Liberal Arts Forum

Bismillah; You can see from the post below more and more mosques are going to create Youth Program Coordinators/Directors positions to fill this generation gap at your local mosque. Here is a description of a position at Islamic Society of Central Jersey (Rt. 1, South Brunswick). I ask you to encourage your local masjid board members to come up with a program/position that caters to the youth. Folks you have heard it before … “Youth are our future” well! “Lets put our money where our mouth is”.

Opening: Youth Coordinator Position

The Islamic Society of Central Jersey has a current staff position opening for a quarter time (approximately 10 hours per week) Youth Coordinator. This is a paid position starting “as soon as filled” to June 2008.

The successful candidate will work closely with ISCJ’s Imam Hamad Chebli to coordinate and develop Youth Programs targeting ages between 13 and 22.

Specific responsibilities include the following:

• Maintain and coordinate youth ministries.
• Recruit and support volunteers in these ministries and programs.
• Support all Youth Group officers and keep all officers accountable to their specific area of ministry
• Complete administrative tasks associated with youth ministries.
• Communicate information to and amongst; youth, parents, volunteers, other staff, and masjid members, as well as local, regional and national religious organizations.
• Hold biweekly halaqa style youth meetings and monthly youth organized events.

Minimum Qualifications:

• A high school diploma or GED required.
• Must have at the time of application and must maintain a State of New Jersey Driver’s License.
• Ability to travel and work occasional evenings and weekends is desired.
  

The successful candidate will possess skills and experience as well as an interest in continued professional growth in the following areas:

• Competent knowledge of Islam, Hadith, and Arabic as assessed by ISCJ Imam.
• Personal leadership ability.
• Enthusiasm and creativity.
• Good administrative and organizational skills.
• Positive and effective interpersonal communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively as part of a team of religious professionals.
• Understanding of the importance and unique challenges of ministry to and with youth.
• Ability to work cooperatively with youth and adults.
• Ability to facilitate development of youth leadership skills.

Send your resume ASAP to Br. Basem: basem.h @ gmail.com

Khutba: Purification Process (((audio)))

Princeton University MSA.

The spiritual science of Ihsan is based on excellence. A simple explanation of character development in Islam. as A person of ihsan or tazkiya puts God before everything. This Purification process begins with repentance. It leads a person to embodying the Prophetic character of “Worship God as though you see Him and if you cannot reach that stage, then He surely sees you”.

We live in an age of religious iconoclasm. Religiosity in materialistic world is often equated with eastern clothing, size of one’s beard, above ankle pants, and statements such as “kaifa halak ya akhi”, etc. Nevertheless, even with so many exoteric “sunnas”, the esoteric is bereft of Prophetic character and fear of God. What is the proof? Those who have ihsan are busy with their own shortcomings instead of pointing other people’s faults.

Ihsan is to be absent from people in the presence of God. May Allah guide us to the Straight Path.

“Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

What did we learn from Karbala?
10th Muharram, 1429 H at New Brunswick Islamic Center

A brief history of the incident of Karbala – the martyrdom of Imam Husain (may God be pleased with him). The emphasis is on learning form our past and working together as Muslims. “If God had willed He would have made you into a single nation.” The khutba is not a judgment on shia or sunna but rather a call to mutual respect and harmony given the current state of affairs in the Muslim world.

Bringing Youth & Sisters Back to the Mosque (((audio)))

Jan. 25, 2008,
Islamic Circle of Mercer County, Lawrenceville, NJ

Why are they missing?
How can we bring them back?
A deeper look into a serious flaw within our community.

DARK REFLECTIONS:

Salam Alaikum:
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!
Okay, I am not trying to sell Girls Scout cookies here. It has been my observation that aside from MSA a major portion of the Ummah of the Prophet is missing from our mosques. They have been marginalized, locked up in the basement, shown closets for prayer areas, given looks, shoved in the back rows, and have been told “stay at home!”.
Who is this unfortunate group?
They are known to us as our sisters. It is mind boggling to see that in most cases 50% of our community is not involved in our “community centers”…hmmm!
Is there anybody stopping them? Or simply our sisters have become so complacent that they do not see any point in visiting mosques for jumuah or regular prayers?
Well! I decided to pick up my pen on this subject matter because it bothers me that in many cases my sisters have nothing to contribute to the community. Now I want to take this Sister Power to another level (guys don’t panic). Since the mosques don’t belong to anyone of the men…(last time I checked it is the house of worship for both men and women). I wanted to give all the sisters in my local community a very simple CHALLENGE.

Pay Attention!

The challenge is that there should be so many sisters in local mosque THIS FRIDAY (1/25/08) that there is no room for men… (OMG, I think I will be in trouble with one of your dads…lol.). Can you make it? Can you carpool? Can you organize sisters and visit masjid for one hour on jumua?
Lets break the bad old habit of staying at home for jumua…Lets bring in some sisters to run the show. (puhleezzz, don’t forward this email to your dads!!!)please call/forward this chain mail to other sisters in your community. This JUMUA (1/25/08) Sister Power HOUR at your local masjid.
faraz

p.s. BTW, guys don’t even think about wearing niqab!.