Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News, 2014-06-18

The first ever Islamic museum in South Africa opened its doors at the Darul Uloom in Zakariyya Park, south of Johannesburg on Sunday the 15th June 2014.

Motivated by an aspiration to promote an easier understanding of the traditions of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the museum houses replicas of items cited it the hadith (scriptures).

There are several interactive models on display at the museum, which include Masjid un Nabawi (Prophet Muhammad’s Masjid), the blessed city of Medina after 7 years of migration from Makkah in Saudi Arabia and also a cross section of the holy Ka’ba.

The interactive models like the blessed City of Medina have buttons, which when pressed lights up positions on the model which indicate the areas where the homes of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Khalid Bin Waleed, the Sword of Allah and many other prominent Sahaba (companions of the prophet) were located and lived.

Another interactive model lights up the various pillars in Masjid un Nabawi, like Ustuwaanah Hannanah (the weeping pillar), Ustuwaanah Aisha (the pillar of Aisha [RA]) and many others.

The museum also houses archery equipment and there are plans to start a Qu’ran section which will display very old Qur’ans and even handwritten Qur’ans.

Ebrahim Ali also known as Abie, the father of Moulana Yunus Ali from Darul Uloom Zakariyya said the plans for the museum began about six months ago.

“My son, Moulana Yunus Ali studied in Darul Uloom Zakariyya and he told me the madresssa wanted to start a museum as students collected many artifacts over the years.”

“So I enquired further from the Darul Uloom and Moulana Shabier (Saloojee) who indicated they wanted to start a museum and allocated two classrooms for the project,” said Ali.

Ali said artifacts were also collected from past students of the learning institution.

Ali appealed to anybody who have artifacts and want to donate them to the museum to contact the Darul Uloom Zakariyya for more information.

“This in an ongoing project, we will display many artifacts as we get them,” said Ali.

(Twitter: @Faizie143)