As the plane starts its decent into Cairo, the first thing you notice about Cairo is how densely populated it is. Building after building compact with the people walking around and the cars driving like there’s no tomorrow. They break at the last minute and as a driver from London I was shocked at the level of danger these guys ignore as the Cab driver took us to down town Cairo. One of the other things that you will notice about Egypt is its sheer beauty; truly Allah SWT has blessed this land with some of the most breath taking sites. You have the pyramids in Giza, the mountains in Sinai and the coastal resort of Dahab.

The main thing that you learn as a Muslim when you see these sites is the blessing of Islam, because clearly the ancient Egyptian where making things up as they went along and in some cases they completely wiped one way out and created a whole new religion. The Kings tried to remain immortal, but to no avail and no matter how much they prepared and stocked away (I am going to quote Daud and Zain) you can’t take it with you when you go. When you speak to the people you notice that they speak with a hint of fear if you mention anything to do with politics and lord forbid mention the name of Mubarak! They say they are happy with Mubarak and that he is doing a good job, but how much of their opinion is based on fear of his secret service and police?

Islam in Egypt is very much on the background with the people doing what they can, the Muslim Brotherhood is ever present and their influence will not die away. If you look at some of the images from the 70s of Cairo, it doesn’t look to different from London. But you look at Cairo now and you see that most of the sisters observe the hijab (in some form). You can’t go Egypt and not visit Azhar and as we walked along the courtyard of the Masjid of Azhar. You ponder how many scholars must have braced this same position as we did? We prayed Salatul Maghrib and again the recitation was so emotional and heartfelt, my friends would say that they never heard recitation like this and I would say “this is the Egyptian style”.

As we made a 20 hour trip to Dahab we drove past Suez Cannel an area which Israel occupied and Egypt took back. We prayed in a Masjid called Masjid Al Hamzah and then I spoke with the Muezzin and he asked us about our trip, he told me the story about Hamzah RA and I told him that I know Hamzah the sahabah and that he was a great strenghth for Islam. I showed him a spear movement to indicate how he was killed and immediately he recognised what I was talking about and said “you must be well read in this”. So we arrived in Dahab a coastal resort of the Red Sea, it’s amazing because you can see the Holy Land and you think just beyond that small sea is the land where Islam started. We came back to Cairo and visited the Museum; we saw the main section of the preserved bodies of a few Kings.

We saw Ramses the second who was the King that chased Musa AS. It was a laugh and a joke at first, then I remembered the utter desperation that Pharaoh died in and you remember the Hadith where Rasool SWAS said remember the killer of all joys that is Death. May Allah SWT guide us and keep us away from dying a death like Pharaoh. This was our last day and I was just so excited to return to London because I missed my home! That concrete hunk of junk!