ISNA MATTERS THE LEADERSHIP TRACK
Anne Marie Balzano (director, Leadership and Governance, National Association of Independent Schools) divided her presentation, “Board Best Practices & COVID,” into three sections: (1) Roles/ Responsibilities: the board defines the organization’s path, mission and vision, and the principal drives it to the set path; (2) The Fiduciary, Strategic and Generative models. The last one requires the board to question the process and diagnose the problem to reach the issue’s root cause(s) before jumping to conclusions; and (3) the importance of having continuous accountability and assessments via different tools and a matrix chart. Certified Leadership Challenge facilitator William White (board officer, CISNA; principal, the Islamic School of Louisville,” presented “Leadership Challenge: Connecting Best Practices to Islamic Foundations.” Participants engaged in interactive activities to learn how to model research-backed Islamic behaviors to improve their school teams and community’ engagement and performance. Habeeb Quadri’s “Rise to Resilience: From the Heart of a Leader” discussed the new technological and human skills we need to learn and improve, and how faith helped leaders build and apply resilience through scriptural verses and our prophets’ stories. He urged school leaders to leverage hope and optimism when interacting with students, teachers and community members to continue building resilience. A much-needed panel, “Avoiding Principal Burnout,” recognized the frustration coming from overloaded responsibilities; stress from the board, parents and teacher retention issues; and that many problems are due to poor financial support and management. Veteran administrators Shahida AliKhan (ISNA Lifetime Achievement Award winner), Magda Elkadi Saleh (vice president-USA, ISNA; head of school, Bayaan Academy), Susan Labadi, Azra Naqvi, (CISNA board; principal, Hadi School) and Pembe Yarsarlar (executive director, Crescent Academy Int’l; board, Institute for Learning and Development, proprietor of The Tarbiyah Project©) responded to questions and provided relevant advice. Elkadi Saleh’s “Engaged Families = Stronger Schools” pointed out that such schools have more substantial retention rates, higher satisfaction rates and greater levels of parental and community financial support. She emphasized that engagement means involving parents in the conversation. CISNA president Leila Shatara and board members Iram Shaikh Jilani and Uzma Shinawari’s “Why Accreditation? CISNA’s New Standards” offered new updates to standards as CISNA (www.cisnausa.org) moves to gain accreditation for its Islamic studies, Quran, and Arabic programs. They also spoke about standards related to governance, school administration, teaching and learning, as well as school culture and environment. Each session was concluded by a Q&A session and a rich discussion. Overall, the tracks generated much positive feedback. ISNA executive director Basharat Saleem related how ISNA has spent the last year — and continues to — reaching out to support its North American constituents, by God’s grace. ISNA president Safaa Zarzour concluded the session by overviewing the forum’s 22-year history and making a closing du‘a. NOTE: Recorded sessions are available on the ISNA YouTube channel. ih Thouraya Boubetra (director, Arabic Online Education, Aldeen Foundation), Susan Labadi (Genius School, Inc.), Azra Naqvi (principal, Hadi School of Excellence) and Layla Shatara (principal, Garden of Sahaba Academy) are members of the ISNA Education Forum Committee.
10 ISLAMIC HORIZONS MAY/JUNE 2021
MYNA Program Pro Personal and Spiritu Growth for Young M Three-week MYNA’s Hira Intensive reflection, connection, and direction. BY ALAA ABDELDAIEM AND ASEEL ATALLA
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eep within Hira cave on Jabal an-Nour (the mountain of light) outside Makkah, Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) reflected on his relationship with God. Unknown to him during his annual retreat in this cave, one day it would serve as the birthplace of revelation and his status as God’s prophet and messenger to humanity. Muslims still marvel at what happened when the angel Jibreel descended and commanded the illiterate Muhammad to “Read,” to which the best of creation responded, “But I cannot read.” Embracing him tightly, Jibreel stated, “Read in the name of your Lord who created (everything) ...” Revelation proved difficult and extraneous, but it also caused the future prophet to impact humanity by igniting his ability to connect and transform. Upon reflection, these formative and foundational verses outline three important aspects of our deen: (1) contemplation and seclusion pave the path to ma‘rifa (knowledge of God, Most Generous); (2) reading and writing turn us into holistic and grounded individuals who can deeply love God; and (3) we can both transform ourselves and others after experiencing great difficulties that “tighten our chest.” Over the past year, the pandemic has deeply affected many of our lives. We find ourselves socially and spiritually disconnected and depleted. Isolation has forced us into unhealthy habits, impaired our hope and trust in the future, as well as separated us from our loving communities’ direct support. As we wait
