Mohammed Faqih – Orphans Of The World

There is a Hadith that the best house among the Muslims is one

where an orphan is well treated and the worst house among the

Muslims is the one where an orphan is treated badly. So it's assumed

that Muslim households should have what,

especially back then, during the time of the Prophet sallallahu

sallam, due to wars and stuff like that. You know, there were many

that were orphaned. The Prophet sallallahu alays himself. A lot of

people don't realize that some of his marriages actually were

primarily to take care of and provide for orphans.

SallAllahu sallam. So when Abu Salama, who was his milk brother,

passed away, the Prophet salallahu, alays salam proposed to

UMW Salama, after she was done with her Idah and married her, and

Osama told the Prophet, sallAllahu, I'm too old for you.

And the Prophet SAW said, I'm older than you.

And the the one of the reasons was so that he can take care of the

children of Abu Salim,

sallAllahu, sallam. Lot of people don't realize when the Prophet

Sallam is cousin Jafar RadiAllahu Anu. Jafar was killed in Mutta. He

left behind three children

with his wife Asmaa bintur Amaze

Abu Bakr RadiAllahu. Anhu married her,

with whom she had two children. She was actually pregnant when Abu

Bakr Ravi Allah Anu passed away,

and then after passed away. Now she has the three children of

Jafar and two children from a Waqar Rabbi Allahu, an Aliyah

RadiAllahu. Anhu marries her,

her former brother in law, Ani, her first husband's brother,

and now he's taking care of all five of them, his own nephews and

niece, as well as Abu Bakr as two children, and then with whom, with

Ali Rana, she had three more.

So now they were all

siblings,

Ravi Allah, so this, this, this was common practice. Nobody

objected to it. It wasn't an issue. Some of us are sitting

here. We're like wondering, really, okay, yeah, who dares now

to do anything like this? No one.

We have broken societies

now,

children, I mean, the major causes for orphan, and someone might say,

Okay, why do we have, obviously, conflict, conflicts and war. Many

Muslim majority countries experience ongoing conflicts. We

have one going on right now. Islamic conflicts actually

genocide in Philistine many children are being orphaned, and

death and destruction is not stopping in other places in the

Muslim world, still happening, whether it's because of, you know,

internal fightings or, you know,

militia forces, you know, abusing the people, but it's an ongoing

thing. In Syria didn't stop. The bloodshed didn't stop. The people

are still dying. Same thing in Iraq and Yemen and other places

still happening. The other major reason is diseases, epidemics like

HIV and AIDS in the sub Saharan African regions, orphan millions

of people. Other diseases like malaria are causing that as well.

Many people don't realize, even covid

took, you know, took, you know,

there was a big toll that came out of of those two years. The third

primary reason is poverty, widespread poverty, you know,

resulting in, you know, in a stable Muslim, you know,

households and people cannot care for their children. So there are a

lot of children that are abandoned.

You know, there's also another reason sometimes children are

abandoned, which is, you know, children that are born out of

wedlock,

and they're they're just abandoned. They're left in front

of masajid, they're left next to dumpsters. They're left in front

of hospitals, because, you know, no one is going to be able to

raise them.

So this is another reason. Another major reason is natural disasters,

earthquakes, flooding, may Allah, subhana, taala, ease the

devastating flood, floods that are taking that that happened in

northeastern

regions of India and hit, you know,

severely Bangladesh was was affected by them. I'm still.

To

to pull them out of these

circles.

Now,

subhanAllah, I was doing some research on, you know, using non

Muslim, you know, search engines and resources and all of that. And

they listed prominent organization Muslim that have great initiatives

in the Muslim world. The top three that they, you know, that came up

were Muslim hands, which I'm not very familiar with. But then

number two was Islamic Relief. Islamic Relief has great,

you know, programs in multiple countries, in Africa and in Asia.

And then the third one was the organization that we actually went

to visit one of their locations, and that is zakat foundation.

Again, I'm not getting this from Muslim sources. I'm getting this

from non Muslim sources.

So zakat foundation and SubhanAllah. It happened that the

the orphanage, or the center, the orphan center that we visited in

Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border, was actually run by zakat

Foundation,

and they were very grateful, because they were recipients of

some donations from this community,

and I tell you, it's going to make a huge difference for you, for you

as an individual or as a contributor or as a community

member or as an activist, to go yourself and see and examine, You

know the kinds of services that are provided, as well as really

get to know these individuals, as opposed to just signing up for for

something and sending someone that you don't know what they look like

or what they're, what they sound like, money to for someone else to

take care of them. So it's, it's, I would urge you to actually try

to get involved in some of these efforts and and go yourself, there

are other organizations that are doing great work that are also

named, as you know, having, you know, great services in Pakistan

and Indonesia and Turkey and in other places as well. Inshallah,

we'll talk about that in the future. But the idea tonight was

just to shed some light on the plight of orphans, especially in

the Muslim world,

and to remind ourselves of the importance of really caring for

them. I tell you, if Muslim, if the wealthiest Muslims, as a

matter of fact, not even if 1% of the wealthiest Muslims

were to do their their part

and give, there's a cat, or deliver, there's a cat where it's

supposed to be delivered

in a matter of I would say less than 10 years.

I would comfortably say in five years, if we were just to fulfill,

as a matter of fact, not all of us, if only 1%

of those who are liable to paying Zakah

were to manage and deliver their Zakah properly.

We will be able to eradicate, this is just my we will be able to

eradicate

orphanhood or not. Orphanhood, poverty amongst orphans, the

orphan population in less than five years, but for sure, in less

than 10 years. But according to my estimation, in less than five

years, there will be no orphan on the face of this planet that

Muslim or non Muslim, that would need to be taken care of. They

will be set and secure for the rest of their lives. And it's

these individuals that are going to go tomorrow, grow up,

especially in Muslim countries, and bring about positive change,

because they they were surrounded by loving and caring people that

gave them second chance. And they will grow up to love Allah

subhanahu wa put compassion in the hearts of these individuals, and

they will grow up to love these individuals, and they will grow up

to love this ummah, and they will grow up to love this religion that

that that encourages people to do this, and these individuals are

going to become an unstoppable force to to bring about change,

because they they know what it feels like to be deprived from

some of the basic blessings that many of us take like or took or

take for granted. So they they're going to grow up to be healthy

individuals that care and want to to to create a better world, a

safer world for everyone.

And as I said, there's 150

million of them out there. You.

So imagine, within five years to 10 five to 10 years, what can can

happen if we just, if we spread like if there is awareness, if

there's all of a sudden this, just this massive movement within the

Muslim population worldwide to really pay attention to the plight

of orphans and start, you know, either,

maybe adoption may not be the right word, but sponsor you know

someone, and give them a chance and care for them, or contact or

establish some work, establish something.

Obviously the easiest thing for us to do is to contact any of these

organizations, individually or collectively as a community, and

reach out and say what programs we have. We would like to contribute

to this, and obviously be proactive and not wait until

something happens and then, you know, someone comes. Or the better

thing for us to do is to really, you know, put our efforts together

and say, Listen, we would like to contr we would like to do

something

exemplary. So one of the suggestions that I have, and I see

plenty of people here that seem to be very enthusiastic, one of the

suggestions that I have is for us as a community to come together

and really establish

an orphanage, or help establish an orphanage somewhere in the Muslim

world that sets a good example and provide high level care for the

orphans that that sign up or that are

and

help them actually get better education, because now what is

happening in most of these orphanages? You know, by the time

the child is 15 or 16, they just want them to go get any job so

that they can support themselves in the family.

But there are few individuals that I know that started small

orphanages where they actually know, they tell them, No, you have

to finish your education and you have to get a college degree. And

maybe we will help, if you do very well, we will help you get some

sort of scholarship somewhere and go to a very, you know, good

institution or university and and become a professional. And some of

these individuals that started their work 10 years ago, they were

able to help individual, you know, people become engineers and

doctors and NGO, you know,

workers and and that's what we want to do. I personally, this is

my dream before I leave this world. Help establish an orphanage

that does that,

that provides the members of that orphanage with an opportunity that

is not any less than what we provide for our own children

most of these, as I said, most of these orphanages are overcrowded,

underfunded, and they they don't get, you know, much, much help.

Some of them, they just teach them Quran and some basic skills, and

then they're like, go. You need, you need to leave, so that we can

accommodate other people.

So maybe as a community, we can come together and say, Listen,

let's see where we can actually, you know, establish something

that that will have high standards. We will choose some of

the best and the brightest who will take these opportunities

seriously and and work very hard to Inshallah, to Allah become

something, and then go back and help their society or their

community in sha Allah, that is what I had for you tonight. And I

ask Allah, Subhanahu, taala, to guide us to that which is most

pleasing in terms of Hana Hotel. Yes.

JazakAllah, I just wanted to put a plug in we have as a head Africa,

health, education, development. We've been taking care of 110

orphans every day. We don't refuse anyone. It's entire region.

Brother Mahmoud, as you know, very well known in the community. You

know, we provide food twice a day, education, eat clothes and

healthcare in basically, in the Sahel region, nabic has 400

orphans. So like, it's very hard to style an orphanage without

corruption, abuse and other things. Our programs are fully

available for anybody to inspect. And for example, in Sahil, you can

sponsor an orphan for $250

it's in basically tarka region, Indonesia.

Air, which is the poorest country in the world, and it's a poor

area. And middle class in Niger means people can eat like they

have food security. That's what really middle class is. So these

orphans, I have videos of them, they said their life changed

because they don't have to think about food. They go to school. You

know, we provide eight clothes that they choose from the vendors

locally. So, I mean, I would say like Annie, if there's anybody's

interested, I'm happy to talk to them. Brother Mahmoud can talk

like if you guys want brother Shipley is here. They have 400

orphans in Bangladesh. These other programs are good, but I can say,

for ahead, for example, I'm sure it's similar for navic. We have no

overhead, because we pay overhead out of pocket. We, as the board,

pay for any administrative expenses. So every dollar you give

goes to a program. And we have orphans that are going to, for

example, nursing school and other like, you know, we have programs

like that.

So we're talking about Michelle, is that one? Okay, that's

beautiful.

Anyone else has a comment or a question?

Okay? Technical point, sometimes people ask, okay, adoption in

Islam is not allowed. Let me just allow me to stand here. Adoption

in Islam is not allowed, right? You can't adopt someone, meaning

you cannot claim them to be your own child and give them your last

name and right, yes,

yes, yes or no,

okay, but sponsoring or caring for for a child,

not only is it allowed, it's actually highly encouraged and

recommended.

So now, if the most adequate way for you to care for a child is to

legally adopt them, but not consider them your child, if

that's the only way you can do that, then

then be it. Nobody says that in order for you go through the

adoption process, that you have to give them your last name, do you?

You don't have to give them your last name. They can maintain their

last name. You don't have to give them, but you can still go and

become their legal guardian. Go through the proper process,

whether you're adopting a child from Yemen or from Philistine or

from Morocco or from wherever, go through the process, but your

intention is not to make them your own child, because they're not

your own child. So you can't claim them as your own and as long as

you and they have that understanding right, that you're

not claiming them to be your own,

but you're just adopting them, because that's the legal

terminology. And you go through the whole process and you become

their legal guardian. There's nothing wrong with that,

so just keep that in mind.

So just in case, this is,

you know, deterring or stopping some people from doing it. And I

personally know, in California, we had a, you know, a couple of

initiatives by some of the, you know, brothers and sisters to

encourage and you know people to do that. And they went through the

process. And Alhamdulillah, they were able to adopt someone from a

Muslim child from overseas. And I would say, start with the Muslims.

Computer sometimes say, Well, can I adopt a non Muslim and give

them? I say, we are. I will. Let's start with a Muslim from a Muslim

country or from even if it's locally here, start with a Muslim.

Start with, you know, some of us, maybe we can get into foster care,

you know, create a foster care system and awareness. We did that.

And maybe shout Allah, will talk to Sheik ASA about this, and do

maybe one night, talk about, you know, becoming foster foster

parents, because there are Muslims. As our community grows,

we're going to have more and more of these issues. Again, we are a

small community, but in communities, larger communities,

where there is high, you know, density, you know, where they had,

you know, larger and older communities.

This is a problem. This is a problem. Muslim children ending up

beginning,

going through foster care, you know, and ending up with non

Muslim families.

So that's, you know, because we didn't have enough Muslim families

that were either willing or that were that went through the proper

process to become foster parents. So this is something that we need

to be proactive about and start really talking about and prepare

for here in the greater Memphis area in sha Allah town. So just

wanted to address that issue from a 50 point of view, we ask Allah,

subhana Taala to

accept the Word.

Deeds and forgive our sins. And may Allah subhanho wa Taala grant

relief to anyone who is in distress. May Allah subhanho wa

Taala ease the trial of our brothers and sisters in

Bangladesh. May Allah subhanho wa Taala strengthen the people of

ghaza and bless them and give them decisive victory over their

enemies. And may Allah subhanho wa Taala bring his wrath upon those

who torture and abuse and transgress against

innocent civilians, anywhere in this, on this, on this planet, I

mean Abu Dhabi,