This could be almost anyone in destitution by order of; indirect family, friends, underprivileged people in a local community, or a humanitarian organization that ventures internationally to support people and children, in struggling nations like Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, etc. Donations like the latter typically invest in bigger projects, they reconstruct and relieve immediate problems such as clothes, clean water, education, food, housing, and medical care.

Organizations such as these are able to help impacts such as victims of natural disasters also which as we know is a recurring conflict in today’s world especially. By the considerate contributions they receive, they are able to issue fundamental survival services and products such as food packs, survival packs, and protection packs.

They can also go to regions in which populations are extremely deprived, to begin with, such as Afghanistan by which they resort to projects that are more innovative such as building substantial housing, launching schools, and initiating engineering systems like adapters for clean water.

Why did the disbeliever ask to go back to perform Sadaqah? Why not prayer, or pilgrimage, or recital of the Qur’an? Sadaqah, my dear brothers and sisters, is among the very best things we can do in this life, it relieves us of our mistakes and grants us blessings in this life and the next. Now, what if we were able to aid someone in need not only of sustenance of the stomach but of the ability to fulfill one of the five pillars; fasting the month of Ramadan.

We would essentially be involved in the completion of their deen, let me rephrase that; we would be providing (through Allah SWT) someone with the ability to fulfill his duty as a Muslim. When we make this contribution, we receive the very same reward, take a look at this hadith narrated by [Timridhi]; “Whoever gives futur to he who is in need, it is as if he achieved the exact reward of he who fasted”.

Prophet Muhammed (peace and blessings be upon him) told his ummah to “give in charity without delay for it stands in the way of calamity” [Timridhi] therefore, we give to people what we can, and we make it habitual in our routines and most importantly we are thankful to those that do take it because they will contribute to our salvation in this life and the next, isn’t that beautiful? Islam teaches us something truly astounding when making an act of charity, and it is that it should in no way be viewed as a favor to the recipient, rather a blessed opportunity for the benefactor.

Risking everything they had, including their lives, the Rohingyas evaded across the border, either by sea or foot in hopes of salvation at one of the two official registered refugee camps. More than 860,000 Rohingyas have migrated to Bangladesh ensuing August 2017, according to the UN Refugee Agency. Although a substantial number on paper, their conditions remain dire. Not only has Bangladesh denied the arrival of any more Rohingya Muslims (as of March 2019), those who managed to arrive before the block is in the most distressing states.

There is little to no access to even the most basic of necessities (food, clean water, proper sanitation, education) and it is at an alarming 1.3 million people (both local community members and refugees) are in grave need of humanitarian aid. Rohingya Muslims currently reside in ten by sixteen-foot shelters, often with one room and a minimum of five family members, with up to twenty residents sharing a single latrine.

Disease outbreaks are habitual in the humid heat of Bangladesh, respiratory infections, head rash, and head lice are a few among a list of communicable diseases that refugees (especially children) endure. Acutely, children especially young girls, are also forced to combat protective struggles such as sexual violence, child abuse, child marriage, child labor, and trafficking.

World Vision has collaborated with the U.N. and a number of other philanthropist organizations in order to better situations concerning Rohingyas and are urging people to assist in any way they can, anything from spreading awareness of the topic to donations are an immense help towards Rohingya Muslims suffering in Bangladesh.

The exact cause of the fire has not yet been determined, though authorities are still investigating the situation. It has been argued by many, however, that one of the primary reasons that victims were unable to make an escape was due to the barbed wire fences blocking their salvation. Activist groups have stated that the government has produced at least twenty-eight thousand meters of barbed wire fencing as well as watchtowers that encapsulate the largest areas of the camp. Not only did these prevent a needed escape route for victims but it majorly slowed down help to get in. Fire services and volunteers struggled to squander in to save people and put out the rage and though the severity of these measures has been raised by many, Bangladesh continues to defend the rule. The majority of inhabitants of the camps are those who desperately needed to escape the heinous conformity of the military crackdown in their homeland, only to have yet another disaster, destroy yet another home. More than seventeen thousand shelters were annihilated in the devastation of this burn. With homes gone, this, of course, leaves a vulnerable mass of women, children and families stranded with little to no means of survival, even with organizations and humanitarian services working tirelessly to provide people with health care, shelter and basic maintenance, forty-five thousand are still left defenseless. Besides conspicuous perils such as starvation and dehydration, many run the risk of human and child trafficking, fire safety, gender-based abuse to name a few.

A victim of the tragedy, Sayedul Mustafa, who ran a local mini-mart was made to confirm several of his staff dead. “We had five workers who slept in the shop but three of them were missing. Then after the fire was put out with water, we found one body first, then all three. Two people survived by the grace of Allah,” Aneesul Mustafa, a Rohingya refugee, and the owner’s relative, told The Associated Press news agency. Another refugee, Kamal Hossain, who conducts a booth in the camp in order to assist lost children, delivered his perspective and some of the recurring conditions that take place. He explained that after the fire and the hundreds that were missing, many of them being children and so he was presented with the difficulty of reuniting a series of families. Kamal explained that “here you will find so many people and [you] cannot be sure who is good or bad”, so when handing children over he made certain that it was confirmed by the child that they were their correct guardians. With his own family has experienced the trauma of immigration, Kamal and his microphone on the rough dirt road have become one of the very short list of sources of hope for people who have lost friends, loved ones and families. “I announce five things: name of the village [in Myanmar], name of the child, name of mother, name of father and age of the child,” said Kamal and added that he also includes the child’s clothing which is all eventually recorded in his workbook. Kamal can usually be found making his 40-50 announcements in the booth with other volunteers, the booth includes a free charging station for refugees with mobile phones (which usually have a fee of about ten Bangladeshi Taka $0.12 or £0.087) Kamal starts his long shift from 8.30 in the morning and finishes late at night.

On Saturday, Kamal explained that a chilling number of 1200 people, a majority being mothers reported missing family members and he estimates that 700 families have been reunited, but adds that many families that are reunited do not report back, while those who are still looking come back often in hopes of receiving any updates. He also mentioned several other truly horrific incidents; a sixteen-year-old girl that was found crossing the border with no knowledge of where any of her family members were, a mother that was forced to witness with her own eyes the murder of her husband and child, and an (estimated) seven-year-old girl that had been separated from her family upon her arrival.

There is so much that we can do to help victims of such a tragedy, so much we can give to save these desperate women, children, and families that are in constant danger and under attack by countless forces. We can try to at the very least remove one of the many obstacles that Rohingya victims face every day. Pay for a little girl’s protection, or a mother’s shelter or a family’s meal for the day, do something this Ramadan for the sake of Allah, and help protect those that are suffering more than you and I.

Our Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith: ‘Whoever feeds a person breaking his fast will earn the same reward as him, without anything being lessened from the reward of the fasting person’ [Tirmidhi]. Each year we are so busy thinking during the day about iftar, all the things we’re going to eat, we count the seconds and memorize time stamps for the sunset, yet we forget that there are others that are waiting for virtually nothing, and yet this is a big part of why we are fasting to begin with, Subhan’Allah. If these men, women and children found a scrap of bread in the waste bins at the back of a restaurant or a part of an apple tossed on the street it is the same triumph we would feel if we were given an entire buffet to ourselves and perhaps more, how can we sit as Muslims and allow this to happen? I’ll tell you a story I recently came across from a lecture I was watching the other day mentioning Abu Bakr a-Siddiq RA. He would give so much, that when our Prophet ﷺ would ask him ‘what have you left for your family?’ he would say ‘I have left for them Allah and His Messenger’ meaning he had forfeited all his wealth. These are the virtues that we should be so intent on following my brothers and sisters because these are the characteristics of a true Muslim and they will lead us closer to Allah SWT and they will strengthen our Imaan and bring us closer to Allah SWT. They will ultimately grant us serenity and satisfaction both in this life and the next. The issue is, is we don’t attribute enough of our trust in Allah SWT and we forget that everything down to the penny is the deliberate and complete will of Allah SWT, if he didn’t want you or I to have it, we simply wouldn’t. However He did, so shouldn’t we feel that when He the Almighty has entrusted us with so much that we should give to those who haven’t been entrusted with the same? Our wealth and what we do with it is a test and it is easy to forget that, but this Ramadan let us be thankful not only for the blessing of being able to fast but being fortunate enough to have something to give to those who have less than us in terms of worldly ease and sustenance.

The bulk of us like I said anticipate iftar eagerly for our fills of pastries and dessert, though we are still sustained before this. We forget that sustenance comes in many different ways, it is when we are able to bathe, to wash our clothes, to prepare our food, to clean the dishes and many don’t have this luxury. It is not only that some cannot find the means of the comfort of the stomach it is the sustenance of primary human necessity.

In this month we are encouraged to honor both the sunnah of our beloved Prophet ﷺ as well as of course the wajib (Islamic duties) and one that is highlighted during the month of Ramadan is Sadaqatul Fitr, which is a charity that should be made of a Muslim that has been granted food and provisions in excess of their needs. Fathers are specially instructed to provide this charity not only for themselves but on behalf of their dependents, however, a husband is not required to pay on behalf of his wife and a wife is not required to pay on behalf of her husband. However, if the primary provider of the family, by his own free will wishes to pay on behalf of the rest of his dependants he may after the authorization of said dependants. Each is equivalent to 1.6 kg of wheat or 3.2 kg of barley or it’s like and we may of course pay the equivalent in currency, though due to continuous market fluctuations, it would be inappropriate to list a particular integer (though it is said to range between 1 and 4 pounds). The charity is due before Salahtul Eid (Eid Prayer) so that those in need are able to receive and spend it on the day of Eid, however, if it is not paid it is said to still be due no matter how much time passes over, meaning that we should pay it as soon as possible after that. The charity should only be paid to someone who is Islamically entitled to Zakah