Published on Feb 14 2009 

Alhamdulillah, Glasgow was able to hold its annual Local Atfalul Ahmadiyya Ijtema on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 January 2009 at the Baitur Rahman Mosque, Glasgow. The whole arrangements of the Ijtema Committee were under the supervision of the local Qaid of Glasgow, Khalid Ahmed Bhatti Sahib. Nazim Atfal Glasgow, Arshad Mehmood Sahib, informed all Atfal continuously for four weeks personally as well as over the phone. The Ijtema programme was put together by the Atfal Department, following the Centre’s guidelines.

The programme was given to each Tifl so that he could start preparing for it well ahead. As in the past the Qiadat had good experience of holding the local Ijtema over two days, thus it was again decided at the Ijtema Committee that again this year the Ijtema should commence in the late afternoon on a Saturday and conclude on a Sunday afternoon.  

Saturday, 24^th – Day One 

Registration for the Ijtema started at 6pm after which dinner was served. The formal opening session, which was combined with Majlis Khuddamul Ahmadiyya Glasgow, commenced at 7pm. At the opening session, Regional Amir Abdul Ghaffar Abid Sahib, Regional Missionary Maulana Muhammad Akram Malik Sahib, Regional Qaid Ahmed Owusu-Konadu Sahib and President of Glasgow Jama’at Mubashir Ahmad Khan Sahib were invited to bless the Ijtema with their presence. All the Atfal were requested to make their way to the upper hall of the mosque after the opening session to begin their academic competitions.

On the first day, competitions in Tilawat, Nazm, Speech, Adhan and Written Test took place. During the competitions the Atfal were split into two groups: Over-11s and Under-11s Masha’Allah throughout the academic competitions the Atfal listened to eachother attentively and most of them took an active part in all competitions. The first day of the Ijtema concluded at 10 pm. Out of 22 Atfal, 16 slept over at the mosque supervised by Khuddam. 

Sunday, 25^th – Day Two

The second day of the Ijtema started with Tahajjud prayers followed by Fajr prayers and then Dars delivered by Regional Missionary Sahib. Breakfast was served at 8am followed by the sports competitions at 9am.

The sports competitions started outside the mosque at Kelvingrove Park, where a 50m race for under-11s and a 100m race for over-11s took place. An exciting and interesting tug of war match held between two balanced teams of Atfal followed this. The Atfal then moved to the Kelvingrove Sports Complex for their five-a-side football matches, which started at 10am. The last sports events were table tennis and musical chairs where only senior Atfal took part in the table tennis. Two events of musical chairs were held for under-11s and over-11s respectively.

At 12pm some selected Atfal, the Glasgow Atfal Nazim and Regional Khidmat-e-Khalq Nazim visited the Yorkhill Children’s Hospital, spent sometime with sick children and presented them with some gifts. Our Atfal introduced our Jama’at to them. The Atfal also gave out some ‘’Love for all, Hatred for none’’ cards and also invited the staff to the upcoming Peach Symposium.

After the sports competition the Atfal were asked to clean up the upper hall of the mosque. In this Waqar-e-Amal around nine Atfal participated. The rest of the Atfal were asked to listen to the Khuddam Quiz competition. At 1pm Zohr prayers were offered followed by lunch. The final session joined with the Khuddam started around 3pm. Regional Qaid Sahib chaired it. He advised the Majlis to learn the meaning of the Arabic words used in Salat and use it constantly when praying so that they could concentrate fully in Salat and enjoy it with its full benefits. The Ijtema concluded with a silent prayer lead by Regional Missionary Sahib.