Cherished Memories of Africa — Page 102
84 agree to go with me, تعــایل اہلل انشــاء ’, he said. I requested Ahmad ly and Ilo Jallow to go to Koumbal and invite Samba Jallow to the jalsa. Accordingly both of them went to village. Many young and elderly people of the village were sitting under a tree engaged in chit-chat. The visitors extended traditional greetings to the gathering and enquired about Samba Jallow They were told that there happened to be two persons with that name in the village; ‘Which samba Jallow do you want to see?’ they asked. When Ilo Jallow gave further details of his friend they told him that he had been away since many days. One of those present said that if it was something important they would convey the message to him. Ahmad ly said, ‘we are Ahmadis and we had come to invite samba Jallow to jalsa salana of the Ahmadiyya jama’at of the Gambia’. One of the audience enquired who the Ahmadis were. Ahmad Ly gave an introduction of the jama’at to the best of his ability; they listened to him intently. There were two Arabic teachers from the same village amongst the audience – Omar Jallow and Samba Jallow (the other one). One of the teachers asked, ‘do you want to invite samba Jallow only to this jalsa or can anyone else attend the jalsa?’ Ahmad ly answered, ‘any one of you wishing to attend will be most welcome’. The leading members of the village, after mutual consultation nominated both their imams Omar Jallow and Samba Jallow to attend the jalsa as their representatives to go and look into Ahmadiyyat and report back the whole truth. In short, the two imams attended the jalsa. They witnessed the organisation of the jama’at, the discipline, scholarly speeches,