Cherished Memories of Africa — Page 122
104 was done with financial sacrifice by the jama’at members. I requested all the members, individually and collectively, to partake in this project. That night a devoted young man Foday Sabali came to see me. He worked as a tailor and took the garments, he prepared during the week, to a weekly market in a nearby town every Saturday. The source of income was quite limited. He said that he wanted to donate some money for the mosque. I expected something like fifty or one hundred Dalasis (the Gambian Currency) from him. However, he presented exactly one thousand Dalasis which I handed over to Dr Khalil Nyangado, the finance secretary. In view of his financial condition, I could not believe it. Rather surprised, just to make sure that he was not mistaken, I asked him if all that was to be receipted. He affirmed and explained, ‘I had saved this money for a purpose. When you launched the campaign for mosque today, I thought I will do Allah’s job, He will do mine’. A few days later he met me at the evening prayer. He was very happy. He said, ‘Ustaz, Allah has refunded me all the money with profit’. ‘How was that?’ I asked him. He said, ‘I had piled up a lot of prepared garments ready for sale. I took them along several times but did not get any customer. Going to the market today, I took all the garments with me to sell them off at whatever price. While I was still organising my goods, a customer approached me and enquired about the garments. As usual, I told him rather inflated price. He readily agreed, paid for all the garments, picked them up and went. When I calculated I realised that I had made goodly profit and got the fruit of several months’ labour in a few moments. Allah, the Almighty, instilled in my heart firmly that it was the result of the deal that I made with Him’.