Share My Qurbani: By Musa Nazir
Posted on: September 6th 2021School News
Over the summer, MGS pupil Musa Nazir (now in Year 9), decided to volunteer his free time to help with the Share My Qurbani project, which saw him collect, sort and distribute Qurbani meat to those most in need.
Here, in his own words, he describes his experience and why it was so important to him to help others.
Share My Qurbani, by Musa Nazir
Three years ago, back in 2017, Atahar Ayub had an amazing idea to collect and distribute Qurbani meat to the needy in the North West. This idea ended up turning into Share My Qurbani. Despite the challenges of Covid-19 in 2020, they managed to collect 1,235kg of meat and then, this year, they collected 2,350kg of meat which is a 90% increase! So far, they have distributed over 4.5 tonnes of meat since 2018. Qurbani is an Islamic practice of sacrificing a livestock animal (preferably a lamb) on the three days of Eid-Ul-Adha. This practice is a celebration about the time when Prophet Ibrahim AS (Alaihis salaam Peace be upon him) was ordered kill his son Ismail. Ismail willingly lay down on a rock and let his father try to kill him with a knife. However, the knife did not harm Ismail at all so Prophet Ibrahim AS went and sharpened the knife, but when he came back and struck him again Allah switched Ismail with a lamb and Ismail was safe. Once the lamb has been sacrificed it is split into three shares: one share for you, one for friends/family and one share for someone in need. Here in the UK, people are often unsure of how to distribute there share to the needy, this is where Share My Qurbani help.
In these summer holidays, I have been helping Share My Qurbani collect meat. On the first day of Eid ul Ahda, I went to Didsbury Mosque to help Councillor John Leech to deliver 40kg of meat to Merseybanks’ FareShare. It turns out John Leech is an Old Mancunian! I met with Norman Lewis, founder of FareShare and he told me that FareShare are a foodbank in Merseybank, who cater three meals a day for 45-48 families. Recently they have not been receiving much meat, so the families mainly have vegetables and fruits to eat. Norman was very grateful for the donation from Share My Qurbani.
On the second day, my uncles, my cousin, and I went to the Cheadle Mosque Association and collected around 70kg of meat and stored it in freezers near the mosque. We didn’t have enough space for all the meat, so we had to take some of the meat to Quba Masjid. On the third day I collected 16kg from butchers in Heald Green and took it to Fair Share. Norman was extremely grateful for the extra meat and said that his families had expressed gratitude.
On the Saturday, I teamed up with my friend, James Boyd, and we helped Unity Community, at Quba Mosque, package meat into 4, 6 and 8kg bags to be delivered to needy families by volunteers. We then went and delivered a pack of meat to a family ourselves. Unity Community is a local 100% volunteer group who provide food and basic necessities to struggling families.
In the afternoon we went back to Quba Masjid and helped the Myriad Foundation pack food packs for the poor. These contained: a carton of milk, a bottle of oil, some spaghetti, some pasta, some cereal, some biscuits, tuna, soup and more. This small package is expected to last a family the whole week. Myriad is a UK-based Islamic foundation founded in 2013. They spread the truth about misconceptions about Islam and Muslims, and are involved with all kinds of community work. The organisers were very grateful for our help and have invited us to help them again when they feed the homeless in Manchester once a month. I look forward to getting involved.
I have found this experience very enlightening and humbling. It has made me realise how the amount of people living in poverty is quite large here in the UK and particularly in the North West. We often hear of poverty and suffering around the world and forget about our own country. I found that by just giving up a little of my time I can help a lot of people and make a difference. I hope I can inspire others to do the same so we can improve the lives of others one step at a time.
