Eid Mubarak! & more fasting

Assalamu alaikum Brother, Eid Mubarak!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Ramadan.

Alhamdulillah for me this was one of the better Ramadans in recent memory. Much thanks to the advice I got for getting an easy schedule during Ramadan. I hope you guys benefited as well.

I brief reminder about maintaining the the practice of fasting after Ramadan.

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whosoever observes fast in Ramadan and then follows up with six fasts in Shawwal, will be regarded as though he had been fasting every day." (Reported by Ahmad, Muslim, Abu Dawud and At-Tirmidhi)

May Allah accept our fasting and prayers and duas!

Salam,
-Safi

Stand out firmly for justice

Assalamu Alaikum brothers,

I hope you have all been able to enjoy and gain many rewards during this blessed month. Things for me have been very busy for me, but also very rewarding, alhamdulillah. As some of you already know, I won my first pro bono trial a couple of months ago. My client, Santos, is a 13 year old boy who fled El Salvador because he was being threatened by the MS-13 gang. The gang had killed Santos’ older brother and had attacked my client many times before he finally was able to get away and come to the United States. Santos had no other choice but to come here illegally, of course, and was caught at the U.S-Mexico border. Although he pleaded with the immigration officials not to send him back because he would be killed by the gang, Santos was immediately placed in deportation proceedings. Subhanallah, Santos had relatives in the Maryland area, so was moved here to be with them while the government prepared to deport him. The case came to me last September when another lawyer at my firm received an email from the National Center for Immigrant Refugee Children seeking a pro bono lawyer to take on Santos’ asylum case before the immigration court. Santos and his family could not afford to pay for a lawyer to take on his case, so we decided to help. After a very long year, I took the case to immigration court and proved, with the help and guidance of Allah SWT, that Santos’ claim for asylum was valid. Santos now never has to fear being returned to the people who promised to kill him, and will one day become a U.S. citizen, inshAllah. I am now working on the asylum cases for Santos’ mother and brother, and inshaAllah, will have a similar result. I also just found out that the Baltimore Sun may publish a feature article about Santos’ case. If they do, I’ll be sure to post a link here, inshaAllah.

Working on this case reminded me of this simple, yet powerful ayat:

"O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for Allah can best protect both...Follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest ye swerve, and if ye distort (justice) or decline to do justice, verily Allah is well-acquainted with all that ye do..." [Quran 4:35]

Please keep Santos and his family in your duas.

Jazak Allahu Khair,

Azim