HISTORY OF the ISLAMIC CENTER OF LITTLE ROCK
I am very humbled to be one of the ‘founding fathers’ of the Islamic Center of Little Rock. I thank Allah (swt) for giving me this great opportunity to work with a few brothers to build the Islamic Center of Little Rock, which was always one of my life’s dreams. I moved with my family from Brandon (near Jackson), Mississippi to Little Rock in September 1979. Initially, I was looking for families who could speak my native language, Urdu, since my wife and I are both originally from Hyderabad, India.
and a new organization named ?Islamic Center of Little Rock? was started. The ICLR Constitution was adopted on May 8, 1992 and the organization was incorporated as a domestic non-profit corporation in the state of Arkansas on May 20, 1992 by the Secretary of State, W. J. Bill McCuen. The Employer Identification Number (EIN) for ICLR was obtained on June 1, 1992, in order to handle financial matters.
(900 Sq. Ft; 50 feet X 150 feet) located at 3224 Anna street near UALR and South Oak Apartment complex for $7,500 and established the temporary ICLR mosque, Alhamdulillah. I was fortunate enough to locate the property about a block from UALR across Fair Park Boulevard. Brother Ahmad Golzar negotiated the price of the property and we paid cash to the owner. The donations were collected from our small community. The location was ideal because there were many Muslim students from the Middle East who were enrolled at UALR. This mosque was a convenient location for them to offer their daily prayers five times a day as well as the Jummah salah. With the help of student volunteers and the men from our small community, we converted this house into a mosque. Brothers Hamed Patel, Ashraf Khan, Abdul Kareem Siag, Abdul Majeed Seraj, Ali Akbar, Ali Shaikh, Atif Farooqi, Ahmad Golzar, Mohammad Eldeib, myself and many others volunteered in building the mosque, even though most of us had never done so before. We purchased our supplies from the nearby Kauffman Lumber and spent another $7,500 for renovation. This house had two separate prayer rooms for men and women with two separate bathrooms.
November 14,1992
April 4,1994
septermber 1994
may 13,1995
January 13,1996