Al Zahra is a membership-based non-for-profit charitable organization registered with the Canada Revenue Agency. Al Zahra organizes and manages programs on all the major Islamic occasions and every Thursday night. There are almost 100 members of Al Zahra and including families, students and individuals’ total number exceeds 500. The membership is diverse with a deep and rich history of worship, congregation, and community services.

Our humble beginning dates back over fifty years ago with believers arriving from all over the world and settling in the Region of Waterloo.

In the initial stages, Majaalis, Madressah and religious/social events took place in basements of people’s homes and rented halls. As the community grew, the need arose for our own building and thus, a small house was purchased on the edge of town and for over 10 years, starting in 1982, it was our ‘Imambargah’ for religious and social events.

The community continued to grow to the point that a larger building was needed, and thus, we purchased a 1,300 sq. foot centre, the Mehfile-e-Husayn Imambargah, in 1988. Since the purchase of that building, our membership has seen a rise of approximately 80% – with people coming from East Africa, India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and those who have “reverted” to Islam from other traditions. In addition, our community is host to three of Canada’s top universities and one of the best colleges where we welcome and have a large student population.