Abu Eesa: memories of Ambrose
This is a post I reproduced, with the author's permission, from IslamiBlog; I thought it relevant as it seems symptomatic of the "squeeze" being put on Muslims in some places even here in the UK. The original, with comments, can be found here, insha Allah.
Picking up from a comment on the last post, I'd like to briefly share my thoughts on 'Ambrose', the University of Manchester Islamic Society's Mosque for the last 10 odd years. It closed down today for building work around it and although it will reopen in 6 odd weeks time, it is widely believed that this is the final move from the University in reclaiming their land.
Ambrose has been the envy of Muslim students up and down the country for years and years – and for good reason masha'Allah. It's size and premier central location have made it easy to access and possible to cater (just) for a huge Muslim population. Having personally seen many of the Prayer Rooms in the English Universities, there was simply no comparison.
Personally, I loved Ambrose – in fact I reckon that I spent more of my day there than I would in lectures, absolutely no doubt about it. So:
whether waiting around for fellow mates or just making new ones from all the Freshers;
whether having lunch (back in the day, the Malaysians used to sell the most gorgeous sweet and sour chicken and rice just outside) or just catching a quick tea and biscuit from the 'tea corner';
whether spending the night there whilst travelling through after my student days or spending the day and night there revising for our exams;
whether wrestling with the lads or being almost beaten by the (very fiery) resident Khateeb (who gave many a Mojo a few black eyes back in the day);
whether praying outside on the sheets or praying inside on new carpets donated by foreign students;
whether spending the day reading the free English Islamic literature or whether studying from the full Arabic library donated by some of the foreign tullab al-'ilm that we knew;
whether sitting there arguing with pseudo-Muslims or whether witnessing the countless shahadahs in our more informal da'wah sittings…
I could just go on and on, in fact every student could wax lyrical about their student days and there'll always be loads of time and space for their own beloved student prayer room.
Over the last ten years in Ambrose, we've seen the tears and the laughter, from sublime speeches of the scholars to the absolute farce of the extremists trying to teach us Islam. We've seen the gentle disagreements to the disgrace of punches and police.
Yes, Ambrose the old boy has seen it all.
In any case, Ambrose was always living on borrowed time. It has always been understood that it was on 'lease' to Man Uni ISOC yet the Uni paid for all of its costs and upkeep. The problem that Ambrose was on a multi-million pound piece of real estate was never going to go away and the move to another place was inevitable.
To be honest, the new temporary place, which I understand will become the permanent one insha'Allah will be set up in the old squash courts of the Mcdougall Sports Centre, which although is a bit further away for some, will actually be the same for the Dentistry, Medicine, Pharmacy and Art students. Also, there are stack loads of car parking places which was always a huge problem in Ambrose (and a very expensive one for the Khatibs I can tell you!) so there are many benefits to be gained insha'Allah. I also understand that the refurbishing process and costs (that could stretch to the million mark) will be covered by the Council and Student Union etc which is fantastic news.
So no need to despair folks; we've all got very very fond memories of Ambrose and it's very sad to see it close down, but you can never keep the Sahwah and the Manchester Muslims down – they are indeed a force to be reckoned with.
Long live the Da'wah!
Post all final tributes below…
:-)
