Candidates

Suhayb Nummer

Candidate for MSA President

In the name of Allah, the most merciful, the especially merciful with the believers.

وَمَنۡ أَحۡسَنُ قَوۡلٗا مِّمَّن دَعَآ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَعَمِلَ صَٰلِحٗا وَقَالَ إِنَّنِي مِنَ ٱلۡمُسۡلِمِينَ
And who is better in speech than one who called to Allah and did righteousness and said, “I am of the Muslims”?

I am your brother Suhayb Nummer. I am committed by the will of Allah to fulfilling the duties of the President. The following will outline my platform for the President position for the 2025-2026 year.

MSA Experience:

• 2024-2025 Vice President Internal
• 2023-2024 Prayer Coordinator for Services
• 2022-2023 Fundraising Coordinator for Finance
• IAW volunteer 2022-2025
• Involved with the broader muslim community

Executives

My work starts with developing the Executive team. If there is a strong team, in their Knowledge, Sincerity, Commitment, Character, and Goals then that team can excel and produce what this community needs.

Through Executive meetings starting at the beginning of our term, the team will learn about various topics, prepared by themselves or presented through a community leader. Some topics I have in mind are as follows:

• Studying the Pillars of Emaan, and relating that to our MSA work. We can’t claim as an Exec team to represent Muslims when we do not understand the fundamentals of our religion. Understanding the Pillars of Emaan is the greatest boost for us to do our work with excellence, and tie it back to our meeting with Allah.
• Learning to build a relationship with the Quran. Studying some Surahs of Quran relating to character, community involvement ect.
• Learning how to use Prayer as a source of comfort, a source of provision to have the motivation to do our work.
• Understand the topic of Ikhlas/Sincerity and its importance in any work, but specifically for leaders.
• Leadership training. Understanding that being selected to be a leader isn’t to be taken lightly. Leadership means commitment, sacrifice, responsibility and accountability. The new team will need to understand and demonstrate this.
• Studying some aspects of the life of the Prophet peace be upon him and his companions to understand how much they sacrificed for Islam. This will motivate the team to work hard and appreciate that they are carrying forth the message of islam in a unique way on campus.
• Understanding the broad concept of Dawah. Learning about how to represent Islam. Learning that calling to Muslims is just as important as calling to non muslims.
• Character development training. Learning to understand our strengths and weaknesses and setting personal goals to change and improve ourselves.
• Meetings with past Executives and Alumni to learn from their experiences and build connections with them.
• Mental Health in Islam. Knowing that this role is tough and stress or burnout can happen. Learning how to stay fresh and motivated even after tough situations.

Those are some examples, but the topics will be tailored to the team. I want the entire exec team, starting with myself, to grow and learn together so that we can be better people and serve Islam on and off campus.

Of course I will be there to support all the execs in providing advice, helping them achieve their goals, and solving any conflicts that may arise. I will hold them accountable and I expect them to hold me accountable. I will hold regular check-ins with execs to make sure they are on track, to make sure they are healthy and doing well.

I expect the executive team to come together and have similar goals for the year, so our efforts can be streamlined and fruitful by the will of Allah. I have suggestions to improve each committee but I will save that for when I meet the new team, as I think it is important to see what they want to achieve, and work with them on that.

Council

My work will continue with the council as well, mainly on the following points which I had started work on as VPI.

Firstly, being available for all members to offer advice and support on what issues they are facing and suggestions they have for the MSA. This will be done through the anonymous feedback forms as well as meetings that can be scheduled with me in person for more serious matters such as conflict between members. This will create a space where feedback is constantly pooled into the MSA, and I can directly share this with the team in hopes of implementing it. It will also provide a space for conflict resolution. I will look into other forms of discussion that can be had with members, as I want to build a stronger connection with them. I want to create some resources that would help volunteers tackle day to day issues and to help them develop as individuals.

Secondly, it is important to continue the important training for coordinators and council members, to get them to be motivated, and excited about their work. We will explore similar topics as mentioned in the executive section. It is important to focus on connecting our work to Allah, and purify our intentions for his sake. I want to bring newer topics as well that volunteers struggle with such as time management, balance between work, school, and MSA, mental health, character development, and so on. This is all related to the development of the members which I will work on closely with the new VPI.

Thirdly, I will continue updates to the guidebook and constitution as role descriptions need to be revised.

A wise friend of mine said “We should treat our volunteers like gold”. I agree with him. I want to place a lot of time and effort into taking care of the volunteers who spend their time for the sake of Allah, and make them feel that they are valued, and that they can do a lot of good work for their community.

Broader Muslim Community

The MSA is mostly in a bubble, we do not interact much with other muslims on campus, with the excuse that they do not have the same values as us. I think this is a big mistake. We almost treat non-muslims better than muslims who we disagree with or muslims who are not as practicing as us. I believe we have an obligation to call muslims to islam just as much as we have an obligation to call non-muslims to islam. This is something I want to work on. How do we call them to Islam, and bring them closer to Allah and the Sunnah of his prophet. This is a big question that I aim to tackle with the new team. Of course there are boundaries that cannot be crossed and this is a difficult issue to tackle, but it is of the utmost importance. I ask Allah to enable us to do justice to this cause. I will aim as well to build relationships with Mosques around Ottawa and external organizations with the help of VPE.

Broader Non-Muslim Community

We should continue work calling non-muslims to islam as well in unique ways. Islam has a lot to offer to the word. When we have lectures on certain topics, we should advertise to non-muslims as well who may benefit. There is also room for discussion circles with other faith groups. We should table more frequently as well to establish a stronger presence. Again this is a bigger discussion to be had, and an important task to tackle. These are some ideas but this process needs consultation and detailed planning to be effective, but it is something I want to start working on.

University

I will continue keeping relationships with all various university groups, and pushing for resources the MSA needs.

Final Note

This is a summary of my platform. Things are subject to change but I outlined my main goals for the year. I ask Allah to bless our work and make it for his sake, and I hope that the MSA will continue to grow and prosper for years to come.

Note: I think this is important to mention as it may affect your decision on who to vote for. I will be working a co-op job in the summer in Kingston. I plan to come to Ottawa on weekends in shaa allah. Most of my MSA work for the summer can be done online, or through in person meetings with the executive team on weekends. As for fall and winter, I may or may not land a job, and it may be inside or outside Ottawa. There is no way to know right now. If my work is outside Ottawa that may be harmful for the team so a new election would have to be conducted (If i get elected). Just wanted to mention that to you.