Leave your self-pity behind and work

By Adil James
TMO contributing writer

The prominent charity Helping Hand International held a fundraiser Saturday evening in Romulus, hosting the noted guest speaker Imam Sohaib Webb.

Helping Hand is a successful, devoted and legitimate charity that sought through its fundraiser Saturday night to raise money to support its programs to help the people of Syria in this very difficult time. Imam Sohaib Webb spoke as the keynote speaker at the event, and the theme of his speech was that while the condition of the ummah is difficult, we must not accept that as an excuse to fail to work hard to accomplish goals.

Charity Navigator is “America’s leading independent charity evaluator” by its own claim. It ranks charities across the nation and maintains a list of 540 charities with evaluations. It gives Helping Hand its maximum rating, four stars.

Charity Navigator’s evaluation of each charity is very detailed, showing the charity’s budget, main personnel, aims, and an evaluation of how purely the moneys given to it make their way to the benefit of stated beneficiaries. Rankings appear to be based on careful examination of each charity’s publicly reported information, such as required IRS forms 990. Charity Navigator ranks Helping Hand as “highly rated” with an overall score of 97.58%. Charity Navigator reports that about 91% of Helping Hand’s funding goes to the programs it claims to support—a large percentage which demonstrates efficiency, given that every charity is forced to pay for administrative expenses. Charity Navigator shows Helping Hand having annual revenue of $24 million.

Helping Hand is attempting to help the afflicted peoples of Syria, and pursues many programs that benefit its people, including a program for orphans, for education and more.

Saturday evening Helping Hand’s fundraiser’s keynote speaker was Imam Sohaib Webb, who gave a detailed argument that despite opposition and difficulty, Muslims must continue to press forward and achieve.

“Don’t fall into despair,” he said. “Distinguish between our own situation and worldwide problems—think strategically.”

The imam quoted a hadith that “the righteous servant will be tested with hardship like gold and silver are tested with fire, to bring out their goodness.”

“Hardships,” the imam said, “always brought out the best in the community.”

The imam gave many examples of famous Companions and scholars who were tested with extreme difficulties, and also gave examples of tremendous perseverance. He explained that the wealth and peace that we take for granted was not the environment of the early Companions, or of many of the scholars whose names we remember today. The central example he gave was that of a man who rose from very humble beginnings to become king of Al-Andalus, and who then pursued very enlightened and wise policies.

The underlying message of all these examples was that Muslims must not use the difficulties they face, or their race or ethnicity or religion or sex, as an excuse not to strive to succeed.