IFN Monthly Community Chronicle

Assalamualaikum,

We are blessed with a beautiful and diverse community. On behalf of the Executive Committee, I would like to thank all of you for your trust in us and continued support. I am also grateful for your suggestions, generous donations and the engagement. I request you to please participate and strengthen our ongoing programs and activities.

I also express my gratitude to all team members and volunteers who have been serving this community tirelessly throughout the year. I would say they are the unsung heroes. Please keep them in your prayers and dua.

We are fully committed to serve you in the new year and as we have open door policy please reach out to us for your questions, concerns and suggestions any time.

I pray May Allah SWT keep us united, safe, accept our good deeds and forgive our shortcomings.

The year end General Body Meeting was held successfully in the IFN banquet hall on December 9th, 2018 and had a follow-up on December 16th, 2018. All members were invited to attend. Members of the EC and BOT were available to answer any questions the community had. Presentations and Q & A documents were released to the community. Please visit the IFN website for more details.

http://ifnonline.com/general-body-meetings

The election committee conducted a successful election to fill two BOT positions expiring in December, 2018. The election results were published on December 2nd, 2018. Sr.Oghay Kherzai and Br. Abdullah Bushnaq were elected and will assume position in January, 2019. Congratulations to the winners and to those who did not get the chance to serve on the board this time around, we hope you continue to serve IFN and will run again. Our masjid needs support of all of its people. The election commission was headed by Br. Gulam Waris, Br. Vaquar Shaikh and Sr. Shamim Choudhury who worked very hard to make the process smooth and transparent. May Allah SWT reward you for all your help.

Here are the important upcoming dates for the town hall meetings:

1)January 2019 is the EC meeting with the community.

2)February 3, 2019 will be the Open Board Meeting with all our community members from 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM. You will have to provide topics to be addressed to the BOT General Secretary by January 20

3)March 2019 will be the Capital Project Update Town Hall so as to learn about the progress of the project from the engineers and the architect.

4)April 2019 is the Endowment Town Hall here you will learn about the endowment fund and estate planning

5)May 2019 is the EC meeting with the community. Treasurer’s Report will be presented followed with Q&A session.

The Da'wah event at Islamic Foundation North was presented by Dr. Sabeel Ahmed on December 2nd, 2018 at the IFN Banquet hall. He currently serves as the Director of the GainPeace Dawah project. Dr. Sabeel has been involved in dawah work for over 15 years. He is a student of Shaykh Ahmed Deedat and has extensively studied comparative religions. Dr. Sabeel has lectured widely on Islam and conducted da'ee training courses. Dr. Sabeel talked about how dawah has the ability to be fun, engaging and uplifting without being tedious and repetitive.

The IFN Free Clinic is open on Sundays from 10:30am to 12:30 pm for those who do not have health insurance, or who have insufficient health insurance coverage. Walk-ins only.

IFN Free Health Clinic welcomes all patients with chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes and those in need of non-emergency care. For emergency needs, please go directly to the Emergency Room of your nearest hospital.

The first Sunday of every month is Confidential Foot Screening Day. Please see the flier for more details.

The Lake County United had their annual delegate assembly on December 2nd, 2018 at 3:30pm at Islamic Foundation North. Lake County United has been instrumental in driving social justice in Lake County for their work in our communities. They have so many opportunities and possibilities to help work together to serve humanity. Delegate assembly members met at IFN and committed to 600 direct conversations with members in their institutions. Each member of their instituition committed to hosting lots of small group listening sessions/ circles in December and January. On the 13th of February, 2019 at 6pm Lake County United leaders will invite those they have listened to and heard from to form a plan of action for Lake County United. Current Lake County leaders are encouraged to attend the leadership training to be held between January 19-21.To learn more please email info@lakecountyunited.org

Dr.Farid Senzai visited IFN on December 9th, 2018 from 1:30-2:45 pm to discuss about the American policies towards Muslims Countries, and its impact on American muslims.

He is the founder and President for the Center for Global Policy.He founded the first independent, non-partisan Americans working particularly on issues at the intersection of U.S. foreign policy and Muslim geopolitics. He has also lead a team of experts focusing on US foreign policy towards Muslim majority countries and analyzed the most pressing social, political and economic issues in Muslim majority countries.

A Day with the Prophet Muhammad SAW( ladies only) session was led by Imam Azfar on December 13th from 11:00-12:00pm. He briefly discussed about the Prophet’s instructions regarding daily life. He told us to acquaint ourselves with the prophet’s sunnah (acts and sayings) which would help inspire us to follow it with sincerity and devotion.

On the 16th of December, 2018 Mufti Haroon Firdausi from MCC was invited as a guest speaker at IFN. He is the director of muslim funeral services in Chicago and is also teaching at Darul Uloom, Chicago.He also spoke with the IFN HSYC boys followed by speaking with the entire community. He spoke about some of the rulings pertaining to the fiqh of Janazah. He spoke about preparation for death, before and after one passes away, how to handle grief, rules of Salatul Janazah/Funeral Prayer, rules and etiquette of graves, explanation of funeral paperwork and related costs, how to benefit the deceased after death, Janazah related Fiqh Q&A, Open Q&A, procedures to follow, paperwork before and after death, regulatory issues in the graveyard and islamic perspective on donating organs. All in all it was a very informative session on preparing for your final journey.

YM is a national youth group that consists of many Neighbor-Nets throughout the country, including our very own YM-IFN. YM strives to teach young muslims the principles of Islam while also forming bonds of brotherhood and overall bringing them closer to the Masjid and to Allah(swt). YM-IFN brings kids ages from 13 and over to the masjid weekly as a halal alternative to what high schoolers could be doing on Friday nights. These weekly meetings consist of halaqas that are given in order for the young brothers to learn as a group. They also go out to eat and have some fun activities for the youth while keeping up with prayers and staying connected to the masjid. This past weekend YM had their own booth where they sold their merchandise at the MAS-ICNA Convention. They met a lot of people all around the nation, sold merch and a had a really good time. Our main goal was to expand and show other people what YM is.

SSU otherwise known as sisters stepping up met on friday the 28th to participate in a listening circle conducted by Imam Azfar. He started off the listening circle by discussing the importance of counselors and therapists in the community.

“We have 24/7 suicide hotlines, and that’s great, but we should have someone to talk to and vent” He said.

The Imam encouraged the girls to talk to their close and trusted friends and/or a counselor about situations they’re dealing with so they don’t deal with them alone. This is very important in this day and age because of the sense of sisterhood or brotherhood one could achieve of talking to a close friend. With a counselor, one could talk freely about their problems using as much vulgar language desired because it helps relieve the stress one has built up inside. He believes listening circles like these could be an effective tool to bring communities, such as IFN, closer and help reduce the pent up stress inside. He also mentioned this was a method used in the Prophet SAW’s time.

True to his word, the listening circle was indeed a great way to relieve stress for the girls. It gave them an opportunity to count their blessings and address both the negative and positive aspects within themselves and their lives. As each of the girls spoke, everyone could somehow relate to their words. It is indeed an amazing way to bond with one another and tighten the bonds of sisterhood.

The Women's Advocacy Committee/WAC was passed by the by laws in 2015 so that the IFN Women’s voices are heard and also to participate in the development of their mosque community, that is the WAC’s mission. The present appointed committee board members are Nancy Romanchek, Dr. Fehmida Khan,Nasima Patel and Loubna Kilioune.

One of the very first accomplishments of the WAC was during Ramadan of 2017 which continued the following year 2018 and will continue through the years to come In Shaa Allah. The Ramadan volunteers with their committees and sub committees divided their time accordingly in the LRC, for the boys and the girls club ,the Women’s area upstairs and in the basement. They did an amazing job by keeping it peaceful. And the elderly were taken care with intentional seating in the front row for more accessibility . The IFN WAC also recognized the Ramadan volunteers for their hard work.

Based on all this the WAC members would like for you to participate in a survey to gauge the interest of the women of IFN. The survey below was prepared by Sister Loubna Kiliouine who is leading the WAC. Members of the WAC team will be handing out surveys for you to fill up and return to them immediately.

For all the women of IFN and the ones who are new to our community please join the WAC. We can best demonstrate our gratitude and esteem by making sure that our IFN community is the best place for you to mature and age gracefully, a place where you can participate to the fullest and find encouragement, acceptance, assistance and services that you need to continue to lead lives of independence and dignity.

The IFN Maintenance Team is responsible for regular maintenance of the interior as well as the exterior of the masjid.The IFN masjid maintenance team covers but is not limited to masjid interiors, elevator maintenance, bulbs/tubelight replacement, electrical, door/window maintenance etc. A huge shout out to this team as they are putting in lots of their hard work and efforts for the upkeep and maintenance of IFN. The members of the maintenance team are:

Br. Vaquar Shaikh (Lead)

Yusuf Mohammed,

Br. Naveed Ismail,

Br. Khalid Syed,

Br. Sakib Elahi

Babuji (Guidance)

IFN is pleased to announce Umrah for 2019 during the Spring break. It will be provided by SEERU Travel Corporation. Our very own Imam Azfar will provide guidance and mentoring during the trip to the community members. Travel plan, cost and logistic details are attached in the flyer. If you are interested please contact Br. Syed Atif Farid ( 847)-302-0748

The IFN Religious Committee is pleased to announce that IFN will hosting a weekend of 'Aqidah at-Tahawiyyah' 3 day seminar from February 15-17 for the community by Shaykh Hamza. Please see the attached flyer for details.

Registration- http://bit.ly/ifncreed

IFN will be hosting its second community potluck on Saturday, January 26th at 5:30 pm after the success of its first one. The event will start with Maghrib prayers which will be followed by a short lecture , social hour, dinner and Isha prayers. All members and non-members are encouraged to bring a dish of your choice to share with everyone.

All IFN Toastmasters meetings are held every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month. The next toastmasters meeting will be held on January 27th, 2019 at 1:30 pm and an Open House on February 10th, 2019 at 1:30pm. If you are interested to join please feel free to reach out to our IFN toastmasters club president Khaudeja Bano at khaudeja@gmail.com or Liz Sachnoff at l.sachnoff@gmail.com or Patti Anderson at patti.anderson.d30@gmail.com who are our IFN toastmasters sponsors.

The IFN Monthly Community Chronicle for December 2018 was compiled by Sadia Thiryayi.

If you would like to share any community achievements or celebrations, please email

Sadia Thiryayi at sadiathiryayi@gmail.com

Email: sadiathiryayi@gmail.com
Facebook: facebook.com/SadiaThiryayi
Twitter: @smos77