Community Wide Graduation Celebration by Khaled Sakalla

On Sunday, August 6th, the Birmingham Islamic Society and Islamic Academy of Alabama co-hosted a graduation party at the Pelham Civic Center to recognize and honor of the graduates of the community.

The celebration began with guests arriving and being instantly attracted to the festive games all lined up on one side of the hall. Games such as pin the tassel on the graduate, miniature bowling and bean bag toss were lined up ready to take new players. To keep all ages entertained, henna and face painting tables were available as well.

As the women and men took turns playing the games, door prizes kept the all the guests entertained and on edge. The three lucky raffle ticket winners won a 31 pack sharpie set, a double portable battery set and a book light set.

After all guests enjoyed games, face painting and henna to their heart’s content, a traditional Indian/Pakistani dish, biryani, was served.

As the guests finished food, the ceremony began.  To start off the celebration, graduates and families were surprised with a entertaining  video made by high school students of IAA and students of UAB. The funny video gave recent high school graduates “tips” on how their college experience would be.

The theme of the video was set as college “expectation” vs “reality” where viewers laughed and enjoyed as the actor college student excitedly thought he has earned more freedom starting college but was heartbroken when his mother called him demanding him to be home by maghrib.

After the video, graduates; Tayyab M Barra, Omar Abu Hamdeh, Hamza Abu Hamdeh, Mohammad Zuaiter , Omar Jaber , Syed T Imam, Manar Sakalla , Yasmin El-Husari , Lama Qashou , Tala Samour , Aiyah Ashouri , Sahlah Wright , Nazia Khan,  Mohammad Awad and Farah Jiwani were recognized and celebrated for their hard work  in their academic career.

IAA representative Br. Osama Khanfar and BIS Representative Br. Tariq Hamid spoke to the graduates and their families. Both speakers mentioned the importance of seeking knowledge for the sake of Allah (swt) and being the best contributor of society as they can.

“Knowledge is the life of the mind,” was cited by Br. Tariq as a wise saying by Abu Bakr r.a.  

As the successful celebration ended, all graduates were once again celebrated and everyone else was reminded that this inshaAllah annual event will now be a part of Birmingham’s community’s culture, where we will be able to celebrate the hard work and achievements of our youth every year.

Our sincere thanks and appreciation goes to our talented team that planned and executed such an amazing, creative and successful event.  With the help of Allah SWT, our talented team consisting of Yasmin El-Hosary, Menet Elbahrawi, Sufia Alam and Manar Sakalla worked diligently by meeting weekly to plan and ensure that the event was going to be successful.  We also thank the BIS and IAA leadership for nominating this talented team to be responsible for planning this event.