"It has not just illuminated darkened streets and darkened homes. Rather, from a spiritual perspective it has also quenched the spiritual thirst of the Ahmadis to see and hear the their Imam."
Source/Credit: AMJ International
By Staff report | March 10, 2014
Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad speaks of his own experiences of living in Africa
The World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat (His Holiness) Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the Fifth Khalifa, addressed the delegates of the European Annual Symposium of the International Association of Ahmadi Architects and Engineers (IAAAE) on 22nd February 2014.
According to a press statement issued by the association, Hazrat Ahmad congratulated the members of the IAAAE for their continued commitment to selflessly serving humanity.
His Holiness said the Association had now installed or rehabilitated thousands of water pumps in Africa that were providing clean drinking water to thousands of deprived people, the statement added.
Speaking about his own experiences of living in Africa during the 1970s and 1980s, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said it was through his experience of living in Africa for some years that he came to truly understand the value of water and not just the value of water but the value in particular of clean drinking water.
"I have seen with my own eyes young children walking one or two miles with large buckets filled with water balanced on their heads and even today in some poor parts of Africa this trend continues," He said. "I myself sometimes had to travel for more than 10 miles to get water for personal use."
"As I said it is only when a person has to make such efforts to get water that he comes to realize its true value.”
Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad also spoke of how, under his direction, Ahmadī Muslim architects and engineers are helping design and build ‘model villages’ in remote parts of Africa, which include streetlights, greenhouses, community centers, paved roads, in-home electricity and access to clean and easily portable drinking water.”
“Those very people, who lived on land which was previously completely cut off from all facilities and in the middle of a jungle, are left astonished," Hazrat Ahmad said. "They never thought that their homes could have electricity or water or that their streets could ever be paved."
"For those people such facilities are truly unbelievable and their happiness knows no bounds.”
The Khalifa spoke of the impact the work of the IAAAE was having on the lives of thousands of people: “In distant and remote areas the IAAAE has not just provided physical water to quench the thirst of previously deprived people. It has not just provided physical water through which the local people can wash away the dirt from their bodies. It has not just illuminated darkened streets and darkened homes. Rather, from a spiritual perspective it has also quenched the spiritual thirst of the Ahmadis to see and hear the their Imam."
The Symposium was attended by more than 110 members of the IAAAE from Belgium, Holland, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Read original post here: Report: Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad Addresses Concluding Session of Annual IAAAE Symposium
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