HOME :: Our Mission is to educate, entertain and invoke critical thinking in creating a cohesive environment to work, socialize and function effectively through the medium of Poetry. Our purpose is to establish a new stream of Pluralism poetry in Urdu and Hindi languages - indeed, it is the 2nd most spoken language in the world. Mike Ghouse, Foundation for Pluralism, Studies in Pluralistic societies

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

A successful Intrafaith-Interfaith Naatia Mushaera in Dallas February 21, 2014

A successful Intrafaith-Interfaith Naatia Mushaera Pictorial Report in Dallas February 21, 2014

45 PICTURES AT: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeghouse/sets/72157641382648224/

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is referred to as Rahmatul Aalameen, i.e., mercy to mankind. HIS message is for the whole humanity and not just for Muslims. Tonight’s program is a reflection of that ideal; his message belongs to all of us regardless of our faith.

It was a purposeful event with three clear goals; to share Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh)teachings with fellow Americans;  Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to focus on how Muslims can adopt his teachings to benefit the society at large, and to bring Muslims of different denominations together in understanding his message of peace.

Alhamdu Lillah, Praise the Lord,  we achieved that goal.


Muslims from Ahmaddiya, Bohra, Ismaili, Shia, Sunni and WD Muhammad communities attended the event, and each community was represented in reciting the Naat. Thanks to our Hindu, Sikh and Christian friends for joining and participating in the program. I believe, this is the first time in Muslim history, that all the Muslim denominations have come together. However, we missed the Sufi Muslim Community - InshaAllah, we will have them all next one.

Notes continued after the report below

















Host: Mike Ghouse
MC: Shazia Khan
Honored Guests: Rizwan Sheikh and  O S Modgil
Organized by: World Muslim Congress

 FIRST SEGMENT


1. Opening - Mike Ghouse  2. Introduction of Muntazim Shazia Khan   3. Tilawat-e-Quran; Sura Fateha – Imam Muhammad Zafarullah Hanjra   4. Hamd – Amna Khatoon  5. Naat by different Muslim communities in Alphabetical order 6. Ahmadiyya Muslim Community - Muzaffar Janjua  7. Bohra Muslim Community – Dr. Yusuf Kundawala 8. Shia Ismaili Muslim Community – Imran Boodhwani & Khairunissa Meghani 9. Shia Muslim Community – Rizwan Zaidi  10. Sunni Muslim Community– Saba Jasim   11. WD Muhammad Muslim Community – Iman Rashida  12. Naat by Hindu Community - DD Maini   13. Introduction of Honored Guests  (5 Minutes)   14. Dr. Basheer Ahmed  (5 Minutes)  15. Acknowledgement of Sponsors  16. Purpose of the program – Mike Ghouse (5 Minutes) 17. Naat by Suhel Najmi – Shazia Khan
  
 Pictures are in the same sequence as numbers above.









                                                                              












 
SECOND SEGMENT


18. Mike Ghouse |Os Modgil

19. Dr. Shamsa Qureshi

20. Ahmed Ali 21. Shah Alam Asar
22. Abdus Samad
23. Naheed Shad
24. Zohra Chisti
25. Masood Quazi
26. Noor Amrohvi
27. Dr. Qaisar Abbas
28. Omar Abidi
29. Saeed Qureshi
30. Tariq Hashmi
31. Yunus Ijaz
32. Iqbal Haider
33. Salaam and Duwa -Led by Amna Khatoon and Saba Jasim, and joined by all
34. Team Members






 




 

















Notes continued:

If God is Rabbul Aalameen (Creator of Universe) , and Prophet is Rahmatul Aalameen (Mercy to mankind), then it makes sense for us to become Maqhlooqul Aalameen (Universal beings) – simply meaning belonging to all of creation—matter and life and vice-versa. It also means we are one large family created out of a single couple and it makes sense to know and live with each other in harmony.

 By the end of 2020, there will not be a major city in the world, where you will not find people of different faiths, sects, cultures, ethnicities, races, nationalities and social backgrounds working, eating, playing, marrying, and doing things together.

We need to prepare ourselves for those eventualities to prevent possible conflicts, and lay a good foundation for nurturing goodwill and effective functioning of the societies. Exclusive communities will become a thing of the past. If you live amidst others, you must also respect the otherness of others, as you expect them to do the same for you.

At the Foundation for Pluralism, and World Muslim Congress, a think tank,  we have defined Pluralism as a behavior of “respecting the otherness of others and accepting the God-given uniqueness of each other.”  Pluralism is not a religion, it is simply an attitude of live and let live.  Indeed it is Quran based and the bottom line of all faiths as well, i.e., to create harmonious societies where no human has to live in fear of the other.

Just about every Muslim you talk to expresses the same desire, “I hope we can work together for the common good.” This desire has remained a pipe dream for the last fifty years since the turmoil among Muslim communities started taking root.

The good news is a new determination among Muslims to become participants and contributors in creating a better world for all of God’s creation is spreading inch by inch.

The World Muslim Congress has announced a series of programs to bring Muslims of different denominations together for the purpose of creating cohesive societies, where Muslims and non-Muslims can live without fear of the other.



Singularly, I cannot have peace for myself, if people around me are not, if I dislike others, I cannot demand others to love me. If I threaten others, I am as afraid of them as they are of me.

We have to come together to bring goodness to all of us, if people around us are at peace; we are bound to have peace, and when we are at peace, we will focus on prosperity and living a better life free from in-fighting and a fully grown Ashraful Mukhlooqat (honored species). Uniting does not mean joining hands and marching against someone to be destructive.

SHAME ON US

Most of us cringe and shudder at the thought of men and women pulled out of the busses, and single them out for Shia and murder them in broad day light. Torching Christian Churches and homes, harassing Ahmadies, abducting Hindu women and forcing them to convert and of course Sikhs and Ismailis were not spared either. This is not Islam, and we know it, but what are going to do about it?
Prophet Muhammad had said, if you cannot stop bad things from happening, the least you can do is to speak out against it.

There is a fallacy out there, “what will my single voice do?” – in reality, each voice adds up to the momentum. Majrooh Sultanpuri’s couplet expresses it the best;

I started walking alone towards the destination

People started joining me and the carvaan was building

                                        MaiN akela hi chala tha jaanab-e-manzil magar
                                          log saath aate gaye aur kaaravaaN banta gaya

Do your dharma (duty) and if all of us do ours, it adds up and builds a momentum, and your singular voice becomes a voice of the majority.

Thank God,  the news papers in India, Pakistan, Iran and Arabia have carried this good news and God willing the report of this event will also be shared by others.

We hope over a period of next ten years our Naats can become transformative sessions for Muslims to follow the Prophet – and become the Amins of the society and Rahmat (mercy) to fellow beings.

I sincerely hope,  Muslims invest their money and time  in building bridges within Muslims and with fellow humanity.

If you wish to  support these efforts —zero overhead costs, let us know.  All funds will be accounted in public

PRE-EVENT PUBLICATIONS:













POST EVENT PUBLICATIONS:
Thank you.

Mike Ghouse
World Muslim Congress
Dallas, Texas
(214) 325-1916/text.talk

To be a Muslim is to be a peace maker, one who seeks to mitigate conflicts and nurtures goodwill for peaceful co-existence of humanity. Our work is geared towards building a cohesive society where no human has to live in apprehension or fear of the other. If we can learn to respect the otherness of others and accept each other's uniqueness, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.
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A Successful Interfaith Natia Mushaera By Shah A Siddiqui


By Shah A Siddiqui
It was very nice breezing evening  when World Muslim Congress  organized a very purposeful Interfaith Mushaera in Richardson Convention Center. From the perspective of the organizer, Mike Ghouse, who is a great leader of our community, declares this event a purposeful for three clear goals; (a) To share Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) teachings with fellow Americans; (b) Muslim and non-Muslims alike; (c) To focus on how Muslims can bring his teachings to benefit the society at large, and to bring Muslims of different denominations together in considering his message of peace.

Mike Ghouse is a thinker, speaker, writer on pluralism. Founder of World Muslim Congress and many other blogs. He is a valuable asset for all the communities living in Dallas whether Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Bahai, Ismaili, Bohra, Ahmadiya, Sikh, everyone is under his umbrella.

It was the first time in my life that I attended such an amazing  Intrafaith-Interfaith Naatia Mushaera comprising on the poets of the different faith / denomination who recited their poetry and praised our beloved prophet Muhammad(pbuh). There were two sessions of this program . The first segment was comprising on Naat  recitation by different Muslim communities  like Ahmadiya Muslim, Bohra Muslim, Shia Ismaili Muslim, Shia Muslim, Sunni Muslim and the followers of Waris Din Mohammad.

Moreover, a  very well know member of the Hindu community D.D. Maini, who is 86 also participated by reciting a beautiful poetry praising the value of prophet hood . His narration about the saint Hazrat Khawaja Nizamuddin Aulia and Hazrat Ameer Khusro was very touching and inspirational. Similarly, the chief guest of this event  O S Modgil who belongs to a Sikh religion has vast knowledge about Islam and Quran. He revealed in his closing speech that he read Quran 4 times in his life and still he wants to learn in details and also he desires to read in Arabic. I met him often in different events in town, but it was only revealed in this event that he has so much quality and knowledge about other religions.

The program started 40 minutes late, which was very surprising for me because Mike Ghouse is setting a trend in the desi community to start the program on time and finish on time.  Whenever I get a chance in any get together, I talk about punctuality of his events. I attended  his previous events and all were started on time and ended on time, except this program which ended on time but started  late. I am sure next program will be on time.

Shazia Khan a prominent RJ of Radio Fun Asia conducted the whole program as the Master of the Ceremony and she performed it really well. Her presentation and reciting Darood Shareef during the program was very heart warming. The first segment of the event was very significant because the Muslims from different denominations presented Naat  in honor of our Prophet (pbuh).

Every one presented marvelously, but especially sister Iman Rashida from Waris Din Mohammad Muslim community and Imran Boodhwani  & Khairunnisa Meghani from Shia Ismaili Muslim community’s performance were much acclaimed by the audience. At the end of the first segment a Pakistani Ghazal singer Suhail Najmi and his team presented a beautiful Naat for the audience. Dr. Bashir Ahmad, the Founder of Iqra in Dallas presented his short speech on the sufferings of the Muslim Ummah around the globe and emphasized  the audience to get unite to face the challenges and help the community as much as we can.

The second segment started with tense among the poets and organizer due to time constrained situation.This second session was set for the local poets to recite their Naat and there were 15 poets in the row. Some of them were irritated watching the tight timing control. One senior poet Masood Qazi, was stepping out after less than a couple of minutes  on the podium after delivering few words without his ‘Kalam’. Even though the best part is that everyone was getting  time to recite their Naat. Every poet and artist wants his detailed profile before coming to the stage and everyone loves it, but unfortunately it could not be materializing. I saw most of the time the host was full of tense after 11:30 pm that is half an hour before the end f the event. He had written a beautiful Naat for this event but due to shortage of time he sacrificed that time for others,which is an exemplary gesture for others.

The goal of this interfaith Mushaera, as mentioned by Mike Ghouse, was to bring closer to each other of different faith and denominations according to the teaching of our prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Our beloved prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is called as “Rahmat UL-Lil Alaamin” and he is not only for Muslims but he was a mercy for all mankind of the universe. Some fanatic religious Mullahs in Islam has made the existence of Rahmatul Lil-Alaamin a symbol and trademarked for their personal benefits and using the name of our prophet for their business. Even some group of Muslim does not allow non-Muslims to bring his name out of his tongue and if he does this then he got killed. Here I remember the Naat of very famous poet and laureate of India Kunwar Mohinder Singh Bedi Sehar:

                                               ISHQ  HO   JAYE  KISI  SE KOI   CHARA  TO     NAHI
                                              SIRF MUSLIM KA MUHAMMED PE IJARA TO NAHI

Our prophet never discriminated any man on the basis of race, creed and religion and he showered his mercy even if someone was disrespectful to him. A man was born very clean without any mark of religion, creed and cast by our creator ‘Allah’ it is we the man who made us Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jewish, Buddhist, Shia, Sunni and many more uncounted factions. This is my opinion and anyone can disagree.

Mike Ghouse has a vision, passion and ambition for all the communities regardless of their religious affiliation, he wants to promote love, brotherhood and want to eradicate the hatred among different denominations. A peaceful world with love among different sects, creed and religion would be an ideal for human being to live in and this is what Mike Ghouse is working hard for. His aim is that 10 to 15 years  from now at least our city if not the whole America should be ‘hate free’.

We should encourage any event organized by any one  for promoting love, brotherhood,harmony and ‘pluralism’among different communities. This is the beginning measure to make  a cohesive society and I am certain, one day our children will enjoy the society as Mike Ghouse is dreaming.

I would wish to thank the organizers of the event specially three main figures Mike Ghouse, Dr. Shamsa Qureshi  and Shazia Khan without their heavy work this program could not be a successful. Every one participated with a keen enthusiasm. A booklet which was compiled by Mike entitled “ Intrafaith & Interfaith Natia Mushaera” speaks itself the knowledge and hard work put in this booklet. It is worth to read.  The performance of two very famous ladies ‘Naat Khawan’ Amna Khatoon and Saba Jasim was mind blowing and at the end of Milad Saba Jasim’s duo was very heart touching.

The event hall was moderately decorated and the snacks were delicious. I saw a couple of guests they were busy eating ‘laddu’ like this evening is their last evening with food. We need to be more civilized and disciplined in the events and parties where foods being served.

World Muslim Congress  and their members deserve a big salute for a successful Natia Mushaera.
Note: This article by Shah Alam Siddiqui forms a part of the report at http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-successful-intrafaith-interfaith.html 
Shah A Siddiqui " A Former diplomat and a media person since 1994.Started TV show for Thai Community and later owned his own private channels SANA TV and PakWatan TV in Chicago from 1994-2003 for the Indian and Pakistani communities. He contributed in various weekly Urdu newspapers being published in the United States. He was the Bureau Chief for different newspapers in Chicago and Dallas. Now he is Bureau Chief for Pakistan Abroad and Weekly Urdu Times. He is an acknowledged  freelance Columnist/Critique Writer. He is a poet and based in DFW area.

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Sunday, February 9, 2014

Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) Intrafaith-Interfaith Naatia Mushaera – Poetry Session in Richardson on Friday, February 21, 2014.

URL- http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2014/02/prophet-muhammads-pbuh-intrafaith.html

February 8, 2014 - Dallas, Texas: The World Muslim Congress, a think tank of Muslims in Dallas announces a poetry session honoring Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), known as Naatia Mushaera.

"This is a purposeful event with three clear goals; to share Prophet’s work with fellow Americans, to focus on how Muslims can adopt his teachings to benefit the society at large, and to bring Muslims of different denominations together for the common purpose– celebrate Prophet Muhammad’s birthday”- said Mike Ghouse, president of the organization.
 
The program is set to start at 8:00 PM and end at mid night on Friday, February 21, 2014 at Richardson Civic Center in Richardson, Texas. (Link).

The evening is divided into two sessions. The first segment will highlight the Intrafaith and interfaith aspects of the program. Muslims of different denominations including Ahmadiyya, Bohra, Ismaili, Shia, Sunni, WD Muhammad others will share a Naat (poetry singing) each from their community. Then our friends from other faiths will also share their Poetry about the Prophet.

Women and Men will be reciting the Naats together for the first time.

The second segment after the tea break is assigned to our poets and they will recite the purposeful poetry to reflect on Prophet’s work and how we can make that meaningful in our day to day life.  

“Throughout the program, we will be highlighting the inclusive teachings of the Prophet’s wisdom.  The values embedded in the Madinah constitution will be shared, where the prophet signed a declaration with Jews, Christians, Pagans and others. Each member of community was guaranteed the freedom to practice his or her faith freely. Furthermore, In his last sermon, the Prophet declared that all men are created equal, and respecting each human is the right thing to do. Like the people of all faiths, Muslims need to go back to the inclusive values taught by the prophet.” added Mike Ghouse.

Refreshments, tea, and snacks will be served in addition to the special treat – the king of desserts; Laddu.

Shazia Khan will be the master of the ceremonies, and the event will be chaired by a mystery guest of honor, and special guest OS Modgil with host Mike Ghouse. You are invited to, the event, it is free but an RSVP is required at the facebook events “Naatia Mushaera” on February 21, 2014 or email to: rsvpforsure@gmail.com
 
Coming up next

World Muslim Congress To be a Muslim is to be a peacemaker committed to mitigating conflicts and nurturing goodwill, and to build cohesive societies where all of God's creation can live in harmony with each other.
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Monday, February 3, 2014

Naatia Mushaera on Friday, February 21, 2014 in Richardson


NAATIA MUSHAERA – REQUEST TO POETS
Friday 8-12 PM on 2/21/14 at Richardson Civic Center


Naats** will be recited (poetry) to highlight Prophet Muhammad's work of building cohesive societies where people of different faiths and races lived their own lives. The program will start on time and end on time. If you are going to be late, please do not RSVP, let others enjoy. Seating is limited to 150.

The event is for people of all faiths. Prophet Muhammad's message like all the great prophets of the world is for the whole humanity and not just Muslims.

Muslims of all hues are requested to participate in the event and each community representative (s) to recite a Naat. Seating is limited to 150, so we request a firm RSVP.

At this time, the program will be in Urdu/Hindi language, we hope to make it in English in the coming years.  

Throughout the program, we will be highlighting the inclusive teachings of the Prophet. Wisdom from the Madinah constitution will be shared, where the prophet signed a declaration with Jews, Christians and others, each one with freedom to practice his or her faith freely. In his last sermon, he declared that all men are created equal, and respecting each human is the right thing to do. Like the people of all faiths, we need revival to go back to the inclusive values taught by the prophet.

We are requesting our poets to make their poetry purposeful and meaningful and reflect those inclusive values in their poetry.

** Naat is poetry in praise of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the likes of Christmas Carols, Shabad in Sikhism or Chalisa in Hindu tradition.

Refreshments include tea, paani, chaat and Laddu!

Master of Ceremonies: Shazia Khan
Host: Mike Ghouse 

Richardson Civic Center
 
Mike Ghouse
(214) 325-1916
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