“. Nik, dakwah in Papua New Guinea is a Jihad (struggling for sake of Islam). The here are still the first generation and there a lot more to do so that Islam can be spread widely and will know more about their religion here. And may Allah reward you accordingly.” – Imam Mikail Abdul Aziz

This was what Imam Mikail Abdul Aziz said to me before he left the Highlands to return to Port Moresby. And with his words ringing in my mind, I continued my Dakwah journey to Lae Morebe Province on the 6th November 2010 (Saturday) together with Br. Mikail Korah (ISPNG ) and Br. Abdul Qadir, a local guy from Lae who attended the in the Highlands. We traveled by road in a coaster via Goroka Eastern Highlands in approximately 8 long painstaking hours and under unspeakable road condition. It was indeed quite an experience for me and a memorable trip which I know I won’t forget it in my lifetime.

During the journey in the coaster with several stops and toilet breaks, it was interesting for me to know that there is no public toilets available at bus stops nor anywhere along the road there. I saw that when the driver stops, some passengers will go to the nearby bushes and eased themselves there. On one occasion, a passenger requested the driver to stop in the middle of nowhere for a toilet break and out from the coaster came several women with their kids into the bushes. In my mind at that time, “There’s no way that I can experience or see anything like this happening in Malaysia!”

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One more interesting experience for me there was when we stopped at Goroka bus stop for a break and changing passengers. There was a guy sitting beside me when we started our journey but then he got off at Goroka and then a girl sat beside me. To my horror and I didn’t notice it at first was that she was carrying a dog on her lap and although the dog was still small but it always sticking out its tongue and at some time stretching out its leg that can touch me! For me, being raised in Shafi’e school of thought (mazhab), it’s a taboo for me to sit with a dog beside me. Although I have learned and knew that the other schools of thought (of Hanafi and Maliki) are of the opinion that the impurity (najis) on a dog is only its saliva but still it made me feel uncomfortable during the journey. Luckily, half way through the journey the girl and her dog got off from the coaster to my relief.

Alhamdulillah! We arrived in Lae safe and sound. Lae is a coastal area north east of Papua New Guinea and the weather is hot and humid like in Malaysia. A bit unfortunately for me, the climate change from cold weather in the Highlands to hot in Lae in a same day took toll on me and I catched a mild cold while I was there. But luckily I got some medicine and this small hindrance would never stop me from doing dakwah there. We went straight to the guest house in the Papua New Guinea University of Technology and stayed there for two nights. Actually we were there in Lae as a guest of Prof. Abdul Sattar who is the Vice Chancellor of Academy of the University and he is a Muslim from who has been working at the University for many years and has been working hard and helping so much to do dakwah there. But unfortunately, there is no mosque in Lae yet nor there is a musolla (small mosque) for Muslims to pray 5 times prayers, Friday prayer and Eids prayers. There are approximately nearly 50 Muslims in Lae comprising men, women and children. Prof. Abdul Sattar took the initiative to hold religious classes during every Sunday and some congregation prayers (including Friday prayer) inside his house in the University. He himself teaches them with the help of some Muslim brothers also from Bangladesh. Right now he is acquiring a land close to the University from the government to build a mosque for the Muslims there and initially they need around 100,000.00 kina (about USD 44,000.00) to start the project and he is hoping that Muslims all over the world can help them to built this mosque and thus spreading Islam in Lae.

During the night there we had our dinner at Prof. Golam Rahman’s house just close to Prof. Abdul Sattar’s house. He is the Head of Department of Language & Communication Studies in the University and he’s also from Bangladesh. Before 8 p.m we had to go back to our guesthouse as there is a curfew being enforced in the University since the last week due to the clash between the tribes that had occurred before we came resulting 1 casualty inside the Universityamong the students. The clashes between tribes are still happening in Papua New Guinea but usually in the jungle or bushes and remote areas. But it is not a common in the city and in the Universities all around Papua New Guinea. Luckily the University management had beefed up their security after the incident and no more clashes heard since.

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The next day (Sunday) I, by myself organized an intensive lecture for both brothers and sisters in Prof. Abdul Sattar’s house and there are around 20 Muslims attended the 3-hour lecture until Zohor prayer time. During the class I taught only 2 subjects Fiqh Purification and management as we had no sufficient time to learn more due to time factor and limit. I hope that during the next dakwah trip to Lae I can teach the Muslims there a lot more religious subjects. The Muslims there are keen to learn even though they have no proper place to study and . And they didn’t receive any allowance or money from anybody except some contributions here and there sometimes, but they are sincere to become a Muslim and to do their part of dakwah to their community there. There was a also attended the lecture by the name of Sister Agnes Breva. She had attended RISEAP International in 2008 and since then she is active in doing dakwah in her community in Lae.

We spent another night at the comfortable and cosy guest house there and we had our dinner in the Prof. Abdul Halim’s house. He is the Head of Department of Agriculture of the University and also from Bangladesh. In the afternoon of the next day (Monday) we returned to Port Moresby by air via Nadzab Airport in Lae. The flight took about one and half hour.

By Uztaz Nik