Source: ahmadiyyatimes.blogspot.in

Over the past five decades, the Ahmadiyya Community has built hundreds of schools and dozens of hospitals throughout West Africa, contributing to the improved health and education of hundreds of thousands of West Africans.

Between 50 and 60 Muslim and Christian members of the Southern California Sierra Leone West African community gathered on March 1st to officiate and bless an Islamic marriage at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s Baitul Hameed Mosque in Chino, CA.

Imam Shamshad A. Nasir, who oversees the religious duties at the Chino-based Ahmadiyya Mosque and is also the worldwide Islamic group’s southwest regional US missionary, has close ties to the Sierra Leone community in Southern California. The Imam was stationed as a missionary in Sierra Leone for four years in the 1980s. (He was also stationed in neighboring Ghana for four years as well.) Imam Shamshad also gladly hosted a celebration at the Baitul Hameed Mosque in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Sierra Leone’s independence as a nation.

Several Sierra Leoneans spoke to the audience on different aspects of the importance of marriage and the need for moral vigilance and protection of family values in Western society. Imam Shamshad addressed the gathering and advised them on the etiquettes of Islamic life. He also urged them to live simple lives and remember those in need in their homeland. The Imam said that by giving up that daily cup of Starbucks or that fast-food meal taken out of convenience, they could easily save $3-$5 a day – an unnoticed expense for most people – but when added up over a month or a year, it becomes a sizable donation that would go a long way towards helping out those in need in Sierra Leone.

The Imam knows first-hand (as do the members of the Sierra …read more at ahmadiyyatimes.blogspot.in

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