My Dear Members of PAAMA UK!
Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullah.
May the Lord of mankind open unto you the gates of His mercy and may He so ordain that you are always accompanied by the supplication of His angels. Ameen.
As I stated in my Keynote Address at the First General Meeting, there is an urgent need to shift to higher standards of morality and spirituality, adding that during this tenure we will seek to train and educate our membership in true Islamic ways and to promote an understanding of the moral and spiritual values propounded by Islam.
Therefore, as we transition from one era to the next and as we occupy ourselves with the task of installing the new administrative machinery of PAAMA, I wanted to take a moment to remind us all, myself included, of the very essence of our life on earth.
According to the Holy Qur’an, the purpose of man’s creation was not just to create a consciousness but ultimately to nurture, improve and enhance that consciousness so that, realising the consummate beauty of God as reflected in His creation, he submits to God and shapes his life according to His Will.
For this reason man is created in the image of God meaning he has been endowed with all the faculties and potentialities to enable him, through acquiring godly attributes, to become as perfect as he possibly can be and emerge more like God. It is not a fixed goal for as God is boundless in His attributes so every journey towards Him remains limitless. The nearer man becomes to His Creator, the stronger becomes the bond between man and God.
It is a noble objective even if its fulfilment is not an easy task. It calls for the highest degree of self-discipline and self-restraint in the face of temptations and evil inclinations. It demands steadfastness and fortitude in the face of trials and tribulations. It requires that man, in adversity and prosperity, remains in humble prostration at the threshold of God Almighty supplicating His succour and guidance. Man must keep his Creator alive in his heart and mind always and associate nothing in His worship so that he can achieve communion and union with Him.
At a time when much of the world has inverted the true relationship between man and God, when the concept of God is repudiated or considered merely an adventitious extra, it is my sincere hope and prayer that we, the members of the Pan-African Ahmadiyya Muslim Association UK, through self-reformation and self-purification, through example and precept, become instrumental in the establishment of the Unity of God on earth, not only fulfilling the purpose of our creation thereby but also helping others do the same. May Allah enable us to do so. Ameen.
Wassalam.
Yours humbly,
Tommy Kallon.
President Pan-African Ahmadiyya Muslim Association UK