The Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) through its Non-Governmental Organisation known as Mission for Education Social and Health (MESH) on Sunday empowered 45 Islamic members with various working tools and cash to support their various trades.
Penpushing reports that the donations held at an events centre in Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital focused on economic empowerment and educational support, which include procurement of artisans’ tools and payment of school fees for indigent students.
The project was midwife by Ogun State Muslim Council under the leadership of Awujale of Ijebuland Oba Sikiru Adetona who is the President General of the council and represented by Prof Habeenlah Oduye at the well-attended ceremony which equally involved recitation of the Holy Quran.
Penpushing further reports that the President-General in his keynote address said he was delighted to be part of the project aimed to address challenges of the needy, explaining that Zakat is a pillar of Islam, the third among Allah’s injunction on adherents of the faith.
‘In definition, it is a divinely established system to reduce poverty in the society, scripturally incumbent on Muslims to embrace and adhere to. It has a specific mode and is technically regulated, depending on the nature of the Zakat’, Awujale stated.
‘The aim and essence of Zakat is to provide for the needy. Zakat is about caring and welfare for the vulnerable and downtrodden in the society. It is for poverty reduction and a way of circulating wealth for the benefit of the masses’, he added.
Penpushing also reports that the royal father pointed out that the Nigerian society is plagued with poverty and with suffering visible in people, adding that the socio-economic condition of the people is lamentable, attributing it to the prevailing global economic crunch, worsened by the coronavirus Covid and Ebola era.
‘No doubt, there has been several initiatives by individuals, groups and governments in addressing poverty in the land. A cardinal objective of these initiatives is to provide support for the needy and indirectly or directly make the beneficiaries of such initiative to be wealth creators as well, such that they too will be in position to be Zakat payers’, the monarch emphasised.
Penpushing reports that he explained that it was against this background that Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) came up with the initiative of the Non-Governmental Organisation(NGO ) and considered the establishment as a good effort, a welcome development, lofty and a good undertaking in the annals of history of the apex Nigerian Muslim body.
‘MESH and its likes, including Zakat and Sadakat Foundation, Ar-Rahman ZAKAAT Foundation and others too numerous to mention are established towards improving the socio-economic condition of humankind’, he stated.
‘I am aware that regional groups like Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN) and Ja’amatul Nasirul Islam have equally taken bold initiative with a magnificent approach in addressing poverty among the Muslims’, Awujale added.
Penpushing further reports that he said all these efforts by individuals and groups go a long way in complementing governments in their various programmes and projects to bringing succour to the people.
‘In commending the federal government and our state government, too, sanity, fairness and equity must always be ensured in the determination of partakers and/beneficiaries, reflecting the Nigerian heterogeneity and demography of our people’.
Penpushing also reports that the President-General on the muslim body equally enjoined the concerned categories of Nigerians to key into these socio-economic programmes as a welfare provision, relief and succour for them.
‘This 1446 A H /2024 Zakat distribution by NSCIA’s MESH for economic empowerment (of artisans and other tradesmen), for educational support in form of tuition fees of indigent students and undergraduates deserve accolades and appreciation for NSCIA. Indeed, it is a significant and worthwhile demonstration of belief in an injunction of Islam which all conscious Muslims must abide by’, Awujale stated.
Penpushing reports that he implored individual Muslims, organisations and other well-to-do to be conscious of regular payment and proper distribution of Zakat in accordance with the Islamic injunction, noting that it is a venerable avenue for seeking great divine blessings and gaining paradise in the hereafter.
‘Again, it is in consonance with a prayerful Qur’anic verse, Our Lord, give us the good things of this world and the good things of the hereafter and save us from the punishment of the hereafter.” (Qur’an 2:201)’, he added.
Penpushing further reports that the first-class traditional ruler thanked all those who have contributed to the splendid occasion of, stressing that the Zakat payers whose adherents to the injunction have made the distribution possible deserve praise and prayed that Allah uphold and bless them more.
The royal father commended the committee affirming that the selection process was methodical, systematic and thorough, which explains the quality membership of the committee as experts in their respective fields of endeavour.
Penpushing also reports that two of the beneficiaries Yusuf Olamilekan Moshood, a student in the Pharmacy from the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) Ago-Iwoye and Sekoni-Dairo Raehannah in the Civil Engineering Department of University of Ibadan, on behalf of others expressed appreciation on the support bestowed on them
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