Ahmadiyya Muslim Community lends a helping hand during pandemic
During a time of such distress, amid the Coronavirus pandemic, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community have come together to assist those who are in need of help at this time, which includes the NHS Staff, vulnerable people, and charitable organisations.
Adeel Shah, a British Imam and one of Britain’s youngest Imams, spoke to me about his fellow youth members – the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association (AMYA) – who are supporting the NHS staff as they are serving on the Frontlines of the pandemic, people who are classified as a ‘vulnerable’ person, and charitable organisations.
Since the initial pandemic began, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community have done a number of things to help their community, which includes:
- Deliver 205,228 PPE on behalf of the government to the NHS staff.
- Distribute 4,390 meals to the NHS Staff.
- Supply 13,390 households with food parcels and medicine.
- Establish 24 food-banks across the UK.
Video interview featured below: Imam Adeel Shah explained in more detail about all of the different type of things he and the Ahmadiyya Muslim volunteers have been doing to assist their community during the pandemic. The Ahmadiyya Muslim community even put together a video of appreciation for the NHS staff, which I included at the end of this clip of the interview.
Ahmadiyya Muslim Motto:”Love for all, hatred for none.”
So who are the Ahmadiyya’s Muslims and what are their beliefs?
The Ahmadiyya Muslims believe in serving their community as it is an integral and essential part of their faith. Moreover, Adeel Shah explained to me more in depth about what their religion is and what their beliefs are.
“Just a brief insight of how we differentiate with other Muslims is that we believe that the Messiah who is being awaited for by all the mainstream religions, not only the denominations within Islam, not only mainstream Islamic denominations, but mainstream religions as a whole.
The Messiah that is being awaited for by all those religions, Ahmadiyya Muslims believe that he came in 1835 and after his demise a system of Caliphate started, and that Caliphate isn’t the Caliphate you see in the media. It has nothing to do with Isis or terror or terrorism.
In essence, we have our fifth Caliphate at the moment. He is a supreme leader of Ahmadiyya Muslim’s all around the world. So, he’s our supreme leader. To understand what he is – he’s like a Pope figure to us. So, he looks after the matters the affairs of Ahmadiyya Muslims all around the world. So, he’s a father figure to us as well as being a supreme leader.”
– Imam, Adeel Shah
At the age of 17, Adeel Shah decided to become an Imam of Islam. According to Shah, he is a British Imam and one of Britain’s youngest Imams.
“I have spent a month in Ghana for charity work and have recently come back from Pakistan.
I have pledged allegiance to a Caliphate. The type of Caliphate that promotes love, harmony, brotherhood regardless of class, colour, creed, or race.
Locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally we regularly carry out blood drives, tree planting sessions, homeless feeding sessions, litter picking sessions, charity walks, Water Well projects, build schools in Third World countries, and much more.
– Imam, Adeel Shah
Video featured below: Imam Adeel Shah explains more in depth about his religion – Ahmadiyya Muslim.
How has this pandemic affected Adeel Shah’s family?
The “normal” for Adeel Shah’s family during the day usually consists of him at work, his father at work, his mother at home, his sisters at their universities, and they typically wouldn’t get to spend as much time together, because of their busy schedules; however, due to the Coronavirus pandemic everything has changed for their family in a positive way. Normally him and his family would be too tired to be doing what they have been doing during the lockdown, such as eating and praying together.
“In terms of the Coronavirus, it’s kind of made everyone housebound. It has had its advantages during Corona. We’ve had the chance to pray together. We pray five times a day. And after our prayer, we share sources of knowledge.
For example, we will read a book of our founder – the founder of our community, Prophet Mohamed, peace be upon him. Or we’ll read something on religion to increase our religious knowledge. And after that we’ll discuss what happened during the day.”
– Imam, Adeel Shah
Video featured below: Imam Adeel Shah told me more about how the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown has had a positive impact on him and his family.
Final thoughts from Adeel Shah
“Reflect. Before you go to bed you should reflect – how did your day go, what were the good things you did, what were the bad things that you did, how can you improve the next day?
And it’s the same thing with Corona as well. The Coronavirus is a sad reality that we are living through. The pandemic is an epidemic that we have to go through, but hopefully when this does finish ‘God-willing’ we need to identify the positives that we’ve learnt.
All these things we took for advantage, I think it’s time we started realising and valuing them.”
– Imam, Adeel Shah
Video featured below: British, Imam Adeel Shah, offers a personal perspective of hope for the Coronavirus ending, a religious perspective of hope for the Coronavirus ending, as well as recommends for others to continue to abide by the UK government’s guidelines.
