Dear Friends and Community Members,

Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh,

With hearts full of sorrow, we share the news of the passing of our dear father, Welbon Abu Salaam, formerly known as Welbon Lemar Mayes. It is with a heavy heart that we inform you that we learned of his death seven weeks after his passing due to a miscommunication with the hospital. As we grieve, we are also faced with the urgent need to raise funds for his burial.

Our father served as the Muezzin (caller to prayer) for many communities, including Temple No. 25 now Masjid Muhammad in Newark, NJ, Masjid Muhammad in Wilmington, NC, and Masjid Al Salam in Oakland, CA. His dedication to his faith and his community was unwavering, and he touched many lives with his call to prayer and his commitment to Islam.

We are striving to raise the remaining cost of $1,540 to cover the costs of his burial. Due to the delay in discovering his passing, we cannot perform the traditional Ghusl and Wudu with water; instead, we must perform Tayammum with dust. We will pray the Janazah prayer for him and promptly lay him to rest.

We ask for your support in this difficult time. Our family has managed to gather a couple of thousand dollars, but we are still significantly short of the total amount needed. The Janazah is scheduled for Saturday, May 25th, 2024, in GA, where he will also be buried.

Your contributions, no matter how small, will help us honor our father's rights and give him the dignified burial he deserves. We call upon people everywhere, as well as the communities he served, to assist us in this noble cause.

Dua for Brother Welbon Abu Salaam and Ourselves:

"O Allah, forgive and have mercy upon him, excuse and pardon him, and make his reception honorable. Expand his entry, and cleanse him with water, snow, and ice, and purify him of sin as a white robe is purified of filth. Admit him into the Garden, protect him from the punishment of the grave and the torment of the Fire. Let his good deeds be his companion, let his deeds be written in Illiyoon, and may he be called on by the best of names he was known for. May Allah keep us practicing the Sunnah and following His laws, spare us the Last Day, pardon our sins, widen our graves, spare us the torment of the grave, grant us shining lights to pass over and to pass over the Siratal Mustaqeem, allow our books to be given in our right hands but not mandated to be read aloud, that our scales of good deeds are heavy, to protect us from ever going into the Hellfire, to grant us our final resting place in Jannah, to continue to shower us with His blessings and mercy, to have mercy on us all in this life and the Hereafter, and that we are all joined in good and allowed to see each other and enjoin the others in Jannah. Ameen, Ameen, Ameen."

Jazakum Allahu Khairan for your support and assistance. May Allah (SWT) reward you abundantly.

The Family of Welbon Abu Salaam