The Importance of Hope in our Deen.

Assalamu alikum warahamatullah wabarakatu

My dear brothers and sisters,

It seems that whenever I sit down to compose my monthly message there is no shortage of difficult or challenging news to share. Recent weeks, we had MAC Convention23 followed by the mixed ruling in our Charter Challenge, the twin disasters in Morocco and Libya, the ongoing Afzaal family murder trial leading up to the #1millionMarch4Children.

It is easy to fixate on the challenges. They are there, facing us every day. And when we dwell on the challenges, there is a risk that we lose sight of what is important: The Grace and Mercy of Allah, our own responsibilities in the face of challenge, and the importance of Hope in our deen.

I want to focus on these two latter points: What do we do in the face of challenges and difficulties? Where do we find resilience and hope amid pain and suffering?

Let me start with the earthquake in Morocco and the flooding in Libya. We have brothers and sisters in the community in Canada who have relatives who perished in these disasters. And to them we send our du’aas that Allah may accept their martyrs and ease their suffering and the pain of their families. But we also respond by taking action. We have several Canadian Relief organizations that have a presence on the ground in both Morocco and Libya and the community here has responded to the appeals by supporting their efforts in both countries. This is the lesson: We do what we can, and trust in Allah for the rest.

When it comes to our domestic challenges, we must remember the blessings of Allah at the same time we recount the challenges. By the Grace of Allah, we continue to see the impact of our work in the community. The MAC Convention held on the Labour Day weekend was a great success, and while we continue to seek improvements, we have already seen positive and important impact from the Convention.

And while the Charter challenge ruling was not all that we wanted, there were, nevertheless, significant positive aspects to the judgment, including the recognition of government bias by the court and an acknowledgement of the important role organizations like MAC play in advancing societal cohesion.

As for the 1 Million March for Children, we acknowledge the thousands of families who chose to raise their voices peacefully and respectfully, and to others who engaged in constructive dialogues with their school boards to ensure their religious freedoms and parental rights are upheld. 

I return to my earlier point: Our guiding principle is that whatever situation or difficulty we find ourselves in, we do what we can, with wisdom, with creativity and thought, with commitment, and above all with hope in Allah’s mercy and support.

Your Brother,  

Abdullatif Bakbak, MAC President-Executive