“The lesson is that we can help those people who are suffering. Once you feel hungry from this fasting month, you realize how important it is to be provided food and water.”
Source/Credit: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
By Grace Wong | July 28, 2014
CHINO -- Surrounded by hundreds of books with jewel-toned covers and gold lettering, Imam Mohammed Zafarullah quietly types away on his laptop. With Tuesday being Eid al-Fitr, one of the biggest celebrations of the Muslim faith, he is busy preparing his sermon that he will give before the feast begins.
Zafarullah came to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Chino earlier this month and so far, the transition has been smooth.
“Everyone has been very cooperative with me. The only thing that has been difficult for me is knowing everyone’s name,” Zafarullah said with a chuckle. “Other than that, there is no problem. The weather here is very nice compared to Texas. Very excellent.”
Zafarullah has served as Imam in other locations. After he graduated from Jamia Ahmadiyya, a seven-year seminary in Pakistan, he served in various districts of Pakistan before transferring to Sierra Leone in 1991.
Zafarullah spent six years in Sierra Leone on foot, traveling from village to village as a missionary while the civil war was going on around him. Then he returned to Pakistan for two years before being transferred again, to Ohio for five years and then Houston for 10.
“It’s good for the community because I had been staying there for 10 years and Imam Shamshad was here for 10 years so now you a friendship with the members and when new people come, then everyone will be connected,” Zafarullah said.
Zafarullah said that he hopes to continue the efforts of the former Imam, Shamshad Nasir, in developing relationships with interfaith organizations and local groups, but he is also interested in focusing on the children of the community.
“The goal is to raise our kids in an atmosphere so that they will be attached to the community, the country and their parents,” Zafarullah said. “That is my focus, to raise them in a way that they will be faithful, loyal citizens of the country, the community and parents. These children are our future, and we have to rely on them later so I’m going to make an effort to train them to become role models.”
Zafarullah will be giving a sermon tomorrow for Eid al-Fitr. The Muslim holiday is also known as the Feast of Breaking the Fast and signifies the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, prayer and focused concentration on understanding and helping the less fortunate.
“The lesson is that we can help those people who are suffering,” Zafarullah said. “Once you feel hungry from this fasting month, you realize how important it is to be provided food and water.”
Members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community will be arriving Tuesday morning having showered and wearing brand new clothes.
“That is the metaphorical message that today, we have come to prayer and how our outer clothes are very clean, oh God, make our inner self be purified and clean,” Zafarullah explained.
The day, which is open to the community, will begin with prayers and sermons, followed by more prayer.
“After that we say to each other ‘Eid Mubarak’ which means ‘Blessed Eid unto you’ and then we hug and that means we are one,” Zafarullah said. “Our hearts have attached to each other and we are one and united, sharing our blessings to each other.”
Then, around lunchtime, the feast will begin.
“It’s a great time for people to come and visit,” Zafarullah said. “We invite the community to come and share this time with us, know what this Muslim festival is like, how we celebrate it and to meet each other.”
The Eid al-Fitr celebrations will begin at 10 a.m. at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Mosque in Chino. For more information, call 909-627-2252.
Read original post here: California, USA: New Imam makes smooth transition at Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
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