As the passionate statement goes, ‘the youth are the future’ applies to all Nations, organizations or groups of people who stand for a particular goal. AMMSAG, without a doubt, resonated with the stated quote to strengthen religious faith among the youth by creating a sense of belonging for Ahmadis who find themselves in various educational institutions.
On the 25th and 26th of May 2024, AMMSAG KNUST only fractioned out two of its programs for the semester thus ‘Members Visitation’ and ‘Jogging and Health Talk’ respectively in demonstrating its overall purpose.
On Saturday 25th May, the intended time to visit Members was shifted from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm because of an impromptu rain, which resulted in difficulties in mobilizing members to assist in the exercise, but with five AAMILA members, it was carried out to its best, showcasing dedication and resilience in times of uncertainties. This short but very significant exercise exposed the difficulties and weaknesses of members in actively involving themselves in AMMSAG activities, especially the Maghreb and Isha congregational Salat. With the reasons for inactiveness gotten, the AMMILA must now seek the guidance of Allah in solving these weaknesses to its very best.
The program ‘Jogging and Health Talk’ was carried out on the next day to convey the importance of keeping the body fit. To start early, members were given between 5:30 am to 6:00 am to converge at the meeting point which was the Conti bus stop. The general expectation was to start from the meeting point and surprisingly, some members had already started jogging from their hostels and halls, depicting their readiness to cover whatever distance that would be decided.
Upon their arrival, a gentle smile could be found on the faces of those with jogging experience, keeping their secrets to themselves. With 16 members present, an open prayer led by Mr. Abdul Mannan Osei Mensah (Naib Imam) presented the journey into the care of Allah Almighty. For easy movement, we organized ourselves into two rows and started slightly off from the actual time of departure.
The raised of songs of praises resonated with an enthusiastic feeling which made members forget that such an energy for the beginning cannot be maintained throughout the journey. Although we were jogging with a direct intension of keeping our bodies fit but the songs of praises also raised the awareness of people around to know more about Islam Ahmadiyya. About 30 minutes into the journey, two members were walking and our loud voices for the song at the beginning were partially filled with a sound of heavy breathing, so there was the need to reduce the speed for the sake of others.
At this point, the gentle smiles showed at the beginning of the jogging had now started to convey its meaning. All the members who started jogging from their respective hostels and halls were so tired that when we got to our destination with an approximated distance of 4.50km covered, they had to make bed out from the asphalt road to catch their breaths. 10 minutes of rest was generally given for members to recover from their partial pains and exhaustion, which was followed up with aerobics led by Mr. Yaqub Ishmael, powering members up for the next session.
The Health Talk, led by our student specialists Mr. Abdul Mannan Osei Mensah (Medicine student) and Mr. Majeed Owusu (Physiotherapist) respectively delivered on the topics of cardiovascular disease and The Importance of Regular Exercise. They connected the topics in a way that unfolded the complex knowledge surrounding scientific terms to be more comprehensible by using real-life examples, making it easier for members to understand the core importance of exercises and the need to do them regularly to help the heart operate effectively and efficiently. At this point, denoting the climax of the program, Mr. Mannan Osei Mensah (Naib Imam) officially ended the program with a prayer.
It was with no doubt that, a lot of energy had been used, owing to this, members collectively moved to the nearest porridge joint to ease their tensions and gather the energy needed to walk to their respective hostels and halls.
Story by: Usman Khalid Sekyi, AMMSAG Isha’at.
