A Mississauga mosque is out to prove that there is a free lunch —and dinner too.
Heeding the Qur’anic instruction to assist the needy, Jamia Riyadhul Jannah mosque will start offering free meals, seven days a week from noon to 7 p.m., starting Friday.
The Sunni/Sufi mosque, located in an industrial park near Credit View and Argentia Rds., is the first North American mosque to provide hot meals to all regardless of faith, organizers claim. The halal menu will vary daily, with the entrees ranging from burgers to pasta and other items.
“We follow a Sufi tradition. And if you look at the tradition of the Sufis, they have been quite strong on helping people, including feeding the poor and needy. This falls exactly in that tradition,” said imam Syed Soharwardy.
Community outreach was a founding principle of the mosque when it opened last August, Sohawardy said. Future plans include providing temporary shelter for recent immigrants.
“We don’t want it to just be a traditional place of worship,” he said. “That is one aspect. But we also want to make it a community centre and a place for interfaith dialogue. It is not just a place for Sufi Muslims. It is a place for all Canadians”.
The mosque has been putting the word out with flyers distributed through food banks and other community services.
Board member Imran Inamdar [pictured] concedes he doesn’t know how long it will take for the concept to catch on. He points to the success of Knights Table, a program founded by the Catholic Knights of Columbus that has operated for 20 years in nearby Brampton and provides 150 meals daily to people regardless of background.
“It will take about a month for people to get to know about this,” Inamdar said.
Initially, the food will be brought in, kept warm on site and be served in a small 18-square-metre dining room. But the mosque is equipped with a kitchen and additional dining space, leaving room for expansion.
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