Eid Picnic at Oak Mountain State Park by Br. Tariq Hamid

In keeping with the traditions of the Birmingham Islamic Society, the Muslim community of the greater Birmingham area, and the adjoining areas, the completion of the holy month of Ramadan was celebrated together at the 2017 Eid picnic, following Eid-al-Fitr. This year the picnic was held at the Oak Mountain State Park Fishing Center Pavilion on the 2nd of July.

Alhumdulillah the picnic was well attended with more than 150 people, including kids participating. As always the attractions for kids at the picnic were free and included rides, face painting, and balloon twisting. The lunch was for sale and included Halal KFC. The weather cooperated and it turned out to be a beautiful day for a picnic in contrast to what the weather forecast had predicted.

This year an added incentive to attend the Eid picnic was the Awards Presentation of the annual Ramadan BIS Quran Competition. Although, the results of the Quran competition were announced a few days earlier, the actual prize distribution took place at the Eid picnic this year.  These efforts of the organizers and planners of this year’s Quran competition were greatly appreciated by the community. For a complete list of winners, see the Quran Competition Results Article.

Also, the timing of this year’s Eid picnic coincided with the 4th of July weekend, and thus the park was visited by a number of our non-Muslim community members as well. This provided an excellent opportunity of interaction between Muslims and non-Muslims. The Duhur prayer led by Imam Sameh Asal was held in congregation there at the park. After the lunch and the awards ceremony, the community members socialized and as always the brothers had a great time at the beach volleyball courts. The picnic was officially supposed to end at 5:30 PM that day, but owing to the excellent weather most of the families ended up staying later.

This Eid picnic would have been impossible without the blessings of Allah SWT and the efforts of the entire BIS office staff and the excellent hardworking BIS volunteers. Alhumdullilah of late BIS events are getting bigger and better every time and it is a testament of the intense planning and organization of the BIS leadership. May Allah SWT bless each and everyone associated with the BIS in any capacity and allow them to serve the community even better in future.