Huzurala (TUS) did fasl that Ashara Mubarakah of 1429 will be held in Colombo for the second consecutive year. Truely when HJ told me about the fasl I said “You must be joking”, She said that it was done. Well my heart had started pounding as I had to go for khidmat husainiyah, but wished would be there, knee bent before Maula (TUS). There are times when we are much further away yet closer.

Amibikapur in Chhattisgarh state of India. I had never heard of this place before in my life. I had a booking of Ahmedabad but then it was more then a 24 hour train ride to Ambikapur. I was told it was somewhere near Nagpur and thus my contact came in handy. Abbas bhai started working on his part to help me find the routes while I managed to re-route my flight directly to Nagpur, a day earlier then I was to travel. Within a few hour my itinerary was finalized and I was at my moze even before 48 hours of getting the farman. The coolest thing was that I had known the exact routes, complete bookings and also had the contact numbers at hand. I had called up Ambikapur and informed them of my arrival time a day after.

Sometimes we just don’t know how things happen but they do. In a rush I packed whatever I had my hands on, as I was to fly in a few hours, a route I had never traveled. As I journeyed towards India my mind and soul flocked to Colombo and I knew I would miss it.

At the moze there were around 58 peole in all including Mumineen who came from the nearby towns Vishrampur and Surajpur. Ambikapur was a town surrounded by forests and was quite peaceful.

As for the daily routine waaz, two times of niyaaz and majlis. It was almost daily that we heard the Kalemaat fo Aqa Maula (TUS) especially the clips from al-Vazarat. We a had direct satellite relay from Colombo and the Mumineen watched Aqamaula (TUS) on the big screen using a DLP projector for the first time.

There was no madrasa there and the children were far from deeni talm, I had already prepared myself to have 3 children recite the shahadat of Maulana Aliasger, Maulana Abbas and Maulana Husain (AS) at the night majlis and it worked like a charm for everyone. The happiness of the children reflected that our Maula (TUS) would be happy.

It had been many years since I had done waaz but the essence of it all was the Dua and Nazaraat of Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin (TUS). The marasiya reciters were good, the attendance was timely and good. Everything was just too good and the most important part was that I could feel the presence of Maula’s duas as days passed by.

The day of Ashura, we were most fortunate to listen to the duas of Maula (TUS) and what else could be better.

From the many things that I got from Ambikapur one is the most precious that will live with me for ever. The Wali’s family who had been my wonderful hosts were originally from Shajapur and they had the “juti mubarak” of Syedna Abdul Qadir Najmuddin along with his alamat sharifah and mohar. I was fortunate to have the barakat of these.

Mumineen are the same where ever we go, the children of the same dawat. The love and caring among us is remarkable and its all because of our love for Aqamaula (TUS).

May Allah Subhanahu bless our beloved Maula (TUS) with a long and healthy life. Ameen