Questioner: The next question I have is from Osama Ahmed from East London and it really follows on from talking about Islamabad. He wants to know why Jalsa Salana is only held for three days? Why can’t we have it for more or less?
Huzoor (rh): Gosh! (laughter) To manage the Jalsa Salana for three days requires at least three months of intense labour and organisation. And by the time these three days are over, the workers are almost broken down, you know. You know, they begin to fall apart with so much burden to carry during those days. The problem is that the community here is small in numbers, although it’s growing with the grace of Allah, still small. And the number of guests swells to twice the size sometimes, in those days, at least twice the size of the entire community of UK. So these workers have to take care of so many things and the residents and then foreign guests and celebrities which start coming from all over the world. Special attention is paid to them. So I think three days is quite enough. If we, you know, we carry the task well and satisfactorily, for three days is quite enough. But this is not the only Jalsa. We have every Jummah. And with the grace of Allah, the satellite has brought Jummah at the doorsteps of every house, every Ahmadi house. And that is like a Jalsa, regular Jalsa. But now more than that, this television is being watched, I know, by so many people to keep writing to me, Alhamdulillah, we have got our antenna fixed, Alhamdulillah, I have got an antenna fixed, so on and so forth. So the time would come that this Jalsa will be celebrated the year round. And it’s being celebrated with the grace of Allah in a large section around the community.
Questioner: Unfortunately, with television, you don’t get the same atmosphere. I know last year when I went to the Jalsa Salana, I certainly felt the same.
Huzoor (rh): Yes.
Questioner: That I wish that they could have gone on much longer.
Huzoor (rh): Yes.
Questioner: Because such was the love that everyone had for each other.
Huzoor (rh): That is right, absolutely.
Questioner: Everyone was in each other’s Salah, their praise of Allah and the Holy Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. To me, it was like a small glimpse of paradise.
Huzoor (rh): Right, it was. But this glimpse, even smaller, is sharing a much larger area of the world, you know, that is the benefit of this. It has some disadvantages, of course, it can’t carry the same atmosphere. But those who are sitting farther away from us, they in fact feel the atmosphere. Those who are closer, they don’t feel as much. Because many Ahmadis living here in the UK, when they visit Pakistan or India or some other countries and they see it on the television, they write to me that words cannot express the exhilaration, the thrill of feeling the same atmosphere as if we were in London, sitting with you. So this also has its own advantages and disadvantages, but advantages, of course, are much greater. Because we have become one community, the world over, the only community in the world which has that family atmosphere, despite being tens of millions, we all have achieved this family atmosphere through the grace of Allah through this television. Right?
