A good idea from Dr Mahmoud El-Gamel:
The second aspect of good investment is that we need to diversify our portfolio of moral investments. For example, if we ignore our children, what good are all the mosques we are building: little more than hollow buildings that are idle 99% of the time today, and likely to be emptier in the future. More importantly, when it comes to beneficial knowledge, why are we not sufficiently encouraging our children to be scientists — where just one success, say in developing a cure for cancer, can save many more lives than any doctor can, even if the expected income of the doctor is higher than that of someone engaged in basic research? Why are we not encouraging them to be political scientists or historians, whose work educates society and helps to shape public policy in directions that save and improve lives in much more meaningful ways?
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Yes, of course, if you build a mosque you should expect to earn some good credits, but it is risky to have nothing but mosques, and the return on that investment is very small compared to other strategies.
I gave an example without naming specific projects. If you are in the process of putting together $3 million to build yet another mosque in Houston (we already have around 80 mosques for a Muslim population estimated to be around 100,000!). Yes, while we do not have wealthy Muslims, we have some rich ones, so 20 or more people can get together and build such a mosque. But think of the opportunity cost: You can use those $3 million to endow six scholarships for Muslim children who get admitted to top universities but cannot afford to pay tuition. In twenty years, you would have helped 30 young members of the community graduate from the best universities to become successful scientists, engineers, etc. Some of them may even get some crucial patents and generate some serious wealth that can be invested to do even more good: sponsor more research that can help humanity, etc. Having enabled that growth of good deeds decade after decade, and century after century, one surely would have invested today’s good deeds much more intelligently that just building another structure.
I have often thought that it would also be a good idea to have scholarships not only for low income children who have done well in school, but also for those making good efforts to reintegrate themselves into the real world.
There are many individuals - particularly converts - that are now waking up to reality in their thirties and forties and finding that they really need to go to college or some kind of trade school to get some marketable skills, but lack the means to do it. The application process would have to be rigorous and challenging - once the funds are raised for such a program - in order to weed out those that are not serious. The winners would also have to maintain a certain GPA in order to keep the scholarship. Those that have already taken the initiative on their own to go to school, and have completed one or two years would be prime candidates for such a scholarship. For those that don’t win, there could be some process to get a loan to help pay tuition.
After these individuals graduate, they would - Insha Allah - become more productive citizens and be from those who give charity instead of receive it. Verily, that is a great investment
Filed under: Changing World, Convert Issues, Muslim Isolation
The Scholarship Idea was bugging me for quite some time. It will be great to see a scholarship for the Muslims for higher studies.
The problems with primary education among Muslims are not going to be solved by scholarships. For that we need schools with a little dedication to Islam. I don’t really see why Islamic education needs to be separated form ‘normal’ education.
Now, you got your share of interesting people. I got this mail forwarded yesterday:
What say?
This is about the best idea I have heard in quite some time.
im referring to the article itself, not the email received by Br. Manas
“we need not worry much about the social and economic status as the inequality amongst people in social as well as economic status will remain as per the will of Allah.”
honestly, it outraged me. he is putting the blame on Allah for poverty and refuses to do anything! as if helping others is haram in Islam! My God! what kind of people we have got amongst us?!!!
Tariq, if you’ll allow me to respond to what Manas mentioned:
“Actually poverty and being in the lower socio-economic status was not considered as a grave problem. In fact all the prophets (pbut) found this very section of down trodden as the first ones to accept dawah.”
This is an urban myth as applies to the Sirah, and is largely based on the hadith of Abu Sufyan when he was asked by Heraclius “Do the nobles of his people follow him or the weak?”
Common belief has been that this means that the Prophet was followed by the poor and weak of his people, not the noble and rich.
However, when we look at those that accepted Islam earliest, we can see that they were largely well off economically, and even claimed status amongst their tribes. (Abu Bakr, Uthman, Talhah, al-Zubayr, etc. etc.)
Ibn Hajar says “This means that those that follow the Prophets are the people humility, not those that are Proud and haughty, insisting on differing with the message out of envy, those the likes of Abu Jahl and his posse…”
In fact when you look in the Quran you will see that when the followers of the Prophets are mentioned, they are mentioned as being those who were “the lowly of us, giving no thought to your status…” (11:27, similarly 26:111)
So the issue is one of character and submission not one of SES.
If poverty was not seen as a problem then the Prophet would not have sought refuge in Allah from it as mentioned from his Dua collected by Bukhari from Aishah.
That was a nice analysis Hood.
Doing good to others is highly recommended in Islam.
This is a wonderful post and a great idea. Inshallah, the good that it would do would after the givers are gone, passing from one generation to the other. This is the mosque of the heart.
Ya Haqq!
Hood,
If you’re my bro Hood from Madinah, I’m a little dissappointed in the lack of caution in your comments. Abu Bakr, Uthman, and (eventually) Umar were exceptions to the general pattern of the followers of the Prophets being from amongst the weak and the afflicted. The family of Yasir , Bilal, Ibn Masood, Abu Hurayrah, the tribes of Al-Aws and Al-Khazraj, the list goes on and on … all of them were not in enviable circumstances when they became Muslims. Using a blanket phrase such as “urban myth” shows hastiness and a lack of thorough scholarship, in my opinion. And where was the rebuttal of the Abu Sufyan’s hadeeth related in Bukhari? One of the first and certainly longest hadeeth related in the Saheeh? Ibn Hajr took no exception to Abu Sufyan and Hercle’s assessment that the majority of the followers of the Prophets were from the weak and afflicted. Careful what you write bros…
man from Unayzah
Salam Alaikum bro Yahya,
Nice to hear from you and thank you for looking out, I won’t say that I am disappointed in your statements, but we’re talking about but the claim that:
“…this very section of down trodden as the first ones to accept dawah.…”
I substantiated what I had to say above with the statement of Ibn Hajar from the Fath. (See al-Fath vol.1, P.36 of the Salafiyyah al-Ulaa print)
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From wikipedia “Urban legends are not necessarily untrue, but they are often false, distorted, exaggerated, or sensationalized.”
“Urban Myth” meant here that it is commonly believed by Muslims that ALL the “first” Muslims were down-trodden and poor. This is definitely an exaggeration.
What is usually then (wrongly) derived from that, is that we must then be poor & down-trodden, and concentrate our dawah on people of this level, when in fact we find that the Premier of the Sahabah were not down-trodden and poor, albeit they were somewhat disenfranchised for not following the status quo of Zulm that went on in Makkah.
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To clarify, there was no rebuttal of Abu Sufyan’s hadith in Bukhari, no one is rebutting hadith here, only the common understanding of his statement:
“فَأَشْرَافُ النَّاسِ يَتَّبِعُونَهُ أَمْ ضُعَفَاؤُهُمْ فَقُلْتُ بَلْ ضُعَفَاؤُهُمْ”
I respect your opinion, but saying that “…Ibn Hajr took no exception to Abu Sufyan and Hercle’s assessment…” may have been said in haste, and seems a bit far-fetched in light of the above quote from Ibn Hajar.
Additionally he says:
“Those meant by the word al-Ashraf here are the people of arrogance and pride, not meaning every Sharif (noble), so as not to include Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman and those like them that accepted Islam before this question was asked.”
He then goes on the say (i.e. Ibn Hajar): “In the narration of Ibn Ishaq: He is followed by the weak (al-Du’afaa) and the poor (al-Masakin), as for those of good-lineage and nobility than none of them has followed him”
Ibn Hajar states that this is taken as meaning the greater majority. (vol.1, P.35)
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Nevertheless, Ibn Ishaq’s narration is problematic for two reasons:
(1)- This contradicts Abu Sufyan’s attempt to say anything disparaging against the Prophet, i.e. the statement at the end of the hadith “I asked: Does he act treacherously? You said: No, but we are now at a time in which we don’t know what he will do to us. He said: I wasn’t able to find anything to interject in it except this…” So if the narration of Ibn Ishaq was completely inline with what is found in the Sahih, Abu Sufyan would not have been able to say it, in that this statement would not be considered true. He knew Abu Bakr and the other nobles of Makkah that accepted Islam. In the beginning of the narration Abu Sufyan said “If it weren’t for the shame of being called a liar I would have lied.”
(2)- Ibn Hajar mentions this narration without Isnad, so it is unsubstantiated in light of the authentic narration of al-Bukhari. Additionally, Ibn Ishaq can be a problematic narrator, and as such we have to take precaution in taking the intent and meaning of his narration over that which is in the Sahih. Because of this we see Ibn Hajar attempting to reconcile between the two, however this remains problematic for the above reason.
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The bottom line is that the issue here was with
“…this very section of down trodden as the first ones to accept dawah.…”
and not the fact that weak and poor people followed the Prophet.
Look at the ten promised paradise: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, Talhah, Zubayr, Abdulrahman ibn Awf, Sa’d, Sa’id, and Abu Ubaydah. Most of them were the earliest to accept Islam, and were neither down-trodden nor poor.
If it weren’t for Allah, then those of influence that accepted Islam, Islam would not have reached the down-trodden and poor, as we know that the Islam of Abu Bakr alone brought about numerous others in a very short period of time.
Allah knows best.
Jazakalllahu khayran br. hood for this beneficial clarification.
there is another factor that plays in here i think that is missing, which is age. many of those (of course, not all) who accepted Islam early on from the more well-to-do classes were relatively young, so while not poor, their youth and lack of resources of their own would make them “weak” in a sense. at the same time, even though they may be from noble backgrounds, it is not the same as had someone of abu sufyan’s age and status accepted Islam. in fact, when such companions accepted islam, someof them faced resistance and pressure from their own families. this just further highlights their “weakness” in spite of their noble and wealthy families.
if this is taken in consideration, the statement of Abu Sufyan is more easily reconciled.
Good stuff Hood,
I’m just watching the Watchmen
Hood,
I think we are safe from getting into a running argument … and a running discussion is more than fine, so here’s a point I would like to make:
Everybody and their grandpa know that Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman were rich and noble… but it is less common knowledge that the weak and the poor were often the majority of the believers … Allah even told the Prophet to be patient with them, because they are not the type of people one is naturally attracted to .. to dispel that fact as an “urban myth” is not right, in my opinion.
The first step to uboodiyyah (true worship of Allah) is humility, and it is a rare individual (like the majority of the Ten Promised Jennah) that can be both powerful and humble at the same time. The rest of us need to feel a good kick in the rear to realize how much we need Allah.
It is really sad that the Muslims are putting so much emphasis on getting this paper from the kuffaar. A better idea is to use the scholarship money to send people to go sit with the ulamaa. It is sad that a lot of brothers want to go study but don’t have the money to get the plane ticket. We are lacking in knowledge of deen not in doctors and lawyers and that stuff. People don’t even think it is noble to study anymore and degrade the brothers for “sitting in the masjid all day”
A plane ticket and about $200 a month can take care of a student sitting with the ulamaa which would be much cheaper and more valuable to our communities than these “scholarships”
Brilliant plan Ali!! And I bet for an extra $20/month he could bring his wife and kids
Ali I would love to see such scholarship, if you want to offer. I don’t understand, however, why you want to discourage other scholarships.
you see Manas, he doesnt want to offer one… he wants you to offer him one… i wonder who is going to be funding these scholarships for these noble brothers to go sit and “seek knowledge” … maybe if we pool our welfare checks…
lets be honest bro, if you were really dedicated to seeking knowledge, and the only thing keeping you was 200 a month (2400 a yr) and a ticket (1000?), you would have saved it up and been over there…
I too think knowledge of faith is very important. At the same time, one has to master his skills (as in the Qur’an Allah encourages us to be so). I believe being good at what you do is part of faith.
Any education always strengthen our faith. “Seek knowledge, even unto China”.
Just a note, it is not actually authentic from the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) that he said seek knowledge, even unto China…
however… a more relevant hadith which is authentic is…
“Allah has written perfection (ihsan) for EVERYthing”
Islamicsciences you’re over here killing me.
“he doesnt want to offer one… he wants you to offer him one… i wonder who is going to be funding these scholarships for these noble brothers to go sit and “seek knowledge” … maybe if we pool our welfare checks…”
I laughed but got the same feeling, this man is always begging and not really willing to go out in the dunya and DO for himself or his family.
He wants to study while his wives go out and work to hold down most of the bills and responsibilities of the families. He wants the ummah to pay for him to LEAVE his families to sit and study, which would leave what little money he does bring into the household nonexistent. One doesn’t get a real JOB while they sit at the feet of the Biggest KIBAR scholars.
Perhaps the scholarships would be better spent on his wives and children’s education and maintenance since it seems to me that its not a big priority for him.