By Saadia Qureshi

Nov/Dec 2023

This year witnesses the North American Islamic Trust’s (NAIT) 50 years of community service, an inspiring story of preservation, resilience, and success of one of this continent’s pioneering and oldest Islamic organizations. 

“At this proud moment, we pay tribute to the torch bearers of NAIT whose vision guided us to where we are today; the founding leaders, the former and current board, staff, volunteers — we thank them all for their relentless contributions,” said Maqsood Quadri (executive director, NAIT). “We are also grateful for the support from the community that allowed us to serve for so long. Thank you for your trust. Many of the initial founders have passed away. May Allah have mercy on them and reward them for their service. Ameen.”

Born in 1973 as an Islamic waqf, NAIT sought to revive the Prophet’s (salla Allahu alaihi wa salaams) sunnah by helping to preserve and protect North America’s Islamic institutions. 

The Trust has grown into a comprehensive solution provider with 400+ waqf institutions in USA and Canada with three subsidiaries primarily serving Islamic institutions and the community through  programs such as halal investing for families, mosques and institutions, halal certification and education, legal services for entrusted institutions, dispute resolution, stock donation liaisonship for institutions, Islamic literature publishing and several other on-campus programs for Hometown, Ill. and neighboring areas.  

Some of you may be able to recall that 50 years ago, North America was a very different place for Muslim immigrants. Even though Muslims arrived long before Columbus (Muslim Roots of America murraystate.edu),  their migration to North America only reached significant numbers after the U.S. changed its immigration laws in the 1960s. Before then, Muslims were primarily enslaved Muslim Africans and their emancipated descendants. The institutions necessary to shaping and strengthening a Muslim culture had not established a foothold yet. Many of their mosques and Islamic centers were lost or forgotten due to socio-political or financial factors. 

Challenges for Muslims in North America

• A highly mobile society. This impacted Muslim communities nationwide. Their assets, both tangible and/or intangible, sometimes became subject to conflicts of ownership after their founders and caretakers moved to take up new jobs or died. 

• Lack of financial stability for Islamic work. Despite vigorous fundraising within North America, the growth of Islamic work was outpacing donations to sustain the already scarce institutions. Muslim leaders understood that institutions financed by members and other stakeholders through prudent development and management of funds in investment-driven endowments, like awqaaf, were more likely to succeed than those dependent on a raise-and-spend basis. This latter option only distracted the leadership from its central role: carrying out the mission. 

•  Need for a waqf. The influx of immigrants in the 1960s and early 1970s led to the rapid increase in  mosques and Islamic centers. This revealed the need for an integrated nationwide body to develop, acquire, maintain and protect these centers from being lost again. 

NAIT’s Establishment and Role

Several valuable pioneering projects were subsequently reorganized: the Islamic Book Service, the Islamic Supplies Service and the International Graphics Printing Service. This process ended in the formal establishment of NAIT as a nonprofit corporation in 1973. Its provision of free waqf services soon made it a central organization in shaping the Muslim presence in North America. Among the instrumental incorporating leaders were Dr. Hisham Altalib, Mohammed M. Shamma, Dr. Ahmad Sakr (d. 2015), Jamal Al Barzinji (d. 2015) and Dr. Osman Ahmed. 

NAIT soon became vital with  the responsibilities to act as trustee for the assets of organizations set up for religious, cultural, scientific, educational and charitable purposes; initiate and manage business ventures according to the shariah; support and subsidize projects beneficial to Islam and Muslims; and develop sources of income for these activities.

• Pioneering Halal Investing in America. With the help of Islamic finance experts and scholars, between the late 1970s and early 1990s, NAIT started developing halal investment vehicles. It thus became the pioneer of halal investing in North America. 

In 1979, it launched the Islamic Centers’ Cooperative Fund (ICCF), a mosque-focused halal investment tool. The ICCF pools the community’s funds and invests in halal stocks, real estate, properties, leases and other opportunities.

Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi (board member of NAIT and the Fiqh Council of North America) stated, “Centers that have extra money, instead of putting that in interest-bearing savings accounts, deposit that in the ICCF. The money is safe; in the last three decades, no center has lost a penny on their principal. Up to 12-15% of the money in ICCF has been extended in short-term interest-free loans to the entrusted institutions for critical projects.” 

According to Salah Obeidallah, president, Allied Asset Advisors (AAA)which was established in 2000 as NAIT’s wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary, ICCF protects the principal through a yield equalization reserve (YER) that consists of a part of the funds’ net gains. Thus, any market decline is borne by the YER instead of the investor. This means that part of yearly gains in profitable years is retained in the YER to shoulder losses during a market decline. 

Earlier in 1989, NAIT pioneered the Amana Income Fund to help Muslim families secure their financial future while following Islamic values; however, NAIT is no longer associated with the fund. Later, NAIT also introduced The Dow Jones Islamic Index Fund – a mutual fund. After over a decade’s experience of designing and managing halal financial products, NAIT launched another halal mutual fund in 2000, the AAA-offered Iman Fund, which continues to serve the community. 

The Iman Fund is managed by Dr. Bassam Osman, its fund manager and NAIT’s longest serving board member. The Fund continuously monitors the companies for shariah compliance and is supervised by a shariah board. “We are currently exploring to introduce more products in the near future to expand investing options for our community, InshaAllah,” Obeidallah stated. 

Media, Halal Certification, and Stocks

In 1979, NAIT established American Trust Publications (ATP) to produce Islamic books for all ages, as well as a scholastic book series. In coordination with NAIT’s oldest division, the Islamic Book Service (IBS), NAIT published and sold over 2,600 book titles. These books are now printed on demand and available through online platforms. 

One of NAIT’s big achievements was the first Audio Visual Center, established in 1981 to produce a large inventory of AV materials. In 1983, it set up the world’s largest Muslim-owned commercial audio cassette duplication facility, with a production capacity of 1.2 million cassettes per year. This enabled NAIT to reproduce the tapes required for Quranic albums and Islamic recordings. 

In 2020, NAIT established the American Halal Institute (AHI) to offer and help standardize halal certification, provide consumer and business owner education and training, and advocate for halal accessibility. 

America’s certified halal food market is poised to grow to $8.7 billion by 2024 (Business Wire. March 15, 2021). Many countries are now requiring this certification on certain imported products. “It’s a tremendous growth opportunity for both Muslim and non-Muslim businesses,” said Qadri Abdallah (director of operations, AHI). “However, the halal process is not standardized. We aim to eventually eliminate that need by helping to develop a transparent, standard criteria according to shariah for all to follow.” 

Another problem AHI aims to address is certification fraud. In Illinois and other states, placing a halal logo or certificate falsely on the products or services is now a punishable crime. 

Among NAIT’s other notable programs are legal guidance and services, as well as stock donation liaisonship offered free of charge. The Stock Donation Liaison Program, a first of its kind, was launched in 2019 to help Islamic nonprofits incorporate valuable stock donations into their financial strategy and to encourage Islamic institutions to use sustainable fundraising methods. 

The Vision Forward

The vision is to connect mosques  nationwide in a way they can learn and support each other as a connected body. Part of this vision is to also engage our local community, Muslim or non-Muslim, through the new building complex in Hometown, Ill. We have already launched an on-campus mosque (Hometown Mercy Mosque) with a young, knowledgeable Imam and youth director. It can accommodate up to 1,000 congregants and offers weekly youth halaqas, games, monthly potlucks, women’s programming, spiritual counseling, and other activities. 

Expanding on the vision for the next decade, Quadri shared plans of launching a Quran Institute later this year. This institute will teach the Arabic alphabet, reading, memorization, and understanding the Quran to all ages. Other planned on-campus initiatives in the next two years include an Islamic school, a health clinic, and providing services to underserved neighbors via social and entitlement service programs and guidance.

 “It is very rewarding when we get calls from coast to coast, from major cities to small towns, commending NAIT’s services,” Quadri said. “It’s a privilege, I say. Preserving our assets for the coming generations is all that matters. May Allah bless all those working to help our communities and accept our service, Ameen.”

Sadia Qureshi is a communications consultant.

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By Sadia Qureshi

Sept/Oct 2023

A Newark, N.J., mosque board secretly sells the building on grounds not approved by the community it was serving. The mosque was also a local waqf (charitable endowment) property. It seems hard to believe, but such a practice has also happened to other mosques in the U.S.

This a consequence of the absence of comprehensive and clear bylaws — something that has given rise to avoidable conflicts, as in the case of two mosques in New Jersey and three in California.

To prevent such practices, clearly defined bylaws can be the number one defense against any mosque board abusing power and resources. The board [jw2] should deal with the following issues when creating or revising bylaws: 

 • Closing loopholes. If your mosque doesn’t have a published list of bylaws, make it a top priority to create and distribute one. Bylaws consist of agreed-upon policies and procedures, regardless of the mosque’s size or operations.

If such a publication does exist, revisit and update all the vague and inadequate provisions with the guidance of a legal expert. Close any loopholes that may inadvertently grant excessive authority to the mosque’s board [jw3] and ensure compliance and transparency. Include “provisions of accountability” to protect the congregation against any arbitrary actions and manipulation that could leave the general body powerless and unable to challenge board’s decisions effectively. A “general body” is composed of patrons/community members serving the mosque, whether paying their dues or not, and are registered to vote on mosque affairs. The best practice is to have only paying members, which will avoid manipulation at election time. This general body elects the Board of Directors, an election process in which the mosque’s staff cannot participate.

• Preserving the community’s trust. For mosques operating under a waqf, maintaining its Board of Trustees’(BOT) independence from its Board of Directors (BOD) is essential for trust and transparency. Unfortunately, conflicts arise when both boards are the same or overlap, thereby allowing for potential breaches of trust and abuses of power.

To maintain the waqf’s sanctity, establish clear lines of separation through the bylaws and prevent any collusion between these bodies. Remember: In case of a conflict, the court will not honor a local waqf if the boards of the waqf and the mosque are not separate.

• Relocation and expansion guidelines. Comprehensive bylaws should provide specific guidelines in these two cases, especially when the mosque is a waqf property. The new facilities must be carefully assessed in light of the community’s needs and conducting the vetting processes — something that was not done in the above-mentioned Newark mosque.

• Use of financial resources. Defining the appropriate process and authority for accessing and deploying financial resources by any staff or board member is a key component of formulating effective bylaws. These provisions protect the mosque’s scarce funds that belong to the people it serves from being abused to achieve egotistic goals.

• Effective governance and conflict resolution provisions. Include communication systems and conflict resolution mechanisms to establish effective governance and prevent costly legal battles between the board [jw4] and the general body. Communication transparency and documentation are key to preserving community trust and financial resources.

• Legal Counsel. Without exception, every Islamic center/mosque should seek legal expertise to ensure that its bylaws are consistent, non-contradictory, and legally sound. A legal expert can identify gaps and weaknesses and suggest areas for improvement with proper legal language that safeguards the mosque’s interests and those of the community it serves.

• Removal of Board and Election Mechanisms: Bylaws should be clear and very specific on the following: how to conduct elections, how the board [jw5] can remove one of its members, how the general assembly can remove the entire board and how to govern until the next election is completed.

Well-defined bylaws are essential for effective mosque governance, or any nonprofit for that matter. Clear bylaws enhance transparency, promote community involvement and empowerment, prevent conflicts, and foster a sense of unity and purpose.

Other than the bylaws, one of the best ways to protect mosques is to make them a waqf. If the trustee has strict and systematic mechanisms in place to prevent abuse and manipulation, as in the case of the North American Islamic Trust, issues like those at the Newark mosque would not have arisen.

NAIT’s Waqf is a completely free service that ensures that the waqf continues to benefit the community, as spelled out in the waqf agreement. Selling a center or a mosque entrusted to NAIT is very rare, and a lot of strict conditions must be met before it can be sold. If you would like to protect your mosque through NAIT Waqf, call us at 630.789.9191.

Reprinted with permission from the North American Islamic Trust, Inc.

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