23/10/2024
AHS
This is calling us to improve on our dawah efforts by consciously working to create vibrant communities around our masjids. This is how the Prophet (saw) demonstrated living to worship Allah. That's the primary objective of AHS. To do this, we understand that an organized Masjid with a full-time Imam is an important element in the equation.That's how the idea to create MDF (Masjid Development Fund) came about. To generate £2 - £4M per month for this cause.
I have come up with an idea to use the Old Kent road masjid fundraising as a spring board for MDF. That's the Genesis of the £200K RAMADAN appeal. That is, the 20 pioneer members for the £200k appeal will be the foundation for the MDF project, I will explain that as we go along.
The £200k project
The £200k Ramadan appeal was a way to contribute to the efforts towards completing this landmark building and introducing this fundraising idea to the community. The idea is about customizing a fundraising concept: crowd funding. It's about "creating" the crowd rather than waiting for it to happen by just launching on a platform or announcing on social media.
The other element of this idea is to donate a relatively small amount, in this case £50. Compared to asking us to donate some thousands each, 50 is likely more affordable by a lot of us than a thousand pounds. So if 4000 people donate £50 each, we are able to raise £200k. And rather than waiting for people to join, we call on people to join. What we will then do is to look at how we can translate this into a bigger amount and ongoing for dawah work in the Ummah, the Masjid development fund. If we get 4000 people to donate £1000 every month, we can raise £4M every month. This will oil our dawah work very well. We can have a full time paid Imam in our masjids. The Imams can focus very well on developing a strong community around the masjid. We can build a more spacious masjid like the OKR every year. We can live Islam as a community better and demonstrate in more practical ways the teachings of Islam. This was the way of the Prophet (saw). This should be our ambitions and life goals, individually and collectively. This is one very important way of serving Allah by implementing the guide HE has given us.
We have been made to believe we are poor and don't have enough money to embark on this big ideas. And we have accepted that and been living like I don't know what. Let's get rid of this myth. On an average if we either as an individual or a family spends £250 a month on food, between this our created crowd of 4000 , that's £1M a month. If we take just £200,000 of that for funding our masjid monthly, it will make a lot of difference to our situation. But we spend more than 250 a month all together. Hence together, we are rich. We have a lot between us. We need to find ways to use some of this for what we know is very important to our purpose on earth.
MDF
The Prophet (saw) told us in an Hadith that Allah has put 2/3 of our livelihood in trading/selling and 1/3 in farming. And throughout human history before the industrial revolution, farming and trading is the norm. Those who are making the most income among us today are selling one thing or the other, directly or indirectly. Today , we have experienced the fact that the idea of getting your livelihood from working for someone aka job is not sustainable and is inadequate to fund an average family 's need.
Selling/ trading in one form or another is the future. It's more sustainable because we can sell to one another but can't employ one another or create enough jobs for everyone at any point in time. The idea I am floating here is that we can sell something to one another within this "crowd" and thus generate more income that we are then able to donate 1k monthly. Our intention is to generate money to use to prepare for the hereafter.
I hope have been able to convince us that we can gather a good amount of money between us monthly for this very important cause. What we will do is show our crowd how to generate more money for ourselves ( by selling to one another) and then donate £1k every month to this fund.
It's time to complete the Ramadan appeal and start the MDF.
I am restarting the Ramadan appeal and I want you to be part of 20 pioneer members as I did earlier and to be the foundation for the masjid fund as we go forward.
In sha Allah we want to be part of this history ( OKR ) and we plan to use funds from MDF towards it. This £200k is just to show us and convince us that we can do it and introduce this approach and MDF to the Ummah.
I request that you do your £50 donation ( and you can split it into two payments) as soon as you can and give me a time to discuss, individually, ( or as a group if you so desire ) about your three supporters.
Jazakallahu khayran
Wassalamu alaikum warahmotullahi.
Khalifah Ismail Ibnsalmon Babalola
Director
