School of Leadership
In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful and the Most Gracious …
- Grounded in Islamic principles and inspired by Islamic history, Momintum is a leadership development endeavour for the youth with the strategic intent to empower and unleash revolutions.
- Momintum Leadership has formulated a vision to become a premier leadership development company to help the Muslim youth recognize their immense potential and then further inspiring, isolating and motivating massive success with exponential geometric progression in every area of their lives.
- The results we are aiming for is youth being in positions of influence rather than being influenced. What this means is that we empower the youth with a sense of pride in who they are as Muslims, with self trust and belief in their identity, poise in what they represent, confidence of being people of principles when they act, and having ability to think and act revolutions.
- Rasoolullah (peace and blessings be upon him) has said, in a hadeeth preserved in Saheeh Muslim, “The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allaah than the weak believer, while there is good in both.” And thus, with full assertion, we believe that our youth need to have strength in all arenas of their lives – spiritual, physical, professional, psycho-emotional, financial, social and ingenuity, where ingenuity is the ability to accomplish greatness.
- Today, leadership (in organizations, business, marketing) has developed through study and synthesis of military strategies. What is so amazing about our own traditions is leadership was intrinsically built into the tarbiyyah (development) process. The children of our sahabah and the earlier generations were being taught strategy and leadership just like they were being taught Quran through studies and reflection in the Seerah of Rasoolullah and our Rightly Guided Khaleefas.
- Furthermore, in our glorious history, we will find leaders being trained by Murrabis. These were people of experience who were trainers, mentors, coaches and guides for the young leaders. A khaleefa’s son in the past (who you would assume would be the next khaleefa) would have a murabbi, who would be his daily companion, teaching him not just education but experience. Murrabi is someone who lives realistic and practical values that he gained through experience of a life time and helps others live those values. Murabbi is someone who has tested out and lived values and strategies and built a library of references in their mind as to what works and does not work? They walk the talk, and they demonstrate results.
- Momintum endeavours to return to a system that didn’t just produce great leaders, but also a glorious history. We are not teachers who simply teach. We inspire through stories of our heroes, isolate understanding of principles and motivate movements.
- The first of the great thinkers that originated the concept of “Momentum” in classical mechanics was Ibn Sina (Avincenna) during the Islamic Renaissance. Momentum is force or speed of movement. This isn’t classical mechanics. “Momintum” is about building massive unstoppable acceleration towards successful personal, social and entrepreneurial movements.
- Youth Leadership Development Program requires our serious students to go through extensive reading and participation in leading discussions. We understand that not all of our students are capable of being at this level; and with that our system is designed to accommodate youth with different capabilities.
- The current principles that we focus on are following:
o Unyielding ethics: includes the essence and essentials of Islam, as well as, beautification through manners and habits, and maintenance of essential values at all times.
o Effectiveness in communication and interdependence (relationship building),
o Ingenuity in efficiency – ie. Ability to getting things done.
o Excellence in leadership (Ihsan)
o Attitude of experimentation (ie. Being strategic).
- We use accelerated learning strategies which includes:
o inspiring through stories of successful to set up an attitude of success;
o using multi-sensory coverage of a subject;
o exploring a subject through various intelligences (logical, linguistic, inter-personal, intra-personal, visual/special, physical, and rythm);
o and integrating the knowledge with application.
- Integration process requires facilitators, peer support, and tested integration tools such as the following five step process:
o Attuning: Give attention to the principles and applications that you learned.
o Accounting: Take account of yourself by measuring how well you fair in the principles and applications that you learned.
o Identifying: Identify what you need to be doing by getting details about what you should stop doing and what you should start doing.
o Compelling: Create a scoreboard and make your progress visible.
o Implementing: Create an Integrational Agenda.
- In essence our goal is inspiring the youth with our history, isolating key and essential Islamic principles from Quran and sunnah, and motivating integration of principles into actions such that they become habits and personalities.
- Momintum is a leadership training at a practical level: We aren’t about simple education. We desire action, massive action to be precise. While the empowering session is to build leadership personality within a student, practicum are empowerment sessions so that the youth use their abilities and strengths to give back to the family, community and society at large. They actually get to practice what they learned in the real world.
- A single practicum is a 5 month process in a single project.
o Month one: A student will enter the process by being the observer the first month. As an observer, he or she will observe the entire process and how the project is actually being organized.
o Month two: A worker who is actually able to contribute to the project as a volunteer.
o Month three: They move up to the position of a trainee who complements the leader and learns the process under the leader.
o Month four: A trainee is now the leader and runs the entire show, however, he does have help if he needs it.
o Month five: The leader evolves to an advisor who is not a worker, but advises the leader if there is any need to do so.
- The leadership training process will continue as a youth would jump from one project to another and completing the stages from month one to month five, thus attaining a certain level of experience and project management expertise in the process. The projects will vary from social projects, such as organizing Night programs, Outdoors program, writing for newsletter, conducting workshops to entrepreneurial projects. This allows the youth to develop an attitude of giving and working for the community as well.
- Our entire system is based on four corner stones:
1. Being the Leading Edge of change
2. Inventing New and Evolving Models of Relationships
3. Empowering and Unleashing the Youth
4. Strengthening leadership at all levels.
- Currently our Youth Leadership Development Program is composed of three main areas:
o Weekly leadership empowerment through workshops, discussions and dialogues.
o Monthly leadership practicum through working and managing projects.
o Monthly workshops for parents for in house support for the youth.
- The program is intended to be integral, thus integrating development in all areas, including, spiritual, physical, psycho-emotional, financial, professional and educational, social and interactional, and intellectual with ingenuity.
o Learning from those who are already successful: Studying leaders from history, including Quran, Prophets, Khulafa Ar-Rashideen, the sahabah, the generals, the scholars, etc.
o A practical Martial arts program: Not style but practicality. Eastern principles that you learn with western approach – making you stronger, quicker, and more skilful fast. Although this is tentative in its development, we feel it is absolutely essential to develop the human mind.
o Leadership training at a practical level: Whether its building a business, starting a non-profit organization, contributing to your society like fundraising to build an orphanage, whatever greatness the youth want to achieve these sessions are design to empower and unleash the youth to build unstoppable momentum to achieving their dreams.
o The uncomfort zone: An outdoors program that places the youth outside their comfort zone to develop their character, ability to work in team, communications, and other leadership essentials.
o Learning and applying leadership skills including but not limited to speed reading, time management, peak performance management, art of communication, and more.
- Within a few years we hope to have establish a network management system for the youth which would allow them to collaborate and come together with one another without any geographical restrictions, and launch and implement world-wide projects through integrated referral system, project management tools and communication tools. We hope to launch 100 worlds class projects that become leaders in their field of work within 10 years.
- Centered on being the leading edge of change and surrounded by devising working models of relationships, we ask Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) to guide us to constantly seek assistance from Him and guide us to straight path – the path of those who are blessed and successful, not the path of those who have earned anger, nor of those who are astray. We ask Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) to ground us in sincerity, allow us to benefit our audience, and grant us all massive unstoppable momentum. Ameen.
- We want you want to unleash a ruckus – yes, a rumpus, a riot, an uproar. You want to unleash movements and revolutions. You want to bring about change that transforms and reforms and revolutionizes our ummah.
- We want you to become dangerous fearless innovative leader. It’s no longer about going nowhere by following rules, and direction, and the pack. It’s time to speak up, it’s time to challenge conventions, it’s time to stand up for what we believe in, it’s time to fight mediocrity.
- We want you to challenge that persistent and resistant status quo that our culture fights so hard to maintain and hold on to. The illusion of deniability is hollow. Leadership is no longer a choice! It’s an obligation … when only a few blocks away there are people without food to eat, and kids without parents to take for them.
- This is not about great ideas, this is about making things happen. We no longer have the choice to do nothing. Faith is what we do. Faith is confirmed by the actions we take.
- You are not a movement waiting to happen … You’re a revolution at the brink of being unleashed!
- You are a leader and we are here to make sure of that!