| Safwan Akbar - September, 2009 |
 Safwan Akbar - September 2009Queens Majlis This month’s Rising Star features Safwan Akbar, son of Mohammed Rizwan Akbar of the Queens Majlis. Safwan is a 14-year-old incoming high school freshman. With boxes of awards packed away that represent his many achievement, Safwan Akbar of the Queens Majlis is no ordinary Tifl. He’s a star that has already risen. Having memorized almost a quarter of the last sapara of the Holy Quran in addition to many rukoos from within the Quran, it is no surprise that Safwan has been able to lead Taravi prayers for the past two years. At this year’s National Ijtema, he won first place in both speech and memorization of the Qur’an Safwan has also strived for success at school. He has been on his school’s honor roll every year, and more significantly, he has been selected as the sole recipient of his school’s Presidential Award for Science for his outstanding excellence in science. While he also has a keen interest in math and history (as he enjoys reading trivia and reference books), Safwan has the aspiration to become a cardiologist as he has learned a lot about the heart in taking a course on nursing in middle school. While some would consider him special and an overachiever, Safwan is just like any other kid in many aspects. He loves playing sports, especially football and basketball. In fact, next week he will be entering high school, where he will be playing on the basketball team as center. He thoroughly enjoys following his favorite sports teams, namely the Yankees, Giants, and Knicks - no surprise all these teams are from New York. Like most rising stars, Safwan also has a deep connection with the Jamaaat. He enjoys going to the mosque because it is fun as it allows him to further strengthen his knowledge about Islam and Ahmadiyyat, as well as other religions. Additionally, he is able to make Ahmadi friends and develop a closer relationship with Ahmadiyyat. Now that Safwan is transitioning into Khuddam, he has some excellent advice for his younger Atfal brothers. In realizing that a lot of Atfal spend a lot of time playing videogames, Safwan advises Atfal to pay attention to school now instead of video games. “When Atfal get older, they will have enough free time to play as many video games as they want. It will come back to haunt you later if you waste your time now. Study and focus on your career goals for now.” |