Salam, brother Aziz.

Thank you for your question.

We appreciate your difficulties and we are very anxious to help you. The only way we, as a website, can help is to try to think with you how to overcome your problems. We cannot offer you loans, because we do not provide such services. Please bear with us and read our suggestions, till the very end. If you take them seriously into practice, they might really help you out.

The suggestions I am giving you here might seem simple and redundant to you. But, I expect that they might really work out if you are persistent and if you believe in their logic.

They were suggested by the Ask About Islam team, not only by me. We, as a team, have cared enough about you and we discussed your problems thoroughly.

Helping the Two Kids

Let me first address the most persistent matter; your two sick kids. Surgery and medication have become very costly. So, I do not expect that you would easily find someone to sponsor their medication, except if this person is over-rich. Also, I do not suggest that you would go into more debts. The more practical suggestion is to try to raise fund for their cases.

You can do this through reaching out to some charity institutions or even through launching some media campaigns concerning their cases. That depends on how serious their cases are and about how the media in your country reflect upon philanthropic concerns.

What is a must for you is never to plead or beg for your kids. Please remember that a Muslim always keeps his dignity and begs from none but his Creator.

Yet your situation as being responsible for those two kids must move you to make certain steps for their safety. This is definitely a responsibility that you, as a Muslim father, will be questioned about by God. That is why you have to be a bit more practical rather than emotional.

Being practical means you need to add some simple techniques to your approach. For example, take their medical reports and photographs that show how sick they are when you approach a charity institution or when you try to spread awareness about their cases through any media channel.

Try to contact any media institution in your country and try to use it as a channel to explain their problem and their severe medical case. Have a specialized physician speak on your behalf about their cases through such media channels. Specify accurately how much their treatment would need and make sure your sources for this information are credible.

Spread the news with clear information and I expect that hundreds of golden hearts would move to help. Group funding in this case might also be the tool. You do not have to depend on one source, but combine sources. Make sure your references and medical reports are accurate, for a Muslim has to be truthful and honest.

Now, going back to your original problem, which is your financial status. You have not really mentioned how you have tried to overcome your financial problems. The only thing you mentioned is that you are already under loan.

And from the tone of your question, it seems to me that you think your situation can be handled by finding some institutions or some rich persons to help you, again through some more loans.

I do sympathize with you brother, but I would not be doing you a great favor if I agree with your tone of pleading for more ihsan as you have specified the word. Asking for ihsan, which is a form of charity, given by the capable to the needy is never the correct attitude of a proper Muslim.

Forgive my harshness brother, but please do not surrender to this feeling and obsession of being in need. Try to change your situation by helping yourself, not by asking others to help you. Plead and beg Allah to help you, for He is your Provider and Sustainer, and ask none but Him for that. Then work hard to help yourself change your difficult situation.

Try to work more. Maybe you can find yourself another job in the evening or maybe you can change your job completely. I know that writing words to you about standing strong and being patient is not as difficult as living the dilemma itself. Yet, maybe looking at it from the outside is giving me a clearer vision and I hope that helps.

Practical Tips

Please try the following suggestions. Believe me, they might help. They have helped others before.

You need to sit down alone somewhere away from your family and problems. Take an hour or two or even more and think deeply. How and where did the whole thing start? Is it as simple as that your salary is small and life is expensive?

Ask yourself if you are trying to develop yourself and your career by any means. Ask yourself first if you are spending portions of your money on things which are not priority. Ask yourself a most important question: Is the very little money I get lawful and pure in the first place?

A Muslim, my brother, is supposed to be a person who submits peacefully and willingly to his Creator. Accordingly, he is to face all life problems peacefully and contently.

Yet this never means that he is to surrender to negative circumstances. On the contrary, he is supposed to be positive and do his best to change that. He should not ever accept humiliation and should always be strong

Just as your name; Aziz, a Muslim should be aziz (dignified) because he or she are the servants of Al-Aziz (Allah). Have you ever thought about the meaning of your name brother? Do you know that in Arabic it indicates dignity and self-respect? Al-Aziz is one of God's most beautiful names, which indicates that He is the Most Dignified.

So, a Muslim should try not to ask others for money, but should always try to make money. When he does his best, yet fails, he is to be still grateful to Allah and content. He should stay patient and never give up.

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has informed us about some ways to increase our richness, in addition to hard work and proper planning.

Prophet Muhammad has always recommended that we keep asking God for His forgiveness. Istighfar, which is asking God for His forgiveness is a key for solving lots of our ordeals and increasing our financial wealth as well. Seeking God's forgiveness is a continuous reminder of how weak we are due to our sins and how needy we are for God.

He is the One Who provides forgiveness and with it He provides all our needs. It is He Who provides us all and everything. Among what He is capable of providing is materialistic wealth and resolution of all our problems.

Added to this, is that we need to be accurate about the source of our income. Even if the income is very small, we still have to be very sure that every penny is lawful and pure. Why would God respond to His servant if he is daring to pick up what is not his, even if it is as small as a drop of sand?

When the person is a bit careless about the purity of his income, this is again an expression of his lack of sincerity. Direct stealing or robbery is not the only source of impure income. But not fulfilling the errand for which I am paid is again a source of impure money. That is even when the amount of money I receive seems to be much less the effort worth it.

Prophet Muhammad mentioned that God loves that when someone does any errand, he is to excel in fulfilling this errand. This is where lawful and pure money comes from. When the money is pure and lawful, and when the person is patient and content with God's provision, even if it seems in his own human eyes to be little, the money is blessed and somehow is enough in fulfilling the person's needs.

Many of the rich are never satisfied with the money they have. It is not fulfilling and they are always eager to get more and more. It is usually not blessed by sincerity and purity, but they do not know it.

Others, who are much poorer, are many a times satisfied and their very little income somehow is sufficient to their needs. It is sincerity of their hearts when they work honestly for the money and purity of the income.

Brother, I might need to add here that you might need to exert more effort in your prayers and on your yaqeen (sound belief). Calm down and seek refuge in God. Pray to Him, with a believing heart that He is there listening to your prayers. Wake up in the middle of the night and pray through the night.

Ask Him to help you get closer and to solve your ordeal. Be persistent as a child persists at his mother's door.

God is there for you and He will respond. Just be patient, sincere and strong in your belief.

I hope that helps.

Salam.

Useful Links:

Relief With Every Difficulty

Is the Reward for Patience Concept Inherently Cruel?

Prayers When In Need

Earning Allah's Help

About Supplication & Strengthening Faith

Supplication: No Magic Required

The Logic of the Lawful and the Unlawful