Rihla

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Don't know if you have heard about this deen-intensive programme called Rihla. It's a pretty cool programme because it is like going back to the time when the Prophet (saw) received the revelation from ALLAH, learn about the science of Qur'an, the hadith and all I need to know about Islam in a short period of 3-week time. The coolest thing is to be able to learn from some great shuyukh! Also, this trip will give me a 'mahram' visa since I failed to get Hajj visa last year due to the availability of mahram. The tuition fee is not very expensive and it includes the umrah package with 4* hotel, etc. I applied really last minute, it was like 2 days before the closing date. Alhamdulillah, I got the acceptance letter now.

But...

The trip will be from 6-26 July 2007, which means there is still 2 weeks before school holidays and 1 week in the summer holidays. Now the problem is, I still don't know about my schedule with schools as if the schools are still open, there is still a chance to collect data in the schools. I don't want to risk postponing the data collection to the next academic year which is like a 2-month gap. But on the other hand, it might be a good idea to give me a bit of time to analyse the data before I go on and collect more. However, the problem is I don't know the exact schedule yet and now I'm still waiting for the replies from the schools which I'm following.

In this summer holiday, I'm planning to teach the girls in the mosque tajwid and want them to start memorising Qur'an seriously from the beginning with the understanding of the Arabic meanings. Since they are doing their GCSE Islamic Studies at the moment and will finish the last paper on 18th June, I think I can only start the tajwid class after that. If I go to this trip, I'm really hoping that I can go back to Malaysia from Saudi. That will save a lot of money because the ticket from Saudi to Malaysia is quite cheap. So, it this is the case, what should I do with the girls?

Right, the next thing is to go home to Malaysia. Since I will pay quite a handsome amount of fee for this trip, to go back to Malaysia, I need to spend a few more hundreds. To get a cheap ticket or rather a free ticket to Malaysia, I can ask my college or faculty to support my trip to Malaysia for Conference. Yes, there is a conference in Malaysia called the 4th International Qualitative Research Convention 2007 at University Malaya. It will be on 3-5 September 2007 and the closing date of paper submission is TODAY! And I still don't have a great idea to write a good proposal and abstract to confirm a place! See, if I get on this conference, there is no point of me going back to Malaysia after the Rihla. It's better for me to go in September then.

So, the conclusion is, I like to go to this Rihla, but I don't know if I should after considering all these circumstances. My friend said, why not next year? Well, next year would be the last year of my PhD and by July 2008 (if they still doing the Rihla at this time), I'll be VERY busy writing up my thesis and rush the dateline for viva. Ok then, what about 2009? No, this programme only takes students from UK, US and Canada. In 2009, I'm no more a UK student cause inshaALLAH I will be graduated and back home in Malaysia.

So, what do you reckon?

Wassalam.