Khilafat Centenary Souvenir 1908-2008 — Page 95
program called Water for Life, which is providing wells and hand pumps for water in African countries. By the end of 2007, Humanity First will have completed 40 water wells serving 120,000 people. Guyana Floods: Humani ty First USA provided assistance to areas affected by disastrous floods in 2005 in the country of Guyana in South America. Humanity First has established many other programs, such as Student Sponsorship, Skills Training, Feed a Family and has set up medical camps in many disaster- stricken areas, such as New Orleans. Humanity First's U. S. chapter has provided assistance in Philadelphia where a soup kitchen has been set up to provide meals on a weekly basis. It has helped Leland and Armstrong Elementary Schools in the Chicago School District in improving literacy rates through the Our Kids, Our Future program. The U. S. chapter has helped overseas as well. It helped carry out rebuilding efforts following the tsunami in Indonesia. It installed over 15 water wells around Banda Aceh, helped in rebuilding two schools in Krueng Taya, provided classroom furniture, books, computers, other school supplies and promoted self-sustenance by providing three villages with Begans , fisherman's netting, which is a basic necessity for their livelihood to catch fish and shrimp. As is the case with alljama'at activities, Humanity First rendered all this service without regard to race, religion or creed. It is worth noting that it served even in countries where the Ahmadiyya Muslimjama'at is heavily persecuted-Indonesia and Pakistan are two which have been mentioned. Summary '~ religion that does not inculcate universal compassion is no religion at all. . . " literally thousands of cases can be cited where Khulafa have served and prayed for humanity. We can only highlight the obvious ones as a sample of what has already taken place and continues to take place. Insha'Allah, with the grace of Allah, service for humanity will keep on growing at a much larger scale under the guidance of the present and future Khulafa. Thejama'at has progressed a great deal in its service to humanity. From the little hospital in Qadian that provided only basic medical treatment to the public, we have now arrived at a stage where we are providing relief all over the world without the assistance of any government or aid from any other self-interest groups. Allah has made it a part of our faith that, without the service of humanity, it is impossible to create a bond with Hirn. Indeed the Promised Messiah as has stated, "A religion that does not inculcate universal compassion is no religion at all. Similarly, a human being without the faculty of compassion is no human at all" (A Message of Peace, p. 7). He further clarified how the service of humanity should take place without regard to their religious beliefs. He stated: "Our principal is that you should show kindness to all human beings. If a person looks at his Hindu neighbor whose house has caught fire and does not get up to help him put it out, I say to you truthfully that he is not from me. If a person among my followers sees that someone is trying to murder a Christian and does not help him escape then I say to you as a matter of fact that he is not one of us" (Siraji Munir p. 28). We thank Allah for giving us the opportunity under the system of Khilafat to be part of the group of people who help others solely in the hope of gaining Allah's pleasure.