I don’t know about the rest of the tumblr muslims out there, but all these reports and reblogs of the despicable acts of hatred done towards our community has really taken its toll on ending off this holy month on a high note.

Which is why I think its so important that stories like THIS get more attention:

I first met brother Himy (@HiMYSYeD, himysyed.tumblr.com) at a masjid two weeks ago, I was a little hesitant to approach him because of his pseudo-celebrity status in my eyes. Getting the idea from a few folks down in the states, Brother Himy has been on the quest of biking to 30 Masajid within the Greater Toronto Area for the month of Ramadan – you can follow his progress at 30masjids.com.

His adventures were a real service to the Toronto Muslim community. We often get so wrapped up in attending events and fundraising at our own masjid, we forget that there are SO many more masajid that need the social and financial support as well. What’s more is that not only did he try and depict the diversity and unity of our community, but in solidarity with other faith-based communities, he broke his fast at a Gurdwara last week after news broke of the Milwaukee Gurdwara Shootings.

One morning after biking down from night prayers in the east end of the city and into downtown for fajr prayers, he left his bicycle locked up outside the masjid. This is what he saw after finishing up and thinking of going home for a more than deserved power-nap.

A serious buzzkill. Halfway through his noble quest, his bike had been stolen in (almost) plain daylight.

A few days later, a reporter from the CBC (Priya Sankaran, @cbcpriya) wanted to shed some light on his journey and asked if she could tag along to one of his masjid visits. Turns out the masjid they were en route too had been shut down by building  management (in fact, Priya’s coverage of it helped get it re-opened). But once Priya found out about Himy’s “unholy obstacle”, she decided to make that the main focus of her story. In his interview he mentioned that he did file a police report to little avail, and having used a kryptonite brand bicycle lock, he knew the thief couldn’t have been superman.

Word got out and along with Priya’s coverage, and an article in the Toronto Star, the offers started pouring in. A simple twitter search of Himy’s handle showed all the love he was getting from muslims and non-muslims alike to have his bike replaced. One morning, a representative from Canadian Tire (@CanadianTire), our nations go-to store for anything from faucets to footballs, called Himy and said that their store had heard what happened and were more than willing to giving him a brand new bike so he could keep on blogging! After a bit of hesitance, Himy accepted their generous offer!

In this environment of air rifles being fired at and dismembered pigs being presented to our people, it makes the world of a difference to know that there’s still people out there with a heart. What’s more is that when an entire corporation takes notice and tries to do something about it, when they could have easily taken the bigoted route like a certain unnamed hardware store in America – it really hits home.

May Allah allow our brother to continue in his quest, may He improve the state of our Ummah and allow us to overcome all forms of adversity. Ameen.

(PS: maybe show your thanks by giving a quick tweet to @CanadianTire)