Published on Oct 03 2009 by Qasim Mehmood, Glasgow Scotland Age-10

Day 1: Friday 25^th September

By the grace of Allah we were given the opportunity to attend this year’s National Ijtema in Islamabad. In order to travel down to Islamabad, Scotland Region hired a coach for Khuddam and Atfal which left Bait-ur-Rahman mosque at 12pm on Thursday 24^th September. We started our journey with a silent prayer. During our journey we watched a movie; I played games and chatted with my friends. Then we arrived at Islamabad at 8am on Friday morning and we took our luggage out of the bus and headed towards the accommodation tent, where we left our luggage and headed for the breakfast. After breakfast we had a rest. Then I took a bath for Jumu'ah prayers. After that we had lunch.

After lunch we went to the opening session where we listened the address delivered by Tommy Kallon Sahib, Sadr Majlis Khuddammul Ahmadiyya U.K. Then we headed towards the sports fields for some sports. After that we went to offer the Maghrib and Ishaa prayers. Following the prayers we had our dinner. Then I brushed my teeth, played games and then I went to sleep. That day I was a bit tired due to the long journey we had undertaken.

Day 2: Saturday 26^th September

Early the next morning, I woke up by hearing the “Salle Allah” singing for Fajr prayer. So I did my ablution and went to offer Fajr. Afterwards a short Darsul Qur'an was delivered by Murabbi Sahib. Following the Dars I went to the accommodation marquee for a little rest. Then I woke up at 8am and brushed my teeth and went for breakfast. After that I went to the Atfal marquee where we had the academics competitions. I took part in all the academics competition including the written test and Adhan competition. The competitions lasted around three hours, which was followed by Zuhr and Asr prayers and lunch. The remaining half of the day consisted of sports competition such as running, long jump and football semi finals. When sports finished it was time for Maghrib and Ishaa prayers. Our Nazim Atfal Sahib assigned me and three other Atfal a duty. I am very lucky that we got the duty to serve BBQ dinner to Huzur Aqdas’s (atba) family. After prayers I went to Huzur’s (atba) tent where I and other Atfal served and distributed food. When we finished our duty our Nazim Sahib provided our food in the tent. After my duty I went out to enjoy the barbecue setup by our region. I saw lot of people enjoying the evening and food made by different regions. At our barbecue stall we had chicken soup, kebabs, salad and drinks. Ours was the only stall that had made chicken soup. I really enjoyed the barbecue.

Day 3: Sunday 27^th September

Early the next morning I woke up again by the singing of “Salle Allah”. I did my ablution and went to offer Fajr which was led by HuzurAqdas (atba). I felt very proud to have offered the Salaat with our beloved Huzur (atba). A short Dars was delivered after the prayer, after which I went to the accommodation marquee for a bit of rest. Then I woke up at 8am and brushed my teeth, ate my breakfast and headed towards the Atfal marquee. On the third day we had a couple more academic competitions such as quiz, observation test and Chinese whispers. After the quiz competition I offered my Zuhr and Asr prayers and then later had lunch.

Then I headed towards the Atfal marquee where we had prize distribution ceremony. Mohtamim Atfal, Respected Najm Khan Sahib, distributed the 2^nd and 3^rd positions of all academics and sports competitions.

We had our Atfal exhibition in the Atfal marquee where various regions had displayed their Items. Our Scotland Region was assigned the theme ‘’the Holy Ka`aba’’. By the grace of Allah our region got first prize in the whole UK for our exhibition. I was so excited to hear that we received the first prize as I had drawn some paintings and wrote a short history of the Holy Ka’aba for that exhibition. My little sister also helped me to design the charts and chose colours whereas my father gave me an idea as to how to display and decorate these items.

There was a very important prize distribution at the closing session of the Ijtema which was presided by our beloved Huzur (atba). It started with recitation of Holy Qur'an with translation and Nazm. After that he started to distribute prizes to the winners. By the grace of Allah and hard work of our Glasgow Qiadat our Majlis Atfalul Ahmadiyya Glasgow received 2^nd prize in Alm-e-Inami. At the end Huzur (atba) addressed the gathering and this session ended with a silent prayer led by Huzur (atba). After that we started our journey back to Glasgow.

Overall this National Ijtema was wonderful and I enjoyed very much all the academics and sports activities and hope that I will participate in it again with better preparation and prayers, insha'Allah.