Dawah and Interfaith

How to Make Ramadan Dawah Jars

Published

July 10, 2015

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By Zuhair Shaath

Ramadan truly is something special. On top of the spiritual, physical, and emotional discipline we build, it comes with a built-in opportunity for da’wah. With opportunity however, comes let down. Many of us are not trained on how to answer questions at work, (“why can’t you at least drink water?”) or the shell shock we feel when our fasting is ‘exposed’ when we’re invited out for a lunch gathering.

One of the ways we’ve tried to capitalize on this opportunity at the Islamic Institute of Orange County is by creating a Ramadan Dawah Jar for our congregants to purchase and distribute to colleagues, neighbors, friends, family with an interest in Ramadan. In the first two Jumuah prayers of Ramadan this year, we have sold over 650 jars, and are expecting to sell approximately 1,200 next year.

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This is a short guide on how you can establish this simple — yet impactful— project in your local community.

What you’ll need:

Ramadan Pamphlets – If your local community doesn’t have their own Ramadan pamphlet, I recommend using the “Why Islam” pamphlet on Ramadan.
Dates
Candy wrappers (wrap the dates in wrappers, for the sake of those unwrapping them).
Good quality chocolate or candy
Jars or boxes – we opted for jars as they’re en vogue
Small mesh bags
Business cards or masjid contact information for people to follow up, visit, or take a tour of the local Islamic center.
Volunteers – this project can be time intensive, you need help
Spool of ribbon

We were able to find jars for about $0.60 with lids; most cities have local wholesalers that have similar options, if not you can also purchase them online.

Once you get the jars and materials, simply wrap the brochure around the inside of the jar, wrap the dates, put a date and a few chocolate candies in the mesh bag, and place them in the jar along with the masjid business card. Wrap the top of the jar with a nice bow-tie with the ribbon. We also added a label on our string with the date and times of our Open House.

This is what ours looked like:

Our total cost each jar was roughly $1.25, and we sold them to community members at 1 for $3 or 2 for $5. It was such a hit that other local communities also purchased cases from our mosque for interfaith iftars and distributions.

May Allah put barakah in your Ramadan, and may He accept all the good works we do this month. Ameen.

Zuhair Shaath is the Outreach Committee Coordinator at the Islamic Institute of Orange County and former Youth Director at the Clear Lake Islamic Center

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Keep supporting MuslimMatters for the sake of Allah

Alhamdulillah, we're at over 850 supporters. Help us get to 900 supporters this month. All it takes is a small gift from a reader like you to keep us going, for just $2 / month.

Related Topics:Dawah Interfaith Islam muslims ramadan Ramadan at work

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4 Comments

Hira Amin

July 12, 2015 at 6:17 AM

Amazing initiative masha Allah! These little acts of creativity bring dawah into the 21st century which is exactly what we need.

Reply
AICHA

July 15, 2015 at 5:09 AM

As salamu alaikum wa rahmatul Lahi Taala wa barkatuhu.
Very interesting article, Baraka Lahu feek.
Excse me plz, I didn’t understand very well, as I’m not fluent in english.
Are the Jars to be distributed to non muslims as Dawah? Or are there destined to muslims for iftar?
Thx

Reply
- Yolanda
  
  July 15, 2015 at 10:17 AM
  
  ASSALAMU ALAYKUM AICHA. Las jarritas son para Dawah para darselas a tus amigos o vecinos con la información de tu Mesquita etc. Creo que también es una idea para que tu puedas hacer algo similar en la zona donde vives.
  
  Saludos.
  
  Reply
Aasia Abdullah

August 28, 2015 at 1:12 AM

You have compiled a pretty cool list of Islamic apps that can be really handy during the Holy month of Ramadan. Muslim Mate is the most comprehensive app and so it contains a lot of good features for the Holy month as well. The Ramadan Timings feature helps the users to keep track of the Iftar and Sahoor timings along with the sunset as well as the sunrise timings as well. You can get to know the Ramadan timings for the future or past years as well. You can also send personalized greeting cards to your loved ones in Ramadan via a number of social media from within the app using the beautiful and attractive templates available. During Ramadan, you’ll never miss a prayer by virtue of our Prayer Timings feature which keeps you updated with the prayer timings. You can set alarm as well. The time remaining in iftar and sahoor is also displayed on the main screen. You can read the Holy Quran as well as listen to the recitations of the Holy Quran, 99 Names of Allah (SWT) and the 6 Kalimahs. Performing dhikr is also no more difficult as our digital tasbih is there in the app. You can get a lot of information about the Islamic Historical Events during Ramadan as well. It’s a whole package for the month of Ramadan. To the download the app for free, visit the iTunes Store.

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