Introduction

Helping Present and Future Ummah

Historically, Islamic services have been concentrated in the northern and western suburbs of Chicago. There was a large void in the southern suburbs for even essential Islamic services. To change the status quo, the seed was planted to establish an institution that would serve the religious, social, and cultural needs of the vibrant and diverse Muslim communities in the southern suburbs. A small immigrant Muslim community has been present in Harvey since the 1970s. This became a nidus for an organization that would serve smaller pockets of Muslims in the vicinity surrounding Harvey.

We leveraged our forty years of community presence to provide a platform for Muslims of more than 15 ethnicities, which includes the Muslims from West Africa (Mali, Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, and Gini), the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh), and the Middle East (Jordan, Palestine, and Syria).

We had a humble beginning when we bought an abandoned warehouse at 15214 Main Street, Harvey, IL 60426, for $85,000. It was a large warehouse with 17,000 sq ft of constructed space and 19,000 sq ft of open land. Alhamdulillah, we were helped by Allah (SWT) in procuring and starting the institution with limited resources. It cost us $2.38/foot. It was unseen help from Allah (SWT).

Focus on the needs

Two crucial services that were lacking in the south suburbs were an Islamic school and a funeral facility for Muslims.

We established a small home group with three students in 2012 and started providing burial washing services shortly thereafter to indigent Muslim families free of charge. Within five years, a large space of 58,000 sq/ft adjacent to our funeral/community building was procured from AT&T for a meager sum of $225,000. Again, Allah (swt) eased our purchase of this property with his unseen help. The building (Abraar Academy Building) that was appraised for 7 million USD a few years ago was granted to us by a fortunate set of events in 2017.

Since then, Alhamdulillah, we have been going from strength to strength and have mushroomed into a full-service organization serving 25 suburbs in the vicinity with a full-time Islamic school (Abraar Academy) and a weekend academy for the whole family, an active community center, a free Muslim funeral facility, and the first free Muslim cemetery in Illinois.