REFLECTIONS ON RAMADAN: BUILDING A STRONG MUSLIM COMMUNITY IN AUSTRALIA THROUGH ZAKAT

Alhamdullilah another Ramadan has passed by, and I make dua that Allah accepts each and everyone’s Ibadaat and duas. A very special thank you to all those that has supported us as we are here to serve you, our community.

Despite all the moon controversies this year, I am overly positive that our community is maturing and becoming extremely comfortable in its Muslim identity and the positive contributions we are making in Australia.

As with the dua of prophet Ibrahim when he left his beloved wife and son in the desert and pleaded to Allah:

And when Ibrahim said, ‘Our Lord, I have settled some of my progeny in an uncultivated valley near Your sacred House, our Lord, that they may establish prayer. So, make hearts among the people incline toward them and provide for them from the fruits that they might be grateful.” [Quran 14:37]

He did not say my wife and son but referred to his descendants and for them to establish prayer. So, we can learn from this is that to secure the success of our future generations we need to ensure prayer is established. Following on, as we also learn from the miracle book, the Quran, Allah mentions Salah and Zakat together twenty-eight times. Also from the Prophetic way, in how our beloved prophet (saw) cared for the people of the Suhfah and his instructions to Muadh (raw) when he sent him to Yemen, he tied the pillar of Zakat with Salah.

So, as we build our capacity of Mosques here, to establish prayer, we are now also for the first time continuing to build out the pillar of Zakat with our partnerships with many mosques across the country as far as Darwin. This is a major milestone for our community.

This is very encouraging as I saw so many of our youth in the Tarawih and Tahajjud prayers this Ramadan. We have the recipe for the success of our descendants remaining on the path of Islam. Ameen.

Wishing you all a blessed and happy Eid Mubarak.

Abu Muneer Ismail Davids CEO National Zakat Foundation (NZF)

As we come to the end of the Holy Month of Ramadan, on behalf of the City of Canterbury Bankstown, I offer my congratulations and warm wishes to our Muslim residents and their families on this happy occasion of Eid El-Fitr.

May we be inspired and reminded of our obligation to care for each other, our families, friends and to the vulnerable people in our communities.

Happy EID!