NEICC SOCIAL FAMILY NIGHT

 

NEICC held its year end monthly social family gathering on December 7^th, 2018 at Turkish Cultural Center, Clifton, NJ.

Program started at 7:30 pm with homemade potluck dinner from variety of authentic cuisines brought by attendees.

Following dinner, Quran recitation was given by Imam Ibrahim Atasoy who was also main speaker of the event. Briefly introducing Imam Atasoy, chronologically, he has served as former Imam of Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, PA, former imam of Nizamiye Mosque in South Africa, and former Imam and Administrator of Islamic School in Albania.

The topic of Mr Atasoy’s speech was “Stories from Holy Qur’an and Prophet Mohammed (SAW)”. Primarily, his speech was focused on the story of family of Imran (Al’i Imran), where Imran is known as father of Mary. In his speech, he stated that Mary was from a noble family, and when his parent passed away, she was only four years old. His uncle Prophet Zacharia, who was also head priest of Holy Jewish temple, took care of her and raised her. He mentioned some miraculous events that Prophet Zacharia witnessed while raising Mary, such as, every time he visited her, he saw she was blessed with great provisions (miraculous food) and when he asked where she got it, she responded that is blessing from God. Upon witnessing that, even though his wife was barren, as well as both him and his wife was very old, Prophet Zacharia realized that anything is possible for God, and then prayed God to bless him with a son. Soon after he was blessed with a son, Yahya (John), whom later destined to be a prophet as well.

Participants showed a great interest to topic, and many questions followed after the speech, one notable was how prophet Jesus born, specifically, how Muslim views Holy Ghost of Trinity. His answer was also from Quran, stating it is all part of miracle and Quran states that story of prophet Jesus is no different than prophet Adam, where Adam neither had father nor mother, while Jesus did not have only mother. Program ended with announcements for upcoming events such as winter retreat and upcoming halaqa meeting.