An opportunity HOSNA MUST NOT miss!

OK folks.

Alhamdulillah we have 4-5 volunteers so let’s quickly go over what is left for us to do. We have one week left so let’s get this nailed down, inshaAllah!

I have copied below the task we identified at the beginning so that it's easier for everyone to reference to them.

Now, since we’re not going to be doing 200 word summary of each stage, Task Four goes out the window. As for Task Five, I have initiated contact with brothers from Indiana but have not had much success in getting through to them. But now that we’ve gone down to 4 pages on the newsletter and have changed its format, the graph may not fit in anyhow. I am also working on Task Six and Ohio team has so far responded. They are very excited about using our newsletter and are standing by for us to deliver the finished product to them. Brother al-Jilani should be contacting me anytime now regarding Task One as he was the one who was in charge of the gem boards during class.

This leaves us with Task Two and Task Three. So, if we could get two volunteers to do Task Two and two volunteers to do Task Three - that would be great!

Also, we now need a “timeline� i.e. a brief overview of the six stages with one – maximum two – sentences for each stage. Sister Fatimah, you did an excellent job with stage one, so maybe you could give this task a try.

Besides this, what’s left is for us to get something from brother Irtiza and something from shaykh Yaser. They are both aware that we are expecting to hear from them.

We also still need some art work, some clip arts or something, that we could use throughout the newsletter. If anyone knows of any websites with this type of stuff, this would help. Also some calligraphy would be nice as well. Themes for these could be: knowledge, old times (e.g. old paper), Islam in general (e.g. minaret)...

As for layout, since we’re scattered around, it will be difficult to put two people together to work on this. I’ll be putting something together with MS Word newsletter template (I checked and I don’t have Publisher, unfortunately) and then we’ll all go through it together (I’ll post a link to a PDF file on this thread for everyone to take a look and critique). If someone wishes to try out Publisher or something else, all material that goes into the newsletter will be here so please feel free to give it a shot. Having multiple options can’t hurt us.

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Task One - Gems (part a): We need to find out what happened to the gem boards we had in the class. We need to go through the gems that were written on there (someone might have already typed those and has them in a file). Expected output from this task is a list of 5-10 best gems.

Task Two - Gems (part b): We need someone to go through the gems we posted on the forum (see here). We need to get 5-10 gems from here as well. From the gems collected from the first two tasks, we’ll select for the newsletter as many we can fit in, depending on how much space we end up having.

Task Three: We need someone to go through students’ impressions about the class that we wrote here and here (we can also check some other places, such as here). This will contain student quotes, maybe even some gems. We need to sort through this and come up with 5-10 quotes that talk about our class experience (or gems). We’ll select a few and include them in the newsletter.

Task Four: We need to get a hold of all the ameers and ameerahs for the groups we had during the class. Each of the groups selected the best summary of one of the periods. We need to get the best summary from each group. Depending on the format and length of these summaries, from this task there will probably come out several new tasks which will consist of standardizing these summaries. I am thinking that we ought to have them in a narrative (not bullet) format, keeping summary for each period to about 200 words. (Word count can be obtained in Microsoft Word by selecting “Tools� menu, then “Word count�).

Task Five: We need someone to get in touch with the brother from Indiana – not Sarosh, but the other one (again, I think his name is Waheed) – who created a chart version of summary for the period he was covering for his group. I think this chart shows relationships between some of the great Imams, in terms of who studied from whom, who’s students were who’s teachers etc. The goal is to get this chart in an electronic form so that we could show in the newsletter how those great Imams studied from one another, which shows their respect for each other etc.

Task Six: We need someone to find and contact representatives from each existing tribe, as well as representatives from the teams who are currently working on bringing al-Maghrib classes to two new locations (Dallas and Ohio). The priority is on Dallas and Ohio. We need to have a contact person in each of these locations to whom PDF version of the newsletter will be e-mailed no later than the night of June 30 – July 1 (Wednesday onto Thursday). This person will then have 24 hours to review the newsletter with the people in charge of the al-Maghrib promotion in that area. So, if the newsletter gets a go ahead, our contact will rush to the nearest Kinko’s on Friday morning and get the newsletter ready in time for the two conferences. Then, the newsletter can be reused during July’s al-Maghrib promo events at these two locations. The contact individuals at the existing qabaail will also get the newsletter in PDF via e-mail. They can review it with their people and decide how and if to use it.

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assalaamu'alaikum

Umm Sarah had some difficulty trying to post earlier, its okay now, but this is what she emailed me to post on here for her. i just cutted and pasted the new suggestions she had and left out old stuff that we've already gone over.

Umm Sarah suggested:
-to include something about EACH class Hosna has taken (Usool ul Fiqh, History of the Khulafah, and TCE)
-Br. Irtiza should write the conclusion, he should talk about: "how you can get AlMaghrib in your city" also.
-make the introduction of the AlMaghrib tribal system VERYYYY clear (terse, yet clear). with younger people- this could be the best thing to attract them to AlMaghrib ... (unity rox! )
-we can also talk about the new instructors that are to come.

those were Umm Sarah's suggestions. JazakAllahkhair sis.
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DOA/Al-Manar: is there any specific place you guys get your graphics from? like any specific clipart tool or a website, etc?
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okily dokes. assalaamu'alaikum

Assalaamu'alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu,

One more suggestion. On the gems/poetry page, maybe we can add 1 or 2 fiqh puzzles that Shaikh Yaser posted? This way, the reader can "interact" with the newsletter. And puzzles are always fun.

assalamu alaikum, everyone

* i like brother mandarina's suggestion about taking all the poems about this class and having a kind of vote if we have time (i know aisha, oum abdullah, abdul hasib, and basmah also wrote-again sorry if i missed anyone)- we just need someone in charge to round them up and post them together here for the vote

* about the timeline, i can do it, but maybe we should wait and see if anyone else would like to volunteer (i don't think the tribal newsletter should be heavy on one person-or a few; as many people from the tribe, the better)
if no one steps up, totally i am up for it (give me 3 days' notice before you HAVE to have it-heck, even 1 day)

* i know someone who has Publisher, is working on DOA, and i am inshallah seeing her tonight! i'll ask inshallah

* sister bint yunus, i know you were interested in maybe working on the gems, so if you want that's something that needs to be done; i also LOVE your idea of including the interactive fiqh puzzles! excellent idea

* mashallah, sister umm sarah is still one of our most active members, even when she is halfway around the world! all the suggestions were good, but because of space some might not be feasible in this issue (of course in other issues), and about new instructors, tribal system, how to get al-maghrib in your area, this can all go in the last "al-maghrib promo exclusively" page since we have sooo much to cover and sooo little space

*lastly, brother mandarina, i know you commented on and revised your previous task list, but PLEASE repost it in the amended form; it is too confusing looking at the old one; make it clear for anyone who wants to know what's going on now (some people have been asking me); and mashallah you are a patient amir, but PLEASE do not hesitate to parcel out work; give us orders! a lot of people i know (including me) are kind of waiting for that; we won't be offended; it will make our job easier, we will have a direction; the time for initial shoora is over; it's time to WORK! (we all understand you're still open to suggestions, though)

so...let's begin, shall we?

Assalaamu'alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu,

A few gems...

"Fiqh has no limits and knowledge has no boundaries" -- Sheikh Yaser

"Knowledge is not the goal. The goal is how to use knowlege in order to achieve sound servitude to Allah." -- Sheikh Yaser

"The slaves of the Sahabah became the greatest scholars of all time! SubhanAllah. The Sahabah knew--If you really want to free someone, educate them! May Allah grant them all Janatul-Firdous. Ameen."

"Imam Ash-Shafi'ee said,'One who is seeking pleasure of this Dunya should seek knowledge, and the one who is seeking pleasure of the Akhira should also seek knowledge.'"

"There is fiqh for every aspect of our life. The Fuquhaa' didn't leave anything out. SubhanAllah, Islam allows us to be a COMPLETE human being."

For anybody else reading this thread, please post any gems you read and liked (or any new ones that you think would be good for the newsletter!)

Some student reactions...

"What I love the most about your class is understanding the time line of world history, how the fiqh evolved, and just the effect of how different circumstances change the course of history. I just love to see how things are so interconnected, and how you can learn from them."


"What made 50 % of my confusion go away was when I understood the HISTORY behind each imam.. this history tied in with fiqh gave me the most comprehensive understanding I've ever had of my deen."

"One brother told me he used to fear that in this age of internet fatwas and online books, traditional knowledge seeking would be a thing of the past. He said
taking the AlMaghrib classes gave him a glimpse, even if it is was a small one, of how to learn and benefit from a teacher."

more to come...

assalaamu'alaikum

bint yunus- i LOVED those student quotes you had!

sis fatima- hehe actually i didn't write a poem for this class (hehe in fact i'm still in the middle of my "history of the khulafah" poem), and i cant write poems very fast, plus with things like the exam coming up, my hand has shut down on me. but insha'ALlah i will TRY to write one. ... and what did you mean that you were going to talk to a DOA person tonight? like talk about the template/graphics or something else? hehe if u didn't already plan to, can you please ask her about the graphics n stuff? ... also yesh ve shall get cracken on this so...

br. mandarina- with all due respect, give US orders! it makes a job easier and more efficient for an ameer/ameerah when they order the people instead of waiting for response. just a little tip (from experience).

assalaamu'alaikum warahmatullah
your sister in Islam

I don't have much time this very moment so I'll be quick. InshaAllah I'll come back to few items later on.

* Sister Fatimah, please start working on timeline/short summary of the six stages. We don't have time to loose and the sooner we have it the better it is.

* For sisters who want orders here they are, in amended and abriged form:

- Please go through the gems we posted on the forum (see here). We need to get 5-10 gems from there.

- Please go through students’ impressions about the class that we wrote here and here (we can also check some other places, such as here). Come up with 5-10 quotes that talk about our class experience (or gems).

- For sisters with friends among DOA people: Please make some phonecalls and find out what they use as source of cliparts.

- If you know of someone who has been creative after being inspired by our class (poems, drawings etc.) please (the forum is not letting me put any more smiley faces) contact them and ask that they submit their work.

Some of you have already started on these tasks, may Allah swt reward you. But if you haven't, then please help those who have.

InshaAllah, this should be enough to keep everyone busy.

assalamu alaikum,

yes sir!

actually i'm too tired right now after the study circle session, so inshallah i'll do the summary tomorrow

i talked to the sister from doa about Publisher and she said if you are interested, she can email us the website to download the program; a few sisters here seem to think it's easier than Word (the program adjusts borders automatically, etc.)

if you are interested in getting it, let me know and we'll get on it, inshallah; i'll try to ask them about clip art as well

and good work, bint yunus

well, it feels like the wheels are in motion now! alhamdulillah

assalaamu'alaikum

br. mandarina- thank you

coolness sr. fatima. for the clipart stuff i'll just go email saba (umm reem) and ask her. =)

assalaamu'alaikum warahmatullah