Birmingham is home to one of the largest and most established Muslim communities in Britain, rooted for three generations in the inner-city wards south and east of the centre — Small Heath, Sparkbrook, Sparkhill, Alum Rock and Bordesley Green — with strong Kashmiri and Pakistani heritage alongside long-settled Bangladeshi, Yemeni and, more recently, Somali and Afghan families around Aston, Lozells and Washwood Heath.

What families here bring to us is shaped by that settled, close-knit biraderi life. Much of it turns on marriage — rishta pressure, in-law friction, and disputes that stretch back to Mirpur and Azad Kashmir as much as they play out in Birmingham. Alongside this sits the strain of large households on modest incomes in some of the most deprived wards in the country: debt, worry over rizq, and young men adrift between the mosque and the street. Where families live this densely and compare this closely, the evil eye (ayn) and hasad are a constant fear.

• Kashmiri/Pakistani marriage and biraderi strain across the Birmingham–Mirpur divide
• Debt and blocked rizq pressing on large households in deprived inner-city wards
• Second-generation young men adrift between the mosque and the street
• Evil eye (ayn) and hasad felt in close, comparing communities

We recognise these as real, and we respond with authentic Ruqyah and du’a as a sincere return to the Qur’an — a means of seeking Allah’s protection and restoring calm.