as'salaamu alaykum,
I hope you all are doing well inshallah and having a blessed Ramadan so far. As we enter into the last third of this blessed month and find ourselves in these auspicious last 10 nights, I wanted to reach out to you all to let you know that you are in my prayers, as always, and to offer some updates on what my next steps will be after leaving New York University. As I mentioned in my email announcing my departure, I'll be involved at the IC through the end of August inshallah and will begin a gradual transition out once the Spring Semester completes.
Alhamdulillah, I had a lot of people reaching out with support and opportunities and am grateful for all those who did. After spending some time in reflection, prayer, istikhara and istishara, I've decided my next steps will be focused on these three things inshallah:
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I'll be taking on a role as Director of Campus Support with Muslim Campus Life in which I will help build out and lead initiatives to transform individual and vetted college campuses across the country into more Muslim-friendly spaces through campus evaluations, strategic partnerships, program development, and community building. The hope is to build more spaces like what we have at NYU at other universities inshallah. My primary contact in this role will be [email protected].
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I'll be taking on a role as Executive Director and Community Chaplain at The Islamic Center of New York City. This means NYC will remain home to my family and I alhamdulillah. My primary contact there will be [email protected].
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Lastly, I'll be starting something that I'm calling "KL Cares" which I hope to primarily use to expand on humanitarian efforts, provide consultation, and connect people globally through du'aa and service. The site and contact for this will be up in the coming weeks inshallah.
A lot of people have asked me if it's hit me yet that I'll be leaving NYU soon. Seeing so many of you in these nights of Ramadan has made it that much more real. We've built something beautiful here on campus alhamdulillah and I'm so grateful to have been a part of that. It is tough to go, especially after so many years, but, as I said before, a big part of what informs my decision is my desire to build as much as I can while I still have the time to do so.
I hope to see you all this Friday night at our annual grand qiyaam. If you haven't already, please RSVP here. It's one of my favorite nights alhamduilllah and I'm glad I get to do it once more with you all inshallah. For those that can't make it out, you all will be in our prayers and our hearts as always. Please make du'aa for us as well if you can inshallah.
Barakallahu feekum - may Allah bless you and your loved ones always and accept from all of us, especially in these last days and nights of Ramadan. Ameen.
- Khalid
Imam Khalid Latif
University Chaplain | Global Spiritual Life at NYU
Executive Director | The Islamic Center at NYU
Senior Fellow & Co-Founder | Of Many Institute for Multifaith Leadership
Adjunct Associate Professor | NYU Wagner
212.998.4712