For years, a hot open hut in a parched and bare part of the village served as a mosque where sometimes searing sun rays directly hit a ragged red carpet, but now villagers enjoy new mosque built by faithfull volunteers.
By Abdullahi Jamaa
Lash green environment beautifully surrounds Ndooni, a marginal neighborhood about 100Kms south of Kenya’s coastal town of Mombasa.
The screeching and swinging of tall coconut trees make the sleepy village beautiful and lovely, a number of shady mango trees dot the adorned and vivacious vegetation where some few sturdy villagers are occasionally seen aloft the towering trees.
But behind this splendid surrounding lies a marginalized Muslim community, where the absence of basic social facilities like a mosque has been a stark reality until recently.
“We have been using a makeshift structure as a mosque” says Mwalimu Mohamed Tumo, a village elder “It has a been a challenge and at some point we lost hope that we would get a mosque” he told The Plu
For years, a hot open hut in a parched and bare part of the village served as a mosque where sometimes searing sun rays directly hit a ragged red carpet.
A gust of wind occasionally penetrates through narrow openings on the fragile stick-walls of the semi-permanent structure that can barely accommodate 20 congregants.
The old mosque was small and too old to accommodate the growing number of Muslims in the village and it seemed a long wait for a new one.
Ndooni is a humble settlement where residents survive on subsistence farming-the only economic lifeblood. The absence of critical state institutions is so vivid and real that schools and health facilities are nothing to write home about.
Now residents of Ndooni are all smiles, thanks to a team of Muslim volunteers who have set an example of communal harmony in putting up a new mosque for the community.
“We thank Allah for this opportunity” said the village elder “We thank the team of volunteers”
With sheer determination and hard work, the team from Nyali’s Masjid Farouk put their best foot forward to help Ndooni’s Muslim community to pray and congregate in a bigger and better Mosque.
This act of building a mosque is being hailed across the small and silent village as a rare display of harmony that is part of the fundamental tenets of Islam.
“Alhamdulillah, it’s a great experience to fulfill our obligations to Almighty Allah (SW), most of these areas are neglected and poor” said Brother Kifli Said, one of the lead volunteers
The new mosque, with a larger prayer hall and six toilets, will for now meet the worshipping needs of the religious life of the Muslims from the village.
“The main purpose of the Mosque is to educate Ndooni villagers about Islam and to provide them with a place for Jumaa prayer as they used to travel far on Fridays” noted Brother Kifli
The religious facility which also serves as a Madrasa centre can accommodate about 150 people in its male section and another 50 female worshipers.
Initial foundation work was first laid by Kisumu Da’awah Group, it stalled briefly due to lack of funds and it is from here that the Nyali volunteers teamed up with the group to restart the project that took about three months to completion.
The project that included a solar system and one bedroom house for madrasa teacher cost the team about Ksh. 2.5M. This is not just one effort from the team; the invigorated volunteers also cater for the salary of one Quran teacher at the madrasa.
A mosque is the best of places. It is more blessed and virtuous than all other places. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “The most beloved of places to Allah is the mosque, and the most detested of places to Allah is the marketplace.”
There is great reward in building a mosque for Allah’s sake. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: ““Whoever builds a mosque for Allah – be it large or small – Allah will build for him a house in Paradise.”
May Almighty Allah (SW) bless the team!
