The leader Within

Chapter 9: Eid Party

Masjid Al-Farooq is the oldest mosque of Mississauga. It was established in 1987 as the first Masjid in the city of Mississauga. It is named after the second caliph of Islam, Umar Al-Farooq. The mosque is situated on an acre of land in the heart of a residential area in the centre of Mississauga densely populated with Muslims. Masjid Al-Farooq is also a registered charitable organization and issues income-tax deductible receipts for all donation. This mosque is a member of the Imam Council of Canada and a member of the Coalition of Muslim Organisations (COMO). The mosque is attended by Muslims from numerous cultural backgrounds. In 2007, the Masjid completed construction of its new 8500 sq. This mosque also holds different events at different times of the year such as Ramadan Day, guest speakers and Eid parties.

Masjid Al-Farooq is always in need of dedicated volunteers to arrange these events in the mosque. So, I volunteered at the mosque to organize the Eid party. Eid basically represents the sacrifices of our ancestors and it is Muslims tradition to celebrate that day. Eid party is a yearly festival held inside the mosque. The mosque gathers different stalls for food, clothes, jewellery, henna etc. There are competitions held at the event so kids can win prizes (such as who knows the history of Eid the best). I was supposed to volunteer for seven hours. My duties included things like helping people find their way, giving them information about different stalls at the party, organizing and displaying the food, setting out chairs for people. I was also responsible for helping clean the mosque at the end of the event with other volunteers.

During this event, I was required to work with other volunteers to help successfully run the Eid party. I was supposed to monitor the volunteers who were solely responsible for organizing the event. I needed to make sure that everyone has a clear understanding of their responsibilities and how to do them. This was very important to make sure that the event goes smoothly. This taught me the importance of clear communication especially by the leader. To avoid confusions and mistakes, the leader needs to have clear directions and concrete goals. This is important to ensure that team members are doing their job properly and have a thorough understanding of what their main goal is. I was a motivational leader during this experience and realized that my followers reacted to motivation better and it pushed them to work more efficiently. Instead of giving an order to finish their work, I motivated them to perform well by giving incentives like free food which would be provided by the volunteer's coordinator if we worked efficiently. I realized it made them excited to work rather than doing it just to complete their hours which improved the team performance overall. This resulted in the event running smoothly without any confusions or flaws. This is important because it can help me in future as now I know that I need to motivate my team to enhance their performance. I also learned that it was easy for us to attain our goal because the whole team worked well with each other which demonstrated that a team needs to work together as a whole to smoothly execute a plan.