Through the infinite mercy and grace of Allah, I will be travelling to Jerusalem, Palestine February 2018 inshaAllah! We all know the oppression that our fellow muslims are under, may Allah liberate them. I will be going with forgotten lands, who are essentially a group of muslims from the UK who are passionate about Palestine and like us, hate to see our fellow muslims under oppression and do nothing. The least we can do is visit them, give them financial aid and show them that we care.

I am doing this as I went last year, it was life changing for me to come to terms with the oppression they are under, and despite the oppression, loss of loved ones, the daily struggle in all aspects of their lives, the strength with which they continue living their lives with.

There's no doubt the morale of the people is low, due to the circumstances. And so that makes it imperative for us to help them and show them our support. For those who don't know much about what is going on, essentially, the morale of the muslims there is very low as they have no external help or support, trade within the muslim quarter of the old city of Jerusalem is very restricted aswell as in the surrounding towns. Muslims from surrounding towns are unable to travel in as entry/exit between towns is restricted. So essentially the only people who can buy from them is people from within their own communitites, but off course, they are all too poor to do so as have no source of income themselves. That leaves people like you and I who earn money, and are physically able, to go there, to go and buy from them so they can earn a living. But off course, the media does a great job of using scare mongering tactics, and scaring people away from going there. So many people actually feel like they can't go there, or that it may not even be safe to do so... So we're left in situation where those who live there can't help each other, and those who can help, don't as we are too afraid too. As a result the Palestinians are unable to pay for basic needs such as health care and so conditions that are not even life threatening for us, become life threatening for them as they don’t have the means to receive adequate medical aid. Additionally Palestinian lives are taken unjustly, in particular men, leaving women and children without any household income and thus unable to pay for basic necessities of every day life.

Abdullah Ibn Umar (ra) relates, I asked the Prophet (saw), “Apostle of Allah, tell us the legal injunction about visiting Bayt Al-Maqdis (Jerusalem).” The Apostle of Allah (saw) said, ” Go and pray there. If you cannot visit it and pray there, then send some oil to be used in the lamps”. (Bukhari)

The Prophet said: “The believer’s shade on the Day of Resurrection will be his charity.” (Al-Tirmidhi)

“When a person dies, his works end, except for three: ongoing charity, knowledge that is benefited from, and a righteous child who prays for him.” (Muslim, Al-Tirmidhi, others)

Please dig deep and help this noble cause!

May Allah reward you