السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ
It’s Thursday 4th June 2020. Let’s talk about ‘Iftār in Bangladesh‘ today.
My first visit to Bangladesh was in December 2003. My colleague and I spent 2 weeks carrying out an assessment of the needs of the people. Bangladesh is regarded as one of the poorest countries of the world, very over populated (9th highest per sq. km), with very poor living conditions for the majority, and rife corruption. It suffers from natural disasters like floods and cyclones on a regular basis.
Despite all these hardships and difficulties, the people get on with their lives, مَا شَآءَ الله. Their trust in Almighty Allāh is unflinched, and after so many tests and trials, they remain firm in their faith. Since that visit in 2003, the charity I work for, Muslim Welfare Institute (MWI), initiated a number of projects in Bangladesh.
Over the course of these 17 years, I have visited a number of times to assess the impact of the projects. As Ramaḍān was about to start this year, we launched our ‘Iftār Packs’ appeal, at £30 per pack. Although we had only received £10,000, with full faith and trust in Almighty Allāh, we allocated £30,000 to Bangladesh for 1000 packs, to benefit 1000 families.
As Ramaḍān started, we were approached by the Zakarīyā Masjid and Education Centre (ZEC) based in Dewsbury (UK), who had launched the ‘Million Meals’ campaign, مَا شَآءَ الله. Their intention was to raise funds to provide a million meals during Ramaḍān and thereafter.
They initially donated £15,000 to provide 500 packs to 500 families, feeding each family of 5 members 2 meals a day for 30 days, مَا شَآءَ الله. The cost per person was only 10p for each meal. That first £15,000 provided 150,000 meals, مَا شَآءَ الله. Since then, مَا شَآءَ الله, they donated another £50,000, a total of £65,000,so far. Therefore, a staggering 650,000 meals have been supplied, or are still being provided on behalf of ZEC (Dewsbury, UK).
Today, I would like to share with you a 2 minute video, which shows a glimpse of the food distribution on behalf of ZEC. A small effort from a small, but very big hearted, community has provided 650,000 meals to some of the poorest people in the world, سُبْحَانَ الله.
Almighty Allāh reward all associated with ZEC (Dewsbury, UK), bless them all with good health, and reward them all with the delicious food and drink of Jannat ul-Firdaus, Āmeen.
جَزَاكَ اللَّهُ خَيْرًا
Request for DuꜤās
وَالسَّلَامُ Hanif Dudhwala
(CEO, Muslim Welfare Institute, Blackburn, UK)