The Muslim News

October

2014
Issue 27

The Hajj

NEWS

Next Meeting is Id ul Adha

Broadcasts

Date: Sunday, 5th October, 2014

www.virtualmosque.co.uk

Time: 11:00

Friday service: 13:00

Dars: 13:45

Venue: Dar-us-Salaam, 15 Stanley

Avenue, Wembley, HA0 4JQ

From HOPE : Passing on of Sister

Batulan Raza of Australia.
May Allah have mercy on her and
grant her family patience to bear their
losses.

Important Announcement
As a cost saving measure, the Executive Committee has decided to send
out The Light, Muslim News and Al
Nur by email only.
Please let the President or the Secretary have your email address because
in future we will only send out publications by post if there is a special
need for it and upon payment of the
cost of posting.

From our blog.*

How To Propagate Islam

I would like to share the true
story of a recent event with you.
This event took place on Sunday,
September 16th [2001]. It showed
to me that truth always finds a way
to affect people's hearts, even in the
worst of circumstances. All one
needs is to be brave and make a bit

of an effort. Alhamdolillah, there are so

many living examples of this in our jamaat.
This is just a small one.
My sister was asked to speak to a
church congregation on being a Muslim
living in America. She was invited by the
pastor, who had earlier expressed this desire
to have a Muslim speaker at the service to
some members of his congregation. A
daughter of one of those members went to
college with my niece and had heard her
speak out in favor of Islam during one of
their class discussions. So, through the
daughter of a member of this congregation
to my niece, to her mother, my sister got
recruited to say a few words on Islam and
on being a Muslim, especially during these
trying times.
My sister is not a scholar on Islam and
has spent most of her time between her
hospital job, weekend calls and raising two
very active children. But, in her own words,
"I just could not pass this opportunity up",

Monthly meetings: first

Sunday of each month

Skype
Weekly Urdu lecture/dars
Skype: Lahori-Ahmadi
Day: Sunday
Time: 10:00 am (BST)
as the current events were affecting
everyone. One of her own children
had been harassed for being a Muslim.
So, on Sunday morning my sister
arrived at the church, with a couple
of pages of scribbled writing. There
were to be two congregations that
day: a smaller one in the morning
and a larger one a bit later. She sat
down in this big church wondering
what to do next. One of the pastors,
a female, explained to her the process and she was led to the front of
the hall, facing the audience and sat
alongside the pastor. The church was

* http://Lahoreahmadiyyamessageboard.yuku.com/topic/509/How-Allah-opens-hearts

Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Lahore (UK)

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

half full for the morning congregation; she counted about 200-250
people. She spoke just before the
main sermon and, speaking slowly
and asking the audience to bear with
her as it was her first time talking to
so many people, read out her simple
vision of Islam and her personal
feelings about things that had happened. After the sermon, as she
stood at the front of the hall with
the rest of the pastors, all of the
congregation members came to her
and shook her hand. People thanked
her profusely, some gave their business cards to her asking for hers in
return (she did not have one and
was not prepared for this kind of
reaction). Some women came up to
her and hugged her, with tears in
their eyes. A man told her that he
had learned more in those 5
minutes of her talk, than in the past
several days of listening to experts
on the TV. Everyone wanted copies
of her speech, saying that they
wanted to pass it on to their colleagues and friends. The pastor saw
The Religion of Islam [by Maulana
Muhammad Ali] in my sister's hand
and requested a copy, saying that he
would treasure a book like that.
This was the first congregation.
The second one was to begin shortly thereafter.
Again she was seated up top
with the rest of the pastors. This
time the church was full: she counted about 500 people, all the seats
were full, as were the balconies and
any extra chairs. Again, she spoke
slowly and as she described it, with
trembling hands. As she finished and
got ready to step down, back to her
seat, she heard the sound of clapping. Yes! Clapping! Right in the
church during the conduct of that
Sunday mass. Quickly the clapping
spread through the entire audience.
Then the people in the church stood
up and continued to clap. Some of

them had tears in their eyes. She

looked embarrassingly towards the
pastor, wondering what to do next,
and saw that the pastor too was crying. This standing ovation went on for
a short while.
After the pastors sermon was
over, some of the people exited from
the back of the church, but all those
who exited from the front, again
came up to her and shook her hand.
Some hugged her and some still had
tears in their eyes. People again gave
her their cards, wanting to get a copy
of her speech. A teacher wanted to
know how she could prepare a class
project on Islam for her students, as
she wanted them to experience some
of what she herself had that day.
Again, others said that what they had
learned in those 5-10 minutes was
more than they had learned in the
past week from watching TV.
This intense outpouring of emotion went on for as long as my sister
was present in the church, till she
said goodbye; promising some of the
people a copy of her brief talk and
others some basic books on Islam.
I am sure if she had more time
on her hands, she would refine her
speech and would probably change a
few words here and there. It is not
the best or the most profound speech
on Islam and on being an American
Muslim, but it came from the heart
and it went straight to the heart. In
the words of the pastor, she had managed to heal many hearts that day, far
more than she would have been able
to do at her hospital (she had worked
extra the day before to take time off
on Sunday).
I have done my best not to exaggerate or over dramatize this event. I
got all of these details and more directly from my sister. As for her, she
is more worried now that people will
start asking her all sort of questions
that she would not know answers to.

I narrated this incident to make

a simple point: difficult times like the
present are the best opportunities to
reach out to people. We should make
an extra effort to talk to people and
explain what Islam means. If my sister, who is perpetually exhausted by
her hospital job and the demands of
two teenage kids, by nothing more
than a few words can touch the
hearts of 700 people in a matter of a
few minutes, so can we all.
May Allah give us strength,
guide and keep us firm on His path.
p.s. It would be nice if others
can also share their experiences, big
as well as small, as the Muslim community in the West passes through
these difficult times.

A Message from Shahid

The above was written shortly
after the tragedy of 9/11. It was a
time when grief in the US had given
way to rage against those who perpetrated this dastardly deed. Muslims,
even Sikhs because they had beards
and wore turbans, were attacked and
even killed. Yet, a Lahori-Ahmadi
went to churches to speak about
beauties of Islam. This is a reminder
of the duty of every single Ahmadi
and how those around the Promised
Messiah behaved, regardless of their
social status, education, position or
wealth. Even the driver of a horsecart would preach about Islam to his
rides! Those who went to Afghanistan, Abdur Rehman, Sahibzada Abdul Latif - a prince in his land, did
not flinch from laying down their
lives for their beliefs. From the man
who spent his life in the office of the
Review of Religions writing addresses on magazine wrappers to Hazrat
Maulana Muhammad Ali, Hazrat
Khawaja Kamal-ud-in and other great
scholars and saints; all of them devoted themselves and dedicated themselves to propagation of Islam. We
are to gauge our efforts against
theirs.