Voice of British Muslim Women

Munazzah Chou, Farnham

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. It allows us to feel compassion and connection with others, empathy can help us to understand and appreciate the experiences of others and helps us to be more considerate and understanding.

One experience which elicits abounding empathy among women is motherhood. Motherhood is a significant milestone in many women’s lives and is a venerated state in the Islamic faith. The Lajna Imaillah flag depicts an oasis symbolising motherhood and three date trees representing three blessed mothers; Hajira, Maryam and Amina, mothers to three Prophets of God; Prophets Ishmael and Jesus (peace be upon them both) and the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

One of the founding principles of Lajna Imaillah is to serve Islam in a practical way and help brothers and sisters in need. In this centenary year we reflect on our purpose as members of Lajna, the progress made to date and future opportunities and areas for development.

Celebration of a significant milestone such as this centenary reminds an Ahmadi Muslim of the guiding hand nurturing us, and our hearts turn to Allah in gratitude. We are grateful to Allah for creating us as women, we are grateful to Allah for our Muslim female role models, we are grateful to Allah for our mothers, we are grateful to Allah for our children.

At times of success Muslims recognise that we are not the architect of our achievements but the fortunate recipients of divine blessings. We recognise that all that we have is transient and can disappear in an instant which allows one to be appreciative and avoid covetousness. A true Muslim will give freely because their possessions never were considered their own.

To celebrate 100 years since the establishment of Lajna Imaillah, UK Lajna pledged to build a new maternity hospital in Sierra Leone, a West African country with the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world. It is estimated that for every 100,000 live births, 1360 mothers die due to complications during or after childbirth.  When compared to a figure of 7 in the UK we have some appreciation of the scale of health inequality experienced by mothers in Sierra Leone. The new maternity hospital will serve vulnerable and needy sisters who are deprived of even the most basic of medical needs which we may take for granted.

The Holy Qur’an teaches compassion and serving humanity. As the Promised Messiah (peace be on him) said: ‘Never shall you attain to true righteousness unless you spend what you love most, because sympathy and good treatment towards the creation of God depends to a large extent on spending of wealth. Sympathy towards humanity and Gods creation at large is the second aspect of faith, without which one’s faith cannot be complete and firm. Until a person sacrifices for others, how can they give them benefit? Sacrifice is necessary in benefitting others and showing them sympathy. It is this very teaching of sacrifice that has been given…’ (Malfuzat, Vol II, p. 269)

This maternity hospital project is a symbol of sisterhood. Women understand the struggles of other women, and with Allah’s grace, women of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community here in the UK are empowered in this instance, as in many others, to try and change things for those who are less fortunate than we are.