Celebrating 9th Annual Jalsa Salana
This week, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is celebrating its ninth annual Jalsa Salana convention in Belize. The purpose of the event is to gain a nearness to God and develop ties of brother hood, within the community. This year, the event carries the theme of “Peace” and will be held on January twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth. News Five’s Britney Gordon spoke with representatives of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at for more information.
Rasheed Anwar
Rasheed Anwar, Missionary in Charge, Canada
“The objective of the convention or Jalsa is that to teach the people, teach the members specially, how they can stay the good citizens, how they have to establish their relationship with God, and how they have to manage their relationship with their neighbors, and how they have to live in a peaceful society or How they have to make that society a peaceful society.”
While the event is hosted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at, it is open for people of any faith to participate.
Arslan Warraich
Arslan Warraich, President, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Belize
“You know when you want to get better at a sport, you go to a basketball clinic or you go to a camp, right? So the same thing the Promised Messiah writes that, this is like a missionary in charge was saying that, this is not any ordinary event. This is for those people who are looking to build that connection with God. And the thing is that whether you like LeBron or whether you like Curry or whether you like Jordan, you still need to go to these camps to get better. So whatever faith you belong to, this is a camp for everyone to come together and learn. The objective is to connect you with your God. So it’s not necessary that you be an Ahmadiyya Muslim, whatever your faith may be. But know that in order to grow in your spirituality; you need to attend these camps. And that’s the driving force of this event.”
The Jama’at stated that a key part of the events teaching is to serve the community through practical application. Over the course of the year, they organize several charitable activities, such as food drives, sporting events for troubled young men, tutoring and a recently established non-profit to give back to the community.
Arslan Warraich
“Another aspect of it is, when you’re trying to learn something, you have to do it in different ways, right? So you have to practically apply these things as well. To say ma’am, you have to be a good person, is one thing. And most often, that’s not that’s not taken off so well until you show people how it’s actually done. Through the course of these days it’s not just telling people that, you have to do good, you have to be a better person, this is how you get closer to God. So Ahmadiyya Water is a new a new platform for us doing the same thing that we always do. This is giving people an opportunity where people don’t really care about. When we looked around our area in the south part of Belize, a lot of people are not getting clean drinking water and when you just give something to someone, then they don’t value it. So what we decided to do was to build and to start a reverse osmosis system here. And in that, what we’re doing is that all the money and all the proceeds that we’re receiving from people who are buying the water, all of those are going back to the community to help people with other initiatives.”
After Jalsa Salana, the Jama’at is inviting all women of Belize to join as they celebrate the one hundredth year of their International Women’s organization being in existence, which will be providing books, henna, hijabs to try on and dinner provided for attendees. Britney Gordon for News Five.
