been here for two years. I have a, I noticed something in the first year. I used to depend on the youth I used to hear the prayer lead, led by by Hamza by year by Omer by ear by
awesome.
I used to hear that a lot. Now, I haven't been hearing that, and you depend on you know, we're investing more in older people. Why is this change? And then are we going to change to a traditional mosque now? That's my question. Vertical hair for that. We'll have to address that. So so no, I that's not that's not fair. Actually. Actually, the co author, I used to do five a week and then I only had two people who would cover for me now actually do twice a week and you have brother 100. On site them, you have other 30. And then I have some other shoes who are little bit older, come and share the water. That reason actually is not me. You have to talk to them. They don't show up for
the stuff that they should. And if it's anything for someone watching, I don't want to throw everyone under the bus especially not worse hands. I'd also throw him under the bus completely. But he kind of knows that it's kind of him not showing up that I thought that this was the case. No, for sure. The actually actually the The goal here is the opposite. I was just saying the last night we met for total, we I haven't prayed I think like I've done has an imam for years now. Because it's over over 24 and a half old and they're all younger people who have been leading, the same thing goes for the whole lot of usually after the motive is when these younger guys take it once the
summer comes around. So no, we're not making any changes. It's just I like to involve as many people as possible in the work. So if I have brothers who are committed here coming, she will when they're older or younger, I like to involve them and what comes with younger generation. I mean, I didn't want to talk about this but I we need more spaces in the city that will allow for training, I have an issue with I have a problem with the with capacity in terms of training, if I'm going to train younger people to do this stuff, I need more massage it actually to do it, I can't do it all here, like I don't have enough space and enough slots to train everyone here. And this message is that I
thought initially when we started it was gonna be more peripheral msgid, where there'd be less interest in it. And I could I could just run get the brothers, the younger brothers to do it turn into something a little bit different. And the numbers that come here are much higher. So I'm forced to put people a little bit more experienced not because I don't think that the younger should be trained, but because if I don't, and I put people who are unexperienced to speak to large numbers of people, I end up throwing them under the bus because they're not ready yet. And it actually ruins their ability to do the job. So I hear where you're coming from, nothing has changed. If anything is
moving in that direction. It's just a matter of wisdom, like,
making sure that I put people in the like I put someone on the member here, which I have to at some point, these people that were training, I have to train them to do hope because I put them here, they're gonna be in trouble. Because of the number of people that actually attend here and the diversity of it. I need massages that are smaller and smaller spaces where I can actually put people to train them. So they they try and they fail and they bomb a couple of times and I give them feedback and then we come back and we put them in a position where they can do this stuff. So inshallah Tada that says going on forward, honestly, he specifically you're asking about that. It's
just them they just stopped showing up for Breslow, I got a business I filled it in with the brothers who were who are here but he's like looking for the question and I'm on that same page that you're on. You're on a show litho he's like
yeah,
so I know there are more questions but I Showtime is here and I love that it tells us in very different languages. So we're gonna get up pray in sha Allah and continue q&a and refreshments afterwards. Exactly.
Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar.
Allah hu Akbar Allah
Akbar
i shadow a
shadow Allah
you