Day 3...with Saqlain Suleman, Fazalabbas Kapasi, Faizan Shiekh, Ali Abbas Datoo, Shabber Mehdi. Ali Allibhai and Maitham Bha Naqvi

At 3.30am we woke up for Fajr Salaah, by now we are used to waking up at this time, however we still wanted to sleep in. After the Salaah our beds looked more appealing then ever knowing that the next wakeup call was around the corner and we only had 3 hours to sleep. After waking up at our usual time of 7.15am and showering we then proceeded to the dining room for the more than usual full English breakfast.

We then proceeded our day with the beautiful verses of the Quran as we split into our groups and went to our Quran classes. Then we had our morning dose of classes beginning with Maitham Bha’s lesson on Values. This really made us think about what actually defies us and how we valued by others. The second lesson was conducted by Sajjad Bha and the topic was Anger, we learnt reasons on why we get angry and how to control this anger. The last lesson was on Vocal Impact by Zaynali Bha in which we were taught practical ways to project your voice and confidence building.
Thereafter came one of the most important part of the day, LUNCH, and what a lunch we had...Pizza!! After the delicious lunch was over we headed to perform our Dhuhr and Asr salaah lead by Muallim Imranali.

Activities were next on the agenda, we did canoeing which was alot of fun, this taught us about teamwork and communication. After this we had raft building, the importance if this lesson was about planning and to better improve our teamwork.
All wet and tired, we headed for the showers to rejuvenate ourselves. This was followed by dinner, Steak, Mash, Veg and Strawberry cake was on the menu. After a satisfactory meal we headed to our rooms for our daily debrief with Maitham bha. He spoke to us about our day and made us think about where we could improve ourselves.

For our evening activity we had ‘Nightline’, we were all blind folded and had to go through a obstacle course through the woods. This really tested our communication, team work and trust.

After completing the nightline we headed inside to freshen up and pray our Maghrib and Isha salaah. This was then followed by our camp Khushali programme as we were celebrating the eve of 15 Sha’ban, the khushali programme which was organised by our planet contained Sura Yaseen, speeches on Imam Mahdi (atf) and qasida’s by the campers. It was amazing!

RETURN - 31 July 2010

We will be leaving the campsite today :(

Updates will appear on this page when we leave the site and our expected arrival time to Birmingham and Stanmore. Please keep checking.

Update: 18.50

Campers have been collected from Birmingham - the coach is now on its way to Stanmore. Expected arrival time is 2045.

Update: 15.45

Campers have left Wales and are on their way to Birmingham.

Estimated Arrival Times: BIRMINGHAM - 17.30, LONDON (STANMORE) - 20.30

Update: 11.37

Campers have enjoyed a warm breakfast, a Quran session and an exam set by Muallim Imranali Panjwani on Nahjul Balagha. As a final activity, they enjoyed a team assault course which was a good demonstration of their teamworking skills.

Camper Diary Day 5 - Mars (Akeil Sheikh, Mohammed Khalil Khaki, Hassan Ismail, Mahdi Karim, Zamir Panjwani, Abbas Lalji + Zahir Abbas Bha Sumar)

Today we woke up eagerly waiting for a ‘special surprise’ that we were told to expect today. All the information that we had was that we should take our swimming trunks and towels to our lessons.

Bab al-Ilm - Girls

The day started off like any other, with an early morning visit to the Haram for Fajr prayers. The Jamaat namaaz was followed by an opportunity to do the Ziyarat of Bibi Masuma. Although this has become a daily routine, it doesn’t feel like one. Every Ziyarat and visit to the shrine brings about a sense of renewed awe at the personality of this great lady. Each opportunity to visit the shrine makes us realise how lucky we are to be able to do this almost every day.

Madinah al-Ilm - Boys

And so we have completed a week in the Holy city of Qum! Before I proceed to relate the deep spiritual enlightenment we received today, allow me to narrate an amusing incident, which occurred at lunch:
As had become habit, we went to buy bottled water before we retired to our rooms for our afternoon rest. Some of the group decided they were ready to try the renowned Iranian yeast drink. My friends, being the extravagant big shots they are, only carry notes of 20,000 Rials (which really is far less than it sounds when compared to pounds, dollars, and rather surprisingly, Kenyan shillings), which was too much for the vendor, who had no change. Out of nowhere, a Maulana appeared, and paid the vendor, thus solving our dilemma of either putting a temporary halt to our endeavors, or going to seek out cash of a smaller magnitude.

Bab al-Ilm - Girls
Today was our 7th day in the holy city of Qum, and naturally by now we are beginning to get used to the different way in which time passes here during the day. Understandable of course considering the mammoth number of things we do in just one day. If we were this productive at home, we would probably achieve so much more.

At our twilight session we learned how all of our actions in life are either goal orientated or pleasure orientated, and how the main goal in life is to make all of our actions goal orientated and for the pleasure of Allah. For most of us this was a new concept and was interesting to learn about. And of course we cannot have any spiritual exercise without our daily dose of physical activity. Exhausting but enjoyable - we are still wondering where Zahra Aunty gets all her energy from!

Madinah al-Ilm - Boys
Adhan is loud and clear, calling to draw us closer to Allah and telling us that  its time for salaat.
We are fortunate enough to be in the shrine of Bibi Fatima Masuma here in Qum. It is amazing how many thousands of people gather here to pray. What an honour to be one of them and to be e part of the jamaat namaaz. The feeling was wonderful, a grateful feeling that no words could describe.

Our third day in Qum was quite relaxing compared to the first two, thought not, by any means, less exciting! We discovered that the Jamiah has a gymnasium, where we did our daily exercise. The complex routines woke us up quite nicely for our classes.

My favourite lesson today was from our Quranic Principles scholar, who is a student from New Zealand, and who translated and contributed additions to ‘The illumination,’ our Quranic-Arabic course book.

On Wednesday we had the chance to visit Mount Khizr. The trip started off with a brief lecture by Sheikh Nadir on spirituality, which blew the mind of some of the students.

Lecture at Mount Khizr
The Sheikh talked about how all are actions have a spiritual effect. This allowed the students to really focus on how all our actions should be done with the remembrance of Allah (S.W.T.).