Islamic School Volunteers Distribute Meals to West End Food Bank

FEED THE POOR

Feeding the poor and needy is an act that draws us closer to Allah. We earn His forgiveness, mercies and blessings through this act of charity.

“Anyone who looks after and works for a widow and a poor person is like a warrior fighting for Allah?s cause, or like a person who fasts during the day and prays all night. (Bukhari)

Volunteers from Bahr Academy and the West End food bank came together last week to cook and serve hundreds of meals to those in need, Chronicle Live reported.

“I have really enjoyed myself here today. Talking to
volunteers I have learnt what they are short of and what they need,” Dewam
Shoudhury, a 50-year-old volunteer, said.

“During Ramadan we collected food at the Mosque and we would love to give to the food bank.

“It is important to teach the next generation who don’t see suffering first-hand about food wastage and about helping people.”

The Islamic School is passionate about doing all it can to
help support the local community.

On Tuesday’s event, an army of volunteers cooked 200 meals including 50 vegetable birianis, 50 birianis, and 100 samosas. They also spent the day serving meals to those in need.

Muhammad Abdul Muheet, principal of Bahr Academy, said:
“Our prime intention is to serve our community.”

“In our teaching, we tell our children through helping people the more you help the more god will assist and be with you,” he added.

Engaging with Community

The West End Food Bank hopes through collaboration with the
academy this will help engage with the wider community.

“Through our connection with the academy, our service
can now be informed about how to reach out to our wider community,” John
McCorry, the food bank’s chief executive, said.

“It can help shape how we deliver our service if they
are other people in the wider community that are in need of support that we
might not have natural access too.

“Often approaches and people views on a food bank can be very different but everyone has the need and right and we can help to ensure that we do that better to serve our community.”

Charity in the UK

As one of the Five Pillars of Islam, zakat or donating and charity
is a religious obligation for all Muslims who meet the necessary criteria of
wealth.

It’s a mandatory charitable contribution, the right of the
poor to find relief from the rich, and is considered to be tax or obligatory
alms.

Islamic Shari’ah also has another type of optional donation called Sadaqah. This term was used in the Holy Qur’an and Sunnah for both zakat and charity.

The estimates of 2009 suggested a total of about 2.4 million
Muslims over all the UK. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public
Life, the number of Muslims in Britain could now be around 3 million.

Reports assured that thousands of British people convert to
Islam annually and there are approximately 100,000 converts to Islam in
Britain, where they run two mosques.