Flint Islamic Center Seerah Competition Concludes

By Adil James, MMNS

Flint–March 16–In recognition of the celebrated occasion of the birthday of the Holy Prophet (s), the Flint Islamic Center held its third annual Seerah competition’s oral presentation stage this past weekend.

Listening to the presentations by the children were several hundred attentive audience members. In the competition “there were a total of 69 participants this year, from Greater Detroit, Lansing, and Flint,” explained Fahim Khan, who was one of those in charge of organizing the event. “No one,” he explained, participated “from outside of Michigan.”

This year, he explained, the presentations were “especially inspiring: all the speeches this year, very close and very good. There has been an exponential growth in the quality of the essays and the presentations. Even the 6th grade particpants were very well rehearsed and very well organized.”

The top prize in each group was 500, second 300, third 200. The winners were, in the middle school level: 1) Mishaal khan; 2) Rehma Maroof; 3) Bilal Ali. At the high school level: 1) Humam Malas; 2) Belal Tarakji; 3) Bilal Abdul Hai. At the college level: 1) Eman Hammoud; 2) Leila Tarakji; 3) Haala Abdul Hai.

Explained Mr. Khan, “Our hope is to take it nationwide. Next year we want to invite Muslim schools and the community at large. Ohio for sure. Also extend to Indiana and Illinois. Feedback was very good this year.”

College students from UM Flint, UM Ann Arbor, and MSU participated, as did high school students from Lansing, Greater DT area, and of course from Flint obviously.

The Flint Islamic Center made a large effort to reach out to the Muslim community this year, speaking directly with imams from most if not all of the major local mosques, including Canton, IAGD, and the Bloomfield Unity Center.

The Third Annual Flint Islamic Center Serah Committee consisted of Dr. Aftab A. Aftab, Dr. Jamal Hammoud, Dr. M. Hayder, Dr. Sajid Chaudhry, Br. M. Aslam and Br. Fahim Khan.

The theme for the competition this year was “Love, reverence, respect and complete obedience of Prophet (s) transformed the Companions from a nonentity to masters of the world.”

Aneerah Ali contributed to this report.

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