TAM East I – Maryland – Oct. 15-17
TAM South – Houston – Oct. 22-24
TAM East II – Hartford, CT (hosted by NY) – Oct. 29-31
TAM Mid-West – Milwaukee, WI – Nov. 5-7  New!
TAM West – Coming soon

The 2010 TAM Team and the TAM host chapters are working hard throughout this Ramadan to create a memorable and powerful TAM experience that will equip MAS members with an invaluable set of skills. Stay tuned for many more details and sneak peeks into this year’s program and highlights.

Make the intention this Ramadan to attend TAM, deepen your commitment to the cause of Allah, and play an active role in this important national MAS event by registering TODAY!

MAS Tarbiya would like to congratulate you on the upcoming month of Ramadan. There is no time of year that is filled with the potential and opportunities as the days ahead. The Prophet (saw) said, “Ramadan has come upon you. It is a month of blessing, in which Allah covers you with blessing, for He sends down Mercy, decreases sins and answers prayers. In it, Allah looks at your competition in good deeds, and boasts about you to His angels. So show Allah goodness from yourselves, for the unfortunate one is he who is deprived in this month of the mercy of Allah, the Mighty, the Exalted.” [Narrated by Tabarani]

For Ramadan-related inspiration and ideas on how to maximize self-development, don’t miss the Lighthouse Project episode from last year, “Flee to Allah”, which contains instructions on how to make Ramadan a turning point, combat inconsistency and laziness, increase our reward through charity, and become among the people of the Quran. You can view the pdf document here.

For MAS members, Ramadan should be much, much more than just a season in the conventional sense–when greetings are exchanged, fasts and prayers are performed collectively, and families and friends come together. Get ready from this very moment to take advantage of the enormous opportunity for self-development and purification before you. Stretch yourself and push yourself to the limit in charity, activism, and self-purification–we have the whole year to pace ourselves so this is not the time for rest and taking it easy. Do not allow Ramadan to come and go without achieving a breakthrough in your relationship with Allah (swt).

Let’s compete before Allah (swt) to take advantage of Ramadan, for we are coming upon a special time when rewards and forgiveness are given out left and right and there is an unbelievable discount on jannah itself. If we walk away empty-handed, we have only ourselves to blame. Remember MAS, your brothers and sisters, and the upcoming TAM 2010 in your supplications–ask that Allah (swt) forgives us all, bestows His guidance on us, and grants us the energy, time, and sincerity to carry His mission forward in America.

Yours sincerely,
The MAS Tarbiya National Team

TAM East I: Maryland

TAM East II: New York

TAM Mid-West: Chicago Milwaukee

TAM South: Houston

TAM West: Phoenix San Diego (boycotting due to Arizona Immigration Law SB1070)

TAM 2010 will take place between the dates of Oct. 1 and Nov. 7. The exact dates for each location will be announced soon. Stay tuned for more details.

We hope that all chapters in every region will contact the host chapters to see how they can help and begin to plan to push registration in their localities to ensure that TAM ’10 is a positive opportunity for every MAS chapter.

Objective 1: To increase the contribution of MAS members to the tarbiya effort and resources – Contribute over Consume

Objective 2: To further describe the five major tarbiya qualities

What is this objective?

When we started the term, our team came up with five major tarbiya qualities that we would like to achieve in MAS members individually and in MAS as a society to be able to carry out MAS mission. The qualities can actually be used to describe any American Muslim who wants to engage in a mission like ours. The five overarching qualities are:

• God-conscious: the personal characteristics of a righteous individual, whether this individual is active or not
• Movement oriented: the set of qualities that an individual must embrace to be active, work for the sake of Allah, and expand righteousness beyond oneself
• Team players: the qualities of people who work in a team and the dynamics of the team environment
• Exemplary citizens: the characteristics that specifically are directed towards serving our country
• Bearers of a message: comprises the set of qualities needed to accomplish the second half of our mission statement, “… and to convey Islam with utmost clarity.”

We introduced the five qualities with some examples of the sub-qualities each would entail. However, we believe that there needs to be some effort in expressing these five qualities in more detailed, unambiguous fashion, hence this objective of ours in 2010 and beyond.

Why this objective?

There are many reasons for taking on this objective. Some of those reasons are:

• MAS members need to know some of the detailed qualities they should aspire to achieve in their personal development.
• When developing tarbiya curricula for small groups and large groups, it is important that this curricula has clear, foundational, and detailed objectives.
• All tarbiya projects, such as camps and programs, will be aiming at one or more of these detailed qualities.
• This project can serve as an organizational schema for the many resources MAS members collect and develop. In addition to tagging and categorizing those resources based on areas of knowledge such as fiqh, foundation of fiqh, or seerah, we will be able to tag them using the five tarbiya qualities, which will be extremely helpful in leveraging resources for personal and team development.

How is it related to the MAS leadership’s strategy?

Early in the term, the MAS BoT came up with a list of strategic goals. One of these strategic goals was to “reshape tarbiya in the American context.” This second objective of expanding the five qualities is an attempt to describe MAS members and MAS in general as a society of American Muslims working to achieve MAS’ mission.

How is the national team working toward this objective?

The national team is working on this objective through a very unique, strategic project called the Tarbiya MindMap. We will be running a series of focused meetings on this project  in the next few months. If you are interested in participating, please contact us. We will share much more about this project later and we will request everyone’s participation in it.

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.

Click here to see Episode III

This episode will inspire in-depth discussions and challenge you by exploring the issue of moderation and how we in MAS approach this key theme of Islam. Many questions will be raised, some will be answered, but more importantly, MAS members all over the country are invited to answer many of the crucial questions asked in this episode.

MAS members are encouraged to share this episode in all of their circles and throughout their communities. There are in-depth articles and reading lists, exciting case studies as well a chance to design your own, and two interactive webinars that you do not want to miss!

Check out the introduction for an overview of the episode and a suggested timeline on how to use the  material.

The first beam “Moderation Unleashed” approaches moderation from a theoretical and scholarly perspective, also underlining some of the popular misinterpretations of moderation. “Moderation Applied” explores the theme in the daily lives of MAS members, taking a very practical, day-to-day approach. And finally, “Moderation in Society” raises questions about how we can create a message of moderation to be advocated by the greater society.

Click here to access the episode pdf! We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed putting it together. A special thanks to the LHP team and all of the contributors to this episode.

Objective 1: To increase the contribution of MAS members to the tarbiya effort and resources – Contribute over Consume – C over C

What is this objective about?

This objective seeks to encourage MAS members to become contributors to tarbiya resources and programs rather than mere consumers of them. The national team has decided to leverage the power of the MAS membership and its experience to build a strong and relevant tarbiya offering on the local and national levels. This signifies a shift from programs and resources prepared by a central team to programs and resources prepared by a larger proportion of MAS’s membership. The shift aims at utilizing the power and talent of the membership to create, share, transcribe, translate, edit, publish, and filter tarbiya material. This effort utilizes the tremendous experience MAS members are gaining on a daily basis and makes it part of what MAS can offer to its members and community at large.

Why this objective?

• Leveraging the experience of MAS members. Tarbiya is mainly about sharing experience. People develop by interacting with others and learning about their experiences. MAS members, on the ground and active in many areas of Islamic work, are constantly exposed to opportunities for learning and development. They interact with great mentors, listen to lectures, engage in discussions, work in committees, and go through exciting life experiences within and outside MAS. This experience SHOULD NOT be kept to themselves. It must be shared. This model will make MAS members aware of the importance of sharing and contributing what they have gained to the tarbiya of others, both locally and nationally.
• Leveraging the time of MAS members. Many MAS members think that there is little they can contribute to the tarbiya offering and resources. This is not true. There is MUCH that MAS members can offer. Many MAS members have time to offer, but they do not have a space to contribute. By making this shift, MAS members will be able to contribute to tarbiya programs and resources by merely sharing their time. They can transcribe lectures, workshops, or discussions. They can translate important material. They can proofread, edit, or filter material. They can tag and categorize material shared by others.
• Moving away from “wait” mode. Many MAS members developed the mentality of “waiting” for the central team to deliver. When the curriculum is outdated, people cry “where is the new curriculum?” When some material is missing, people continuously call for “experts” to create this material for them. When we make this shift, people will be actively contributing. They will be reaching out to “experts” in their localities and will be eager to share what they have prepared and contribute it to a national offering.
• Establishing ownership of programs and resources. Collectively building resources makes people feel a sense of belonging to a larger team and a sense of ownership of our programs which leads to continuous improvements and contributions. It also helps people to start developing a sense of gaining reward by contributing to the development and growth of many people and not just themselves.
• Coping with the dynamic growth of MAS. MAS is growing extremely fast and moving into many new areas. Without the contribution of MAS members it is very hard to find experts who can keep up with the rapid changes that are taking place on the ground, let alone provide relevant solutions to the challenges of tarbiya. Asking the right questions, sharing new experiences, and attempting to face the specific realities of people on the ground will make MAS’s tarbiya offering more meaningful and develop “experts” in many of the new areas of tarbiya. The best people to bring real experience to the table are those who are experiencing reality.
• Maximizing the contribution of “experts.” Experts now become real resources. Instead of consuming the experts in the central preparation of material or putting them all in a committee that cannot meet or discuss due to geographic and logistical barriers, the general membership will be utilizing experts locally. They will turn to them for their questions and thereby contribute to the questions AND answers of our tarbiya offering. People will video and audio tape speakers and share. Others will transcribe the great wealth of audio material already available instead of requesting the experts to write. Many will be interviewing intellectuals about new challenges and sharing their results. Experts will have time to filter, comment, and summarize the contributions made by others.
• Promoting the best learning and developing experience: learning by contributing. People read more and better when they know that they will be sharing what they learn. If I am posting an article and know that others will see and use it, I read it better. When I translate a piece, my retention of the meaning is better. When I transcribe an audio lecture, I learn it twice; once through listening and once through typing. When I share my experience, I go through it multiple times: once when I experience it, once when I share it, and many times when people comment and give feedback on it.

Connection to MAS’s Executive Strategy

MAS Executive Council recently adopted a 6-item strategy. One of these items was to “use a ground up approach.” Our objective of contributing over consuming ties directly into this strategy.

How is the national team realizing this objective?

The national team was taking steps towards achieving this objective even before it was explicitly articulated. Here are a few examples of how the national team is working towards its realization:

• The MT-Portal Project: This is one of the major projects we are taking on this term. We would like to create a strong online community around tarbiya. This project (which will be shared later in detail) will allow MAS members to come together in a central place where they can share experiences and resources. This project is essential for achieving the C over C objective. It will be the central place where questions can be asked and answers will be provided, by all of us. It will be the central place where resources will be shared, transcribed, filtered, and translated.
• The Tarbiya Annual Meeting (TAM): TAM in the past was a meeting for tarbiya workers which naturally transformed into an all member meeting around tarbiya. As you all have experienced, and many have explicitly mentioned, TAM creates more questions than answers and presents more challenges and problems than solutions. This was, and will continue to be, by design. We would like to establish this objective: we contribute to the solutions of our challenges together. Speakers and moderators play the role of facilitators rather than lecturers and contribute to the discussions along with everyone else. The results of the past 3 TAMs shaped the direction and strategy of both MAS Tarbiya National and MAS as a whole. People now come to the TAM with the mentality of contributing rather than merely consuming. They have started adopting C over C, at least in the TAM.
• The Light House Project (LHP): One would find the same attitude when looking deeply at the LHP. There are more questions than answers and more discussion points than discussions. There has been a constant request in the lighthouse beams of the previous two episodes that we launched in 2009 asking people to “contribute.” We asked people to share their opinions, reflections, and writings on the specified topics. This was and is part of an effort to encourage contribution over consumption.
• Building the Tarbiya mini-Guides: Even in projects as essential as the developing of a set of guides for tarbiya, the MAS Tarbiya Mini Guides project, we are taking the C over C approach. We are calling on all local tarbiya directors, chapter presidents, and MAS Youth directors to contribute to the making of these guides. We will also make a similar call to the MAS membership. We want these guides to be as relevant and as real as possible. This will only result by involving people on the ground.
• The Tarbiya Standards Map (TSM): The national team even decided to build our curriculum and study material using the same approach. The tarbiya standard map is a mind map, a tree, or a taxonomy describing the final product that we are working towards: who are MAS members and what does their environment look like? (more about this project later). We would like all of our mentors, leaders, and members to contribute to drawing this map and the programs and resources needed to achieve it.

How can we realize this objective locally?

Here is where the real action happens. Local chapters need to aim for this objective on the local level and encourage their members to participate in the national effort. Every chapter should make this a priority in 2010. Below are a few examples of how this can be done. Please note that these are only EXAMPLES and possible ideas are countless.

• Promote the spirit of C over C. In our small and large gatherings, we should remind each other of the importance of contributing to our tarbiya effort. When we speak about it, it will effect our actions, then our daily habits, then become a natural part of our lives.
• Follow up on contribution efforts. Mentors and committee leaders should follow up on how much people are contributing to ongoing tarbiya projects.
• Assign contribution tasks. Local tarbiya committees should assign individuals and small groups some tasks for the local tarbiya work. For example, let the monthly meeting be planned and executed by a group. Let this group change every few meetings. They should be responsible for planning and executing as well as summarizing and sharing with the rest of the chapter and the rest of the nation. Give some people the responsibility of creating some material or designing some programs.
• Share your successful projects with the rest of the nation. Every chapter has a strength. Some chapters are more advanced than others. It is very essential to the development of MAS as a whole for this experience to be shared. If you develop a Personal Development Plan in your chapter, or a nice monthly program, or a unique recreational effort, PLEASE SHARE IT with the rest of us. If you conduct a local training, TAPE IT and SHARE IT. Your successful project is a property of MAS not your chapter. It is our collective right to benefit from each other’s work.
• Own a national project. Reach out to our national team and take ownership of some projects. Form a small group of people who like to write and research and own an episode of the Lighthouse project or prepare some material for the curriculum. Do not wait for the national team to assign you something. Reach out to them. Come up with ideas and pilot them in your chapter.

Individual application

MAS members are the main players in this shift. They are the ones who will make it or break it. Commercial companies make breakthroughs using the power of the public and MAS will make a breakthrough in tarbiya if we can capitalize on the tremendous wealth we have in our members. Crowd sourcing is becoming a norm and the MAS crowd is a unique crowd. Here are a few tips on how MAS members can make this shift:

• Get out of the “wait” mode
• Share your experience; it’s extremely valuable.
• Find out what you can contribute. Even transcribing an audio lecture is a great service.
• Try to write. Writing is very effective for one’s own development. Create your own blog NOW!
• When asked to contribute, take it as an order.
• Reach out to your local committee and find out how you can contribute.
• Reach out to the national team and find out how you can contribute.
• Know that “a little” is not a little when put together. The river is nothing but a compilation of streams.
• Keep your camera or mp3 recorder with you and record events that you attend. Make sure you take the permission of the speaker before taping him/her.
• Say 10 times a day, “I can’t wait for the mt-portal to launch!” When it does launch, we will hold you accountable to these claims.

• 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:

• Individuals who are interested in developing themselves, their families, and people around them
• Mentors such as MAS Usra leaders, MY Connect leaders
• Local tarbiya committee members
• Local tarbiya coordinators and directors
• Chapter leadership and chapter presidents
• National tarbiya team members

How is this guide organized?

This guide comprises a set of smaller guides (mini guides) to make it easy for the readers to zoom in to what they are looking for. The first guide, “Tarbiya: a core Islamic value, a movement value, and a MAS core value,” aims at defining the concept of tarbiya and its value in Islam and the movement work. It also helps the reader to understand the importance of considering this value and applying it in our lives. The guide quickly describes some of the challenges that can be overcome by utilizing this concept and some of the challenges one faces while applying this concept. The guide will help the reader be aware of some of the objectives of tarbiya, and some of the methods and the tools that can be utilized to achieve those goals.
The second guide, “Personal Guide to Tarbiya,” takes the reader towards personal tarbiya, an effort every single Muslim should be concerned about. It will help the reader apply the concepts and the ideas described in the first guide for their own personal development. The guide will present the reader with extra reading resources as well as practical tools for personal development.
Moving beyond personal tarbiya, “The Mentor’s Guide,” helps the reader develop the necessary knowledge and skills to be able to offer tarbiya to others around. Those who are formally leaders of others such as MY Connect leaders, MAS Usra leaders, or committee leaders, and those who informally mentor others such as relatively senior members can benefit a lot from this guide. It gives tips and suggestions on how to perform this important work and help overcome many of the challenges faced in this area. It will present the reader with numerous case studies and real life situations. The guide also helps us understand the tools we use within MAS to formally focus on tarbiya such as MY Connect and MAS Usra with tips and suggestions of how to get the maximum out of these tools and how to make them creative and use them to solve real life tarbiya challenges. The guide also highlights the national resources that can be used for mentorship.
As MAS chapters engage in a more organized tarbiya activities, the “Local Tarbiya Team Guide,” helps the local tarbiya committee to better execute tarbiya plans for the chapter. The guide gives tips and suggestions of the best practices and structures of the local tarbiya committee, the responsibilities of this committee, and the relationship between this committee and other entities within the chapter. It also highlights the relationship between the local committee and the national team and gives suggestion of how to make the local tarbiya work synchronized with the rest of the nation. The guide demonstrates how the local tarbiya team can leverage the experience of the network of chapters around the nation. The guide helps the local committee to make a plan and synchronize their plan with the national plan. It will also come with a portfolio of case studies and problem solving tips and suggestions to help the local committee in their day-to-day challenges.
Chapter leadership in general and chapter presidents in particular are the key players in making the tarbiya effort in MAS successful. Chapters whose presidents are focused on tarbiya and incorporate it in all aspects of work are the most successful chapters. Tarbiya effort is struggling in chapters whose leadership is not focused on tarbiya. Therefore, the “Chapter leadership Guide” aims at helping chapter leadership in general and chapter presidents in particular be cognizant of their crucial role regarding this effort. It will help the chapter president make an assessment of tarbiya effort in the chapter, take the necessary strategy, choose the right tarbiya team and hold them accountable to the right job responsibilities. It helps the chapter leadership incorporate tarbiya in the many aspects of MAS work not only the tarbiya department.
At the end of those guide resides the “National Tarbiya Team Guide,” which helps MAS national team understands its role within MAS national and its responsibilities towards the tarbiya effort within MAS. It makes a clear description of national tarbiya operation and sets the model for interacting with the local crew. It also gives tips and suggestions to MAS national leadership of how to form the national tarbiya team and hold them accountable to the right measures.
It is important to note that

• Those aforementioned guides are not huge guides. They are, on the contrary, mini guides that are meant to ignite ideas, and solicit discussions.
• The guides come with numerous workshops and training material which will be mentioned in each guide. Those will be offered according to a national plan and based on chapter requests.
• They are also meant to grow and include real life experience of those who read them and implement them. They will represent the experience of those who contributed to them
• By design, those guide avoid giving detailed instruction or a “must-do” type of tips. This is due the fact that different chapters have different contexts and what fits a group may not fit another. However, details and examples will be used to demonstrate a general suggestion or to clarify an abstract concept.
• The guides are authored and published incrementally. That means some of these guides will be published while others are under development.
• All the content in these guides are for educational and development purpose. This means any rules, by-laws, policies, or procedures set by the national or the local leadership supersedes what is in these guides unless otherwise explicitly stated in the guides.
• The guide is mainly published online with a yearly printed version available for purchase. MAS national owns full copyright of the material and distribution and sharing should take place according to MAS national set policy.

How can you help make this guide better?

As mentioned earlier, this guide will continue to be a living document where experience will be added. You can make this guide better by giving the editors feedback on the material especially that which stems from personal real life experience. You can also help by giving more tips and suggestions of how to do things in a better way, or how to solve certain problems. You can also share your successful experience as well as the not-so-successful one in the platform specified by each guide. These guides will only be useful when practical input shows itself and where accumulative experience gets included. 
In these early stages of developing these guides, MAS tarbiya national is looking for those who are interested in contributing to the first edition of the guides. Please contact the national tarbiya team if you feel you can help in brainstorming, suggesting, writing, editing, or publishing any or all of these guides.

Ready, Set, Go (only for those who join the guides team)

• GUIDE 1 – Tarbiya: a core Islamic value, a movement value, a Muslim American Society’s Value (under development)
• GUIDE 2 – Personal Guide to Tarbiya (under development)
• GUIDE 3 – Mentorship (under development)
• GUIDE 4 – Local Tarbiya Team (under development)
• GUIDE 5 – Tarbiya for Chapter Leadership (under development)
• GUIDE 6 – National Tarbiya Team (under development)
• Appendix I – Personal Development Plan Example (publishing …)
• Appendix II – MAS Tarbiya Standard Map: a Snapshot (publishing …)
• Appendix III – Tarbiya Annual Meeting Manual (under development)
• Appendix iV – MAS Usra/MY Connect Frequently Asked Questions (publishing …)
• and more …

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.

Getting to Know Each Other

In 2009, the MTD was carried by three team members. At the end of 2009, two more members were added, one of them in a helping, unofficial capacity at the moment.

For the meeting, three team members were displaced out of their natural habitat, looking deep into their closets and joining two fellow New Yorkers to cope with the near-freezing temperatures. “I told you we should have met in San Diego!” exclaimed Zia Siddiqui. Zia, a native of Pakistan, has been in the Southern California region ever since moving to the USA 12 years ago. “We could be on the beach right now!” affirmed Raed Manasrah. Raed was like a fish out of the water because he lives five minutes from the beach in Los Angeles, CA. “I agree, its cold!” explained Wael Hamza. Wael, even though a resident of Yorktown Heights, NY for nine years, still clings to his warm roots in Egypt. “I have never been there, I would love to visit it,” expressed Sharif Aly. Sharif, born and raised in New York, still has some exploring to do. At the next opportunity, Southern California is at the top of his list. While most of us worried only about ourselves, Maha Ezzeddine had to look out for her travel companion as well, her daughter ten-month-old Maryam. Even though she was coming from her home in Houston, TX, Maha grew up in Maryland, so she didn’t have much adjusting to do. And no, the weather wasn’t the talk of the weekend (we had much more tarbiya-talk to do), but it definitely was a good ice-breaker, literally!

Meeting with MAS Leadership

The team had the fortunate opportunity to hold its meeting a short distance away from the Board of Trustees (BoT) meeting, which was also attended by Hossam AlJabri, the new executive director of MAS. We were able to share meals with them and get to know them on a personal level. We shared stories, aspirations, and suggestions that will help us carry the team forward. This instilled the mutual confidence and respect needed to carry the MAS forward insha Allah.

Strategic Planning and Projects

The first topic up for discussion was the direction MAS and MTD was taking. We asked very fundamental questions about MAS, MTD, our team, our roles, and our cooperation with other departments and of course, you…the local teams and members! This is where all the implementation happens and a real movement is made. MAS doesn’t exist or function without the local teams and members driving the work on the ground. Throughout our discussions, we kept this in mind, making sure every intellectual thought was taking into account the local teams and the members perception.

The Intellectual Foundations (IF) documents played a major role in our discussion. As the IF discussion is currently taking place throughout MAS at all levels, MTD wanted to contribute and show how our work can utilize and implement the IF decisions that are made throughout the organization.

Memos of understanding were drafted so that the concise, clear view of MTD can be distributed to other departments and to MAS leadership so that a common understanding can take place. These will not be final, official decisions on behalf of MAS, which is mostly the duty of the MAS leadership, but rather a viewpoint that will guide our department in its implementation through our mission, communication, and projects insha Allah.

Furthermore, a bulk of the meeting was discussing the objectives and projects that are to be started in 2010 and carried out throughout the term. Overall, we wanted the projects to be dynamic, applicable, and attention-drawing. It should fit the mission of MAS. Therefore, MTD holds this responsibility of developing members, training them, and providing them with resources and skills in order to carry out this mission and vision outlined by MAS. MAS overall is as great as its members and the MTD is assigned the task of taking care of its members.

Expectations of the National Team

You should expect our extended national team to be a national resource and guiding light for local implementation. We want to carry MAS and its members to the next level, providing them with tools and discussions that will shape the future of Islam in America. We understand the burden placed on us is very heavy, but we anticipate your help in this great endeavor by leveraging local talent and resources. Some projects will be continued, such as the Tarbiya Annual Meeting (TAM) and the Lighthouse Project (LHP), and new, exciting projects will be rolled out as we go along insha Allah!

A detailed plan from us will be published very soon, outlining our aspirations and projects for the upcoming year. Within the framework of this plan, you should expect timely and open communication, planning and structure for your local teams, and networking so that we may achieve the mission collectively. Look out for more email communications and MTD blog entries where you can discover and learn about the latest developments.

Expectations of Local Teams

By local teams, we mean Chapter Presidents, Tarbiya Directors, MAS Youth (MY) Directors, and of course, you, the member! We look forward to your vital role in the MTD operation. Local and national teams are joint operations that work hand-in-hand. The fulfillment and use of the overall strategy and the projects will be essential to create a national, unified direction that we can all achieve together. Some of the projects entail the contribution and resource-sharing by the members, something that we hope you will actively participate in. We hope that you will contribute and add to this effort!

Specifically, we would like for you to have open communication with us so that we may understand each other and our messages are received. Lastly, we would like to be able to tap into local resources for national work so that we can keep up with the local growth and be able to keep providing resources.

Concluding Thoughts

We ask for your help in this great task. And we expect nothing in return except for the reward from Allah. Please make a special dua that Allah accepts from us, bless our work, and carry MAS and its members to what gives us success in this life and the hereafter. Lastly, please don’t hesitate to contact us to share your thoughts, feedback, and criticisms (mt-exec@yahoogroups.com)…we would like to always be there for you!

Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmat Allah wa barakatuh!

Raed Manasrah

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.