Mufti Taqi Usmani urges Muslims to donate money to people of Gaza instead of performing Umrah

Renowned religious scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani has urged the Muslims to support the people of Gaza and Hamas ‘mujahideen’ by donating the money they intend to spend on performing Umrah.

“In my opinion, people who desire to perform nafli Umrah should instead donate the money to the ongoing jihad in Palestine to earn greater reward,” he said, speaking at the ‘Hurmat-e-Aqsa convention.

Mufti Taqi regretted that the Palestine issue seemed to be fading away gradually after initial rallies and processions held in the country to support Hamas’s jihad against Israel. Therefore, he added he thought of gathering ulema to urge them to keep this issue alive.

“This is not the issue of land occupied by non-Muslims but the importance Bayt al-Maqdis holds for the Muslims,” he stressed. “It was the duty of Muslims to free our first ‘qibla’ from the occupation of Jews.”

Speaking on the occasion, Mufti Muneeb ur Rehman lamented that 57 Muslims countries’ protest didn’t yield any result. “The nations that advocate human rights have been silently watching Israel trampling human rights in Palestine,” he added.

Mufti Muneeb said these states recognised Israel that occupied the land and termed Palestinians’ resistance against this occupation "terrorism". He suggested gathering independent human rights advocates in London or in the West to seek their help in resolving the issue.

“We were unable to dispatch our aid to the people of Gaza, which is a failure of the Muslim Ummah,” he maintained.On October 7, Israel launched ruthless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip in the wake of the cross-border attack by Hamas, a Palestinian group.

The Israeli attacks has left Gaza in ruins as 60 per cent of the territory’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.

Almost two million residents have been displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicines.