Khuddam USA Souvenir 1989 — Page 27
HISTORY OF KHUDDAM-UL-AHMADIYYA IN THE U. S. A. ( Subm i tt ed by A hm ad Tari q Sharif, His tory U. S. Khuddam Offi ce r) Founding of Khuddam - ul - Ahmadiyya On February 4. 19. 38 , the Ma1lis Khuddamul Ahmad1yya was born under the direction and instruction ofKhalllatul Mas1h 11 , I la:rrat Mirza Bash1ruddin Mahmud Ahmad in Qadian, I nd1a, the permanent headquarters oft he Ahma d1yya Movement in Islam. Its purpose was a noble one· to save young men from modern trends of mater 1alism and imbibe them with the spirit or t ru e Islam. Further, llazrat Khalltatul Masih stated "the very name ol the organization indicates that its members are Ahm<1d1 servants of mankrnd" (Al ~ Fazl, April 10, 19. 38). flazur himself laid the loundations for the organization by divid- ing the lramework mto ten d1\·1s1ons rangtng from social service lo physical health to education The organiza- tion was carefully mapped out to produce a t' had1m who was sp1ntually mchned. mentally and physically healthy and a servant 01 Islam and mankind. Under the d1rcct1on of Hazur. the Khuddam m Qadian were immediately organized with the first Sadr (President) as Qamr ud Om and the second a year later, Mirza Nasir Ahmad (may Allah he pleased with them). The first ljtcma was held on DeLember 25, 1939, and the firs t journal of Khuddam- ul Ahmad1yya, Al - Tariq, was start ed in June of 1 945. The question this article addr esses is h ow did Khud dam -ul Ahmadiyya as founded by Khahlatul Mas1h II 1•11111np. 1111 s oj a klwddam O JJt <crs m cc 1111 g 11 1 /ell< ' st x11 e Can yo u r ecog111zc the jirsc natio nal qaatd' (fl/101 0 p1 0\ i< lc cl lw M 111111 11 ,i 1 111 d1 become organized in the U. SA and how has it pro- gressed until today T he Early Days Being that Jamaats th<:msclves were not organized in any nationwide network until the 1950 's in the US. . 1t is not surprising that the. . _huddam organ11allon was not nationally organized until the lat t: 1 960's. Al though 1 t was certainly the dt. . 'S1rc or the AmeriLan Ahmadis to have a national Khuddam organization, it took almost twenty years ol organizing local 1amaats lirst and gathering young men within them to set up a network of local Khuddam branches Aller all, without a national body of Khuddam there could be no national Khuddam organi- zation Al Lhe same time, the 50's and 60's were a time of education Along with more inlormauon in English about Islam and Ahmadiyyat being disseminated among the American brothers, came a greater knowledge of the purpose. aims. and structure of the Khuddam- ul-Ahma- diyya. One book, Ma1/1s Khuddam-ul Ahmad1yya-1ts FornwUon and Importance. was translated into English by Chaudry Abdur Rahman Bengali. IL laid out the pur- pose of Khuddam and t he methods for establishing nallonal and lo cal branches complete with Qa 1 ds, Zaims, Khuddam u/ Alunadiyya US. A. - 27