Khalid Mahmood Sharma, Additional Qaid Talim
Majlis Ansarullah Canada held its first “National Virtual Talimi Rally” on 13 December 2020. Hazrat Amirul Momineenaa had graciously granted approval for the rally to be held virtually.
Prior to this event, under the auspicious instructions of Huzooraa, sadr Ansarullah Canada guided the talim (education) department to hold academic competitions virtually across Canada.
As per the direction provided, the talim department of Majlis Ansarullah Canada organised the competitions virtually at local and regional levels.
It is worth mentioning here that by the grace of Allah the Almighty, a separate Virtual Talim Rally was also organised for Western Canada.
Due to the virtual nature of the event and considering potential challenges that some Ansar may face for not being tech savvy, a virtual practice run was organised a week before the main event. The key objective of the practice session was to ascertain that all the participants were aware of the flow of the programme, know their virtual rooms and meet the technical requirements to connect and present without any issues.
The practice session served the purpose and the main event went smooth and both the participants and audience had a great experience. The rally began with the opening ceremony at 11am Eastern Time with recitation from the Holy Quran followed by both Urdu and English translations.
Abdul Hameed Warraich Sahib, Sadr Majlis Ansarullah Canada, then inaugurated the event. In his opening speech, Sadr Sahib quoted faith-inspiring events from the life of Hazrat Dr Mir Muhammad Ismailra regarding his personal experience about the existence of God. He advised all Ansar brothers to strive for attaining nearness to God, offer the five daily prayers and Tahajud prayers regularly.
In light of instructions received from our beloved Huzooraa, he emphasised on adopting humbleness and becoming obedient in the true spirit. He reminded all Ansar to honour their pledge by preferring faith over purely worldly objectives and establishing a strong bond with Khilafat.
The opening session was moderated by Nasir Mahmood Sahib, Naib Sadr Majlis Ansarullah Canada. Academic competitions followed the opening session. Winners of the competitions at the regional levels competed for national positions and a tough, yet interesting contest for each competition was soon to begin.
In the interest of time and for the convenience of participants, these competitions were organised in three virtual rooms. Each virtual room was supervised by a dedicated moderator and IT support team member. Virtual room one, which hosted the tilawat and Urdu speech competitions, was moderated by Sohail Ahmed Saqib Sahib, Qaid Talim-ul-Quran. Virtual room two, which hosted the nazm and English speech competitions, was moderated by Qamar Ahmed Shaheed Sahib, Nazim-e-Ala (Western Ontario), while virtual room three, which hosted Arabic and French speech competitions, was moderated by Muhammad Mahmood Shabooti Sahib, Qaid Tarbiyat Nau Muba‘ieen.
While only the moderators, judges and participants could enter these virtual rooms, the audience was provided with a live streaming link on YouTube.
Ansar from across Canada were able to watch the proceeding of the virtual rally using this link. There were approximately 1,600 viewers on YouTube and 4,800 clicks for the rally.
For the interest of the audience on YouTube, a special quiz was being displayed on the screen during the competitions. The quiz was informational and kept the virtual attendees engaged throughout the competitions.
All the competitions started and finished in time and were closely contested with the results to be announced in the closing ceremony that followed these competitions.
The chief guest of the closing ceremony was Malik Lal Khan Sahib, Amir Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Canada. As is customary, the ceremony started a recitation of the Holy Quran with the English and Urdu translations. This was followed by a poem in Urdu from Durr-e-Sameen, with English translation.
This was followed by announcing the results of the competitions. Nasir Mahmood Sahib, Naib Sadr Majlis Ansarullah Canada and moderator of the closing ceremony announced the results.
Sanaullah Khan Sahib, Qaid Talim Majlis Ansarullah Canada presented the National Virtual Talimi Rally report. He thanked Amir Sahib Jamaat Canada and members of the national amila for their prayers and cooperation.
He also thanked all the missionaries for their kind guidance and prayers in making the programme successful and mentioned the team of volunteers who were engaged tirelessly for the planning and execution of this event.
He thanked naib sadr, Nasir Mahmood Sahib who served as nazim-e-ala for the rally. He was assisted with four nazimeen: Naib Sadr Arshad Malik Sahib as nazim judges, Qaid Tarbiyat Muhammad Kaleem Sahib as nazim publicity, Naib Qaid Ishaat Fakhar Chugtai Sahib as nazim IT and Qaid Ishaat Kashif Bin Arshad Sahib as nazim results.
The concluding speech was delivered by Malik Lal Khan Sahib, Amir Jamaat Canada. Amir Sahib called upon the Ansar brothers to read the Holy Quran regularly and ponder over its meanings.
He further stated that Ansar brothers needed to ensure that the Holy Quran was the most read and reflected upon book in their lives.
After the concluding address, all participants, including the online viewers, repeated the pledge of Ansarullah with Abdul Hameed Warraich Sahib, Sadr Majlis Ansarullah Canada.
Finally, Amir Sahib led the prayers and thus brought the first National Virtual Talimi Rally to an end.
We request all readers of Al Hakam to pray for all the organisers who worked hard for making this event a success.