Abridged from a forthcoming book:
“The Five Pillars of Managing Your Muslim Nonprofit in a Post 9-11 World,” the second edition of "Islamic Perspective on Charity,"which is available @ authorhouse..com

By Khalil Jassemm and Mohamad Chehade

THE COMMITMENT TO RIGHT ACTION

“You [believers] are the best Community ever brought forth for [theood of] humankind: You enjoin what is right. And you forbid what is wrong. And you believe in God.” [3:110]

THE MUSLIM AND THE AMERICAN NONPROFIT

THE QURAN GIVES us the clearest possible "mission statement" for the Muslim community in the above verse. It is a perfect declaration of the believers' collective purpose in society: Simple, clear, direct, and operational. Most crucially, it passes the "ultimate test" of any successful mission: It directs to right action. (Peter F. Druker,Managing the Non-Profit Organization)

Guiding the human being to right action is, in fact, what the Qur'an is all about. Rendering that right action operational making it happen in the world was precisely the human mission of the Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam. It is what his life-model (the prophetic ‘sunnah,' to use the technical Arabic term) preserves for us intact till today. In other words, the Qur'an and the Sunnah are the ‘what' and the ‘how,' respectively, of the religion of Islam. Or, they are the mission, and the method of that mission the method being, in management terms, the conversion of the mission into specifics.When we look at the Qur'an and the life of the Prophet in this way, it makes Islam all about changing the individual in order to change society for the good of humankind. This is exactly what our statement from the Qur'an describes the Muslim communal mission to be.

OUR AWARENESS OF THE UNDERPERFORMANCE OF MOST OF OUR NONPROFITS OUGHT TO HOROUGHLY DISABUSE US OF THE NAÏVE IDEA THAT "RELIGIOUSNESS" AND "GOOD HEARTS" RE THE ONLY HUMAN CRITERIA NEEDED TO BRING ABOUT THE SUCCESSFUL DEPLOYMENT OF

THEIR SERVICES AND BENEFIT IN THE WORLD.

The same notion of harnessing the commitment of people to change things for the better is also the very rationale that underlies the idea of the public service nonprofit organization in America; namely, to "bring about a change in individuals and in society" which sets aright something that is wrong, or which alleviates a substandard condition or maximizes a desirable one. (Peter F. Druker, Managing the Non-Profit Organization)

Anyone can easily see that between the Qur'anic mission for the Muslim community and the intended utility of the American nonprofit organization there is a genuine convergence of merit and purpose.The divinely revealed religiousgoal of the Muslim in community can find authentic native expression and structure in the legally authorized civic function of the American nonprofit institution. It is only natural, then, that Muslims in America should have formed themselves as a community around a multitude of nonprofit establishments, the aim of the Muslims who contribute to them being to transform themselves so as to reform their own communities and society at large for the sake of all that is pleasing to God and all that is good for their neighbors and fellows.

This, however, raises two important, closely linked questions:

First, have Muslims been effective in their nonprofit institutions beyond the mere fact of founding them? Second, have the nonprofit institutions founded by Muslims been effective in doing what they have been developed to do? These two questions speak to mission and management, respectively.

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If we are honest with ourselves about our experiences with most Muslim nonprofits, we must respond negatively to both questions. For the most part, the answer is "no," our Muslim nonprofits are generally neither well conceived nor do they serve well the people they have been founded to help. This is not meant to be a blanket repudiation of the intentions or efforts of founders, board members, executives, staff, volunteers, and donors-the many Muslims who are or have been part of the missions of Muslim nonprofits across the country. Indeed, the level of commitment and amount of sacrifice that have gone into most of our nonprofits is both staggering and humbling and speaks well of the sheer human wealth and deepening spiritual weal within our community. Muslims, moreover, have been obliged to work in the American nonprofit world against odds and pressures that can only be dimly depicted as utterly enormous, becoming even more shockingly egregious since that fateful September. Indeed, it takes a certain kind of heroism to work in many of our Muslim philanthropic institutions today.

Still, even these harrowing conditions do not excuse mediocre management and deficient delivery of services in our nonprofits. On the contrary, there is a good argument to be made that such critical shortfalls in leadership and performance have intensified the problems that Muslim nonprofits and the community have encountered in the current hyper-apprehensive environment.The fact that we ourselves recognize both the functional inadequacy of our nonprofits and the inequity of the environment we are functioning in should speak even more loudly to us about (a) the urgent call for Muslims to establish a broad array of specialized nonprofits and (b) the dire need for creative and competent stewardship of our nonprofits.

Moreover, our awareness of the underperformance of most of our nonprofits ought to thoroughly disabuse us of the naïve idea that "religiousness" and "good hearts" are the only human criteria needed to bring about the successful deployment of their services and benefit in the world.The fanciful belief that such subjectively assessed qualities as devoutness and spirituality are sufficient credentials for anybody to objectively direct a Muslim nonprofit, or work in one, is not only untenable but goes against the Qur'an.{sidebar id=2}"Indeed, God commands you to render all trusts to their rightful people." [4:58] The verse goes on to exhort us to justice in our judgment of people.With regard to our nonprofits, we ought to have learned by now that the difference between good intentions and effective action and controls is exactly the distinction between wishful thinking and real achievement.

Step one in forming or professionalizing your organization is exercising the first-order leadership task of thinking the mission of your nonprofit through to the end. Remember, as you form that intention, our perfect Qur'anic mission statement directs us to make it ‘for' the purpose of genuinely benefiting our fellows "in humanity" with a clear good.That means we are to bar no one and nothing on earth from our counsel, comfort, or service for the sake of God. Identifying the components of the mission statement for your organization and then developing one are the tasks we will now take up.