South East Essex Cultural Event (SEECC)

The first ever South East Essex Cultural event (SEECC) was held on the 25th July 2004 to demonstrate the hard work and enthusiasm of the children participating, who had been thoroughly committed for the last 9 months in developing their primary Islamic knowledge.

The tone of the morning was set by the scintillating voice of Hassen Rasool who had the audience, which included local councilors, captivated and some reduced to tears with his distinctive recitation of the Holy Qur’an.

The programme continued with Samah & Abdul giving their own recitation and translation of the Glorious Qur’an; this was followed by a recitation of Surah Fatihah by Hassen Rasool, which included a detailed translation into English, and expertly relayed to our non-Muslim brothers and sisters in a nutshell, the path we seek to tread in our everyday lives.

Also featured was the “Story of Creation” which was beautifully told in a play by the children, who took as much pleasure in the telling of the story as we did in the watching. The morning also saw further performances by Hassen Rasool; his song “I’m just a little boy,” which explored the issue of racism through the eyes of a child, humbled the audience. The infant and senior classes were very brave, as it was the first time that most of them had ever performed on stage, and they made the SEECC and their parents extremely proud of them.

Towards the end of the event, an auction was held – very kindly guided by Hassen Rasool – which raised over an amazing £2,000 towards relief of current crisis in the Sudan and the SEECC, along with all of our prayers.

The programme was then concluded by the beautiful Azaan given by Hassen Rasool, whose talents left everybody spellbound.

We here at the SEECC would like to extend our sincerest thanks to the children for making the event such a success through all their hard work, and all the parents and councilors who supported the event.

We would especially like to thank Hassen Rasool for sharing with us his spine-tingling voice and charismatic presence. We sincerely hope to have the privilege of him joining us again in the near future.

Khaild Uddin

See photos from this event

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