Help needed for homeless sister in East London

Assalamu alaikum,

I received this email in the ISoc email inbox. Unfortunately, the ISoc has no more Jumu'a collections this year so can anyone help in whatever way they can


Assalamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh,

we pray you are all in the best state of health and in the highest state of Emaan, Ameen.

We are writing to you regarding a very disturbing situation which has recently come to the attention of myself and a few other sisters. We have found out about a sister in East London who is living on the streets, this may seem quite shocking to you but what is even more shocking is that the sister is fully deaf and partially blind. Both myself and another sister have Alhamdulillah, been able to get into contact with her and were able to meet up with her yesterday.

We are looking for the following help:

1) Each of you to donate a small amount of money so that we can help provide shelter, food and clothes.

2) We have found a suitable and secure accommodation in the East London area, however, we need to raise approximately £800 to see her through the rent payments until the end of Ramadan, by which time we hope to inshAllah have found a long term answer to her situation. Therefore, we need you to spread the word and help to raise this money.

3) The sister is currently attending Arabic and Quran lessons and it is important that she stays involved in these classes. However, as she is visually impaired we would like to get Islamic books in large size font so that she can read them easily.

4) Anyone who can provide a job for her, I am sure she would love to work in a masjid, she has very good written Arabic and is more than able to teach it.


5)A good Islamic lawyer who can provide his/her services Fisabillah.

We will give you a brief background history of the situation; The sister is in her mid 30’s and is a revert to Islam. When she was younger she was in a car accident with her parents, whom both died and she was left completely deaf and partially blind. Having no other family in the UK, she was put into the foster-care system, during which time she suffered both physical and mental abuse at the hands of strangers. When she got older she reverted to Islam from Christianity, a few sisters offered her the opportunity to go and study the deen abroad. Whilst studying she was offered a job in the UK as a teacher for deaf children. When she arrived back in the UK the school told her that the position was no longer available. As I am sure you can appreciate job offers for this sister are far a few between, so eventually her money ran out, she could no longer afford the rent for her accommodation and she had no one to turn too. One thing led to another and since January 2009 the sister has been on and off the streets. Alhamdulillah, some sisters have offered her time to stay in their house but due to their own circumstance nothing can be for a long period of time. Sisters often club together to help her with food and clothing etc, but the sister often finds herself sleeping outside after the masjid’s close for the evening. The sister has been to the local authorities on many occasions, however they claim they cannot help her, they just shift her from one department to another department asking the same questions over and over again yet they provide no answers or solutions to her situation. This sister explained to us that she has been on the brink of suicide many times and the only reason why she has not killed herself is because it is abhorrent to Allah subhana Wa Ta’ala, and she knows that her reward lies with Him Alone.

What saddens us so much is that, Wallahi, this sister is so patient with her situation and yet the muslims are providing litle help for her, she constantly says that Allah azawajal is testing her and He will be the one to rectify her situation, For verily He is the greatest of planners. We swear to you all that we have never seen a sister with such high eeman as she does, she is in a situation which we probably cannot even comprehend let alone live by, and yet she still has a beautiful smile on her face and a great sense of humour. This sister neither begs for money nor asks for any handouts, she just accepts the gifts which the few sisters and brothers offer to her. SubhanAllah! She explained to us that she was desperate for help once, so she went to a masjid to ask for some support and rather than offering help, they sent her to the Samaritans, a Christian charity. Can you believe it? Brothers turning away a sister in need and sending her to a Christian organisation, who I might add tried hard to help her but at the same time offered her ham sandwiches!

Bothers and sisters what is happening to our Ummah? Where is the brotherhood? Where is the charity!? Imagine this was your mother, sister or daughter on the street, wouldn’t you do all you can to help her? It is our duty in Islaam to help all those Muslims in need, the Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of Allaah be upon him, said in a narration, known to perhaps every devout Muslim: “None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari) and yet there are our own brothers and sisters living on the street, whilst we lay in our comfy beds at night, with bellies filled with wholesome food and drink.

Therefore, we are appealing to you all to help us in raising money so that we can provide a long term solution for this sister. Please think of creative ways in which you can raise money, whether it is making a collection after Jumah salat, making announcements through your ISOCS, spreading the message through email, face book and word of mouth, or creating a bake sale for your local halaqah or any other ingenious way you can think of! We should remember that Allah's Messenger (Sal-allahu-aleihi-wassallam) said "A Muslim is a brother of another Muslim, so he should not oppress him, nor should he hand him over to an oppressor. Whoever fulfilled the needs of his brother, Allah will fulfill his needs; whoever brought his (Muslim) brother out of a discomfort, Allah will bring him out of the discomforts of the Day of Resurrection, and whoever screened a Muslim, Allah will screen him on the Day of Resurrection." [Vol 3: #622]

We will leave you to ponder over an ayah in which Almighty Allah praised the Companions of the Prophet, for their great many selfless sacrifices and services in His Cause. He, the Almighty, also praised whoever would follow in their footsteps. Let us then follow them, perhaps we may too be rewarded in heaven.

“The foremost (in faith) from the Muhajiroon and the Ansar and those who follow them in righteousness; God is well-pleased with them and they are well-pleased with Him. He has prepared for them (the Companions and their followers in righteousness) gardens under which rivers flow to dwell therein forever - that is the supreme success.” (Quran 9:100)

May Allaah bless and reward you all with Jannatul Firdaus al-'Ala, Ameen thuma Ameen.

Please contact us on; soniaiscrazy@hotmail.co.uk, khadijathomas04@hotmail.com ormaryan_07@hotmail.com
JazakhAllah khair.

Can't the mosque help her?