Inspired to Help

When Idris moved from the East Coast to Los Angeles, not only did he have to adjust to a new home but he was exposed to things around him he didn’t like.

“I didn’t fit in the Hollywood culture of partying and drinking. And also I saw so much homelessness,” he says. He discovered the Islamic Center of Southern California as his new home in 2007 and hasn’t looked back.

“It was a sense of balance that I needed in my life,” he says. He began attending Friday prayer regularly and became inspired to make a difference to those around him by volunteering at various homeless outreach programs around the city.

One day Idris was motivated after hearing a sermon on Eid Al-Adha that the Center was starting a food bank program. “I went the following week, and have been going ever since,” he says. Now he’s a regular at the Center’s Food Pantry, which distributes groceries to hundreds of needy residents every Saturday morning.

“Through the Center, I’ve had the honor and the opportunity to be a food bank coordinator, an interfaith dialogue coordinator, and most importantly I’ve met a lot of good people who have become my friends,” he says. “I am forever grateful to the people at the Center for creating such a good atmosphere for that to happen. And I thank God.”