Emergency Appeal

Emergency Appeal: East African Famine

AMATULLAH | AUGUST 13, 2011 12:26 AM

While watching the news with my mom the other day, a segment came on about the famine in East Africa. As we listened to the anchor share the stories of families coming to the refugee camps for aid, he highlighted one specific story of a father who walked for 30 days and 30 nights to save his three young sons. At one point in his journey, the children were too weak to walk so their father would carry them one by one – dropping one off at one point then going back for the other across the barren desert.

Then they shared another story of a mother. She was sitting quietly by the bedside of her child who just passed away. Her two other children passed away a few days before this baby. She sat there for hours, quietly, because she could not afford to bury her own child.

In the past 3 months, it is reported that nearly 30,000 children have died.

30,000.

For us in the West (or Malaysia), we cannot even imagine a situation like this. We cannot even comprehend the magnitude of what our brothers and sisters are facing due to this drought and famine.

AlhamdulilLah (Praise be to God), Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala (Exalted is He) has blessed us with food and water, and a way of showing our gratitude for this great blessing is to share it with others. Help your brothers and sisters who are literally starving.

On the Day of Judgment, Allah (swt) will say, “O son of Adam, I asked you for food and you fed Me not.’ He will say: ‘O Lord, and how should I feed You when You are the Lord of the worlds?’ He will say: ‘Did you not know that My servant So-and-so asked you for food and you fed him not? Did you not know that had you fed him you would surely have found that (the reward for doing so) with Me?” (Muslim)

Source: SuhaibWebb.com