Abu Dhabi Travel Report: Day 1

 I left South Africa on Sunday evening the 18th of October to attend the World Halal Travel Summit in Abu Dhabi. Although there have been pervious halal summits in Malaysia, I was told, that a Halal summit of this magnitude has never been arranged before.

During my flight I was given the dinner menu, and under the beverage section there were various options of alcohol. This was a clear sign of the extend to which our needs of Muslim travellers have been over looked.

I arrived on Monday morning and were taken to our hotel to have breakfast and freshen up.

At 9:30am I was transported to the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre where the summit is being hosted. I was amazed at the size of the exhibition center. I would estimate it to be three times the size of Sandon Conventional Center.

The summit commenced with a key note adress by a representative from the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority.

Thereafter there was a presentation by Reem Al Shafaki. She spoke about expanding the Halal market and the challenges that the market is facing in raising finance.

El Nur Seyidli, from Halal booking.com spoke defining the concept of Halal. The Halal market essentially covers 5 areas:
1. Halal food and drink
2. Gender related nuances (dedicated beeches for the different genders)
3. Non Alcoholic environment.
4. Facilities for prayer.
5. Muslim friendly activities

There were a number of other talks that focused on various aspects of Halal.

I spent the entire day at the summit and by sunset I was brought to the hotel to catch up on much needed rest.

Beautiful Anecdote

There was a Sheikh who was teaching his students Aqeedah (faith), He taught them 'la ilaha illa Allah' and explained it to them.

The Sheikh loved keeping pets, so he was given a parrot by one of the students as a gift.

And with days the Sheikh started to like the parrot.

He used to take him in his lessons, until the parrot knew how to say la ilaha illa Allah, He would to utter it night and day. One day the students found their Sheikh crying and sobbing.

When they asked him the reason, he told them that a cat attacked the parrot and killed it.

They said: Is this the reason you are crying! If you wish we will bring you another parrot better than that one.

The Sheikh said: I am not crying because of this... But it made me cry when the cat attacked the parrot.

It was shouting and screaming until it died.

He use to say la ilaha illa Allah a lot.

However, when he was attacked by a cat he forgot to say it.

He did nothing but scream!

Because he used to say it with his tongue only, and his heart did not learn it, so it didn't feel it!

Then the Sheikh said: I am afraid to be like this parrot, we live our lives repeating la ilaha illa Allah with our tongues, but when death comes we forget it because our hearts did not know it.

When he told his students, they started crying in fear of lack of honesty in saying laa ilaha illa Allah.
___________
I ask Allah give us death with " ﻻ ﺍﻟﻪ ﺍﻻًﺍﻟﻠﻪ

" in our hearts and upon our tongues,

aameen!

Parenting

Tuesday, 29th September 2015

As a parent you need to enjoy every phase of your child's life. Sometimes parents - more so fathers - are so preoccupied with work, sports, hobbies etc. that they do not end up spending quality time with their children on a daily basis. It is important that familes have, at least, one meal together ever day. This will create love and bond the family. There are so many challenges out there, these days. One powerful way to combat all the challenges is to establish good channels of communication with your children.

May Allah protect our kids and grant them the best of both worlds. Aameen