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The 3-month Dawra (Winter Course) began in December 2010 and was a great success, Alhamdulillah. This Dawra, we saw the fruits of our hard labor for the past 2 years. Here are some of the highlights of this year’s Dawra.

1) We invested a lot of effort and many hours into training a few girls to serve as teachers themselves, and take on the responsibility of running the classes. As you may recall, for the past two years during the winter Dawra, the Quran teacher and I used to teach the boys classes inside the Masjid/Community Centre from 8am to 12pm. We would then walk for an hour to the village where the girls classes are held, and teach there from 2pm to 4pm. Finally we would then walk back to the Masjid just in time for our evening classes. The whole adventure was very exciting and exhausting, it reminded us of how it must have been in the early days of Islam in Mecca, and how it must have been whenever Islam entered a city or village as it blossomed like spring flowers after a long dry and devastating winter. As a matter of fact, it reminded me of my early years when my heart was running my affairs, by pulling my limbs to wherever it felt peace and tranquility. In Farsi there is an expression that says, “Jaike Del bera, Pai mera” meaning, “wherever the heart goes, the limbs follow it.” I recall working on weekends in San Jose California from 4am until 1pm, and then rushing to Hayward to attend Shaykh Hamza’s classes on the Sirah. They were held in the old one-room class where, due to lack of space, the brothers used to sit on each others laps and didn’t dare to move in fear that we might miss some of what the Shaykh might say. Something that might rekindle those deep inner feelings and emotions that will increase us in enough Iman to last until we meet again the following weekend. To sit under the feet of our teacher who sat under the feet of his teacher and so on. All the way to Saydina Gabriel, who sat at the feet of the Beloved Prophet, and politely asked to inform him of Islam, Iman and Ihsan. So this year we had 5 girls as teachers, keep in mind that the first 4 girls are orphans, they were:

• Amina: She supervises all the classes and the teachers. She has great potential to become an excellent teachers’ trainer.
• Haseeba: As you remember she was the one who used to beg her family to let her attend public school but they refused due to security reasons and the fact the school is pretty far away. So she used to ask her older sister to read for her pages of the book and she would actually memorize pages of different books without being able to read or write; however this winter she has began to read books better than high school graduates. She has memorized 5 juz of Quran and intends to memorize the Quran in its entirety. This year she taught Quran as well as Prophetic Manners.
• Majabeen: Before becoming a teacher she used to weave rugs, she spent hours and hours sitting behind the rug weaving machine which caused an allergic reaction in her hands which would break into a painful rash that at times would make her hands bleed due to the dye and chemicals used in the rugs. I guess the allergic reaction and rash was a blessing in disguise because it finally convinced her family to stop her work and attend school with us full time. Although, not working has put a burden on the family because the money from rugs used to feed her family, she loves learning and teaching so much that they are willing to do with little in order to keep going to school. At the moment she teaches little girls the first book of Quran called, Qaida Baghdadia. Its a famous book which every child who
  learns to read Quran must complete before starting on the Quran itself.
• Basira: She is our youngest teacher who has a lot of potential because she is full of energy and desire to teach. She never says no to any challenge put forward to her. At the moment she teaches literacy for the two classes, the young students who are beginners in reading and writing, and the older girl’s class who don’t attend public schools.
• Rubina: She is a very special teacher because she would travel every week from the capital, Kabul, just to come and teach the older girls. She is a senior in high school who is preparing to go to college and, at the same time, volunteers 4 hours a day teaching the kids in her neighborhood. When she heard of our classes and our need for more teachers, she agreed to come for two days a week and teach an intensive course where there were 3 sessions totaling 6 hours each day. This intensive weekend classes have prepared the older girls to teach others after the Winter Course or Dawra is over.
• Jamela: She is the Afghani-American who lives in Yemen and takes part in our annual winter Dawra. She has finished memorizing the Holy Quran so she focuses on teaching the reading of the Holy Quran as well as how to memorize it. This year she took a group of 10 girls who read with her more than half of the Quran.

2) The other highlight of this year’s Dawra was being asked by some parents in a different village to start a class in their village. We responded to their request and have begun teaching a new class of 25 girls ages ranging from 7 to 20. The focus is literacy along with a class in Islamic Jurisprudence, Quran and Prophetic Manners. At the moment we have 3 of our girl teachers who run this new class.

Despite the worsening political situation that many people can’t find answers to, the opportunities to educate and offer services that are not political is growing very rapidly. In reality there could be classes for young boys and girls in each village, the type that we have began in 3 villages so far. We get requests from parents in many surrounding villages to start classes for their children, but unfortunately due to resources we have to turn away many parents. We took a few of the female teachers to visit a village near by, the girls from this village complained and opened up to our teachers of how boring and tiresome the winter is due to lack of educational opportunities. For them, the winter seems to last as if its 3 years long and not 3 months. When our teachers told them of how winter passes by so fast due to classes and programs offered, they couldn’t believe that there are a few villages where the girls lives have changed so much through education.

We ask you to make dua that we do our job better with more sincerity and hard work. And bless the community.
Thank you.

• Reading of Holy Quran
• Tajweed of Holy Quran
• Memorization of last Juz of the Holy Quran
• Hanafi Fiqh
• Sirah
• Tarbiya and A ‘dab
• English
• Math
• Literacy

Everyone took part in Fiqh, Sirah and Tarbiyya. A group of students progressed to studying Tajweed while another group focused on memorization of the last Juz. Aside from the above classes, Jamela was able to keep the girls busy with programs such as khatims of Quran, Salawat and Drood for the Prophet (pbuh) on Fridays, and fasting certain days of the month.

During the Dowra, this little village was transformed into a center of learning and dawah. Occasionally, guests would end up attending the classes along with their host who had been attending classes.

Making a Difference

We are involved, and taking responsibility, for giving dawah based on the complete and perfect Manhaj of our Sayeedina Mohammad, Salalahu alihee wa sallam. Since there is so much to do and so many opportunities, we have decided to make a difference and focus our efforts in helping one particular village. This protects us from getting distracted by so many other areas of need. We are in the business of bringing back to life the Sunna of our beloved Prophet (pbuh), as He said “whoever brings back to life my Sunna when corruption has spread in my Ummah, his reward is the reward of a Shaheed.” Since the Sunna of our beloved encompasses everything, we are not hesitant to develop the many aspects of this village including reconstruction, community development, spiritual growth, economical empowerment, and health care. We are using education as the focal point of growth while everything else revolves around it.

The Goal

We want this village to be center for the spread education and dawah, especially to women. We want to train and educate a group of women and girls who can educate and teach other in other villages. We hope they will establish learning circles to promote literacy, Quran, fiqh, tarbiyya and dawah. Many of the local women are involved in public schools where the opportunity for the dawah and education can reach hundreds of girls and their households. Insha’Allah these girls will eventually grow up and be able to teach and spread knowledge in her own house and her local community and province.

Current Status

We are at the most critical and beautiful stage, laying the foundation and base for what is to come in the future. At the moment, we have about 50 girls who are going through their primary secular and Islamic education phase. At this stage, they learn to become literate and knowledgeable in the 3 aspects of our dawah (ilm, tazkia, and dawah). As they become more popular throughout the village, more parents are recognizing the great benefit. They understand the importance of knowledge and become willing to send their daughters to become part of our dawah.

Accomplishments of the 2009 Dowra

1. The best part was our literacy program, in the past we used to work under a different organization, but Alhamdulillah we have been able to bring the literacy into our own program.
2. The location where the classes took place did not have a proper toilet facility, it was run down, didn’t have a door, and it was even dangerous to use. We fixed it up by cementing, installing a proper door, and tiling the floor. Across from the bathroom, we built a new shower and wudu area which they previously did not have. Previously, the girls occasionally had to take showers inside the kitchen for lack of space. They were forced to use the kitchen to heat up the water and keep warm, especially during the cold winter. Alhamdulillah, we purchased a furnace and installed it in the new bathroom/Wudu area where they had plenty of privacy and clean warm water for ghusul and wudu.
3. Purchased uniforms for the 50 girls which included black jilbabs and white scarves.
4. There were three groups of girls, one group read the whole entire Quran, the second group studied Tajweed, and the third group memorized the last Juz of Quran.
5. The students were also able to finish 2 of the 4 books of sirah for beginners, along with half of a fiqh book, and half of a book on adab and tarbiyya.
6. For the very first time we were able to send a few of our girls to another village for the funeral of a woman. Unfortunately, it is common for women to do some un-Islamic practices during the funeral and burial. Our students were able to advise them and occupy themselves and others with reading of the Quran, which they had learned during the Dowra.
7. We held a graduation ceremony where the girls read some Quran, Hadith and words of advice, followed by the handing out of certificates and gifts for completing the winter course.

Pictures from the Dowra have been posted.

1. Built two rooms for the teachers who live within the community centre.
2. Built one kitchen.
3. Built two temporary bathrooms.
4. Worked further on the hydro-electricity this should start functioning soon.
5. Built 3 mini-bridges.
6. Distributed over 500 books in Fiqh, Adaab, Seera, Rules of Tajweed, and etc.
7. Winter course 2008

My main purpose for going this time was to benefit from the winter season and start the dawah efforts. During the winter all the schools shut down due to heavy rain and snow which accompanies very cold weather, but Alhamdulillah Allah blessed us by making the weather such that we were able to hold this dawah/deen intensive without too much difficulty. We advertised that our Masjid will hold its first annual winter course, and we posted these signs in nearby villages. We were shocked on the day of registration, over 300 students signed up. We took a survey and many students had difficulty in secular subjects such as reading and writing Farsi, and Math, so we included these subjects along with our Islamic subjects such as Hifz, tafseer and tajweed of Holy Quran, Hanafi Fiqh, and Prophetic Characteristics.

We divided the students into two groups, men in the morning and women in the afternoon. It was a very intense winter program, it began after Fajr and ran all the way to 12 o’clock. Then from 2pm all the way to 8pm. We had about 50 adult women who could not come to our community centre due to long distance and lack of transportation, so I and another teacher offered to go and teach them in their respective village which was about an hour away in walking distance. Although it was rough terrain during the winter season due to mud, snow and rain, we enjoyed it extremely because it made us walk in the footsteps of our Holy Prophet and those who came after him while delivering and spreading this beautiful deen of ours.

We were shocked and extremely surprised how little these women knew about their deen. The first day I asked them to name a few Prophets or Companions of our Prophet, nobody knew anything. They had very little knowledge of Fiqh and Islamic Manners, so we began by teaching them Quran, Fiqh and Adaab. Within a week we saw great changes in them, they began to dress better, talk better and many of them asked us to change their names from names which didn’t have a positive connotation or meaning to names such as Aminah, Taibah, Husna and Fatima. Many of these girls had never attended a formal class before due to the difficult times they had faced for the past 30 years; it was very pleasing to see them attend these classes with such excitement. I wasn’t aware that many of them couldn’t read or write, when I used to ask them to read from the book, they would actually read and I was later to find out that they had actually memorized the pages of the books due to reading it over and over with one of the girls who could read. At times we would be late for the class due to snow and rain, and these girls would call us to make sure we don’t miss a class.

At the end of the winter course, those who returned to public schools began testing their teachers in the subjects which they had studied with us, and many of the teachers could not answer these girls’ questions. They were surprised at the change which had take place and asked these girls about their winter course and wanted to meet the teachers who had ignited the light in their hearts for learning and drawing near to Allah. At the end of the course we held a graduation ceremony for the girls which was attended by our sisters who are involved in our dawa efforts, such as Khadija Mujadidi (daughter–in-law of Hazrat Sahib Sibghatullah Mujadidi) Suraya Ayoubi from the Ministry of Education and Malali Wasil from Massachusetts who distributed books, and pens to the attendees for successfully completing the winter course. Sister Malai is currently in Kabul helping out in the reconstruction of her beloved country Afghanistan. Many students have returned to their respective duties such as farming, but these women continue to hold classes on daily basis with one of our teachers who still continue to walk an hour to teach them.

Please continue make dua and give us your feedback and suggestions.

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• View photos from this trip

-Niamatullah Rahmani

Alhamdulillah the building of the masjid has completed! In addition to the actual building, walls around the masjid have also been completed. The interior has been painted and furnished as well. There was an initial opening ceremony inside and approximately 700 people showed up for the program.  People from different cities and backgrounds all took part in the historic event.  A true blessing from Allah. Included in the program was a katim of Quran, lectures and talks by various individuals, lunch, Juma prayer, and long goodbyes. The very first Juma in he masjid was held and inshAllah will continue.

Hydro-Electric Power

We began work on the hydro-electric power plant. InshAllah the plant will provide approximately 5 kilowatts of electricity which will suffice the center (masjid) along with the village and a few other masjids, public school, clinic, and police station nearby. This idea was in accordance with our “green friendly” standards in trying to make any project friendly and beneficial to both the people and the environment. The power would increase the resources and capability of the village and allow the people to run programs and services more consistently, inshAllah.

Unfortunately however this project is currently on hold due to lack of funds. The cost is about $7000 to finish the project. So far we have invested about $2000 but are in need of approximately $5000. Despite this though we hope to inshAllah have electricity in the next 2 months or so. By then we hope to have enough funds and the water level will rise enough to support the system.

Education and Health

We put forward a proposal with the ministry of education and its Islamic madrasas. The proposal was to establish an official link of sorts between Tarim, Yemen, and Afghanistan. They were very impressed and willing to work with us, Alhadulillah. They will soon send a delegation to Dar al Mustafa to see its programs and possibly find a way to work together. We will see how this goes, things are looking promising inshAllah.

The medical clinic is currently on hold. The government is not sure what they want to do however we are working with them to try and figure something out. A clinic would be very beneficial as medical resources are scarce. InshAllah the project will pick up soon and the people wil receive benefit.

Overall things have been busy. JazakAllah khair to everyone who continues to support the project. Your continued support (of any kind), most especially dua, is much appreciated. It is by the will of Allah that we are able to find benefit within our communities. Please send your comments, feedback, and ideas. We would love to hear from you! InshAllah a new video will be coming soon as well. Until then you can view the new photos and current videos under the photos section on the right.
Walaykum AsSalam

by Zohra Atmar

The author of this series is an Afghan-American from the Mustafa Center community who is currently living and working in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Since returning to Afghanistan, I have met a wide range of Afghans who grew up in the West and have come back to work here. Some work for a few years before burning out and leaving, while others determine that they simply will be based from Afghanistan for the rest of their lives. Some come with a predetermined amount of time they want to spend – say two years – and move on when they are on done, while others find that their planned six months become a year, then two, then three and so on.

Among this group of returnees are people who, sadly, never were able to succeed materially in the West but still come back determined to have important government positions, be called “rayees-sahib” and have more servants than necessary in their long-time family homes in Kabul. There are far fewer of another group who actually did quite well from a material perspective in the West, and are truly eager to give something back to the country. Both of these groups are generally older in age.

Then, you have the young adults. This is a group in their 20s and 30s who, for a variety of reasons, find themselves in Afghanistan, a place they were either born in and left at a young age, or a place that only existed in the stories of their parents and in the background of the international headlines while growing up. This is an interesting group because – while you still have representation of the groups that are interested only in exploiting Afghanistan – you also have some of the most sincere young people you can ever meet, determined to help this country in way they can.

Among these people is a brother by the name of Niamatullah Rahmani. Many in the Mustafa Center community will recognize him as a visitor from earlier in the year who spoke about a masjid he was building in a village north of Kabul, on family-owned land that was given up for this purpose.

Br. Niamat splits his time between his family in Yemen, the US and Afghanistan. A busy man who is dedicated to the deen, his family and the future of Afghanistan, he has been working hard for the past five years to develop a community in Parwan province, his paternal ancestral homeland about an hour north of Kabul. There, he is building a masjid, an accompanying school that will include a focus on adult literacy and vocational educational, a clinic, as well as variety of small infrastructure projects including wells, dykes, bridges, and canals to assist the flood-prone poor agricultural area with ease of movement.

Recently, I was able to visit the village and get a first-hand view of the progress the community is making in the different projects. In some ways what I saw was typical to Afghanistan: a poor agricultural society with extremely kind and generous people. What was atypical, however, was a sense of collective pride and community that spilled over when touring the masjid building. Though still unfinished, the large, open building had a significant amount of space dedicated to female learning circles, as well as classrooms downstairs for future practical skills, vocational, and literacy classes. Both of these are sorely missing from typical Afghan village masjids, and are already indicative of fundamental and positive changes to come. The community has long recognized education, both traditional Islamic, as well as practical literacy skills to be essential to a better future for all members of the community. After years of instability, poverty, and darkness – there is now a bright shining light in this village through Masjid-Al-Rahman.

More specifically, it is one person, Br. Niamat, and his perseverance, hard work and countless sacrifices that made this happen. We know that all praise is due to Allah (swt), and it is through His call to spread the nur of the deen – in a land which had seen only the most perverted versions of Islam recently – that Br. Niamat was given the blessings to carry out this important mission. This project that has put food on the tables of all the workers who have been involved in the building thus far, has closely united a community and offered them a renewed sense of pride, accomplishment and future success.

The project, however, is a product of sacrifice and dedication; not just Br. Niamat’s, but also of his family, who has stood beside him during long absences while he has worked away raising awareness and building support. It is also a product of the sacrifices of the many generous people across the globe that have provided crucial funding. And, finally, it is the product of sacrifices of the actual villagers, who spend their precious time off from tending their fields and flocks hammering nails and mixing cement, in hopes a better future for their community.

One can talk on and on, as the Afghan diaspora has a tendency to do, about what things are wrong with Afghanistan. The Masjid Al-Rahman project is one of the things that is right with Afghanistan. It is the result of the coming together of the sacrifice of many different people – led by a sincere brother dedicated to the cause of Allah (swt) who is making a real difference. Everyone involved, from those funding to those building, recognized a need for traditional and Islamic education, and are now doing something about it – sacrificing time, energy, and money in the process.

During this blessed month, when the pilgrims in Mecca are remembering the sacrifice our beloved Prophet Ibrahim (upon him be peace) was willing to make, we should remember that sacrifices are necessary to make progress in the way to God and to improve the world in which you live. If you are interested in making your own financial sacrifice for the Masjid Habib al-Rahman community, please visit www.afghanistanrises.org to find out how.