ICNA GA Meeting 2024

Hundreds of brothers and sisters, connected through a profound concept of a Jama’ah, look forward to year’s largest gathering of the members of the General Assembly of Islamic Circle of North America that occurs every year in January. This year GA meeting was held between Jan 19th through Jan 21st. Over 250 associates flocked in Houston, TX, from across the country, to participate in the annual report back program.

There are many objectives of this annual meeting where ICNA MGAs not only review the previous year’s progress of ICNA’s chapters, regions, divisions, departments and programs, but it gives an opportunity of socialization to rebuild and strengthen the bond of brotherhood. Ideas to progress are shared in these interactions, and professional connections are made.

The meeting was formally started on Friday evening with an inspiring presentation by Dr Abdul Aziz Abdul Raheem where he introduced a unique way of Arabic language learning. Despite severe weather conditions in many states, most of the MGAs checked-in by late night.

Saturday after Fajar salaat, Hafiz Inayatullah delivered a heart touching Tazkeer in which he reminded the audience about sincerity and purpose of the gathering.

The meeting resumed after a nice continental breakfast and for the most part of the day various reports were presented one after the other by the Markaz, Regions, Division and various departments including ICNA Relief, HHRD, Da’wah, Baitulmaal and others. Slido tool was used to ask any questions related to the presentations.

Breaks for prayers, food and snacks were incorporated at appropriate times. MGA introductions were done during at place lunch. Senior MGAs were honored at the stage. Dr Talat Hussain, Dr Muhammad Yunus and Br Mustafa White shared some experiences and advice.
All the resolutions were presented by the resolution committee. Most of the resolutions were related to various reforms in the elections process, therefore, they were sent to Shura with a suggestion to form an election reforms committee to create a proposal by August 2024 for presentation and approval by the MGAs.

Sh Abdool Rehman Khan delivered a short khatirah on Sunday morning after Fajar and the meeting resumed right after breakfast. The heart of the healthy organizations is the accountability process that took place to give MGAs the opportunity to hold the Ameer, the Shura and individual MGAs accountable in front of all MGAs after following a prescribed process. The remaining short presentations were made before the end of the proposed time.

Another pleasant feature of this meeting was the attendance of a good number of YM alumni and short spiritual reminders and some practical advice from three of them on different topics.
Ameer delivered a short speech emphasizing on the need to engage families into Islamic work, fighting immorality and keeping up with the value of brotherhood. He closed the meeting with Dua. Lunch was served and MGAs started to leave after brief socialization with a aspiration to come back the following year.