Young Families from St Peter's Church, Titchfield visit al Mahdi Centre on 2nd July, 2018.
We recently took some of our young families to meet our Muslim neighbours at Al Mahdi Centre in Funtley, where the young people from the Centre talked about their madrasah, recited from the Qur'an in Arabic and showed us how Muslims pray. We learned to greet one another in Arabic, "Salamun alaykum," which means, "Peace be with you," and talked about our shared hopes for a more peaceful world.
One of our young people read these words from the Bible : "The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them." (Isaiah 11:6)
The Centre has been constructed to harmonise with the natural environment, using green energy sources. We presented the young people with a bat box to help the ecosystem along.
At the end of the evening the young people socialised together on the play equipment and the football pitch in the grounds of the Centre. We are planning a return visit to St. Peter's in the Autumn.
Thanks be to God for a wonderful evening at the Centre and for all the young families God has entrusted to our care. The input from the Imam Sheikh Fazle Abbas and the children at Al Mahdi was perfect.It was very special to see the young people socialising together informally. If only the world were more like this.
Revd. Susan Allman
Vicar of St. Peter's Titchfield
Herebelow is feedback received from some of the children
Dear Sheikh Fazle
Thank you so much for our invitation to Al Mahdi mosque, it was really interesting to have a detailed insight into the Muslim religion and lifestyle. I really enjoyed
meeting all of the people who pray and worship there and it surprised me how friendly and welcoming they all were. I was amazed by the amount of interest of the young children showed and their obvious understanding of the Q'ran. The experience put me in an extremely emotive position by making me come to the realisation of how kind and understanding their religion has made them and I truly respected that aspect of being a Muslim. (Oscar)
My mum and I enjoyed visiting the Centre, learning lots of new things. It was nice to spend time walking and talking with Mahdiya afterwards. (May)
- Thankyou for inviting us to your mosque. It was really interesting seeing how Muslims worship and pray to Allah. I also really enjoyed meeting people from your mosque and it really inspired me how all of your electricity was produced naturally by solar panels. I never knew that Muslim children have to go to school on a Saturday and I also found it interesting to hear how you had to pray towards the Kabah and that you have to pray so often during the day. I hope we will meet again soon. (William)
Attatched is the letter from Gilbert. Click here to view it.ÂÂ