السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُI
It’s Saturday 1st October 2022 / 5 Rabī ul-Awwal 1444H.
24 Hours In Leicester – Part 1
During the last couple of weeks, Leicester has been in the headlines. Since the 1980s, I have been visiting Leicester on quite a regular basis. It is home to thousands of Muslims, has many Masjids and a number of Islāmic institutes.
Leicester is also home to many scholars, some who rank amongst the highest in the UK and Europe. I was assisting a friend in a court case and it was by sheer coincidence that the case was listed for a hearing in the Leicester Magistrates Court.
The 24 hours I spent in Leicester was an eye opener of the brilliant work taking place in this vibrant city. After picking up a childhood friend, who had moved from Blackburn to Leicester, our first stop was at a business premises of a friend. He gave me a brief of his business and how he had been through tough times because of Brexit and other circumstances.
It was so pleasing to hear that he had not taken any interest based loans for his business. After praying Maghrib at the beautiful Masjid-e-Umar in the Evington area, I caught up with a family who had adopted 2 girls. It was a very emotional moment when I met 18 year old ‘Āisha (not her real name).
This was the same ‘Āisha who, at the age of 7 months, was adopted by this family. I was on the adoption panel at the time and was part of the team who approved this adoption. 18 years on, meeting ‘Āisha again, I was very close to tears when she thanked me for choosing her a nice family that had looked after her so well.
From here, we moved on to the world famous Islamic Dawah Academy (IDA) where the founder and spiritual leader Shaykh Muḥammad Saleem Dhorat, مدظله العالی, was waiting for us.
(To be continued).
جَزَاكَ اللَّهُ خَيْرًا
Request for Du’ās
وَالسَّلَامُ Hanif Dudhwala