Ahmadiyya Muslim Book Stall in the 10 Day Annual Bangalore Book festival

Alhumdullilah, We at Bangalore Jamaat had organized a Very Successful 10 days Book Stall at the Annual Bangalore Book festival at Palace Grounds from the 14th till the 23rd of December 2012.

The Fair was covered in popular News Papers:

http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_bangalore-book-festival-inaugurated_1777893

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/293853/bangalore-book-festival-december-14.html

This is the 3rd year in a row we had taken part in the Festival and every year we faced many challenges in putting up our stalls as Bangalore is a very active fast paced city having people from various parts of the country who speak different languages. But Alhumdullilah our volunteers were up to the task as we had folks who were experts at more than 10 languages.

We had a big stall of 400 sqft which was the biggest and the best looking stall among the Muslim Participants. The other Muslim Stalls were of Jamaat-e-Islami, Salaffi (Ahle-Hadiths) and Maulana Wahiduddin Khan’s.

The themes we adopted this year were the “Glorious Teachings of the Holy Quran” and “The Life of Prophet Muhammad(saw)”. We had an exhibition of the Holy Quran in 45 languages, Holy Quran for Sale in 11 languages, Life of Muhammad(saw) in 6 languages. We had banners within the stall with the teachings of the Holy Quran on Selected Topics which are most Relevant in the Present Time and the Praises made by non-Muslims of the Holy Prophet(saw). These attracted a lot of people and were well appreciated.

Alhumdullilah this year we were able to have more material in the local Kannada language with 4 New Titles viz “Life of Muhammad (saw)”, “Murder in the Name of Allah”, “Zikr-e-Illahi” and “Our Teachings” apart from New folders.

Huzoor’s Khutuba of 21st Sept which was in response to the “Innocence of Muslims” were also given out in Urdu, English, Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam.

We were blessed with efficient hardworking volunteers from Khuddam, Ansar and Lajna who represented the Jamaat and gave good introductions and befitting replies when required. Khuddams and Mubaligues expert at Dawat-il-Allah had come to Bangalore from other parts of the Karnataka State, especially to take part in the Fair. Throughout the 10 day Fair we kept feeling the support of Allah at every step. We had a couple of converts who were Hindus, who proved to be very effective when Hindus came to the stall.

Few Christians who had come had long discussions with us, could not corner us in anyway and suddenly asked us if we were really Muslims as they thought all Muslims believed that Jesus(as) was still alive and in the Heavens. They were left speechless when we kept on giving evidences from the Bible that Jesus was Dead.

We had a lot of successes at the stall by the Grace of Allah. We sold books worth of Rupees 65,000/- which were all at discounted prices, we distributed about 60,000 leaflets and folders in multiple languages for Free. This year we had printed 3 new folders for Free distribution based on the Holy Prophet(saw) and on FAQs on Islam. We also distributed more than 600 DVDs for Free which were on different subjects such as “Introduction to Ahmadiyyat”, “Life of Holy Prophet(saw)” for Non-Muslims and on Khatme-Nabuwath for Muslims. More than 50,000 people visited our stalls and got the message of Islam Ahmadiyyat, Alhumdullilah.

Prominent folks of Literature including Gyanpeeth awardees were also present during the Festival and few of them even dropped by at our Stalls.

The Famous Kannada Poet K S Nissar Ahmed visited and spoke with us at our stall. Religious leaders and Gurus from other stalls visited us as well.

Many academicians, journalists, writers, advocates, social activists and students came to our stall and had good discussions. Most of the visitors were Hindus who showed keen interests in knowing about Islam and to read the Holy Quran. We sold about 140 Holy Qurans in various languages.

We had very fruitful discussions with visitors on various subjects, popular being Terrorism, difference between Ahmadis and Non-Ahmadis, Veg vs Non-Veg, Wafat-e-Messiah, Tomb of Jesus, Khatme-Nabuwath, Imam Mahdi, Pakistan declaring us non-Muslims, etc. Among all the stalls our’s was the most lively in this respect. Many of the discussions went on for hours and were very interesting. Alhumdullilah at every discussion we kept seeing that we always had an upper hand and our volunteers always had answers to all their questions. We understand that these are only due to the Prayers of the Promised Messiah(as) and the Holy Prophet(saw).

Other Muslims were Jealous at our work, distributed anti-Ahmadiyya folders to Muslims and warned them to avoid our Stalls. But even then many Muslims had visited our stalls and had good discussions and showed great interests.

We had highlighted the National Toll-free number, alislam.org and MTA.TV and distributed cards having contact information along with these on them. Many of the visitors promised to get back to us for further discussions.

Few Mullahs kept coming to our stalls and tried to provoke us with arguments but we kept giving them proper responses. After 3 continuous days they suddenly came, 10 of them well built and cornered one of our Ansars and a Mubaligue. By the looks of it and by the way they were arguing, it sure seemed they had come prepared for something nasty. They argued, they made fun and intimidated us, we had to cool our own members to avoid any sort of a clash.

We told them we were not here for Debates and asked them to contact us after the fair. They said they will certainly come to our center, discuss, debate and will do Mubahala.

We had to install CCTV Cameras for security. In the last couple of days few younger Moulvis came to our stalls and handed to us few Anti-Ahmadiyya literature, on Khatme-Nabuwath and a book by Muhammad Hussain Batalwi. We told them that Muhammad Hussain Baralwi’s sons had converted to Christianity and his grandson has accepted Islam Ahmadiyyat.

Even till the last moment we were having discussions, we had pulled the curtains of the stalls but inside we still had discussions with visitors.

By every possible way we tried to spread the message of Islam Ahmadiyya at the 10 days Festival. We pray that Allah himself now opens the hearts of the visitors to recognize the Imam of the Age and his Jamaat.

I request your prayers for Bangalore Jamaat and for each and every person involved in making this a Bit Hit.

More pics from the event:

Source: Shahid Badruddin, Dawat-e-illallah, Bangalore, India.