Dar al Taqwa (DAT) in Ellicott City, Howard County is purchasing the property next door to the masjid. A fundraiser is scheduled coming Saturday at 5:30 pm.
Leaving the masjid, if one makes a right turn onto Route 32 the new property is is next to the original masjid, which is now used as the weekend school. The original owner is an 81-year-old widow who has agreed to sell the house to the masjid, says Adnan Khan, the President of DAT.
It is linked to the masjid property, says Khan.
“Down the road (every community) wants to expand a masjid and for that you want land. That is what we are purchasing. It is zoned (for residential use) but when we buy it then we add it to our zoning,” says Khan.
In a message to the community, the DAT administration states “whenever there is an adjacent property available next to the Masjid, it is imperative that we act quickly and purchase the property for current and future needs. If we don't purchase, there is a good chance the property might not be available for ten years of more and might have a unfriendly neighbor to Muslims.”
Khan says that the masjid has maintained a good relationship with the owner —over the years, taking care of shoveling her driveway etc., so she was happy to give DAT an opportunity to purchase her home and the accompanying 2 acres of land for $345,000.
“The land value on Rt 108 is 200-250,000 per acre because of the Centennial School,” says Khan. The deal was signed on April 6, 2018 and the closing needs to completed by the 30th.
In other news, DAT hired Mufti Syed Haneef Ahmed in September 2017. The young scholar has trained in South Africa and runs weekly halaqas and youth programming amongst other duties. Mufti Syed Haneef Ahmed grew up in Brooklyn, New York and pursued his initial years of higher traditional Islamic learning (Alimiyyah course) locally in Darul Uloom New York. After six years at the institute, he transferred to Madrasah In’aamiyyah in Camperdown, South Africa, where he completed his final year of the Alimiyyah course.
Upon graduation in 2014, he spent a year in propagating the religion and calling Muslims toward a stronger relationship with Allah Ta’ala. Mufti Syed Haneef Ahmed then traveled to Sherwood, South Africa and enrolled at Darul Iftaa al-Mahmudiyyah to specialize in the field of issuing legal verdicts (iftaa) under the world renowned scholar and expert in Islamic finance, Mufti Ebrahim Desai. After two rigorous years of study, he received authorization (ijazah) in issuing legal verdicts (fataawa).
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