“Whoever builds a mosque for the sake of Allah, then Allah will build for him a house like it in Paradise.”
It is indeed with great pleasure to be able to give you an exciting update regarding the Al-Qaaem project. Alhumdulliah with the grace of the almighty Allah swt and support from all over the world we are fast approaching the completion of the main phase of the project. We take this opportunity to invite you all to the opening ceremony in when the project is due to be complete inshallah.
Background
The Muslim Khoja Shia Ithna-asheri community of Peterborough has its foundations in the families who settled here after being expelled from Uganda in early 1970s. Gradually, the community expanded until in 1978 it became the first purpose-built Mosque for the Khoja Shia Ithna-asheri community in the West with the new Imambargah and centre built in 1991, opened by Marhoom Mullah Asgharali M M Jaffer.
Since then, the community has grown immensely over a number of decades and there was a consensus that there was a need for expansion; the community pledged to serve the needs of our children who will be the future leaders of our community. Very soon afterwards the almighty Allah swt gave us an amazing opportunity to purchase land adjacent to our current centre.
HISTORY OF MKSI PETERBOROUGH
1974: First plot of land was bought and foundations for Mosque laid 17th Rabi ’al Awal (March 1977)
1978: Opened as first Mosque for KSI in the West, with time some surrounding land plots also bought
1992: Multi-purpose centre including Imambargah built (opening by Marhoom Mulla Asghar M M Jaffer)
2007: Opportunity arose to purchase land adjacent to the centre named the Al-Qaaem Project
1992-today: Community continues to grow, leading to a grave shortage of space for all community members during all major functions in addition to extreme shortage of Madrasah classrooms and facilities
PROJECT MILESTONES
2007 - 2009: Active community consultation on facilities required by all age-groups of community
2009: Architectural plans drawn and approved by general after numerous meetings with community
April 2011: Planning process completed and granted by Peterborough City Council, valid until April 2014
May 2011: Permission through WF to use Ijazah of Ayatollah Sistani to collect khums funds for project
March 2014: Ground breaking ceremony
April 2014: Laying of foundations after collecting sufficient funds so that we are at 50% of costs
July 2014: Construction commenced
Jan 2016: Problems with building contractor – work stopped
April 2016: Al-Qaaem Team and Executive Management Committee took over the construction – 313 Company was formed
July 2016: Construction recommenced
Feb 2019: Extension of Ijaza Granted to £3.4M
June 2022: Opening ceromony of the Al-Qaaem extention
It is no secret that the Al-Qaaem project suffered heart-breaking issues with the building contractor. This caused severe delays and set back the project by a number of years. But with everyone’s support the community picked up the pieces and went from strength to strength forming a dedicated team internally to complete the project. We have also been able to tailor our building further adding bespoke facilities such as state of the art lighting, door access system, AV and CCTV together with heating & AC controlled through a tablet – all of which was not originally going to be delivered by our building contractor.
We are so pleased and excited to tell you that with the help of the Imam of our time we are so close to completing the main phase of the project. We have fallen short of funds but we are confident once funds are received, we will inshallah meet the shortfall.
What support do we need moving forward?
First and foremost, we need your sincere and heartfelt duas for our Al-Qaaem project. The fruition is entirely in the hands of the almighty Allah swt.
The community of Peterborough recently elected a new Executive Committee and as such they carried a full review of the Al-Qaaem project. We have formulated a plan to complete the full renovation of our existing centre to match the new building and make adaptations such as bigger Madrasah classrooms as approved by our AGM September 2019 and youth and senior facilities which are urgently needed. We therefore require your support to assist us in collecting funds to take us to its full completion.
To ensure that we are able to continue to cater for the needs of our community we will endeavour to move to the new building in order for us to then be able to refurbish the existing one.
Once this is complete, we are going to take this opportunity to refurbish the much needed external car-park which includes resurfacing, upgrading our existing outdated security facilities including a contrast brick wall around the perimeter.
We therefore urgently need £2million to complete this project.
We take this opportunity to sincerely thank you for your donation. May the almighty Allah swt reard you, your families and marhoomeens for every penny you give towards Al-Qaaem (Ameen)
You can also donate through Khums and we would be happy to faciliate this.
You can also donate directly to our bank - please e-mail treasury@mksipeterborough.org for a receipt
Payment to our Jamaat account
The Muslim Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri Community of Peterborough
Account Number 40096466
Sot Code 20 67 37