Cial Work and Islam

8/2/2019 Cial Work and Islam

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CIAL WORK AND ISLAM

Social Work according to the Quran"It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards

East or West; but it is righteousness to believe in Allah and

the Last Day and the Angels and the Book and the

Messengers; to spend of your substance out of love for Him,

for your kin, for orphans, for the needy, for the wayfarer,

for those who ask; and for the ransom of slaves; to be

steadfast in prayers and practice regular charity; to fulfill

the contracts which you made; and to be firm and patient inpain (or suffering) and adversity and throughout all periods

of panic. Such are the people of truth, the God

fearing"(Quran 2: 177).

The above verse is the concept of social work in Islam. It ishowever more than a philosophical concept but a practical draftthat outlines the why, whom, and who of service delivery.

We believe form of worship incomplete without helping deeds

Whom categories of people and groups and issues related tobe met

Who characteristics of workers

Analysis of the Quranic concept of social workWhy?The question of why we should establish formal social services inour communities is explained in this verse.

Allah is advising us that our worship is incomplete withouthelping deeds. So after having believed in Allah, the angels, theProphets, the Books and the Last Day we must translate ourIman (faith) our beliefs into actions of service to humankind.
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In fact it is incumbent on believers to fulfill this duty of service tothose who need their help. Each and every Muslim is tocontribute to the welfare of society. Therefore by establishing

social services within Muslim communities, every Muslim canindirectly participate through financial and moral support. Whenprofessionals administer social services with the support of thecommunity at large. It would help all of us to fulfill our socialresponsibility as believers.

1. Duty as a believer;

2. True righteousness;

3. Love of Allah

One Hadith states that Abu Hurairah related: The Prophet (peaceand blessings be upon him) said: "Whosoever removes a worldlygrief from a believer, Allah will remove from him one of thegrieves on the Day of Judgment. Whosoever alleviates [the] lotof a destitute person, Allah will alleviate his lot in this world andthe next. Whosoever conceals the faults of a Muslim, Allah will

conceal his faults in this world and the next. Allah will aid aservant (of His) so long as the servant aids his brother."

Who?The question of who is best qualified to carry out the duty ofserving the community in the area of social services is againoutlined in this verse as one who believes in the Unity of Allah,the Last Day, the Angels, Books and Messengers of Allah. In

other words, the verse emphasizes the significance of Iman andMufassil as the defining characteristic of a Muslim one whohaving believed totally completely and with understanding isthen compelled by his belief to act upon them through service tohumanity thus completing their faith.

1. Believer in Unity of Allah

2. The Last Day

3. Angels


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4. Books

5. Messenger

Hadith: Humility and Courtesy are acts of piety. Modesty and

chastity repasts of faith. Verily those who are patient in adversityand forgive wrongs are the doers of excellence. The best of almsis that which the right hand giveth and the left hand knowethnot.

ForWhom?The above verse also outlines broad categories that wouldinclude those towards whom these services should be directed.

Let's briefly look at the categories.

Spend of your substance for:

1. Kin: This would be anyone related either by blood ormarriage. This would be more of an individual responsibility. Ifhowever a person was unable to adequately meet the needs ofhis kin he could on their behalf seek help from the community-

based social services.2. Orphans: Technically this would apply to children whosefathers have died. In an Islamic society the orphans thenbecome the responsibility of the state. New Muslims who losetheir families because of conversion must also be included in thiscategory. Orphans could also apply to children of dysfunctionalfamilies that are taken away be CFS. For all facts and purposesthey are orphans. The spirit of Islamic charity would therefore

dictate that we provide for these orphans by providing fostercare, housing and material and spiritual needs consistently,professionally and compassionately.

3. Needy: This is a broad term and should be interpreted tomean any need. Therefore a family needing counseling toresolve a conflict or a couple in a marital crisis or an abusedspouse should be included in the category as well as those who

are in need of financial assistance. The situation could be of a


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temporary nature or long term. The Muslim community shouldbe equipped with services that can address the needs of thesepeople.

4. Wayfarer: the term usually used for a traveler or a transient,could also apply in present day to foreign students or workerswho come to our communities on a temporary basis. Islamicsocial services should be prepared to serve this particularsegment of our community.

5. Those Who Ask: Anyone who asks for help and is a genuinecase must be helped.

We should not hold it against them. Therefore a formalmechanism must be in place in our communities where peoplecan confidently apply for help.

6. Ransom of Slaves: Many could say that Islam eradicatedslavery therefore this is a moot point. However if we were tolook around us many of our Muslim brothers and sisters couldqualify to apply for this category to be freed e.g. the

landing fee that the Canadian government has put in place isputting extreme pressure on families that cannot reunitebecause they cannot afford to pay it.

I believe to help them would amount to paying ransom forslaves. The spirit is to free a human from bondage andoppression and exploitation. Therefore the ransom of slaveswould in my humble opinion apply to all these categories.

How?When we are asked how are we to achieve these objectives ofIslamic social services the Quran once again gives us assistanceby laying out the principle on which we not only base our socialservices but through which we achieve our goals. In short, theseprinciples define a Muslim social worker and also empower andenable them to better serve their clients.


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1. Steadfast in prayer: The one best equipped to help others isone who is steadfast in prayer. "Thee alone we worship, Theealone we ask for help". In a Muslim community persons

nominated for social work must posses this fundamental trait ofa Muslim. If they are to be effective and productive it is also areminder to those of us working in the field that we must besteadfast in prayer.

2. Regular Charity: This of course fosters a personality that isgiving and develops a character that is empathetic to the needsof others. Communities where members give regular charity ofall kinds both compulsory and voluntary benefit each other andfeel responsible for each other.

3. Fulfill Contract: Muslims working in the field of social servicesmust be trustworthy, honest, and conscientious of their duty totheir clients. Services delivered cannot be haphazard or half-hearted. When we make a pledge we honor it when we make apromise we keep it and when we set ourselves up as helpers wefulfill that task to the best of our ability.

4. Patience in pain, suffering, adversity and panic: These arecharacteristics that are essential for Muslim social workers,counselors, Imams, and leaders. When people depend on us forsupport and rely on our counsel we cannot be hasty, impatient,or panic at first sign of difficulty. The task for Muslim workers inthe area of social services is soul wrenching and requires apersonality that is blessed with Taqwa (God consciousness) and

Sabr (patience). However, the levels of Taqwa (Godconsciousness) may vary but it is an evolutionary process inwhich one can develop the personality of a Mutaqi (one who hasGod consciousness).

5. Truth: As the Prophet Muhammad stated: " A Muslim can notbe a liar". Truth and honesty is the cornerstone of any publicservice. Lies stand in the way of trust without which a Muslim

social worker or counselor is not viable. We must be honest inour dealings with our client and not use any underhanded ways.


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Truth is also a virtue that is admired universally and inspiresrespect, trust, and reliability.

6. God Fearing: One, who fears Allah and is always conscious of

her duty to her Creator, will never harm or put in harms waythose who are under their care. Sense of accountability andresponsibility to Allah must be the core trait of a Muslimcommunity worker. This keeps in check our egos and focuses onthe objective that our service must gain the pleasure of Allah notthe pleasure of making a name for us.

Sayings of Prophet Muhammad: What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of ahuman being, to feed the hungry, to help the afflicted, to lightenthe sorrow of the sorrowful, and to remove the wrongs of theinjured.

He who tries to remove the want of his brother, whether he issuccessful or not, God will forgive his sins.

Muslim Misperceptions about Social ServicesBy Abdul Malik Mujahid

Working to help others, also known as social service, is anIslamic obligation. Muslims carry out this obligation on anindividual level. However at the institutionalized andcollective levels Muslims in America, by and large, neglectthis duty. Muslims in America live within their owncommunities like islands. It is vital that these islands become

connected to the broader American society by buildingbridges through social service. There is hardly any evidence ofsocial service institutions built and run by Muslims ascompared to what is being done by other faith groups.

Social services can be divided into two major categoriesalthough some overlapping does exist:

o Family Service: pre-marriage counseling, resolving

marital disputes, spousal abuse, child abuse,domestic violence, foster parenting, women's


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shelters, marriage counseling, job placement,economic rehabilitation of battered women, Islamicand legal advice to the abused.

o Support Services: halfway houses for parolees,homeless shelters, skills development, placementservices, soup kitchens, food pantries, legalcounseling, literacy, Islamic education andmentoring.

Alhamdu lillah, Muslims are gradually becoming aware of thisneed although the work, up to now, has been limited to smallendeavors. There are a few small and underfunded efforts

throughout North America. Currently, our African-AmericanMuslim brothers and sisters are at the forefront of theseefforts. In a handful of instances immigrant Muslim womenand second generation Muslims are also addressing theseissues.

There are many causes for this weakness. Among them are theextraordinary growth of Masjids and schools which has

probably taken up most Muslim resources in the last twodecades, along with humanitarian disasters in the world forwhich Muslim Americans have been donating generously.

However, the above factors do not take into account somemisperceptions among Muslims which continue to contributeto an almost total absence of social service in the priorities ofMasjids and other Muslim organizations. Below are some ofthe major Muslim misperceptions which need to be addressed

as the Muslim leadership tries to make social services apriority for the Muslim community in North America.

Misperception #1:Social service is not an Islamic Obligation

Muslims regard helping the needy and the poor as good andrewarding acts but they do not consider them necessarily "anobligation" like prayers and fasting. It seems that many are

not aware of the Quranic basis for the duty to serve humanbeings. There are scores of verses in the Quran that deal with


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the necessity of social service: 107; 74:38-46; 90:12-18;89:17-24; 92:5-10. Of course the more prominent one is theshort chapter Al Ma'oon in which Muslims are Divinelymandated to attend to the social needs of others, not as aphilanthropic gesture, but as a prerequisite condition for faith(Iman) itself, and a tangible acceptance of the Hereafter. Inal Ma'oon 107:1-7, Allah says:

"Have you ever seen a human being who contradictsthe (essence of) faith? That is the person whopushes the orphan aside and does not promotefeeding the needy."

Woe, then, unto those who pray, but their heartsand minds from (the essence and message of) theirprayers are remote, those who (want but) to beseen and praised, whereas they refuse to helpothers (who need help)"

Although no one will deny that Zakat is a pillar of Islam, it isat best a fallen pillar of Islam whose recommended list of

beneficiaries reads like a roster of social service priorities forMuslims.

Misperception #2: There is no tradition of Islamic socialservices

In most Muslim countries, the Masjids and Madrassas are theplaces where the hungry and homeless have ready food andshelter. Masjids in America offer neither. Muslims in America

are not generally aware of the kinds of social services Muslimsin other countries operate. I will enumerate a few historicinstitutions here.

The Waqf system is a common Islamic endowment systemwhich has helped and continues to support millions of socialservice projects in the Muslim world. I remember in my ownneighborhood, an orphanage (yateem khana) and several coldwater fountains (sabeel) in a city where temperatures arehardly below 100 fahrenheit will bring thankful prayers to


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your lips. Free Musafirkhana (public guest house for travelers)also stood in my hometown, free for not only the travelers butalso those who have no other place to go. The first formalpublic guest house was established in 17 Hijrah in Madinah,after which every city throughout the world of Islam has atleast one before Khalifa Omar passed away. Until theseindependent public guest houses, the travelers used to stay inMasjids.

There are many examples of institutionalized human serviceswhich are found in the Muslim world. A wider knowledge ofthese institutions and their workings may encourage

institutionalization of social services among Muslims.Historically, the Khanaqah in Central and South Asia, Zawiyahin North Africa, and Tekke in Turkey (an open for all house ofSufis) has been a common food and shelter spot. Lungers(soup kitchens) were found all over Muslim Asia. SomeLungers, like the one in Ajmir, are so huge that their Daig(cooking pots) are two stories high, feeding thousands ofpeople on a daily basis. Daruz Zuafa (literally house for the

weak which used to take care of the needs of the elderly)were still operational in Nizam's Hyderabad Deccan in India aslate as the early seventies. One can still take a small notefrom any of the Nizam's children to find accommodation infree Ribats (big house) in Makkah and Madinah of Saudi Arabiauntil the late seventies which were established there byNizam's endowments.

In Islam it is the legal right of a needy person or a traveler tobe fed by the community. Most Masjids in the Muslim worldstay open 24 hours a day seven days of week for this reason. Itis this massive act of silent support which essentially tookcare of millions of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran in thelast twenty years, while only a fraction of these refugeeswere being taken care of by international refugee agencies.

Misperception #3: Zakat is only an individual duty


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Most Muslims in America distribute their Zakat on anindividual basis. Historically and Islamically that has neverbeen the case. Giving Zakat is a personal obligation but itscollection and distribution have always been a collectiveresponsibility. This has enabled Muslims to help the lessfortunate in an organized fashion and take up projects of alarger scale. By bypassing communal collection anddistribution, Muslims are denying the community the duty ofattending to its priorities in an organized fashion which hasdiminished our ability to undertake social service projects.Only a major campaign of reeducation can help Muslimsreassert this fallen pillar of Islam.

Misperception #4: The real poor are not in America

Muslims in America have a dilemma: Since almost half of uswere born in the Third World, we compare the face of povertyin America with the one "back home." Unfortunately, in ourblind materialistic pursuit of the American Dream we find ithard to see that there is a great deal of poverty andhomelessness right here in America. And so we send ourmoney to our homes. While Islamic law asks for distribution ofZakat in the localities where it is collected from, the moralityof "earning here" and "charity abroad" is denying the effectiveimplementation of two of the designated Zakat categories,one being "helping prisoners" and the second "assisting newMuslims". While there is merit and logic in helping poor peoplein the Third World, many American poor and homeless aresadly living in similar conditions. Maybe an equitabledistribution between our responsibility towards our neighborsand back home is a better option.

Misperception #5: Muslim family life is safe and sound

The divorce rate in America is one of the highest in the world(over 50 percent). But the divorce rate of Muslims in NorthAmerica is almost as high, according to New York-basedsociologist Ilyas Ba-Yunus. Many Muslims are simply not awareof the extent to which Muslim marriages are in trouble. In
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Chicago, most occupants of a shelter run by Hindus are Muslimwomen. Tremendous help is needed in marriage counseling,mediation, assistance in the case of abuse, foster parenting,and shelters. Untrained Imams are being forced into the roleof family counselors. Although this is the only area of socialservices where need is forcing a bit of movement, a properunderstanding of the magnitude of the problem may helpMasjids allocate more funds in this direction.

Misperception #6: Islam is the fastest growing religion inthe USA

I don't know who came up with this phrase. I have not seenany research paper about it. However, what I have seen is itsobnoxious usage by the unwise. In fact, 70 percent of convertsleave Islam within a few years as documented by Prof. IlyasBa Younus. Muslims are unaware that a majority of newMuslims end up leaving Islam because of a lack of supportsystem in the Muslim community. Their study of Islam throughbooks does not match the reality of our brotherhood andsisterhood. Not all, however, leave because of the absence ofthe support system. It is a complex phenomena with manyother variables.

Misperception #7: Muslims cannot befriend non-Muslims

Interestingly, this is not a quote from the media, this isactually a street ideology paddled by some fringe groups inthe community to the extent that it has caused true confusionamong young and the new Muslims. The whole theory wasinvented to keep Muslims away from participation in thepolitical system in North America. It relies on the incorrecttranslation of the term Wali in the Quran. Wali was a term atthe time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him),whose modern-day equivalent is citizenship in the eyes ofscholar Professor Muhammad Hamidullah. However, the literaltranslation of the word may mean friendship as well. Althoughin Islamic discourse it is a well-established principle that aterm loses its literal meaning unless the context dictates it,
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Misperception #9: Can Zakat be used for non-Muslims?

Many Muslims, including some leaders, are unclear as towhether Zakat and non-Zakat charity are to be used only to

help other Muslims or to help anyone who is in need.

The Islamic position to assist all in need withoutdiscrimination is so obvious that it does not require anyFatwa. The Quran even challenges those who were opposingIslam at the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be uponhim) to come forward with charity towards the needy. InKhalifa Omar's declared and implemented interpretation ofthe Quranic category of Zakat distribution, Faqir meant thepoor of the Muslims, and Miskeen meant the poor of Christiansand Jews. Later on, as Islam encountered other faith groups,he extended social benefits to them as well. May Allah bepleased with him.

However, at this age of decay in Islamic life somehow theconcept of serving one's own has restrained some Muslimsfrom using Zakat to serve all of humanity.

Misperception #10: Only a Muslim neighbor has a right onyou

The concept of neighborly duties has also evaporated sincemost Muslims either limit the definition of neighbor toexclude non-Muslims or fall prey to the elevator culture bynot noticing their neighbors.

Nowhere in the Quran and the Sunnah are the rights ofneighbors limited to Muslims only. A neighbor is a neighbor.And the Islamic definition of neighbor is broader than theEnglish language description as the following verse of theQuran states: "Do good tothe neighbor who is close by and tothe neighbor who is a stranger, and the companion at yourside, and to the traveler.." (4:36). This false understandingallows some practicing Muslims to not focus on fulfillingneighborly duties towards society, although this may be
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because of their irresponsibility rather than an assertion ofthis false notion.

The Need for Education:

These misperceptions must be shattered if we are to moveour community forward and truly address its full contributionin the arena of social services. The first step in clarifyingthese misconceptions is education on a mass level amongstMuslims in North America. Below are some practical ways todo this:

1. Use Friday Khutbas to the maximum. Many Muslims who

don't normally attend other Islamic activities come toFriday prayers, making them an excellent forum foreducation. Muslim councils and Imams should developsample Khutbas to on the above-mentioned topics andpresent them to Muslim audiences.

2. Muslim leaders should write about the topic in Muslimmagazines by publishing editorials in all of them aboutthe need for social services offered by Muslims.

3. Muslim writers should publish articles in every issue ofthe various Muslim newspapers on social problems andthe need to address them.

4. Someone should write a book that discusses socialservices as an Islamic obligation, reflects on the natureof this need, and also provides practical information onhow to address these problems in todays environment.This book can also share the historical experience of

Muslims in the area of social services. Another small bookis needed to clarify the issues of Wali, friendship, dutiesto neighbors and helping the community we live in.

5. We need to publicize success stories through the media.The only hospital run by students of a Muslim Students'Association is in America. Why do so few people knowabout this extraordinary accomplishment by students inCalifornia?


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6. Muslim schools should incorporate the Quranic chaptersand verses regarding service to humanity along witharticles on the concepts above in their curriculum.

There are existing resources available among Muslims whichcan become the starting point of these educational efforts.Sound Vision's website itself contains hundreds of pages worthof information on social service-related issues. The IslamicSocial Services Association of the United States and Canada(ISSA) and a few seminars by the Islamic Society of NorthAmerica (ISNA) have also generated some material whichshould be useful in clarifying some of these concepts.

The Muslim community in America is one which thinksdynamically. It cannot afford not to move towards buildingbridges of selfless service in the society we live in.

Empower the Poor

Despite funds and infrastructure, the Muslim communityis still in the depths of poverty and illiteracy. Have we

got our priorities all wrong?

In Mumbai and other urban areas, if you happen to passby a garbage dump, stop for a moment and look at whatis going on. You will notice cats, dogs and human

beings, mainly children, trying to find something to eat,or something that can be sold, such as waste paper,

cardboard etc., to fetch food.

Wait for a while and look again at the same dump and

you will also notice rats as well as other small creaturesengaged in the same activity. If you do not walk through

these ghettos and happen to drive through the clean

and beautifully illuminated roads in fashionable localitiesof a big city, sometimes traffic lights will force you to


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stop. Here, you are surrounded by many beggars, old

and young, men and women, adult and children,destitute women, sometimes young, but, haggard

looking girls carrying their sleeping babies (perhapsdoped with drugs), asking for alms.

Why has the Muslim community not been able to liftitself from the depth of poverty and illiteracy? The

community has a unique social system of Zakat. Eventhe infrastructure and network of education and welfare

societies is good. Something is wrong somewhere.

Is it wrong planning or lack of focus? It seems Muslims

must rethink what role Almighty Allah wants them toplay in India. If resources and infrastructure was the

problem, then, the Muslims should have progressed withthe rise in investment in the last few years.

A random sample from these deprived sections ofMuslim society, elicit spontan-eous responses: We are

poor. We and our children are hungry. We need food.We dont have houses. We need shelter. Basically, the

unspoken message from the deprived section of Muslim

community is, link education with employment andproductivity. There is an urgent need to empower thesepopulation groups and the first step for empowerment is

to provide them education. The important question is:what kind of education?

Muslim community invest-ment in the education sector

needs to be redirected to those sectors whose priority is


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decided by a well structured local research process.

Muslim education and welfare societies at the local level,on their own should conduct research and identify the

gaps. Most of the time, the investment and planningcaters to the Muslim middle class or elite class,

bypassing the deprived sections of the community.

If we conduct gap analysis of the community education

requirement, the priority segments are: those peoplewho are not part of the organised education structure.For initiating the education revolution for the deprivedsections, we need not get entangled into financial and

infrastructure requirements, but start the process byidentifying local human resources. Step one is short

listing those competent people who can donate theirhours. Until now, the community was seeking financial

donation from business community. Now the time hascome for the middle class to repay the community by

donating couple of hours every week.

Second step can be identifying core areas in terms of

vocations for which there is need in the employment

market at the local level. The local education andwelfare societies can easily identify the vocations whichcan fetch employment for the student. No doubt there

are number of educational institutions who offer shortterm job oriented vocational courses, but many of them

are for middle class and are outdated.

The focus should be the deprived segment of the


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community. Care must be taken that a) The timing is

most convenient for the students to attend classes b)the availability of educated teachers and c)

accommodation available for classes.

Since the marginalised and deprived are being targeted,

the curriculum should include: a) languagelearning/literacy b) simple arithmetic c) spoken English

and d) a vocational skill for which there is anemployment market.

Classes must be held at a time convenient to thelearners and the teachers. The location of the learning

centre must be closest to the learners home. The spanof the curriculum should be designed in such a way that

it significantly reduces unneces-sary repetition, and thelearners are encouraged to produce and earn. The

earning part of it provides incentive to learn at a fastpace.

Focus must be on managing human resources availablewithin the community, rather then creating new

infrastructure and then raising finance to create it. The

planning should focus on utilising existing infrastructure.The best part is to arrange for open air class rooms withbare minimum infrastructure and practically nil

maintenance and overhead expenditure. All this andmany more plans are not going to work unless and until,

we Muslims address the important question: What roleAlmighty Allah wants Muslims to play in India? Are we

playing the role assigned to us by Almighty Allah? The

role assigned to the community is very clear. Refer to


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the Quran:

And when Ibrahim and Ismail raised the foundations ofthe House: Our Lord! accept from us; surely Thou art

the Hearing, the Knowing. Our Lord! and make us bothsubmissive to Thee and (raise) from our offspring a

nation submitting to Thee, and show us our ways ofdevotion and turn to us (mercifully), surely Thou art the

Oft-returning (to mercy), the Merciful. Our Lord! andraise up in them a Messenger from among them who

shall recite to them Thy communications and teach themthe Book and the wisdom, and purify them; surely Thouart the Mighty, the Wise. (Surah Al-Baqarah- 127-129).

If Muslims supplement their efforts with the roleassigned to us by Allah, then the issues of poverty and

illiteracy can be taken care of easily. Without Allahshelp, no amount of planning and investment is going to

change the communitys status quo.

Professional Approach to Social Work

By M Hanif Lakdawala

The Muslim community needs to do re-thinking of its

strategy for doing social work.

The Tsunami episode has once again brought to the core

the soft side of the individuals. Millions of individualscontributed aid to alleviate the suffering of the victims of

Natures fury.


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At the organisational level, hundreds of small and large

social and welfare groups organised the relief. No doubt,social services sector is creating a presence in our

society; it also becomes apparent that competent socialservices have yet to arrive amongst Muslim community.

The latter statement is based upon observations of signsfor organisations that intend to provide services for both

man- made disaster and victims of natures fury.Furthermore, a minimal amount of research into these

organisations often reveals a bare minimum, to noqualified professionals, a lack of organisational structureand more importantly either a clientele medley or a mis-diagnosed nightmare.

While the willingness to get your hands dirty is noble,nobility alone cannot sustain an organization without a

conceptual framework.

Clinical social worker, Dr Judith Lee (1994) explained

that adequate service provision requires the serviceprovider to be well equipped in the areas of professional

purpose, a strong value base, knowledge, theoretical

foundations and a programme method that consists ofprinciples, processes and skills.

Contrary to the literature, Muslims social services

and/or educational organisations begin to provideservices prior to meeting structural demands. The idea

is understandable and will generate sympathy. It is a

moral dilemma. The need exists and the thought pattern


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is that some service provision is far better than none.

While this thought process too, is noble, it can in factimpart far more harm than good.

It appears that as a result of the lack of qualified staff,agency philosophies and structure, all the financial and

human resources pumped in the social sector by thecommunity is not utilized optimally and many a times

the performance is even sub-standard.

Most of the donors do not have time to go beyondpersonal interviews of the project initiators or theorganisations office bearers. How many Muslim social

and welfare organisations appoint MSW (Masters insocial work)? The result is most of the time its the sub-

standard work and poor services provided to thedowntrodden.

Why the Muslim community needs the qualified andcompetent professionals help to manage the social

sector? Since changes in the society are taking place ata rapid pace, newer and newer problems are emerging.

Thus social workers and/or educators must be certain of

and well versed in their approach to the work, prior todeliverance of services. Service providers mustcollaborate with other professionals within or outside of

their own agencies in an effort to gain a deeperknowledge and understanding of the field.

Agencies must provide continuous staff training, strong

supervision and a safe environment that encourages


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staff to raise questions. Additionally, administrators

must begin to do their homework. The expertise and thefunding to hire the staff are out there, the motivation to

find them must be brought to the table.

Lets take a sample issue of counselling the Muslim

youth. Slew of organisations claims working for thegrowth and benefit of Muslim youth. How many of them

can handle the complex problems which todays youthsuffers from. Even the largest Muslim student

organisations do not have any qualified counsellors.

None of the organisations conduct counselling sessions.

Most of the counselling sessions are conducted by theoffice bearers who are not qualified to do the job. Those

who need counselling also go to Imams asking foradvice, but the Imams are not trained in counselling.

They will try to tell them what to do rather than beingable to assess the whole situation, being able to

analyze, being able to walk them through the process offinding a resolution.

Since the community does not take the help of

professionals there are many areas where thecommunity does not have any presence. For examplehow many centres we have for the training of Muslim

disabled, whereby they find jobs for Muslims withdisabilities. So we need to become more aware, and we

need to become more compassionate. Mercy should bethe basic element of a Muslim. And it isnt there.


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So community needs a re-thinking of its strategy of

doing social work. We just cannot afford to waste ourresources by doing sub-standard work. By investing in

taking professional help we will be saving precioushuman and financial resources and increase the

productivity.

Coming more..

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