From modest beginnings to modern hub, Madinah Community Center expands after 30 years

Members of the Madison Madinah Community Center, front row, Saad Khalifa, second row, left to right, Mohammed Asadullah, Madinah Community Center president, Mefail Ibrahimi, Imam Alhagie Jallow and Besnik Ibrahimi 

Madison’s Madinah Community Center recently opened the doors of its brand-new building, located at 6514 Watts Rd. The mosque, that originally opened as Masjid Us Sunnah at 4718 Hammersley Rd., existed as the nucleus for a thriving Muslim community since 1994. After being renamed Madinah Community Center in 2012, the mosque remained in its initial home until 2024, when it officially relocated to its now much larger building. The overall process of establishing Madinah’s new building took about thirteen years.

The new building, completed early last year, greatly expands the mosque’s prayer area, with the women’s section alone larger than the entire prayer area of the old building. The new building now not only has a basement available for rent for private events, but also a fully furnished kitchen in the basement. There is a maharab area at the front, a playground, a shower facility, a full cleaning crew, and a separate, attached building designated for Sunday school.

Aerial view of the new Madinah Community Center that opened last summer in Madison

Imam Alhagie Jallow has been in his role at Madinah since 2010, just a few months after he had moved to Madison from Saudi Arabia. At the time, the mosque’s shura (decision-making council) comprised only three members, and Jallow’s first goal was to expand it.

“We wanted diversity and to include everybody,” he explains. “The best way to make everyone feel represented is to select one or two people from each ethnic group and create a council. If everyone sees themselves in the council, then the campaign to expand would be easier.”

Photo on the left shows the old masjid’s main room filled to capacity, on the right, is the spacious new prayer room. 

Once Jallow successfully expanded the shura, the newly formed council envisioned what a new building could look like. Many more people had been coming for Jummah, and the space was getting increasingly cramped. Jallow mentions, “We were forced to do two congregations because the number doubled.”

Eventually, the previous building’s prayer area could no longer accommodate their full community. It had no basement or playground, and the parking lot was sparse. “In Ramadan, we used to eat in the prayer area and then pray in the prayer area,” Jallow notes. “It would have a smell of food.”

Rather than purchasing an existing building, Jallow and previous Madinah leaders wanted something built from scratch. With the help of loans from supportive community members, the shura secured a down payment on a suitable plot of land and formed a committee to spearhead development.

“This is expensive land,” Shura President Mohammed Asadullah remarks. “We’re in the middle of Madison, very close to the highway. If we were to buy any land in this area now, it would be millions.”

Madinah contracted with the construction company Tri-North, which commenced operations on the new building in 2019. “We didn’t have enough money to pay up front,” Asadullah remembers. Instead, the council paid in phases, with the groundbreaking, cement pour, leveling, and so on. Asadullah continues, “With COVID, we slowed down, and with inflation and costs going up, we just couldn’t catch up.”

Jallow estimates that 85 to 90 percent of the raised funds for the building came from their community, especially during Ramadan. “Everyone was very generous,” he says. “We also got support from our local Islamic Centers of Madison and East Madison.”

Madinah organized programs, soccer games, and fundraising dinners around Madison. Those strategies became obsolete over time, however, so the council pivoted to something more creative. “We had a competition for how much different ethnic groups would bring,” Jallow elaborates. “That helped us a lot because we had money coming every month.” 

The shura launched an online fundraiser once COVID hit. This enabled them to receive donations from mosques in places like Milwaukee, Chicago, Rockford, Michigan, Minnesota, and Colorado. More contributions came from as far as Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. “We tried everything,” Jallow attests. “We got money from a person who lived in Gaza a long time ago. He sent us fifty thousand dollars for this project.”

The new Madinah Community Center officially opened last June. Asadullah recalls the first day settling into the place, “Everyone was just pouring in from all over.“

Asadullah reckons that about 1,300 people attend Jummah at Madinah every week. While the mosque’s parking lot itself is not large enough to accommodate the entire congregation, neighboring company Exact Sciences, as well as Madinah Academy across the street, generously lend spaces in their parking lots.

With the new building’s additional space and facilities, Madinah has been able to develop its existing programs as well. Qur’an and Arabic classes, marriage and funeral services, and community and private banquets can now all accommodate many more attendees than before.

“We were at 30 in the old masjid, and kids just didn’t have enough room,” Asadullah mentions about Qur’an class capacity. “Here, in every corner, there’s a different level, and we’re exceeding 75 kids now.”

Asadullah, Jallow, and the shura have kept the momentum for Madinah going. Their next goal is to build a gymnasium for the mosque and implement a full-time Qur’an program to better cater to Muslim youth.

“Moving from a small masjid to a large masjid has its growing pains, as you can say,” Asadullah contends. “When you have it, now you have to maintain it.”