IC Gala 2019
By Khalid Latif | 2026-01-16T13:56:06.246852+00:00 | Topic: Iman
IC Gala 2019: Growing Together As A Community
Imam Khalid Latif
Opening
"Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah."
"In the name of Allah, in the name of Allah, and praise be to Allah."
"And may the prayers and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and companions and those who follow him."
All praises due to Allah Subhanahu wa taala. We thank him, we praise him, we glorify him. We seek him to send his choicest salutations upon his most beloved (صلى الله عليه وسلم - ṣallá-llāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) upon all those who choose to tread on his path until the last day.
Introduction
You know, the evening's been really interesting, going up and down the elevator a lot and tend to get stuck with a lot of the staff of the building who, I hope before you leave tonight in specific, you thank anyone that you see who served us tonight, who has assisted with laying out the room, ask them how they're doing, and let them know that you're grateful for just their presence here and facilitating this evening for us.
And so more than one person, when I've been in the elevator with them, has asked me, you know, what the smell is in the elevator. The first guy that asked me, I think it was an NYU student who was working in the building this evening, and he was really perplexed, and I said to him, that's weed, man. And then, you know, he said to me, where did it come from? And inside, I was thinking to myself, you know, you're a student at NYU, right next to Washington Square Park, and you were shocked that there's weed in this building someplace?
But what it made me think of, which was also, has nothing to do with what I'm going to talk about, we just came back from Amra Pilgrimage to Mecca, we got to visit the City of the Prophet, the illuminated city, may Allah accept from us and grant us the tawfiq to visit those cities again and again, and the oppression that comes out of that country that does not honor the values and ethics of this religion.
So in some of the last moments that we were there, we're literally going to the airport, and to understand this story, you have to know that Sheikh Zohaib Webb's given name is William, and just kind of think for a little bit why a story about weed is going to tie to a story about Sheikh Zohaib Webb for a second.
And so as we're leaving, there's a guy who works there. And this was popping into my head after about 10 people asked me about marijuana tonight. And I said to him, you know, as we were getting out, I gave him a
hug and I said, thank you for helping our Amra group.
And I said, have you ever been to New York? And he said, yeah, I went one time. And he said, NYU, it's in Brooklyn. And I said, our engineering school is in Brooklyn, but our main campus, it's in the village near Washington Square.
And then he thought for a moment, and he said to me, that's where we get weed, right? And I said, we've never gotten weed together, man. I was like, you're smoking marijuana near the Islamic Center at NYU? And he said, no, no, no, I don't smoke weed. And then he said, a couple of minutes later, after being silent and reflective, one time I saw Sheik William in Washington Square Park.
You can take from it what you want.
The Purpose of a House of God
And you know, sometimes you walk through that park, and I'll tell you, the idea, especially what makes, in my opinion, this community magnificent, there's a lot of brothers who are in that park that I've sat with. And they say to me that, you know what, Imam, we try to do something else, but nobody really works with us and makes it happen.
I said, just come to Jummah like you do. And they say, we're going to definitely be there. It's the purpose of a house of God is to not draw attentiveness to the house, but it's meant to draw attentiveness to God.
And the idea is such that the prophetic counsel that our teacher, Sheik Omar Suleiman, is giving us insight to that says that we are meant to embody not just a beautiful character, but the pinnacle of our character can be reached when, within that course of implementation, we seek to really engage the characteristics of the divine that are within our capacity to be able to put into this world that's in need of it.
And so when I sit down with people and they say to me things like, what do we do when our communities start to grow and people come in who drink alcohol or they smoke that smoke or they're coming from places that send them in a state of agitation, and I say that that means you're doing something right, that God is sending to you people who might not look like you or come from your background, but the paradigm of divine gatherings contrasted to gatherings that are human in their most fundamental base of engagement is that our gatherings are based off of principles of exclusivity. It's not about who we let in, but quite often who it is that we keep out.
So what would people say if all of a sudden we start to let everybody just sit at our tables? But Allah's gatherings, man, they're different. Because you can have anyone and everyone from across the spectrum of creation walk into God's house, not only does it not take away from the majesty of the divine, but it gives you an insight as to truly how magnificent our creator is.
Celebrating Our Community
When we stand here tonight and we reflect upon where it is that we're going as a community, our purpose for this gathering that's now in its sixth year is to come and celebrate, to have a moment of reflection and contemplation, to recognize individuals that we have full capacity to own as our own.
Where the rhetoric so time is so negative and our definement is by those who could care less about us, putting us into boxes that we're most definitely bigger than, but getting into our psyche that everything is terrible, everything is horrible, nothing is going right. You just saw four beautiful people on this stage, man, Milan creased them and all that is good. People who in every facet of society are taking care of individuals from every part of their being, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, going out and living their values, living their faith, living with a sense that they don't have to react to the worst misconceptions, but they will be in their own right, the ones who define their narrative and go out and do good just because it's the right thing to do.
What does it take, man? Man, really think about it. For one of our own to leave this city, go all the way down to Mexico to help women that the world has forgotten. You can't find beauty in that, in inspiration.
A young girl who walked through this school, went to class here, started an organization that she might not tell you, but to date has saved 600,000 pounds of food from being wasted and fed 580,000 meals. A brother whose own narrative comes from engaging not just people, but entire lands that have dealt with conflict in ways that you can't imagine. The destabilization of a country like Afghanistan, based off of proxy wars that our country has engaged in, not caring any less about what the reality is for the people on the ground and for him to get to a place where he's willing to leave behind comfort and security to go help young women learn how to play soccer.
And at a time when I know you, just as me, are frustrated with some of the unfortunate and at times ugly experiences that we hear coming out of our religious leadership. To have somebody who we can all look up to, who is willing to leave behind family, leave behind security, stand with those who are underserved and underprivileged and remind us what it really means to be a Muslim, man.
Owning Our Narratives
We have a decision to say as to how we will own these narratives and not to treat them as stories, but to let those examples be transformative so that we find within ourselves our own beauty and our own light that can enable us to go forward and illuminate this world that just needs us to live the religion that we've been blessed to be given.
So tonight, I want you to just think about it for yourself, to see how the challenge is not necessarily about where people might impose and restrict, but what are the obstacles that are going on in here that you need to remove so that you can find that sense of self-love, that self-forgiveness, that ability to look deep within and say that this is where it is that I'm going to move forward, that I find strength and I find courage.
I look to the faces to my right and my left and through the love that I feel from my people who are around me, say that I don't have to fit into the standard of what is acceptable. I'm going to be the one that goes and makes a difference in whatever way that I can.
Our Community's Growth and Impact
We're going to try to do some things in the next year, the coming months that I want to give you some insight on. One of the things that's remarkable about this community over the last couple of years is that we've been blessed to be in a place where our ability to serve has just escalated.
If you remember in Ramadan, for those who came to our fundraising dinner, iftar, and we had thrown up on the slides some numbers about what we've raised for the Islamic Center and what we've contributed to charitable causes. We had spent last year about $850,000 operationally and programmatically, but we raised over $900,000 for charitable causes. It's part of the barakah of this community is that we spend more on others than we do on ourselves.
And at this point in the calendar year, we've already given more, alhamdulillah, by the grace of God, three times as much to people in need in comparison to what we've raised for ourselves. And that's something that you should be proud of and also grateful for that Allah has elevated you to that station through which you become a source that people's needs are met.
Vision for 2020
And so what we want to do in the coming months and the coming years, primarily, that you should think about now and have it kind of simmer inside so that when the call goes out, you're ready to step forward. We built a lot, alhamdulillah, and just from a number standpoint, this room alone, the community that we serve, we estimate is 40 times the size of this audience.
And so by 2020, one of the things that we're going to do is just bring you all together to help us figure out what is going to be the vision and strategy for the next 10 years. How will we elevate and leverage the skills, the credentials, the wealth, the talent, the networks, the connections of this community to go out and build what we have full capacity to build? Because nobody's going to build for us what we have to build for ourselves. And you already see that there's not as many people out there that are also going out and building for everybody else what they have the ability to.
They're so entrenched in this egocentric, individualistic society that puts you in a place where at times, you're not even moving backwards, you're just stuck. The option now for us can't be anything less than to just move forward, man, and to keep growing and to keep building and to keep doing. We've already started some of this.
Building Services for Those in Need
We have some of our community members here, two of them are here, Kareem and Nubba. They're working on a project right now to help build out a domestic violence shelter here in New York City and make dua that Allah grants them success in it. Because there's not a week that's gone by in the last 15 years where at least one woman, if not more than a dozen, has reached out saying that they're in a relationship with a man who has no idea what it means to be a man.
And we're not a community of complacency, man. We're not going to say that we sit atop of a building with unobstructed views that are worth millions of dollars and dine at tables that others might not be able to ever sit at and that's fine. But our pursuit is going to be of real contentment.
And you don't have to take it from someone wretched like me, but you could ask any of the beautiful people that came on this stage already, ask them if they would ever trade what it is that they have felt inside for going and helping somebody in need for any of the wealth of the world. Ask them if they'd be willing to give it up.
Yemen and Global Crises
In the coming months, I'm also trying to go to Yemen. I'm just putting it out there so that you all help as we've done in the past. We're in 10 months, this student-based community, in 10 months we raised a million dollars for the Rohingya refugees in Myanmar. May Allah grant them ease.
So when you see that there is close to 100,000 children that have died in Yemen, people who have been displaced, lives taken, famine and starvation, conflict, that we shouldn't forget about who is leading the onslaught. We have to do our part because Allah has given to us a lot and it wasn't just so that we could hold on to it, but so that we could live in such a way where our actions and our decisions demonstrate that there is a world that's beyond this one.
Strategic Planning for the Future
When we sit down in that strategic planning session, we want to think about how it is that we're going to engage civically and politically. What are the institutions and services strategically that we want to build? What are the gaps that are there that we can forge partnerships with, with other non-profits and other agencies?
You might say, well, how does this function within the university apparatus? And I would say a lot of it is going to function outside of the university apparatus because this school has been remarkable and amazing, being able to put up with a lot of things that we sometimes push the envelope on.
NYU
NYU is just opening for the first time anywhere in the country, tomorrow, a fully halal certified dining hall, where over the last six months, they have vetted 1400 ingredients, as well as every product that they sell in a convenience store attached to that dining hall, adopting for a lack of better words, the most conservative opinions. Everything's hand-slaughtered, local and fresh where it can be, but taking what it is that we might consider to be narrow to allow for the broadest pool of people to be able to feel comfortable.
Three meals a day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, buffet style. It's a student dining hall, but I learned that unofficially, anybody can go and eat in these dining halls if you want to, and don't tell anybody I said that, but you should go and the food is pretty good.
But they do things like that, and they had an option to be able to go in different directions. There's literally people in the leadership team of this university who pieces of the plane that flew into the World Trade Center went through their apartments, displacing them and their children for months. They've opted to say that we need to be people who are embracing of each other, not push people away.
When you're trying to cater to 10,000 people, a vision that some of us who started this some time ago would not have ever conceptualized, it doesn't make sense institutionally that everything that we do always goes through the masjid, and you all have to recognize that you are much stronger, more talented, and have so much more to offer than at times people let you believe.
So when we put out that call for strategic visioning, I hope that you all make a determination to be a part of it, because we still got a lot to do, man.
The Reality on the Ground
It's hard looking in the eyes of some of these women and saying that we don't have a place to send you. It's hard telling some of these brothers in this park, man, that we don't have a transitional house for you.
It's hard, and we're family. So take it from here, when I sit with some of these people in conflict zones and refugee camps, and they're ever so grateful, making dua for all of you, because they say the world has forgotten us, but there's still good people who are doing what they can to help. I want to say to them that we can do so much more when I think about you all, and really what it is that you bring to the table, and it transitions to a space where I know by the will of God, it's going to happen, because we're going to get it done.
Acknowledgments and Thanks
Tonight couldn't be possible without the support of a lot of different people. We want to thank our sponsors, Islamic Relief USA, who we have an amazing relationship with, Guidance Financial, Dar Es Salaam Travel,
Penny Appeal, the Muslim Wedding Service, which is not a matrimonial service, just to clarify. It's just, come and run your ceremonies, but you've got to find the person to marry on your own.
I want you all to know, her sister Maysoon, mashallah, accepted an invitation to be here probably a day and a half ago, and this woman's not going to tell you also about her TED Talk that has 5 million views, or television shows that she has in production. Yeah, mashallah. She's an amazing person.
You want to make dua for her, and everything that she's doing for our community, it's because people like her, the people who are on this stage, they have a love for all of us. I want to also take the time to thank Sumeya and Alex, who have always been really instrumental in putting this night together.
And then Aziza, who you've probably gotten emails from, just coordinating everything, really went above and beyond in ensuring that the night was amazing and remarkable, as well as the rest of the Islamic Center staff, who I couldn't ask for a better team to be able to build with and work with. So if you see any of them, please do also convey your gratitude and thanks.
Female Scholar in Residence
One other piece that slipped my mind, in the coming months we're also going to open up a search for a female scholar in residence, where we're going to be bringing in potential candidates to speak to the community. We want your feedback. We want your insight. But it's a gap within our center that we want to fill immediately, as well as just more broadly.
Religion tends to be a boys club, and we just know that. It's objective fact. But given the diversity, given the level of engagement that our center has had, alhamdulillah, we want to ensure that we have that critical voice at the table.
Please make dua that that search effort is successful and that we find the right person to be able to continue in helping to build what it is that we're looking to build here.
Fundraising and Endowment
And so with that, we have on each table, aside from other information, some donation cards. If you feel inclined to give, many of you know what this community is about. Our volunteers will be walking around. You can pass to them an envelope. Everything is tax-deductible.
We have naming opportunities also, as well, where we are now in a place where we're looking to build out our endowment vehicle. We're engaging within the university's investment office to see how we can keep everything compliant with our religious kind of values and ensure that it adheres to what the Sharia asks us to do in terms of financial investments. And I want you to understand, we're putting a lot of time into this.
So Sheikh Saheb Webb, Sheikh Fayyaz Jafar are bringing both insight from a Sunni and Shia perspective. And our intention is to not just move away from interest-bearing investments, but also to ensure that ethically that none of the money we put into these endowment vehicles are going to be invested in the prison industrial complex, the military industrial complex, or anything that even degrees of separation is helping to fuel injustice and inequity anywhere.
And so if you have capacity or would want to engage in a conversation on a larger naming opportunity with a larger contribution in mind, please do let us know. We can make that happen. Whatever you can give tonight, inshallah, would be appreciated. The Islamic Center now operates at a million-dollar-a-year budget, alhamdulillah.
When I started working here when I was 22, I had no idea what I was doing. I'm now 36, and I feel like I don't even know how old I feel. You know, I was with my son and my daughter the other day.
We were driving down Third Avenue, and many of you know my daughter Medina and my son Karim. And Karim started to tap on the window really excitedly. And then he said to me, Baba, Baba, that man looks like you.
And so I looked out the window, and Karim was pointing at a man who was probably 70 or 80. He literally was walking with a cane across the street and had no hair. And first, it made me wonder what my son really thinks I look like. And also, like, what do I actually look like?
But where and how we grow this together, you all do your part in ensuring that we build something that's long-lasting, that will come beyond us. So our volunteers will be walking around. If you have more questions, feel free to ask myself. The staff will be here, anything that comes to mind. I didn't want to take that much more time. I've already probably taken a lot.
Closing Dua
But I'm going to ask you to just join me in making a quick dua as we wrap up and Ibrahim comes to the stage to close us out. And so if you can just kind of re-center yourself to the space.
I know it's been a long night, but I hope people have enjoyed the night. How do people think the night has gone? Thank you for joining us.
You know, if you're not a person of faith, you come from a different walk of life, a different religious system, a different spiritual system. In our tradition, the Quran, it tells us that anybody who calls upon God, those prayers are answered, that it's not just limited to people who practice Islam.
And if you're a person who is not a person of faith, to just be able to allow for us to benefit from your presence and to be able to utilize the opportunity of reflection and contemplation so that we can take some of the good
vibes that you send into the room and use it as a means for us to continue to push forward.
Most merciful of those who show mercy, bless this gathering and all those who are in it. As we move forward from this night, help us to look forward always and let our foresight be rooted in courage and never fear. Let us meet the future with hope and make us the hope that is needed for the future to be filled with light, life and love.
Make us those who are never afraid to dream. Give us inspiration to work towards achieving each of our heart's aspirations to find strength through service, success in each failure and make us always those who bring benefit to your creation. Guard our lives and our hearts by giving us examples that compel us towards only those things that are good.
Send us only those who will be our helpers and supporters and make us always those who bring out the best in the people around us. Where there is distress and agony, make us the source of calm. Where there is hate and bigotry, make us the source of love, compassion and wisdom.
Where there is indifference and intolerance, make us the source of consciousness and understanding. Make us the answer to people's prayers and those who only do that which is good. Help us to be above what is simply normal and to never compromise on who it is that we are for those who only accept us when we become that which we are not.
Forgive us when we unknowingly or knowingly become the cause of unwanted compromise in the lives of those around us or hurt others in ways that at times we don't even realize. Make us those who are never embarrassed by our faith nor those who embarrass others because of the faith they choose to practice or have no faith at all.
Help us to see our race, our heritage, our class, our gender as a means of strength and never something that we wish wasn't a part of us. Make us outstanding by not being afraid to stand out. To be firm and resolved in our convictions and values and any distinction and distinguishing of ourselves to be rooted in love.
Setting ourselves apart does not mean we have to be distant from other hearts and help us to carry you, ya Allah, in our hearts always. Make our journey in this world one that is unhindered by worldly possessions and make us those who simply trust in you for all that we need. Our hearts at times feel heavy and anxious. Our bodies and limbs ache and feel pain.
At other times we feel uplifted and strong, rejoicing as light enters through us and from us on the path stretching before us. Whether it is a step of pain, perseverance, patience, or pleasure, make it a step of benefit and one that reminds us that our journey is never finished until we reach our ultimate destination. Ya Allah, make us people of Jannah.
Make us those who dare to live with real and actual beauty. To live with integrity, honesty, and hope. To honor the rights of both parents and children.
To be good to all people and never partake in acts of injustice. To see diversity in all of its beauty and to never run towards any type of racism. To speak truth and only truth and to detest any type of falsehood.
To be patient and forgiving and to always visit the sick. To respect our elders and to give of our wealth. To be just in all of our dealings and to be honest and trustworthy.
To be gentle and loving and to take care of those who are in need. To always love for others what we love for ourselves. To be the continued source of hope in this world and never the reason that someone might dread it.
To speak good and only good and to otherwise be silent. To respect and honor all human beings irrespective of their religion, color, race, gender, or class. To remember always the sacrifices that others made so that we could be where we are today.
To never brag or boast or to talk and act in vanity. To not be contemptuous or arrogant with others and to walk with humility. To speak only when necessary and when equipped with actual knowledge.
And to never think the worst of others, no matter what the situation. To not defame others, but to be brothers and sisters of one another. To treat kindly all those that society has left behind.
To take care of the needy, the disabled, those who have little or no income, and those who have no work at all. To not expect anything in return for doing good, but to simply do good because it's the right thing to do. To pardon with grace those who do wrong and to seek forgiveness when we have wronged others.
Help us to never fear the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it. And bless us with leaders to follow who walk firmly upon it. Thank you for our brother, Tariq. Thank you for our sister, Sara. Thank you for our brother, Omar. And thank you for our sister, Hana.
Thank you for our brother, Ibrahim. And thank you for our sister, Maysoon. Preserve and protect them always, and make them a continued source of benefit for all those that they meet.
Increase them only in that which is good, and through each one of them, continue to illuminate hearts. Make us always only their supporters, and through them, help us to find the inspiration to do all that we are able to. Let our anger be only at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we will work for justice, equality, and peace.
Let our tears shed only for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and conflict, so we reach out our hands to comfort them and change their pain into joy. Let our successes be many, ya Allah, as we make a difference in this world by doing the things which others say cannot be done. Make us those who value people over profit.
Make our pursuits pursuits rooted in love, motivated by an unconditional compassion, and manifested in acts of mercy, intending to achieve nothing other than a common good. Protect this community always, and through us, bring strength to your creation. It is an honor and a privilege to serve them, ya Allah.
Thank you for the opportunity to do so. Help them to carry with them always each other, and to remember one another in the best of ways. Help them to carry always those who help facilitate their being where they are, and to honor their sacrifices and struggles by making sacrifices of their own.
And when any one of them moves on from this place, help them to remember those of us that they are leaving behind, and to never forget that they will always have a place here and in our hearts no matter what. For those who have not found good experience here, we ask for their forgiveness and for yours. And for those who have gained in any way, we ask that you help them to recognize that that is from you and you alone.
We love each one of them so much, and are grateful for the time that you allow for us to be in their company. Let them know that they owe none of us here anything. All we need from them is to go out and try their best.
Ya Allah, accept our dua. Ya Allah, accept our dua. Ya Allah, by the barakah of this gathering, accept our dua.
Ya Allah, by the sincerity of the most sincere that are here, accept our dua. Ya Allah, by the presence of the righteous that are here, accept our dua. Protect us always from hearts that are not humble, tongues that are not wise, and eyes that have forgotten how to cry.
Forgive us for our shortcomings and guide and bless us all.
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
End of Speech