By: Alhaji Mohamed Wusha-Conteh
The North Brixton Islamic Cultural Centre in United Kingdom in collaboration with the United Council of Imams and the Masjid Quba Dawah Centre has ended a two days seminar and workshop for one hundred Imams with theme ‘the successful preacher, strengthen the distinguished character of the Muslim preacher and conscious person’.
In his opening address, Sheikh Yusuf Kamara, Imam Brixton Mosque UK emphasized that the main aim of the two days seminar and workshop is to broaden on the skills of Imams so that they can become a successful preacher and deliver the message of Islam by connecting with the audience so that they can digest and build their spiritual faith in Islam. He encouraged the Imams to share their knowledge with senior Islamic scholars that will be delivering lectures so that at the end of the seminar and workshop they will be in a proper position to transfer their knowledge and skills gained in various subjects of Islam.
Sheikh Kamara reiterated that it is very important to understand the methodology of Dawah as a propagator of Islam since the mission of the Holy Prophet of Islam Muhammad Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him, was to bring humanity forth from darkness into light. He noted that propagation methods in Islam can be categories to verbal (oral), written and practical; as delivering Allah’s commands to the people will be more effective if carried out in suitable places, proper timing of propagation as it influences the propagator’s success, and ended his statement with a quote from sura An-Nahl verse 125 which says “Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best. Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is most knowing of who is [rightly] guided’.
Delivering his lecture, on the topic the role of Mosque in strengthen and developing the Muslim society, Dr. Ramadan Jalloh, emphasized that the mosque is not only a place of worship, but also a place to gain knowledge, a place for communal gathering of the Islamic community members, a place where religious studies take place and where the younger generation of Muslim children would go for their religious training and functions as a one stop centre for Muslims to share Islamic knowledge, build good manners and do consultation. He went further; to say that the mosque played a major part in the spread of education in the Muslim World and the association of the mosque with education remained one of its main characteristics throughout history, as the school will serve as an indispensable appendage to the mosque.
Dr Jalloh, reiterated that the Holy Quran encourages people to perform good deeds and warns against evil deeds and one of the Holy Prophet’s most important acts of guidance was to forbid people from worshipping their whims or following their carnal desires. He lashed out on Imams that continuously violates the Hadith of the Prophet on doing charity for the dead and encouraged them to give such things in charity from which the people could get continuous benefits, i.e. build a mosque or a water system as our Holy Prophet (S.A.W) says, “When a person dies, his works end, except for three: ongoing charity, knowledge that is benefited from and a righteous child who prays for him.” [Muslim, Tirmidhi].
Other speakers at the ceremony were sheikh Ibrahim Kalil Bangura who lectures on the importance of knowledge in our muslim society. Dr. Mohamed Habib Sheriff who lectures on the importance of unity and building bridges between tribes and communities, Sheikh Farouk Bah who lectures on the common mistakes of Imams. Sheikh Yusuf Kamara who lectures on the art of diction and the methodology of a successful preacher the program was climaxed with distribution of certificates to participating Imams.
