Monday, August 24, 2009

My prayer for my community



Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabaraktuh

I live near the inner city of Birmingham, which has a large population of muslims mainly Indian,Pakistani and Bangladeshi. Recently many Somali families have also moved in. The non Muslim population are mainly Afro Carribbean. The area has many problems of drugs,crimes,poor housing, low income and poor education. Alhamdulillah there are many projects that are working to improve these conditions but its just a drop in the ocean in my opinion. However I feel that our local masajid have a role to play in this and sometimes I cant help feeling bitter about the inactivity in our masajids when it comes to the youth and women.


My prayer and hope for my community is that the crime rates will fall, drugs will become a thing of the past,the young people will have a strong sense of Islamic identity and will be moral,upright and contribute postively to the community. The masajid will be the place where the youth will turn to,where the imaams play football with the kids. They will be centres for the community which hold halaqahs for men,women and adolscnce. A place for childrens activities, homeowork help, help with jobsearch, fitness centres for men and women,counselling sessions,help for the refugee populations,places where weddings shall be be celebrated,dawah will take place and the non Muslim community would be welcomed in. They will be think tanks for how to deal with problems in the community and the commitee will allow the young and the women along with our first generation uncles.

Call me idealistic but I have hope. InshaAllah.

P.S Please do not think that I am pointing fingers at all the massajid in Birmingham I know of many that do great jobs such as Birmingham Central masjid and Greenlane Masjid I just hope many other follow suit inshaAllah.

If I have said anything wrong I pray Allah forgives me and guides me ameen

5 comments:

Queen said...

I totally understand what you are saying! Sometimes I think that the mosque leaders should try and cater for the wider community. you know my mil frowns on women partaking in mosque activities, she is wierd.

Queen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
eternal peace said...

salaams sis Queen, hows Ramadhaan going for you? yeah sis i mean if we look at the Prophet SAW's masjid they had everything going on there and the women would take part too, unfortunalty I know of many women and even men like your mother in law who would frown upon women in masjids perhaps because the countries they have been brought up in were strictly for men?
xxx

Happy Muslim Mama said...

Assalam-alaikam Dear Sis,
so you are a Brummie then?
In London we have the same ssues regarding access to masjid's for women and insufficient involvement and facilities for youth. I do see some changes though, but not enough and not fast enough. Too many old men on the committees, too much politics, too little initiative. The bigger masjid's: Regent's Park, East London Masjid and a few others seem to be doing the most to rectify this.

Like you I think of how active in the masjid's the women amongst the Sahabah (RA) were and feel like we have lost something. There is a nice article at:

http://www.khutbah.com/en/comm/lost_masjid.php

by Muhammad AlShareef regarding the rights of the asjid. He talsk about the role of women and children in the masjid and it's role in education and community building.

Ameen to your dua's though.

eternal peace said...

salaams sis umm salihah hope ramadhan going well for you and family
yep sis guilty as charged brummie born and bred lol
do you find that alot of the masjids ran by muslims from the subconitenent are more likely to be non women friendly? the politics just drives me crazy i mean theres people who if they cant run the masjid shall go and open another one nearby!! theres some areas in birmingham where we have several masjids in close proximity! have never prayed taraweeh behind an imaam though this year inshaAllah intend to as now I have found there are masjids that accomodate women and I have never prayed the Eid prayer which I have discovered is actually going against the sunnah as the Prophet SAW encouraged women to pray the eid prayer!
yeah east london masjids one of my fave masjid mashaAllah i think it sets an example for alot of other masjids to follow
jazakAllah khayr for the link shall check it out