Cold winds of Croydon

When you think of the cold, you think about how the sahabah must have felt for weeks upon weeks in the freezing cold during the battle of Khandaq. Then you think about the kids and families suffering in Gaza & other refugee camps around the world. So calling to Allah for a few hours in January in the UK is nothing compared what our noble sahabah went through or our Ummah is currently going through right now. But for newbies it can be tough. I think we should be immensely proud of these young brothers aged  17/18. Masha’Allah. 

Croydon was the scene for 3 new debutants. I’ve often had this principle that I won’t start a new team or mission until 3 or more show an interest from the same vicinity. Although 2/3 more people were missing, we went ahead with this much anticipated stall. 

We engaged in bitter cold circumstances with Muslim youth, non Muslims. We gained a few new volunteers and distributed many pamphlets about Allah and Islam. Everyone had a few meaningful chats. Our Br Salman, an experienced daee of many years had epic chats with a few people and brothers Ibrahim, Rayyan, Daniyal and revert Brother Mihai kept busy. Masha’Allah. 

I had one solitary chat with 62 year old Clive. He was a retired Gardener from London, born and bred. He was a cheery chap and enjoyed all of the banter I threw at him! I asked a few questions and then the  conversation eventually lead onto existence and God. He didn’t know much but he said something interesting which triggered me to discuss the ayah in Surah Araf:

“ And ˹remember˺ when your Lord brought forth from the loins of the children of Adam their descendants and had them testify regarding themselves. ˹Allah asked,˺ “Am I not your Lord?” They replied, “Yes, You are! We testify.” ˹He cautioned,˺ “Now you have no right to say on Judgment Day, ‘We were not aware of this.’’I said this when he said something along the lines that maybe everyone knows the truth but forgot! I spoke about the ‘Fitrah’. I cited examples from Justin Barrett & Oliver’s Petrovich. Non Muslim scholars references about children and natural theism. The discussion then went onto that the Universe could have been made by the Milky Way. After cracking a joke about the chocolate from news agents! … I then discussed about transcendency citing examples of a desk or a chair. I then discussed the possibilities about the Universe. Either it came from nothing, made itself? Dependent? To Clive’s credit he did listen and promised to do more research. We ended the conversation about the challenge of the Quran and again citing Non Muslim specialists of Arabic and the Quran: Arbuthnot, A J Arberry, Bruce Lawrence. He took away booklets and agreed to research further upon what discussed. He really was such a genuine cool guy. Very unique and friendly.
This stall was a success and I feel that if the potential of this new team is realised, then we could establish a YC dawah team in this part of the world. The local young brothers seem very eager Masha’Allah. We plan to not only organise more stalls, for the Muslim youth and everyone else but also Halaqahs and events for the families too.
Duas if you read please! Duas that Allah establishes a strong team that calls to Allah … forever…!