From left: Taiyyib Rashid, Mr. Sergio, Br. Nabil, Br. Ahmad, Dr. Arshad, and Mr. Luther

By Mirza Mahmood Ahmad, Dayton, Ohio

On March 15, we had 3 visitors from Columbus and one from Charity Baptist Church of Kettering, Ohio. They paid visit to us at our invitation and spent almost 3 hours in a very friendly environment. From Columbus Br. Nabil and Br. Luther came to visit us for the second time, while Br. Ahmad Zouhayli and Br. Sergio came for the first time.
We gave information to our guests about our community and answered their questions.

University of Dayton, Ohio

Towards the end of the meeting, we extended the invitation to our guests to attend the Symposium on the ‘Muhammad-the Messenger of Peace’ to be held on Tuesday April 8, in the evening from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, in the University of Dayton, in the Sears Recital Hall. This symposium is going to be presided by the ‘Honorable Judge Walter H. Rice of U.S. District Court. Our National Vice President Maulana Naseem Mahdi will be the keynote speaker.

There were interesting questions, by the guests, about the founder of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community – Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, during the meeting.  The main question was: why was he sent by God, as a reformer for the latter days? What was the need for him to come?

Most of the questions were asked by our new visitor Br. Ahmad Zouhaily, who is originally from Syria.  Since he was new and knew nothing about Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, he asked many basic questions.

We showed him a copy of the translation of the Holy Quran in Urdu by Hazrat Khalifa tul Massieh VI, may Allah have His mercy on him, and he was wondering by reading the words “Khalifa tul Massih”, by asking, “Was this man a Muslim?” He meant by this that Jesus or Isa, may peace be on him, was ‘Massih’, and this man who is his Khalifa, must be a Christian!

It was somehow difficult for him to understand some of the terminology, which is used in the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and Christianity.

Alhamdo Lillah we tried to remove this misconception with the help of Br. Nabil Awad, who became an interpreter for him being an Egyptian.

Br. Nabil is our longtime friend who has been attending our programs for some years and at different places. He also has attended our annual Jalsa in 2013 in Harrisburg. He knows a lot about us and watched Arabic programs ‘Liqa Ma’al Arab, and Hiwar ul Mubasher. He admires the efforts of Hazrat Khalifa tul Massieh the VI to launch the MTA and its English to Arabic translator, Syed Hilmi Al Shafi’ee. He also has great respect for Ustaz Mustafa Al Sabit.

The president of our Dayton community Dr. Ch. Arshad, Mr.Taiyyib Rasheed and the author of this post answered the questions.

Guests were also given a book as a gift “Revelation, Rationality Knowledge and Truth” written by the fourth successor of the founder of our community and signed by the President of Dayton Jama’at.

During the visit lunch was also served.

We are grateful to our guests, who accepted our invitation to visit our mosque and we pray that may Allah bless them all.