Latest / After Maghrib 🌙 / Cycling to Karbala in under 7 days (ft. Desi Riders)

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Cycling to Karbala in under 7 days (ft. Desi Riders) · After Maghrib 🌙

0:00
Smila Ahmad Rahim Assalamu Alaikum and welcome back to
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another episode on the aftermath of podcast.
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If you missed out on last week's episode, please do me a favour,
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go back TuneIn and embrace the episode we had with Sheikh
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Rother where we discussed alongside my amazing Co host
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Ahmed Gokul how to mend broken hearts with Allah Subhanahu wata
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Allah. Now in this episode, I'm going
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to take you on a journey, one that involves cycling,
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discussing a group of Mumanian brothers, I believe over 40
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brothers from 7 different countries who took part on a
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journey cycling in Iraq from the city of Bathura all the way to
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the holy city of Karbala. The group is known as the Desi
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Riders and I'm joined by two of them who inshallah will give us
0:44
the insights, the experiences, and I'm sure we'll talk about
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the spirituality, the sincerity behind this noble cause.
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And that's none other than brothers Reza and brother Imran.
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Brothers Assalam Alaikum, welcome to AFTERMATH.
1:08
Thank you very much for having us here.
1:09
Thank you for being here. Just, you know, walking into the
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studio, I saw two bikes outside and I'm already excited to go
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pedalling. And Sharla, we're going to, you
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know, go over so much points. I have so much questions, by the
1:20
way, because, you know, as I grew up, I loved cycling.
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And I'll probably share a story later on about my personal
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stories with cycling. But I do want to understand
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something, Sharla, before we delve into the questions I've
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prepared for today, is that you partnered with the Lady Fatima
1:38
Trust and you decided, you know, I'm going to take on this
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opportunity. I'm going to help empower women
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towards a campaign known as Modernomics, if I'm not
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mistaken. But why go there?
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Like, what's the whole reason behind it?
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You could have cycled in London. You could have cycled in New
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York. You could have went, I don't
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know, down to Portugal, Spain, enjoyed the South of France.
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But you said, no, I'm going to go to Iraq.
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I'm going to go on this noble journey, take part in this noble
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cause. What made you go?
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I guess the short answer is we did all that.
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Yeah. And we wanted the, we wanted a
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bigger challenge. We wanted to do something epic.
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So I'm just going to rewind. I'll rewind back almost 10
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years, 10 years ago, three of us went on a bike ride.
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It was to Wales. We loved it.
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Following year turned to six. And then as the years went on,
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the group got bigger and bigger. I think, I think 3 years ago,
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four years ago, we did a Spain to Morocco and that was 15 of
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us. That was when I got the group
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together, the main group together.
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So let's, let's just go and do something what we called epic.
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We wanted to do some epic rides. So to answer your question, why
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not go to Brighton? Why not go to Bournemouth?
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Why not go to Regents Park? That's not epic.
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We want epic. So our first sort of major ride
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with the 15 people was from Spain to Morocco.
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So imagine that you're in Spain in one continent, and you cycle
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to another continent. It sounds great, but it's only a
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little bit of, you know, the the distance is very small.
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Right from Europe. To Africa, Yeah, Europe.
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To Africa. It sounds amazing, but it and it
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and it was and it was epic. Following year we did the Lake
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Geneva. We did this for those people
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that follow the Tour de France. We did AP du ES then last year
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we, I think it was last year we did Milan to Venice, but it
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still left us a little bit empty.
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And we said we want it. We want to go bigger, we want to
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be more epic. And then we, it was something
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that I had in the back of my mind for a few years.
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Let's you know, I want to do something that has a more
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spiritual aspect to it. And it was there is one of those
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things where let's do Iraq. In fact, originally it was let's
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do Iran to Iraq. And because there's a lot of
4:00
problems getting into Iraq and Iran, sorry, with, you know,
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visas and security, it wasn't possible.
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So it was like, well, let's start somewhere as close as
4:09
possible to Iran, but be in Iraq.
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So Basra was that one. So we always knew that our
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destination was going to be Karbala, but where's our
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starting point? It needs to be epic enough.
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It needs to be, it needs to, it needs to test us in many
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different ways, test our faith, test our strength, test our
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brotherhood, test the community's resilience.
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And we decided that Basra is our starting point.
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And that, we thought was epic. Beautiful starts and points and
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all roads lead to Karbala, no doubt.
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Brother and Ron, if I can ask, you know, you guys did go embark
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on this epic journey. It is epic.
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You know, I've read all about it.
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I've seen some footage behind the scenes on Saves Lives
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Instagram. So I'm I'm up to date with
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what's been going on, but I do want to ask.
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I'll Handler, you managed collectively to raise a whopping
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amount over 1/4 of £1,000,000. How does that feel?
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Do you feel like you achieved something or was there something
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greater that led you to join the sports?
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I think initially when we were in the planning phase of this
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event, obviously we had set some targets and that was one of them
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for sure. And alhamdulillah, we, you know,
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everyone played their part, every single right.
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We had individual targets. I mean, very soon after we, you
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know, we announced the ride and after we got the initial
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registrations and stuff like that.
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But very soon after that, we just stopped at telling people
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that, you know, you got to raise people just raising on our
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right, left and center. And people were giving Al
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Hamdullah through our generous donor base, both here within the
5:44
UK and across the world. But but that at that point, it
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was it was a tick book exercise, right.
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Yeah. You know, we're raising money
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and it can resonate with a lot of us here.
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There are so many campaigns that happened throughout the year
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within our communities. And, you know, yeah, we give 510
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pounds, 50 lbs, whatever it is within our means.
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But then it just becomes you have given.
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That's it. What really epitomized the
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whole, you know, the fundraising element to it, the giving back
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element to it was when, when we reached Karbala after the right,
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the next day or the day after we visited the Modernomic Centre
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and being there physically seeing where your money is going
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and the amount of effort that those, you know, women are
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putting into it, what for, for their betterment, for the better
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quality of life as well as the kids.
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It was just brilliant. We kind of just put things into
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perspective that, you know what, yeah, we're raising money for
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the right cause and it is making a difference right in front of
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our eyes, I mean. I mean, I guess to add to that,
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it, it was always, if you're riding in Iraq, how can you not
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give something back? The, the landscape of Iraq, the
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people of Iraq gave so much to us and we can cover that later,
7:03
but it would not have been right for us to go there and not give
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something to them. And, and I consider this a very
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small thing that we did. I mean, the 45 of us, we, we
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rode our bikes. We love riding our bikes.
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We do it, we did it the other day.
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We do it on the weekends and comfortably we'll ride sixty,
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7080 miles a day because we enjoy it.
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The hard thing is what the ladies of and the mothers and
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the daughters of mother nomics do.
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They live the life. We're here back in the UK with
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our first world problems. They're there.
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Where? Where's my next meal?
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How you know? Can my child get into school?
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Will there? Is there shelter over their
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heads? So it was a no brainer.
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You have to give back. And you know, Iraq is something
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that is really close to all of our hearts.
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I mean, I'm not from Iraq, I'm from India.
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But generally, you know, the Iraq is something that is like
8:03
really, really close to our hearts for many reasons.
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But you know what the other thing that I really kind of
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shown opened my eyes on on a little bit was the fact that
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between us, we knew that we were going to go, that we were
8:14
raising money for modernomics, etcetera, right?
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You know, within our circles, we knew what we were doing, what we
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were raising funds for and how we were going to hopefully make
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a difference. But for the vast majority of the
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population, whilst we were there, from all the way from
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Basra to Samawa, Samawa, Assyria, Najaf and Karbala, the
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random Joe on the road, they didn't have an idea why we're
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there, what we were doing. They were just seeing a bunch of
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cyclists riding with Nam Hussain's flag, right?
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So I think that signifies that this this is a Cafeta that's
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going to you. Know right to Karbala.
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The generosity of the Iraqi people and and keep in mind this
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is this was not during urbane. We went complete offseason
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during Shaban. You know, the more keep
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structures were there, but there was no activity happening there
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at all. But despite all of that, the
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people were just giving the hospitality, you know, the
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accommodation, any needs, any need we had along the way of
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Hamdallah, they were there. And Allah, may Allah, you know,
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protect the, the people of Iraq. You know, we've, you know, Iraqi
9:15
myself, I'm not being biased, but from the many visits we've
9:17
been on Ziara, on the friends I've been with, Ziara groups
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we've gone to and people that come back, they always speak
9:23
about the hospitality of the Iraqi people.
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May Allah bless them and protect them.
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You mentioned you rode with, you know, the flag of Al Hussein and
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you know, here you are riding bikes from Basra to Karbala.
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Normally we're used to people walking from leisure to Karbala
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so. It seems like a cop out, isn't
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it? Let me set the scene for you,
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right? So we've got, so here you've got
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massive peloton of riders, right?
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You've got 45 riders in in twos. So you've got massive line,
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you've got what, 20 rows of riders to each.
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You've got the lead group in the front and then two sweepers at
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the back. And then you've got the two
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support cars, one at the front, one at the back again.
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And then you've got a police escort right on front, sometimes
10:05
at the back as well, but mostly at the front to kind of, you
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know, take us through the, the route, the entire route,
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checkpoint to checkpoint or whatever it is.
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And it was, and this is what we had.
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One of the things we, one of the targets that we had set
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ourselves was and, and we do this for all the rest, but
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especially for this one, because this is, this was not your
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random trip to Europe, you know, going from one city to the
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other. This had so many aspects to it.
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This had spirit, obviously physical aspect to it,
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spiritual, financial, psychological as well.
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So we were trying to hit a lot of stones, a lot of birds with
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one stone. And what that resulted in was a
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more a more, you know, importance on how we plan and to
10:56
ensure that it happens according to how we expect things to
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happen. But again, to Rosa, what Rosa
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said earlier, we were stepping into the unknown because, yeah,
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we have been in Iraq for Zara, mostly Najaf, Karbala and and
11:10
Samara for a day trip or this or that.
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But this was different. This was absolutely different.
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I mean, we were in cities you would have never heard of and
11:18
planning everything from the UK, it's difficult.
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We had a couple of contacts on the ground as well.
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The underline they, you know, they, they turned out great.
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But even then there were obstacles, there were hardships
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along the way. There were surprises that came
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up, but. What was 1 obstacle that stood
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out? You felt like Oh no, why did
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this happen? You ever feel that moment?
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I mean, I want to, I want to start off with whenever there is
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hardship, you're not given hardship that you can't
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overcome. You're going to.
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Yeah. So and I'll humble it out every
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hardship. And there were so many hardships
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out there. I mean, we smile because we know
12:05
the back stories. Can I just say one thing?
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Like if I think of a hardship right now, I'll say, OK, maybe
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the tiger got punched, but I don't know what was.
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That hardship, what was the reality?
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You know, all right, here we go. All right, So all I've so so the
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brothers that went with us and those people that followed us on
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Instagram, we have a saying they they, they will always be
12:24
Chebayish, right? So Chebayish is a is a small
12:27
town slash village on the marshes on the just outside of
12:31
Basra. That was our first pit stop.
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Now what happened is we got there pretty late at night.
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After a while we found our accommodation GPS sometimes
12:44
doesn't work in those areas. 45 of us tired, a little bit
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sweaty. It was quite warm, hungry, the
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people there wonderful. So we stayed in what and I'm not
12:58
sure what the name is and you'll be able to it's it's, it's like
13:01
a Hut. It's like 1 big room with like
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a, it's a, it's like a yeah, yeah, yeah.
13:06
Right, that's definitely. Yeah, yeah.
13:08
So, so there's a specific name phrase, not, I'm not getting
13:12
that name right now. So we stayed there and the the
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people there were wonderful. They gave us food.
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We all slept in one space. Body heat and gases kept us warm
13:28
at at night now, but it. Was it was freezing?
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It was, it was, it was quite cold here.
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Freezing. So then everything was fine
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until you wanted to go to the bathroom.
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Oh yeah. There was no bathroom.
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There was no well there. You know what?
13:45
There was a bathroom. And if you'd open the door, the
13:49
door would open slowly because it was being held shut by the
13:52
amount of cobwebs on the other side.
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Oh my God. So yeah, it wasn't a place where
13:59
we could we, we could use. But the guys got together, you
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know, the guys were fine. Not one complaint.
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So that's a hardship. On the back end of that
14:10
hardship, we sort of played into our hands a little bit.
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So the hardship was it was a place that we had to stay at.
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The people were wonderful. The food was actually very nice.
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But we wanted to get out of that and what we found when we were
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leaving Basra, getting 45 riders out.
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So if you went on a Ziara and you go with a car filler and you
14:30
need to leave at a certain time, getting 45 people out that's,
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you know, early in the morning is very difficult.
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But for some reason you should buy.
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Everyone was ready to leave. They were all ready to leave at
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at 7730 in the morning. The cobwebs.
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Yeah, yeah, cobwebs or, you know, they, they had fluid the
14:45
night before and that fluid needed to find its way out.
14:49
So again, and this is going to knock into another sort of
14:53
story. So our first stop was only like
14:56
maybe like 1015 miles off of riding.
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There's this a little restaurant there and we all piled in.
15:03
There's 45 of us piled into that restaurant queue for the queue
15:06
for the toilet. And you know it, you know, and
15:08
the, the owner was wonderful. We, we had like teas, biscuits
15:12
and snacks as well to keep us going.
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And we're there to pay. He's like, no, I don't want
15:18
payment, right. So this is the Iraq that I, I
15:24
would say the real Iraq. So Iraq during urbane is
15:29
something else, right? It's can be.
15:31
It's described as heaven on earth.
15:34
But. Every other day of the year.
15:37
This is the Iraq you see, I. Have to look over this story.
15:41
So I think it was Samoa, we were leaving Samoa.
15:44
So the day we had, we left Samoa and then it was about 11/30/12
15:49
in the afternoon, so very close to our time.
15:52
And it was, believe me, between Tobaish and Nasiriya, it was
15:59
just empty lands. It was.
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We were just riding in the desert, pretty much, almost like
16:04
that's what it felt like. Off road biking.
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No, no, no. On the main road there's.
16:08
Nothing. There's nothing to not
16:09
civilization. The way.
16:10
Small towns and there's nothing there, Nothing there.
16:12
But and we'll cover the bins later, but as soon as it was
16:17
1131 of the guys said, you know, let's just find a place to stop.
16:22
Let's just try the Mars and have a bit to eat and then we can
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continue our journey. Yeah, fine.
16:26
Alright, We'll find what we'll find whatever.
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So we find a mosque in the middle of nowhere with a small
16:33
shop next to it. Not that many people either.
16:36
You could count the people the back of your hands.
16:38
It was a lovely Moss though. It was really nice.
16:40
A lovely Moss bird. There was like a wayside.
16:42
In the desert, right? It was a very inside, so I can't
16:45
remember, but maybe you guys can watch in the documentary.
16:47
It might be covered there, but we so we stopped there, right?
16:52
This is a regular stop. Stop there, go to the you know,
16:54
to the bathrooms, go pray. And then and then we sent one of
16:58
our support cars to go get us food because there was nothing
17:00
else nearby. But but what happened was as
17:04
soon as we finished praying, we turn around.
17:06
So there were people living nearby, they heard about us when
17:11
we got there. So you're talking about 20, half
17:13
an hour before that maybe there are a place of food, massive
17:18
place of food behind us just waiting for us to to be for you
17:21
to be eating and that I mean. When we talk about massive,
17:24
we're talking trays, trays of food with piled with rice and
17:29
and chicken. And they had like another two of
17:32
those trays and then watermelon and.
17:34
Fruits as well. This is food that they had
17:36
brought for themselves to eat, but it it was given to us and it
17:43
was, it was weird. It was enough for all of us as.
17:46
Well, it was comfortable and, and up to this point, we don't
17:49
know who gave it to us. We don't know who it was.
17:52
We never, I never saw them. I never saw them.
17:54
It's just the truth of them. Was was, you know, so, yeah,
17:58
that is so if you ask me, what is Iraq like?
18:01
Yeah, Iraq is a place for Ziara. Iraq is a place where, you know,
18:06
for urbane Ashura, it's amazing place to be.
18:10
But outside of that, this is what Iraq is.
18:14
It's amazing. It's beautiful.
18:16
It's beautiful. You know, you know, hearing
18:17
these stories, they're moving, you know, it gives me memories
18:20
of stories I've heard, experiences I've felt myself
18:23
personally being in Iraq as well.
18:26
But, you know, speaking on this journey, we've started from
18:30
Basra, we've driven down, we're riding down, heading towards
18:33
Karbala. I'm sure everyone was tunnel
18:34
visioned. I think to reaching the
18:36
destination from the mistake, it took seven days to reach the
18:39
final point. And we will get that.
18:40
We will discuss how it felt, you know, spiritually, emotionally
18:43
arriving at Karbala. But I want to ask, you know,
18:46
this journey that you took, you know, you could have decided to
18:50
stay home. You want to do a noble 'cause
18:53
you want to give charity, you can simply give money.
18:56
You can stay with your busy life, your work, but you gave up
18:58
work time away from family. You, you underwent, I think an
19:03
immense amount of, I would say mental fortitude for this, for,
19:06
for taking on this challenge. Like why did you do it?
19:09
Why did you do it? I mean, I think, I think the
19:15
honest answer I would say is it was a bit selfish.
19:19
It was for me. In what sense?
19:24
You know, I wanted to achieve something epic, I wanted to
19:29
achieve something bigger than what I had done before and for
19:35
me, going to see our imams is absolutely amazing.
19:42
And to couple that with cycling, it compounds it.
19:48
And then to add the element of raising money for charity and
19:54
then doing it with your brothers in the community, I can't think
19:59
of a better thing to do. I think as Imran mentioned
20:03
earlier, it ticked every single box I could imagine.
20:08
The only one thing it didn't do? Which we must thank our families
20:12
for is, you know, they weren't there with us.
20:15
It would be wonderful as we if we'd ridden into Karbala and
20:18
they were there to greet us. But yeah, you can't have
20:21
everything. But we ticked so many boxes
20:24
there. And yeah, I say, I say it's
20:25
selfish. But out of that selfishness,
20:30
because my knee, it was in the right place of what I wanted to
20:33
achieve, the path that I wanted to follow in the sense getting
20:39
to Karbala, all I did was all we did was just throw a puzzle of
20:45
pieces in the air. And the pieces all landed in
20:49
what in. And the doors all opened in
20:51
front of us. And, you know, all I can say is
20:56
we we did what we could to plan it.
21:00
And. Yeah, yeah.
21:04
Other planet. We didn't, we didn't do
21:05
anything. We just turned up.
21:06
We didn't. We just turned up.
21:07
That's what we did as. As we said, I think before the
21:09
podcast, you know, you do your best and you live, Yeah, to go
21:12
the rest. And I, and I think you said it
21:14
rises very beautifully. You know, you, you and you
21:16
alluded to earlier, you hit many birds with one stone, right?
21:20
So you've ticked off, for example, challenging yourself.
21:23
You've ticked off spirituality. You've ticked off, I want to be
21:27
frank with this because you mentioned, you know, Ziara
21:30
visiting the imams and everything.
21:31
If it weren't for the imams, would you have taken on this
21:34
challenge? No, we would probably have done
21:38
something else, but it wouldn't have meant so much to us.
21:43
The, the, it's like a, it would have been a guitar with a chord
21:47
missing or something. Like, you know what?
21:49
A string or chord, and I'll call it a chord.
21:50
A string. Yeah.
21:51
It wouldn't have felt right. It wouldn't have felt right if
21:53
if those pieces hadn't been there.
21:56
You know, like the Brotherhood, the charity, the Ziara, the, the
22:00
cycling. It just wouldn't, wouldn't have
22:02
felt right that, you know, yeah, I think the crowning, the
22:05
crowning part of that was, you know, arriving in Karbala.
22:09
And you know, the one thing that often goes unnoticed is in our
22:14
both in our culture, in our religion, obviously you have to
22:19
be at a certain level of religiosity, I guess, right.
22:23
And, and that is personal. My religious perfection might be
22:28
different to yours or to different to his right.
22:30
There's certain capabilities I have that we have.
22:34
It's kind of unique to us. But in addition to that, and you
22:38
know, and to do that, we normally go to mosque.
22:40
We try and go to mosque every Thursday, every Fridays for
22:42
Juma, Muharram, Ramadan, We fast do this to that and the other
22:46
all our religious duties. And, and at the most, what we
22:49
would do is we would help families, we would help kids, we
22:52
would, you know, give money away or things away.
22:56
But when you think about life, the most precious element we
23:01
have is time. And at least as far as I'm
23:06
personally, time is the most valuable thing I can give to
23:10
someone. Now, whether that means doing
23:12
anything for the community, for the for the people, whether it's
23:15
Muslim or non-muslim, I digress. One thing I say is one of the
23:19
things we want, we want to highlight to people is that
23:22
there's more than one way to show your to, to, to, to serve
23:28
pretty much right. It doesn't have to be a
23:31
religious, it doesn't have to be a Zyara trip.
23:34
It's not just to to achieve that spirituality or at mosque.
23:37
You love cycling, you love football, you love, you love
23:40
running. Think outside the box.
23:42
So. You can do.
23:43
Something at the largest. Fire your passion, which is
23:45
beautiful. And and with this, we had our
23:49
protest from our other sex as well.
23:51
Who joined us in the same group? In the same group.
23:54
They were. They were with us from start to
23:56
end. They were with us.
23:57
That's amazing. Imam Ali, Imam Hussain and other
24:02
Tabasi shrines as well and other outside the arts as well.
24:04
That's beautiful, beautiful. I think that definitely shows,
24:07
you know, the strength of unity there.
24:09
I do want to ask something. Do you feel like this journey
24:13
was transformative? This when you went to our arc,
24:17
when you took on this journey, this challenge completed, it
24:20
came back home, you know, did life stay the same or did it
24:24
change from before you left and came back?
24:27
What changed? Or did it stay the same?
24:30
I think, I think a lot of things changed, I'm sure.
24:35
You encountered like you you, you met for example, with those
24:38
you met orphans. Like I'm sure something happened
24:41
that when you came back, you're like, no, I have to change my
24:43
life somewhere. I mean, just to the earlier
24:46
fundraising point we were talking about, I think off
24:48
screen we give, but at times we don't know where it's going or
24:53
we start doubting ourselves. Regardless of the intentions and
24:56
the sincerity of the organizations that we give our
24:58
money to, being there physically, seeing where the
25:02
money's going made a huge difference to me.
25:06
Just getting that assurance that, you know, yeah, we should.
25:09
We should, we should keep keep giving.
25:11
Yeah, obviously we need to do our due diligence, but at the
25:13
end of the day, you know, keep giving.
25:17
The other thing that was transformative was I think was
25:22
alluded to earlier as well. Initially, you know, we were
25:26
planning this ride as our ride as a ride.
25:31
You know, we want to take a group of bunch of guys to cycle.
25:34
So cycle was almost at the forefront.
25:37
And then it was, yeah, we're going to go cycle, but then
25:39
we're going to do the art with it as well as that bonus, and
25:43
we're going to raise money to make a difference on the ground.
25:47
I think that scale tipped by the end of it, it was more about
25:52
whatever we do in life, It's not an individual, you know, it's
25:56
not a race. If I, if I'm thinking of doing
25:59
something good, I have to take people with me along the
26:03
journey. Yeah.
26:04
That's beautiful. I have to because that's the
26:07
most. That's how you magnify the the
26:09
value. Love for your brother or you
26:11
love for yourself. And this is this is one way of
26:14
putting it. Yeah.
26:15
That's amazing. And I think that's so much that
26:18
I can resonate with myself. Yeah.
26:23
It's hard. Yeah.
26:24
It's deep. Yeah.
26:25
It's certain moments, like when you see, like you spoke about
26:29
seeing where your money goes, like I myself have been humbler,
26:32
blessed, for example, say, give charity whenever I can.
26:36
Right. There was this one course where
26:38
I went to Iraq and we were able to see like, like my wife, I
26:44
don't want to mention the work she does behind the scenes, but
26:46
she'd help, for example, an orphan, so sponsor an orphan if
26:51
I say it correctly. And I was able to see that
26:53
person. Oh, wow.
26:54
So you could actually see where your money went to go towards
26:56
education, towards the food. And it's nice to see.
27:00
And you feel like, I don't know if it's even wrong to say, but
27:05
you feel like, OK, I know what the I know the job.
27:08
Yeah. My money is going.
27:09
It's going. It's going to where it's
27:10
supposed to. I'm not sure if we should have
27:12
that thought process, but it helps in US wanting to do more.
27:16
Yeah. I mean, look, we had the option
27:18
of a number of different charities to go with, but we
27:22
just felt that first of all, with, you know, with L, with
27:26
LFT, it would, it was a situation where I would start a
27:30
sentence and Mokhtar from LFT would finish the sentence.
27:33
We were so aligned on what we wanted to achieve and how we
27:37
wanted to achieve it. And what that meant is that was,
27:42
you know, one potential thing I didn't have to worry about
27:45
because we were always on the, on the same wavelength.
27:48
And when we went to the project, the mum project in, in Karbala,
27:54
the modernomics mum project, that's their main building in
27:56
Karbala. We, we just went there because,
28:00
OK, let's just pop by, just say hello, you know, these, you
28:03
know, OK, we don't want to, we don't want any congratulations
28:06
or anything like that. We just want to say, hey, you
28:08
know, hi. How you doing?
28:08
Just, you know, it's nice to see.
28:11
Yeah, just, yeah, you know, you know, well done for what you,
28:13
what you guys are doing, you know, in, you know, in the, in
28:17
the charity. But when we got there, they laid
28:22
on like cakes and gifts and it was like, what I what are you
28:29
doing? It's like.
28:30
Well, they give you a big welcome.
28:32
Massive welcome. I mean, we went there, they had,
28:36
you know, like 2 cakes for us. They had gift bags for all of
28:41
us. And I'm like, if I could have,
28:43
if I could have. And, you know, Iraqi
28:45
hospitality, you can't say no. Yeah, yeah.
28:48
If I, if I could have said no, I would have said no because it
28:51
was too much. It was like, no, we're we're
28:55
donating to you. We don't want anything like
28:57
that. We just want your happiness and
28:58
we want your blessing. We don't want anything and but.
29:02
Almost like talking to a couple of guys after after we we were
29:06
after we left the site, we were on our way back.
29:09
Some of them like we don't deserve this.
29:12
Yeah. They're more deserving of
29:15
everything that we can give them rather than the other around.
29:17
We are not in a place where we can, obviously, we have to
29:21
accept it. We can't say no.
29:23
It's rude. But I mean, but that was so, you
29:26
know, going back to the transformation point.
29:27
Yeah. Flipped.
29:30
Right. Get it?
29:32
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I.
29:34
Mean we're back in our lives now we're reflecting on something
29:39
great that we did, but how has our life changed?
29:43
Was what was was one of the questions that you asked
29:45
afterwards? We're using this platform to do
29:50
more so you know, we can talk about it later, but you know,
29:55
we've got things in the pipeline as well.
29:56
We've got the riders coming to us and and other people that
30:00
ride that weren't able to join us.
30:02
Where are we going next? Because they want to join us.
30:06
They know that, you know, they have trust in DSU riders that
30:10
we're just a bunch of, you know, four guys that just cycle and
30:15
and one of the things that we did is we did not put ourselves
30:19
above anyone else. Every if we stayed in a room and
30:26
the room didn't have a toilet, then our room didn't have a
30:28
toilet. It wasn't like we had the room
30:30
with the toilet and they didn't have the room with the toilet.
30:33
If they whatever food they ate, we ate.
30:36
Yeah, sorry. Here's the story for you.
30:37
So in where were we? We were in.
30:40
We went to the army recommendation.
30:43
Oh, yeah. What place was it?
30:44
Was it? Yeah.
30:44
No, it wasn't. It was after Samara.
30:46
No, it was Samara to the. Army.
30:48
Yeah, so here this out, right? So Samara, you go on, you say.
30:50
That's right. OK, so again, hardship.
30:56
You have hardship you get a problem a door open somewhere
30:58
else. We went to a hotel in.
31:04
It was Samoa, wasn't it? Samoa, yeah.
31:06
So Samoa, yeah. Yeah.
31:09
So it's it's maybe 2 stops before and.
31:13
There's an interesting fact about some I think it was the
31:14
first place on Earth where ink was used to write something like
31:20
that. I wouldn't know, sorry.
31:22
I think I think something like that.
31:23
But anyway, we're. Testing you now?
31:24
Not supposed to be an exam, it's an interview.
31:28
One way comes one way. So yeah, so in Samoa we went to
31:32
the hotel and it was the only hotel that could accommodate us
31:36
and. Were these hotels booked in
31:41
advance or was as you go like your places of stay?
31:45
OK. Was it like the?
31:46
Logistics and accommodation pre. I don't know what what?
31:49
I don't know if I can answer that question.
31:51
It seemed like they were organised last minute.
31:57
OK, But it just, you know, look, I mean.
31:59
That's what makes it beautiful, by the way.
32:01
I'm Indian. We do things last minute, right?
32:03
You know, there's this, we have this saying, you know, in India
32:06
and Pakistan, the Horjiga, right?
32:08
So if you ask someone, can you get me something or print these
32:12
T-shirts for me? Horjiga it's going to happen.
32:14
Don't worry, it'll happen. But yeah, it's going to happen.
32:17
It'll happen sort of thing. God willing, it'll happen.
32:21
So, so we got the hotel, we got to the hotel and in the hotel
32:26
they went in beds for us. So they they said.
32:29
Massive building. Yeah, it's a massive hotel, but
32:31
they weren't in beds for us for some reason.
32:33
So 16 of us didn't get beds. So they said OK, we have a
32:37
prayer and we can sleep in the pairing.
32:39
And we were like, OK, how many can fit in the prayer room?
32:42
Where's the toilets there? There's no toilets there.
32:45
And so in the rooms, those that people that got rooms, there
32:48
were 10 people in a room, 10 people in a room with one
32:52
toilet, Eastern toilet. So at that time we had the, the
32:58
social media guy for the Samoa governor.
33:02
He was with us. He doesn't speak Arabic, he
33:05
doesn't speak English and I don't speak Arabic.
33:07
So I got one of the guys that was with us to translate and I
33:11
said, look, can you kindly ask him to find an accommodation?
33:14
A little bit of persuasion going on, a little bit of toing and
33:17
froing. But after, after a while, he
33:20
said, yeah, we've got another accommodation for the 16 of you
33:22
that we can't fit into this one. So he took us in a vehicle, took
33:25
us to this like maybe 10 minutes away drive and it was 10.
33:31
Minutes. But then the second-half of the
33:34
of the of the drive, you're like in the sticks, yeah, sticks.
33:38
And you don't know where you're going and it's dark.
33:41
You were like looking at each other.
33:42
Yeah. What are we going to do?
33:44
What are we doing offend them? Is this some sort of Iraqi
33:47
custom, southern Iraqi custom that we're going to be
33:49
introduced to? So, but to our surprise, they
33:53
took us to this gated building which had guard dogs around it,
33:57
walk in, everything was marble inside.
34:00
They opened up rooms and to the point where they put beds, their
34:05
beds in the room, they put mattresses on the beds that had
34:08
not been used. They opened up the mattresses
34:09
and it was like, literally, it was like the governor's guest
34:13
house. So they're all the red carpet.
34:15
Yeah. 16. Of us, yeah, for only 16, only
34:18
the yeah. So the poor guys, right.
34:21
They're 10:10 to 1:00 room with an Eastern toilet and there's US
34:25
three to one room in the massive shower room.
34:27
It was it was great. So I mean.
34:31
But it wasn't planned. Yeah, it was at that point we
34:33
were like, we were like, you know what, We're just going to
34:35
sleep in the, in the OR wherever it is on the sofa, whatever, you
34:39
know, it doesn't matter. I mean, and just before that we,
34:44
we were cycling past a stadium. So, so we're in a convoy.
34:49
You know, there's a vehicle in front, vehicle in the back,
34:51
there's a police vehicle somewhere and a governor's
34:53
vehicle somewhere. So we're just following the, the
34:56
front vehicle and we see that we go past the stadium.
34:58
It's a pretty big stadium in, in, in Samoa.
35:02
And then we see children inside it and we're like, oh, we're
35:05
just going to go past the stadium.
35:06
Children are inside where, you know, they're this playing
35:09
football or whatever. Then our convoy turns into the
35:12
stadium and we're like, what's going on here?
35:16
So these were things that we were not aware of, but the
35:18
governor of that area planned it.
35:21
So we went in and those children were there for us.
35:25
They had the Iraqi flag waving the Iraqi flag.
35:29
They had us do a loop and we stopped the bicycles and one
35:34
child took our bike. They gave us drinks and we had a
35:39
speech and we were welcome veils.
35:41
Amazing. It was a media frenzy.
35:43
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But the beauty of it was that
35:46
whilst we were busy there taking pictures and stuff, the kids
35:50
were just riding our bikes from the track.
35:51
It was so beautiful. Amazing.
35:52
That must be a memorable moment for everyone and the kids
35:56
involved. And I'm looking forward to this
35:58
documentary because I honestly, all those things you're, you're
36:00
discussing and if I can go to the group now, you know, there's
36:04
45 brothers from 7 different countries, I believe, some from
36:07
the Emirates, some from the UK, some from Kenya, Kenya.
36:13
What were the conversations like?
36:15
Yeah, between everyone, you know, was it, do you feel like
36:17
there was a sense of brotherhood, a sense of unity?
36:20
Like what was the conversations about?
36:22
What were you hearing? What were the Chinese whispers,
36:24
if I can ask? So the, the guys themselves, so
36:30
we sort of kind of, you know, Imran and I sort of vet the guys
36:34
beforehand. And it's not a, it's not like a,
36:39
a vetting a tick box exercise. It's just about will this guy
36:42
fit? Yeah.
36:43
Is he chilled? Yeah, Yeah, he'll do.
36:46
Well, so we had a, a rough idea of what they were like.
36:49
And, you know, we're not, you know, psychologists by any
36:54
anyway means. But when we met, it was like we
37:00
knew each other. Yeah.
37:03
We were like joking straight away if someone did something.
37:06
I mean, that first night, that first night in Basra.
37:09
So Basra, we went to the Corniche and and Basra, you'd
37:15
say you'd think to yourself, Oh, that must be a town, Outback
37:18
town. That's a big city.
37:19
And when we went to Basra, we went to the Corniche and it's
37:25
got this bridge and it's like an amazing bridge with lights and,
37:28
and it was, it's wonderful, isn't.
37:31
It. And we have this sort of joke
37:34
going, right? You know, people are afraid to
37:37
go to sleep if we're out and about because we have a joke
37:42
where if we're in a coffee, you know, when you cycle and you've
37:45
done days of cycling, you get tired, right?
37:47
And, you know, your banter at night time, you know, you go to
37:50
sleep late, you wake up early, and then, you know, I just sit
37:54
in a coffee shop. You might fall asleep.
37:57
That's a big mistake. If you do that with this.
37:59
You like this. I can't remember who it was.
38:01
Was Zulka. Zulka.
38:03
Yeah. So Zulka.
38:04
So we're sitting there having, I think, pomegranate juice.
38:07
It's a fresh pomegranate, Yes, wonderful.
38:10
So this guy just making it there and he was like, wow, 45 people
38:13
could probably get it so. And we're all cramped in this
38:15
whole. Space and so there's Zulfika
38:19
from from Peterborough. He's sitting there like this and
38:22
then slowly he he's nodding off and then his eyes closed and
38:26
then someone sort of says he's falling asleep.
38:30
And 45 of us quietly, quietly leave that little cafe, right,
38:39
or juice bar and we all hide in different places.
38:42
And then and that's not the worst thing.
38:45
So the guy that that's in that that runs the juice shop, we
38:51
said to him, because we had our Arabic Arab, we said, all right,
38:57
when we are out of sight, wait around 30 seconds, then go to
39:00
him, nudge him and say something in your in, in, in, in Arabic,
39:05
something in Arabic. Like get out.
39:08
Like it's like, yeah and yeah, and be and look really angry
39:11
and, and, you know, and we recorded it and it was
39:14
wonderful. It seems like, so we, we did the
39:17
same when we went to Majorca, but we try and do this sort of
39:22
little things to, to bring one, to just create a bit of fun.
39:27
Yeah, yeah, yeah. A bit of banter, something to
39:30
laugh about, something to to remember of of the trip as well
39:33
as, you know, bring, bring people together.
39:35
Yeah, no, it's a nice vibe, Yeah.
39:37
I mean. One of the guys is, is Auk guy
39:39
and he gave me a call. He said look, I'm not 100% sure
39:43
about going. You know, I, I don't know the
39:45
guys and you know, I don't know what it's going to be like.
39:47
I could listen, right? Are you part of the community?
39:51
Yes. Do you like cycling?
39:52
Yes. Are you chilled?
39:53
Yes. You know what?
39:54
Just turn up, right? Turn up.
39:56
And you know what? Whatever happens, happens.
39:59
He turned up. And I kid you not, I think he
40:04
had a wonderful time. He ended up knowing some of the
40:08
guys, you know this, you know, 7° of separation, you know, he
40:12
knew a bunch of people already through different, you know,
40:14
networking events and, and work and stuff like that.
40:17
In fact, he ended up knowing more people than I did right.
40:21
And I was organising the event. So he was so comfortable when
40:27
when he was there it, it was like he was mixing, like he knew
40:33
everyone. The guys in Canada, the guys
40:36
from Tanzania and Singapore and all that.
40:39
Oh, absolutely. Even the two guys that joined us
40:41
from Basra, Yeah, tell him the story.
40:43
Oh, Iraqis. Oh, yeah.
40:45
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So Ibrahim and Muhammad, Ahmed
40:50
Ibrahim and Muhammad, and I'm not sure which. 1.
40:52
Which one? I'm not sure which.
40:53
One the the what? The what look like they're both
40:55
their cousins, but there might be.
40:57
Their story is amazing and. They were with you to Karbala.
41:01
They were. Do the preamble first, so the
41:03
full story. So they so that time where we so
41:06
straight after Zulfikar fell asleep and you know he got
41:09
rudely woken up, right we were. Like how was his reaction?
41:13
He was, well, he actually was asleep, so I think he was a
41:16
little bit shocked. I don't think that's going to
41:18
make it. A little bit dazed, like we're
41:19
not. Going to do that to him.
41:20
At least I never put in a documentary.
41:21
Yeah, we're going to talk about it.
41:23
So. So.
41:24
Yeah. So.
41:24
But he knew that. Yeah.
41:25
OK, if I'm going to nod off, it's going to happen to me.
41:28
Because it was his buddy in in Majorca, wasn't he?
41:31
Yeah, Ash. Was it ash?
41:31
No, no, it was Ashley. Ashley, it was no more here.
41:34
Maybe orchids Ash. So OK, so after the after juice
41:37
gate, we'll call it, right? We'll call it Juice Gate.
41:39
So after juice gate, we just crossed the street and we see
41:42
two guys on road bikes. We're like, wow, we're not
41:44
expecting to see anyone on road bikes.
41:46
Like cyclists as well. We're the, we're the cyclists
41:49
over here, right? So there's two guys over here.
41:51
I mean, I think 1819 years old, I think so one of them spoke
41:57
English and said, hey, you guys cycle and they go, yeah.
41:59
And he goes, well, we're cyclists as well.
42:00
We're here to cycle from Basra to Karbala.
42:03
And one of the guys, I think, I can't remember which one, you
42:06
know, Muhammad, I think it was. He was like, you know, I
42:10
actually was supposed to go on a trip with my friends, but my dad
42:14
said no, so to, you know, yeah. So my friend Ibrahim said let's
42:21
go for a bike ride at the Cornish, Right.
42:23
I'm just going to cheer you up. Let's go.
42:25
And then he bumped into us and we said, why don't you join us?
42:29
And he was like, well, right now something's not right.
42:33
You know, these foreigners have come over and they're saying,
42:36
join me. Just randomly join me on a, you
42:38
know, 6-7 day expedition to Karbala.
42:42
It sounds great, but there's got to be something wrong with it,
42:44
right? So we said, look, you know, this
42:47
is a hotel that we're at. Go speak to your dad.
42:51
So he spoke to his dad and he came the next day when we were
42:54
departing. And his dad like, I feel like
42:56
his dad interviewed me. Yeah, interrogation.
43:00
But like, there's like, OK, where are you taking him?
43:02
Where are you going to stop? What are you going to look after
43:04
him? And then like, like Eddie father
43:05
would do right. And we're like, look, don't
43:07
worry. Look, you know, you know, we're
43:10
you know, we're guys, you know, from from abroad and we're
43:13
doing, you know, a charity bike ride.
43:15
He said, relax at me, OK. And then originally their plan
43:20
was to only go to Chibaish. Originally they were only going
43:23
to go to Chibaish because, yeah, Chibaish.
43:25
OK, then we'll go, you know, we'll, we'll turn back then.
43:28
After Chibaish, they carried on. Nasriya, Samoa, Najaf, Karbala.
43:34
I think it was Muhammad's birthday as well.
43:37
When we were in Karbala, yeah. So I think, yeah, I think he was
43:39
in Karbala as well. There were things that he was
43:42
able to do that his at the end, actually sorry, at the end, his
43:46
dad said, I wish I had gone right.
43:50
He said the things that you have accomplished on that ride.
43:53
I, I never dreamed of doing that.
43:56
We met the, you know, Sayed Jafar Milani in, in Karbala.
44:05
We met various governors, you know, you know, governor of
44:10
Karbala and and, and we also had an audience with Avastani.
44:15
Amazing. It dropped again.
44:19
It dropped in our lap. Wasn't planned.
44:20
Right. We, we did ask a few months
44:25
before the trip and it was like, you know, he's quite frail,
44:30
which he is. So, you know, maybe it's best
44:33
not to do that. Then afterwards he found out
44:35
that this cyclist there. So he was like, how can I say no
44:39
to the cyclist? So we got an audience with him.
44:42
We sat down. We got to ask him, you know,
44:45
questions and these boys were there.
44:49
This is the experience. Our Sunni brothers were also
44:52
there, had an audience with. So imagine people can go their
44:55
whole lives. I mean, this is, you know, I was
44:57
like, and I said to my Sunni brother, I thought you
44:59
comprehend what's happened. I goes, I goes, we've just met
45:04
our Pope, right? He's our Pope, right?
45:08
In many ways. Yeah, We've and and even when we
45:11
met AKA Sastani, we were like, you know what?
45:13
We're not going to get to shake his hand.
45:15
He asked us. He was like open to that.
45:17
Like, wow. It was like, here's our
45:21
expectation bang. We've gone through that.
45:24
OK, OK then. OK, next expectation bang.
45:26
We yeah, it was just one after the other.
45:28
And yeah, yeah. So yeah, that was the story
45:31
about those those two kids. So I think we left a really good
45:35
memory. Thanks for sharing with.
45:36
Ibrahim. They do listen to the they spoke
45:40
a bit of English, so. Yes, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
45:42
Well, they did by the end of it. Did you end up speaking Alapi by
45:45
the end? Of it.
45:49
Fair enough. Let me ask you about this.
45:51
Yeah. So you, you've got 45 people in
45:54
cycling. OK.
45:55
I need. I don't think anyone born in
45:58
Iraq, living in Iraq would just walk in the streets and see 45
46:02
guys who are not from Iraq just cycling through town.
46:07
Like, what? What was the reaction of the
46:08
people? Did they stop you?
46:10
Did they ask questions like? So yeah, 45 guys riding in a
46:16
town or in a, in a, in a part of a country where people just
46:20
don't cycle wearing lycra, tight Lycra.
46:24
I I think someone joked and said, you know, said, you know,
46:28
the Iraqi people are asking, haven't you guys got cars?
46:31
Why don't you have a motorbike? Like why you buy why you got a
46:33
bicycle? Maybe it's the bicycle, but as
46:38
we were riding, so we had the Imam Hussein, the red Imam
46:42
Hussein flag. So we had that stuck to the
46:43
lead, the lead vehicle there in front, and we were riding behind
46:48
so people could see that this is a group that's heading towards
46:52
Garbola. You had trucks that were going
46:56
past that were horning. In the beginning, we were like,
46:58
you know what? These guys are probably angry
46:59
because over here, if you're cycling and there's a truck
47:01
horning, he's like, you know what?
47:04
They were horning because supporting us because we're
47:06
going to Karbala. You'd have people even on the
47:09
other side of the road going in the opposite direction, like
47:13
shouting out Karbala, Karbala, right, horning and slowing down
47:17
and, you know, video videoing us as well.
47:20
You have children on on this side of the of the road coming
47:24
up. You know, I mean, they're
47:25
playing, you know, outside their houses, but they'll run over
47:28
here because they can see a big line of cyclists coming and
47:31
they'll be like waving and, you know, giving us high.
47:34
And as we were riding past, we're trying to high 5 them as
47:36
well. Amazing.
47:37
We, you know, when we stopped off at the, at the mosque after
47:42
Chebayish, you know, you'll always have Chebayish.
47:46
We bought a whole load of sweets because we were like, you know
47:49
what, it's not good enough to give a high 5 to them.
47:53
We want to give them a few sweets.
47:55
But we had a dentist with us as well.
47:57
That dentist. Yeah.
47:58
We shall, shall remain nameless. He goes, don't get them sweets,
48:02
Don't get them sweets. What are you doing?
48:06
Don't get them sweets. But we gave them sweets.
48:10
Yeah. So those.
48:11
Yeah. So those boys.
48:12
Yeah. I like, I like to think that the
48:13
boys had a had a great, great experience.
48:17
And and this is one of the, you know, the honours that we had.
48:22
Yeah. Like I said, so many positive
48:25
things have happened and you know, the Iraqi people that we
48:31
met, the Iraqi people that we passed, you know, the fact that
48:35
we're going on our way to Kabbalah and people, you know,
48:38
waving at us, it's, it's truly humbling.
48:41
I mean, there were lots of cameras there as well.
48:43
So when we stopped off at certain places, I think some of
48:47
the governors took the advantage of having their media teams,
48:52
yeah, their media teams there. And you know you.
48:55
Really loved this by the way they loved the film or.
48:58
Interview like 2 cameras in our face and stuff like that.
49:02
And you know you've made this like a bit of tongue in cheek,
49:05
right? We have this joke, we have this
49:06
joke. You know, you've made it when
49:08
you've been when your interview has been dubbed in Arabic.
49:13
So there's there's us, you know, we're talking and then next
49:15
thing you know is like, well, that's not my voice.
49:17
So there's interviews there with our faces and our lips, but but
49:23
it's in Arabic. Fair enough.
49:24
I don't know what I said then. Fair enough, not as good.
49:27
Can I ask as well? You know, I'm sure you came
49:32
across so much different emotions throughout this
49:37
journey, different levels of spirituality, different levels
49:40
of, let's say, fatigue as well. I'm sure there was tightness and
49:43
you needed rest. Was there a specific encounter
49:49
that you would say left an impression on you before you
49:52
reach? I don't want to talk about the
49:54
city of Karbala now. I just want to talk about you've
49:56
arrived to Iraq. You've passed all these cities.
49:58
You've gone through these different towns.
50:00
You've met all these different people, and just before you get
50:03
to the holy city of Karbala, was there like a specific encounter
50:06
you had, perhaps a local or yourself between, you know, the
50:10
friends in the group that left an impression on you?
50:12
And I think from the both of you I can get an answer.
50:15
We had, yeah. Impression from the writers or
50:18
from the local? From anything you fell, you know
50:21
this left a mark on me. I think.
50:24
I think it was Trabaj. I said mental mark on him.
50:30
I just thought I. Said all rows the other.
50:33
Way. No, because that that was, I
50:38
think it encapsulated, encapsulated, encapsulated the
50:44
true essence of sacrifice and of tolerance and of brotherhood.
50:52
We only had a couple of guys share a blank because we're one
50:55
short, but that's beside the point.
50:57
You know, the other challenges that we covered earlier it it's
51:01
just a mental fortitude as well, you know, from having to bear
51:06
with substandard sanitary facilities or the lack of having
51:12
to, you know, sacrifice a space and you're just leaving one
51:17
massive hole. Having to wake up five in the
51:21
morning at I think it was sub zero temperatures, I swear.
51:25
And we didn't even have the clothes for it because we
51:27
weren't, we weren't expecting the temperature going out.
51:29
The only way to keep warm is right fast.
51:31
Yeah, yeah, that's the only way to.
51:33
Keep, you know, doing Wazoo and coming back.
51:36
So then in that in itself, I think especially having gone
51:41
through on Day 2 made us all a little more closer and stronger.
51:47
So the event, but I think close to that was were those two days
51:51
from Samoa and from now Syria from a physical perspective
51:57
having to ride in those massive crazy 20 mile an hour headwinds
52:01
with nothing on site and. I mean, to put that in
52:04
perspective, if, if the wind in the UK, if we're riding the in
52:09
the UK and the wind is more than 1213 miles an hour, we don't
52:13
ride, it's a, it's a non ride day.
52:15
Well, now we're talking about 20 mile an hour headwinds.
52:17
So you're going straight, but it feels like you're going up a
52:21
hill got you and you've got everyone's got to do that
52:24
because we've only got certain number of spaces in our support
52:28
vehicles. So.
52:30
Yeah. And hours in a day as well,
52:31
because we had to pace ourselves so that we make sure we get to
52:34
the next city in good time so that folks can rest, recover for
52:38
the next day. And we and we kind of we kind of
52:41
went through that for two of those days before we reached to
52:44
Najaf. And again, you know, kudos to
52:48
some of the guys. You know, if you have a good
52:51
band of brothers, you know, all that has given us abilities,
52:56
unique abilities in each one of us.
52:58
And you know, at that time for that particular hardship
53:01
challenge, we had a bunch of strong writers.
53:04
They literally they were right. The front getting better by the
53:08
wind helping us all. You know the whole cuff that's
53:10
gonna. Amazing.
53:10
When you're here discussing the wind, I can just imagine like
53:13
the crosswinds of the planes trying to learn.
53:15
So I don't know if that's something similar.
53:17
Yeah, it's the way you're trying to see.
53:18
Those videos of those planes sort of going off this side,
53:21
that's like cycling, very cycling off the side of the
53:23
road, yeah. I want to get to this point and,
53:27
you know, we're drawing close, I think, towards the conversation.
53:29
I think this is for me one of the most important questions I
53:32
want to ask. You know, we are a Shia Muslim
53:33
podcast #1 we all identify as the Shiavira and the lovers of
53:39
ABBA Abdullah Hussein Alayhi Salaam.
53:41
And your end goal was to reach Karbala do the Ziyar ABI
53:45
Mohammed Hussein all whilst working on raising money for a
53:50
noble cause, challenging yourself.
53:52
But and once you reach Karbala and I think if both of you can
53:56
share together if you want or separately and answering the
53:59
question is OK, now I've reached Karbala, I've reached the holy
54:02
city of ABBA Abdullah Al Hussein Abbas is I have also I beer
54:07
after year. Like firstly, what was going
54:09
through your mind and what were the emotions on entering and
54:12
nearing the holy shrines? So I would say is for me, it
54:18
started off the emotions died of as we were approaching Najaf,
54:24
right? That's when I was like, this is
54:26
real, this is real riding towards the shrine and in
54:34
anticipation is the shrine on that next, right?
54:40
You know, am I going to get a glimpse and do my Salaam?
54:42
Is it going to be the next one? So at this point, you're no
54:47
longer riding fast, you're slowing down because you want to
54:50
see. Yeah, yeah, Real, really, really
54:53
emotional. We arrived at at Najaf and it
54:59
was it for us, it you know, it was a mini achievement.
55:03
It we we met a mini objective, right?
55:06
We the the first major CRO en route and we were on the steps
55:14
of the of the hotel and we were like, yeah, you know, we've done
55:18
well. And then once we're there, you
55:21
know, once the bike ride is over, you showered up.
55:24
It's the Zara mode. But then yeah, two days later we
55:29
had two nights in Najaf. So two days later we did that
55:35
ride, our final ride to to Karbala, which the morning I
55:44
felt it was an experience that a feeling that I hadn't felt on
55:48
previous mornings. It was just another ride on
55:51
every other morning. But this was like something
55:53
special. It was like there was something
55:54
in in the air. It was like the calm before the
56:00
storm was, you know, the I can't, I can't really put a name
56:04
to it, but it's like something is going to happen, but it's not
56:09
happened yet. But your anticipation or
56:11
something, we know that it was going to it was Karbala, but at
56:15
the time it's something, you know, it wasn't a normal ride.
56:20
So we left, left Karbala. Once we got to the what I call
56:24
the gates of Karbala, that's that massive.
56:26
It says welcome to the holy province of, of Karbala where we
56:30
met, say, Jasmine Milani. So we we met him there and he
56:35
gave us a few words to encourage us.
56:37
And the thing was right. We've been riding day in day,
56:40
you know, day in day out with, with only one rest day.
56:42
Yeah, I just don't think any of the guys were tired.
56:46
If on that last day, if you asked anyone to sit in the car
56:49
because they were riding too slow, they were like, no, I
56:51
don't, I don't want any. And you can't make them do that.
56:54
They, you know, they want to get to, you know, the the shrine
56:58
just and they have every right to.
57:01
So the route that we took was the route, the Arbane, not just
57:04
a Karbala route. So you see all the morchips?
57:08
Skeleton like they were. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
57:10
Everything was closed. It was dead, it was closed.
57:12
A little bit of construction work happening on the road.
57:15
But you can see, you know, there's all the, you know, all
57:17
the known, well known Morchips over there.
57:19
And it's like, wow, you know, this is it.
57:22
We're cheating the system. We're riding a bike and we
57:24
should be walking, but hey, we'd come from Basra.
57:27
Yes, I think we're OK. Then as we got to Karbala, I
57:33
think there was a, was it like an overpass or something that we
57:36
had to go around some overpass and we stopped about two miles
57:40
away. The reason why we stopped 2
57:42
miles away is we wanted to, we were like, OK guys, look, let's
57:45
regroup. Let's ride in formation, have a
57:49
nice ride in. And guys, you know, just catch
57:53
our breaths, right? We're just two miles away from
57:56
Imam Hussein's shrine. Not in in cycling terms, it's
58:00
nothing pretty much around the corner.
58:04
So let's, let's just let's get the roots straight.
58:08
Let's not make any mistakes. Our police escort at the time
58:13
was like, OK, this is the route we need to take.
58:15
We'll do a leftover here, right over there, and we'll come round
58:18
that way. And we're like, yeah, that's
58:19
fine. What I didn't know is how close
58:22
to the shrine that we would get. I mean, you, I mean, rightfully
58:26
you can't go and recycle that into onto the shrine.
58:28
But we're at that last checkpoint.
58:30
So that last checkpoint you come across.
58:33
So this Gibla St. and you're just so this Gibla St. and
58:36
there's a shrine in front that we're we're there.
58:39
We couldn't actually come onto Kibla St.
58:40
We went round the back. I stayed at that hotel.
58:44
But as we were approaching again, it was like, look, some
58:48
of the guys I arrived at are the toughest guys, right?
58:50
These guys are the heads of their family.
58:53
They're accomplished in everything that they want to be
58:55
accomplished in. I turned to my left and there's
58:58
tears in their eyes, right? It's not tears because they hurt
59:03
themselves. It's not tears because of any
59:05
other reason. It's tears because of the
59:07
journey they've taken. And it's not the first class
59:10
journey. It's not the journey of someone
59:12
that stayed in all first class hotel hotels all the way.
59:15
It's a journey of someone that has, through suffering and
59:20
dedication and hardship, made a journey.
59:24
And I feel that that is the most fruitful journey to have.
59:28
You go to see Imam Hussein and you want to go there as a person
59:33
that has had a hardship to get there.
59:36
So we're on, we're two or three roads away and, and everyone is
59:41
like, we're riding, but it's like you're riding, but you're
59:44
looking for something. So everyone's like riding.
59:46
We're standing up on our seats like meerkats, right?
59:48
Meerkats exactly there. Meerkats.
59:50
That's what we did. We're riding, we're standing up.
59:54
Can we look over that building over there?
59:55
Can we see that down that road? Is this shrine over there?
59:59
And it's like, it was like it was becoming kind of like
1:00:02
desperate now, right? We're there.
1:00:04
And then one, one of the guys said Lebeg yah Hussein.
1:00:09
And you know what that I think that was the tipping point.
1:00:12
Everyone was there at that tipping, that emotional tipping
1:00:14
point. Some had tears coming out just
1:00:16
before, but when that Lebeg Yah Hussein happened.
1:00:19
All of us, we shouted at top of our voices, Lebekia Hussein, all
1:00:24
the way down to the checkpoint of that, of that shrine.
1:00:28
And there you are, all right, there's Imam Hussein, right,
1:00:31
right, right in front of us. We couldn't go any further, but
1:00:34
it was like, you know, what's the documentary?
1:00:39
Yeah, yeah. Lebeke Al Hussein.
1:00:41
I can imagine that feeling. You know, you're speaking about
1:00:44
the anticipation, you know, waiting for that moment.
1:00:47
I, I, I remember I went to Iraq. I think it was, I don't know how
1:00:53
old I was actually, I think I'm 32, almost 33.
1:00:56
I think I was 20 or something. I went with brother Nuria Sardar
1:01:00
said hi there, Jaisani, a few brothers close to me.
1:01:03
We walked, we walked, we walked and it took us over 2 days and
1:01:07
all of a sudden we saw, we just saw the, the Dome of our father
1:01:11
eventually and that, that I can't explain that moment and I
1:01:14
can imagine what you guys went through.
1:01:15
That was the first time I've done Messiah and I was able to
1:01:18
see the Dome after such immense pain, after such, you know,
1:01:22
difficulties and struggles to finally get there.
1:01:25
So I can resonate with that and ask a lot of Panama to Allah.
1:01:27
For those who have never been to Karabella and Charlotte, you
1:01:29
have the opportunity and you get called for Ziara be are behind
1:01:33
outside the seasons. It's a beautiful moment.
1:01:35
And I just want to ask a final question from me if I can.
1:01:38
It was also at the same time the Willah that of Imam Hussein.
1:01:42
Did you feel like, was it extra special?
1:01:45
Does it mean more like what? Because normally people go siara
1:01:49
to commemorate the martyrdom of Hussain, but now you've gone for
1:01:54
his celebration of what can say for his moment.
1:01:56
How did that feel? Yeah.
1:01:57
So yeah, we actually planned it to arrive on that day, so.
1:02:00
No, Yeah. So when we were planning dates,
1:02:04
we went to go, how to go, what to do, what to do.
1:02:07
So this was something that no one has had ever, no one had
1:02:12
ever done before, both in terms of not only cycling in Iraq, but
1:02:16
As for us riders, 45 of us, maybe apart from a couple of
1:02:22
them, maybe if that, no one really had ridden those crazy
1:02:25
mouths day in, day out consecutively, right?
1:02:27
So when we looked at it on paper, it looked like a mammoth
1:02:31
challenge. But then one, initially I don't
1:02:36
think it was a plan to end it at the biladet, But as we try and
1:02:40
try to, as we try to work the dates out, that's when we
1:02:44
realized that this is, this is not a joke, this is serious
1:02:48
cycling. But then what?
1:02:52
You know what, how best do you end it?
1:02:56
But ending with Imam Hussein Abu told Abbas and Abidin's
1:03:00
Biladets. It's just kind of icing on the
1:03:02
cake and to have that experience for the atmosphere and the the
1:03:06
sort of the I. Think one of the, one of the
1:03:08
challenges was, you know how, you know, the new moon sighting?
1:03:15
That was our challenge. It's like, OK, if we're in the
1:03:17
wrong town, we're we're, if we're in, you know, if the nudge
1:03:21
of on the wrong day, then we miss it.
1:03:23
And so it was like, you know, looking at the calculations or
1:03:26
like, you know what you know, what are the chances of it being
1:03:28
a new moon on on on that day? So we had like a backup plan and
1:03:32
actually did have. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:03:33
It was a day earlier than what we thought, but we had a backup
1:03:35
plan. So we, we, we put that into into
1:03:37
motion, but it was always Imam Hussein's.
1:03:40
We allowed it is the day that we're going to ride into Karbala
1:03:44
and we're working our way back. OK, so the date that we all
1:03:48
arrived was based on the date that we were going to arrive in,
1:03:53
in, in Karbala to the date that we arrived in Basra was was, was
1:03:56
based upon that. Everything was around that day,
1:03:58
just like pretty much everything we do anyways, you know, it
1:04:01
revolves around, you know, our imams and the imams and this
1:04:04
Imam. And why shouldn't our cycling be
1:04:06
the be the same? So that, that was the plan and
1:04:09
I'm, I'm, I'm pleased to say there were some guys in the
1:04:13
community that ordinarily wouldn't have done, got on
1:04:15
ziaret. They did their ziaret, you know.
1:04:18
So for some, this was the first time.
1:04:19
First time. Wow.
1:04:21
There was our Sunni brothers, right?
1:04:23
Our Sunni brothers that wouldn't normally have had the
1:04:26
opportunity to. I'm I'm, I'm, I like to think
1:04:29
that we, we facilitated that there's so many stories out
1:04:33
there and, and I feel that what this ride was one of unity as
1:04:37
well. So we are Shia and every, and
1:04:40
this is like a contrast that I want to sort of put out there is
1:04:45
one of the mosques that we, that we went to one of the Sunni
1:04:50
brothers. He was like, this is the this is
1:04:51
the first time I prayed the Shia where he said and I said, you
1:04:55
know, OK, that's fine, but. And you know what?
1:04:57
The first time he stepped into Imam Ali's Haram, we were
1:05:03
praying together. There's tears coming down in
1:05:05
this amazing. And he didn't know, obviously.
1:05:08
He knew probably what he knew from what he was taught, but.
1:05:11
We're not like us. No, I mean you can't have tears
1:05:15
coming down your eyes. Yeah, yeah.
1:05:17
And I. Think that's the main.
1:05:19
That's that's the fear from Allah.
1:05:22
And the, the, the tolerance that people have because he's so he
1:05:27
said that this is the first time I prayed the sheer way.
1:05:31
And I said to him, you know, this is a country that you can
1:05:35
pray any way you want, right? And you're allowed to pray any
1:05:40
way you want, right? People will come and look at you
1:05:43
because they're intrigued in you, not because they think
1:05:46
you're doing anything wrong. Everyone has their place, right?
1:05:50
You're not going to be told that you're wrong in what you do.
1:05:53
The fact that you're here speaks volumes.
1:05:58
And then I, I said, make yourself useful.
1:06:01
I gave him a bag of sweets, right?
1:06:03
Again, the, the, you know, the dentist didn't like it, right?
1:06:06
He knows who he is. He knows who he is.
1:06:09
So another bag. So we went through so many bags
1:06:10
of sweets. It's unbelievable, you know, So
1:06:14
I gave him a bag of sweets and he was handing those sweets out
1:06:17
and he was like a little, he was like a kid himself handing out
1:06:20
those sweets. So I think a second day in
1:06:25
second or third day in Karbala, we got some more sweets and then
1:06:29
we went to Ben Harmain. And so this is the, this is I
1:06:32
think the the total contrast. You know, when you go at a sad
1:06:36
moment and a happy moment, there's there people cutting
1:06:40
cakes for each of the real others.
1:06:42
Every day there's someone cutting cakes, you can lose joy
1:06:44
and grab a piece of cake. People throwing sweets in the
1:06:47
air. So weddings happening.
1:06:49
Yeah, weddings, weddings happening.
1:06:50
People get getting married and yeah, so you know, it's, it's a
1:06:56
wonderful time, a wonderful time.
1:06:58
And you know, if you, I guess I would say, you know, you can't
1:07:02
get there for the, the, the, the death anniversary.
1:07:06
Why not the birth? Why not the I sent, I sent
1:07:09
beautiful conversation. I really enjoyed a discussion
1:07:11
we've had today. I would like to thank you both,
1:07:14
Brother Rosa, Brother Ron, thank you for, you know, sharing your
1:07:16
experiences and I think motivating me.
1:07:19
Maybe I'll go cycling one day from Masala to Karbala, so I'm
1:07:25
not going to say to wish someone join.
1:07:26
Us. But you know, maybe what you can
1:07:28
do is yeah, join us on our next ride.
1:07:31
So this is Phase 1 of what we call our 14 masumine journey.
1:07:39
Beautiful. All right, so you can probably
1:07:41
know where it's going to go. This is the 14 masumine journey.
1:07:43
Phase 1 was Karbala. Phase 2 is Iran and then phase
1:07:48
three will be Saudi inshallah. Inshallah.
1:07:50
Inshallah. So there's plenty of scope there
1:07:52
to join us in one of those one of those rides.
1:07:54
And not just for you, but for your viewers as well.
1:07:57
Accents, accents. So what's our Instagram?
1:08:00
Yeah, so. That was the shouts out time,
1:08:02
yeah. I'm guessing I can shout out
1:08:03
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you follow us on our
1:08:06
handle for on Instagram is at Desi Riders UK, you'll find all
1:08:13
sorts of media contents, including some reels and
1:08:17
footages from our recent trip. So you can spoil yourselves a
1:08:21
little bit there. But I wouldn't spoil myself too
1:08:22
much because our documentary is releasing soon in the next month
1:08:25
or two, inshallah, and it will be at on, albeit TV as well.
1:08:29
So keep an eye out for that. I sent keep an eye for that.
1:08:32
Indeed, brothers and sisters, I really hope you enjoyed today's
1:08:35
episode that I I know I did, and I'm sure you'll agree with me.
1:08:37
It's been a beneficial eye opening one and one that is very
1:08:40
different to our normal conversation we have here on the
1:08:42
podcast. So it was nice to be extremely
1:08:45
lighthearted for once over a long period of time.
1:08:48
Charlotte enjoyed the episode. Please hit that subscribe button
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so we can grow this platform together.
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Salaam Alaikum or Ahmed Allahi or Baraka.