Dawah and Interfaith

Just Go Do It! Mercy Mission’s iPray Salah (Prayer) Initiative

Published

March 26, 2010

Bushra

I’ve recently joined a new scheme that has been launched in the UK by Al Kawthar Institute’s parent company, Mercy Mission, to emphasise the importance of salah. This proposal has been designed by Mercy Mission in order to invite the Muslims who have lost the desire to pray to restore themselves in this great act of worship.

In the words of our beloved Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam), a person who rejects the obligation of prayer completely has left the fold of Islam according to the following hadith:

“Verily, between man and polytheism and disbelief is abandonment of the prayer.” (Muslim)

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The media campaign run by Mercy Mission is ambitious, but incredibly impressive. With advertisements running across London’s transport network, Asian/Desi lifestyle magazines and high street billboards in Birmingham and Manchester, I jumped at the chance to join the campaign at Al Kauthar’s December sell-out course, Coolness of the Eyes – The Fiqh of Prayer 101, held in London.

Before I continue, let me first tell you about Mercy Mission. The aim of Mercy Mission is to provide a platform for Muslims to play an active part in their local communities in order to convey a beautiful and peaceful message of Islam. Their approach has been defined by their vision of displaying the beauty of Islam, which has subsequently attracted a number of professionals thereby strengthening the infrastructure of Mercy Mission to enable meaningful contributions to made in local communities.

Some of their current projects are:

Daar Aasya – a Muslim fostering programme based in Australia where vulnerable Muslim children can be hosted by Muslim families.

Big Date – a national Ramadan campaign to be run in the UK this year, reaching out to non-Muslims through mainstream media; transport advertising, high street billboards, and massive communal iftars.

Zamzam Environmental Sustainability Program – a water and energy conservation programme for masjids, schools and beyond.

This is just skimming the surface. Even as you read this, Mercy Mission is working on ways to develop and improve the services given to the Muslim community whilst maintaining the true message of Islam.

Just Go Do It is Mercy Mission’s latest project and so far, it seems to be doing pretty well with an impressive website and a thought-provoking video with all the wheres and whys of salah. But amongst that shiny exterior lies the inner workings of a multi-talented set of Muslims.

The aims of Just Go Do It are high, but very simple. We may have noticed amongst our friends and families that some of them do not pray or that there is a lack of knowledge about prayer in our local communities. Part of that is due to inadequate education of the deen, particularly about prayer, even though great emphasis has been placed on halal meat and avoiding alcohol. SubhanAllah, salah is far more important than those two issues and, it seems, Mercy Mission wishes to do something about it.

To address these problems, Just Go Do It was created to provide a platform for the attendees of Coolness of the Eyes to go out and teach at their local masjid and Muslim community centre using a compressed version of the course notes.

Therefore, the media campaign has enabled the likes of myself to teach local sisters in my city about the importance of salah and how to perform it. In fact, I just taught my first session and it seems that several things were highlighted whilst I was teaching. Some sisters haven’t been taught how to pray, whilst some didn’t even know that the salah is a pillar of Islam. Not only was it an eye-opener for the class attendees, it was almost a revelation for me with regards to the state of the Ummah.

Just Go Do It is already running in several cities across the UK, including London, Birmingham, Nottingham, York and Luton. The class locations and timings can be viewed on their website, which, might I add, has their promo video showing why it is better to pray before you are prayed upon. As chilling as it is, it proves to be a true reminder of why Allah (subhana wa ta’ ala) has placed us on this Earth:

“And I [God] did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me” (Quran 51:56)

It is understandable as to why I jumped at the chance to get involved. A priceless opportunity to reap some rewards by passing on knowledge about the fundamentals of Islam? Absolutely!

With the aim of bringing back the establishment of salah by reaching out to, at the very least, 100,000 non-practicing Muslims, this is an immense opportunity for anyone who has been touched by the campaign to further the knowledgeable fruits of their labour in the akhirah.

Mercy Mission has many worthwhile projects which require the involvement of committed Muslims, all of which will make our lives performing da’wah just that little bit easier with the sole purpose – showing the true beauty of Islam.

I pray that this knowledge is passed on through the generations of every Muslim that has been taught to perform and perfect their prayer through this campaign. Ameen.

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Bushra

Bushra is a recent Computer Science grad from King's College London and is currently shaking off her newly wedded status. Aside from writing for MM, she vents on her blog: http://bushrabinthashmat.blogspot.com/ Currently working for a global IT firm, she is pursuing various studies, both Islamic and career-related. Due to circumstances beyond her control, she is living the lifestyle of a nomad, jumping from place to place, packing and unpacking and visiting family at the same time. She is an accredited Software Tester. Nevertheless, this won't take her away from writing about Islam and life in general. Amongst all the working, writing and family commitments, she somehow manages to fulfill one of her other, slightly devilish (so to speak!) passions - baking desserts!

17 Comments

Arif Kabir

March 26, 2010 at 1:01 AM

This is definitely something very interesting Masha’Allah.

May Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) bless this endeavor with a lot of success.

Reply
TheSussist

March 26, 2010 at 10:11 AM

MashaAllah tabarakAllaah

May Allah bless the efforts

Truly inspiring, innovatory and with it.

Reply
UmA

March 26, 2010 at 10:28 AM

Mercy Mission rocks!

Reply
Ummezaynub

March 26, 2010 at 12:25 PM

Asalamaliakum,
How can we in the US get involved?

Reply
- ibn Malik
  
  March 26, 2010 at 1:12 PM
  
  Canadas portal
  http://www.mercymission.ca/
  
  Get involved: Forward this to your contacts, get on the facebook group, spread the word, there are notes from the fiqh of Salah course on the website, teach those notes in halaqas, print off copies and leave them in masjids, do what you can
  http://www.justgodoit.net/
  
  Reply
  - Bushra
    
    March 26, 2010 at 4:31 PM
    
    If you do decide to go ahead with it, then alhumdulillah. Spread the message as far as you can. Having said that, you will get questions on complex issues pertaining to certain mistakes made at certain parts of the prayer or what the different madhabs say about how to pray. If such questions do arise and you don’t know the answer, the best thing to do is to tell them the truth. That you are not a scholar and you don’t know. Refer them to a reliable scholar.
    
    Don’t guess, because you will be made accountable for any answer you give, particularly if it’s incorrect.
    
    Just go do it! :)
    
    Reply
abu Abdullah

March 26, 2010 at 2:22 PM

barak Allah feek.
shaykh tawfeek introduced mercy mission and its initiatives during the real deal in toronto. waiting for it to come to usa insh Allaah. may Allaah accept this effort. ameen.

wassalamualaikum

Reply
Abu Yahya

March 26, 2010 at 4:46 PM

Salaam Bro….why dont u bring MercyMission to the USA???!!!

Reply
Sayf

March 26, 2010 at 9:02 PM

Death = shortage of time and thus massive urgency. Most people who don’t pray have a lack of urgency.

Reply
- Sayf
  
  March 27, 2010 at 1:27 PM
  
  agreed, and just like how almost every marketing campaign pushes a price reduction for a “limited time”, it gets people moving.
  
  Reply
  - Sayf
    
    March 27, 2010 at 3:57 PM
    
    Oh, I seem to have misread your first comment. You said “why do we only bring on” instead of “why do we bring on”. You can’t overemphasize death though, but that doesn’t mean everything else should be neglected, but it looks like we’re both on the same page.
    
    Reply
Abu Rayyan

March 27, 2010 at 5:18 AM

Great work by Mercy Mission. The Salah is the foremost pillar of Islam after the Shahadatayn and leaving it is a guarantee for doom in this life and the hereafter.

On the other hand, I hope Shaykh Tawfique (may Allah forgive his mistakes and guide him) continues to engage in such positive dawah activities and not in despicable speeches like the one he made before the so-called “anti-terror” pundits some time back. I’m not judging intentions here, but when a scholar you respect starts to support the “war on terror” which we all know is a war on Islam, he quickly loses his credibility.

May Allah guide us all to that which pleases Him and protect us from the deception of Satan and his followers. Ameen.

Reply
- Bushra
  
  March 27, 2010 at 5:46 AM
  
  Jazakallah khair for your comments, brother.
  
  Your comments about Shaykh Tawfique bear no relevance to the article and I would appreciate it if people did not mention him out of context. Secondly, if we feel that our brother or sister in Islam has made a mistake, then it is better to overlook it than bring it up in public. Always try to make an excuse for them instead of taking things at face value.
  
  May Allah guide us all. Ameen,
  
  Reply
haajrah

March 29, 2010 at 10:09 AM

i think that this is agood website for struggling muslims especially now in the modern world as society, culture, trends are now all changing. muslims are having to find the need to adapt to this new way of life.
Muslims need leadership and need to have that awareness of Allah to increase their iman.

Reply
- Bushra
  
  March 31, 2010 at 5:33 AM
  
  Jazakallahu khair.
  
  I agree that Muslims need leadership now more than ever, particularly as new situations arise in the modern world. Mercy Mission is there to provide us that platform for us to do that and insha’Allah, we can adapt appropriately.
  
  Reply
ambreen

April 1, 2010 at 3:25 AM

i like your icon i pray do u lovlely

Reply
Sam

March 12, 2011 at 9:36 AM

Assalamu Alaykum

I need some help. I used to know my Salah and Quran but because I haven’t been reading I have forgotten this.
Is there anywhere I can get one to one tuition? Or any courses? I am really desperate for this and have been trying for a very long time.

Birmingham UK

Jazak Allah Khairun

Reply