Asim Ismail

Early life and background

Ismail says he used to play guitar. He also says that reading the Quran with translation and tafseer changed him completely. Ismail says he came to feel that life was different from what he had understood and that it had a purpose. He says it has always been a matter of balance for him. [1]

Education and teaching

Ismail says he began to study formally, learning from several teachers over many years. He set aside at least four to five hours a day for study alongside his work. He has been teaching for many years, including in teacher training. Ismail says he teaches with a lot of humour, as his own teachers did. [1]

Al-Wasila Trust

Ismail is the chairman of Al-Wasila Trust. He says his goal was to make the organisation self-sustaining. According to Ismail, the trust does three kinds of things to sustain itself, so that it never closes for financial reasons if he is no longer there. He says about 70% of his charity's projects have become financially self-sustainable, and he hopes the projects will be 100% sustainable within the next two years. [1]

Ismail says Saya is his organisation's latest project, launched about six months earlier. He says the trust aims to help anyone willing to work stand on their own feet. He describes his team as his biggest asset and says nobody has left his organisation so far. Ismail also says the governor and his wife invited him to discuss a project. [1]

Rozgar

Ismail says Rozgar is the oldest project and started in 2007, which makes 14 years. He says Rozgar gets many people work each month, for example by buying a rickshaw for them or setting someone up with a cart. [1]

Giving in kind and repayment

Ismail says his organisation buys products for recipients and does not give cash. He says recipients keep returning the money to his organisation without interest. According to Ismail, about 70% of the money was being returned and about 30% was not. He adds that it was found that only about 2% of the defaulters were deliberately cheating. [1]

Clinics

Ismail says his organisation went into poor areas and opened clinics, and now has six. He says it sees 10 to 12,000 patients per month. Ismail says the charge was 10 rupees at the start, covering treatment and medicines, and is now 30 rupees. He puts the cost at 100 rupees per patient, of which the organisation takes 30, and says about 20% of people cannot pay anything and are not charged. [1]

Showroom and donated goods

Ismail says his organisation took a showroom in the upmarket Tariq Road area. He says the people who came were verified as eligible to receive zakat. According to Ismail, a poor family can take home a full bedroom set for 20,000 rupees. He says his organisation employs carpenters and other workers who make items brand new. [1]

Ismail says a man who was moving from America had 20 containers of goods and donated all of them to Ismail's organisation. He also says an item priced at 100 rupees is made available for 80 rupees. [1]

Waste collection

Ismail says his organisation took on a whole area containing 6,000 houses, with the service priced at 100 rupees per house. He says it collects garbage from homes three days a week and cleans the streets and neighbourhood every 15 days. After a WhatsApp message to the organisation, collection happens within 24 hours, he says. [1]

According to Ismail, the items go to his organisation's factory, where they are sorted and each one is sold, which makes money for the organisation. He says a company has signed an MOU to give all of its dry waste to his organisation. Ismail adds that another organisation is giving its dry waste to his organisation as well. [1]

Housing

Ismail says a house for the poorest families would cost 25 to 30 lakh rupees to build normally. He says a house is ready for 14 to 15 lakh rupees, made up of 6 to 7 lakh for construction and 6 to 7 lakh for land. His organisation hired people who draw the plans, act as contractors and do the building themselves. [1]

According to Ismail, families pay his organisation the rent they were already paying, such as 8,000, 10,000 or 12,000 rupees depending on the area, for 12 years. He says the same house is offered for 3 lakh rupees in Surjani Town and 4 lakh in Orangi. The land is in the family's own name, and they gain a property for life. Ismail says his organisation invested 13 to 14 lakh rupees, of which 4 lakh came back as a down payment, and he expects his money to come back within two years. [1]

Education work

Ismail says education is a long-term solution for the community. He says his organisation's first batch showed results equal to those of the top schools in Pakistan. According to Ismail, a child leaving his programme knows Arabic and tafseer and has studied philosophy and engineering. [1]

Ismail says his organisation had a full philosophy subject developed by a man who studied philosophy at Harvard. He says it also designed a full curriculum, made by Muslims for Muslims with today's challenges in mind. His organisation has adopted two schools, one in Islamabad and one in Pindi. [1]

Media

Ismail says his vision was to combine education, social work and media for the Ummah. He says the channel's aim was to be an alternative to mainstream media. His organisation hired an international company to do its branding, and an app and a channel were launched on 19 April. [1]

Views

Ismail says he treats challenges as opportunities. He says the aim is not to reduce the nation further to pauperism. He says the focus had been on one's own ticket to paradise rather than on the effect on another person, and that he began to view charity cynically, as a continuous cycle. [1]

Ismail says salaries have risen by only 3,000 rupees while expenses have doubled. He says a person earning 40,000 rupees is also eligible for zakat. After many projects, he says parental training is the most important need, and that parents have become obsolete because media has taken over. [1]

Timeline

2007

Rozgar, which Ismail describes as the oldest project, started.[1]

Appearances

Frequently asked questions

References

1. Sustainable giving reshapes what charity means in Pakistan . Thought Behind Things , 2021-02-26.