In 1969, I became Muslim from Yousif Eid Al-Nassar, and he gave my name – Yousif Ahmed Al-Nassar.
At that time there were NO MOSQUES in our area at all so in the 70’s I started Friday Prayers in my house and then after a while numbers increased so we rented a hall for a few years. The number of people reached into the 40’s and we then decided to buy a house in Avenue Road in 1982 and converted it as an office, prayer rooms, wudhu area, and toilet facilities.
The purchase price of 130 Avenue Road was obtained and donated in full from my friends in Jeddah I.E the Bamukra family, Balbaid and Bin Mahfooz family and the Al-Mallouhi Family.
God bless them all for the generosity.
The numbers increased considerably and by then we were holding the five prayers and supplying food in Ramadan cooked by my sister (who became Muslim) and my wife Huda Al-Karrar. The Khutba on a Friday was taken by Ali Ebrahim Al-Jahani Al-Mughraby for a period of many years and he helped in the running of Mosque and Islamic Centre . We will always kindly remember his hard work as Imam and help in all areas of running the Mosque and Islamic Centre.
In 1996 we became a Public Charity and as we increased in number we decided to purchase the next door property 128 Avenue Road which once again was kindly donated by Dr Ebrahim Al-Masoud and also amounts from the original Brothers in Jeddah and amounts from Brothers in Kuwait and Qatar. For many years we have covered a large area from Exeter to Plymouth and the second house gave us more room to expand the prayer areas and rooms used as library’s and Classrooms. By then the numbers increased dramatically and we started the Eid Prayers in the Town Hall & Riviera Centre and for the past few years we have rented the large conference Centre “ Torbay suite “ in the Imperial hotel and we are now getting about 400 brothers, sisters and families.
In 2023, the two properties were finally united into a spacious prayer hall by breaking through the party wall and refurbishing the interiors. AlhamduLillah for allowing His House to continue to develop from strength to strength.