Islamic Society/Center of Windermere

In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

All praise is due to Allah, the Almighty

Meeting turn out to be a huge success, and all the right people show up. Imam Tariq Rasheed attended the meeting, and provided the background of another effort to build the masjid in this area of Windermere. Agreement was reached to continue both efforts, but delay forming any new Non-profit.

Basically, the effort last year slowed down due to some events, and it was brought back to life right after my first email about the masjid, three weeks ago. I wonder what caused that sudden reaction :-). It seems that there was a closed door meeting held in Dr Asif Mohiuddin's house, where a group of brothers has decided to join the effort to build a masjid. Although, none of the people I know was invited, we all welcome this news, and will work with them on this, InshAllah.

Personally, I am still cynical about the timing and seriousness of the effort, and especially the effort to build a temporary Musallah. However, I will give them the benefit of the doubt, and accept their sincere attempt. We will delay creating a Non-profit for now, and see what plays out in next month or so.

I will be asking for updates from Imam Tariq Rasheed, every second Sunday, unless we are invited to their meetings, which is up to them. Also, we will be continuing the efforts to look for the location for Musallah as normal, except when the time come for signing the contract, we will let this new group do that. If they fail to do that we will create a non-profit and take over at that point.

In essence, we are willing to give anyone lead on this effort, since gaining leadership is not the goal, but will not allow them to slow down. Hopefully, the effort will be successful, and we will have the Musallah or Masjid within months, InshAllah.

One concern that many brought to me was following Quran and Sunnah in the new masjid, and I agree with that concern, but we should not allow this to create disunity in the community for now. There are two conditions that I would like the new masjid to have.

- Imam should have full authority over all matters, and everyone works under him.
- No single Madhab should be followed, and Shura should be open to people from different Fiqh background, but Imam will be the final authority.

So, choosing the correct Imam will be critical, and should be decided by a mixed Shura.

At the end, ultimate goal for this meeting was to find a way forward in building a Masjid for this part of the town, and we have a way forward, so we achieved the first goal. We are looking forward to working with this new group of brothers.

Please participate in the public meetings, and ask a lot of questions. That is the only way to keep ourselves honest, and Allah knows best.

I would like to thanks all of the brother who came or who tried to come, and couldn't. You are from an elite part of our community, who take actions, and May Allah raise you among "AsSabiqoon AsSabiqoon" (The Foremost, The Foremost). I do not want to be among influential, but I want to be among you.

JazakAllah Khairin

AbuArman (Adnan Jumani)