QUESTION: A particular Islamic relief organization has someone, perhaps its ameer, or member, or volunteer, to run for gaza. He intends covering 750kms and this organization asks people to donate per km. You may think the ‘finish line’ of this running will be at the gaza strip, no, its not so. This running is done in South Africa, in the Cape as per the idea I get from the poster. Kindly offer your comments on such ways to collect money.
ANSWER: If the poster planned the person’s running instead of ‘for Gaza’, to ‘to Gaza’, we would have perhaps not commented on this ‘run’, as that would have been a better end result in the form of physically going to aid the Mujaahideen and Muslims in Gaza. How is his running here in SA help the people there in Gaza, as the poster states?
However, since the running is around town, in the name of donations and collections, we will comment on the poster you sent:
- The poster has a Haraam picture of the brother intending to run.
- Pictures are Haraam as per the Fatwa of the Shari’ah.
- Since the poster has Haraam on it, how can we trust ALL the funds collected will surely be sent to Gaza, without filling any coffers or pockets in the name of ‘admin fees’, etc.?
- This method – running – is not a suitable method for collecting funds.
- Various works of Deen are maintained and run by our honourable Ulama-e-Haq of SA, yet none of them initiated this method for collection.
- In fact, major Darul-Ulooms, with expenses running in the hundreds of thousands of Rands per month, are maintained without any student, Ustaad, Shaykhul-Hadith, Muhtamim (Principal), etc. running around town for getting donations per km.
If organizations delivering aid wish to keep their members fit, they should do so privately, without making it a public issue. Today it is a ‘run’, what will it be tomorrow?
Search for reliable people and Ulama who collect funds and ensure the correct recipients receive such monies, without the money finding a place in their wallets and pockets, or without their cars getting upgraded on a regular basis.
The first sign to know if an organisation is reliable or not, is whether their posters have any Haraam animate pictures on them. Also see if their websites have such Haraam pictures and videos on them. If they are involved in photography of any kind, abstain from donating to them!