After losing his 2-year old son Ibrahim, the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

إن العين تدمع
والقلب يحزن
ولا نقول إلا ما يرضي ربنا
وإنا لفراقك يا إبراهيم لمحزونون

The eyes are full of tears
And the heart is saddened
We do not say anything except which pleases our Lord
(But) we are in grief over your parting, O Ibrahim

[Saheeh, Bukhari and Muslim]

---

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the UK was desperate for immigrants from Commonwealth countries like Pakistan due to a shortage of workers, especially in the steel factories of Yorkshire and the textile mills of Lancashire. At around the same time, the building of the Mangla Dam in the early 1960s – a joint British-American project which is still the 6th largest dam in the world today – required the flooding of over 280 villages in the district of Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, displacing over 100,000 working-class Pakistani Mirpuris from their ancestral homes.

Many of these decided to migrate to the UK, and in 1963 our father and grandfather Haji Mohammed Hassan was one of the first, working in several places around the UK before eventually settling in Darnall, Sheffield. It was common for these early immigrants to the UK - as young men who came on their own and regularly worked 12-hour shifts - to pool their wages together to rent a house, sharing rooms and even mattresses by sleeping at a time when someone else in the house would be working.

Most of their wages would be sent back home to support their families, with the eventual hope of bringing them over to join them in the UK. In 1965, Haji Mohammed Hassan's wife and our beloved grandmother joined him in the UK, and together they settled in Industry Road, Darnall. Haji Mohammed Hassan continued to work back-breaking shifts in the intense steel factories of Sheffield while raising a young family, working for over 20 years before eventually becoming incapacitated due to a leg injury.

He was a resident of Industry Road when 13 Industry Road - the house that had been established as a mosque by the early immigrants in 1962 - was demolished to make way for the purpose-built Industry Road Mosque in 1982, and would continue to be a regular attendee of the mosque up until the end of his life.

After a long and fruitful life of more than 80 years, and holding on for two weeks after initially being given only a few days by the doctors, our father and grandfather Haji Mohammed Hassan (Darnall, Sheffield/Rathoa, Mirpur, Azad Kashmir) returned to his Lord at the age of 86, on the blessed day of Jumu'ah in the sacred month of Muharram. May Allah shower his mercy on him and enter him into His Paradise, have mercy on his wife of almost 60 years, and on all the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren he leaves behind. May Allah SWT give them patience during this difficult time and keep them all together long after he is gone.

In honour and memory of our Baaba we are aiming to build a mosque in a much-needed area of India. The mosque will cost roughly £11,000 and be commissioned and overseen by Ummah Welfare Trust, the UK's biggest and most trusted Muslim-focused registered charity. When completed it will have a capacity of 150 people in addition to toilets and ablution facilities, and Insha'Allah will function as a sadaqah jariyah (endless charity) for decades to come, with Baaba receiving the reward and prayers of everyone who ever benefits from them, Insha'Allah.

Please donate whatever you can and forward to your contacts.

---

Uthman ibn Affan reported: The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Whoever builds a mosque for God, God will build for him a house like it in Paradise.”

[Saheeh, Bukhari and Muslim]