On December 24th, Sheikh Muhammad Ramadan the principal of NurulHuda Qur'anic School along with 4 teachers accompanied a group of 26 very excited students to Turkey. First stop was Istanbul, where they stayed in a four star hotel and enjoyed a few days of sightseeing. After this they took a boat journey to Bursa for more sightseeing, the highlight of which was taking a ride on the cable cars up the mountains to a winter wonderland. There they enjoyed snowmobiling across the snow through the snow filled fir trees. They returned to Istanbul for more sightseeing and shopping! The week flew by and the tired but happy travellers returned to Dublin on January 1st.
Each day was structured for the students. They awoke for Fajr prayer, afterwhich one of them shared a spiritual reminder that they had prepared with the group. The reminders that the girls prepared themselves were as follows:
- Faith in Allah
- The benefits of Fajr prayer
- Truthfulness
- Modesty
- Respect among people
- Dua
- Good treatment
- What Islam has taught me
- Lady Khadijah,the wife of the Prophet (pbuh)
- Signs of the Day of Judgement
- The Prophet's Biography
- Manners
- Tolerance
- Repentence
- Fasting
Two of the three hotels that hosted the group had a swimming pool, so the girls enjoyed some swimming before breakfast. At 11am daily, a coach took the girls along with a tour guide to various sites around Istanbul and Bursa, which they agreed was great, because they learned a lot from the information shared with them by their guides. Sheikh Muhammad and his team packed in many interesting sites for the trip:
- Hagia Sophia
- Blue Mosque
- Topkapi Palace Museum
- Grand Bazaar
- Eyüp Sultan Mosque
- Suleymaniya Mosque
- Fatih Mosque
- Panorama 1453 Museum
- Miniatürk
- Bosphorous Cruise
- Cable Car Ride
In the evening after dinner, the girls sat for some educational lectures prepared by their teachers,which included interactive discussions within the group. These were chosen by consulting with the girls and their parents prior to the trip, via a questionnaire, asking what topics they'd like to see covered:
- How to refine your personality?
- Proper Hijab
- Self Confidence
- How to be a good example
- My mother; my path to paradise
- Allah's names and attributes
- Stories from the Qur'an
- How to improve your Iman (faith)
- Being mindful of Allah
- How to deal with difficulties
Before lights out the girls had time to relax and reminisce about their day, as well as contact family back home sharing pictures and stories from their adventures in Turkey. It was a wonderful trip alhamdulillah. Beautiful memories and long lasting friendships were made.
