On this week’s TMV podcast, I spoke to Ayat El-Deen from My Ten Nights, an automation platform that allows you to never miss Laylatul Qadr – you pick your charity before the last ten nights comes in, decide how much you want to pay across the last ten nights (if you want to give more charity in the odd nights of Ramadan you can) and then it schedules it all in, meaning it’s all automated so you can focus on your Ibadah.
Last year My Ten Nights facilitated donations of over £1.3 million for various charities and this year they intend to smash that target. We speak to Ayat about the journey of the platform so far and also how we can stay authentic in our acts of worship in a increasingly automated and technologically advanced world!
Listen to the full discussion here:
My Ten Nights is a tech platform that aims to help Muslims, or even non-Muslims, who wish to pre-schedule their donations, choose both the organization and the amount of money they wish to donate during the last 10 nights of the month of Ramadan. What makes this especially unique and different, however, is that you can decide how to spread out your donation during the last ten nights of Ramadan when Laylatul Qadr takes place, to try and make sure that you catch the “night of decree” when the Quran was narrated to have first been revealed to the Prophet Mohammed.
Starting almost two years ago with the smaller “Ramadan £1 Challenge”, My Ten Nights has now grown into a platform that brings together numerous charities and peoples from around the world. With more than £1.3 million raised last year, My Ten Night has high hopes that this platform may be the way forward to get more people both involved in charity and involved with Laylatul Qadr.
If we can help one more Muslim catch Laylatul Qadr, then we’ve done our job. All we want is for people to catch Laylatul Qadr through charitable donations. We can’t help with prayer or anything like that, but we can help with the transactions to help them get to this night.”
One thing that many might have concerns about is how to stay authentic and genuine when giving to charities on an online platform. Ayat tells us that this is something she and the team were worried about in the beginning, in that the intentions might get lost along the way when things move to the online platform. Realizing, however, that they had a 90% email opening rate, meaning that 90% of those who donated regularly opened their emails to make sure their donations were given on each of the last ten nights of Ramadan, meant that those who donated were still actively involved in their donations. People were not just donating in one go and forgetting about it, people were still actively involved during each of the possible nights of Laylatul Qadr.
In the beginning, we were worried about losing our intentions. But the intention is still there. The cause is still there, and the reward is still there. Why should we not make it easier to catch Laylatul Qadr?”
Having an online platform that brings together everyone during the month of Ramadan to try and be both better Muslims and be a part of Laylatul Qadr is what My Ten Nights aims to do at the end of the day. The internet can be a force for good, and although many may feel wary or stubborn to adapt to new technological methods of engaging with religion, Ayat and those at My Ten Nights feel that platforms like this are the way forward to get people, especially young people, more engaged with their religion.
Automate your donations over the last ten nights of Ramadan now at www.MyTenNights.com
Be sure to check out their Instagram feed for updates and great content: @mytennights
