Diving For Pearls
I was standing at the door, receiving enthusiastic children, coming to learn the Quran and Hadith (sayings of the Prophet PBUH); they were keen to find solutions to their common day to day problems, with role playing and problem solving methods, moderated by groups of volunteer ladies.
A smiling mother rushed to me, ‘Doctor sahiba, I am so thrilled. My girls are learning amazing stuff, and their behavior at home has significantly improved! My daughter recited a hadith in Arabic and proudly told her father that we are going to have the best of manners like our Prophet (PBUH).’ With tearful eyes , she further added, ‘I am so grateful to your organization for doing this marvelous job here.’ Suddenly she paused and said: ‘Can I ask you a question? My kids’ Qari sahib warned me not to bring my girls here because you are “wahabis”, have an extremist ideology and don’t actually study about the life of the Prophet (PBUH)’ !
I had to smile at this remark. I asked her, ‘Did you share your actual experience of coming here and the resulting positive changes in the behavior of your daughters?’
Living in a fast paced digitized world, where nobody bothers to check the authenticity of any information and all ‘hyped, thrilling and sensational’ items MUST, and I insist MUST, go on media, makes me wonder that how honest, hardworking and community oriented people are to survive? I see their oppression as another form of terrorism!
When I look back at my own life, that’s how I viewed all religious people. I placed all of them under the same umbrella. I saw them as extremist, tunnel visioned, with no positive contribution to the society. However, contrary to this, Al-Huda International Welfare Foundation changed my perception for good. You cannot understand the efforts and contributions of this Welfare Organization to the society, until you develop a deeper understanding of the vision and values it upholds and remove your mind blocks.
The general impression is that Al-Huda is a place for ‘the Rich, Bored, High society Aunties’ who walk in as they had enough of coffee mornings and are looking for another kind of joy ride. The Staff at Alhuda, only gives importance to the privileged gang and talk cultured to impress the elite class. People who are not familiar with Al-Huda, tend to visualize teachers walking around like robots, covered in sinister abayas and head coverings. The students are being dealt with strictly and indoctrinated with a “rigid”, “extremist” and “literal” interpretation of the Quran, which is making them intolerant and hardcore. Some even end up relating it to the modern version of Lal masjid J.
And here we are, sitting at home with sips of coffee, in our cozy chair, often reading write ups of such amateur surface swimmers and hence dread going there for the fear of being “radicalized”.
Let me give you a guided, deep diving tour; a scuba dive experience, to check out the hidden precious pearls at Alhuda.
Meet the founder, Dr. Farhat Hashmi, a balanced lady, a true inspiration, not only for her family but for thousands of women, young and old, from all walks of life and social strata. Her utmost efforts are geared towards guiding others to adopt the principles and practices from the Quran and the Sunnah, in the most balanced way, seeking the pleasure of Allah and also adjusting in the present day society with a problem solving attitude. She is very disciplined in her class environment, as she strongly believes that she has to do justice to what she is teaching. And it is such a pleasure to be in her company in her private chamber. She greets everyone with warmth and compassion, and her hospitality is serving nuts and Khajoor of the finest quality. Ladies confide in her and she listens intently. Her empathy and compassion seems to be coming from the pages of the Books of Seerah. Ladies, from all types of social setups, throng around her, not only due to her charismatic personality but also because of her advice, which is very sound and deeply rooted in the teachings of the Quran and the Sunnah and very much applicable in this time and age.
Now let us glance and observe the ladies walking around the premises. Anyone who has studied the management sciences, must be familiar with the 80/20 Pareto Principle: “The Law of the vital few” – 20% giving result of the 80%. Contrary to the popular perception, majority of the students at Al-Huda International Welfare Foundation come from humble backgrounds. Big percentage is sponsored for their studies and stay for learning. However, the 20% “elite”, talented and the financially stable group takes the lead and is visible to the outside observers due to their more active financial contribution and participation in the high visibility events.
I was amazed at the level of dedication and concentration required for both the students and the staff alike. I could relate it to my medical studies, where our teachers used to say, ‘You HAVE to score 80% as you deal with human life.’ And the echoes of teachers in Al-Huda imparted the message that they have a vision beyond this life, when they said: You HAVE to score 80% in core subjects and you simply cannot affort to give any wrong concept of religion or even practice it in a shoddy manner yourself; it’s about your duniya(World) and akhirah(Hereafter).’
That is why 90-95% students are transformed after studying here (5% still love to be disastrous and hopeless as before). They develop a life of vision and purpose, and their productivity level is par excellence. They aspire to be a part of society and contribute to uproot evils such as lying, cheating, unhygienic standards, disrespect, leg pulling, and relationship wreckage …. (the endless list of plaguing issues our society is facing)…. Ultimately learning to fulfill our responsibilities in every role.
And as it is said, if you put a black dot on a white wall, the optimistic people will say that it’s a white wall with a tiny dot and the pessimistic ones will howl and whine and magnify “the black dot” and its dimensions too. So my advice is , don’t blow up some black dots from any organization out of proportion ; rather look at beautiful white wall!
To cap it all, at the end of the day, Al-Huda International Welfare Foundation, like any other organization, is an organization that’s run by people. It is an organization with the aim of spreading goodness among people, particularly Muslims through the right teachings of the Quran and Sunnah. The organization is made up of a tapestry of people coming from diverse backgrounds as well as emotional and intellectual make-ups.
I have been fortunate enough, to have viewed Al-Huda very skeptically, as well as very favorably. It has been an enlightening journey that has transformed me in many ways.
The aim of the above “scuba diving” tour was to take the reader below the surface so that he or she can get a view, beyond the mere surface waves and experience the awe inspiring depths which instigates a diver to come back for more and more.
Director Hamaray Bachchay department
Farina Siddiqui
I am seriously concerned about this wrong media portrayal of Al Huda Institute in Mississauga, I disagree with this. I know nothing about Al Huda Pakistan and never had the idea of their existence until I moved to Mississauga from Hamilton almost 12 years ago. I never came across any negative preaching there.
I met Dr. Hashmi twice back in 2007 while I was working on a breast cancer screening project from Peel Public Health and I found her humble and polite. Actually, during my work at Public Health, Alhuda was the first Islamic institute which opened their doors for public health presentations our team offered. That clearly shows their approach towards women empowerment. I have attended a lot of lectures and Friday khutbas at Alhuda and I didn’t find anything of that sort. Through her several lectures available online, I see Dr. Hashmi presenting an open minded view of Quran to teach women on how to take the ownership of their own actions with critical thinking and extremely confident approach. When women understand the true meaning and importance of their role out of the hollow cell of so called feminism, they actually come out of true starving state of lacking a vision. I am not a student of Alhuda and not even a regular there, however I do come across Al Huda graduates everywhere and I find them consistent with the teachings.
As far as women empowerment within Islamic doctrines is concerned, I would give two thumbs up to Dr. Hashmi as she had done a remarkable job sending the surge of vision among Muslim women with a sense of pride, integrity and meaning to life. Even women who had no exposure to work life, outside environment as such, learned creative ways to present themselves in the society. Many of her students were stay at home moms, and now are teachers themselves, earning with dignity and respect. People who accuse her are the regular “don’t judge people” or Haya doesn’t require you to dressed in a certain way” people. Honestly I am embarrassed to say I was one of those people who used to judge just like that but Allah SWT guided me that by saying the truth without the intention of hurting people’s feelings and self esteem is a way to empower each other. Even casual attendance there strengthened my confidence as a Muslim mom that the source of information I am looking for is right under my reach…….Quran…….it just is the matter of putting things into perspective……the right perspective.
I also would avoid calling Tafsheen or any “suspect” as a “shooter” or the popular synonym nick name of Muslims these days. ….the terrorist. ….let alone linking the under investigation motives of Tafsheen to Alhuda’s teaching as a prestigious institution. I don’t know about weather she actually did it or is it a false flag, let the law maker decide…..or apologize a few years from now…….common tactic of CIA and FBI…….
I completely disagree with the narrative of linking Islam with extremism. I strongly think that the notion referring every practicing Muslim with extremism is crazy and must be stopped. May God Almighty protect us all from judging the books by covers and from adding fuel to anti Muslim narrative. Amen.
