Surma Islamic Education Centre Madrassa & Masjid

Serving the Muslim community of Acocks Green and wider Birmingham, the Surma Islamic Education Centre Madrassa and Masjid provides prayer space, Quranic classes, and community programmes for a predominantly Bengali heritage congregation whose roots trace back to the Surma valley of Sylhet in north eastern Bangladesh. The centre's name itself invokes this river, a tributary of the Meghna that flows past the shrine of the famous saint Shah Jalal Yemeni, may God be pleased with him, whose followers brought Islam to the Surma basin in the fourteenth century. Sylheti migrants to Birmingham, many of them formerly employed in the British merchant navy and later in the city's factories, foundries, and catering trades, established a network of mosques and madrasas from the mid twentieth century onwards that today number among the most active Islamic institutions in England. Acocks Green is a neighbourhood in the south east of Birmingham, characterised by its Edwardian parades of shops, suburban streets, and a multicultural population in which Muslim families have been a defining community for several generations. Architecturally the centre typically inhabits a converted or purpose built structure with a prayer hall on the ground floor, a women's section upstairs or behind a partition, classrooms for after school Quranic instruction, and an office for the imam and trustees. A modest minaret or dome may crown the building, while the interior bears calligraphic panels reproducing the shahadatayn, Ayat al Kursi, and verses from Surah Yusuf much loved in Bengali devotional tradition. The five daily prayers are observed, Jumu'ah draws a large gathering of Bengali, Pakistani, Arab, and Somali worshippers, and Ramadan fills the centre nightly with taraweeh, iftar meals often including traditional Bengali dishes, and intensified Quran circles. The two Eid congregations bring joyful families sharing sweets and greetings in English, Bengali, Urdu, and Arabic. Regular classes instruct children in the sirah of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, and the noble Companions, may God be pleased with them, nurturing the next generation of British Muslims. Birmingham weather rarely dampens the cheerful arrivals outside these doors, where umbrellas are shaken off and warm greetings exchanged before the iqamah call is raised.