ICLR History
HISTORY OF the ISLAMIC CENTER OF LITTLE ROCK
by Hashim M. Ghori
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.
I found only two other families from Hyderabad: Mohammed Hamid Hussain and Ahmed Golzar. The others were Dr. Ali U. Shaikh from Kolkata, India and Dr. Moazzam Husain from Dhaka, Bangladesh. There were only two Pakistani families, Dr. Mufiz Chohan and Dr. Fayyaz Mirza. Also, I met Abdul Hamed Patel from Gujrat, India; he was then a bachelor. In 1981, Dr. Chohan and his family moved to Newport, Arkansas and Dr. Fayyaz Mirza and his family moved to Wichita Falls, Texas. Mohammed Hamid Hussain and his family moved to Gainesville, Florida in 1986. Last year they moved to Augusta, Georgia. Ahmed Golzar and his family moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1999.
Later, I learned that in North Little Rock there were four families from Palestine and one family from Egypt. In addition, there were six families from Palestine living in Jacksonville at that time. There were no mosques in North Little Rock or in Jacksonville.
In addition, in 1979 there were about twenty African-American Muslim families living close to downtown Little Rock. They had established a mosque called Masjid Ameen Zakariah, which had been converted from an old movie theater and located at 1717 Wright Avenue. Brother Johnny Aleem Hasan was the Imam of that mosque. We used to attend the mosque for Juma salah as well as on some other religious occasions. A few years ago the mosque was re-named the Islamic Center of Human Excellence.
November 14,1992
opening ceremony
We had the opening ceremony of our temporary mosque on November 14, 1992. Dr. Mufiz Chohan, an ex- member of ICLR Board of Trustees, was the speaker at this historical occasion. For the first time, we started five daily prayers, Jummah salaat, weekly Islamic studies for our children and adults at this small mosque. We also conducted our monthly meetings on the second Saturday of each month at this mosque. Some of the sisters in the community, Sister Raeda Barakat, Sr. Sakinah Abdul Majeed, Sr. Huma Aslam, and Sr. Saba Ghori started weekend and summer Islamic school classes for the kids where they taught Arabic, Islamic History, and Islamic Morals and Ethics. In December 1992 we transferred this property to NAIT (North American Islamic Trust) which is a national trust organization, an affiliation of ISNA (Islamic Society of North America). We thought it would be necessary to seek the affiliation in case we fail to carry on the Islamic activities due to financial constraint or other reasons.
With the assistance of Br. Ali Shaikh, a chemistry professor at UALR and a past president and past member of the Board of Trustees of ICLR, we purchased two adjacent vacant houses (3218 and 3220 Anna Street) from UALR in August 1993 for $11,000. These two houses were demolished and later the small house (temporary mosque) was also demolished. These three lots gave us a total area of 165 feet x150 feet. A new Islamic Center of Little Rock (ICLR) was built on these three lots. The properties were also transferred to NAIT.
April 4,1994
permit for construction
We requested Little Rock for a permit for constructing the new building of ICLR (the present mosque building). Alhamdulillah, we received the permit on April 4, 1994. The new ICLR has a total area of approximately 5563 square Feet, about 2400 square feet of prayer hall, with separate prayer areas and separate wudu areas for brothers and sisters and a kitchen. When the construction of the mosque building began in 1994, we had about $40,000 in our account and the estimated cost of the project was about $350,000. We could not borrow the needed money from the bank, because it is not allowed in Islam to borrow money that demands interest payment for building a mosque. We approached a member of the community, Br. Sikandar Bhatti (ABCO builders) who had experience in house construction but no experience in building a mosque. Alhamdulillah, he agreed to start the construction. He also agreed that, as long as we keep on bringing the money the construction will go on.
septermber 1994
Fundraising began
The fund raising efforts began. Dr. Mufiz Chohan gave us a list of Pakistani doctors practicing in the USA and we sent them letters appealing them to donate money for our project. Donations started to come in. We had a booth in the bazaar at the ISNA convention in September 1994 which was held in Chicago. I sold candy and scarves, and raised $2,000. We distributed pamphlets at the booth with a request for donations for our project. Brothers Farag Sharaf, Wael Abdin, Ali Shaikh, Faizul Hanif, Hamed Patel, Atif Farooqi, Mahmood Jhilati and myself traveled to Pine Bluff, Jonesboro, Memphis, Tulsa, Dallas, Irving, Richardson, Houston, Colombia (Missouri) and Atlanta on Fridays and collected donations. Also, Hamed Patel visited London (UK) and collected money for our project. Students from the Middle East also donated funds for our project. Several sisters organized community garage sales and bake sales in Little Rock and Pine Bluff in order to collect funds.
may 13,1995
first fundraising
At the occasion of Eid-ul-Adha, on May 13, 1995, we conducted our first fund raising dinner at the Donaghey Student Center of UALR. The featured speaker was Dr. Syed Habeeb Ashraf of Baltimore, Maryland who was known as a great fundraiser. He raised about $45,000 ($15,000 in cash and $30,000 in pledges). The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) also endorsed our project for fund raising. We had to borrow about $25,000 from NAIT for finishing the parking lot, which we paid back within a couple of years after the project was completed. Br Mohammed Shaher, a talented builder, agreed to build the mimbar, mahrab and podium free of cost. He also finished the parking lot. Alhamdulillah, the construction of the Islamic Center was completed in December of 1995.
January 13,1996
the grand opening
The grand opening was held on January 13, 1996 by Imam Mujahed M. Bakhach of Forth Worth, Texas. Hafez Yakoob Shareef, Imam of Islamic Society of Northwest Suburbs (ISNS) of Rolling Meadows, near Chicago recited the Quran at this occasion.
Our builder Br. Sikander Bhatti deserves lot of credit for agreeing to start the construction when we were only able to pay him $40,000. We had excellent cooperation from the Muslims of the greater Little Rock area as well as from the Pine Bluff Muslim community. After completion of this masjid, Br. Sikander Bhatti moved to Mansfield, Texas and later we learned that he passed away on November 1, 2014. May Allah give him the highest place in jannah for taking up this task and building the masjid. I would like to thank all those who supported, donated, and worked hard for building this beautiful mosque. I also thank Allah for giving us this wonderful opportunity to build our first Islamic Center in Little Rock from the ground level. May Allah accept all of our efforts. Ameen.
If I have made a mistake in not recognizing any individual or organization, please forgive me. The names of those brothers who helped us in renovating the old house are listed under their photos.
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