The Muslim News

September

2013 Issue 14

A beautiful mosque of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement in Suriname

The Muslim profession of faith: There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His servant

Dr Jawad Ahmad delivering the Eid khutba at Wembley

The President of the UK Jamaat reading the Eid message of Hazrat Ameer Dr A K Saeed

Hazrat Ameers Eid Message
. And (He desires) that you should complete the number and that you should exalt the greatness of Allah for having guided you and that you may give thanks. (The Holy Quran, 2:183) Dear Sisters and Brothers, Assalaam-o-Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakaato-Hoo I pray that Allah may accept all the prayers and supplications of those who availed themselves of the opportunity to progress spiritually by fasting in the blessed month of Ramadan. I hope that we will continue to strive to maintain the nearness to Allah that we have nurtured through the spiritual exercise of fasting. All those who undertake physical exercise to build a good physique realise that after the achievement of their goal they have to continue exercising to maintain it. Similarly, I hope that we will also resolve to make every effort to maintain the closeness to Allah that we

Next Meeting
Sunday, 1st September at 15:00 Dar-us-Salaam, 15 Stanley Ave, Wembley, HA0 4JQ
have developed. Let us pray that we will strive over the next eleven months, till Allah grants us another Ramadan, to move further on the journey of nearness to Allah. It would be too simplistic a view to believe that the Muslims are out to celebrate release from a period of restraint they had subjected themselves to. No! It is not so! They are rejoicing the return to their fitra, the condition of pureness in which they were created, and hence the term Eid-ul-Fitr. Eid carries with it the deeper meaning of happiness of the soul. It should not be taken as a day in the annual calendar that ends with the midnight hour. It should be a process that continues and develops. In fact Eid is the celebration of what we have

Broadcasts
at www.virtualmosque.co.uk
Friday service: 13:00 Dars: 14:00 Monthly meetings: first Sunday of the month at 15:00
gained spiritually. Remember that the colourful and clean clothes worn by everyone, especially the children, on Eid and the glee and smiles on their faces; the sharing of food and sweets and exchanging of gifts is only the outward manifestation of happiness. The actual joy is within the soul which after the spiritual experience of Ramadan is pure and light as the clothes sparkling bright and faces full of joy. In the spirit of the verse I have cited above, having completed the number of fasting days prescribed, we should exalt the greatness of Allah for having guided us and we should strive hard to follow His Path. This message is for you, all your family, friends and members of the Jamaat.

Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Lahore (UK)

15 Stanley Avenue, Wembley, UK, HA0 4JQ aaiiLahore@gmail.com

As I pray for your happy, long and successful lives, for a peaceful Pakistan and indeed the whole world, I request you to pray for me. I pray that Allah makes this a very happy Eid for all of us. Aameen.

Sighting the Moon

It is yet not 7.30 p.m., Wednesday 7th August as I type this. The sun is shining brightly outside. It has already been announced on the website of the Central London Mosque that Eid-ul-Fitr is tomorrow, 8th. The question should be raised: If they rely on sighting the new moon, then how have they managed to sight it more than one hour before sunset? The new moon can only be sighted after sunset. In the time of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw), did anyone ever sight the new moon an hour and a half before sunset? Where is the Sunnah now that they supposedly follow? Dr Zahid Aziz

India
By the grace of Almighty Allah I was able to visit India again earlier this month. The visit was very successful and after reviewing the progress in various parts of India we were able to re-energize propagation activities in Delhi after a couple of tragedies. You will be disappointed to note that our efforts to raise funds for the school/mosque project for Delhi have not been very encouraging as envisioned initially. You will kindly note that ou r r e qu i r em e n t wa s US$105,000.00 by the end of December 2012 for purchase of land and transfer/registration costs. Additional amount of about US$120,000.00 was required for the construction phase. Contributions are still trickling in and by the first week of July 2013, we received only an equivalent of US$80,000.00. Therefore we will not be able to proceed with the original plans for the mosque/ school for Delhi members. During my latest visit we again gave the

matter serious consideration and adopted Plan B, which is to proceed with a curtailed plan. We do realize that some Jamaats have collected additional funds which will be transferred to Delhi progressively but the amounts do not appear to fulfil our original budget. We are confident that during the current Ramadan Shareef, more members will Insha Allah be making contributions, which we hope will facilitate completion of Plan B. We offer our profound thanks to all those who have already made or are making additional contributions for the project and pray that they be rewarded abundantly by our Creator in this life as well as in the Hereafter for their sacrifices for the benefit of our less privileged brothers and sisters. We are delighted to report that the Anjumans school which was under construction at Braini village near Bhagalpur in Bihar has been virtually completed. Internal works on all five classrooms were completed in March and the children were moved from the Community Hall, where we were operating classes for the last five years (in a very congested space), to the Anjumans dedicated school in April 2013. There are currently 256 students registered at the school and the community is said to be extremely excited and thrilled with the facility, which is the first for the village. It is reiterated that the funds collected for the Delhi project were not used at all for the Braini school project, which was funded totally by the undersigned. For the information of our members who are not familiar with the geography of India, Braini Village is over 1,200 km from Delhi and during my first visit to the area it took 22 hours by train/bus/4WD vehicle to reach the village. You will also be very pleased to note that the Jamaat has made significant progress in Bihar and neighbouring Jharkhand State and the membership is continuing to increase. The school project in Braini has added impetus to our expansion of activities in those States. Members and pro-

spective members in various parts of those two States are now confident that we will be there to provide support and more interest is being shown in the Anjumans propagation activities. Consequently, it is possible that a couple more projects may be undertaken in those States in the foreseeable future (without using any of the funds collected for the Delhi project). Insha Allah, more information on this will be provided in the next few months. For the information of our members who may not have seen the earlier intimation, our Head Muballigh in India, Mufti Mumtaz Alams, 11 year old son left this world to meet with our Maker after he was hit and run over by a truck on 30 April. Earlier, another very staunch member in Delhi, brother Kanhaiya Lal, lost his only daughter to dengue fever. We pray that Allah taala grants the departed souls abode in the highest pedestal of Jannat-ul Firdous aameen. You may recall that in one of my reports I had mentioned that brother Kanhaiya Lal visited our Delhi Centre for ten consecutive days during my visit in June 2012 and after lengthy discussions and deliberations accepted Islam and joined the Jamaat. He is visiting our Centre regularly for daily prayers and has been making regular monthly contributions since June last year. These two tragedies within a space of a few months had taken their toll on our propagation activities in recent months. During our meetings earlier this month members pledged to redouble their efforts and the reports over the last two weeks indicate that they are adhering to their promise. Tarawih Prayers are being held at two locations in Delhi and members are enthusiastically participating in our activities. Mr Shaukat Ali NOTE: Since this report was submitted further funds have been donated by Mr Alis family and other members of the US Jamaat in California such as Mrs Asma Majid and Mr Zafar Abdullah.