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01-12-2002, 23:30
Where is Aisha today?v
The Mother of Homeless in Chicago
By Abdul Malik Mujahid
It was almost 4 p.m. and Aisha knew exactly what she was going to do.
Living and working in downtown Chicago, it was part of her daily ritual: whatever money she had earned at work, every weekday, she would use for food.
Not for herself. But for the homeless.
She would prepare sandwiches, put them in two large grocery bags, then walk around the tall buildings in downtown Chicago giving them out to the poor and homeless who otherwise would be scratching the garbage baskets outside fast-food places, collecting bits of food.
Aisha didn't make just any kind of sandwiches though. She was well aware of the needs of the homeless and needy. She knew what was necessary for their diet, what was good and bad for their digestion, and what kind of food she had to make for them.
Eventually homeless people figured out where her apartment was and they would sometimes also come by. Her apartment building's management was not happy about it. But it was Allah's pleasure Aisha was after.
She was known among the Muslims in Chicago as the mother of the homeless. I did not know how long she had been a Muslim.
The first time I met her was when we were thinking of starting a soup kitchen to be run by Muslims in Chicago.
She came by Sound Vision for a meeting. A well-to-do Muslim engineer who himself had just came out of a homeless shelter, losing everything to his former wife, was also present. We were both pleasantly surprised about Aisha's level of knowledge about the food habits of homeless people.
But it seems, no one was there to make sandwiches for Aisha when she became homeless herself.
vv:
...............to be continue................
The Mother of Homeless in Chicago
By Abdul Malik Mujahid
It was almost 4 p.m. and Aisha knew exactly what she was going to do.
Living and working in downtown Chicago, it was part of her daily ritual: whatever money she had earned at work, every weekday, she would use for food.
Not for herself. But for the homeless.
She would prepare sandwiches, put them in two large grocery bags, then walk around the tall buildings in downtown Chicago giving them out to the poor and homeless who otherwise would be scratching the garbage baskets outside fast-food places, collecting bits of food.
Aisha didn't make just any kind of sandwiches though. She was well aware of the needs of the homeless and needy. She knew what was necessary for their diet, what was good and bad for their digestion, and what kind of food she had to make for them.
Eventually homeless people figured out where her apartment was and they would sometimes also come by. Her apartment building's management was not happy about it. But it was Allah's pleasure Aisha was after.
She was known among the Muslims in Chicago as the mother of the homeless. I did not know how long she had been a Muslim.
The first time I met her was when we were thinking of starting a soup kitchen to be run by Muslims in Chicago.
She came by Sound Vision for a meeting. A well-to-do Muslim engineer who himself had just came out of a homeless shelter, losing everything to his former wife, was also present. We were both pleasantly surprised about Aisha's level of knowledge about the food habits of homeless people.
But it seems, no one was there to make sandwiches for Aisha when she became homeless herself.
vv:
...............to be continue................