Friday, May 25, 2012

2008 September - Harris Zafar

harris_zafar.jpgShining Star of the Month - September 2008
Harris Zafar, Portland

This month's shining star, Harris Zafar, Qaid of Portland Majlis is quite the superstar. Whether he is eavesdropping on Lebron James' order for lunch at his Nike Headquarters workplace, traveling to London or NYC to lead the grand openings of revolutionary Nike Stores, establishing relationships with renowned figures in their respective industries such as Noam Chomsky and Don Belts as part of the Intellectual Outreach program for the Jamaat, or getting two previously sworn enemy ring leaders under 24/7 maximum security to accept Islam, shake hands, and hug each other, many will agree that Harris Zafar Bhai has established himself remarkably in many realms of the secular, and spiritual world.

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For a living, Harris Bhai is a Senior IT Business Consultant for Nike. Recently he has been working with a business ecommerce team in order to bring the online business model of www.NIKEiD.com (a website in which you can design your own personalized shoe) to actual retail Nike stores. He just led the IT implementation for the grand openings of NIKEiD Studios in London and New York City. These two stores have been such an astounding success that now Nike plans to open up anywhere from 30 to 200 new stores. He will definitely be a busy person in the coming months.

Harris Bhai is extremely active in the Jamaat. As Qaid of Portland Majlis, he involves most of his 20 khuddam in taleem classes, a quarterly newsletter, adopt-a-highway projects, sports and fitness events, food drives, and regular tabligh efforts.  He also volunteers to teach Islam at a youth prison, where five once misled kids have now accpeted Islam.  As mentioned earlier, one of the most powerful moments of this experience for him was when he saw two former opposing gang leaders, and hence enemies, walk to up to each other and hug, agreeing to now become brothers in life just like they are now brothers in Islam.

Harris Bhai is also on the MKA's National Kidmat-e-Khalq team for which he is trying to obtain 500 bags of blood this year, and the National Tabligh team for which he is an integral part of an intellectual outreach program meant for establishing relationships with influential people. Additionally, he has been appointed to be the Press and Media Coordinator for this year's US Jalsa. He expects to spend a lot of time in the coming months to attract media coverage to the Jalsa.

By the grace of God, he has been blessed with the opportunity to meet with our current Khalifa ten times in the past few years. Not surprisingly, Huzur made the proposal/ suggestion for Harris bhai's marriage to his wife, who he is currently enjoying a successful marriage with.


When I asked him to send me a collage that he has made with pictures of each of his visits to Huzoor, he replied with much humility: "won't that look like I am showing off?" Then, when I reminded him that the point of this article was to inspire younger khuddam to achieve highly, he then saw the value in sharing his masterpiece, and replied, "well, maybe that makes sense because I do attribute all my successes to my connection with the Jamaat. If it weren't for my connection to the Jamaat, then I probably would not have the amazing job, wonderful wife, and overall life that I have". Later he offered advice to other khuddam by saying that for him "there hasn't been a need to choose between worldly and spiritual pursuits. You don't have to abandon one for the other. You can have both. In fact, it is my dedication to my faith that has led to such happiness and success in the many aspects of my life". May we all instill in ourselves a similar devotion to the Jamaat from which stems abundant happiness.
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[Compiled by: Saad Karamat]

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