September 2011 - Armaghan Arshad
Detroit (Great Lakes Region)

Armaghan first moved to the United States with his family back in 1997, back when the Detroit Majlis was still planning on building a new, larger Mosque to accommodate the increasing needs of the Jama’at.  At that time, all the Jama’at meetings would take place in various rented locations, and the Jama’at members were scattered all throughout the metro Detroit region.  Hence, there was very little interaction between Jama’at members, and various families living further away started drifting apart from the Jama’at.  At this time, Armaghan became busy with school, and driving over an hour for a Jama’at meeting became increasingly difficult.  Over time, Armaghan became almost completely inactive, showing up at special occasions such as Eid maybe once or twice a year.

However, several years ago, the Detroit Majlis finished construction of its new Mosque, Masjid Mahmood, after many road blocks.  MKA Detroit started renewed efforts in bringing inactive members back into the Jama’at.  The Detroit Khuddam were very active in sports, and so it was thought the best way to make people active was to invite them to sports.  At this time, Armaghan’s family had recently moved closer to the Masjid, and since Armaghan was a huge football fan, and had played Varsity football in high school, several Khuddam invited him to play with them in their weekly football games.  After several weeks of playing football, Armaghan started to bond with his Ahmadi brothers.  Further efforts were made to have him come to the Jummah Prayers and Waqr-e-amal activities.  Over the course of several months, Armaghan quickly became very active in all Jama’at activities.  Qaid sahid Detroit, decided that it would be best to give Armaghan the responsibility of Nazim Waqr-e-Amal, due to his great work ethic.  As Waqr-e-Amal Nazim, Armaghan organized several Adopt-a-Highway programs throughout the year, along with weekly cleanup of Masjid Mahmood, making sure attendance at all these events was exemplary.

Armaghan’s true character was exhibited during Ramadan, when there would be daily Iftaars planned at the Masjid for all members.  After each grueling day of fasting, Armaghan would be in the kitchens helping out to cook dinner, and then afterwards would be present in cleaning up the greasy pots and pans used for cooking.  During the Regional Ijtema for the Great Lakes region, which was held at Masjid Mahmood, Armaghan worked tirelessly to help make sure everything was constantly clean, and helped throughout the weekend in cooking the food as well.  Due to the great performance exhibited by Armaghan during the previous year, this year Armaghan was chosen to be the Halqa Nazim for the Halqa surrounding Masjid Mahmood, along with Nazim Khidmat-e-Khalq.  Armaghan travelled to Willingsboro, NJ this year to attend his very first QRC, where he was able to organize his goals for the upcoming year.  Although it has only been a couple months into the year, Armaghan has already organized the collection of funds for the Adopt-a-Family program with Volunteers of America, and distributed gift cards to 10 families in need across the Metro-Detroit region.  He has already planned and organized the first Blood drive of the year for the Detroit Jama’at with the American Red Cross.  Armaghan has also organized monthly Soup Kitchen activities, taking several Khuddam every month to the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries, serving dinner to the homeless population of Detroit, along with visiting elderly members of the Jama’at.  Whenever any job needs to be done for the Jama’at, Armaghan is always one of the first people to call. Within the course of a couple of years, Armaghan has been transformed from an inactive Khadim to an exemplary Khadim.