Places that desperately need our money…

It seems like everyone’s asking for money now a days, and it can sometimes be difficult to tell who really needs the money, and who’s just cashing in your checks. And sometimes when we have money to give, we don’t know the best places to give it.

Although there are soo many more worthy places to give money (so I encourage the readers of this blog to comment with other places about which they know for sure that the money is going to the right place), here are four places (in no specific order) I currently recommend finding out about, and giving to, if you can, (and every little bit counts!):

(1) Zaytuna. Masha Allah. Visit Zaytuna.org and realize how much they’re attempting to offer Islam in America. May Allah swt bless Shaykh Hamza, Imam Zaid, and everyone who has done anything to help Zaytuna fulfill its goals ever. They just recently gave up their beautiful headquarters in Hayward that they basically built from scratch, because they had a greater vision: to get affiliated with a major university and get accredited, and although it was painful, they knew that they would have to close some doors to open greater ones insha Allah. Most of the current Ivy leagues in America, started out as Seminaries, so with that goal, and many many more, they strive on. May Allah grant them tawfiq. If you donate your money here, there is no way it will go to waste. It’s one thing to have amazing ideas. It’s rare to find people who both have these ideas, and also the knowledge and drive to be able to implement them, and it’s exceedingly rare to find someone with those two attributes, paired with upmost piety and upright character. The founders and staff of Zaytuna have perfected the combination of these three qualities. May Allah help us to follow in their footsteps, Ameen.

(2) Behbud.org Somewhere in a small street corner in Pakistan, a young child searches through the garbage to find something in it he can sell for 3 or 4 rupees to buy some sort of food. His mother is uneducated, and his father’s on drugs. Unfortunately, such small children can be found on most street corners in Pakistan. 40 years ago, a voice of hope emerged: Behbud. It is conquering several different problems at once by providing health, education, income-generation, and vocational training to empower women and their communities. An excellent organization. A chapter is currently unraveling in the NY area. Contact me if you need more information about that, and if you’d like to donate, contact me, or visit the website!

(3) Prisons!! We’ve neglected them. May Allah forgive us. People are converting to Islam in HUGE numbers in Prisons. Ustadh Usama, who serves as a Muslim Chaplain for the State of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, took some of the Arabic Intensive students to visit the prisons two Fridays in a row. One Friday, i believe either 3 or 4 people came to Islam, and the students got to witness their shahadas. The next Friday, they witnessed another shahada. Allahu akbar! He told us their prison is currently completely out of Qur’ans. SubhanAllah. There are plenty of Bibles available, they even have pamphlets to hand out about Christianity, but not one Qur’an to be found. And Ustadh was telling us about how sometimes you’ll go to a conference and see them handing out Qur’an translations for free, doing da’wah…and a lot of the people who are taking those Qur’ans, in truth, will probably never even read past the first two pages. But if you give a Qur’an to a prisoner, there’s one thing you can be sure of: He’s gonna read it! Cover to cover. And aside from the huge da’wah opportunities we’re neglecting, converts have a right over us. They have a right to zakaah! So if someone is converting to Islam, and they don’t have a Qur’an to read once they come to the deen, and we have six sitting in our closets, who is going to be held accountable on Yawm al Qiyamah?! So please find about the prisons near you. Talk to the Muslim Chaplins. Find out what they need, and help them get it. A lot of the people in there aren’t guilty in the first place, and the ones who are, how perfect a way of life to help them change and become new people. If you’d like to donate to the prison Ustadh Usama works in, contact me insha Allah.

(4) The Qur’anul Kareem and numerous ahadith have already stressed our communal obligation of caring for orphans so many times, that I’ll just provide a link and leave it at that. www.alif.us

There are so many ways you can get involved—money is a major way, so if you have it, please give, and feel content with Allah’s promise that your money will not decrease in the least if you give. He will only increase us insha Allah. But if you don’t currently have the money, give your time! Visit the website for more ways you can help, and at the very least: just spread the word! Even if you only have a dollar a month to give, and you don’t find an option on the websites that allow you to pay that much, contact me and we’ll make it happen insha Allah. We belittle our extra pennies and think they have no worth, but one penny a day in charity multiplied by the amount of Muslims, or the amount of people, who HAVE extra pennies to give, equals a poverty free world.

And please keep all of the unfortunate people around the world, who are suffering in more ways than we can ever imagine in your du’aas. And not a mumbled formulaic du’aa, but a du’aa in the tone that you would make du’aa for yourself or your own mother or child, if you or they were in that situation. Beg Allah to help them. And to help us all. May Allah save us and forgive us. Ameen.

BaarakAllahu feekum for reading this far =) Assalaamualaikum warehmatullah