Milad Festival under Minhaj-ul-Quran Women League

Reported by: M S Pakistani
Translated by: Amanat Ali Chaudhary

Milad Festival continued for the second day. The event is being organized under aegis of Minhaj-ul-Quran Women League at the Race Course Park, Lahore. The wife of Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, Begum Riffat Jabeen Qadri, along with her daughters inaugurated the proceedings of the Milad Festival. They visited various stalls. The central leaders of Minhaj-ul-Quran Women also accompanied them. They took keen interest in stalls showing Islamic culture in ancient days, earthen utensils, holy places etc. The Nazima of MWL Mrs Farah Naz showed them the large models of the holy city of Makkah and Roza-e-Rasool (saw). A large number of people was also present to see these models. The Islamic boutique put on display in the Festival also drew attention and interest of the women. They also saw the dresses embroidered manually and other stuff. The models of camels representing Arab culture were also installed. The intervening ground between gate no 1 and 2 of Race Course Park was specified and the venue was set up for the Festival on that place covered by welcoming banners and beautiful lights. The administration of Race Course Park made special parking arrangements for the participants.

Hundreds of participants visited the Milad Festival along with their families on the second day. The stalls put up for the participants included those of Zia-ul-Quran and Irfan-ul-Quran, earthen utensils, special stall of Islamic Culture installed by Khan-e-Farhang Iran, stall of sacred things, handicraft, speaking books, pictorial display of Islamic culture, Kids corner, Hijab conrners, Islamic books corner, CDs corner, Food corner, Islamic gift Centre, Islamic culture stalls and date stalls. Islamic Arts Show was also held here. The stalls installed by Minhaj-ul-Quran International included those of Minhaj-ul-Quran Women League, Minhaj Welfare Foundation, Minhaj Youth League, Directorate of Membership and the cassettes and books of Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri.

The special models of the holy Kaaba in black color and Gunmbad-e-Khizra in green color were placed on the front of the central entrance of Milad Festival and were the centre of people's interest. Kids Corner was also set up in addition to dozens of stalls where some children were doing Islamic paintings with their own hands. The exhibition of Milad paintings was also open under the banner of Minhaj-ul-Quran Women League. All the paintings put on display in this exhibition were made by children. A special stage was also made where small kids kept reciting Naat. The team of Minhaj Production was covering the entire event. Naat Khawani in low and milder key served as the background music in the venue. A separate stage was also established for the respected guests where they expressed their views about the Festival.

On the second day of Milad Festival, in addition to large number of people belonging to different walks of life, renowned actor Firdos Jamal and famous film writer Nasir Adeeb also visited the Festival at 10 pm at night. They visited various stalls and took keen interest in them. Speaking after the visit, Firdos Jamal said that Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri has undertaken reconstructive work in all areas of religion and this Milad Festival is also an example of this. He said there was a dire need to present the Milad-e-Mustafa (saw) in this manner so that we made this great event in the history of mankind the part of our culture. This is precisely the work which Minhaj-ul-Quran was engaged in. He said that time was not far when this trend would be infectious and hundreds of such Festivals will be held in other cities of Pakistan.

Held for the first time in the national history, the purpose of this seminar is to commemorate the birth anniversary of the Holy Prophet (saw) as a cultural event. Minhaj-ul-Quran International is pioneer in introducing this trend throughout the world.

A special corner under the title of 'Life of the Prophet (saw) in the mirror of history' was also set up where rare pictures of the things, which remained under use of the Prophet (saw) were put up on display. These included the pictures of his turban, shoes, hair, sword, letter which the Prophet wrote to governor of Bahrain, bed, pair of gloves which were touched with the blanket of his holy grave, the soil that was touched with the holy grave, bottle of water that remained in his use, the blessed soil of the chamber of the Prophet (saw) and the color of Gunmbad-e-Khizra.

In addition to the holy things attributed to the Prophet (saw), other things that were displayed included the Quranic verses, Durood sharif carved on leaves, flowers and piece of blanket of Huzoor Ghous-e-Azam's grave, bulb of Huzrat Bilal's (RA) grave, piece of stone of the Mound Sinai, the wings of pigeons of holy Kaba and Prophetic Mosque, the threads of cover of Kaba during Huzrat Ali's reign, the flowers of the blessed grave of Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA), the threads of curtains of the Prophetic Mosque, piece of personal blanket of Hazrat Imam Jafer Sadiq (RA), the blessed soil of Huzrat Ayesh's (RA) chamber, the stone of the well of Hazrat Salman Farsi (RA), stones of Huzrat Usman Ghani's (RA) grave, cloth of the Holy Kaba, the stones of the foundation of Kaba, stone of 'Uhud' mountain, blessed soil of 'Uhud' mountain, stone of the battle of Trench and other blessed stuff.

The purpose behind the conduct of this unique event of Milad Festival in the history of Pakistan is to give it cultural touch. That is why this Festival has been arranged for the first time. This event that continued for three days ended on April 20, 2008.