Khalid Bani launches website to help Muslims donate unwanted Islamic items
A CABBIE has come up with a novel idea for Muslims to use their faith to help others!
Khalid Bani, from Warrington, has launched a website – Barakahbay.com – for Muslims to give away their unwanted Islamic items. And his idea has already gained one famous fan –former Dragons Den star James Caan.
The idea came to Khalid when his local mosque was trying to raise funds to buy their rented building. A friend thought it would be a good idea to raise money by having a shop inside the mosque selling Islamic items.
Khalid then came up with the idea of getting people to donate the items that they could sell instead. The idea didn’t happen but it got Khalid thinking.
“Most Muslims have unwanted Islamic items at home sat in a corner or cupboard gathering dust. I thought, wouldn’t it be great if people could donate those unwanted items on a website to other needy Muslims,” the Warrington cabbie said.
“Not only would they be helping fellow Muslims but they would get Sadqah Jariya (continuous blessings) because someone else would be putting their old goods to use.
“For example we’ve all got friends or family that have been to Mecca and brought us back prayer mats and hats and such like. But we still tend to use our favourite ones and the well meaning presents just end up in a cupboard unused. Wouldn’t it be better if someone else put that prayer mat to use and every time they used it you would get blessings for it?.”
Khalid, 34, plans to get out of the traffic jams and start driving more traffic to his website. He already has people from all over the world registered on the site donating and taking items.
“The site is really active so your item is likely to be claimed quickly which means you’ll start receiving blessings faster,” he says.
“People are donating things like sceneries, Islamic art, Tasbiyahs, Qurans, prayer mats and hats. We also have organisations like mosques and schools looking for items that their children can use like tables and chairs.”
The website is already gaining a number of fans on Facebook and Twitter – including one famous name!
“The most famous person we’ve had so far is James Caan from Dragons Den. It’s helped us a lot because when you have people of that calibre following you other people start to take notice,” Khalid adds.
He is now busy working with charities and established organisations to see how Barakahbay may be able to help them.
“The online community are the driving force on Barakahbay and our mission is to get well off Muslims donating and poorer Muslims claiming the items. We’ve also had a number of reverts using the site to claim books and prayer mats making their transition to back to Islam easier. “
Khalid continues: “We will be expanding Barakahbay into other countries when the time is right but for now we’re concentrating on establishing Barakahbay as the place to go to get blessings for your unwanted Islamic items here in the UK.”
You can donate or claim items by going to www.barakahbay.com and registering either as an individual or organisation.
