Did you know that Darul Iman (MDI) donated approximately $72,000 to IDRF in 2022? We don’t have much background information regarding the source but likely it is from Zakat funds which may have been disbursed to eligible and needy people.
IDRF, a registered charity in Canada, has a project called “Help the Hungry” (HTH). According to their Facebook post, one of the founding members of HTH is Mr. Shafique Malik, who is a senior director and a permanent member of MDI. Although he is not listed as a director for IDRF, he is publicly known to be a director/founder of HTH.
We aren’t questioning the legitimacy of the funds usage. We do husne-zan and assume that they did in fact reach the poor and needy. May Allah reward their efforts.
However, it raises the following questions:
- Was this conflict of interest raised, discussed and addressed with documentary evidence?
- Does this constitute an arm’s length transaction or not?
- Who makes the decisions about where our funds including zakat are being donated to?
- Even though Mr. Malik is a director for both entities, it was reported that IDRF is NOT an associated charity. If the same person being a director for both charities does not make it associated, then what does?
Stay tuned for more posts.
