5th

Holy Qur’an: Surah Adh- Dhariyat

Hadith: Arrogance

Writings of the Promised Messiah (as): The Spiritual Quest

London Diary Spring 2018 Part 2 : A Personal Account

Book corner:

Travel: Trip to India

Blog: Experiences of Motherhood

Recipe: Classic Chocolate Brownies

Sports: Netball

Sports: My favourite sport is Tennis

Social Media: Message from Huzoor-e-Anwar (aba)

Morals: Kindness

Upcycling: Carrier bags

Funology

Results: Photo competition

Content

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The Holy Qur’an

commentary:The true purpose of man’s life is the worship of God, His understanding and complete

devotion to Him.It is obvious that man is not in a position to appoint the purpose of his own life, for he does not come into the world of His own accord, nor will he depart therefrom of his own will. He is a creature and the One Who created him and invested him with better and higher faculties than

those of all other animals, has also appointed a purpose for his life. Whether anyone penetrates to it or not, the purpose of man’s creation without a doubt is the worship and the understanding of God

and complete devotion to Him. (The Promised Messiah as)Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1996 (1896), The philosophy of the teachings of Islam (trans. From Urdu by M. Z. Khan), Tilford, Surrey, Islam, International Publications Ltd, pp.106.

Hazrat Musleh Maud (ra) explains in his commentary of this verse, that the Quran prescribes ways and means to achieve this objective. The �rst is right knowledge and �rm faith in a living God. Another important means to realise this noble end is prayer. He says it’s inconceivable to attain this purpose without “Mujahadah”, which means to seek God by spending one’s money and time, applying one’s faculties, and sacri�cing one’s life in the cause of God. Another important thing is to keep company with the righteous and imitating their example. Last but not the least are pure dreams, revelations,

and visions from God which encourage and strengthen man in his spiritual journey. (�ve volume commentary).

Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad (1988), The �ve-volume commentary (trans. From Urdu by M.Z. Khan), pp.2491-2492. (online). Available at https://www.alislam.org/quran/tafseer/?page=2492&region=E1

Commentary

T H E H O L Y Q U R ’ A N

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Surah Al-Dhariyat (51:57)

57. And I have not created the Jinn and the men but that they may worship Me.

�����������Abdullah bin Mas'ood, God be pleased with him, states that the Holy Prophet,

peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said:

"He who has a jot of arrogance in his heart will not enter Paradise. Someone said, 'What about

a person who likes to have beautiful clothes and beautiful shoes?' The Prophet answered, 'Allah is Beauty and He loves beauty. (One cannot be

called arrogant if one beauti�es oneself ). Arrogance lies in the rejection of the truth and

in looking down upon people’ " (Muslim)

Selected sayings of the Holy Prophet.(online) Available at: https://www.alislam.org/library/books/Selected-Sayings-of-Holy-Prophet.pdf

H A D I T H

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The Spiritual Quest

�e spiritual quest is to embark upon the path of Allah and His Messenger as a

result of one’s own understanding and sense.

Malfuzat, Volume One, pp. 25-26

W R I T I N G O F T H E P R O M I S E D M E S S I A H ( A S )

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Meaning, if you desire to become the beloved of God, then follow the Noble

Prophet, on whom be peace. It was this Perfect Guide and Messenger who

shouldered such a�ictions as are unparalleled in the history of the world. He

did not rest even a single day in his life. Now, those who truly emulate their

Master can only be ones who follow his every word and action with assiduous

toil and labour. Only he is a follower who obeys the Holy Prophet (saw) in all

respects. Allah the Exalted does not like those who �ock to comfort and �ee

from hardship. Rather, such a one shall incur the wrath of Allah Almighty. In this

verse, Allah the Exalted has commanded obedience to the Holy Prophet, peace

and blessings of Allah be upon him. �e task of a seeker of God ought to be to

�rst study the entire life of the Holy Prophet (saw) and then follow him. �is is

called ‘the spiritual quest.’ �ere are great trials and tribulations in this path. It is

only a�er those di�culties are shouldered that a person becomes a seeker of God.

London Spring Diary 2018

ABID KHANPART 2

A P E R S O N A L A C C O U N T

On 14 May 2018, Huzoor met a small delegation of Ahmadis from the United States in a daftari Mulaqat. Those attending were Qasim Rashid, Mujeeb Ijaz and Faysal Sohail. They were involved in the launch of a think tank in the United States being established with the permission of Hu-zoor.

Huzoor had personally outlined the main objective of the think tank which was to promote the peace and security of the world and so the US del-egation had come to present some research to Huzoor and to seek his further guidance for the project.

On several occasions, Huzoor said it was important to target the youth of America and to encourage them to be tolerant of all faiths and beliefs.

At the same time, Huzoor’s priority remained the youth of the Jamaat.

Huzoor continued:

Huzoor continued:

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Hazrat Sa�yyah

of Abdul-Muttalib (ra) and the paternal aunt of our beloved Master, the Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (saw). This book was a joy to read and I must add that it was an eye-opening experience because although,

I was completely unaware of her extraordinary attributes and contributions and this short book really brings them to light. This book will take you on a

you the opportunity to read about her struggles and

examples of her brave decisions and fearless actions.

immediately accepted Islam when the Holy Prophet (saw) began calling people to the religion and as a result faced many hardships. She was faced with a

she had been widowed twice. Despite this, she had high hopes and dreams for her children and wanted them to become God fearing, courageous warriors of Islam. To ensure this, she adopted a very harsh method of training for her children. On one occasion

Hazrat Zubair (ra) and his uncle walked by and asked

think I punish him because I do not love him. I do

her role as a mother and due to her training Hazrat Zubair (ra) went on to become a brave Muslim soldier so much so that when he was being threatened,

tortured and forcewd to abandon Islam he replied,

Furthermore, the book beautifully describes Hazrat

towards her faith. There were many occasions where her faith was put to the test, however, she remained steadfast and was able to overcome these hurdles. As one dives deeper into the book

ordinary women, she took part in several battles. She would bring water to the wounded soldiers in

cases, she would have to pick up the sword and

reading this book, it had me hooked so much so that I didn’t want it to end. Therefore, I would highly recommend this to all especially young girls. It’s very easy to read and doesn’t take up much of your time. I would encourage you to read this short biography and discover one of the many extraordinary personalities present in the history of Islam.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It had me hooked, so much so, that I didn’t want it to end.

(May Allah be pleased with her)

B O O K C O R N E R

“I cannot reject the truth once I have

recognised it.”

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Book Review:

Amtul Musawar (Soma)

Trip to IndiaMaanal Rehman

Allah Almighty in the Holy Qur’an encourages all Muslims to travel across the world. And by His Grace, I was given the opportunity to go to Bangalore, Karnataka in India, through an all-expense-paid summer internship.

I was in the penultimate year of my Integrated Master course, in Computer Science and my University (King’s College London), had a partnership with an international Technology Consultancy, based in India. During the application process, I did not intend to even get the offer, let alone take the placement. I merely wanted to understand how far in the application process I could go.Since being rejected by three other companies in London,I had lost all hope by the time I received this offer.

This company was providing me with an opportunity to spend 8-12 weeks living on a fully facilitated campus, with a cab driver at disposal, a 24-hour medical service, a room in four-star accommodation

all to be part of one of their projects.

However, it was very far from my home, family and my Jama’at. After many prayers, much deliberation and research, my parents and I decided it was not something that we could turn down and my mother me encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity.

June and come back the week before Jalsa Salana

I have my own private accommodation (which was already provided by the company) and that I stay in touch with the Jama’at in Bangalore. As soon as signing my offer letter, my family wrote to

contact details of the Amir Jama’at of Bangalore, the Missionary In charge and the Sadr Lajna. Prior to my departure, I contacted the Sadr informing her of my arrival. This would be crucial later on.

Being from the UK, and never having travelled to India or Pakistan before, it was terrifying for myself and my family. And upon my arrival, everything... and I mean everything, seemed like a surprise. The

all so vastly different from home, it was both scary and exciting. It was a very interesting experience to delve back into the culture of our roots, and forefathers, and I realised that despite being raised in the UK, I still felt that the values I shared were much closer with the local people.

T R A V E L & C A R E E R C O R N E R

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Upon arriving at campus, I immediately called home and made this a daily habit. I called my parents, sister, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, almost every day. And made a habit of ensuring that everyone knew what I would be doing and that I was being very well looked after.

The following week, I was assigned my project

I realised that I was at a very strong advantage, due to the fact that I could speak to the employees in both Urdu (Hindi) and English. My mother had taught me Urdu, due to the guidance of Khalifa IV (rh), and this was once again the blessing of Khilafat. This made me feel much more at home in this new place and I did not feel foreign at all.

By the grace of Allah, I was part of a historic project, which was very successful. I was working to build a robot, which scanned a physical space, and generated a 3D interactive representation of that space. This robot took pictures and depth images of its surroundings and stitched them together. My part was to research different ways of stitching the images together to create 360-degree view of the space.

Furthermore, I was part of another project which

Machine Learning. Here I was given a lot of data that was fed into a model, which was in the wrongformat, and I wrote code to generate it in the

which needed to be converted. Finally, I had the opportunity to produce demonstration videos for robots that my department created. I was given this project due to skills I had acquired from my work with MTA International. I was also blessed with a very nice and caring team, who encouraged and taught me a lot.

Furthermore, there were many times where I felt like Allah Almighty protected me either by changing circumstances or sending the right person at the right time. Additionally, there were many times that I had to make decisions on my own. This was a new experience because I quickly came to know that I was completely independent and without the support or guidance, nor could I ask someone what I should or should not do. In these times, I would think, what does Islam say? What have the Khulafa told us? And what have my parents taught me?

If you take anything from this article take this: In such situations, think to yourself, that I must not do anything that I need to hide from anybody, or that would disappoint the Jama’at or my parents. Being thousands of miles away, it became even more important that I upheld my values as an Ahmadi girl, and make everyone proud. I hope and pray, that all Ahmadi girls, especially Nasirat, keep this in mind whenever they have a chance to be independent, and represent the Jama’at in the best manner possible. Ameen.

T R A V E L

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When I first learned this Hadith I

jokingly picked up my mother’s foot and

pretended to look for something under

it.

There was no malice in this action

though, and soon enough I grasped

its message. Soon after, I learnt more

in the back of mind, never forceful, but

always waiting.

Waiting for what? Perhaps waiting for

me to look over my shoulder and to see

the person who stood behind me, always

silently supporting me: my mother. Not

only did she try her best to raise me so

I could walk my own path to Paradise in

the future, but she worked tirelessly to

sprout a paradise for me in between the

cracks of concrete. I will never forget

the sounds of my mother’s footsteps,

and someday hope I can follow them.

I applaud every mother, every woman

who has worked against all odds to

achieve a career most men would envy.

But my mother has never had a career,

she is not ‘empowered’ in the eyes

of society. Yet she is the mother, the

woman I aspire to become.

My grades have given me grief, my

exams have given me anxiety. But the

quiet fortitude my mother has taught

me has made me brave. It has made

me brave enough to stare at whatever

monster right in the eye, because I have

the footsteps of strong women behind

me.

I wonder when as a society we deem

money and fame to be the most

powerful forces on earth, superior to

that of the love of a mother? What value

does empowerment have, if it is no

longer love that makes us strong?

I remember once I asked my mother

the ethically sensitive question, “If you

went back in time to when Hitler was

a child, would you kill him?” Without a

beat she said, “I would adopt him.” I was

astounded, this answer had never once

occurred to me. But maybe it would do

to a mother.

It is through love and patience gardeners

tend to plants. Likewise, my mother is

a grower. She knows that she cannot

force a crooked plant to grow straight,

she can only guide it. Yet that is enough.

Slowly, a Paradise is found.

Yusra Dahri

PA R A D I S E L I E S U N D E R T H E F E E T O F

M OT H E R S .

““

E X P E R I E N C E S O F M OT H E R H O O D I N T H E E A ST A N D W E ST

B L O G

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CLASSIC CHOCOLATE BROWNIESBR

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ROW

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CH

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ROW

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HO

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LATE

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Aneeqa Ahmad (Morden Park)

100g

200g

4

250g

100g

1 tsp

30g

INGREDIENTS

STEP 01Heat the oven to 180°C.

01 Butter (chopped)

02 Dark chocolate

03 Eggs

04 Sugar

05 Plain flour

06 Baking powder

07 Cocoa

STEP 02Line a 22cm square brownie tin with baking parchment. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a microwave or in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Cool to room temperature.

STEP 03Whisk the eggs and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy.

STEP 04Fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and sift in the flour, baking powder and cocoa.

STEP 05Fold this in to give a fudgy batter.

STEP 06To ramp it up, add 100g chopped white or milk chocolate chunks OR 100g toasted, roughly chopped hazelnuts

STEP 07Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top is cracked but the middle just set. Cool completely, then lift out of the tin and cut.

R E C I P E

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NetballMy name is Sakina Bonsu and I love to play netball. I have played for my primary school and at the start of Year 7 I tried out for the secondary school team. Alhamdullilah, I gained a place on the year 7 netball team.

In primary school, my team won the Oadby & Wigston netball tournament and the South Leicestershire netball tournament which enabled us to go forward for the Leicestershire & Rutland Summer Championships 2018. By the grace of Allah, we won the bronze medal position despite meeting very tough opponents. In addition, the team also won the Oadby & Wigston netball league.

Also in year 7, my team has had an eventful season throughout the academic year. Alhamdollilah, my team won Secondary Sports Team of the Year which was awarded by Learning South Leicestershire School Sports Partnership.

All this time I have been repeating the word ‘team’.

Yes, netball is a team sport and there are two main types of netball.

played in primary school.

7-a-side netball is played in secondary school and is also the type, I play.

Author: Sakina Bonsu (Leicester)

S P O R T S C O R N E R

• Goal Shooter (GS): To score goals and to work in

and around the circle with the GA

• Goal Attack (GA): To pass and work with GS and to

score goals

• Wing Attack (WA): To pass to the players in the

circle giving them shooting opportunities

• Centre (C): To take the Centre Pass and to link the

defence and the attack

• Wing Defence (WD): To look for interceptions and

to prevent the WA from passing to the circle

• Goal Defence (GD): To win the ball and reduce the

e�ectiveness of the GA

• Goalkeeper (GK): To work with the GD and to

prevent the GS from scoring goals.

-ent jobs but now I only play Goal Defence.

Netball is a great sport and it

• You build teamwork skills.

• It improves hand-to-eye coordination.

• Increases reaction time and improves ability to

make split-second decisions.

There are seven people on the pitch and

Goal Third Center Third Goal Third

WDGA

GA

GKGS

WA

WAGD

GD

GSGK

WD

I hope this article will encourage you to take up netball and who knows... Inshallah there could be a Nasirat

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C

My favourite sport is Tennis

My favourite sport is Tennis. I love Tennis because you can play in a team

•

•

A Tennis court is a rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. Tennis courts can come

main ones are clay, hard, grass and savanna.

Zara Naveed (age 9) Leicester

D u

L S r B x

R S r

B x

L S r B x

S S

Sr

L

Cr L

B LI play competitively on my own as well as in a team with the Leicestershire

county. There are so many reasons why I love tennis and here are some of them:

The rules and regulations

• One player spins the racket to

• The server gets to serve for two points.

• The opponent then serves for another two points. This continues until someone gets seven points, which is a game.

• wins the second game, they win the match.

• If the players are 1-1 in games, they play a third game to determine the match winner.

S P O R T S C O R N E R

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A Message from Huzoor-e-Anwar (aba) Annual Ijtema Lajna Ima’illah, Germany, 10th July 2016

These days many ills are developing through Social Media. Young boys and girls, sitting in front of their parents, are silently chatting where pictures and messages are being exchanged. New accounts are being created in new programs and the entire day is wasted on the phone, iPad or computer etc. This leads to worsening of morals and gives rise to irritability in character and the children quickly become out of control. All these matters need attention and there is need to impose limits. For this, you will need to think about creating alternative means of occupying their time. Keep them involved in house work. Involve them in serving the Jama’at and develop means of

the society.

worsening of morals and gives rise to irritability in character and the children

quickly become out of control“

“

S O C I A L M E D I A

Social Media

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ONCE UPON A TIME,

there lived a pious man named Abdul. He was a very generous person. Whenever he would go to the market, he would spare some change or food for the poor and homeless. Every time he visited, he was appreciated and thanked, and everyone admired him enormously. He would always treat (anyone he met) with kindness and respect and in return he won the favour of everyone in the village.

One unfortunate day, he lost his job and was extremely distraught; he did not know how hewould provide for his family and keep a roof over their heads. His savings barely supported

village and so everyone combined their efforts to help him.

Even the destitute people who did not have

Abdul a job. This was because his small acts of kindness had helped them in their times of need, and they wanted to repay him for all his generosity. The following week, Abdul was overjoyed as he received multiple job offers from around the area. When he checked who they were from, he was pleased to discover that it was mostly from the people who knew him to be a good, kind-hearted man.

What goes around, comes around. By Aysha Bhatti (Newcastle Jama’at)

M O R A L

Moral of the story

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Kindness

STEP

01

Take a carrier bag of your choice.

STEP 02

Cut the bottom of the bag open with a pair of scissors.

STEP

03

Finally, wear it as shown in the final picture and keep your clothes clean while doing arts & crafts or any alternate messy activities.

UPCYCLING IDEAS: APRON MADE FROM A CARRIER BAG

Fawzia Akhtar 8 years, Redbridge South (Jama’at)

U P C Y C L I N G

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Joke/RiddleAyman Qade (Sthall)

Mr. and Mrs. Brown had two sons. One was named Mind Your Own Business and the other was named Trouble. One day the two boys decided to play hide and seek. Trouble hid while Mind Your Own Business counted to one hundred. Mind Your Own Business began looking for his brother behind garbage cans and bushes. �en he started looking in and under cars until a policeman approached him and asked, What are you doing? Playing a game, the boy replied. What is your name? �e o�cer questioned. Mind Your Own Busi-ness. Furious the policeman inquired, Are you looking for trouble?! �e boy replied, Why, yes.

Ayela N�r (Sthall)

• �e language you speak a�ects the way you sneeze.• Sneezing protects your lungs from harmful substances.• You are taller in the morning than you are in the evening. �ere are �exible discs in your spine that become thicker or thinner depending on your activity. �ey are thickest a�er you have had a lie down, making you a little bit taller• Your biggest muscle is not your strongest muscle.• Optical illusions are images designed to trick your brain into seeing something that is not really there.

FUN FACTS:Human Body

FACTS:The jrney of Chinese Muslims

in China

• �ere are more Muslims in China than in Saudi Arabia!

• Islam has been practised in Chinese society for at least a thousand years. It �rst appeared in China as early as the 7th Century with the arrival of the Holy Prophet Muhammad’s (saw) uncle in 627 AD.

• Hong-Wu-the �rst emperor of the Ming Dynasty wrote a poem in praise of the Prophet of Islam, yet there are reports of Muslims being heavily repressed in China.

• Whilst most people know very little of Islam in China, an exhibition helped raise awareness. Hosted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Communi-ty.

Did y

kn�?

F U N L O G Y

17

Photo Competition Results

1st - Hala Bakhtiyar, 13 years old

(Burntwood Jama’at)

2nd - Amtul Wakeel Khan, 13 years old

(Burntwood Jama’at)

3rd - Sakina A�a Bonsu - 11 years old,

(Leicester Jama’at)

R E S U L T S

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Manager

Mateen Bhatti

Editor

Saba Anam Chima

Sub-editor

Ghazala Abbasi

Editorial Board

Amna Khan

Kinza Ahmad

Sabiha Khullat Chima

Fouzia Mahmood

Khola Shah

Sarah Ward

Mashel Choudhry

Design Lead

Lubna Ahmed Haque

Areeba Waraich

Cover Page Design

R. Kiran Khan

Designers

Husna Butt

R. Kiran Khan

Simra Ahmad

Jaweria Maryam

Samina Sanam Zaheer

nasiratmagazine@gmail.com