My Memoirs part 23
Piccadilly Tavern
While going to East London Masjid, I would pass by Liverpool Road where the head office of the UK Islamic Mission was based: it is most likely this place came in the possession of the Mission through Dr Mustafa Azami. At the time, Saleem Kiyani was the president of Mission and through his office I would receive invitations for speeches in different places. In 1977, I was invited to give a speech to a group of English people. In these days, I would depend on the map” A-Z” to travel in London. I had with this booklet determined the way to my destination and arrived in Piccadilly, in the heart of London. I parked my car and then started to walk with my booklet in my hand towards the building, not knowing the meaning of the word “Tavern”. As I came near my desired location, I noted there was a shortcut through a narrow alley but as I walked along the alley, I realised the area was surrounded by tall metal fences. I had a choice to walk the long way back or to try and jump the fence. Being a young man, I decided to jump the fence, but in my defence, it was tall, and I fell, with my glasses falling and my foot twisting. I picked myself up from the ground and limped slowly across the road to sit on a bench and rest my foot. When I lifted my head, I noted that Piccadilly Tavern was directly before me.
I walked slowly for the first time into a tavern. At the reception desk, I was informed that my hosts were waiting on another floor of the building. I went up through the stairs and saw a round table of 10 to 12 men and women gathered. They were drinking wine and offered me a glass as well. I asked for water only and during my presentation I spoke about Islam but also about the wisdom of the prohibition of alcohol. As time passed, I noticed that my foot was swelling, and the pain was steadily increasing. Walking was painful and I would not be able to climb down the steep stairs, so my hosts offered that two of them would hold me up from each side, and thus take the weight off my feet. But the thought of emerging from a Tavern, unable to walk without help, was not to be contemplated so I declined their kind assistance and hobbled down myself. Despite the pain in my foot, I managed to reach the car and drive back home. I was reflecting why this accident had taken place and I could not think of anything else but what is mentioned in this Hadith: “Do not sit on a table on which there are cups of wine” (Tabarani). And where there is doubtful matter, the Hadith states: “Leave what you consider doubtful for what you do not consider doubtful”. Perhaps I was being warned to be careful where I entered, as a place of evil cannot entertain any good.
A similar situation occurred some 40 years later. An Arab friend who was active in the humanitarian sector called a meeting to present a project in which he also invited Arab friends for dinner. The place of the invitation was a Lebanese restaurant. They had served the food and we had started eating when I noticed that some Musicians with their instruments and 2 female singers were preparing to start their show. There was not enough time for me to make my friend notice this as he was talking to his guests at some distance, so I found that it was best to take my coat and leave the place. When the others saw me leaving, they also took the exit direction. I thanked Allah that I was able to leave this place with honour, and I would lament at the intellect of my friend, who was a known personality, for choosing such a dodgy place for this meeting.
6. The visit of two great figures.
It was approximately 1978 when my father Shaykh Abdul Ghaffar Hasan and before him my teacher Shaykh Muhammad Nasiruddin Albani came to London.
For my father it was a private visit. When I was in Nairobi (East Africa), he also honoured me with a visit and in London also he took some time off to undertake a long travel to fulfil my wish. I made some notes in my diary regarding my father’s visit and reproduce them below.
“My father’s trip to the UK:
On the 31st of July 1976, I had moved from Nairobi to London. Two years later, my noble father honoured me with a visit there as well. We took him to see historical places and Winsford Safari Park where we saw for the first-time dolphins in action.
Religious activities here were enough to keep my noble father busy. My friend and my father’s student Hafiz Nithar Ahmad organised a talk for him in Balham Masjid. Friends from the UK Islamic Mission organised a talk in their Markaz. He led a Friday prayer in East London’s old and transitory building. An acquaintance from South London took him to his house, afterwards we went to the North.
In the visit to Birmingham, my brother Mahmood Ahmad Mirpuri (rah) arranged a meeting by gathering friends.
30 miles from Birmingham, there is the city of Leicester where Professor Khurshid Ahmad established a centre of knowledge and research in the form of the Islamic Foundation. Thus we saw the ancient Markaz of this foundation and met again our brother Khurram Jan Murad. One should remember that these two (Khurshid Ahmad and Khurram Murad) were companions of my noble father during his time with the Jamaat (Islami) and also among his students through the educational centres (of Jamaat e Islami).
Afterwards we went to Rochdale near Manchester to meet Naqi Ali (rah), another companion of his time with the Jamaat (Islami), who was in the Neeli Masjid (in Rochdale). Before he had moved from Lahore to Karachi and then he ended up in the UK where he passed away. His funeral prayer was led in the old building of East London Masjid and his body was afterwards taken to Pakistan for burial.
Basheer Diwan, who was the president of the Islamic Foundation Nairobi, had moved to the UK before me. He passed away during my noble father’s visit and my father led his funeral prayer. He was buried in a cemetery in Tottenham. 29 years after his death, in 2007 his wife passed away and I lead her funeral prayer upon the wish of her children. They found a place to bury her in the same cemetery, may My Lord forgive them both and have mercy on them.
The trip of my father was more related to Da’wah than sightseeing. I was very delighted that he had approved of my Da’wah in both places (Africa and UK). He granted me precious advice and in my next meetings with him, he would always provide scholarly and religious guidance.
O Allah grant him forgiveness and mercy and make him enter Your Jannah Al-Firdaws, Ameen Ya Rabbil Alameen” (As quoted in “Molana Abdul Ghaffar Hasan, Hayat wa Khidmat” p 220-221)
My beloved father had a great fervour and taste for the understanding of the Quran; hence his lectures and Friday sermons would be focused greatly on this topic. After this short trip, he returned to Madinah.
Shaykh Muhammad Nasiruddin Albani came to the UK for Dawah purposes, and I remained with him in his trip to London, Birmingham and Woking. At the time he was not very famous in England hence only a limited number of people were able to benefit from him.
In a gathering, a person asked that we have many odd issues in the West pertaining to Halal and Haram, so how should we act? Shaykh replied that I will give you a saying from the land of Shaam:
Whoever does not want to have nightmares should not go to sleep in graveyards.
Our friend from Madinah Hafiz Nithar Ad-Din Ahmad had invited Shaykh Albani for dinner, and knives and forks were present on the table which Shaykh used. Among those invited, there was a young Ahl e Hadith from a scholarly family from India who had strong religious orientations, who asked: “Is this not an opposition to the Sunnah? Why do you use a knife and a fork instead of your hand?” The Shaykh smiled and he pointed to the watch that he was wearing and asked: “Is what you are wearing Sunnah?”. The Shaykh was proficient in the field of debate, and would respond to questions softly until he had convinced the other person.
In Nairobi I had started to shave the hair on my cheeks but leaving the rest of the beard. It is called in Urdu custom “Khatt Banana”. Shaykh (Albani) objected that it was not correct to shave such hair as they were part of the beard. Al-Hamdulillah since this time, my beard remained on the same form as the Shaykh advised. It should be mentioned that according to the Shaykh, there is nothing wrong with trimming above one fist’s length which is based upon the action of Abdullah ibn Umar, so I would time to time dare to embellish my beard according to this.
Shaykh Albani also went with me to the British Museum where the manuscripts of the section of the oriental sciences were the centre of his attention. He had a good time here checking the manuscripts.
Some Arabs organised a talk with him in Dar Ar-Ri’ayah in London.
We also went to Woking where we visited Shah Jahan Masjid. This was the most ancient Masjid of UK; the money of its construction was gifted by the ruler of Bhopal, the empress Shah Jahan Begum in 1889. The construction of this Masjid came through the efforts of an orientalist Dr Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner. He was from Hungary and expert in many languages. He went to India under British rule and stayed for a long time in Lahore attached to the Oriental College and Government College. After twenty years, he returned to England and purchased a piece of land in Woking to establish an educational institute which would contain places of worship of all the major religions of India. The visit of the Queen of Bhopal, Shah Jahan Begum to London gave him an opportunity so he requested her to grant him the money to build a Masjid and after receiving a huge donation, he was able to build the Masjid. Shaykh Albani let the prayer in this Masjid and also had the opportunity to see the library next to it.
These few days spent with Shaykh Albani would always perfume my memories.
7. Trip to Chicago for teaching purpose.
In summer 1977, I was invited by Dar Al-Ifta (Riyadh) to participate in a teaching Dawrah lasting forty days held in Chicago (US). This Dawrah was co-organised by Jamiyah Muhammad ibn Saud and 50 Black Imams of Masajid were invited to attend and learn from the scholars.
The building of a college in Naperville in the suburb of Chicago was beautified with gatherings of lessons. The organiser of the conference, who was a teacher in Jamiyah Al-Imam, was hesitating about which topic should be given to me as at the time I didn’t have a PhD degree, but the choice of my invitation was by Dar Al-Ifta and now they had to make the decision. I was conferred the task to teach selected Ahadith.
Our students were Imams of Masajid, but they had basic knowledge of the Arabic language and their complete capital was limited to the essential knowledge of Islam. Consequently, my course of Hadith and its explanation in English was the centre of great interest for the students, and the same people who were hesitant about me at the beginning were full of praise by the end of the course.
Among these Imams was an elderly brother of Malcolm X, Imam Siraj Wahhaj and many other Imams who have since become very well-known and influential.
This was in the month of July and Ramadhan had started, and our food for Suhoor and Iftar was prepared in the cafeteria and some staff were charged with serving it to us. It was very hot, and it was written in our destiny that we would be served by the citizens of the symbol of Western culture, meaning the US. Their men and women wearing skimpy outfits in hot weather is the norm of their lives and we had the strength to lower our gazes. The United States of America was celebrating 200 years of independence from British rule, declared on 4 July 1776, and for the past two years the festivities were running in parks, museums and other venues.
Among our teaching team was an Egyptian teacher Ustadh Ali Ahmad Jarishah. He joined us for the first day for Iftar but after seeing the state of dress of the female staff, he refused to come back to the cafeteria. We would take some food for Iftar for him and I saluted his resolution not to enter the dining area again.
During our stay in Chicago I had the opportunity to see the highest building there, Sears Tower, and it is a matter of pride that its designer was a Muslim expert from the former East Pakistan (i.e. Bangladesh). This building had 110 levels. In Chicago, I purchased the biography of Malcolm X written by the famous American author Alex Haley, which is a golden chapter of the history of the Black American Muslims.
I have mentioned previously the injury on my ankle which caused me great pain after the incident in London, and during my walk in Chicago I slipped again, leading to more injury and a visit to the hospital. I returned home with the gifts of a cast on my right leg and a stick in my hand, a souvenir of the last days of this Dawrah.
At the end of the course, students mentioned their happy memories and one of them said:
“We were so naughty that one of our teacher left on crutches!!”
Then after some 40 years, I saw Siraj Wahhaj on a stage in a conference in London whose founder was the Zaman family from Jeddah. I was also invited to this conference and Siraj Wahhaj remembered his teacher. During his speech, he mentioned me with respect and praised the memories of his lessons of Hadith. The fortunate students are those who remember their teachers.
I will remind my readers that every individual from whom you learned a word of good is your teacher and respecting him is an obligation upon you.
https://siratemustaqeem.mjah.org.uk/ghahe-ghahe-baz-khawan-e-qissa/