About Build a Well

What this site is, and isn’t

It explains one part of giving as clearly as we can, with the sources for every religious point, so that you can give with confidence wherever you choose to give.

• It takes no money. There is no donate button, no appeal and no payment page anywhere on it, and we never ask you to give to us.
• It isn’t a charity and doesn’t act for one. We don’t name, recommend, rank or rate any charity; to look one up, use the official registers we link to.
• It doesn’t give rulings. Where the schools of law differ, each view is set out with its source. For your own situation, ask a scholar you trust.

Who runs it

Build a Well is made by Muslims Around the World. Each site in the family does one job: a city’s prayer times, a surah, a dua, a guide like this one. Every one of them is listed on the Muslims Around the World sites page. The site is free, has no third-party adverts and needs no account.

Muslims Around the World is protecting the legacy of Ali Banat, may Allah have mercy on him, and every site in the family is part of that work. Read his story.

You can learn more with us at Muslims Around the World: short reminders from scholars, duas with their meaning, Quran recitations and prayer times.

Where the information comes from

Quran

Verses are cited by surah and verse number (Quran 2:261). The English around a verse number is our own short explanation of its meaning, not a translation.

Hadith

Each hadith carries its collection and number, such as Sahih al-Bukhari 1 or Sahih Muslim 1631, and we only publish a number we can confirm in the data muslimsaroundtheworld.org already uses. The wording of a hadith on this site is our own summary of its meaning.

Duas

Duas come from Hisn al-Muslim by Sa‘id al-Qahtani, with the English meaning and transliteration written by Muslims Around the World.

Differences of opinion

Where the schools of law differ, we give each view with its source and leave the ruling to you and the scholars you follow. Nothing here is a fatwa.

Charity rules and figures

Facts about how UK charities are registered and report come from GOV.UK and the Charity Commission for England and Wales. We only give a figure we can point to; otherwise we describe what to ask.

Dates

Islamic dates are worked out in advance by the Umm al-Qura calendar, so they can differ by a day from the moon sighting where you live.

Before a page is published, an automatic review checks that every sentence making a religious claim names its source in the same paragraph, that every hadith number is one we can confirm, that every dua matches its source letter for letter, and that nothing on the page asks for money. If you spot a mistake, please tell us through muslimsaroundtheworld.org.

Why Build a Well

Build a Well explains, in plain words, what a water well involves from the first survey to the tenth year of repairs, so that anyone thinking of funding one can ask the right questions. It is a guide only: it takes no money, builds nothing itself and names no charity. Its religious points carry their sources, such as Quran 21:30 and Sahih al-Bukhari 2363.

See what it costs to fund a water well, country by country. See the top 10 Muslim charities in the UK by DonateOpenly’s score.