By Allah, it is the sigh of pain!!
In the name of Allah
Assalamualaikum warahmathullah
By the one in whose hand is my soul, I am writing these words while my heart is wrenching in pain and fear. And we plead with you by Allah to pause and read this entirely. It is the sigh of pain.
Pain because they are hungry, and fear that Allah will punish me due to me abandoning them.
Who are they?!
And what is their story?!
The story is:
It was Iftar with the displaced people in the camps for the program Daima. I decided that one of the episodes of my daily Ramadan program will be there, and it took place by the grace of Allah.
I went with the brothers and we entered one of the tents. And here was the surprise!!
I asked the uncle Abu Nadir, “You are how many in this tent?” And he replied in embarrassment “we are two families in the tent”. So I was astonished!! I told him “Which tent?” and he replied “This one” (its width was 3x4)
I said “Where are your things?”, and he replied smiling “We transferred our bed to our neighbor so that we may be able to host you here”. And I then became silent. He then said to me “I have 8 children. My son has been martyred and so I took over the task of looking after his wife and her children who are living with me”.
I tried to change the subject, and I asked him “what is your monthly salary?” So he looked surprisingly and said “We do not have a salary. But they are giving us every month a pack of food”. I said “All praise belongs to Allah. How much does it worth?” He said “Twenty dollars” which is nearly 100 Riyals. I told him “How does it fulfill your needs?” He said “It would suffice us for ten days and as for the rest of the days of the month, Allah would facilitate it”.
My eyes shed tears while I began thinking of the condition of our Ummah that is living in palaces and eating all that they like and enjoying, rather even committing excess in eating and drinking. Where are they for these people?
I remembered the days before me coming to Shaam when I used to travel in planes in the first class paying a charge that would be enough to feed twenty families.
I remembered when I used to travel in a car that would be enough to feed camps for months, I remembered our comfort, I remembered the houses hosting guests, and I remembered the drivers and the servants…
I remembered when we used to travel and reside in hotels paying 300 dollars for one single night which would be enough to feed so many families..!
I remembered while my eyes were shedding tears, and I said “Oh Lord, by Allah if I was back in those days before me leaving to Shaam, and I knew about the situation of our family here… I would have donated all of my wealth that I possessed…
Oh Lord, do not punish us for our negligence, and do not punish our family and our people for them abandoning the people of Shaam. Oh Allah!!!”
What shall we say to our Lord tomorrow when we stand before him?
I asked him “Where are the toilets?” He said “For every ten tents there is one toilet!” And every tent has got around ten people, which means there is only one toilet for a hundred people.
At this time, the Muazzin gave the call for prayer, and they brought the food for Iftar, and I became even more surprised!! They put the milk, dates and grape leaves in a small plate, and another small plate contained rice. And every single minute a child would enter with a small plate containing food. And the media person came towards me and said “Oh Sheikh, all the tents in the neighborhood have come to know of your presence and they have sent all the food they have while the children are hungry”.
I could not hold back myself from weeping. I bid farewell to them and hugged them, and I left while my heart got filled with grief and sorrow, and was sighing in pain and anguish.
Finally I say, that I had previously decided that I would not carry out another campaign for collecting donations after we got accused over our religion and our trustworthiness, and I said that Allah will excuse me from this and that they will face the responsibility of their sins.
But by Allah, after what I saw today, I do not find any excuse for not gathering donations from the Muslims in order to provide evidence against every Muslim, and for me to give relief to our brothers who are in the camps.
So I say to those of you with wealth, if you want to donate to your brothers, then inshallah, we can deliver it to them.
Here is my call to everyone who possesses wealth even if he is not a businessman…
What is your excuse in front of the Lord of all that exists?
If Jihad is Fitna, then is feeding the hungry also Fitna?
It is not a condition that you have to send the money to Abdullah Al Muhaysini. Send it to any brother in Shaam whom you trust so that you will be freed from your responsibility in front of Allah.
Proceed before Allah punishes you in this world by forsaking you in your calamities before the punishment of the hereafter. The one who forsakes a Muslim, Allah will forsake him on the day of Judgment. Don’t you fear that?
And here is the link to the series which I would like all of you to watch so that you may really know the sufferings of Ahlu Sunnah and how much we have abandoned them!
And to conclude, my brothers, I say that what has been mentioned above is only a portion of the sufferings of your family in the camps, and the least that you can offer to your brothers is by making their sufferings widely known and by spreading these writings.
By Sheikh Abdullah al Muhaysini