Among the accounts and memorable incidents we received from participants of Jalsa Salana UK, we present below the personal account of a member of USA Jamaat who travelled to the UK for Jalsa Salana 2018.
Mr and Mrs Twining were already very aware of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community when we introduced ourselves. They had moved to this home in Alton 21 years ago and recall every Jalsa since it arrived in their town twelve years prior. They remember the very first one, the ones with torrential rains, the unusually warm ones, and all the rest in between. They even attended four of them and marvelled at the steady rise in attendance every year. They regularly tune in to Jalsa Radio every year during the Jalsa, and were fully versed in the Jamaats core beliefs, outreach programmes and long history of persecution. In our conversations, they used the term Jalsa Salana very casually and matter-of-factly, rather than referring to it as “your convention”. The Jalsa Salana, after all, was not just a part of their town, but also their lives.
The entire experience of staying at this home during the Jalsa was surreal to say the least. Our hosts refused to take payment, but after our repeated insistence, they finally suggested we donate instead to Humanity First, a charity they themselves learned about during their visits to the Jalsa Salana over the years. It was a noble and thoughtful suggestion. Before bidding farewell on Sunday, we were able to gift them with some Humanity First merchandise purchased from the Jalsa stall and thereby honour their wish in the best way we could think of, with those proceeds also going to charitable work as was their desire. In addition to this humble token of appreciation, we also promised to pray for them. After all, those who host guests at the Jalsa Salana are indeed recipients of God’s blessings.
During the Friday Sermon on the inaugural day of Jalsa, Huzooraa discussed, among other things, the importance of being mindful of the rights of neighbours and being gracious hosts during the days of Jalsa. When the Twinings specifically learned that Huzooraa had taken the time to remind all 38,000-plus Jalsa attendees to be mindful of the fire dangers of dry neighbouring grounds, they expressed deep appreciation as mutual hosts. By the grace of God, it was these very neighbours of the Jalsa Salana who were demonstrating the heights of hospitality to us, out of a love for the gathering started by the Promised Messiahas 127 years ago in a village thousands of miles away.
The Promised Messiah, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas once wrote, “You must not rank this convention in the same league as other, ordinary, human assemblies.” (Majmu‘ah Ishtiharat, Vol. 1, p. 341) Indeed, on a midsummer weekend in a house in the Hampshire countryside next to the Garden of the Messiah, we witnessed this in an extraordinary way.