We are happy to share a photo of Lokman Ayva from the Turkish blind association Beyazay and the words from our Turkish friends:

Hagia Sophia is a one thousand five hundred year old building. When muslims conquered İstanbul, it was used as a mosque for 481 years.

Unfortunately, in 1934, it was changed to museum . But alhamdulillah, yesterday, its status as a mosque again was confirmed by president Erdogan. We had been very sad since 1934 and we are very very happy now, brothers and sisters. What Lokman brother is saying is Alhamdulillah, thousands of alhamdulillah.

It’s said in every house in Gaza there would be a person who has memorized the Quran. Learning and memorizing the Quran teaches you perseverance and patience and I always felt this was one reason why Palestinians have been so resilient against an occupation supported by the most powerful countries in the world.

To this end we have worked with Dar AlQuran Gaza for many years to run courses to teach the blind to memorize the Quran. Today their new rep Belal alRamli visited alFitrah office and was fascinated to see a Braille Quran for the first time and listened to our staff Abdul Majid read a Braille Quran.

There are 3,000 Quran teachers in Gaza and this year DQWS has started teaching online , and this has proved so helpful when CoVid kept people indoors. They are teaching people all over the world now . Inshaa Allah AlFitrah Foundation Braille Quran Initiative will work together to promote this project with them in English. In the video and photos the students are using our Braille Qurans we sent to Gaza last year.

People around the world have been under quarantine for the last 3 months but Gaza has been under movement control for the last 13 years. The Israeli blockade since 2007 has severely impacted the economy and now 86% of families rely on aid.

During the time of Covid-19 when masjids and Quran learning centres have closed, the lives of students and teachers at Dar AlQuran in Gaza has been impacted further.

Many teachers have become impoverished so we started a program to pay their salaries and online classes have started so students can continue to memorize the Quran.

We are raising USD10,000 to pay teachers salaries. Each teacher is being paid US$100 per month; able to teach more than 10 students per month.

Al Fitrah Foundation (based in Kuala Lumpur) has been supporting the Quran classes for many years, especially the memorization Quran classes for the blind students. Al Fitrah Foundation has delivered 100 braille Qurans to Gaza too, paid for by donors in Malaysia and Singapore.

Viva Palestina Malaysia has also been coordinating partner with Al Fitrah Foundation for Gaza Quran summer camp project for blind students for 8 years.

Donations/Contributions can be made through:

PERTUBUHAN VIVA PALESTINA MALAYSIA
Maybank Account: 5-64324-601324
Please write reference as “QURAN”
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Ustaz Danial is helping us to braillise the Shama’il and other islamic books . May Allah help us increase the access of the visually impaired Muslims to Islamic knowledge.

Alhamdulillah we met up today with Ustaz Mohd Danial Madani who will assist us into transcribing this book Shama'il alMuhammadiyya translated by Shaykh Mohammed Aslam. into Braille inshaa Allah. The book is available from Imam Ghazali Institute https://www.imamghazali.org/store