A muslim youth organization found in 2007 by brothers in the Greater Atlanta area. The emergence of the organization was due to the current crises faced by many youth growing up in the U.S. These crises and challenges include peer pressure to engage in illicit relationships with women, drugs and gangs. The purpose of the organization is empower young muslims to cope with these challenges as well as create an positive atmosphere to enable youth to practice islam while having FUN.
The actual name of Marjaan was taken from Surat al Rahman. It means precious jems or jewels, also translated to mean coral; as coral was once referred to as beautiful jewels/pearls hidden under the sea. The idea was symbolic in naming our youth group Marjaan. For it signified the existence of precious jewels or pearls that lay hidden, yet only need to be searched for to be realized. This is how we view the youth in today’s Muslim Ummah. We are all precious jewels, jems, pearls, yet each one of us needs to be found under the scope of Islam to be polished and groomed to become valuable assets to society. We all lay beneath the surface at various locations, and though we will all be found with dirt on ourselves; to polish that off and realize our beauties is what will make us all precious to society.
The beginnings of Marjaan took place on a somber night in Ramadan of 2007. A couple of the youth from the Omar bin Abdul Aziz Masjid gathered in an empty parking lot after Taraweeh prayer, and just began discussing the beauty and wisdom behind the elegant month of Ramadan. After talking for a while, the issue of the Youth in the Muslim community surfaced. It was then that those youth realized the lack of participation, the lack of belonging and the lack of the knowledge present within the Muslim Youth community. Deciding that the responsibility fell upon their shoulders, the youth of Masjid Omar decided to start both a group and a brotherhood among the community. Slowly, the group began to grow by word of mouth, and before Ramadan was over, the group was given its name of Marjaan and was asked to deliver speeches and poems to help captivate both the elders and youths of the society. Inshallah, though Marjaan is still in its infant stages, with the will from our dedicated member and the guidance from Allah (swt), Marjaan will blossom into a unscathed, glowing jewel within the communities it reaches.
The mission of Marjaan is simple; to create a brotherhood around the teaching of Islam with Quran and Sunnah as our core, for the betterment of our lives as well as for the betterment of society. In doing so, we must reach out to as many youth across our community and others to help find those youth that lay hidden, and to expose each and every single one of them for the beauties that they each offer. Inshallah, with the guidance from Allah (swt), we can create a sense of Islamic awareness within the Muslim youth to help them realize that they are indeed the crux of our religion, and that with the youth the beauties of Islam spread fourteen hundred years ago, and that now, with the youth, that same beauty can be spread across the modern times of the 21st century.