Published on Nov 20 2011 

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, Ever Merciful

 Yorkshire & North East Regional Tree-Planting Day
Stony Ridge Plantation, Bingley 20^th November 2011

By Faran Rizvi
Nazim Khidmet-a-Khalq
Yorkshire Region

The North-East and Yorkshire regions combined together to organise a recreational day in which Khuddam took part in various activities. The day’s event started at 10.30am in Masjid al Mahdi (Bradford) and was chaired by Sadr Khuddamul Ahmadiyya Fahim Anwer Sahib.

The day’s events began with recitation of the Holy Qur'an by Tauseef Anwer Sahib (Qaid Bradford South).
Sadr Sahib then asked all Khuddam present to stand for the ‘Khuddamul Ahmadiyya Pledge’; this was followed by a hadith and writings of the Promised Messiah (as). Sadr Sahib then gave a short speech on the importance of Khidmet-e-Khalq, and how important it was for our legacy to take part in activities such as planting trees; these trees will still be here when our children grow, and their children after that.

Mr Imran Mirza is the National Mohtamim Khidmet-e-Khalq and he then spoke about his background and how he hopes to take Khuddamul Ahmadiyya forward in their pursuits to help communities in the UK. Mr Nadeem Ahmad (Naib Regional Qaid Yorkshire) and Mr Mahmoud Syed (Nazim KeK, North East) then highlighted how the day would plan out and what work was required from the Khuddam. Aside from planting trees, Khuddam would also take part in track-laying and tree pruning; the Forestry Manager was then brought in to talk about the area we were working on – giving a brief history. It was decided that the Khuddam would be split up into three teams to tackle these different tasks. Before setting off for the site, Sadr Sahib led the Khuddam in Silent Prayer.

At the plantation site, the Khuddam were split into 3 teams: (i) Road building - where Khuddam worked to build a track so vehicles could access the woods, without getting stuck in the existing boggy track. (ii) Tree Pruning – some Khuddam were taken to an area of the forest where some trees were damaged/decaying. Our Khuddam set about these damaged trees with saws and hard work! (iii) Tree planting – We had to plant around 500 trees in total; birch and oak were the main types of tree, and we expect these trees to last around 500 years! This task was the most difficult and enduring – but this did not put off our Khuddam and even Atfal from persevering in this tough task. Sadr Khuddamul Ahmadiyya planted the first tree of the day – and this was an oak tree with an expected lifetime of 500-1000 years.

The day’s hard-work drew to a close at around 3pm; when lunch was served, and after silent prayer the Khuddam departed for their respective homes.