Fundraising Dinner for Syria

Last night I went to a fundraising dinner for Syria with tickets we won last week (no worries, gambling wasn't involved.) It was very disturbing with the videos they played and it really made you lose your appetite. Of course we have to know what's going on but it felt like a weird combination. It really made you feel even more concerned for the situation and more grateful for your own situation but as we were reminded we never know if it can happen to us in the future.

I saw my friend there and also my daughter was there as she was the one who won the tickets. Unlike in my mosque where I always have to sit alone, in this mosque I was surrounded by Asian women and it was a nice change. My friend is Malaysian and her daughter is mixed like mine only the other half is Arab. The other two women were from Thailand and Turkmenistan. I don't know any Thai but I did show off my counting skills in Mandarin.

At the end of the dinner which included many speeches in Arabic and a few in English they started the fundraising. At this point I felt like I really shouldn't have been there because you are dealing with some heavy rollers there. They asked if each table could donate $20,000 for a warehouse of food. Come on they said that's only $2000 each. Oh my like it was $20. But as one woman at the table said if the whole table was comprised of dentists then this wouldn't seem like much to them. I felt that good kind of envy that we are allowed to have in Islam. The envy you have when someone is able to do a good deed that you can't.  Of course you can give less but you wish in your heart that you were one of them. Its just like wishing that you could be a Quran teacher and not a perpetual student. Alhumdullilah I was honoured to be there though. Even without the videos I already had an inside view of what is happening in Syria (which they pronoune Suria) from reading my book club book; Just 5 minutes, 10 yrs in the Prisons of Syria. I suggest you read it and donate.