Divine drought answer
Mosque leads prayers for farmers
“IT’S hard to watch anyone suffer,” Toowoomba Imam Abdul Kader said at a special drought prayer ceremony yesterday.
“It’s Islamic practice, when we are in need of something or a solution, to ask God to help give us the strength to overcome the adversity.”
More than 200 people packed the Toowoomba Garden City mosque to pray for a respite for Qld farmers trapped in drought.
The men added the drought prayer, known as the Salatul Istisqa, to their Friday Jumma.
“We need to stand by our farmers,” Toowoomba Islamic Society president Shahjahan Khan said after the prayer.
“They produce the food that we have on our tables - if they can’t survive out there, we can’t survive.
“It’s our obligation to protect our farmers.”
Dr Khan said the mosque prayer went out to everyone impacted by the dry.
“As believers, we feel for the farmers but also the living creatures who have been affected by this weather,” he said.
“Where I live, I used to see kangaroos in the morning - but now they have gone, because the grass has died.”
Dr Khan had also organised a donation collection to run alongside the prayer, all proceeds going to the drought appal.
“In our religion, charity to others is a duty,” Dr Khan said.
“Everyone is family and everyone goes through hard times - and this is how we show that we are standing beside the community.
“This is similar to what happened during the floods, and we worked to help donate money to those in need during that trying time.”
The Salatul Istisqa prayer consists of a sermon calling on God’s help and kindness, which is followed by a collective prayer - a format that is similar to prayers performed during Eid.
In good news for the Garden City mosque, renovations on the main building damaged by fire are set to begin later this month.