The Secretarial Committee was formed initially with ten members (regular and non regular members of the organisation) and was given the task of acquiring a permanent place of Ibadah and dawah for the association. The committee was in particular initiated to brainstorm on the best and halal manners of accomplishing this task. The committee was recently reconstituted by the present executives to accommodate some committed brothers.

Task at Hand.

After several deliberations both at the committee and executive levels, we arrived at three most suitable options.

• First is the option to buy a three bedroom house.
• Second, is the option to acquire a land in order to build a mosque.
• The last option is to purchase a Warehouse or an Industrial Unit which we considered to be the most viable given the inherent benefits and the likely potential problems considered and associated with the first two options.

An estimated average cost amount of 500,000 Euros was duely considered for the realisation of the project.

Strategies to achieving the target.

• Contribution by every MAF members
• Internal Launching
• External Launching

 Following the adoption of the above strategies, the following frame work was set in motion.

• A contribution of 500 (Euros) per head/individual or 1000 (Euros) per family keeping in view the target of 500,000 (Euros).
• That the contribution shall be one off contribution and no other compulsory contribution will be demanded from members in respect of this project, except voluntary contributions.
• That duration is spread within 10 months. This implies that members can pay instalments, say 50 (Euros) per head per month for ten months.
• The contribution began immediately from end of August 2007 and was to end May 2008 but its still ongoing.

Future Task of the Committee

We proposed that the stages two and three of the fund raising will commence and that stage two will flow into stage three. Under the stage two internal funding, the focus will be on old or non regular members, the Nigerians/African Muslims in Ireland in general and the use of mosque appeal fund requests at other various Mosques. Stage three will involve fund appeals to Islamic organisations such as IFI, ICCI, Embassies and any notable state organisations such as the ones responsible for Social Community initially in Ireland, UK, Gulf States and Nigeria respectively. For this reason a special fund raising committee was put in place by the current executive specifically to explore any possible avenues for the stage three strategy. Lastly, we will set dates for Conferences and Launching specifically for the realisation of the targeted fund.

Conclusion.

It is pertinent to understand the committee applies an open door policy for membership, assistantship and welcomes meaningful and constructive suggestions and ideas from any member of the association as this task is considered a collective task that demands all possible efforts and jihad fisee-bili-lah in the light of the following Hadiths.

“Whosoever builds for Allah a masjid, Allah will reward him similar to it in paradise.” (Bukhari/Muslim)

“Whosoever shares in building a masjid for Allah, even if it is as small as a bird’s nest, Allah (S.W.T.) will build for him a house in Paradise.” (Musnad Ahmad)

Donating money to build a masjid for the sake of Allah is a sadaqah jariah (continuous charity), meaning the reward will continue to reach the donor even after death. Reported to be mentioned by the Prophet Muhammed (S.A.W.) in an authentic hadith.