I woke up at 4am! So late. I wanted to wake up earlier to prepare some last minute stuff, so I was rushing!
We prayed Fajr at Darul Ummah, Shadwell, before we drove to the Ummah Welfare Trust office in Forest Gate, to meet up with the rest of the Trek team. Slowly the team came one by one. I waited in the office, marvelling at the work charity workers do.
There was two minibuses waiting for us. One driven by UWT South England Amir, Mufti Habeel Patel and another by Maulana Qamar.
I was allocated to Maulana Qamar's minibus. There was 14 of us there. In total there was two minibuses and two cars. One with a family.
At around 6am we departed. Ustadh Abdul Muqeet, my friend and manager of UWT South England, gave a reminder and read the Du'a of travelling for the group to repeat.
The UWT office is located next to the graveyard where my father, father in-law and recently buried fetus of my child is buried. I was thinking about them whilst we drove off.
Not having had breakfast that morning, I was thankful for the organisers for providing snacks such as sandwiches, crisps, drinks, fruits etc.
It was a pleasant drive. Being up from 4 am, I was so tired... so I dosed off. It was a good sleep. There was nasheeds playing in the background and brothers chatting away. The scenes outside turned from the ugly grey, bricks and mortar to lush green trees and fields.
I woke up here and there. The seats were a little uncomfortable, and I got a slight back pain. But that went away once I tried to readjust myself. I had some snacks with me, that I ate. It was important to have energy for the Trek.
We drove into Wales, and came across country roads. Sheep's dotted along the hills. Rolling hills, a pure greenness all around.
The van drove into smaller roads. "Nearly there." There is a car park with toilet facilities, which I was thankful for as I really needed it. So, whilst waiting for the other van to come, I used the facilities and done my wudu. I was grateful to have got waterproof socks, which can be used to wipe over during wudu without taking it off.
The van arrived. We all got together, a reminder was given, instructions given...and then we set off.
Our first little challenge was to manage a large puddle, almost ankle deep. All of us went through, with a bit of laughter and banter. My socks got wet. But dried up quickly soon after as I was wearing waterproof socks.
We walked through a pathway, mesmerised byAllah's beautiful creation. Trees, hedges, rocky walls; nature brings a different pleasure to the eye.
A stream flowed nearby, which eventually led us to a roaring river. It flowed rapidly. One admires such beauty from afar, but one slip and fall... it's bye bye. A true metaphor of the Dunya, that the Dunya looks beautiful, but if we fall into it, we are doomed. We then went into the woods. Stepping onto rocks here and there, some with water flowing in between them.
There had been some concerns with the weather. Rain and a storm was forecast, but Alhamdulillah it didn't turn out that way. There was some sunshine throughout the day.
We went up some steps in the woods. It was steep. It led us to the first Waterfall. What a marvelous view.
It was my first time at a waterfall. One had to climb over rocks to get to it. We went right behind it SubhanAllah. Getting wet in the process! There was a river here, which one is able to get down in, but is quite risky.
We moved on to waterfall number two. The river gushed down the waterfall, creating a pool beneath. Foam had gathered and reminded me of a Hadith:
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Whoever says, 'Subhan Allah wa bihamdihi,' one hundred times a day, will be forgiven all his sins even if they were as much as the foam of the sea." Bukhari
Ustadh Abdul Muqeet reminded me of another Hadith:
“Nations will soon call upon each other to attack you from every direction in the same way that people gather around an open feast.” Someone asked, “Will that be because of our small numbers at that time?” He (saw) replied, “No, you will be large in number at that time, but you will be like the foam that is carried down by a torrent of water; Allah will remove the fear and respect that your enemies have of you from their hearts, and He will cast Al-Wahn into your hearts.” Someone asked, “What is Al-Wahn, O Messenger of Allah?” He replied, “Love of the Dunya and hatred of death.” [Ahmed]
SubhanAllah, a lot of lessons and reality of these trips.
Here we decided to spend a bit more time as well as have our lunch. It was a good break. We shared lunch, had a nice chat and relaxed. One of the brothers decided to jump into the river! He had done it here before. Such courage mashaAllah!
We went on. The next two Waterfalls were beautiful too. There was more walking, ups and downs, slips and almost falls! Some people were kayaking. That would be fun!
On the way back to our base (i.e.. The carpark), we noticed couple of group members were missing. With no signal, some of the brothers went to look for them, but with no success.
We also lost our track and weren't sure of which way to go back. After about 20 minutes or so, we were other right track, after one of the brothers checked his GPS.
Back at the base, the missing brothers were waiting for us! They merely went off track to use the bathroom!
We freshened up, prayed Zuhr and heard a lovely reminder by the UWT reps. One of them recited verses of the Qur'an so beautifully:
Surah Al-Hashr, Verse 21:
لَوْ أَنزَلْنَا هَٰذَا الْقُرْآنَ عَلَىٰ جَبَلٍ لَّرَأَيْتَهُ خَاشِعًا مُّتَصَدِّعًا مِّنْ خَشْيَةِ اللَّهِ وَتِلْكَ الْأَمْثَالُ نَضْرِبُهَا لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
Had We sent down this Quran on a mountain, you would certainly have seen it falling down, splitting asunder because of the fear of Allah, and We set forth these parables to men that they may reflect.
UWT then gave each member a personalised certificate and thanked everyone for taking part in the challenge. We then prayed Asr and headed back home.
I had fallen asleep on the minibus. It was maghrib time, so we stopped off at a service station. As Maghrib and Esha were close to each other, we prayed Maghrib, then waited a bit for Esha time to come in. We also had dinner together.
Alhamdulillah I reached home around midnight. It was a beautiful trip, one I really needed. Alhamdulillah collectively we raise more than £10,000 for orphans of Afghanistan.
Ummah Welfare Trust is a humanitarian charity which works in over 20 countries, since 2001. They have a 100% donations policy and managed by Ulama.
May Allah accept it, Aameen.
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