THE AHMADIYYA MUSLIM COMMUNITY OF GUATEMALA TO HOLD A THREE-DAY ANNUAL CONVENTION

The conference will start with Friday Prayers on November 6, 2009 and will continue until Sunday.

 Guatemala City (Ahmadiyya Times | Staff News) November 3, 2009

Many dignitaries from North America and elsewhere are expected to descend on Guatemala to attend the annual conference of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Guatemala.

The convention, more affectionately known as Jalsa Salana among the members of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (AMC), will start with Friday Prayers on November 6, 2009 and continue until Sunday.

This will be the 20th Jalsa Salana, being organized by the Community in Guatemala. The Baitul Awal Mosque of Guatemala was inaugurated in 1989 by Late Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad, the Head of the Worldwide Ahmadiyya Community at the time.

The National President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Guatemala, Maulana Abdus Sattar, is scheduled to speak at the convention. In addition to the local community leaders and invited dignitaries, there are other key speakers slated to address the gathering.

The partial lists of the speakers include Maulana Naseem Mahdi, the incoming Missionary In-charge of the AMC of the United States; Dr. Waseem A. Sayed, a member of the Executive Body of the AMC-USA; Munum Naeem, National Vice President of the AMC-USA and Chairman of the Humanity First - USA, a worldwide charitable organization.

“Guatemala is an important destination in our deliverance of the Ahmadiyya Muslim message of peace” said Dr. Waseem Sayed, before traveling to Guatemala. “This is a message for the whole world from the Holy Founder of Islam, Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, as explained to us by the reformer of the age, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah.”

Arranging of the annual conventions (Jalsa Salana) is a tradition adopted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Communities everywhere in the world to promote brotherhood and unity. The gatherings provide opportunities for the members to listen to the special messages from Hazrat Khalifatul Masih, the spiritual head of the Worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the discourses by the learned members of the community.

The very first Jalsa Salana of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was held in 1892 in Qadian, India, under the guidance of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

Stating the purpose of the Jalsa Salana, Hazrat Ahmad wrote in a brochure distributed on December 7, 1892: “The primary purpose of this Convention is to enable every sincere individual to personally experience religious benefits; They may enhance their knowledge and –due to their being blessed and enabled by Allah, The Exalted- their perception [ of Allah ] may progress. Among its secondary benefits is that this congregational meeting together will promote mutual introduction among all brothers, and it will strengthen the fraternal ties within this Community...”

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the leading Islamic organization to categorically reject terrorism in any form. Over a century ago, Hazrat Ahmad  emphatically declared that an aggressive “jihad by the sword” has no place in Islam. In its place, he taught his followers to wage a bloodless, intellectual “jihad of the pen” to defend Islam. To this end, Hazrat Ahmad penned over 80 books and tens of thousands of letters, delivered hundreds of lectures, and engaged in scores of public debates. His rigorous and rational defenses of Islam unsettled conventional Muslim thinking. As part of its effort to revive Islam, AMC continues to spread Hazrat Ahmad’s teachings of moderation and restraint in the face of bitter opposition from parts of the Muslim world.

The Community has been at the forefront of worldwide disaster relief through an independent charitable organization, Humanity First. Humanity First, serves communities worldwide through various projects by engaging volunteers from local communities and partnering with other organizations with similar humanitarian service goals. Humanity First directs more than 93 cents of each dollar raised towards the humanitarian projects it pursues.

Ahmadiyya Times | Staff News.