By: Modou Sarr
Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat in Senegal holds its annual national convention otherwise known as Jalsa Salana from the 26th to the 28th of December 2025. The convention which is the 13th of its kind was held in Diamniado about forty kilometers from the capital Dakar.
Maulana Basharat Naveed Amir and Missionary incharge disclosed that he was appointed by the Supreme Head of the Worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad Khalifatul Masih the fifth in May this year after serving in different parts of Africa and Pakistan. He revealed that after completing his missionary training in Pakistan in 1993, I served four years in Pakistan before been sent to Burkina Faso as Amir and Missionary incharge from 1997 to 2005. He said it was during his time the Jamaat was fortune to open its first radio station in Burkina Faso in 2002.
In 2005, Maulana Naveed was transfered to Mauritius as missionary incharge where he spent eleven years before moving to Union Island, a principality of French territory between Madagascar and Mauritius. His title there was Jamaat President as island is under the jurisdiction of France.
Turning on to the main purpose of holding jalsa, the landed Amir said, Jalsa Salana was initiated by the Holy founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in 1891. It’s purpose according to him is multidimensional. Firstly, it creates love and harmony between members of the Jamaat especially new converts. As moslems and human beings in general, we need to love one and another for the purpose of peace and unity. That’s why our motto is Love For All, Hatred For None.
Another significant importance of holding jalsa is that it increases us in knowledge. Knowledge, he continued is prerequisitic for everyone to seek. Without knowledge, you are not empowered. The jalsa is a learning ground for all its attendees, he stated.
Lastly the jalsa venue is also used as a forum to remember our fallen ones, we remember those who died during the course of the year and prayed for them and those they left behind.
Over three thousand people including men, women and children attended this year’s Jalsa, coming from over 300 villages in all the 14 regions of Senegal. About a dozen delegates graced the jalsa from neighboring Gambia led by their Missionary incharge Mahmood Ahmad Tahir.
The jalsa came to the conclusion in Sunday with a special closing remarks from the Worldwide Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat who delivered the concluding speech, addressing all the three jalsas taking place simultaneously, that is India, Senegal and Guinea Bissau. All the delegates gathered at the main jalsa gah and attentively listen to the words of the Khalifa.
BACKGROUND
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat was founded in 1889 by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who claimed to be the Promised Messiah and Imam Mahdi. He was born in 1835 in Qadian , a small town in India Punjab District. He died in 1908 at the age of 73. After his demise, he was succeeded by Khalifas, the first of whom was Alhagie Hafeez Nurudeen Mahmood Ahmad. The current khalifa Mirza Masroor Ahmad is the fifth successor
God Almighty has revealed to the Promised Messiah that ” I shall cause thy message to reach the corners of the earth. Presently there’s hardly no where in the world that the message of Ahmadiyya hasn’t reached. This is a prophecy that has been fulfilled long ago and with all other prophecies.
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