Sudais in London Aug-2009

I went to my cousin’s wedding in Birmingham this past weekend and absolutely loved it. Had never seen Birmingham University before and I was absolutely blown away by the splendour. There is something about old historic places which no hotels and newer structures can match. Anyways, it was brilliant and an event I enjoyed thoroughly. Her nikah was held at the Birmingham Central mosque and as it so happened I had read a day or two prior that Sudais will be in Birmingham but unfortunately it was a bit too late as everything had already been arranged to take place at this mosque and Sudais was going to delivery the sermon at the other Birmingham mosque.

Anyways, yesterday, I was in Central London to meet up with a former colleague and as the meeting was after the Jummah prayers, I decided to attend the prayers at the London Central Mosque. As it so happens, Sudais was there as well and he delivered the Friday sermon and the prayers. That was amazing and very nice, what was NOT so nice was the people or more specifically the people who were there to attend the prayers. Pushing, walking over others was the common theme, even more annoyingly, it was the late comers who were trying to get ahead of everyone and causing just plain chaos. I was almost on the verge of losing my temper… inside the mosque! How sad is that.

Anyways, it brought to my attention just how illiterate us Muslims are. So concept of queues and no respect for others seems to be the common theme. Sure, everyone there was excited that the Imam of Kaaba was there but that is no excuse in my opinion for causing havoc for others. Everyone is there for the same reason, lets respect each other and follow the congregation.

What was equally sad was that I almost lost my temper when I have been working on myself for so long (or seems to be so long). Old scripts do die hard and excruciatingly slowly.