On a recent flight from Europe, too sleepy to read and too uncomfortable to sleep, I watched a movie. The film was moving and powerful, The Grace Card. It dealt with the intricacies of race relations in Memphis, Tennessee. It culminated with an African American policeman donating a kidney to the son of his trigger-happy, racist partner. The Caucasian partner, who was haunted by the pain of the loss of his first son, who was run over by an African American drug dealer fleeing from the police, had unwittingly shot his younger son at a crime scene. The bullet destroyed his son’s only functioning kidney, leaving him in a life-threatening situation. His African American’s partner’s act of grace, changed his attitude towards life and led to his own act of grace, which you can learn of if you watch the movie.

For all its power of depiction, the movie is not real life. Waleed Ebadi’s situation is. Waleed is a 16 year old youngster in Fremont, California. He is a student at Washington High School in Fremont. He is losing his enthusiasm for basketball, school and life itself as the acute kidney failure he has been battling most of his life rapidly worsens, and the weight of the treatments overwhelm him. During the blessed month of Ramadan, if there is anyone out there who would like to undertake their own act of tremendous grace by donating Waleed a kidney please come forward. A match for his blood type is B+, B-, or O. If you are interested in responding to this appeal contact Gerri James at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University. She can be reached at (650) 498-4905, or mailto:gjames@lpch.org.

You will not attain righteousness until you spend of what you love. Whatever you spend; God is well aware of it. (Qur’an 3:92)