Travelogue Germany - Part 4

It's quite a big task for us to know who the imam was among the namazis in turkish masjids. Everyone looks the same and they dressed the same as the europeans - casual clothes, pants and jackets. The imam could only be identified when he entered a room at the mehrab and came out wearing black robe and red and white turkish head gear. Back then, I used to giggle with amusement when sometimes the imam entered the room through a door and came out through another door with changed clothes altogether. I thought he was a bit like Clark Kent changing to Superman. But now I begin to appreciate the whole idea and rationale for the turkish imams to change to the proper attire. Here in Malaysia, I just could no bear the sight of any man wearing office clothes or tucked-in t-shirt and tight pants standing in front of the rows dare to be the imam for other namazis who are more appropriately dressed than he is. I believe it is a total ignorance of the sunnah and utter disrespect of fellow namazis for someone, though he is an appointed imam, to ignore the importance of proper muslim dress code when leading others for namaz. This type of ignorance is prevalent in Malaysia.

We arrived at An-Nur Masjid, Neisser Str. 10, Waldstadt, Karlsruhe on 25 July 2004 in two cars driven by Abdul Rashid and Ashraf Qureshi. An-Nur Masjid also served as an Islamic Centre for the muslim arab community in Karlsruhe. There were daily, weekly and monthly programmes for men, ladies and children. About 10-12 arab youths joined together making effort on dakwah and tabligh here - Abdelaziz Idrissi, Bali Abdelbaki, Tijani, Abdurrahman, Abdurrazak, to name but a few. Not long ago they all had attended an ijtima' of dakwah in France. They were muslim youths fulled of jazbah and energy. 

Were were exhaustively brought to meet many muslims around Karlsruhe. We were brought to every muslim shops meeting the owners and waiting for other muslims there at the shops to meet. They also brought us to political asylum centre where we managed to gather muslims from Bosnia, Croatia, Trinidad & Tobago, Kurdish, Iraq, Palestine, Afganistan etc. They were refugees running away from turmoil in their respective countries, seeking better life in Germany. Since arrival, some of them had never known the direction of the qiblah, let alone performing namaz. We had gathered them at one place and one of us delivered a bayan. It was translated into many languages. This happened for two consecutive days. A lot of them cried during and after bayan and du'a.  We were also moved by the sight. May Almighty Allah strengthen our iman and purify our amal.