Amr Khaled Official Website

In the name of Allah the All-Merciful, the Ever- Merciful. Praise, peace and blessings of Allah be upon Prophet Muhammad (SAWS[1]).

I would like to start the episode today with a holy ayah in which Allah says what can be translated as, "Seest thou not how Allah sets forth a parable? A goodly word like a goodly tree, whose root is firmly fixed, and its branches (reach) to the heavens, it brings forth its fruit at all times, by the leave of its Lord. So Allah sets forth parables for men, in order that they may receive admonition." (TMQ, Ibrahim: 24-25)[2]. The holy ayah tells us that good deeds never end; that the seed of reformation must bring forth its fruit even after a while. This is because it is a good seed that, if irrigated in a fertile land, must bring forth a tree, which later will bring forth fruit not one time but all the time, generation after generation. Why? Because its root is firmly fixed. The word of formation and goodness is a blessed word; its outcome is always renewable for the society as it brings forth fruit, “by the leave of its Lord.” Allah the Almighty, says what can be translated as, "Is it ye that cause it to grow, or are We the Cause?" (TMQ, al-Waqi'ah: 64).

Today, we started with this ayah because ever since we started our program, ‘Life Makers,’ we began to plant the seeds. The first seed we planted was the seed of positive thinking, and then it was followed by perfection, bearing responsibility, seriousness, and then setting your goal in life. These were in the first phase. Then, in the second phase we planted the seed of ‘Let us dream about how we are going to achieve the revival, and what the fields of revival are.’ Then we planted the seeds of education, agriculture, industry, culture and arts, and technology. We wonder, will these seeds grow or will they die under the earth's crust? I wonder if the meaning of this holy ayah applies to us.

Today we are here to bring happiness into your hearts, lift your spirits up high and give you hope without which any revival can succeed. Allah says what can be translated as, “and never give up hope of Allah’s soothing mercy: truly no one despairs of Allah’s soothing mercy, except those who have no faith.” (TMQ, Yusuf: 87). A nation can never be revived without vigour, activity, self-confidence and confidence in Allah (SWT), the Almighty.

We have come to show you through today's episode, the fruits, or the first indications of our success. When someone plants a seed in the ground, he sees it small, weak and buried in the sand. He who has no experience in agriculture will think that it will die underground. Then when he passes by it after two or three weeks and finds that there is no sign of it, he loses hope because he does not know that it is stretching and growing under ground; its, “root is firmly fixed.” Many times people have said to me, “Do you think that what you are saying in the ‘Life Makers’ program will really achieve a revival? You must be dreaming.” However, the expert knows that the seed is growing and that one day it will become a plant and bring forth fruit for a long time. That beautiful ayah strengthens the believer's faith that his seed will grow and bring forth fruit and that he must be patient for Allah's permission. That is why I used to always repeat in the episodes that you must be patient to see the fruit. Some people were patient and continued with us, others lost hope and others were satisfied to watch us from a distance, observing what will happen.

What is beautiful about today's episode is that it presents to us the first indications of fruits and it shows that some seeds that we have planted are growing. We do not mean to show off, Allah (SWT) forbid, but we mean to revive hope, vigour and activity in your hearts; because in spite of all the challenges and difficulties, these seeds have managed to grow. Allah says what can be translated as, "Men said to them: a great army is gathering against you: And frightened them: But it (only) increased their faith: They said: For us Allah sufficeth, and He is the best disposer of affairs. And they returned with grace and bounty from Allah: No harm ever touched them: For they followed the good pleasure of Allah: And Allah is the Lord of bounties unbounded." (TMQ, al-‘Imran: 173-174). Thus, the believer never loses hope, knowing that with his faith and good deeds he is always the best. Allah says what can be translated as, "So lose not heart, nor fall into despair: for ye must gain mastery if ye are true in faith.” (TMQ, al-‘Imran: 139)

Because Allah (SWT) is Merciful and Generous, He showed us the first indications of these fruits. Beautiful plantations grew from these seeds, as we are going to see in our episode today. These seeds would never have grown without Allah's order. We have planted these seeds in the hardest of times because I believe that the Prophet's nation, since the revelation until our current days, has not been in a situation worse than the one it is going through these days. Our current situation is even worse than the day of the Mongol invasion. Every time we think that we have reached the ultimate bottom and that there is nothing lower and more degrading than what we have reached, we suddenly find the ground falling beneath our feet, taking us to a lower, even more degrading level. Also, allow me to tell you frankly that the coming ten years will witness truly dangerous changes, ten times equal to what has taken place in the last ten years, and no one in our countries will be able to stop them. Maybe what is happening these days in Palestine, Iraq and Sudan, foretells a little about what is expected to happen in the future, and in these ten years we will either be active or passive. These days, we are planting the seeds in order to reap their fruit within the coming ten years because we have had enough of being receivers for the past 200 years; now we need to be doers.

When we scattered the seeds in our first episode we were sure that they would grow and bear fruits and that the time for today's episode would come, because the seeds we planted were pure. Their purity came from the people's pure intention in achieving the revival, and their will to please Allah (SWT) and their Prophet (SAWS) on the Day of Judgment. We have scattered the seeds in fertile soil: the soil of young loyal boys and girls who love Allah (SWT), religion and country. Do not ever believe that the youth are a bunch of hopeless and reckless boys and girls. Just give them a chance and watch what they will do. We have watered the seeds with effort, sweat, and correct planning; therefore Allah (SWT) blessed and protected it. Today let us see the fruits, which these seeds have borne.

We planted this seed five months ago and gathered 1.5 million bags. In every bag there were almost 15 items of clothing. Now we will show you a short film portraying some of the many exhibitions for distributing the clothes that took place across the Arab countries:

‘Together we make life:’ a motto in almost every household in Alexandria, where homes changed into workshops resembling beehives. The shops, houses, and mosques were filled with bags of clothes. Some volunteers sorted and mended the clothes; others ironed them and put them into bags, and between this and that everybody competed to bring the best they had to the project.

The film shows us how the clothes were displayed in a very appealing and elegant way in orderly exhibitions, which somehow resembled grand stores, where needy families came to choose whatever suited them with the help of the ‘Life Makers’ youth.

Jordanian youths recorded their activity themselves and sent it to us, may Allah (SWT) reward them for what they did. In the film we saw many lorries that carried the clothes to the exhibition. We saw young ladies and gentlemen cooperating in emptying the lorries and carrying the bags. Not only did these youths hold the exhibitions but they also visited the poor to deliver the clothes themselves to those who needed them.

In one of the university halls, an outlet for used clothes was established with the motto ‘Together we make life’ which was very much welcomed by the students. One of the students said, “This is a great idea because there are so many needy people but we don't know how to reach them, so it is excellent to find someone who would take the clothes from us and deliver them to the needy and be responsible for them.” A lady said, “The feeling that we were all gathering clothes at the same time was beautiful; it made us feel that we are really one unified nation.”

One of the girls responsible for the project said, “Some ladies had tears in their eyes when they saw us, and one of them told me, ‘You have made me feel the meaning of the ayah in which Allah says what can be translated as, "Verily the Companions of the Garden shall that Day have joy in all that they do."’” (TMQ, Ya-Seen: 55).

Look at the seed we planted a few months ago, and how it took some time to bear the fruit we see now. Success needs time and patience. Let us remember together the first person to plant that seed. He is a young man called Ahmad Imam who sent me his idea a few months ago and we have recorded his speech so let us hear it:

A message from Ahmad Imam's: “I saw the positive activities in the ‘Life Makers' program and they gave me a motive to start a positive, effective project, so I thought of the clothes project and many friends helped me with it. Then I told Mr. Amr Khaled about it, who encouraged me and said that it is going to be the practical assignment for one of the program's episodes. We began the project and many young ladies and gentlemen joined in. We put the clothes in bags that bore the motto ‘Together we make life.’ I wonder whether we are going to make it. May Allah help us.”

Now compare the two shots, the one with Ahmad Imam saying, “I wonder whether we are going to make it? May Allah help us,” and the one with the clothes being distributed. We show these two shots to anyone who does not believe that Allah (SWT), the Almighty, will raise the seed of goodness and change it into a big fruitful tree. Today we have with us Engineer Ahmad Imam; again to listen to his opinion concerning the project's results. Ahmad Imam says, “Everything we have seen now is by the grace of Allah and I've always believed in Allah’s saying which can be translated as, “If ye will aid (The cause of) Allah, He will aid you, and plant your feet firmly.” (TMQ, Muhammad: 7).

We all have the basic requirements for success with the grace of Allah (SWT), like self-confidence. Youths who have their own thoughts and high intelligence are ready to work with love and loyalty, and what we really lacked was the right idea, so when we found it and put it beside the factors for success, we succeeded. What I have benefited the most from this experience is:

1. That Allah the Almighty, says what can be translated as, “Then there came running, from the farthest part of the City, a man, saying..." (TMQ, Ya-Seen: 20). The whole matter demands men's vigour and everyone who worked with us, whether male or female, proved that he or she has the vigour of men.

2. We must never forget the part of faith and worship while carrying out a practical project otherwise this project would fail. We must seek help by praying, fasting and worshipping alongside every voluntary work we do.

3. One should not undervalue any deed one does; no matter how simple it is, because Allah (SWT), the Almighty, is the one who assigns us jobs. We should not look down on any deed, even if it is only carrying a bag or transferring it.

4. Problems occur in any business or work and this is very natural but after being solved we develop and learn from them, thus we benefit from them.”

Ahmad was the one who came today and talked, however, there are so many people who worked hard but could not come today. There is no doubt that they will be greatly rewarded by Allah (SWT), the Almighty.

I'd like to thank everyone who helped in holding the exhibitions and made it easy, like the Jordanian, Saudi, and Egyptian governments, Alexandria's governor, the Exhibition Grounds in Giza, Qatar Charity Association and everyone who participated with us in the Arab world or abroad. We all know that this clothes project is not the end of the line, and we never thought that by achieving it we had achieved the revival, no. However, it is a glad tiding for us that we are capable of achievement and success.

Do you remember Dar Fur? When we said that we needed to send the clothes from Europe, America, Canada, and the Gulf to Dar Fur, because no body needed them in those countries, people were surprised. They did not know anything about Dar Fur. There was no mention of it in the news. However, we noticed how sedition was being planned; we wished to warn people but we couldn't, one can't say all that one knows, thus we chose Dar Fur to ship the clothes to. People responded although they knew nothing about it. They put their trust in us, which makes us proud, and we thank them for it.

Many tons of clothes reached Port Sudan's harbour, from where the shipments then moved on to Dar Fur. I was supposed to go there and supervise the distribution but I could not go because of reasons that were out of my hands. A delegate from the ‘Life Makers' program went on my behalf, Mr. Yahia al-Shami, may Allah (SWT) reward him for the good he did. He put his life in danger amidst the war and lack of security there. In Sudan, he met with the ‘Life Makers’ team and their head Mr. Imad Yaseen. Our delegates found many international relief organizations from all over the world, from England, Germany, France, Canada, United Nations, some Arab governments, especially the Egyptian Army Force, but they did not find any civil organizations. Our delegates reached Dar Fur, met with the tribes and made sure that the clothes reached those who needed them. We will watch together a recorded film taken under difficult circumstances.

The film shows large bags and youths working hard carrying the bags and sorting them into smaller ones. Then there is a shot of Dar Fur showing the green fields and herds of cattle. Mr. Amr Khaled comments saying, “Dar Fur is very rich in animals and plants.” Then there is a shot of the Sania Dilep camp where the distribution took place. It is a camp where the African Negroes, whose houses were burnt down, now live. The camp's housing consists of big tents where many inhabitants live. Pictures also show children in rusty clothes. Doctor Imad Yaseen, the head of the Sudanese ‘Life Makers’ club gives a speech to the inhabitants saying, “Peace and blessings be upon you, we are very happy to be among our people and friends in Dar Fur. We are your brothers from the ‘Life Makers' organization in Sudan. We cooperate with the other ‘Life Makers’ organizations around the world who have heard about the Dar Fur problem and offer you this simple gift as a symbol of correspondence and cooperation with Allah's will.”

Then some heart-tearing shots show us mothers and children living in tents that one can never imagine people living in. Then other shots show the distribution of clothes, many happy mothers and their laughing kids.

2. For delivering this message to our brothers in Sudan; that we love them and that they are a part of us that we will never give up.

As you can see the seed that we planted a few months ago only bore fruits now. Nobody could imagine the efforts exerted within the past few months in order to deliver the clothes to Dar Fur. Thus do not be rash, wait for the fruit to take its time to grow. There should be patience and toil. Your clothes were a responsibility and praise be to Allah (SWT) we managed to distribute them.

Here I would like to comment on the most significant point in the Dar Fur issue. The Dar Fur issue is an ethnic discord between two races that used to live in peace and harmony together; they are the Arab Sudanese and the Negro Sudanese. They used to be bound by relations of marriage, neighbourhood, love, and care for each other, but a mysterious power set the fire of dissension between the one family. The ones who received the clothes are not Arabs. They are Negroes. Did you notice that Arabic is their mother tongue and that they are Muslims? These tents lodge 1,200 families of refugees, of which 300 persons have memorised the entire Qur’an. Thus this discord actually took place between two Muslim parties due to an obscure force; I mention this to warn people not to take part whatsoever in arousing discord in any of our Islamic countries. Our countries comprise many ethnic races. We have already mentioned at the beginning of this episode that the coming ten years are expected to bring about tremendous changes. Domestic discords are one of the worst and most destructive of these. Therefore I call upon Muslim young men and ladies and warn you at the same time not to respond to any discord that may arise under the name of religion, race or stock, which may disrupt the unity of our countries and bring us apart. Such an issue does not belong to our Islam. Our Islamic civilization has always gathered various nations that differ in race, language, traditions and religion under its banner. Actually bringing all these different races into one community where, “There is no preference for an Arab over a non-Arab except by religiousness,” is the secret behind Islam's victory. Can this same point now be the reason for our destruction? Is it reasonable that the United States manages to unite the different races living there, while we fail to do so in our countries? Is that why we witness the occurrence of discord in Dar Fur, Amazeigh and others?

Did our noble Prophet (SAWS) not teach us that, “Arabic is just a language and not a reason for preference?” We have had enough of these domestic discords in Lebanon, Iraq and Sudan. Shall we let ourselves be misguided by the same old trick and give it the chance to tear us apart over and over again? We need to create a kind of culture and art that brings our Muslim nations together. We call upon those in charge of information, the thinkers, religious scientists and preachers in the mosques, to fulfil their task in this respect.

This is a new seed we sow today and we hope that it will yield love, affection and fortification against discords and civil wars. I appeal to you not to forget to pray to Allah (SWT) to ask Him to protect and spare the blood of our brothers in Sudan, especially in Dar Fur. Now let us see another seed that has grown and sprouted.

Bahrain is a wonderful country and its people are known for their nobility and goodness; it was known in the past by the name ‘The Country of a Million Palm Trees.” When we discussed agriculture in one of our episodes and reviewed the dreams of people in this regard, there was a dream from Bahrain; people dreamt of making Bahrain as green as it once used to be; they wanted it to be ‘The Country of a Million Palm Trees’ again. I read this dream and wondered, would someone pay attention to this dream? However, the good word that was written with sincerity and truthfulness is always taken care of by Allah be He Blessed and Exalted: “Seest thou not how Allah sets forth a parable?...” (TMQ, Ibrahim: 24). Allah says what can be translated as, “A goodly Word like a goodly tree, whose root is firmly fixed, and its branches (reach) to the heavens.” (TMQ, Ibrahim: 24).

We also mentioned in the episode on agriculture, the Prophet's Hadith where he said that the Arabian Peninsula used to be green and will be green once more around the time when the Day of Judgment is to be expected. We wondered, is it going to restore its greenery by a kind of miracle or by the efforts its people will exert?

Sunaa’ al-Hayah youth in Bahrain heard that and decided to make the Prophet's prophecy come true on their own; so they gathered, started brainstorming and came up with a working paper of an integrated project to turn Bahrain into a green land anew. Furthermore, they went to meet the Minister of Agriculture, and to their surprise the Minister welcomed them eagerly and strongly supported their project. This news was published in the Bahraini newspapers, but the most prominent of the headlines was the one saying, “Life Makers are preparing for the execution of a national project to plant palms in Bahrain.” Do you believe that a word uttered was like a seed sowed and buried in soil? It was then neglected and people forgot everything about it; but someone happened to see it, decided to take care of it and to water it until it blossomed.

Today we would like to present to you some members of the Bahraini ‘Life Makers' club: Brother Ammar Abdul-Aziz Mahmoud, a 20 year old and third year student in the Faculty of Engineering, Brother Ahmad Genahi, a student in the Faculty of Engineering, Civil Engineering Department, and sister Maysa’ Ahmad al-Nebary, 26 years old, an employee.

Brother Ammar: “In the name of Allah and all the praises and thanks be to Allah, we would like to thank you and we hope that Allah would gather us together in paradise as He gathered us together in this world inshallah (Allah willing). Our project started when a young man read an article in the newspapers about the Minister of Agriculture who wanted to remind people of the importance of agriculture. This is how this young man's dream started; this dream then spread among the members and we sent it to you.”

Sister Maysa’: “After we prepared an integrated plan we presented it to the Ministry of Agriculture and Domestic Affairs. At first, we were afraid that the Ministry might not accept our project, but we were strongly motivated by our previous experience with the anti-smoking campaign where we were invited by the Minister of Health, who provided us with whatever courses and tools we needed. The Ministry of Agriculture has really supported us, and the Minister told us that it is a national project and that he feels very happy to see Bahraini youth that are truly devoted to their country. Thus, I call upon all young people not to let any obstacle hinder them, because when the target is well defined, and a strong will and persistence are present, your projects will be unlikely to fail.”

Ammar: “If strong will, persistence, devotion and, above all, a sincere intention to please Allah are present, success will definitely be achieved. Allah (SWT) says what can be translates as “And say work (righteousness): soon will Allah observe your work and His Messenger.” (TMQ, at-Tawbah:105). We got the key, opened the door, addressed the concerned entities, and thanks to their support, the support of the charitable organizations, and the efforts exerted by the youth, we will achieve our goal inshallah. We always bear in mind the instructions delivered by the following Qur’anic ayah in which Allah (SWT) says what can be translated as, "Verily never will Allah change the condition of people until they change it themselves (with their own souls)." (TMQ, ar-Raad:11).”

Maysaa: “I think that all governments care for the interests of their nations and I do not think that any government would refuse a good project. Youth should not hesitate to knock on the doors of the people in charge; they have to try, for once this door is opened, all doors will be opened in their turn.”

May Allah reward you and accept your good deeds. Allah says what can be translated as, "(but) among (their) God-Fearing men were two on whom Allah had bestowed His grace: they said, ‘Assault them at the (proper) Gate: when once ye are in, victory will be yours; But on Allah put your trust if ye have Faith.’" (TMQ, al-Ma’ida:23). Get in through the gate, take the step and Allah (SWT) will grant you success. Here we would like to thank the Bahraini government for supporting the Sunaa’ al-Hayah youth and also the Sudanese government for supporting and helping us to deliver the clothes to Dar Fur.

In the first episode of our program, we mentioned that our reality has become very tough. We displayed a graph showing the magnitude of the translation movement (number of books translated per 1,000,000 capita) around the world and we drew a comparison between it and that in the Arab world as a whole. We saw that the translated books reached 900 books per year in Spain, 550 in Hungary and 370 in Israel, whereas the number of translated books did not exceed 15 books in the Arab countries (relative figures). The translation movement is an extraordinary one and we should not forget that the Islamic civilization started by the translation of the books belonging to advanced civilizations, fused it into the melting pot of Islam and added to it after benefiting from it. We should also not forget that Europe started its renaissance by translating the work of the Islamic civilization after the Crusades and the invasion of Andalusia. Did you forget that when the Messenger of Allah (SAWS) first reached Madinah he asked Zayed Ibn-Thabet to learn Hebrew and Syriac and to master them? The Prophet (SAWS) was keen on having companions who were familiar with foreign languages.

My words were like a seed that I sowed and Allah (SWT) took care of them. A young lady started a group and began to work under the name of ‘Dar al-Tarjama.’ There were just three members in the beginning, who accessed the website (www.amrkhaled.net) and declared that they would communicate and post their work on it. After seven or eight months the number of members has reached 270 young men and women. The team also includes university professors. Can you believe that? The following figures show the number of translators who are working in each convoy:

· 9 translators divided among the Albanian, Portuguese, Urdu, Dutch and Indonesian languages

All this was accomplished in no more than six or seven months, and now we would like to present Ms. Nermeen Hussein from Dar al-Tarjama. Mr. Amr asks, “We would like to know the motive behind the establishment of Dar al-Tarjama.”

Nermeen: “First of all, I would like to say that I am just a member of the team, and that our team includes many members who are better than me. In actual fact, I have no privilege over the others. I hope that there will be a chance for them all to join us later on. The team of Dar al-Tarjama aims at pleasing Allah in two ways: the first one is a missionary direction; we wish to deliver a correct image of Islam to all nations, either those who receive a distorted image of Islam or those who have never heard of it (if there are any). It is a clear cut goal for every one of us and I do not think it should be discussed at length, for most committed Muslims who have mastered foreign languages believe that it is essential to take part in this work. (Mr. Amr Khaled comments on this saying, “This is actually what you have produced and placed on the website so far in this respect”). This is true; and more than 90% of the current members have joined Dar al-Tarjama under this banner. This direction does not face any problems and does not need propaganda or public opinion because it is convincing enough for everybody, but the real problem lies in the second direction; the enlightening direction. If we consider the language in which sciences are being taught in any age, we will find that it is usually the language of the most advanced nations, for example, in our current age, sciences are being taught in English, which is the language of the most advanced nations nowadays. If we look back at the Golden Era of the Islamic nation we will find that science was taught in Arabic, which was the language of the Islamic nation. Thus, it is the measure that indicates the progress of nations. We want to ‘Arabize’ science, to translate science into Arabic, and to turn our nation from a nation that begs for science to a nation that exports science. We want to spread our science all over the world and we want to become the source of all science, so that whoever wants to study science has to come and study in our countries, translate our books or learn our language. This is the translation movement that has to accompany the nation's development if we want it to be a real development and it will be so inshallah.”

Mr. Amr Khaled says, “We would like you to tell the 270 volunteers who are working in Dar al-Tarjama and who are achieving all this work that we are very pleased with them and that we thank them; it is a seed which I never expected to turn into such great work.”

Nermeen: “Finally I would like to add one more thing; it is a recommendation for the current members of Dar al-Tarjama and for the new members who will join us later on, and also for all translators all over the world. We have to work harder. We have been sleeping for too long and we will still have to sleep even longer after we die, so we have to work hard while we are still alive. Translation is not only for us to spend our leisure time in something useful; we really need to feel exhausted. We do not want to give in to our reality without attempting to change it. Thus, those who do not master the Arabic language have to start learning it to be able to produce a translation into it. We should not also focus on one direction and forget the other. We should work harder because it is time to do that.”

There is a nice quick seed that we sowed in the episode on ‘Positive Thinking.’ After the episode I received a message from a young lady called Mona Abdul Aziz from Cairo. She said that after she watched the ‘Positive Thinking’ episode she began to think with her colleagues in al-Azhar University's Hebrew Language Department about doing something for their religion. After a long period of thinking, Allah (SWT) guided them to the idea of making a dictionary, so they headed to the Head of the Syriac Languages Department and presented their idea, he encouraged them to do it for the Ancient Syriac (Aramaic) language as it is the language of the Evangel and also the language of Isa (AS) (Jesus) (May Allah (SWT) be pleased with him). Furthermore, the language is about to fall into oblivion and there is no single dictionary of it in the Arab world to make the task of research easy. They started to work on it and started preparing the first dictionary of Syriac Aramaic verbs in the Arab world. The Head of the Department confirmed that only excellent students could do this task, not average ones, so two of them managed to become top of their class. “We would really like to thank Dr. Ahmad el-Gamel for his great help,” she added. “After we finished collecting the material for the dictionary and reached the publishing stage, we stopped, because we did not have enough money. However, to our surprise, the President of al-Azhar University made a decision that the publishing of the dictionary would be funded by the University and that it would soon be out in the markets, book shops and universities.” We thank the president of al-Azhar University on her behalf and thank the team who achieved this great feat.

The Prophet (SAWS) says, “Allah responds to his worshipper's prayers unless he makes haste.” He was then asked, “And how would he make haste, O Messenger of Allah?” He answered, “He says I prayed and prayed and prayed but Allah did not respond to my prayers, so he stops and thus Allah does not answer his prayers.” This is exactly what we did; we sowed these good seeds in fertile soil then watered them in a planned and organized way. We had enormous confidence in Allah (SWT) who never creates a problem without creating its cure. This is the cure of the coming years, so do not hasten the answer to your prayers.

Why don't we repeat the project of the used clothes on a larger scale during the month of Ramadan? Try to access the forum this coming Saturday at 9pm to meet Ahmed Imam, and to think together of how you can develop the clothes project, and we shall dedicate a special page for this purpose. I would like to add one more thing in this respect. We are about to start the new academic year. After the episode, why don’t we all try to find a poor student to help him buy his school uniform, stationery, books, and to pay his school fees as well as other fees? Let us do this to gain the reward. I remember I read once in al-Ahram newspaper about a man who committed suicide because he failed to fulfil the school needs of his kids. Can you imagine that?

I will tell you a story to give you an idea of the reward I am talking about. It is about a fisherman called Abu Nasr Essayad. This man was so poor that he could not provide food for himself or for his family; so he went to the mosque in tears. The Imam of the mosque asked him why he was crying. He answered that he could not support his family or himself. The Imam asked him to bring his net and to pray two raka’as (units of prayer). When he did that the Imam told him to start by reciting the name of Allah (SWT) and to throw his net into the sea. He did that too, and when he caught a very big fish, he felt very happy and went to the market to sell it. On his way home he bought two loaves of bread and put meat in one of them and confectionery in the other. Just as he was approaching his house he saw a very poor woman and her son standing in the road looking at the loaves with longing. He was bewildered about whether to give them the loaves or to keep them for his family. In the end, his passion for preference got the best of him and he decided to give them to the woman and her son. The boy smiled while tears appeared in his mother's eyes. He then left for his house but at the very same moment he heard somebody calling his name in order to pay him back an old debt of 30,000 dirhams that were lent by his late father. He thanked Allah (SWT) for this blessing and started to trade with this money until he became very rich. After that, he was very generous in giving charity.

One day he dreamt that he was living the incidents of the Day of Judgment. The caller called, “Place the sins of Abu Nasr Essayad (on the scales).” They were as heavy as a mountain. The caller then called, “Place the good deeds of Abu Nasr Essayad (on the scales).” They were as light as a piece of cotton. The caller called again, “Is there anything else left for him?” The angel answered, “Yes, there is.” The two loaves were put on the scale of good deeds, which got heavier and heavier but still it was lighter than the weight of sins. The caller called, “Is there anything else left?” The angel answered, “Yes, there is.” The child's smile was put on the scale of good deeds, which made it as heavy as the other scale. The caller called, “Is there anything else left?” The angel answered, “Yes, there is.” The woman's tears were put on the scale of good deeds. Their weight was like that of a sea, and the scale of good deeds was much heavier. The angel then called, “He survived, he survived.” Abu Nasr said, “I woke up saying, ‘I have never done anything better than giving away these two loaves.’”

[1] Sala-llahu Alahi Wa Salam = All Prayers and Peace of Allah be upon him.

[2] TMQ=Translation of the Meaning of the Qur'an. This translation is for the realized meaning, so far, of the stated (Surah:Ayah) of the Qur'an. Reading the translated meaning of the Qur'an can never replace reading it in Arabic, the language in which it was revealed.

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