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Organized by Aqsa School Seniors

Aqsa School Senior Trip

$426

raised of 0 USD goal

7 supporters, 00h : 00m : 00s left
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Impact: Bridgeview, IL

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This campaign will collect all funds raised by February 1, 2017 at 12:45 AM EST

Aqsa School Seniors are raising money to go to Umrah and Spain. Please donate to support us in making our dream a reality!


The Trip of a Lifetime

Assalamu Alaikum, We are the high school seniors of the class of 2017 at Aqsa School in Bridgeview, Illinois! This year we are planning a spiritual and informative trip to Mecca and Medina to perform Umrah, along with an educational trip to Spain to learn about the beautiful Islamic history located there. The main goal of our trip is to strengthen our Islamic knowledge and belief before we begin our new lives in college and beyond. We are working very hard to make this trip successful, but we need your support. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity yet we don’t have the funds to make this dream come true. We hope you can support us so we can reach our goal of $5,000 by January 31, 2017. May Allah reward you for all of your generous donations, and we will keep you in our duas InShAllah. 

Jazakum Allahu Khayran


A Little More About Us

Aqsa School is a private, all girls, Islamic School. Our class has basically grown up together. A large portion of our class has attended Aqsa School since elementary school, some even since Pre-K and Kindergarten. What makes our class so special is the unique sisterhood that we all share. We’ve known one another for what we can call forever. We’ve shared so many experiences with each other learning about our religion like performing Mock Hajj ever since we were 6 years old and acting out plays that portray the stories of our beloved prophets. We hope the next experience we share with one another will be performing Umrah together InshAllah. We truly want to share this experience with our teachers that have guided us through out high school since freshman year. These teachers have literally been our second mothers. They have taught us everything about our religion, from the Seerah of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to the characteristics of the ideal Muslimah. Please help us achieve our goal, and make our dreams of attending the trip we’ve been learning about our entire lives a reality.

Our Experience

Growing up in our Islamic School, we have been blessed to learn about every aspect of our beautiful religion as we grew older. We have all grown up performing the rituals of Hajj/Umrah annually at our school’s annual Elementary Mock Hajj Performance. Each year as we progressed to a higher grade we were in charge of preforming a different ritual. In Pre-K/Kindergarten, we performed Tawaf around a large mock Ka’ba. In first and second grade we performed Sa’ee between two large paper mach'e mountains/hills, Safa and Marwa. In third grade we performed Ramee al Jimar, and threw stones at the 3 pillars. Then in fourth grade we recited beautiful duas taught to us by our teachers on a large mock version of Arafah. And as fifth graders we lead this performance by explaining each of these processes to our audience in detail, along with other processes like Ihram and its requirements. Believe it or not, we even explained what the experience at Jaddah Airport would be like. You can now imagine how much these steps have resided in our hearts, and how prepared and excited we are for this trip of a lifetime.


Visa by Chance

Our agent has been trying to find a way to allow a group of women to travel to perform Umrah without a mahram for 6 years. Last year she spoke with the Saudi government and they directed her to their consultant in New York. She shared with him the story of the first all girls Muslim school who wanted to go perform umrah based on what they learned in class but didn't have a mahram. He was moved by the fact that young girls wanted to learn about their deen so he gave permission for all the girls to go using only one mahram while going and returning. He also assured that each parent write a letter advocating for their daughters to go alone.

The trip last year was very beneficial to the students, the faculty and our agent and they all gave a big thanks to the Saudi consultant.

Getting to Know Our History in Spain

We will not only be preforming Umrah, but we'll also be traveling to the beautiful country of Spain, which will help us remember the pinnacle days of successful Islamic ruling and civilization. This trip to Spain is important for a couple of reasons. First, let us take you back to the early 700s when Abd-Rahman fled to Spain, resurrected the land, and turned it into a powerful kingdom that is still remembered until today. Since the rule of Abd-Rahman, numerous achievements were developed in Spain. For example, did you know that the first medical encyclopedia was created by a Muslim scholar in Spain, or that the significant advancements in mathematics allowed the concept of zero to spread throughout Europe? These remarkable accomplishments should not be forgotten by generations that follow, especially with the downfall of many Islamic countries today. Travelling to Spain will not only transport us back to the glorious days of Al- Andalus, but also grant us the opportunity to witness magnificent architecture, like Alhambra Palace, the Mosque of Cordoba, and many more sights. This trip will enlighten our knowledge on the Islamic history in Spain and allow us to return feeling more confident in our religion.

A Blast From the Past

The seniors this year are looking forward to performing Umrah this year because they heard the incredible, heartwarming, and life-changing stories from the Aqsa seniors that went last year. The Aqsa alumni  highly encourage the current seniors to embark on this life-changing journey because it increases them in faith and strengthens their friendly bond as one of family and faith. 

"What was great about this trip wasn't only from the fact that we visited God's house and increased our spirituality, it was the fact that I did this with my sisters. This trip undoubetdly brought us all together. We grew a bond that I will cherish forever inshaa Allah. I felt that I better myself from this trip and I felt that we all left this trip with the feeling that something amazing was within each one of us". -Esraa Elkossei, an Aqsa alumni who attended the Umrah trip-2015-16



No Dough No Go

Going on the senior trip to Umrah and Spain is a right of knowledgeable  passage and a blessed gift, for most. Among the senior class there are some students who often opt out of this wonderful learning experience because of a lack of funds. The senior trip is usually paid for by most of the fundraising of the seniors but there is a sum of money that is to be paid by each girl from their family. Alhamdulilah Allah has blessed us with at least the bare minimum but the bare minimum does not give us all the cushion of blessings it takes to pay for this trip. As a personal account my father and mother encourage me to go on the trip and are willing to take out loans to pay for the trip. As an aspiring college student with needs it pains me to ask my parents to spare their last dimes to pay for a trip that doesn't include them. The donations made on this website are verily my last hope to be able to go on this trip of a lifetime.









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