And the crowd goes wild…
By: Safeer Bhatti

      The ball divorced from his fingertips and became a Musafir. Along its journey in the air, the ball saw no one, but we had our eyes on the ball. Suddenly, the crowd gasped and cheered “USA.” The ball arrived at its destination safely. There were fifteen seconds left and no more fouls. We had a foul shot. The foul shot entered the warmth of its partner. With two seconds left, MKA USA takes the ball and the crowd goes wild….

      It took Team MKA USA and Team Canada forty seven points to prepare, reach and spread the institution of Khilafat e Ahmadiyya. The score was 24-23. As the tears washed my eyes, I looked around for a dryer. I found the warmth of brotherhood at my disposal. My eyes dried up quickly. I looked to my left and Sadr MKA USA was hugging Sadr MKA Canada. I looked to my right and I witnessed a variety pack of smiles. I looked ahead and saw a huge group cheering the slogans of success: Naray Takbeer: Allah O Akbar.

      This Khilafat Tournament  began Friday, February 15th and ended February 17th. I could walk up to someone I never met and without formality, I would engage myself in a conversation with him a s if we were friends since childhood, stated Umair Mahmood. The Khilafat Tournament shared brotherhood in many different languages and many different cultures. One culture stood apart. The culture of Majlis Khuddam ul Ahmadiyya. Through out the weekend, Mirza Harris Ahmad and Ataul Aleem Choudoury registered participants for Basketball and Soccer while Nazim e Ala, Zeeshan Hamid Sahib registered his smile with everyone he greeted. His smile flourished to the faces of everyone. The smiles of our participants were exhibited in the Khilafat Fair showing our Khulafas and our KCC initiatives drawn by Naveed Malik Sahib. When the room got hot, when our symptoms increased, when life became troublesome, MKA First Aid  Dr. Ahmad Chaudhary, Dr. Nadeem, Dr. Laeeqteam fixed up wounds and Asad Bajwa built back the bridges of brotherhood. MKA Transportation carried people to their destinations. MKA Khidmat e Khalq set a goal for thirty blood donations, but received forty two as people from the public came in and donated blood. MKA Refreshments provided us with Samosa and sweets at the end of the day. Majlis Khuddam ul Ahmadiyya provided training and support towards achieving Khilafat for another 100 years. It was just about having fun, stated Naib Sadr MKA USA, Abdul Hadi Ahmad as he was munching down the conventional love of a Naan Kabab Sandwich. Our Khuddam and Atfal paused at the Plasma screen listening to the words of beauty. As our participants ended the day watching the historic game between MKA USA and Canada, they watched their entire weekend of spirituality dribble by and they looked down on a paper and reflected their thoughts as strongly agree to the phrase: KIST 2008 was spiritually enhancing.