In a beautiful hadith, by the last Prophet Muhammad (SAW) he once said: “Faithful believers are to each other as the bricks of a wall, supporting and reinforcing each other.” Narrated by Al-Bukhari.
This means that our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was stern about working together as a team in Islam.
Despite this hadith and other verses from the Quran, for the long time it has been difficult to implement this kind of relationship among Muslim individuals and organizations in the country
The strength of a thriving Muslim community lies in its unity and a lot of good things can come out of hanging on together and helping each other out in times of difficulties.
We all know that there is power in unity and two Muslim Women organization led by example by working together to achieve their similar goals.
Muslim Women Organization (MWO) and Imaan Sister both based in Blantyre have shown their unity as they organized a tour to visit the sick at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital where they distributed assorted food and non-food items worth K500, 000 as part of Eid-UI-Fitr celebrations.
Lipenga: This is just the beginning of our relationship
It was a very colorful event which could not be achieved by one organization since the women managed to buy assorted items and distributed to all wards at QECH including Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
MWO Coordinator Nancy Asiyatu Lipenga told Malawi Muslims Website that it is good to start working with other groups and organizations to achieve great things in Islam.
“We have decided to start working together with other Islamic organizations which are based in Blantyre and other districts so that we can manage to bring change to the Muslim community and you can see today we have managed to organize this function which could not be achieved by one organization buying all these items,” she said.
“Here you are,” a woman from Imaan Sister handing over the pack of assorted items to the patient at QECH
It was Sunnah of our Beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) to visit the sick. We should always visit those who are sick because it helps us to reflect and take heed, and we have only to consider that the sick person has no one to call but Allah, his condition reminds us of the blessing of health.
“As Muslim women we had Dawah in Ndirande where we were joined by other women organization called Imaan Sisters and with that unity we decided to do something together and it is when we came up with the idea of visiting the sick and we have fulfilled just because of that unity,” said MWO Coordinator, Asiyatu Lipenga.
MWO Coordinator giving cash cash to the patients
It was a sizeable package containing soap, Sugar, Squash and salt which were distributed in wards like 3A, 3B, 6A, Pediatrics and other wards just to mention a few of them.
“We don’t have any funding but every member of the organization was contributing any amount of money she can managed and when we brought it together, we had over 500,000 thousand kwacha cash which we used to buy all these items,” she said.
The organizations have promised to continue working together in many activities and they are also planning of visiting one of the prisons in the country.
“This is not the end of our relationship since we are also planning of visiting one of the prisons in the country because we also understand that prisoners are also lacking a lot of necessities in our congested prisons,” said Asiyatu Lipenga.
Hajra Jimu Imaan Sister Secretary said this is a good development to the Muslim community and encouraged others to start working with MWO.
“We are happy to be part of Muslim Women Organization because we are all Muslims and the time of working in isolation in Islam is over, it’s the time of unity and coordination to have a better religion of Islam and better Malawi and we want to assure them that we will continue working with MWO,” said the Imaan Sister Secretary.
Chikweni: Some of the patients have no guardians
On behalf of the management Cecilia Chikweni who is a nurse at QECH commended the Muslim women for their support since other patients stay longer in their beds.
“We are very thankful to the members of the Muslim community especially these women who came to donate assorted items here at QUEENS because some of these patients have no guardians and relatives who can come and give them soap or sugar so these will really help them for some days,” she said.
…Help one another in righteousness and piety; do not help one another towards sin and hostility. Be mindful of Allah, for Allah’s punishment is severe. (al-Ma’idah 5:2)
This was a nice event and very memorable