A good friend asked me to distribute this worthy cause in honor of her mother Madeha Lashin (Allah Yarhumha), for the needy children at Granada school. Because I was asked to forward this on to friends and family and I consider you all friends, I decided to pass this on:
Asalam Alaykum
Ramadan Kareem
Hope this letter finds you and your loved ones in good eman and health. An email was just sent out for the children abroad. Hope you have a little more generosity left. Many of you have been so helpful in aiding us to provide eid gifts, clothing, and supplies for needy children at Granada. They have kindly asked us to carry on. Hope you have it in your heart to give a little for these community kids. This is a tradition that my mother has passed on and we’d like to keep it going.
Ramadan is moving fast and I’m sure we all hope for forgiveness and mercy. It’s always a good time to give saddaqa especially now in this blessed month. Please send your contributions. We all know that finances are tight for most people now. May our eman and bank accounts all be expanded for the better by helping others who are in need. Honestly, even $5 can help. Everybit counts.You can send your contributions to 315 Bagshaw Ct, San Jose, Ca 95123. Barak Allah feekom. May Allah be pleased with your efforts and multiply your rewards. Please distribute to your friends and family.
The American Muslim community has made tremendous inroads by the tireless work and dedication of people like Madeha Lashin. So many of us were saddened by her long illness. But she has contributed to an important legacy. In this short time, I really cannot convey the impact that she and her family has made in my life. I owe Madeha Lashin for giving me the chance to find myself. Years ago, I used to substitute teach at Granada school and served as a teaching assistant volunteer while attending Santa Clara University. It was in this environment that I discovered my love for teaching.
Madeha Lashin: Pharmaceutical degree from Cairo, Egypt. She worked at Granada Islamic School for ten years, first as a substitute teacher and then teaching Arabic and Biology. She went on to serve as principal for four years providing the strong leadership that helped the school advance and achieve a new professionalism, team spirit among the staff, and a love of Islam and learning among the students.
As stated in the email, one of the traditions Madeha passed on was collecting funds to help needy children with gifts and supplies. May Allah have mercy on Madeha, bless and reward her for her efforts and contributions to the Muslim community and humanity in general. She was like so many women in our community, the very backbone that helped it hold its head up straight. Please honor the mothers, daughter, aunts, sisters, cousins, and friends who volunteer and work so hard to egive our children a solid foundation and ensure a bright future. You can make it a little brighter and put a smile on a young child’s face. It is not too late to give, please consider doing so as Ramadan comes to a close and you celebrate Eid al-Fitr.
Margari Aziza 
I love reading your blog…and as an outsider I feel that I have picked up on so many things about how you feel…
I know you long to be part of a true community, it can get pretty lonely when you dont have much of that around. You are very unique, your traditional yet very western in your approach in regards to long standing issues within the Muslim community…which unfortunately could make certain people uncomfortable..
I will be absolutely honest with you, I live in a city with a large Muslim community…and I have seen alot through the years…
If you truly want feel part of the community you are going to have to get married..and marry a man whos family is originally from the Middle East, South Asia, or Africa….
While it might seem like a big melting pot of Muslim cultures within the Ummah….most communities prefer to remain separate….and being an advocate for change doesn’t mean it is going to happen any time soon..
This is my honest opinion, I know that many people will disagree…but even my friends who are African American and have African American spouses do understand that within the mainstream community they will be “outsiders”…..unless their families have been Muslim for several generations and have a large community of their own..they feel the burn..so to speak…
I am not saying this because I think you SHOULD get married or that you HAVE to get married…but from my personal experiences…if you married a first generation Lebanese, Egyptian, Syrian, Pakistani, etc man with close family ties…there is NO way possible you will remain and outsider…you will have so much “community” and “family” time you will not get a chance to breathe!…lol =)
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Im sorry…I think I posted this under the wrong post! =)
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Anna,
thank you for providing your feedback. I feel like it is coming from a sincere place. But from my observations, marrying into an immigrant family is not the solution to isolation. While some families are embracing, many of these cultures can be very hard on daughters-in-laws, or even resent them. With language barriers, it can be very isolating when you’re surrounded by in-laws who don’t relate to you or share your basic assumptions. Some women who marry into these families feel even more isolated and excluded.
The outsider-insider thing is a bit problematic. The truth is that Black American Muslims are the largest group of Muslims in United States. I do not consider immigrant Muslim communities mainstream, since many are little more than ethnic enclaves that often resist cultural assimilation. And that means they often have little interest in intermarrying (well, unless you are a white woman then somehoe people act like they don’t have a culture either). Educated and professional Black American Muslim are often well assimilated in American society because we continue our familial, professional, and social ties. With all the tensions that can come in marriage and family relations, I don’t see ethnic intermarriage as a panacea. Instead, I believe it has to be in developing authentic relationships and creatively developing new social and cultural institutions that meet the challenges of modernity.
Thanks for the food for thought!!
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Would they accept actual toys? I have more than a few toys in very good condition masha’allah that I would be willling to send.
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Asslamualikum
You have great blog.
May Allah bless you
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