On Friday 25th April 2014, Jamia Masjid Minhaj-ul-Quran, Nelson, held a Naat competition and monthly spiritual gathering of ‘Giyarvee Shareef’ for young female students studying at the education centre. The competition was a great success, with students from all the female classes participating actively. The winners were chosen from each class to ensure fairness in terms of age and ability.

The programme began with recitation of the Holy Quran by Nida Ajaz. This was followed by Qaseedah Burdah Shareef, which was read by all the students in a chorus. Hamd was presented by senior students, namely Hasana Mirza, Nimrah Khan and Alisha Ahmed, who recited the popular Hamd “Hasbi Rabbi Jallallah”. There was also a special Naat performance from Atiyah Parveen, who was a guest and also a former student at the event. The Naat competition began with students from the senior class participating first. There were wonderful performances from: Nida Ajaz, Nimra Khan, Saddiqa Ahmed, Salihah Anjum,Tooba Bilal , Alisha Ahmed , Jasmine Ahmed. This was followed by performances from Fatima class. There were three participants from the class: Iram Khan, Ayman Ahmed, Sabrina Kosaco.

The third class to participate in the competition was Aisha class which was also most keen with the highest number of participants. There were beautiful recitations from all the students including: Amina Ahmed, Samar Basharat, Iqra Noor, Fatima Rehman, Alisha Hssain, Irtaqa Mehmood, Heera Naveed, Zainab Iftikhar, Anam Ahmed, Maryam Ajaz. The final class that took part consisted of youngest students from Amina class. There were performances from: Halima Hussain, Aaila Zobia Nawaz, Laiba Latif, Halima Riaz, Naveera Ayub, Meerab Ajaz. There was also a Naat from Zara Shah, who had recently returned from a blessed trip to Saudi Arabia, where she performed Umrah. She was gifted a beautiful green scarf by a senior teacher Anbreen Afzal and was also congratulated on making such a great and auspicious pilgrimage. The competition was concluded, and it was left to the judges to decide the winners. There were four judges namely Afshan Bano, Nazia Shaheen, Sana Fiaz, the special guest, and finally the Head Teacher Tahira Basharat.

There was a short prize giving ceremony in which the winners were announced by the Head Teacher, and the certificates were presented by sister Sana Fiaz and sister Maryam Bibi. The winners from Khadijah class were:

Nida Ajaz 3rd place

Salihah Anjum 2nd place

Alisha Ahmed & Jasmin Ahmed 1st place

The winners from Fatimah class were:

Iram Khan 3rd Position

Ayman Ahmed 2nd Position

Sabrina Kosaco 1st Position

The winners from Aisha class were:

Fatima Rehman 1st place

Irtaqa Mehmood 2nd place

Anam Ahmed 3rd place

The winners from Amina class were:

Halima Hussain 3rd place

Laiba Latif 2nd place

Naveera Ayub 1st place

The mehfil was concluded with Salaat o Salaam by Atiyah Parveen and Tooba Bilal, and Khatam Shareef by Hasana Mirza and Nimra Khan. The dua was led by a senior student, Alisha Ahmed, who prayed for the well-being of everyone and the success of all the students. The concluding words came from the Head Teacher, who thanked the guests for coming and congratulated the students on their performances, and gave a few words of encouragement and advice to them to continue working hard to improve their performances. Everyone was also given goody bags with refreshments in them at the end of the event.

Reported by: Tahira Basharat and Naushaza Fiaz