السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ
It’s Wednesday 25th May 2022 / 24 Shawwal 1443H.
Bosnia – The Princess of Europe
Three colleagues and I took the 8:35am flight from Luton on Tuesday 24th May and 2.5 hours later landed at Sarajevo airport in Bosnia. This is my second visit to this beautiful country known as the ”Princess of Europe”.
As we have only 24 hours here before we move on, we immediately go into action and meet with the local representatives of the municipality of Konjic, a very picturesque city where our hotel is located. It is nice to hear that Bosnia is once again back on its feet after the terrible genocide that took place in 1992.
We are informed that there are many Ḥalāl attractions now available and Muslims should try and make Bosnia their family holiday destination. This will help boost the economy. For water lovers, Bosnia is the ideal holiday location.
From Konjic, we leave for the famous historical city of Mostar. Here, we meet with a local organisation, Emanet Mostar, our partners who distribute donations to a number of families in Mostar and other areas. We spent 3 hours in Mostar visiting the beautiful ancient Masjids and crossing the world famous Mostar Bridge. This is an absolute masterpiece of architecture.
We pray our ‘Aṣr and Maghrib at 2 different Masjids, one of which houses a cemetery where all the headstones have 1994 engraved as the year of the deceased. We are informed that they were martyrs of the 1992 war. Over 500 men were martyred in Mostar alone. May The Almighty grant them all Jannat ul-Firdaus, Āmeen.
After visiting the two offices of our partners and listening to the recitation of some of the students, we returned back to our hotel, close to midnight. This is the end of day 1 of this 6-day charity visit to Bosnia, Macedonia and Albania.
May The Almighty accept all our efforts, Āmeen, Āmeen.
جَزَاكَ اللَّهُ خَيْرًا
Request for Du’ās
وَالسَّلَامُ Hanif Dudhwala (CEO, Muslim Welfare Institute, Blackburn)