> ways to increase the brotherhood in your area

[Umm Sufyaan]

it is important to develop a sense of love and respect amongst the muslims in our local masaajid/muslim communities so that the masjid not only used for worship, but also becomes a place where people (perhaps even non-Muslims interested in Islam)are enthusiastic to come to, as well a place where the ties of brotherhood can be nurtured. It is especially important to target and interest our youth.

So, i want this thread dedicated and full of tips on what activities, etc can be done amongst the muslims in your community so as to improve, increase and maintain the ties of brotherhood in our communities.

even if you think it may be common sense, feel free to post your idea anyway.


1. organize a camping trip (obviously it will be segregated)

[Umm Sufyaan]

*bump....

[Beyond]

Well, in my Area we have Islamic Sports leagues such as Islamic Soccer League and an Islamic Basketball League.

Its pretty popular with the youngsters. The organization of it got pretty complex now, it starts out with house-league and then for the older kids they have like a real competitive/rep league for themselves and each rep team is based out of a Masjid in the area. They do training and everything together at like gyms or outdoors and stuff. They break for Salah and sometimes receive mini lectures during and after the game. Basically for the duration of the season there always with the team, I hear it’s pretty intense. I know of alot of close brotherhood bonds that have been formed because of it. This is usually organized during the summer because of the spare time the people have and the lack of school obligations.

They have both a male and female version of this in my area but the upper more competitive versions they only have for males. But they do have an upper level competitive league for volleyball and tennis for girls and are slowly expanding into other sports.

Anyways, the whole sports things seem to be a huge hit in my area and has really connected a lot of mosques a great distance for being part of these leagues. It goes without saying that the sports is segregated at all ages.

-Also for girls, they have like arts and crafts once/twice/3 times a week for the little ones where the make all sorts of interesting things. They are also taught some basic Islamic principles and concepts in-between.

-I know some Masjids have Poetry competitions. They also have something like a Khuttbah competition for both older and younger kids. And of course there's the recitation competitions.

-Then I know mine has a Sleep over sometimes, where for a week I believe Kids/teens sleep over at the masjid and it's just all day of interacting with the Masjid Staff, Helping out, Interacting with the Imam and getting to know them on a personal level, learning Islamic knowledge and sometimes lecturerers come and give the kids some private lectures. Both male and females have this and it’s segregated ofcourse. They’ve recently started this for slightly older men as well. I think plan is to keep expanding it. They have ages A-B sleepover then some other time they have ages C-D and then they have D-F etc etc. Every age group has its own concerns and questions and atmospheres and different levels of Islamic knowledge is taught to them in different ways pertaining to there age (A 20 year old thinking about marriage is not gonna have the same atmosphere/questions as a 13 year old having problems with his parents nor will they both have the concerns on how to raise a family at 35 ect ect).

You could also have like a women's bake week where for one/two week(2) the sisters of the community get together and make a whole lot of goodies/sweets and then after that they are sold/distributed at the masjid. It’s a great opportunity for sisters to get to know one each other and for new sisters to get introduced to other sisters in the community, get involved in the community and pick up some new skills along the way.

The key to making everything work in my opinion is management and organization. For such big things you really need to have dedicated organizers that are on top of their game & know what there doing, who are keeping constant track of updates to the event and who have good & constant communication lines/skills between each other. You gotta put a lot of emphasis on the planning period and start relatively early before actually executing the event because things can easily become chaotic, especially for the larger things. I know some Islamic Organizations/events that are very meticulous about the planning stage and therefore usually are very successful, and the planning for said events are even more amazingly done by older youth of the community (University/Collage level some of them taking this stuff in there post secondary education) and bonds are built from there aswell.

Here are some of the things I heard that go on in and around my area. Hope there some help. More ideas would be lovely people!