Project Smile!

WHAT IS PROJECT SMILE?

Linguistically, "barakah" means increase. It is a hidden and intangible blessing which Allah can bestow upon anyone He chooses. This blessing can be bestowed by way of increased health, wealth, time, progeny, happiness in this life and happiness in the hereafter.

The ultimate barakah is when Allah is pleased with you, resulting in Him looking at you, and smiling to you. Imagine what a great elevation it is when your actions are so pleasing to your Creator that He smiles at you! This is the ultimate blessing you can receive from Allah, one that can propel you in this life and elevate you in dunia and akhirah.

Barakah in dunia is granted by Allah to you when He allows you to be for Him, to work for Him in elevating His name, spreading His message and caring for others. If Allah has granted you barakah, the ultimate evidence of that is when He elevates you akhirah, spares you from torture of Hellfire and places you within a high station in Paradise.

We have compiled some important Qur'anic verses and ahadeeth on this point. They are at the end of this article. Please take a few minutes to read them carefully. You will understand how abundant Allah's rewards can be, especially during these sacred months leading up to the blessed month of Ramadan.

WHAT NEXT?

If the above have inspired you, you should be asking what you can do.

If you want the blessing of Shaaban, Ramadan and the blessing for the whole year round;

If you want all your supplications to be accepted;

If you want all your sins to be reprieved, forgiven and even pardoned;

If you want your feet to be blessed, and even the ground under your feet to be blessed and be protected by 70,000 angels daily;

If you want to gain more than an equivalent 10 years' iktikaf in Masjid Nabawi in Madinah;

If you want to be among the people who Allah smiles to, grant you purification from hellfire and bestow His pleasure for infinity;

If you want to be among those to be fee sabeelillah and spend time and effort only for Allah to elevate the deen of Allah and take care about the deen of Allah and gain more rewards than standing in the front of the Black Stone on the Night of Power (lailatul qadr);

If you love yourself, your family, and fellow Muslims and mankind;

And to leave the ultimate wealth for yourself and your family;

If you want to gain any, or even all of the above …

This is what you need to do.

Set your intention, do it now and do whatever it takes. Spend from your money or collect from others, and let's start Project Smile!

WHAT CAN I DO?

There is plenty that you can do! Just look around you – there are so many people in need, and so many people who would appreciate your support. If you are short of ideas, here are some of my hints and advice for you:

Identify the Needy:

•get in touch with different organisations to help poor villages

•if you know of any person or community personally, then even better: get in touch with these people directly

•get in touch with the district hospital or clinic in a poor area. Try to get a list of the needy patients and the kind of help they need (medication, crutches, wheelchairs)

•get in touch with orphanages, or if you know of any orphans in need, deal with them directly

•look around for those in need of assistance. Many ordinary people can suddenly be in a desperate situation – the widowed, divorced, abandoned, people who have lost their jobs, those who are undergoing a tragedy

•read the newspapers or watch the news – there are plenty of countries where the people are living in hardship or are refugees, suffering from natural disasters and catastrophes and are in urgent need of aid, such as Syria, Palestine, Myanmar, Bosnia, Indonesia, Myanmar and China

•Look at the people around you – your maids, servants and employees, and be sensitive to their needs. Make them comfortable fee sabeelillah

The more in need they are, the better.

Pledge and commit to do the following, as much as your ability permits:

•sponsor the needy for iftar this Ramadan

•help out with the expenses of the masjid upkeep in poor areas (whether in your country or abroad), for example, the water or electricity bills

•get in touch with the same places above, and help them fulfil their needs, for example, repairs, renovations, installing modern sanitation, fans, air conditioning and clean water

•support the ill through medical supplies, sponsoring their needs, visiting them and otherwise attending to their welfare. If the ill person is the sole breadwinner, find ways of supporting their dependents

•contact a publisher, and order copies of the Qur'an (with a translation into the local language of the poor area you are assisting), and some basic literature on du'a, ahadeeeth and basic adab and understanding of Islam. Distribute the publications in these areas

•find ways of channelling donations in the form of money, clothes and food to countries in need

and many many more!

SPREAD THE SMILES!

All you need is a sincere intention, with belief and no doubt that if you start these steps, you will be insha Allah, among the people who get all the above and blessings.

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam and humanity, today we can, tomorrow we cannot. Today we are alive, tomorrow we are dead. This urgent call is for me and for you to gain the best of this life and in the hereafter.

The ultimate is the pleasure of Allah and when Allah smiles at us.

Don't lose time, don't make excuses, don't blame the bureaucracy. Erase the hypocrisy, laziness and indifference within us. Let us make people smile so that Allah will smile to us!