Odyssey of Sacrifice — Page 77
! 79 hens and used to survive selling the eggs of these hens. She used to rely on the help of the community for the rest of her needs. Another Punjabi woman donated her only piece of jewelry for the mosque. A widower who was bringing up her orphans, and had no jewelry or cash, donated her utensils in financial sacrifice. The founder of Tehrik - e - Jadid paid tribute to the sacrifices of women in these words: “In the world there are usua lly fights between husband and wife because the wife asks for jewelry and the husband replies I do not have any money to buy you jewelry. But in our community I have seen hundreds of arguments because the wife wants to give her jewelry in the way of Allah but the husband says that it will be useful later on. Hence, Allah has granted such devotion to our community that whereas other women run after jewelry but our women run after us with their jewelry. When I announced the scheme for these sacrifices, one wo man brought her jewelry to me. I said I have only announced the scheme right now I haven’t asked for any donations yet. She said that, ‘it is true that you have not asked for anything yet but what if I encounter a need tomorrow and I end up spending this j ewelry, what would I do then? I do not want to miss out on the opportunity to partake in this goodness. If you don’t want to accept this donation right now then you can keep them as a trust and can use it whenever there is a need for religion. ’ I stressed upon her a lot that I have not asked for anything yet but she kept on replying that I have already given this jewelry in the way of