Dr Mohammed Iqbal
On 3 July 2019, 23 older students from Ilkley (West Yorkshire) of the University of The Third Age visited the Al Mahdi Mosque, Bradford to learn about Islam Ahmadiyyat.
University of the Third Age is a learning co-operative of retired or semi-retired people, which enables members to share many educational, creative and leisure activities. A variety of subjects are available for study and the Ilkley U3A Group has a particular interest in the study of world religions.
On arrival, the U3A guests were given a tour of the Al Mahdi Mosque and the open exhibition in the mosque. As the Ilkley Group was predominantly made up of women, they spent the first 20 minutes talking to Lajna members in the ladies prayer hall.
Once the group had reconvened in the mosque, Dr Iqbal and Regional Missionary Mubarak Ahmed Basra Sahib provided a brief introduction to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. The guests were then shown the full address of Hazrat Amirul Momineen Khalifatul Masih Vaa delivered at the 2019 Peace Symposium. The guests were deeply impressed by this comprehensive address.
Following this, a question and answer session was arranged where many interesting topics came up such as the five pillars of Islam, the total sects in Islam, why a negative image of Islam is seen all the time etc.
All the guests were given copies of Huzoor’saa book World Crisis and the Pathway to Peace and the programme ended with an excellent meal. The U3A guests were very pleased with the visit and they were keen to invite our members to Ilkley for a follow-up meeting, Alhamdolillah.