Travelogue Germany - Part 1

Im Namen Allahs, des Allarbermers, des Barmherzigen.

Unserer erfolg ligt in deen, bifolgen die befehle vont Allah Ta'ala, method vont Rasulullah sallalaahu alayhi wasallam.

Ahamdulillah, all praise be to Allah, we safely landed at Frankfurt Airport on 21 July 2004. We were in a jamaat of six brothers between the age of 37 to 66, all of whom had never been to any European countries before except me and Haji Kamaruddin, the amir of our jamaat. Haji Kamaruddin had travelled on dakwah mission before to Albania in early 1990s via England. I had studied in England from 1989 to 1992 and travelled to most of European countries during study breaks in that period. But it was my first journey on dakwah and tabligh mission to this part of the world. All of us were granted 3 months visa on arrival without any difficulty. The sight of men in white robe and amamah attracted some attention of other passengers who were lining up at the immigration, customs and security check-points at the airport. But there was an atmosphere of calm and friendliness when we were passing the security checkpoint. One of the security officer even cracked a joke with three of the elderly men in our jamaat , each one of them with walking stick, asking them cheerfully if they have any weapons to declare.

At the exit point we were greeted warmly by three Malaysian students - Iznan, Azizul and Yunus and a local Pakistani ethnic brother, who had been waiting for our arrival since before dawn. We were then driven to Pak Muhammadi Masjid at 212 Land Str, Frankfurt am Main in two vehicles.

Pak Muhammadi Masjid was a newly built masjid that was used as a transit masjid for jamaats coming to Germany. Germany has no specific centre yet for the work of dakwah and tabligh. We were told that brothers from the four corners of Germany - east, west, north and south - were all eager for the centre to be based in their own areas, making it difficult to decide where the centre should be. Nevertheless, they met once every three months at a designated masjid on rotation basis to discuss and decide upon matters relating to dakwah and tabligh.  Our routes in Germany had been decided by Sheikh Abdul Rahman Iraqi upon consultation with our jamaat and some other responsible brothers in Germany.


We were to travel along these routes: Frankfurt-Karlsruhe-Stuttgart-Reutlingen-Sigmaningen (Albstadt)-Zurich in Switzerland-back to Ulm in Germany-Augsburg-Munchen (Munich)-Regensburg-Nurnberg/Erlungen-Fulda-Erfurt-Bochum (from Bochum we would have to make consultation on the next routes according to needs).


Germany has about 5-7 million Muslim population or it could be more. About 3 million are the from Turkish ethnic. Hazratji rahmatullah alayhi used to say that when the effort on dakwah is prevalent in Germany, it will also move the effort of dakwah all over Eastern Europe such as Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Czech, Romania etc. The first time that we make ghast, we met a Turk Muslim. After a brief introduction, one of us started to remind us all about Islam and iman that Allah had blessed us with. The short reminder had affected  our Turkish brother who complained that he also wished to become like us. He told us that he prayed to Allah for a strong iman and for Allah to give him strength to stop drinking wine. May Allah bless him and all of us Muslims with hidayat. Maulana Ilyas R.alayhi used to say, "The example of Deen and Iman is liken to a rose plant (deen) whose stems, leaves and flowers have all died and has lost its value. However, when effort was made on its roots (iman) it again blossomed and was admired by all."


Besides meeting a handful of muslims lived nearby Pak Muhammadi Masjid, we were taken to Ulu Cammi Turkish Masjid and Arab Masjid in Dietzenbach to meet more muslims there during prayer times. They gathered around us in large number listening to our targheeb and tasykil.