Moderation Webinar Coming Up on Sunday

Mark your calendars for the first of two webinars in the Lighthouse Project’s Moderation episode. “Moderation Unleashed,” by Dr. Jamal Badawi will be on Sunday, May 9, from 8-10 p.m. EDT. Register for the webinar here.

Jamal A. Badawi is a Canadian-based professor and world-renowned speaker, author, and advocate of Islam and Muslims. He has authored several books and articles on Islam. He also researched, designed and presented a 352-segment television series on Islam, aired in Canada, the US and other countries. Audio and video copies of this series are widely available.

May 3, 2010 at 11:31 am mahaezz Leave a comment

Introducing the MAS Tarbiya Mini Guides

In their quarterly meeting on April 1st, 2010, the local tarbiya directors requested that we share some of the projects we have help in accomplishing them. Our national team will start sharing some of the projects in the make and demand input and help on them isa. Let this email and post serve as the first. One of these projects is creating a set of practical guides to help all of us in our tarbiya work. Please read this long introduction below. We request you do the following.

• Read carefully and critically
• Think of any general feedback you would like to give our team
• Think of specific input you would like to see in EACH of these guides
• Share this post with your local team or anyone who can contribute to this project and encourage them to contribute
• Contact us to be part of the mt-guides team and we will use your help

As you will see below, the guides will serve all of us from individuals to the local and national leadership. We are sending this email to the tarbiya coordinators, chapter presidents, and my-directors to solicit input and recruit the team who will own this project with us isa.

Please sent an email to mt-guides@googlegr..com if you want to be part of this team, general feedback, or give specific input on what exactly you want to see on these guides

For those who will be part of the team we will send them more information on how to view the tarbiya guides wiki and we will get them in ISA

MAS National Tarbiya Team

Why this guide?

Tarbiya is an essential concept and a very important core value in the Muslim American Society, MAS. MAS believes that its success and the success of American Muslims rely on how effective we are in applying this concept in our lives. Developing ourselves in all aspects and enriching our skills and talents are key to our success. We also hold similar responsibility towards people around us and the society at large. Tarbiya can be viewed as the art of dealing with people and helping them to get better and closer to their creator, and to equip them with the needed physical, spiritual, and intellectual requirements to attain success in this life and the life after. “To move people to strive for God-consciousness, liberty and justice, and to convey Islam with utmost clarity,” is a mission that can only be held by people who are in a constant development effort and with an ability to change people around them.However, the concept of tarbiya is quite general and often misunderstood or partially understood to say the least. In addition to that, most of what is written about tarbiya addresses it from an intellectual/theoretical point of view and lacks the practical and the implementation aspect. MAS national tarbiya team believes there is a dire need for a practical guide that helps individuals and teams to incorporate tarbiya in their respective work and make the tarbiya effort more organized and effective. These simple guides are a living document that aims at incorporating people’s experience along time. It is by design that these guides change and grow based on the experience added to them by those who are involved with the tarbiya effort on the ground. As its initial version may be incomplete and lacks a lot of crucial components, it will grow into a very practical and very comprehensive set of guides in a relatively short period of time insha’Allah.

Who should read this guide?

Everyone should read this guide. This guide has tips and suggestions for all. It will guide you through your endeavor of developing your own self. It will also help you while developing a small number of people around you such as your family, your halaqah, your MAS Usra, your MY Connect. It will help you become people’s oriented while dealing with your youth committee or with your chapter council, and even with your colleagues at work. The guide will also focus on helping people who are in charge of providing tarbiya programs to others such as the local tarbiya committee members, the local tarbiya directors, and chapter presidents. It will also help people who will join the national tarbiya team and sub teams. It can even go as far as helping the national leadership of MAS to effectively incorporate this concept in the national MAS strategies and operation.
Therefore, our target audience are: (more…)

April 7, 2010 at 10:18 am Wael Hamza 1 comment

A Peek into our First MTD Exec Team Meeting

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmat Allah wa barakatuh!

Introduction

On the weekend of the MLK holiday, Jan 16-18, five MAS members converged in Totowa, NJ to lay out the foundation, planning, and execution for 2010 for the MAS Tarbiya Department (MTD). After a month of virtual planning and discussion, we left our families and homes to come together for the sole purpose of planning for 2010, in light of the 2008-2012 term strategies. The meeting was the first physical meeting of the term. This memo serves as a summary of the meeting and open communication of what took place.

(more…)

January 31, 2010 at 3:06 pm mahaezz Leave a comment

MAS Tarbiya needs YOUR input

The MAS Tarbiya team will be meeting next week to evaluate the previous year and energize for an exciting term isa. Your input will help the tarbiya team better understand how to move forward.

All those ideas you have about MAS Tarbiya but don’t know who to tell? The projects or approaches you wish MAS Tarbiya would adopt? Please take five minutes to share your thoughts on the priorities, objectives, and specific projects for 2010. Click here to participate in the *quick* survey!

Your feedback is invaluable to MAS Tarbiya–don’t keep your ideas to yourself! Your help will allow us to better address the needs and dreams of MAS members. The survey will close on Thursday, Jan. 14 (less than a week).

May Allah reward you for your time and support.

January 9, 2010 at 11:48 am mahaezz 1 comment

TAM ’09 Wrap-up Package

We’ve developed for you a comprehensive package with presentations, surveys, and other useful materials from TAM 2009. Please take advantage of these materials to stimulate discussion in your usras, to refresh the ideas and concepts, to review a session you may have missed, and to spread the TAM’s benefit to members who could not attend.

TAM ’09 Package

General Materials

Presentations

November 24, 2009 at 12:39 pm mahaezz Leave a comment

Beyond TAM: A Letter to All MAS Members

TAM 2009 concluded this past weekend, with close to 700 MAS members attending the four TAMs in Washington DC, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Detroit. The goal of TAM was to create a mission-centered mindset in all MAS members, and many attendees emerged energized and excited about the work ahead. A comprehensive wrap-up package, including the full-length powerpoint presentations, results of surveys, and other TAM ’09 materials, will be available shortly. Meanwhile, we wanted to draw your attention to a special letter, “Beyond the TAM.” Please take the time to read it.

The letter is directed to all MAS members and leaders, whether they attended TAM or not. It serves to remind all of us of the high commitment needed to fulfill our mission and make sure, after our return from TAM, that we’ve already started on the road ahead. You can read the pdf version of the letter or scroll down for the complete text.

Beyond the TAM

A Letter to all MAS members and leaders

Dear members and leaders of the Muslim American Society,

Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmtullah wa Barakatuh. I ask Allah that this message reaches you, your families, and your communities in the best of health and iman. Alhamdulillah, TAM has concluded, with close to 700 MAS members attending four regional meetings in Washington DC, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Detroit.

A Transforming Experience

As many of you expressed in your own words, TAM 2009 was a transforming experience. (more…)

November 19, 2009 at 1:38 am mahaezz Leave a comment