Conference on "Deen" Ends

A day Islamic conference on the concept of "Deen" ended on Saturday April 18th at the Main Headquarters of the Gambia Supreme Islamic Council in Kanifing.

The spiritual gathering was organised by Fass Saho Islamic Cooperative Society and was sponsored by the Islamic Centre for Harmonization of Schools of Thought.

Speaking on the occasion, Al-Ustass Alhagie Ousman M. Jah the guest speaker of the gathering commenced his presentation with welcoming the invited guests, dignitaries and the rest of the participants.

According to him, Deen is referring to as a religion.

He said that the word Deen is an Arabic word in itself and calls for suffering. "Different Religions are formed but the true religion is the dean Kairu (religion of peace) referring to the religion of Islam. He further described religion as a believe that one adopt and belief faith in it.

According to the scholar "Shaada" meaning ones of Allah is a perquisite for faith. "You cannot call yourself a Muslim if you don't believe in the existence of Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger", he emphasised.

He also talked about knowledge which according to him, is described as a field of study that one can guide one through. He added that one has to make research to be able to improve and qualify their undertaken. "He who is not educated would find it very hard to make a belief", he argued. Education he revealed is of many forms but knowing God is a special form of education that is required of every believer. "With education you would be able to reason and follow the teachings of your religion. Man is not above knowledge because every day in one's life you in fact learn new things", he said.

He called on believers to worship only one God that is Allah the true God and follow the Sunah of the Holly Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

He said that there are so many misconceptions on how people worship thus the theme of the conference becomes relevant.

Ustass Jah advised believers to revisit their deeds and purify them ahead of the day of judgment, a day that will surely come when everyone will be held accountable for his/her actions.  Delivering the closing prayers Imam Mass Jah describes the forum as very important. He thanked the organizers and the guest speaker for their effort in propagating Islam.

The conference was attended by several prominent Islamic scholars and believers in the country.