The Lebanese Muslim Association hosted an estimated 500 guests who were in attendance at the Graduation Ceremony for high-achieving students who participated in the LMA’s Arabic Speaking Colleges during 2022.

The special ceremony was facilitated by the LMA board to recognise high-achieving young people within the Muslim community and was held in the function hall of the Association’s Lakemba premises.

“This is the first time in many years that we have held this kind of graduation ceremony for our Arabic Speaking Colleges and there has never been a response like this before,” LMA director Mohammed Daher enthused.

“The current board decided to reintroduce the concept in 2022 and to say the least, we were delighted with the outcome….it was a very successful event.”

The LMA conducts Arabic Speaking courses across six campuses within the Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool Local Government Areas (Belmore Boys High School; Belmore Public School; Punchbowl Public School; Sefton High School; Prestons Public School and Mount Pritchard Public School).

Arabic was the language chosen by Allah when He revealed Islam’s sacred scripture to our beloved prophet Muhammad (s) over 23 years through the archangel Jibril, and indeed, The Qur’an is written entirely in Arabic.

It is compulsory for every Muslim to learn to read and speak Arabic, in order to be able to understand and interpret the word of Allah and read The Qur’an.

LMA Chief Program Officer Bronwyn Hadife said that the overwhelming response from families who came along to support the high achievers had vindicated the board’s decision to reintroduce the ceremony, with a reinvigorated format.

“We were anticipating a healthy roll-up of parents and friends to celebrate the achievements of the high-achieving students but these numbers far exceeded our expectations,” she said.

“In addition to the students and their families, the LMA board would also like to thank the school principals and teachers whom we also hosted for their hard work and enthusiasm, as well as our Imams for their support and our team of hard-working volunteers.”