Islamic Foundation Library

The Islamic Foundation Library was established in 1999 with the objective of providing service mainly on the subject of Islam to the Muslim community and to fulfill the curriculum needs of the full-time day school at the Islamic Foundation of Toronto.  A group of dedicated professional librarians formed a Library Committee and started work on the project beginning with bare walls and meagre funds. The first priority of service was set for the school, which had over 300 students and no access to a library.  Secondly, the library was to open for the general public in the Muslim community.

Alhamdullilah, we have succeeded in achieving our first goal.  The library has been open for the last few years to the full-time elementary school students, providing an excellent collection in reference sources, books on Islam, science, history, geography, English language and literature and other areas related to Ontario's school curriculum.  It has a fully automated circulation system and two computer terminals with Internet access.  The Library Committee is responsible for collection development, policy making, and administration while a full-time library assistant runs the library.  The Library Committee reports to the Majlis through a Coordinator appointed by the Majlis.

Work is now under progress on the next phase, which is developing the Islamic collection. Besides major tafseers (Ibn Kathir, Bukhari, Muslim, Ibn Majah, etc. in Arabic, English and Urdu) and translations of the Quran and Hadith, the library has acquired books on all major aspects of Islam, Quranic studies, seerah of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), biographies of prominent Muslim figures, jurisprudence, education, society & social issues, history, banking & finance, law, politics & governments of the Islamic world, women in Islam, spirituality, etc. The library is quite small at this stage but we are striving hard to develop it into a major Islamic resource and research centre. Some notable reference works already on the shelves include Encyclopedia of Islam, 11 vols., History of  Al-Tabari, 39 vols., Arabic-English Lexicon, 8 vols., Encyclopedia of Quran, 5 vols., Encyclopedia of Modern Islamic World, 4 vols., Encyclopedia of Religion & Ethics, 13 vols,  Toward Understanding Islam (Mawdudi), 7 vols, The Alchemy of Happiness by Al-Ghazali, Legacy of Muslim Spain, Concordance of the Quran, etc.  Some of the excellent general reference works are World Book Encyclopedia, Britannica, McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mankind, Encyclopedia of Animal World, Wildlife & Plants of the World. Many dictionaries, almanacs and directories also supplement the collection.  We also subscribe to a dozen general interest periodicals and news magazines for children and adults.  Scholarly journals will be added in future Inshallah.

Due to the small size of the collection and limited staff, we cannot offer borrowing privileges to the public at present.  Members of the public may however use the library material for reference during the hours posted at the door. We hope to extend the hours and open the library on weekends as well, as more funds become available. The Library Committee would very much like to hear comments and suggestions.

As anyone can appreciate, building a library calls for major financial commitment.  By the Grace of Allah (SWT) and through the generous support from the Majlis and our community we have come this far. Nonetheless, we have a lot more to build and to achieve.  We hope that with Allah's help and our community's support we will, Inshallah, reach our goal in the very near future.

Library Committee

Alma Siddiqui

Asma Khan

Saeeda Khan

Abdus Salam Qazi

The library summer hours are from 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m for the summer school and public. It is only closed from 12.45 p.m. to 2 p.m. for staff lunch and Zuhr salah.