A local mosque in Golders Green, in the London Borough of Barnet in England, hosted an interfaith blood donation drive earlier this week to save lives and encourage religious communities to work together, The Jewish Chronicle reported.

Faiths Forum, who organized the event, said it was pleased to welcome people from the local community to the Golders Green Mosque for an open-door event for the first time.

“There is a verse in the Qur’an which states ‘whoever saves one life, it is as if he has saved the whole of mankind’,” a Faiths Forum spokesperson said.

“Similarly, in Jewish scripture ‘therefore, Adam [from whom all humanity descended] was created singly, to teach us that whoever destroys a single life’ is considered by Scripture to have destroyed the whole world and whoever saves a single life is considered by Scripture to have saved the whole world.”

Donating Life

Blood transfusion for medical purposes is permissible in Islam as Muslims are ordered to feed the hungry, take care of the sick, and save the lives of people.

It is also permissible to take blood from a non-Muslim and it is permissible to give blood to non-Muslims. These matters are related to human life.

This is not the first time for the Golders Green mosque to organize a blood donation drive.

In November 2017, shortly after the Islamic Centre was set up in Golders Green, members of the Muslim community turned up at Golders Green United Synagogue in order to donate blood for Mitzvah Day.

The vast majority of Muslims in the United Kingdom live in England: 2,660,116 (5.02% of the population). 76,737 Muslims live in Scotland (1.45%), 45,950 in Wales (1.50%). London has the greatest population of Muslims in the country.

According to the 2011 census, 263,346 people answered “Jewish” to the voluntary question on religion, compared with 259,927 in the previous count of 2001.