An incident at Eastleigh Mosque
It must have been sometime in 1975 when a delegation of the
world “Khatam Nabuwwat” organisation, led by Allama Mohammad Yusuf Binnori,
came from Pakistan. My old colleague, Dr Abdul Razzaq Iskandar from the days of
our studies in Madinah, was there with Shaikh Binnori.
We arranged an address for the Shaikh in the Somali Mosque
at Eastleigh after Maghrib prayer. The mosque was packed with the local Muslim
community.
The Imam stood up after the prayer to introduce the guests
but instead he started talking about something unexpected. He was among those
people who believed in innovations like Mawlid. He said “We used to be a united
community here in Kenya until some teachers came from Saudi Arabia and created
dissension and disunity amongst us”. Of course he meant to slander me and my
colleagues, who had arrived as delegates of Madinah.
What happened after that was also unexpected.
One of my Somali students, who was there with his
classmates, stood up and shouted to him “You are a liar!”
The whole congregation then stood up angrily and they were
about to hit the poor fellow but he somehow managed to advance towards the
Imam. There must have been a scuffle where either he was beaten first or he
took the liberty to slap the Imam. It was a very embarrassing situation for me
and my guests, so I escorted them to exit from the mosque.
After leaving them at their hotel, I came as fast as I could
to the mosque. I was worried about the fate of my students.
I found the congregation had been dispersed and was told
that the police had been called. They had already taken hold of my students and
taken them to the Police Station. I hurried there to inquire about them.
The officer was not amazed by the situation. He said “Why on
earth would people fight in the mosque, especially with the Imam while there is
no such thing like this in our churches”
I said to him “Do you know why the Imam wanted to slander
the teachers and delegates from Madinah? It is like a witch doctor who will
never be happy in the presence of a qualified doctor”
We talked for a while and he promised to release them the
following day. It was a very ugly incident which prompted my opponents, from
among the innovators of my own Asian community as well and who opposed me right
from the beginning of my career in Nairobi, to exploit the incident and
complain to the authorities that I had been a source of trouble and disorder.
A few days later I was asked to appear before an
Intelligence Officer at an office somewhere in the basement of a state
building. Though the interrogation was elusive, my answers did satisfy them.
There had been nothing serious in my past. Ultimately it was
a scuffle which had been among a Somali Imam and some members of the same
community.
Alas, I could see that my opponents were not satisfied until
they had caused some harm to me. Owing to my friends in some higher
administrative and political positions, they were not allowed to succeed in
their vicious plans to keep on hounding me.
Despite this however, I could see a bleak future for me and
my family if I remained there. It seemed the right moment for me to think about
leaving Kenya and moving to a different place; more peaceful and stable.
On 26th January 1976 I travelled to Riyadh and met our
beloved Shaikh, Abdul Aziz Bin Baaz, the head of Darul Ifta. It is normally
very difficult to have a private conversation with him due to his busy
schedule. He was always surrounded by a great number of visitors with their
questions and applications, his two secretaries with a bunch of papers
including letters, correspondence from various authorities, applications for
assistance, and his constantly ringing telephone from people asking for a
Fatwa. Anyhow, I came with the intention of staying at least a week to secure a
private sitting with the Shaikh which he was kind enough to grant me. He took
me to his private chamber beside his office to listen to my concerns in view of
the events mentioned above. I asked him if he could transfer me to another
country for the very same objective for which I devoted my life i.e. Dawa in
the way of Allah.
Without any hesitance he said to me “Where do you want to
move? To Pakistan, England or America?”
It was always my wish to acquire my postgraduate studies in
Britain, and I could do this alongside my duties as a delegate of Darul Ifta.
So I mentioned England as the country of my choice. Shaikh turned to his
secretary and asked him to prepare the necessary paperwork for my transfer to
the United Kingdom.
The meeting was brief but to my satisfaction. After a week I
was back in Nairobi, to mentally prepare for leaving Kenya for good. From my
departure on 19th July 1976 first to Jeddah and then ten days later to London,
there had been a host of international journeys awaiting me during the coming
months.
An International Conference in
London
This was my second trip to London which lasted for 16 days
from 2nd to 18th April 1976. Sirajur Rahman (from Kampala, Uganda) and I were
two delegates from East Africa to attend the International Islamic Conference
in London which was hosted by Salim Azzam, the Secretary General of the
European Islamic Council. Later we came to know that all it’s activities were a
part of the great “World Islam Festival”, organised by a Trust, especially created to a very high level
for this purpose in 1973.
With a budget of £4 Million it was funded up to 80% by the
United Arab Emirates. It was also funded by Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordan and
partly by the Arab Bank and the Islamic Solidarity Fund. The festival was a
great success which attracted the English media in a spectacular way. Apart
from the financial aid, 30 Muslim countries contributed with materials of
different kinds to bring a lot of splendour and glory to this great event.
It was my first exposure to such an activity of such a high
magnitude and velocity. It was also a very precious occasion to see and listen
to some very renowned and scholarly personalities from around the globe. For me
it was an experience of a lifetime, an asset for the coming days, and a memory
worthy to be hailed and cherished.
In London we stayed a day or two at the Hilton, overlooking
Hyde Park and later we moved to Hilton Kensington. The conference along with
the activities of the Festival for about 10 days were distinguished by four
characteristics.
Speakers
A galaxy of renowned religious and political personalities
and academics from around the globe were invited to address and participate. I
have listed the names in order of their presentation:
- Shaikh Al Azhar Dr Abdul
Halim Mehmud, who led us in Juma prayer at Seymour Hall.
- The messages sent by
Maulana Abul Ala Maududi and Shaikh Abul Hasan Nadawi were read.
- Abdul Kareem Brohi, a
politician from Sindh.
- Syyed Naqib Al Attas from
Malaysia
- Murad Hofman, the famous
German Ambassador
- Altaf Gohar, a well known
journalist
- Muhammad Asad, the author
of “Road to Makkah”, the Austrian Muslim who served as the representative
of Pakistan at the UN, shortly after the creation of the nation of
Pakistan. He was given the task by Muhammad Ali Jinnah to lay out all the
polices which could be a foundation for a timely Islamic state.
- Rashid Siddiqi, an
activist of Jamaat Islami who later headed the UK Islamic Mission in the
UK
- Ali Mansur, who I knew
through his scholarly book on the concept of Hudood in Islam
- Mustafa Momin
- Saeed Ramadan, one of the
most famous leaders of Ikhwan in exile. He used to publish the monthly
journal “Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimun” from Geneva, Switzerland.
- Ayesh Lemu from Nigeria
- Habib-ur-Rahman, a UK
Islamic Mission active member from Manchester.
- Abul Bashar Mahmud
Hussain, Chief Judge of Bangladesh
- Muhammad Dimanji, the
Director of the Office of the Muslim World League in Cophenhagen, Denmark
- Mr Maulud Qasim, a minister from Algeria, who
spoke on an economic issue
- Professor Khurshid Ahmad,
the renowned scholar of economics and the President of Islamic Foundation
in Leicester
- Abdul Rahman Al-Ruwaishid,
the editor of the weekly “Al-Da’wah” from Riyadh
- Muhammad Afzal, a delegate
from Birmingham
- Dr Nasir, the former Prime
Minister of Indonesia
- Saif-ul-Islam al Banna
from Egypt
- Syyed Rashid, whose speech
was about Shaikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab
- A speech by a Qazi from
Nigeria
- A speech by the former
Prime Minister of Zanzibar
- Speeches by two delegates
from Turkey
- Dr. Ishtiaq Hussein
Qureshi from Karachi
- Dr Muhammad Qutb, from
King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah
- Salim Azzam, the secretary
General of the Islamic Council of Europe, who gave the concluding speech
- Farooqi Raji from
Philadelphia, USA
Venues
It was a great opportunity to see a number of magnificent
sites where the sessions of the conference were held. These included:
- King Albert Hall,
Kensington
- Tudor Hall
- The Royal Commonwealth
Hall, a reception by the UK Islamic Mission
- The Royal Lancaster Hotel,
a reception was given there to the delegates by the “New Horizon”
magazine.
- The Savoy Hotel, a dinner
was arranged for all the participants by BCCI
- The Seymour Hall, where
Juma was held
- Royal Festival Hall, where
the inauguration of the Festival of Islam was held. It was a great
occasion to hear Shaikh Al Husary once again.
- The Science Museum, there
was a good display of the inventions and achievements by the Muslims.
Delegates
A good number of them have already been mentioned but the
others who I met or at least saw include the following:
- Hashir Farooqi
- Bashir Diwan
- Abdul Rahman Bazmi
- Haleem Butt
- Naqi Ali
- Imam Abdul Rahman Tarapuri
- Dr Abdullah Abdul Muhsin
Al Turki
- Mahdi Khan, his son Haq
Nawaz Khan (missing?)
- Saleem Kyani, the
President of the UK Islamic Mission
- Mian Tufail Muhammad
- Hafiz Nisar Ahmed
- Kausar Niazi
- Syed Mutawawli al-Darsh,
Imam of the Islamic Centre, London
- Amanatullah, an Indian
graduate of Madinah who currently resides in Nigeria
- Shams Ashur
- Rahmat Ilahi
- Muhamid Siddiqi from
Denmark
During my stay as a guest of the Council, I visited several
places but two of them were of a significant nature.
Firstly, accompanied by Sirajur Rahman Nadwi, I went to 33
Bristol Gardens to visit some new Muslims who would assemble there in order to
celebrate Dhikr in accordance with a Sufi Order known as Darqawiya. Also
present was Kausar Niazi, the former Jamaat Islami member who became a Minister
in Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s government (Pakistan).
Secondly, accompanied by Amanatullah, a delegate from
Nigeria, I went to Westminster Hospital to visit Dr. Abu Bakr Ghaznavi; the
great son of a great father, Syyed Dawood Ghaznavi. He had come to participate
in the conference but incidentally was hit by a car while crossing the road at
a pedestrian crossing. He had become so badly injured that he was rushed to a
nearby hospital.
This was the first time I saw him. He was admitted to King
George Ward, where his friend was there beside his bed. One of his legs was
covered completely with bandages and tied to a sling from the ceiling. He was
pale and quiet.
وماتدري نفس ما ذا تكسب غدا و ما
تدري نفس باي ارض تموت
Never would I have thought that we were among the last four
persons to see him alive. He came to London, where he was destined by Allah to
breathe his last.
With a heavy heart we walked the way back to Trafalgar
Square on foot.
By the end of the conference I had to leave the hotel and
move to my friend, Hafiz Nisar Ahmed’s House in Battersea.
Writing these lines in 2020, I look back to 44 years ago and
see how cheap London was at that time. It cost 70 pence
for a return ticket by the underground railway, the same journey costing £10
today. Within Central London you could travel paying only 25-30pence.
We took a meal in Khyber Hotel, a Pakistani restaurant,
costing only £2 each. The journey to Birmingham would cost us only £4.50.
During the last six days I travelled to Birmingham,
Leicester, Manchester to visit various members of Islamic centres, mosques and
Universities. In Birmingham I met AbdulRahman of UKIM, Dr Zubair, Muhammad
Afzal, Dr Muhammad Nasim, Shaikh Nisar Ahmed, Shaikh Fazal Karim Asim. In
Manchester I met Tufail Hashmi, a friend from Nairobi, and Allama Khalid Mehmud,
who took me to the Oriental section of Manchester University. In Leicester I
met with Professor Khurshid Ahmad, the founder of the Islamic Foundation, Syed
Ali Ashraf, Abdul Karim Saqib (a graduate of Madinah University).
Back to London
It was another opportunity for me to visit some old friends
from Nairobi including Abdul Rahman Bazmi, Halim Butt in Farnham in the South
of England, Bashir Butt in Southall, Hamid Mughal in Croydon.
Then on 10th April, I took a flight back to Nairobi, via
Frankfurt.
A note on the World Islam Festival
It is interesting to note that the festival was held on
behalf of a Trust established in 1973. The people behind this trust were a
number of English dignitaries like Ahmad Paul Keeler, Martin Lings and Alistair
Duncan (a Bahraini businessman) and Mr Mohammad Mahdi. The Trust was financed
by the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the Islamic Solidarity fund and the Arab Bank. A cost
of £4 Million was estimated and 30 countries had contributed in providing loans
of 6000 pieces of art, calligraphy and antiques which were displayed throughout
a number of exhibitions in London Museums.
The BBC played it’s part in showing a series of
documentaries on the “Traditional Values of Islam”. In total around 180
academic lectures at 80 venues were delivered.
The most outstanding work was that of the Islamic Council of
Europe, who had organised this first International Islamic Conference in
cooperation with King AbdulAziz University of Jeddah. Salim Azzam, the
Secretary General, and Khurshid Ahmad of the Islamic Foundation, were the
driving force behind the success of this global event. It is reported that the
exhibitions attracted around half a million visitors and in addition to this
the BBC had over a million viewers.
This all happened as the oil wealth in the Arab lands was
booming, and thanks to Allah, a tiny part of this blessing was directed to
serve Islam.
