MISSION & PHILOSOPHY

Allah  says in the Holy Qur’an:

So, why should it not be that a group from every section of believers goes forth, so that they may acquire perfect understanding of the Faith, and so that they may warn their people when they return to them, so that they may take due care (of the rules of Islamic Law). [At-Tawbah (9): 122]

In this verse, Allah  sets forth a responsibility upon all Muslims to always prepare a group from amongst them to learn the rules of Islam, especially those that apply to their daily lives. This verse of the Holy Qur’an is the base of our mission here at CJIIS; to prepare the Muslim community to navigate themselves in their journey of the dunya (wordly life) as they prepare to enter into the realms of the akhirah (hereafter). The essence of this religion is to bring everything into practice, but in order to bring anything into practice, knowledge is required beforehand. `Allamah Abu Layth al-Samarqandi (d. 373 AH) mentions in his Tanbih al-Ghafilin:

Some of the wise people mentioned, ‘Practice (upon anything) requires four things in order to be safe from errors, and the first of these is to have knowledge of the action before initiating it. The reason for this is that a deed will always be prone to error unless there is prior knowledge (to correct that error).  When any deed is performed without prior knowledge, then the negativity created through it is more far-reaching than the reformation it was meant to create (in that action).

Our mission is to impart that knowledge as handed down to us from the previous generations of `Ulama’ (scholars), while taking precaution in preserving the etiquette and methods of imparting `ilm (sacred knowledge) as observed by the `Ulama’ of our tradition. In doing so, we aim to gain proximity to Allah  as a group of His servants working to preserve the sacred tradition of Islam. And our success and our failure solely lies in His hands.

GOALS & OBJECTIVES

In conjunction with fulfilling our mission, we hope to achieve the following goals:

• Instill taqwa (awareness of Allah ) into the hearts of all Muslims
• Build more love for our beloved Prophet Muhammad 
• Increase practice on the Sunnah of our noble Prophet Muhammad 
• Facilitate an environment that is conducive to our mission and objectives
• Maintain quality education without compromising on our obligations as Muslims and citizens of our country
• Serve as a role model for all communities in upholding qualities of justice and good character
• To the best of our ability, provide support to all communities in fulfilling their individual and communal obligations as Muslims living in America

The Messenger of Allah  said:

There is nothing more weighty than good character in the scale of a believer on the Day of Resurrection. [Tirmidhi]