Assalaamu ‘Alaykum, my dear brothers and sisters!
Ramadhaan Kareem!
I pray to Allah that all of you are fine with the blessings of Allah and spending fruitful days of Ramadhaan.
Forgive me for this late post. You know that we can hardly find any spare time especially in Ramadhaan.
Alhamdu lillaah, on Sunday August 7, 2011 which was equal to 7th of Ramadhaan H.1432, Islamic Circle of Japan held the event of Open Iftar Party at Gyotoku Cultural Hall I&I which is near the Gyotoku station, Chiba prefecture.
Alhamdu lillaah, with Allah’s blessings and help of many volunteers, the gathering seemed to be successfully ended. We aimed for 300 people attendance but it turned out to see more than that including our main guests of Japanese neighbors around 50 to 60.
Alhamdu lillaah, we had yummy dishes from brothers and sisters of Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Syria, Ghana but due to the over gathering numbers of people, not everyone could have everything offered as they wanted. So that was one of the reflecting points for “KAIZEN (Betterment)”.
So was the seating arrangement. We couldn’t set enough chairs and tables due to the limited space of the room so many of Muslims had to eat food standing which is not the right thing to represent the style of Muslims’ having food.
Agenda of that event was as following;
17:30 Reception and Registration
18:00 Opening Qur’an Recitation Moderator…Maeno Reciter…Imam Naveed
18:05 Welcome word Ameer of ICOJ
18:10-18:20 Welcome Speech on Ramadhaan Maeno
18:20-18:30 Relief Work Presentation Jameel
18:30-18:40 Nasheed by Children of Gyotoku Muslim family weekend school
(Qaseedah Burdah in Japanese) Maeno with Children (5 boys & 7 girls)
18:41 Adhaan of Maghrib and Maghrib prayer
18:55 Move to the 1st floor
19:00 Iftaar
20:11 Adhaan of ‘Ishaa
20:30 Closing
Alhamdu lillaah, many volunteer Muslim brothers and sisters came in time and some of them very early to prepare the place but it was only 10 minutes before 18:00 that we were allowed to start setting up which eventually made us delay a few minutes to start the event.
Maa shaa Allah, our Haafiz Imam for the Ramadhaan of this year at Hira Masjid, Shaykh Muhammad Naveed, recited some verses from the Chapter of Al-A’laa very nicely with his beautiful voice. Ameer of the Circle, Ustadh Amaanat ‘Ali gave a welcome word in very short and nice way.
Then it was the time of my speech to give some introduction of fasting and Ramadhaan, however, the fact that I was moderator of the event from the beginning and at the same time speaker, I couldn’t CHANGE the mode of moderator and speaker so that I guess the way I talked was very boring and I apologize the audience for that….
After that, I asked Ustadh Jameel Ahmad, the responsible of Hira Masjid and ICOJ Relief Work, to give some introducing notes of ICOJ Relief Work. Maa shaa Allah, he did it well with his broken Japanese even to the extent of explaining why Muslims want to help others and people in Eastern North Japan clarifying the point of Humanity Brotherhood from the Prophet Adam (Peace be upon him).
Yes, it’s not about the skill of delivering the good speech but it’s about the sincerity of your message based on your true experience to reach the hearts.
At last, we had a session of present one Arabic Japanese Nasheed by Children. The Nasheed was “Burdah” and the children were those who come to Gyotoku Muslim Family Weekend School. Well, the voice of boys were too weak to be heard but Maa shaa Allah, girls made a good efforts.
I thanked Allah for enabling us finish the programmes in time…but it was a little too early. We had another 5 minutes to go for the time of Maghrib.
What to do? What to do?
No one beside me to consult with…O.K. I pushed myself dare to present the Nasheed of Burdah by myself!
Alhamdu lillah, by the time I finished singing the Nasheed, it was just one minute before the Maghrib time.
After reciting the Adhaan and praying the Maghrib prayer, we moved from the biggest Hall in the 2nd floor to the 1st floor in order to start the Iftar. Since it wasn’t allowed to eat and drink in the 2nd floor, only dates were distributed to the attendance for breaking the fast. It didn’t reach to my hand, nor did I remember that I didn’t break the fast yet but just checking others and joined the Maghrib prayer.
Maa shaa Allah, truly busy gathering with many people gave the event some exciting atmosphere but it maybe better if we could limit the number of attendance for those who made registrations and set the tables and chairs so that we could have more concentrated, peaceful communications with each attendance, In shaa Allah.
I pray to Allah that somehow those who kindly took their precious time to attend that gathering had good time and found some positive aspects of Muslims so that they feel a step closer to Islam, Biiznillaah.
