How Mature Communities Think

Brothers and sisters, we are not likely

to see everything that we want to see out of this Muslim community in America in my lifetime

and perhaps not in your lifetime.

And the question becomes, what are you willing to do? That goes beyond yourself

is the fact that it may not be realizable, in your lifetime,

that zaytuna or any other institution may not be exactly what you want it to be in your lifetime.

Is that enough of a reason for you not to support it fully, given the promise that it has for posterity.

This is how mature communities think.

And this is part of what we must do as a Muslim community. So I asked you tonight

to join me in celebrating

this enormously powerful, miraculous achievement on the part of zaytuna. And all of those who have contributed to this institution. And I asked you to do to dig deep down inside yourselves, to tap into that sense of mission, to find a sense of mission.

And with that sense of mission, to think trans generationally to think about what your children's children's children are going to be enjoying, in terms of institutional support, to do exactly the kinds of things that we as a Muslim community need to do here in this land. That is America.