Abida Chaudhry, Sadr Lajna Imaillah Australia
Amatul Malik Najam Sahiba, National Secretary Nasirat reports that the Nasirat-ul-Ahmadiyya (grade 1, age group 13-15) New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, had the honour to have a virtual mulaqat with Hazrat Khalifatul Masih Vaa on 21 March 2021.
Sadr Lajna Imaillah Australia wrote a letter to Huzooraa on 1 February 2021, seeking approval for a virtual mulaqat and alhamdulillah, Huzooraa granted the approval on 12 February 2021.
After receiving this approval, Sadr Lajna Imaillah informed the National Secretary Nasirat, Amatul Malik Najma Sahiba. An urgent online meeting was held with all the national Nasirat team members and Nasirat secretaries of New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory to assign all the tasks related to the mulaqat, such as the layout of the proposed programme, selection of material (tilawat, hadith, kalam-ul-Imam and poem), selection of Nasirat for the tasks, booking of venues, rehearsals, hall arrangements, dress code, Ziafat and many more tasks.
The preparation began after forming a team and allocating all the tasks individually.
A selection of Nasirat was completed on 7 March at St Mary centre after holding competitions of tilawat with Urdu and English translations, hadith with Urdu and English translations, Kalam-ul-Imam and nazm with English translation. After finalising the participants for the programme, rehearsal sessions commenced. The rehearsal sessions were carried out over two consecutive days during the weekdays followed by one day online on Zoom. Then two sessions were held on the weekend spanning about five to six hours.
The preparations were done to get the Nasirat fully trained for this blessed event under the guidance of Sadr Sahiba, the national Nasirat team, Nasirat secretaries and MTA Australia. All the arrangements were also reviewed by the team throughout this time. The final stage of full preparations and testing was completed a day prior to the mulaqat and on the same day, a few hours before the mulaqat.
The blessed day that everyone was eagerly waiting for finally arrived. All the Nasirat, the national Nasirat team and Nasirat secretaries arrived at the Khilafat Centenary Hall at Masjid Bait-ul-Huda at 5:30 pm. All the Nasirat were dressed in uniform – a white dress with a long white gown and a green scarf.
The final rehearsal was carried out with MTA Australia. Then at 7:30 pm, Maghrib and Isha prayers were offered followed by dinner.
Sadr Sahiba Lajna and Secretary Nasirat were supervising and providing detailed instructions about the format, sequence, seating and order of asking questions.
After dinner, Nasirat had a rehearsal with MTA International from Huzoor’saa office to test and ensure that all the technical aspects of the mulaqat were covered and thoroughly tested; the system setup included the sound clarity, hall setup and picture quality. After the testing was completed, the MTA International team advised that Huzooraa would be arriving in the next half an hour, insha-Allah.
During the wait for our beloved Huzooraa, all Nasirat were encouraged to recite durood and istighfar continuously. Everyone was quiet and pin-drop silence was observed in the hall.
After the mulaqat, everyone was emotional with feelings of happiness and joy because of the time that they spent with our beloved Huzooraa. Cakes and chocolates were distributed on this very special and blessed occasion.
Nasirat shared their feelings and emotions before and after the class. Some impressions following the mulaqat are as follows:
“At first, when the rehearsals started, the feeling was surreal and I couldn’t believe that we were about to have a whole one-hour meeting with Huzooraa. Throughout the first few rehearsals, somewhere in my heart, I knew that all this hard work was going to pay off when the day of the virtual meeting came. Now, these were only the first few rehearsals. When the rehearsals with MTA began, the feeling started to kick in and I started to feel the excitement and it gradually increased. Now, during this rehearsal, although it was tiring and difficult to manage as coming from school and going to the mosque was the timetable, but the days were now being counted down.
“Overall, this was a very enjoyable experience. The practices were fun to attend and it was amazing to be able to see everyone after a long time. As I was doing nazm, I had to do personal classes with senior members to perfect my nazm which also took a lot of time. This did, however, pay off as in the end it was for the purpose of meeting Huzooraa which was always a dream of mine.”
“The grade one Nasirat in NSW were given the opportunity to have a virtual meeting with Huzooraa, and I and all the other Nasirat were given this opportunity. We feel so blessed and lucky to have had this one hour to spend with Huzooraa.”
“When I first heard the news about the virtual mulaqat with Huzooraa, I was in disbelief at the opportunity we were being provided. I felt so blessed and grateful that Huzooraa would give us an hour’s worth of his precious time when many living in the other states would miss out. During the rehearsals, I kept this thought in my mind and continued to try my best.”
“I was nervous before the class as I was scared that I would not read the English translation of tilawat in a suitable manner in front of everyone and embarrass myself. But once the class started and we met Huzooraa, I felt relaxed because he was very kind and friendly with us.”
“It was so amazing to see Huzooraa. When he started off with humour, it immediately helped the atmosphere to calm and I could see a lot of people, including myself, relax as he managed to ease people’s nervousness just by being present. His answers to the many questions enabled me to gain a better understanding of Islam and its teaching as well as the benefits of being an Ahmadi Muslim. It was a truly remarkable experience that I will never forget.”
“Preparing just before the meeting with the international MTA team, there was a sense of nervousness and stress. Seeing that glimpse of Huzooraa calmed me down and when the meeting had started, all the negative feelings of being tired and nervous were gone.”
“It is like I had forgotten about all the stress including the homework that was left to do for school. I had forgotten about everything except that Huzooraa was in front of me and that he was talking to us.”
“There was a mixture of emotions throughout the mulaqat. At the start, I felt so calm and when the time came for the nazm, I saw our beloved Huzooraa reflect deeply on the words of the nazm, which was very moving for me. Throughout the meeting, I was so happy and just could not help but look at him and smile. The answers and words our beloved Huzooraa said just absorbed into me and it was like my soul was being reinvigorated as he was giving us advice. I could not believe that beloved Huzooraa was there right in front of me taking his time out to talk to us.”
“The emotions that I was feeling at that time are indescribable and cannot be clearly expressed in words, but the meeting was overall exciting, happy, calm, nervous and an emotional experience that I will never forget; truly the meeting was an out of the world experience.”
“The meeting was a time to remember and it was also basically a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The rehearsals were worth it in the end and I wasn’t able to stop smiling when I saw Huzooraa on the screen. I think that he was very happy to see all of us and to also hear about the dam and the rain. Even now, I feel happy to have seen Huzooraa, but I am also a bit sad that the time which we had was limited and that it wasn’t longer.”
“I will cherish the rehearsals as they brought everyone together and made us a tight-knit group. When the day of the mulaqat came, to see Huzooraa so worried about the floods in Sydney really brought tears to my eyes. There was something about Huzooraa sitting there that captivated everyone and not once did we feel bored. When the class finished, I couldn’t believe that the hour had passed so quickly. I felt really emotional after the class and so blessed and grateful for the opportunity when many others missed out. I will surely cherish this mulaqat as well as the long hours spent practicing, for the rest of my life.”
“My emotions after the class were happiness because talking to Huzooraa was engaging and fun. I feel so grateful for the opportunity to talk to him. The whole experience and opportunity to meet him will stay with me for the rest of my life.”
“I have learned so much from this experience, especially my love and personal bond with Khilafat and Hazrat Khalifatul Masih Vaa.”
“Before the class, I was scared and nervous but after the class, I was so sad and I wished we had more time. I am very happy Huzooraa took the time to speak to me and he called me. I will always cherish that one hour.”
“The time spent in this mulaqat is the golden time of my life which I will always remember. Especially when Huzooraa called my name and I presented the tilawat’s translation in Urdu. During the mulaqat and afterwards, I felt so happy and satisfied by seeing Huzooraa. His beautiful smile is something I will always remember for the rest of my life.”
“These are memorable moments of my life to see Huzooraa and the happiness and satisfaction on the faces of Nasirat after the mulaqat. It is very difficult to put my sentiments into words and I wish and pray that Allah may bring back those days again when we can meet Huzooraa in person, insha-Allah.”