SKC 1443 Taraweeh Night 23

This is the 21st night of Taraweeh at Sayeda Khadija Centre

reciting Part 21 and half of 22 of the Holy Qur’an

with

Imam Dr. Hamid Slimi, Hafidh Raeed, Hafidh Hamza, Hafidh Abdul Rasheed, Hafidh Ayan, Hafidh Tahir and more…

صلاة العشاء والتراويح على الهواء مباشرة من مركز السيدة خديجة (رضي الله عنها)

www.skcentre.com
www.faithoflife.net
www.centrefordeenstudies.com

“JAMI MOSQUE

On Boustead Avenue west of here is Jami Mosque,

One of the first Muslim congregations in Toronto.

In 1961,

The Muslim Society of Toronto established a mosque in a former leather shop in the Junction.

Membership grew and,

Seven years later,

It purchased a deconsecrated 1930 Presbyterian church on Boustead,

Where it continues to serve the community today.

A Jami mosque is the main mosque in a town or city that is usually the gathering place for Friday services and prayer.”

After prayer Dhuhr inside the Parkdale Islamic Education Centre / Masjid Hamza on Queen Street West,

I decided to quickly walk from Parkdale to Roncesvalles Village to visit Jami Mosque.

If I recall properly,

this is my first time being inside Toronto’s mother masjid since the Pandemic began.

I keep forgetting just how many Ramadans it’s been.

This is the Ummah’s third Pandemic Ramadan.

Jami Mosque, the Islamic Centre of Toronto, has appeared on 30 Masjids many times.

If you want to know more about Ramadans inside Jami Mosque,

a good place to start is on Day 1 of Ramadan 2011.

This afternoon, a small surprise.

A couple of minutes before three o’clock.

At least five more hours until Maghrib Sunset Time when it will be time to break the fast.

Yet a tableful of plates with dates are already prepared for fasters to break their fast.

This might be the earliest time of day I have ever witnessed a masjid with their Iftar table all set up.

On occasion, my kid brother Amir says,

“If it wasn’t for the last minute, nothing would ever get done.”

On Day 20 of Ramadan 2022, Jami Mosque did not wait until that very last minute.

Far, far from it.

I’ve already prayed Dhuhr in congregation in Parkdale.

It’s much too early for the late afternoon prayer, Asr.

So I opt to offer two nafil rakats (units) of voluntary prayer.

It’s known as Salat Al Masjid which is the two rakats of voluntary prayer done whenever one enters a masjid’s prayer hall.

During spring and autumn months,

the orientation of the building with its two storey tall arched stained glass windows,

allows a quality of daylight which seems to dance upon the Masjid’s carpet and walls.

I had also wanted to visit Jami Mosque to confirm a few details for my History of Muslims in Toronto Jane’s Walk.

My Jane’s Walk begins on Sunday May 8 2022 at 4 p.m. on the southwest corner of Annette Street and Runnymede Road.

The walk will end inside Jami Mosque around 6:30 p.m.

Please join The History of Muslims in Toronto Jane’s Walk if you can.

Everyone is welcome.

Prayed Dhuhr this afternoon inside Parkdale Islamic Education Centre, Hamza Masjid, in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood.

This was one of the first masjids to appear on 30 Masjids in 30 Days of Ramadan, way back in Ramadan 2011 on Day 2 !

“On plane.

Man beside me is very quiet and respectful of my space.

Gave me the armrest.

He is watching a show but the automatic call to prayer blared out from an app on his phone.

He panicked to turn it off.

I’m like “You’re good, Uncle. You’re good.”

Muslims have been conditioned to act a certain way, and not speak loudly (if in Farsi, Arabic or Urdu) because of Islamophobia.

Some stopped reading Qu’ran or other books in mother tongues on flights.

I am reading bell hooks and very grateful for the Dhur time reminder. ❤️

It’s hard to navigate spaces when your culture and faith is so brutally and publicly maligned.

But God doesn’t test us more than we can handle.

Also,

Our cuisine tastes WAAAAAY better than racist peoples’ food so I’m good.

Landed.

In an Uber.

Alhumdullilah.

My driver is from Chad.

He is Muslim and he is so nice.

Offered to show me the closest mosque to my hotel.

Then his wife called and he told her about the sis in the car and she invited me to their house for iftar.

LOL.

I just ❤️ my community.”

— By Shireen Ahmed

“I’m so excited and delighted to be delivering a keynote lecture at Yale University and Wellesley College next week!

#femalereciters

“When I arrived at Yale University to deliver my lecture on

Women and the Recited Qur’an”,

I saw verses of the Qur’an engraved on the façade of the Sterling Memorial Library.

Western universities have treated the Qur’an as a historical and literary document, until very recently —

To date little attention has been paid to the Qur’an as a recited book,

Let alone to the long Islamic tradition of women’s recitation.

*Qur’an, Surah 96, verses 1-5, and Surah 2, verse 256.”

Madinah Javed مدينة جاود, Female Reciter; Women’s rights campaigner, speaker, activist

“I’ve prayed Taraweeh in this mosque for more than 10 years straight,

And have prayed there hundreds of times throughout my whole life and never did I imagine this happening.

The women’s prayer hall is spacious and open,

But we were never allowed in the main sanctuary.”

— By Hind Makki, Side Entrance

“Never before were the sisters allowed to sit and use the main Musallah as such – even when no men were present.”

– history being made during a teen girls’ qiyam this Ramadan at Islamic Foundation in Villa Park, IL

“Women never see this view.

We are always on the mezzanine level.

But because there were no men in the main musalla,

Shaykh Noman said it was open to girls to use for qiyam until before Fajr.

Their jaws dropped.”



“The girls were even allowed to pray by the minbar”

Today’s Drive-Thru Iftar was a little bit different.

It was sponsored by Islamic Relief Canada, that’s the same part.

The Drive-Thru Iftar was in front of an Islamic School, that’s the slightly different part.

Ummati Centre in Brampton, is a one storey building located at 205 County Court Blvd, just north of highway 407 and within line of sight of Peel Region’s courthouse on Hurontario Street.

County Court Boulevard should instead be a Crescent as its roadway starts and ends at Hurontario Street.

So when you’re looking for the exact address, you’ll find it on the south portion of the Boulevard.

Their building is home to both an Islamic Centre and a Learning Centre.

The Ummati Islamic Centre is open for Friday Jumah with four scheduled prayers, and then usually open only for Maghrib and Isha.

We arrived at 6 o’clock, the scheduled start time for the Drive-Thru Iftar pick up.

6 p.m. was also about the time students were letting out of their regular Tuesday Maktab Islamic Studies classes.

Vehicles arriving in the parking lot were a mix of parents picking up their children, plus people waiting to pick up Iftars.

We were in the second group.

Ramadan is a Month of Patience as well as being the Month of the Qur’an and the Month of Fasting.

We were informed by a volunteer going from car window to car window that the brother delivering the Iftars tonight was stuck in traffic and he would be here in 17 minutes.

“17” minutes ?

Not 15 minutes, nor 20 minutes ?

That 17 number might be what his smartphone traffic routing app is calculating and telling him.

It didn’t feel like 17 minutes.

To ensure our line of cars didn’t back up onto County Court Blvd proper, a volunteer had used this 17 minute delay to double-park us into two lines of cars in front of the Ummati Centre.

MashAllah, that was wise.

Soon enough the food arrives.

Volunteers begin asking passengers the number of Iftars to be picked up tonight.

Volunteers handing out tonight’s Iftar Dinners.

While we were waiting, some number of students were still waiting for their families to pick them up after classes.

The parking spaces to the right side of us remained free of cars and acts as a lay-by for parents to pick up their kids.

A little bit of Ehsan between everybody went a long way in making tonight’s double use of the overall parking space run smoothly.

Also running smoothly was Islamic Relief Canada running the Iftar Drive-Thru.

Our turn.

How many?

Four Iftars for four of us.

Four Iftar Dinners picked up.

Islamic Relief Canada Donation Flyer also picked up.

Ever drive around town with a vehicle full for Iftar Dinners in the back?

When you step back and think about it, a lot of logistics and work plus volunteers to do that work, are needed to make any Drive-Thru Iftar happen.

Tonight’s Drive-Thru Iftar was sponsored by Islamic Relief Canada in Support of Yemen.

Dropping cash in the box is just as fast as tapping your card.

The brother asks us to wait as he runs off to collect some gifts for us before we leave.

We advance forward to allow the cars behind us to also advance for their Iftar pick up.

You can also see the double line up of cars.

I guess each of these gift bundles had to be made on the spot, rather than being pre-bound, because the number of occupants per vehicle wasn’t known for sure ahead of time.

Swag!

Portable Prayer Mat with Qiblah Compass.

Can we use the Qiblah finder compass to find our direction home?

Heading north on Hurontario, looking back at the one storey Ummati Centre in Brampton.

Tabling for tonight’s Iftar Dinner.

There is still a lot of time before Maghrib Sunset Time, but I wanted to know what was in the box.

First it’s a round box, from Zauq Mississauga.

The food is a mix of Pakistani, Indian & Hakka Chinese cuisine.

Two types of chicken, two small samosas, side container of raita, the lightly spiced yogurt.

Did I already mention that there was still a lot of time before Maghrib Sunset ?

 

Continuing Noor’s Ramadan tradition of  social justice iftars, we offer this special program in honour of Earth Week:

“All Our Relations” and “Communities Like You”:
An Anishinaabe-Muslim Conversation on Conceptualizing Human and Other-Than-Human Relationships

Please join us for this conversation between Anishinaabe scholar Eva Jewell and Islamic scholar Sarra Tlili, on how we might (re)conceptualize human relations with other-than-humans towards love, justice, and care. As always, everyone, regardless of faith or observance, is welcome.

Dr. Eva Jewell is Deshkan Ziibiing Anishinaabekwe (Chippewas of the Thames First Nation) with paternal lineage from Oneida Nation of the Thames. Her scholarship supports community-led inquiry on topics of reclaiming Anishinaabe governance, with interest on the role of women/femmes. Dr. Jewell’s recent research areas include urban Indigenous perspectives on gender, work, and care; and accountability in reconciliation. She is Research Director at the Yellowhead Institute and an Assistant Professor of Sociology at X University.

Dr. Sarra Tlili is a scholar of Arab and Islamic studies, and an Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Florida. Her primary research interests are stylistics of the Qur’an, animals in Islam and Arabic literature.  Dr. Tlili is the author of Animals in the Qur’an (Cambridge University Press), an examination of the status and nature of animals as they are portrayed in the Qur’an and in adjacent exegetical works, in which animals are viewed as spiritual, moral, intelligent and accountable beings.

Following the breaking of the fast at 8:05 PM EST, maghrib prayers (for those who wish to participate) will be led by Sheikh Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl (Usuli Institute; Professor of Law, UCLA)

Sponsors:
Yellowhead Institute
Usuli Institute 
ClimateFast 
Islamic Social Services Association (ISSA) 
Let the Quran Speak
North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative (NACDI)

 

 

Date: Monday April 18, 2022
Time: 7 pm EST
The program will end just before 8:05 pm EST, at maghrib (sunset) with the adhan (call to prayer, signaling also the end of the day’s fast)

The book Dr Jewell was referring to is Yamoria the Lawmaker: Stories of the Dene by George Blondin.

Dr. Sarra Tlili’s book is called “Animals in the Qur’an”

It’s Asr Time on the 17th of Ramadan 2022.

Today is also The Anniversary of The Battle of Badr.

And also today… it’s snowing !

I stepped out for a few moments and recorded this video…


This is only the second time I have seen snow during Ramadan since 30 Masjids in 30 Days began in Ramadan 2011.

The first time I blogged about it snowing was Day 9 of Ramadan 2021.

SubhanAllah.