No fewer than 25 widows and aged women benefit as an Ogun State-based Islamic organization, Al-Khaleely Islamic Foundation, AKIF, during its maiden edition, distributed palliatives on Wednesday, December 14, in line with its motto: Service to Humanity.
The occasion took place at the premises of De-Pillar Nursery/Primary School, located at Ifelodun Street of Oko Baale axis via Oju-Ore, Ota, Ogun State.
Apart from the distribution of palliative items, like food stuffs, the event also featured pupils’ presentations and lectures.
AKIF’s founder, Ustaz Khalil Ibrahim, who is also the proprietor of the school, in his interaction with the media, disclosed that other activities on the programme of the day included scholarship for a couple of pupils in the school, payment for General Certificate of Education, GCE, forms as well as Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, forms.
Revealing that the GCE and JAMB forms are from donors, who crave anonymity, Khalil Ibrahim added that the management of the Foundation has also received pledges from a couple of kind hearted Nigerians, who praised the initiative of the Foundation that is aimed at giving back to the society some of the benefits they have earlier gained from the society so that the goodies should keep going round all other people.
Ustaz Ibrahim, a trained engineer, expressed the conviction that lifting humanity is not supposed to be attached to any season, admitting however that “if the occasion coincides with when people are in festive mood, it is welcomed, because it will be nice for everyone to be happy when his neighbours are happy.”
Khalil Ibrahim, who said the official distribution outing is to be on annual basis, said that sharing of palliatives at intervals as occasion may warrant is part of the Foundation’s arrangement, adding that “our office is open 24/7 to visitors, who may want to make enquiry, make suggestions or make donations to the cause of Allah.”
Guest speaker on the occasion, Sheikh, Al-Imam Abubakar Ojibara, said, “The position of charity in Islam is so high so much that its importance to humanity, both givers and receivers, can never be over emphasized.”
Ojibara, who is the Bulibuu Li Quadiriyah (Coordinator of the Quadriyyah Islamic sect) of the South-Western axis of Nigeria further disclosed that the Almighty Allah so cherishes charity so much that He makes an aspect of it compulsory as the third pillar of Islam, known as Zakat, which is annually, unlike voluntary one which is Sadaqat that can be offered any time.
Lamenting that, “Nigerians are suffering amidst plenty because of the attitude of the haves, who refuse to give out to the have nots,” Ojibara informed that “charity in Islam is a divine way of spreading the world’s wealth across so that there would not be a single fellow on earth that would be poverty stricken.”
In his motivational speech earlier, another Arabic scholar, Sheikh Abdur-Rasheed Omo Alubarika, praised the initiators of the Foundation for their thoughtfulness, believing that “if everyone in the society contributes something for the sake of humanity, no matter how very small, the world would be a better place for everybody to live.”
He asserted that “nobody is so poor that he or she cannot have something to spare for humanity,” just as he stressed the need for organizations, social groups and religious associations to set up avenues through which they would be reaching out to humanity with the main aim of alleviating poverty and hunger.
He therefore tasked Khalil Ibrahim and members of his Foundation not to relent in their efforts towards making the society a better place for all, asserting that “there is bound to be obstacles and challenges in the path towards getting to the promised land, because saboteurs would want to showcase their devilish antics.”
Founder and Chief Missioner (Worldwide), of Zawiyatul-Sofwatur-Rahmatil-Islamiyyat, ZASRAM, Ota, Ogun State, Sheikh Abdur-Razaq Abdul-Hameed Onaolapo Animashaun Kasolayo, who handed the items to the beneficiaries, urged them to be prayerful for the organizers of the Foundation who he said meant well for the society.
Kasolayo observed that “if these youth are prayed for and prosper, with what we have witnessed here today, they would do more,” even as he urged others present to emulate the Foundation in contributing their own quota to the betterment of the society.
All the clerics advised against showing faces of the beneficiaries in the media to safeguard their integrity and fame.
Other members of the Foundations present at the event include: Ahmad Ibrahim Gbodo, Shamsudeen Akande, Ibrahim Niyas and Ibrahim Akewukanowo, all of who are Arabic and Islamic scholars.
