Youth clean up streets at MIFA cleanup event

A group of young students set out with a goal of community service on Saturday in downtown Memphis.

They reached Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association headquarters in hopes to clean up the streets of the poorest zip code in Memphis, but what they ended up achieving was much more.

"Removing harmful things from the road is an act of sadaqah (charity)," said Prophet (S) in a Hadith.

Everyone knows that it is difficult for students and young people to give in terms of money but is that the only way in giving?

According to this account from the life of the beloved Messenger, it isn't. Giving time to clean the community is charity. Spending time with different faiths and helping the world, is charity. Spending time for the sake of Allah, is charity.

Human beings usually have a way of minimizing or belittling the deeds they do or the deeds others do, but truly when people take a step back and look at it from a different lens, they can see that little deeds go the furthest way.

The youth picked up bottles of drinks, trash and wrappers thrown across the roads. And taking trash away from blocking the sewers may seem like a task that nobody really wants to do, but it went a long way in the eyes of Allah (SWT).

"It was a very wholesome event, it made me feel better about who I am, that I gave back," said Hamza Najdawi, a student at Houston High School.