Alhamdulillah (Praise be to Allah), by the Grace of Allah, Holborn Muslim Circles have successfully smashed The UK Mosque Challenge. The team prayed 15 congregational prayers in 15 different mosques across 12 cities over the weekend. This race against time was truly challenging as there were many unexpected as well as expected hurdles the team faced however through miracles and blessing of time, not a single congregational prayer was missed! Read more below..
The adventure began early Friday morning at the Regents Park Mosque at Fajr prayer, this followed an immense support and a press launch outside East London Mosque after Jumma (Friday) prayers. The community, friends, family and well-wishers came to see the team off by supporting the HMC team by expressing words of encouragement and motivation. After many interviews and conversations with the locals the team set off to Shah Jehan Mosque in Wokin, the first purpose built mosque in the UK. They then set off to Oxford Mosque, home to one of the worlds’s famous University. It was very fitting to visit the City of learning and education, because Islam encourages one to seek knowledge and keep learning to get closer to God. Sleeping in the car was a struggle but part of the challenge – just five pillows and a blanket. After some very awkward sleeping, the team set off to Leicester from Birmingham Central Mosque.
Later on Saturday evening, the team were panicking as they were 30mins behind schedule to get from Oldham Mosque to Blackpool Mosque within a time frame of an hour however the team made it miraculously on time! Despite driving through torrential rain and strong winds on the way to Edinburgh for the dawn prayers, it was an amazing feeling to reach the Blackpool Mosque with 5mins to spare – the relief on the faces of the guys were priceless. On Sunday, the team were looking forward to completing the challenge and heading off to home-sweet-home, Holborn Mosque. The team arrived on time for the night prayers and were greatly received by many local young brothers who were very proud of the teams achievement.
The entire journey was witnessed by thousands through instant video updates uploaded onto Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. This allowed supporters to experience the amazing and beautiful encounters the team were facing including the glamorous mosques and warm people.
Abdulla Al Mamun, the project manager, said “We appreciate and are very grateful in meeting various communities as the brothers were very welcoming and gave us support, shared kind words and more importantly made arrangements for food!”
Driving over 1100 miles, under the sun, rain and turbulent winds as well as sleeping in the car where most days and nights were spent driving has been an overwhelming experience for the team; but seeing the Muslim communities in their own areas, from all backgrounds, including the Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Guajarati, Middle eastern communities living together in harmony was a truly beautiful and heart-warming experience and it showed the essence of Islam, peace and brotherhood. The team witnessed and felt the strong Muslim community presence and how integral the Muslim Community is part of the British society.
Nazmul Toropdar, chair of Holborn Muslim Circles, said ”The challenge would not have been possible without our sponsors including Muslim Marriage Events, Islamic Travels, Tayyabs and SK Films – Journey to Mecca. Not to mention our media partners including Muslim Weekly, East London News, London Bangla, Channel S and finally our supporters Small Room Pictures, Click Grafix, Young Muslim Organisation, Muslimaat and Islamic Forum of Europe. We would like to thank all our supporters who have donated to our cause, and insha’Allah we hope to continue to seek the pleasure of Allah SWT through the 3 E’s… Empowering; Educating; and Engaging the Muslims.” He further added “We hope to do something even bigger and better next year so watch this space…”.
Holborn Muslim Circles have raised just over £1,000 to date and counting – so if you’ve not donated towards this fantastic initiative you can still do so via their website. A final figure will be published through their website and Facebook by early June. All funds raised will be used towards the local innovative dawah work they do in Central London. Holborn Muslim Circles work actively with young people to keep them engaged in positive and creative activities.
To see all the video’s, pictures and more please visit our website www.holbornmuslimcircles.org