How We Made it Overseas to Study
My wife wrote up our story of how we made it overseas. Check it out.
Back in the summer of 2007 Ahmed and I starting talking, wishing, and hoping that one day we would be able to leave our jobs, wrap up our home and go to Egypt to study the Arabic language. At the time Ahmed was an IT Consultant, traveling out from Chicago to South Carolina where he would be Monday-Thursday. I was a stay at home Mommy and part time Dental Hygienist. Learning the Arabic language has been something Ahmed and I have been wanting to do since we were in college. We took a few courses at the time but wanted to really get into in by living and learning in a Middle Eastern country. This dream had been a mere thought. Initially we thought it would never be possible since Ahmed had a secure job at a time the economy was not doing so well. We had a nice apartment in Wheaton, IL that we were nicely settled in. One would think we were crazy to leave a nice, easy going life, for something unknown.
Months went by and we started putting our heads together to find a way we could leave everything and go overseas to gain some knowledge. FINISH READING on IlmTravelers.com
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Assalaamualaykum,
Congratulations on your journey to acquire sacred knowledge! May Allah(swt) bless you and your family and increase them in knowledge.
Co-incidentally me and husband too were discussing about a similar journey for acquiring sacred knowledge.
I was just wondering how did you guys plan financially. I know it is inappropriate to ask how much you guys saved in terms of finances but could you please give me an approximate idea of what should be our target?
Also based on your experience could you please discuss your accommodation in Egypt and source of income there?
May Allah(swt) make easy your path to gain knowledge and May Allah(swt) ease all your hardships.
JazakAllah Khair
Sameena
as salaam alikuim,
May Allah bless you and your husband of making such intentions.
Financial Planning:
- I will assume that it is just you and your husband (and no children). You need about ~ $800 per month for all expenses (housing, learning Arabic at an institute, food etc.) Again, this includes all standard monthly expenses to live very comfortably.
- How much you should save up before coming depends on how long you plan to be here, when you want to come here by. My general recommendation would be save up for at least a year. This way you can come here start studying full-time. Once you got a handle on the pace of studying, you can start working, inshallah.
- I do not know the skill set you or your husband have but the easiest, well paying job is to teach English to the local people. There always a lot opportunities to do that and it pays well.
This advice is very generic based on the little I know about your situation and desires. Inshallah, it helps though.
Ahmed
Asalaamu Alaykum,
I’ve been thinking for a while now for heading over to Egypt also in order to learn my deen & Arabic. I am wondering why you chose Alexandria over Cairo?
Are there many places of learning in Alexandria?
as salaam alikuim Gvim,
Why I chose Alexandria over Cairo:
- City is more beautiful (Sea-front)
- People are kinder
- Less congestion of people
- Cheaper cost of living
There are many places & people to learn in Egypt.
- http://www.qortoba.net/ is very good & I personally know about
- http://www.eacc-egypt.com/ I have heard of this one but don’t know anything about it.
Let me know if you have more questions.
Ahmed
JazaakumAllah Khayran for the response. One thing that I am uncertain about is education for my kids, I have 2 boys (9 and 6). Do you have any ideas as to what is available there and costs involved?
as salaam alikuim Gvim,
There are good Islamic education options for them in Arabic and English. English school is 6000 LE/year while the Arabic program is 4000 LE/year. LE are Egyptian pounds. The tuition includes everything including uniform.
I got this information from a brother who sends his daughter to this school. She is 4 years old and she has memorized a lot of surah and hadith. I’ll try to get a website address inshallah.
Ahmed
as salaam alikuim
Asalaamu Alaykum,
Once again thanks for the info.
Thank you so much for sharing.I want to go to Egypt this summer inshallah.And I’m still deciding on whether I should stay here in Canada and seek general knowledge, or to go to Egypt to study arabic,learn the quran,and study the deen all together(inshallahh).I really want to study the deen but I have a lot of people and things that are convincing me not to.Thanks for sharing.And thanks for the quote at the end.You’re right its never too late for anything khair.Jazakullah once again and I hope Allah makes everything easy for you
Asslaamu alykum I hope this reaches you in the best of health inshallah.I just wanted your help in something.I wanted to go to Cairo cause I have family there.I intend to go there to study alone.So how much do you think it would cost for living,arabic class,etc? Just an estimate for one person.Jazakullah
as salaam alikuim,
The super-generalized extra-conservative answer would be $800/month. Hope that gives you an idea
Arshada
as salaam alikuim
as salaam alikuiim
I can’t prescribe a solution when I do not know what EXACTLY is your goal.
SO, tell me, with as much as description and as far possible in the future, what you imagine yourself achieving.
Arshada,
as salaam alikuim
$800/month?
Aliskandria seems to be much more expensive than Cairo….
@Danish, I am not sure what you have heard about cost of living, but Alexandria is definitely much cheaper then Cairo in nearly everything