Updated 10 April 2012
The Academy for Learning Islam (A.L.I.) held a three day retreat from March 14th to March 16th 2012, for girls ages 13-15 years. The retreat was held at Hidden Acres, a Mennonite campsite in New Hamburg, about two hours’ drive from Toronto.
A total of 24 girls participated in the retreat, along with five volunteers. The group left by bus from Jaffari Community Center, Thornhill, ON at 8.30 a.m. on Wednesday March 14th. Upon arrival at the campsite the girls settled into their rooms – about 5 girls sharing one room. The place was beautiful with a large common room which was used for prayers and spiritual sessions, a meeting room for classes and discussions, a large kitchen and dining area and beautiful grounds for walking and playing sports.
The theme of the retreat was “Being a Successful Believer.” The girls had classes each morning with Sr. Tahera Kassamali, in which they discussed selected passages from the Holy Qur’an that talked about believers. This was followed by an activity on the concepts learned. The girls also participated in sports and games, both indoors and outdoors, and had a lot of fun activities organized by Sr. Farhana Panju. They also had a chance to see the cooks at work and learn some useful tips from them.
There was a mix of spirituality and religious learning, along with enjoyable activities and working in teams to help cook and clean. This made the retreat a great experience and many of the girls requested longer and more frequent retreats.
Credit goes to the dedicated volunteers: Sr Nusrat Davdani, Sr Anis Fazal, Sr Sultana Abdulla and Sr Farhana Panju, as well as all those who helped in various ways to make this event a success.
The comments below show the impact of the retreat on the girls:
Everybody. . . really enjoyed the retreat and wished it were longer! . . . The spirituality was phenomenal! At salat time we would all already be sitting in the room waiting for Adhan. We wouldn’t just be waiting though; we would either be going over how to recite Adhan in a rhythm, reading Qur’an or discussing a topic. We also woke up for Salatul Layl both days and prayed the whole thing. . . The activities were exceptional! We played many games and after the game we usually used it as an analogy to life and discussed how it shows successfulness or a barrier to be successful and how to overcome that . . . We wish these camps would be more frequent and longer because we all had a blast and we can’t wait for the next one! (Sakina Rashid and Zahra Jessa )
The one week at the retreat was great, it was full of useful information, and I really needed few day away from the city, to meet new people and get closer to Allah by praying on time and all together, the feeling after each namaz was unexplainable, it was amazing, I don't usually wake up early for Namaz Fajar but after waking up these few days I couldn't sleep in after I just had to wake up early and pray to Allah! And the good thing about the retreat was that it wasn't all about religious matters, we also had fun games to get close to each other, and the greatest thing about it was the volunteers, they were truly amazing, they were so friendly and I was very comfortable giving them my opinions and they were very supportive! (Fatemeh Abdolghaffar)
