The HOPE Bulletin (January 2009) —
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In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful .......... The HOPE Bulletin ……….. Health, Ongoing Projects, Education (Vol. 3:7) January 2009 AAIIL Worldwide Edition Editor: Akbar Abdullah CALIFORNIA JAMA‘AT PROJECT: APPROVED BY THE CENTRAL ANJUMAN, LAHORE INTRODUCTION Hazrat Ameer urges increase in readership of The HOPE Bulletin Dear Readers, peace and blessings of Allah be upon you. The year 2009 is the fourth calendar year since we embarked on the project of The HOPE Bulletin, whereas the services of “Du‘a-e-shifa” and “Obituary announcements and condolences” were in place much longer. Alhamdollillah, we are pleased that we were able to bring these timely services to you and now we seek your prayers that Allah (swt) gives us health, strength and stamina to continue this very useful mission for the Jama‘at. While we try our very best to produce an informative monthly bulletin for our readers, we are somewhat concerned that a fair number of our worldwide Jama‘at members are deprived access to our publication. We urge all our global Jama‘at secretaries to kindly heed to the following letter of Ameer-i-Qaum, Dr. Abdul Karim Saeed Pasha Sahib and provide us e-mail addresses of members who are not receiving our publications. May Allah (swt) bless you all. Aameen. Hazrat Ameer’s message Assalamu alaikum wr wb. You are doing a great job keeping people in touch; keep it up. With the success of the HOPE project you had undertaken under the blessing of the Central Anjuman, you and your team deserve congratulations and prayers for continuation of this project. It is time that the mailing of the HOPE is extended to all Jamaats and members worldwide. I suggest that you get all the executives of the Jamaats to send you as many email addresses as possible…inclusive of members and their relatives www.aaiil.org and well-wishers (willing to receive the issue). This will be great service to the Jamaat and to the people who benefit from the Health prayers, news of Ongoing Projects as well as Education news. This idea came to my mind as I was speaking to Brig. Nasir, my brother, and was telling him the role the HOPE has played in getting people to pray for him and the emails we received on the demise of Bhabi Nuzhi. I sadly discovered that he was not aware of the HOPE and the fact that it was playing an important role in our lives. Please add him on the mailing list (Nasir Ahmad Saeed [[email protected]]) and also send him the previous copies relevant to him and his late wife. You may ask all recipients to send you email addresses of persons they want to add to the recipients list. With best wishes and prayers, Abdul Karim Saeed Pasha The global Jama‘at members may now send their prayers directly to Brigadier Nasir Ahmad Saeed at the above given e-mail address. Also, in view of the large space taken by the life-sketch of the late Dr. Ghulam Muhammad Sahib in our “All About Us” column, we have not included a number of our regular segments in this month’s issue. Interestingly enough, I had never met the late Dr. Ghulam Muhammad Sahib, and yet along with the late Dr. Allah Baksh and other Jama‘at stalwarts, he headed my baraat at the end of the 1956 Salana Duaiyya to solemnize my proxy marriage with Zakia Butt (deceased 1993), daughter of the late Ahmad Din Butt, the then Inspector of Schools, Quetta and Kalat Division of West Pakistan. Editor. JAMA‘AT NEWS The General Secretary Amir Aziz tours the Caribbean Jama’ats Before his departure for the Caribbean to fulfill the Central Anjuman’s mission of Rabita, Amir Aziz, the General Secretary of AAII Lahore, issued the following official letter for the information of the worldwide Jama‘at: “This is to inform all that I am going on a trip to Suriname, Guyana and Trinidad for one and a half months. Brigadier Muhammad Saeed Sahib will be acting General Secretary in my absence, so all members are informed that they should address all correspondence to him on the following email address: [email protected] and as per previous instructions its copy must be sent to Hazrat Ameer. Please pray for the success of my trip.” 2 Devastating flood in the Fiji Islands Br Jalal Ud Dean, member of Masjid Noor, Suva, informed us that Fiji recently suffered havoc in many parts of the islands due to the effect of severe storm and flooding. Some Jama‘at members in Nausori and Maro suffered losses. He wrote: “Fiji has been in the world news since last week with massive devastation through excessive rain and flooding. The current estimate of damage, only in areas accessible, stands at $55 million and is still rising as more devastated aspects are discovered. The worst losses were from Sigatoka to Raki Raki and Labasa. Around 22,000 people were affected and left with only the wet muddy clothes they were wearing.” We shall publish photographs of the devastation as soon as we receive them. Meanwhile, please pray for the Jama‘at members who may have sustained damage to their property in Maro and Nausori, and also for the rest of the country. Beginning of spirit of “Rabita 2009” at the Center In the “Photographic Presentation” segment you will observe Ameer-i-Qaum, Dr. Abdul Karim Saeed Pasha Sahib taking pledge from aspiring members of the Jama‘at and administering oath to a group of new Shaban executives. Jazak Allah! Reminder on scheduling of UK Convention 2009 Courtesy of the January 2009 issue of The Light, UK Edition, we reproduce below the reminder announcement of the scheduling of the UK International convention by the AAIIL UK Jama‘at during July of this year: “A convention is being organised by the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha’at Islam Lahore UK to commemorate the centenary of the death of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Dates: 10th to 12th July 2009. To attend, please contact AAIIL UK Jama’at at [email protected]” PRAYER & HEALTH NEWS Hazrat Ameer’s letter of thanks Assalamu alaikum wr wb. I am most grateful for this prompt supplement and hope Allah will respond to the global appeal to provide cure to my brother who would soon be commenced on the therapy today (January 5, 2009). I pray it is effective and causes a remission. Aameen. Condolence letter from Br Abdul Momin, United States Thank you very much for your response. I am not sure if Brigadier Saeed remembers me. As I see that other people have sent their condolences to you for Brigadier Nasir Saeed, could you please forward my 3 condolences to him on my behalf. I pray that Almighty Allah may grant him and his family solace and comfort at this hour of grief, and the departed lady a place in Jannat-e- Firdaus. Ameen. My heart goes out to him and his family. HEALTH INFORMATION Sleeping Less: What to Do About It David Neubauer, M.D. Generally, it has been assumed that the need for sleep does not decrease with age, but rather that other factors gradually come to interfere with our ability to sleep through the night. Older individuals, for instance, are at greater risk not only for developing medical and psychiatric disorders but also for taking medications that can disrupt sleep. In spite of these influences, however, it may be that an actual biological deterioration of the sleep drive might also be playing a role. A new study published in the journal Current Biology has been able to shed some light on this puzzle of sleep and aging. The researchers, who wanted to determine the maximal sleep capacity of both young and older persons, arranged for groups of younger adults (ages 18 to 32 years) and older adults (ages 60 to 76 years) to lie in bed for 12 hours during the night and for another 4 hours in the afternoon. The subjects tended to sleep significantly longer at the beginning of the experiment, presumably because they were making up for a sleep debt accrued during their usual daily sleep routines. When the sleep patterns stabilized, however, the younger adults were capable of sleeping for much longer times — an average of 8.9 hours daily — than were the elderly people, who got only 7.4 hours daily. This 1.5-hour difference in maximal sleep capacity is impressive. If your biological drive for sleep seems to have decreased, make sure that you are following the kinds of routines and behaviors that will give you the best chance of getting as much refreshing sleep as possible. Here are some examples of good sleep hygiene: o Make sure that you're going to bed early enough to allow yourself to get an adequate night's sleep. o As your bedtime approaches, develop a relaxing routine in the evening — don't keep busy until the moment before you expect to fall asleep. o Avoid watching TV in bed. o Sleep in a cool, relatively dark room. o Consider going to sleep to the sound of white noise, either from a bedside fan or a machine that generates calming sounds. o Increase your exercising, but don't do it so near to bedtime that it gets your adrenaline flowing and keeps you awake. o Limit your daily intake of caffeinated beverages and avoid them completely after lunchtime. o Avoid alcoholic beverages. 4 ALL ABOUT US Life Sketch of Dr Ghulam Muhammad (1886-1959) Researched and written by Choudary Akthar Masud, Secretary, AAIIL, Hayward, California, USA.