An opportunity HOSNA MUST NOT miss!

As-salaamu ‘alaykum oh people of Hosna!

I have a proposal for you which I believe you MUST NOT ignore.

Al-Maghrib tribes are growing and evolving, and new ones are being formed. Tribal competition is going to become more challenging then ever. Other tribes are stepping up the plate and working hard to TAKE YOUR LIWAA AWAAY.

YOU MUST NOT LET THIS HAPPEN!!!

Here is one of the actions that can help you in this endeavor.

I propose that you, the people of Hosna, create in 17 days a NEWSLETTER about the TCE class we just enjoyed having! Hosna needs this newsletter! Al-Maghrib needs this newsletter! Muslims around us need this newsletter to learn what they are missing, what is passing them by!

Before I tell you why we need the newsletter in 17 days, and before I show you that we can do it, and before I present to you proposed newsletter format and content, let me answer for you the following two questions:

What’s in it for Qabeelat Hosna?

- pleasure of Allah swt is, of course, our main and ultimate aim, and this newsletter will inshaAllah help us in that endeavor, provided our intentions are pure (oh Allah, help us make our intentions pure!)

- you will gain points in the tribal competition which will help the liwaa stay in your Diyaar

- you’ll be able to use this news letter to let the rest of Muslims in your area know what a great experience you’ve had in al-Maghrib class and hopefully excite them and stimulate them to become a member of al-Maghrib community by signing up for future classes. As a result, your tribe will, inshaAllah, grow and become stronger.

- you’ll be setting an example for all other tribes, not only present ones but also the ones that are yet to be formed; they’ll see you eagerness, determination and “eemaan in action� and will strive to be as you or better in helping Allah’s deen.

- you’ll show that tribal rivalry does not prevent tribes from helping each other and from “cooperating in goodness and piety� (see TMQ 5:2).

And since we Muslims do not live our lives only by “what’s in it for me� principle, we also must answer this second question:
What’s in it for others?

- other tribes will be able to use your newsletter to promote al-Maghrib. This goes for current tribes as well as the ones to be formed in future.

- tribes which have not had TCE class yet will be able to use your newsletter to recruit more students

- the newsletter will also mention EmanRush which will help in spreading the word about its products which can bring mini al-Maghrib experience even to areas around the world which have not been blessed with live al-Maghrib classes (YET).

I could probably come up with many more benefits, but I’ll stop here to get your feedback and so that hopefully we can start working on this newsletter ASAP!!!!

Now, why we need this newsletter in 17 days? Al-Maghrib is starting expansion campaign in 17 days with its presence at TWO regional conventions, one in Dallas and one in Ohio. Soon thereafter, there will be follow up promotional programs in both cities in the later part of July (details are here). Dallas convention is expecting 5000+ people to come, and many will definitely be in Ohio as well. This is a great opportunity to have a message from current al-Maghrib students be ready and shared with new and potential students. Through this newsletter, it is US STUDENTS telling them what they will find in al-Maghrib classes. We should not miss this opportunity!

Proposed newsletter format:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SECTION ONE: What is this and why are we writing it? (these titles I’ll be giving are not titles I am actually proposing. They are here to let you, newsletter preparer, know what should this section include and we can come up with nice section headings later.)

Al-Maghrib came to our area. We took the class. We loved it. We learned enormously from it. We want to share this excitement with you and we invite you to become a student in upcoming al-Maghrib classes which have been designed for YOUR convenience (teachers come to you, its on the weekend, its accredited…). (Again, I am proposing here what we should say in principle; we’ll come up with nice text to say this later.)

SECTION TWO: What have we learned in TCE?

Here we put class summary: We learned now fiqh evolved and how we got where we are today. We learned that there were 6 stages and this is their summary (stage 1, stage 2, …). We also learned about the lives of four great Imams, about taqleed and ijtihaad, and about the future of fiqh. This would be the largest portion of the newsletter.

SECTION THREE: Reflections on the class

Few quotes from students. Maybe one on how we realized how important it is to study with a shaykh in addition to reading the books. And maybe one on brothers being like bees.

Student gems. We put a few of those.

Then message from the tribe ameer, one or two sentences.

Then message from shaykh Yasser. The message can be advice to students (like what he gave us at the end of the class) or can be his personal reflection on how he felt white teaching the class, or while being cornered by a mob of brothers. Also just a few sentences.

And finally poem about the class which kind of sums it all up.

SECTION FOUR: What now?

By this time, the reader will inshaAllah be overcome by EmanRush and by sadness because he/she has missed the class. But we comfort them and say: Don’t worry. New classes are coming to your area, this is what they are and his is how you sign up. And if you’d like to get a glimpse at our previous classes, or you wish to study more from our teachers, well we’ve got EmanRush.com for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And this would be it. We could also add a section about “who are our teachers� where we can put few sentences about each of our teachers so that the students know who will they be studying from.

And finally the last thing: Can we do it 17 days? I say: “You betcha!� We literally have at least 75% of the material already ready. There is many of us and this will be a piece of cake! We did in class summaries of each of the stage. Each group selected the best summary. We put those together and *BAM* we have our biggest section covered. Plus, most of us should have our own summaries by now anyhow since we need it for the exam. The poem is there. The gems and student reflections are there (we just need to sort through them and find few we like the most). Also, for sections summaries, I remember brother Waheed (I believe this is his name, from Indiana) made a graphical chart of his era. Maybe he could come up with an electronic version of it which could help us add some visual effects to the newsletter.

We should be able to fit this insha Allah in 4 sheets (8 pages) at the most. We want this to be short and sweet for the reader. We get this done in 15 days. We find a volunteer from among Dallas/Ohio brothers who’ll be working on the promo. We e-mail PDF file to them. They go to local Kinko’s and print whole bunch in time for the two conferences. We share it with other tribes as well so that they can use it as they please (we can make an edition for each area by just changing the last section with information on upcoming classes since this will differ from place to place). We send PDF to our friends via e-mail, or we print a bunch and give out to people in our area.

That’s it. Let me hear what you think. But remember, there is no time to loose!

Was-salaamu ‘alaykum
Your borhter
and temporary member of Hosna
Mandarina

You know br. Mandarina; I remember when Sheikh Muhammad was teaching Tareekh Al-khulafaa he mentioned the story of Az-zubair on Al-Qadisyyah and how he was taking pledges from people to join him during the difficult time to raise the morale of the Muslim army. Few who responded every time, but were the most courageous. They gave their pledge; they strove hard and offered for the sake of Allah the greatest sacrifice ‘Their life’.

See my dear Az-zubair if you can find those who will pledge for the good work with you, for something much more less than their life ‘Their time’.

Walaikum assalam,

Shaikh Yaser, what a great way to nudge people to step up to the plate, because Brother Mandarina's proposal is truly scary for those of us just trying to keep our study circles together, and more importantly...study!

Brother Mandarina, I can't speak on anyone else's behalf, but here is what I can do in my limited capacity:

1) I can email the study circle amirahs from the sisters' side and mention we are looking for newsletter related material

2) I can probably intimidate some of my own circle's sisters into giving me at least 1 piece for each of the following:
a. the subject (Evolution of Fiqh)
b. the instructor (Shaikh Yaser- actually, I'll probably get a bunch of volunteers on that one)
c. what it's like to be part of Hosna (a lot of self-congratulatory rambling, I'm sure)
d. I will TRY to get at least 1 graphic for you

If all else fails, I can go to the forum and cut/past material from all the above categories (except a graphic, unless emoticons count)

I'm not sure who I'm going to send all this to (poor Brother Irtiza).

That's all I have on the spur of the moment. Anyone feel free to give feedback.

Jazkallah bil khair

oh, and I thought of another category:

The Al-Maghrib experience: what made it different for you?

assalaamu'alaikum

subhanAllah, just when i was probably backing out- i read Sheikh Yassir's post and i'm in inshaAllah =)

just tell me what you need or i can work under sr. fatima (?)

may Allah reward br. mandarina for this effort. ameen.

C'MON HOSNA LETS DO THIS! WE'RE GONNA STAY THE HOME OF THE LIWAA' INSHA'ALLAH!!!

assalaamu'alaikum =)

hey, basmah, assalamu alaikum,

told you he was good, huh?

anyway, as of now i haven't gotten any feedback from the emails except one rejection(it's still early)

very understandable, so much work with preparing for the exam

so...

it's up to you: what would you LIKE to do?

well, let me say i am most nervous about graphics...can you track down some of the digital pictures that were taken of the class? (or would you rather do a courtroom style artist's depiction? ha ha)

let me know if you can get a visual, otherwise you saw the topics...anything you contributed would be cool

i was originally thinking of suggesting a compilation of the poems written about this class (not many this time), but i was afraid it would be too long? i'm thinking the newsletter would be 4 pgs. max and if that much space dedicated to poetry would be too much?

whaddya think?
(anyone else out there reading this too)

either way i'm happy you are there for me to call at the eleventh hour when the pressure's on (hope you don't regret signing on!)

assalaamu'alaikum!

what would i LIKE to do? i'm not sure, i had already thought of that and couldn't really hit down on one thing cuz i'm new to like the journalistic "putting a newsletter" together typa stuff. so for now i'll jus take orders on what u want me to do

ok- i dont know if you were joking about the courtroom style art thingy or not (hehe) but either way i'd disagree on that. those pics always looked kinda freaky to me. i'll inshaAllah get in touch with some of the class photographers.

question: is the newsletter in black and white or is it colored? cuz some pics come out weird in just black and white (my opinion)

compilation of poems would be cool but were you saying that we'll have that IN the newsletter or in a little side newsletter on its own? (and if you want it IN the newsletter- maybe we can stick in as many as possible with the extra room in the newsletter til it comes out to those 4 pages filled up? <~~a suggestion)

(theres this annoying bug crawling on my screen and i cant get it off so i'll head out now )

assalaamu'alaikum =)

ok, i'll check my email tomorrow inshallah and see if there is any feedback from everyone else (i guess i'm doubting that cuz of exam anxieties)

after that, i think it'll just be a cut n paste job (i can get a good variety of stuff off the forum)

no one really said if it's b&w or color because it was so left up to anyone who stepped up (that's you and me)

so for now...

if you can ask around, i know they were trying to take some digital pics at the class...see if anyone actually took them and how we can get them

if you could do that, i'd really appreciate it...jazakallah bil khair

right now with the initial response i'm thinking more like a 2 pager

assalamu alaikum for now, over and out...

assalaamu'alaikum

hehe actually sis thats what i'm doing. i'm asking around for the class photographers and such. i have confidence i'll get a hold of some pics soon inshaAllah. so roger that.

assalaamu'alaikum

Assalaamu alaikum,

Br. Irtiza, can you please choose a known ameer or ameerah for the project? I would recommend either Brother Mandarina or Sister Fatima.


I am not very confident when it comes to writing for newsletters. Ask UmmReem how much she has to beg me to get a mesely little thing out of me for "Daughters of Adam". I get major writer's block as soon as I know I HAVE TO write something. Fatima, you are a good writer. Do you have any suggestions on how to overcome this "disability"?