My Story

In January 2020, my father, passed away. Some months earlier, he had spoken and nominated his local mosque to perform his Janaza (Burial). Over recent years, he had become very fond of their welcoming and respectful atmosphere. 

The Imams spoke fondly of our father and were humbled and delighted to help us fulfil his request. They promptly secured a burial plot, navigated the post mortem procedures and guided us through the bathing ritual and Janaza prayers. Within 24 hours our father’s body had been laid to rest. 

The mosque held our hands throughout this emotional period. Their support and guidance gave us the peace and comfort we needed to ease our pain, and during our mourning the courage to accept our loss. 

We came to learn about the history of this little mosque, the difficulties it had overcome during its formation and the challenges it was now facing going forward. So it seemed fitting, that my brothers and I, should approach the mosque and offer our help. They had drawn up plans for an expansion and were finding it difficult to secure builders and dealing with architects , engineers and local authorities. They also had several unfinished projects and all of this was happening as we entered Covid 2020. 

During our meeting, funding was of course top of the agenda. However, since the mosque was being managed and run exclusive at the mercy of a group of founding community elder volunteers, I sensed that, some of the challenges may have been a result of cultural, accessibility and bureaucratic consequences. I knew that the modest donation we made from our father’s legacy was never going to be enough. 

So I decided to volunteer my experiences and enthusiasm in the hope that I could help them navigate their ambitions. What I thought would be weeks, became months and eventually over a year of part time support from helping with design and architecture, to liaising with structural engineers and developers. I even dabbled with investigating sound, vision and IT and helped them update their website. Towards the latter part we had began to explore their options with a view to formulating a strategic fundraising policy. I saw myself as an Indepedent person providing help and guidance to brainstorm, reasearch and refine what they had already started well before I came along. It’s quite remarkable how much this local mosque had managed to achieve between the elders who established it. I could see how other mosques up and down the country, have done and are doing the same thing. It is a testament to their drive, determination and commitment to their communities. 

In the process of volunteering, I was able to learn and experience first hand the ‘inner workings of a local mosque’. I’m not going to say it was easy or indeed plain sailing, but I hope that my modest contribution was able to leave a lasting impact on the mosque’s future and helped in ways that simply donating can never do. 

I decided that I would share this experience with other mosques. My original plan envisaged the creation of a simple pdf document or a booklet that could be shared far and wide and updated periodically. As I set out to do this, I wondered if connecting with other experienced and like minded Muslims, across the UK to form a national support group, may be a better way to share a larger pool of knowledge and expertise.

With encouragement from family, friends and colleagues, I have recruited a small group of people to join my project and published a holding page at the website listed below. This is the beginning, whilst we work behind the scenes to develop the basic foundations of what is to come. We are excited and looking forward to seeing where this journey will take us and through this website, hope to bring information, resources and experts from far and wide to support you, whichever side of the mosque or community spectrum you come from.

This simple act of helping a local mosque has germinated into an idea which, I hope will grow in the coming months and years, to become much larger than any one of us involved in this project.

Securing the domain, during a casual search was completely unexpected and became the encouraging catalyst. If you need our help or want to become part of our cause, please visit mosques.org.uk and register your request or support.

We are not looking for donations. We want something far more valuable, your time, knowledge, and of course your expertise. Donating a few hours a week or even as little as a few hours a month, will make all the difference and help us to change lives.

So, join us, and let’s make His Story, Inshaa’Allah.

Thank you,