On 29 May 2021, members of Majlis Khuddam-ul-Ahmadiyya the Gambia were given the opportunity to meet with Hazrat Khalifatul Masih Vaa through a virtual meeting.
The meeting started off with a recitation of the Holy Quran, its English translation and a hadith. An Urdu poem written by Hazrat Musleh-e-Maudra was read out by two Khuddam members.
Next, a Khadim delivered a speech on the importance of financial sacrifice in Islam. Before he delivered his speech, he addressed Hazrat Khalifatul Masihaa in the following words: “It’s a privilege to stand before you and deliver a speech on the topic of ‘Importance of financial sacrifice’.”
Another Khadim gave a speech on the importance of Al-Wasiyyat. This Khadim too, before starting his speech, said to Huzooraa, “I am very delighted to present a speech before you on the topic of Wasiyyat.”
Hazrat Amirul Momineenaa then turned to Sadr Majlis Khuddam-ul-Ahmadiyya the Gambia. Sadr Sahib said they desired to show Huzooraa a video presentation, as requested in their previous meeting with Huzooraa last week. Huzooraa granted permission.
The video showed highlights of the National Khuddam Ijtema of the Gambia, which the national minister for youth and sports from the government of the Gambia also attended and addressed the Khuddam. Sadr Sahib said Khuddam from across the country attended the Ijtema. Usually, many Khuddam, as an official activity, cycle hundreds of kilometres to attend the Ijtema. However this year, cycling was not possible. Nevertheless, some Khuddam walked almost 135 kilometres on foot to attend the Ijtema. Images of various Khuddam regional events and ijtemas were also shown in the presentation.
The presentation also showcased waqar-e-amal sessions that took place in a government hospital, blood donations, cleaning projects with local authorities and Khuddam helping local authorities with managing Covid-19 responses.
Amila members were then given the opportunity to ask questions.
The first question, by Ahmad Adams Sahib was, “How can we serve the Jamaat and our country in the best possible way?”
Hazrat Amirul Momineenaa said:
“You are called Khuddam-ul-Ahmadiyya – ‘Servants of Allah’ – and the best possible way [to serve the Jamaat and your country] is to be sincere and honest with your work. You have some duties you owe to the Jamaat – you have some assignments given to you. The best possible way is, as a Khadim, if you are assigned any duty, you should always be ready to discharge that duty, to serve the Jamaat.
“And as far as your country is concerned, you should always be honest and sincere to serve your country. If you are working in some government department, you should be very much sincere and honest. People should know that ‘he is a person who is hard-working and honest and sincere with his work; he is sincere with the country; he loves the country.’ And, as we say, that ‘love of the country is part of your faith’, if you have this in mind, then you will serve your country as an essential part of your faith.
“These are things you should always keep in mind – be sincere, honest with your work; whether you are serving the country or the Jamaat. And people should take your example, that ‘these are the people who are called Ahmadis and they are very much sincere in their work and very diligent in discharging their duties.’”
Muhammad Sharif Sahib asked why Allah refers to Himself as “We” in the Holy Quran.
In response Hazrat Khalifatul Masih Vaa explained:
“It is not that Allah the Almighty claims Himself to be plural – He is only One, and the All-Powerful and Omnipotent Allah. But to show His Majesty, He says ‘We’ […] There are some points where Allah says ‘I’, it is ‘Me’ Who does this thing, it is ‘Me’ who does that thing. So, in different ways, He tries to show His Majesty […]”
Bawa Saware Sahib asked what Africa could do to be self-sufficient and achieve development.
Huzooraa said:
“It is not only a matter of developing or achieving some target for Africans only. Every nation [that] works hard will develop and achieve their targets.
“So, the first thing is that you should give more emphasis on education. Your literacy rate should be very high. It should not be that every student gets primary education, but the target of the African governments should be that every person of their country – whether it is a girl or boy, man or woman – should be highly educated. The minimum requirement should be secondary education and if it is graduation, then that will be much better.
“If you are an educated person and your literacy rate is high, then it will broaden your mind, and you will see what the world is doing and where the world is going and what should be your goals and targets and objectives. So, you must fix your targets – big targets – so that when you make big targets, you will work hard to achieve them.
“And be honest and sincere with your work, as I have already said. If you are a teacher, you should fully concentrate on teaching your students with full preparation. It should not be that you are not well prepared and go to the school and start teaching the students. If you are a worker, you should work as hard as you can. If you are a bureaucrat, you should be very sincere and honest with your work and try hard to achieve the ultimate object of your assignment or complete your assignment within the prescribed time and as early as possible. So, work hard and be honest and sincere with your work and your nation; that will help you develop.
“The basic thing, as I have told you, is education. Every person should try hard to get better education. If you are a well-educated person, then your goals will also be high and you will use the knowledge and wisdom you get for the betterment of your nation – for the service of your nation.”
Another Khadim asked how one could keep themselves close to religion and the Jamaat in the current age of materialism.
Hazrat Amirul Momineenaa replied by saying:
“You know that we are passing through a time when materialism is very high, or materialism is influencing us. If you know it, then you should also know how to avoid these things. And the best thing is to discharge your duties you owe to Allah, which is to pray to Allah first and be staunch and strong in your faith. Once you are strong in your faith and you believe that Allah the Almighty listens to your prayers, hears your prayers, then you should pray to Allah that He saves you from bad things and the materialism of the world.
“Secondly, also try to follow the commandments given to us in the Holy Quran and follow the sunnah of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.”
Huzooraa referred to the advice of the Holy Prophetsa who said that one should not look at and envy those who are better off than them in terms of wealth and materialistic things; rather, they should always look at those who have less than them in terms of worldly riches as this would help them be grateful for the blessings they enjoy. And as regards spirituality, the Holy Prophetsa said to always look towards those who are spiritually and morally higher than you.
Huzooraa said that by listening to this advice, “You will change your preferences; instead of following the materialistic things or the people who are materialistic, you will try to follow those people who are spiritually and morally good […]”
Ibrahim Ajan Sahib asked Huzooraa what benefits he got from the virtual mulaqats (meetings).
In response, with a smile, Huzooraa said, “You should tell me! This should be my question, not yours.”
Huzooraa then asked Ibrahim Sahib whether he got any benefits from these virtual meetings or not. Ibrahim Sahib responded by saying, “Yes, I am getting benefits because I have followed some of the previous mulaqats on YouTube and I have heard some of the answers you gave to the questions that were asked and the advice you gave.” To this, with a smile, Huzooraa asked, “And that is helping you?” Ibrahim Sahib responded with a “yes”, to which Huzooraa lovingly said, “Then you have answered this question yourself.”
Hazrat Khalifatul Masihaa then said:
“At least one benefit that I get from this virtual mulaqat is that I can see your faces. I can see how strong and staunch the people of the community are in their faith. I can see the love for Khilafat on their faces, as I see on your face. So this is the benefit which I am also getting.”
Abdul Mohees Sahib asked Huzooraa how a person could perform Jumuah prayers in an area where there was no Ahmadi mosque.
Hazrat Amirul Momineenaa said:
“If you are alone and you don’t have any other Ahmadi, then you can offer your Zuhr prayer. Or if you preach in that area, then you can say to the imam of a mosque that ‘I believe in Ahmadiyyat and I believe that the Promised Messiahas has come and I believe him as the prophet of Allah, but without any shariah, he is the true servant of the Holy Prophet of Islam, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.’ Then, if he says, ‘Okay, I agree with you’, then you can offer your Jumuah prayer behind him.
“But he will never accept it. If such a person is not going to accept the Imam of the Age who has been sent by Allah the Almighty, then it is better to avoid offering prayer behind that person and offer your own prayer. Allah knows everything; He knows your good intentions. If you don’t have other people [around you] – at least two or three people – who can join together and offer their Jumuah prayer, then Allah the Almighty can give you the reward of offering Jumuah even if you are offering your Zuhr prayer alone.
“When I was in Ghana, my family and one other person – we were three Ahmadis there – used to offer our Jumuah prayer together there. So in this way, you can also offer your Jumuah prayer. Now the Jamaat has been established there and there is a big Jamaat there, but when I was there, there was no Ahmadi in that town – we were only three people who used to offer our Jumuah prayer […].”
Huzooraa said that even if there were no Ahmadis there, one could just offer Zuhr prayer because Allah would know their intentions and would ultimately bless them.
Another Khadim asked how one could prove the existence of the Hereafter.
Huzooraa said:
“All the prophets, when they come, give us some glad tidings and also warn us against some things. And they also make some prophecies. And we see that those prophecies have been fulfilled, as we can see in the prophecies of the Holy Prophet of Islam, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. And in this age, we can see there was quite a number of prophecies of the Promised Messiah, peace be upon him – we have seen some be fulfilled and some of them are still being fulfilled. He claimed that ‘you will see in the future quite a number of prophecies will be fulfilled’.
“Our experience shows that whatever the prophets said was true and we have experienced that their prophecies have been fulfilled. One of the things which they told us was that this is not the only life; there is a life in the Hereafter, which is an eternal life and Allah the Almighty will reward those who do good deeds in this world and will punish those people who are not following the commandments of Allah the Almighty […].
“So, this shows that those prophets who told us about these things, because quite a number of their other prophecies […] have come true – this will also be true. Otherwise, Allah the Almighty says that a true believer should have blind faith in life after death. There are quite a number of people who have seen in their dreams, or Allah the Almighty has told them in some other way, what life after death is. Sometimes, if your loved ones pass away, people see them in their dream, in Paradise or in good conditions. Some people see their relatives in a bad condition. So that shows that there is life after death.”
A Khadim said that some people were sceptical about taking the Covid-19 vaccine. He asked for Huzoor’s views about this.
In response Huzooraa said:
“If the vaccine is available there in the Gambia, you should try to get it. Don’t worry. If it is available and they want to vaccinate you with the anti-Covid vaccine, then there is no harm in getting it.”
A Khadim said that the Holy Quran said we should not eat anything on which the name of Allah had not been pronounced. He said that most of the food in Africa was imported and wanted to know Huzoor’s advice in this regard.
Huzooraa started his answer by detailing those things that Allah, in the Holy Quran, has forbidden from eating. He then said that if an animal had been slaughtered without any name pronounced while slaughtering it, then “you can just say bismillah and eat it.”
Huzooraa said:
“Here, in Europe, for instance, they don’t slaughter any animal in the name of any person, or any god or any deity […] here we can eat it after saying bismillah […]
“Although it is said that it is halal and it is haram. Halal is only that food which has been slaughtered and bled after slaughtering […] they are not killing or slaughtering any animal in the name of any person or anything else. So you can simply say bismillah and eat it. That is enough.
“If you know, for sure, that this thing has been slaughtered in the name of some other deity or some other god, then you should not consume it. Avoid […] then, for that is haram, totally haram.”
The same Khadim asked the difference between the jinn and mankind.
Huzooraa said:
“[…] There are quite a [number] of different connotations of the word jinn – jinn means anything which is hidden. This is why bacteria is also called jinn. Those people who live in hidden places and do not come out publicly, are also called jinn […] There were people who were called jinn, mentioned in the Holy Quran, who came to listen to the words of the Prophet of Islam, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. And they said that ‘we have listened to these words, and these are true teachings which we should try to believe in’ […].”
Huzooraa said these people wanted to keep their visit a secret and did not want to be known publicly and so, they went back to their country and spread the message of Islam.
Huzooraa said, “Anything which is hidden, is called jinn.” He highlighted how big people who stayed out of public sight were referred to as jinn and even according to a hadith, bacteria were known as jinn. Huzooraa said human beings were also jinn – those people who claim themselves to be above ordinary people and try to keep themselves distanced fall under this category.
Hazrat Amirul Momineenaa then said to Sadr Sahib that the time was over.
Sadr Sahib said:
“Jazak-Allah Khayran beloved Huzooraa! We are very much thankful to you again for giving us the opportunity to spend time with you, despite your busy schedule. We continue to pray for you.”
Huzooraa said, “Jazakallah! May Allah the Almighty bless you all.” Huzooraa then conveyed his salaam and the meeting came to a successful end.
(Report prepared by Al Hakam)