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ANSAR SURVEY APR 20 Write up of Ansar surveys conducted during April 2020
Anis Kotia
Ansar Survey
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Ansar Survey
حاولوا دائما ان تستمعوا لكل الاراء وايضا فلتكن طريقة طرح الاراء بينكم وفي
متعارضة ،كي تعينوا انفسكم واخوتكم اجتماعاتكم )حتى في مجال عملكم( بصورة متوازية وليس
. على سماع الرأي المخالف
احمد الحسن ع
“And always try to listen to all opinions. Also, there should be a method to
suggest ideas amongst you and in your groups (even in your places of
work) in a balanced – not inharmonious – way, so that you help yourselves
and your brothers to listen to the contradictory opinion”
Ahmed Al Hasan (pbuh)
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. 3
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 5
Ways of working ............................................................................................................... 6
Survey drivers .................................................................................................................. 7
Working on the basics .............................................................................................................. 7
Opportunity .................................................................................................................................... 7
Response ........................................................................................................................................ 7
English translations .................................................................................................................. 7
Opportunity .................................................................................................................................... 7
Response ........................................................................................................................................ 7
Instructional Videos ................................................................................................................. 8
Opportunity .................................................................................................................................... 8
Some Ansar gave feedback that there were no instructional videos on how to perform salat. ... 8
Solutions ......................................................................................................................................... 8
Website chatbot ...................................................................................................................... 8
Requirements ................................................................................................................... 9
1st Survey “Ansar priorities” ............................................................................................ 11
Getting the basics right .......................................................................................................... 12
Prioritising translations .......................................................................................................... 13
Learning techniques ............................................................................................................... 14
Engagement and support ....................................................................................................... 15
2nd Survey “Ansar giving dawah” .................................................................................... 16
Digital Footprint ............................................................................................................. 32
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 32
Example of opportunities to improve the websites ................................................................. 35
Savior of Mankind improvements ................................................................................................ 35
Image missing for a newly published book. ............................................................................. 36
Use of underscores impeding ability to search for site / content ............................................. 36
Traffic .................................................................................................................................... 37
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Security level rated as Medium .............................................................................................. 37
Observation .................................................................................................................................. 37
Performance .......................................................................................................................... 38
Facebook page missing........................................................................................................... 39
Available experts ................................................................................................................... 40
Opportunities to improve the main dawah site: www.almahdyoon.org ................................... 41
Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 41
Further feedback from Jassem Ansari on Digital presence ....................................................... 47
Additional Tasks ........................................................................................................................... 47
Justification: ................................................................................................................................. 47
Approach and transition plan ......................................................................................... 50
Comms strategy ............................................................................................................. 50
Release schedule (example) ............................................................................................ 51
Appendix 1: Profiles ....................................................................................................... 52
Jasem Akhand ........................................................................................................................ 52
Syed Mehdi Ishrati ................................................................................................................. 54
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Introduction
After several suggestions from Ansar over WhatsApp groups and Facebook channels, the UK
Ansar representative decided to run a survey that would help gather all good ideas in a
single place, in a way that they could be prioritised and addressed.
Some of the ideas were regarding the basics of the dawah e.g. how to do wudu, whose
resolution were potentially easy: by producing some basic literature and publishing it on
known Ansar channels.
Other ideas were regarding the need for a support base e.g. a buddy, for any new Ansar.
Yet other ideas were more complex in nature, involve technical improvements to the
existing dawah websites and improving their digital presence.
There are many benefits from addressing all the above, however, the improvements need to
be managed to avoid disruption and to ensure benefit.
For this reason, several surveys were used to direct the questions and response so that they
could be turned into a list of requirements, to be shared with the Najaf Office.
This report captures the information from the first two surveys and other channels.
Identities have only been shared where the individual Ansari gave express permission to do
so.
It is felt that this report will be useful to bring transparency and aid communication
between the Ansar, may Allah reward all of them and it is being done in the spirit of the
Syed of wanting to work collaboratively and invite all ideas.
This report has 5 main sections:
• Survey drivers and initial resolutions – highlights the reasons for conducting the
surveys
• Requirements – summarises all requirements and potential solutions in one place
• 1st survey – run for 1 week to obtain an understanding of Ansar priorities
• 2nd survey – run for 1 week to understand what support Ansar need for giving dawah
• Digital Footprint – direct feedback from Ansar who can contribute to strengthening
the digital presence of the dawah
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Throughout the document we have endeavoured to:
• Describe and categorise the need
• Suggest potential solutions
Throughout the report we have placed Observation 💡indicators to highlight something
noteworthy.
Ways of working
• Not to take on any project unless there is alignment across the group and priorities
have been agreed upon (based on perceived value for Ansar).
• Commit to reviewing the programme of works and Trello on a regular basis to
provide feedback and updates.
• If anyone agrees to complete a task from beginning to end, they ensure it is
completed and not left.
• If you think you are overloaded, raise your hand and ask for help.
• Items that need parking until a decision can be made, will be logged separately.
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Survey drivers
The following points were the drivers behind starting the survey.
Alongside feedback, we have provided an update on addressing the points.
Working on the basics
Opportunity
Several English-speaking Ansar have highlighted a need to understand very basics of the
dawah, such as the objectives of the Dawah, the tenets of Salat, Fasting, Hajj etc. It was felt
that the Arabic speaking community had a stronger support base, which the other
communities seem to be lacking somewhat.
The survey addressed this by capturing a need for some basic literature that could be
distributed amongst the Ansar.
Though the English Paltalk room has been relaunched, Paltalk learning was not rated highly
as a potential solution for the English-speaking audience.
Response
Hence, it was suggested that instructional videos or basic literature could address this.
Anis Kotia is currently speaking to the Kuwaiti Ansar about a forthcoming production of
training videos, which he will support to translate into English. Further, he is speaking to
illustrators to plan how a simple instructional leaflet could also add value to a topic such as
how to do wudu.
There is also discussion of how a chatbot integrated into the English website could support
Ansar who have adhoc questions, coupled with a knowledge base (as previously
mentioned).
English translations
Opportunity
Some Ansar gave feedback in confidence that they needed support to understand the
English translations, specifically Atheism Delusion and The Calf (recently published).
Anis Kotia agreed to collect all points and provide tentative responses to aid their study.
These points will be forward to sister Suehila Smith for her evaluation.
Response
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Sister Suehila has been kind enough to offer more direct involvement of a limited number of
natively English-speaking Ansar by including them as members of the Translation Team.
This is a great opportunity for other Ansar to contribute to the dissemination of the books.
It was also suggested that a ‘roadmap’ of forthcoming translations be published since it is
very useful for those waiting for books to be translated.
Instructional Videos
Opportunity
Some Ansar gave feedback that there were no instructional videos on how to perform salat.
Solutions
Hussain Alsaady produced some instructional videos on Maghrib and Isha salat a few years
ago, which seem to have not continued. That initiative should be supported, with
accompanying PDFs for key elements that can be used to support the Ansar up their skills on
the basics as well as Aqaid (beliefs) & Tawheed (monotheism).
Add an online shopping cart to the Saviorofmankind site so that books can be ordered via an
online printing house, with the Ansari paying for the costs.
Website chatbot
One solution to address the need for support, is to implement a chat bot on the website like
IT Service Desk systems.
Tawk plug-in feature available at https://www.tawk.to/features/
Above was the summary of the findings and suggested approach.
The next sections provide the details of the surveys in detail.
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Requirements
To summarise all top of mind requirements for the Ansar, we find the following.
N.B: Full details can be found in the Survey section.
ID DESCRIPTION SOURCE SOLUTION
1 To have materials on the
basic tenets of the dawah
like aqaid, tawheed, salat,
fasting, ghusl.
Ansar survey
during April 2020
Existing knowledge bases like
‘Ansars.net’ or an alternative
online site, could be used, with
some updates.
2 To be given instructional
videos on how to learn the
above basic tenets
Ansar survey
during April 2020
Make the (English) videos of
Hussain Al Saady available.
Alternatively, request the Kuwaiti
ansar to translate their
forthcoming videos and make
them available online.
3 To have a knowledge base
for FAQs (in the form of
Q&As)
Ansar survey
during April 2020
Existing knowledge bases like
‘Ansars.net’ or an alternative
online site, could be used, after
some updates.
4 To be provided training on
how to give dawah to
various groups
Ansar survey
during April 2020
Discuss with brothers Mohammed
Al-Matrouk & Ali Bajalan, to either
invite additional Ansar to the
Training Camp (FaceBook group)
and / or to provide specific
materials to commonly asked
questions.
5 To have a buddying system
for anyone who needs
support on dawah related
topics
Ansar survey
during April 2020
This ideally should be directed to
the representative in one’s
locality. For any English speaking
Ansar, they are welcome to reach
out to others who they feel are
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approachable. Alternatively the
Savior Of Mankind website could
have a chat bot installed, where
any ansar could ask a question
and an ‘agent’ could respond.
Example is :
https://www.tawk.to/features/
6 To have frequent (weekly /
fortnightly) face to face
meetings (online / in
person) with
representatives of the
Najaf office.
Ansar survey
during April 2020
Question to be sent to Sadiq Al
Hussaini and Najaf Office for their
consideration.
7 To have a platform to get
further clarify / provide
feedback on any English
books that are harder to
understand
Direct feedback To collate all questions and
provide responses helping Ansar
understand the topic / bring up
the question on Paltalk.
8 Digital footprint
improvements for Savior
of Mankind site
Direct feedback Collate all website improvements
into a separate initiative and
obtain external support, if
required
9 Digital footprint
improvements for
Mahdyoon site
Direct feedback Collate all website improvements
into a separate initiative and
obtain external support, if
required
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1st Survey “Ansar priorities”
A survey was conducted to obtain feedback from Ansar on how more established and
experienced Ansar could serve them better.
The survey was shared on prominent pages accessible to the UK Ansar representative: UK
Ansar, Urdu Ansar, as well as on other Ansar pages like General Ansar Group, with posts
being boosted to reach over 700 people.
The post on the main UK page reached 707 individuals and an unspecified number of
recipients from forums, or direct contact. 99 people viewed the survey of which 30
responded (4% of 707 and 30% of those who viewed).
Link to the survey
Observation 💡
The use of FaceBook pages is the most powerful way to obtain Ansar feedback. Hence, a
feedback form should be embedded into each Ansar website.
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Observation 💡
The English-speaking Ansar / respondents are spread across more than just those countries
where English is the official language.
Getting the basics right
Over 70% of respondents are lacking knowledge on the basics like performing ghusl,
performing salat.
Over 20% are comfortable with the objectives of the Call.
Conclusion: produce basic literature to cater for the basic tenants of the dawah.
Sources: Sharai’ ul Islam, Al Ajwibah Al Fiqhiyya
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Observation 💡
Ansar are struggling with the very basic acts that enable them to enter the deen – ghusl
Prioritising translations
Most Ansar wish to build on their Aqaid (beliefs) and understanding of Tawheed
(monotheism), followed by explanation of Quran (tafseer).
References: Aqaid ul Islam, Kitab Ul Tawheed, AL Mutashaabihaat, explanation of surah al
Fatiha.
Sciences and the universe came 4th, possibly because the topic is new, or perhaps because
of the Atheism Delusion translation – the results are not conclusive.
Family and health topics are of little interest at present. Learning Arabic is low on the
agenda, hence, this places more pressure on the Translation Committee which already has a
very busy schedule.
History and biographies seemed to appear lowest on the list.
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Observation 💡
It would appear that learning Arabic is not high on the agenda of English speaking Ansar.
Learning techniques
Observation 💡
11 out of 30 votes were received for instructional videos, with Paltalk sessions receiving no
votes at all. Printed books were also popular indicating that Ansar wish to have a facility to
obtain printed copies of the books, even more so than digital books.
The ‘Other’ response was for WhatsApp discussion groups.
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Engagement and support
The survey revealed that Ansar have a strong desire (77%) to have direct contact with Office
representatives, either through in person meetings or online.
Suggest this be arranged with Anis Kotia, to help arrange online meetings and even
providing questions in advance of the meetings.
New joiners (over 93%) wish to be buddied up with a more experienced Ansar. This is
essential to ensure the right support is being provided and all Ansar are being developed.
This can either be facilitated manually, or via an online system that captures all Ansar
requests (e.g. Power Apps) in Office 365. Suggest Anis Kotia evaluate potential solutions for
this.
Ansar Survey
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2nd Survey “Ansar giving dawah”
The second survey was posted using the same channels of FaceBook pages and WhatsApp
groups and posed questions about giving dawah to different groups.
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Observation 💡
The Ansar who responded to the second survey appeared to give dawah to several groups,
yet did not feel adequately trained.
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19
Observation 💡
Though Ansar feel the focus of dawah should be on Muslims in their locality, there is not
much variation between other groups, except for Jews. Possibly because Jews do not
present a great opportunity for cross scriptural discussion, nor do they invite the wider
community inside their synagogues.
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Ansar Survey
21
Observation 💡
Self-study is the chosen methods for dawah preparation, though it would appear this is due
to lack of support in the English Ansar community.
Ansar Survey
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Ansar Survey
23
Only 50% of the time do Ansar regularly provide materials, possibly due to a shortage of
standardised / translated literature.
Ansar Survey
24
The humanitarian aspect is something that Ansar are not clear on: this is possibly due to
cultural influences in Western countries, or due to the current COVID-19 Coronavirus issue.
Ansar Survey
25
Learnings from giving dawah. Caution needs exercising to not allow a ‘holier than thou’
feeling to come into the discussion.
Ansar Survey
26
Though buddying up was desirable in the first survey, it appears that for dawah giving
purposes Ansar prefer to go-it-alone.
Ansar Survey
27
Observation 💡
Ansar appear to know how to handle aggressive situations, in the main.
Ansar Survey
28
The next two questions were open ended relating to opening arguments and retorts when
giving dawah.
Ansar Survey
29
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30
Question 13
Observation 💡
There is a desire for readily available printed dawah materials.
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31
Observation 💡
Standardising the approach and having readily available materials will help.
Link to the survey results
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Digital Footprint
Introduction
The following observations came from Ansar who have received formal training on Digital
Media and online campaigns.
If the Najaf Office gives the go ahead to make these improvements, the recommendations
will be funded by the Ansar themselves, including, obtaining of professional resources.
0096566993470
Jasem Akhand
ابو عبدالله جاسم مصطفى آخند
Mehdi Ishrati
I am Jasem Akhand
Please ask and recommend the office to
allow me for reading the Google analytics
A note for the report... IF Two sites and
identical in their content then the organic
search will be pushed at low score. Means
they won't come at the top page of the
search you do. To correct this, we should
use redirect.
For example, if the main site is
Www.almahdyoon.org
My name is Syed Mehdi Ishrati and I live in
Hyderabad, India. I am currently 34 years
old. I completed my Cambridge A-Levels in
Psychology, logic, and Computing,
thereafter immediately joined the family
business in 2006.
Since 2009 I have either started or helped
to start about 6 small businesses, four of
which are currently operational at various
stages of their lifecycle.
My interests are varied right from
Computers, Electronics, and the Internet of
Things to Organic farming using traditional
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33
And you possibly have other domains such
Www.almahdyoon.com
. Those extra domains must be used to
redirect people to the main site.
“The highly promoted dawah websites in
Arabic (www.almahdyoon.org) and English
(www.saviorofmankind.com) contains a
high number of configuration issues, that
are impacting their digital presence.
Using basic Google SEO Site check up tools
has revealed several issues that, if resolved,
can substantially improve the footprint of
the dawah.”
as well as modern techniques -where I have
had the privilege of some very experienced
teachers and gained a little experience
myself. I have a relatively decent
knowledge of working with tools, ranging
from basic carpentry to fixing a motorbike
engine.
Savior website, the following are my
recommendations:
1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
although consists of multiple lines of action,
is very simple to implement. As it stands,
our website has an extremely low domain
score of 8%.
2. Create one identity online, one that is
instantly recognized by all those who see it.
3. In order to rank better on google, we
need to not only create good content on
the website, the website itself needs to be
abuzz with activity.
4. Each page and each blog can be planned
and created with a specific audience in
mind, and then when we promote the
page, either by paid media or by organic
methods, that audience needs to be
directed to that specific page to best serve
its purpose.
Ansar Survey
34
https://diggitymarketing.com/e-commerce-
case-study/
Ansar Survey
35
Example of opportunities to improve the websites
Savior of Mankind improvements
Companies will offer free check-up for the sake of fixing the websites.
A free tool for Google SEO analysis was run on 25th April 2020 revealing the following
results.
Ansar Survey
36
Image missing for a newly published book.
Use of underscores impeding ability to search for site / content
The objective of the dawah is to route traffic to the site. Such opportunities to improve
things are easy to resolve.
Ansar Survey
37
Traffic
Very low traffic being routed to the site. Need to understand how to increase traffic through
to the site.
Security level rated as Medium
Observation
Quick improvements can easily be made to the site as per the below guidelines.
Ansar Survey
38
Performance
Optimising the size of assets on the website will improve the user experience and
potentially greater browsing and repeat visitors.
Ansar Survey
39
Facebook page missing
All sharing is being done through individuals sharing the link. The English translation page
needs a Facebook page, to increase its digital presence, using Facebook’s inbuilt power of
marketing.
Ansar Survey
40
Available experts
Ansar Survey
41
Opportunities to improve the main dawah site: www.almahdyoon.org
Summary
The following improvements have been highlighted using the same technologies as above:
Critical and Warning errors only
Ansar Survey
42
Ansar Survey
43
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44
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45
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46
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47
Further feedback from Jassem Ansari on Digital presence
“Please add into the document that you are creating the following tasks (what are you
calling this file?)
-Imam reputation fixing is sites (Goal to push the organic search up and push the negative
organic search at fare pages)
1. review and fix the content of sites related to organic searches such as:
1.1 ) the search #أحمد_الحسن
1.2 ) the search of @Ahmed_alhasan
1.3) relevant key words
2) reviewing the uniqu # or @ search key words content
3) Understand & list the Negative sites Keywords ( in digital marketing the negative words
are considered competitors and showem for people)”
Additional Tasks
Imam needs to link his Facebook page with other accounts such as Twitter
@AhmedALhasan313 it not linked with @Ahmed.Alhasan.10313 (Facebook)
it was linked before but it seems it has been stopped for a reason or error. also , twitter
account is not stated in the www.almahdyoon.org
Justification:
The information I have about FaceBook posts, is that FaceBook limiting the reach from your
followers by only 10% . Hence , if you are being followed by 1 million, Facebook is showing
(posting) your post for only 10% from this population. this is not happining with twitter
untill now. Twitter is letting your post to reach all your followers.
Ansar Survey
48
Why FaceBook is doing this?
Because FaceBook company lives on advertisements for income. the company gives you
some free options in order to gain huge audiences. Hence, Others will want buy ads to reach
people. This is why money is coming into FaceBook account.
Digital Marketing Must Have Qasim Ansari first we need to fix
the error from
website
Digital Marketing Must Have Qasim Ansari Second we need to
have the tool for
analysising the site
traffic
Digital Marketing Must Have Qasim Ansari 1. review and fix the
content of sites
related to organic
searches such as:
1.1 ) the search
أحمد_الحسن#
1.2 ) the search of
@Ahmed_alhasan
1.3) relevent key
words
2) reviwing the
uniqu # or @ search
key words content
3) Understand & list
the Negative sites
Keywords ( in digital
marketing the
Ansar Survey
49
negative words are
considered
compatitors and
showem for people )
Ansar Survey
50
Approach and transition plan
The details of the releases will be decided once this report has been reviwed by the Najaf
Office.
This is a recommendation, based on prior experience and aligned with the main
stakeholders and sponsors.
All tasks can be managed in the Ansar Trello boards.
Proxies: Sister Suehila Smith to represent both hers and Dr Darin’s interests.
Communication to Abdul Basit, administrator of the English website, will be via sister
Suehila.
Example of how the Trello Board might appear.
Comms strategy
Road map and comms strategy to be produced by Anis Kotia and placed on the website for
all visitors under a ‘coming soon’ tab.
Ansar Survey
51
Release schedule (example)
MONTH RELEASE FEATURE BENEFIT OWNER
May 2020 Ansar-1 English Website
chat bot
Quick
responses to
any questions
raised by Ansar
Mahdi Ishrati &
Abdul Basit
Note: release notes will contain details of all components of a release
Ansar Survey
52
Appendix 1: Profiles
Jasem Akhand
مقيم في الكويت ومن . جاسم مصطفى آخند/ المهندس
1976مواليدها لعام ..
2014انصاري منذ وصلت له الدعوة منتصف عام .
حصل مؤخرا على شهادة تدريب التسويق الإلكتروني
Digital marketing
و الذي به يمكن المساعدة نحو التبليغ الإلكتروني
للوصول لشرائح المجتمع من خلال الإعلان المدفوع
والهدف هو التركيز لعمل صيحات . يحهالأجر لعمل ص
تكون الصحيحه عبارة اما عن مقطع فيديو . عن الدعوة
قصير او صورة تبليغية ترشد المهتم نحو قنوات الدعوة
.من موقع إلكتروني او قنوات الرسمية للدعوة
من خلال . له اهتمام في تطوير الموقع الالكتروني للدعوة
Google analytics خدمة
أن ذلك مرتبط كذلك في التسويق الإلكتروني حيث
كون ان هذه الخدمة تحدد إحصائيات ( صيحات الدعوة)
.الموقع ومدى تفاعله مع الجمهور
Engineer Jasem Mustafa Akhand.
Resident of Kuwait from birth (1976)
Ansari from mid 2014
Recently attained qualification in digital
marketing training
He is able to support the dawah through digital
proselytization, to reach the elements of the
community through paid media campaigns.
The objective is to focus on campaigns for the
dawah that will be correct either in the form of
short video clips or pictures that guide committed
individuals to the dawah channels, from the
electronic website or the official dawah channels.
He cares about developing the website of the
dawah, through Google Analytics.
Since that is connected to digital marketing
(dawah campaigns) this service defines the
Ansar Survey
53
وله اهتمام في نشر علم الإمام المتعلق في كتاب وهم
فيزياء الكم )الإلحاد للسيد احمد الحسن ع الفصل السادس
لويرغب في التخصص بهذا المجا( و الكون ..
.حاليا طالب في حوزة الإمام سنة أولى
.اما بالنسبة لخبراته الوظيفية وشهادات المهنية
من 1998فهو حاصل على شهادة الهندسة الكهربائية عام
.جامعة الكويت
ثم عمل لمدة عام في وزارة الاعلام كمهندس مبتدء
..خدمات صيانة الطاقة
ص في تخص 2006الي منتصف عام 1999ومنذ عام
العمل في برمجة شبكات الاتصالات المتنقلة و صيانتها
(switch core network)
من عمله 2008الي عام 2004وتزام أثناء الفترة من
MBA حصوله على شهادة الماجستير في إدارة الأعمال
Master of Business Administration.
من جامعة الكويت كلية الدراسات العليا
٢٠١٨الي عام منتصف عام ٢٠٠٦تصف عام ومنذ من .
عمل في شركة استثمارية تقنية تكنولوجية
واثناء ذلك دخل دورات مهنية تخصصية في الاستثمار و
و دخل كذلك في مؤتمرات و دورات في . تطوير الشركات
فترقى درجات مهنية . تطوير و الاستثمار بالقطاع الطبي
حيث .. ستشار أولمن مدير أول الي انتهى إلى درجة م
2018استحق على التقاعد عام منتصف ...
وهو حاليا يبحث عن رؤوس الأموال من أجل فرصه في
.انشاء مؤسسة تعليمية و مصنع منتجات طبية
exclusivity of the website and the level that it can
reach the masses.
He is interested in spreading knowledge that
relates to Atheism Delusion of Syed Ahmed Al
Hasan as, particularly the 6th chapter (Quantum
physics and the universe) and he would like to
specialise in this area.
Currently he is a 1st year student of the Imam’s
Hawzah.
With regards his professional experience and his
qualifications: he obtained an electronic
engineering degree in 1998 from the University of
Kuwait.
He worked for a year in the Ministry of Media as a
junior engineer, in the energy saving division.
Since 1999 until mid 2006 he has specialised in
programming switch core network.
Between 2004 and 2008 he left work to pursue an
MBA from the University of Kuwait, in the college
of higher education.
From mid 2006 to mid 2018 he worked in “The IT
investment company”. And during that time he
undertook investment and business development
courses. He also entered forums and courses for
development and investment in the medical
sector. He gained skills from the first director to
to first advisor, to be able to retire mid 2018.
He is currently looking for capital to set up an
educational foundation and a factory to produce
medical supplies.
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Syed Mehdi Ishrati
AsSalamalaikum Ansar Allah,
My name is Syed Mehdi Ishrati and I live in Hyderabad, India. I am currently 34 years old. I
completed my Cambridge A-Levels in Psychology, logic, and Computing, thereafter
immediately joined the family business in 2006.
Since 2009 I have either started or helped to start about 6 small businesses, four of which
are currently operational at various stages of their lifecycle.
My interests are varied right from Computers, Electronics, and the Internet of Things to
Organic farming using traditional as well as modern techniques -where I have had the
privilege of some very experienced teachers and gained a little experience myself. I have a
relatively decent knowledge of working with tools, ranging from basic carpentry to fixing a
motorbike engine. Ideally I hope to integrate all my skills when I move to a farm, which I am
hoping will be in the near future. Also, I am fascinated with the idea of starting a School on
that farm, as I also have some experience at teaching school children.
Over the years, although I have not mastered any one skill, I have developed a working
knowledge of many skills. I have been involved with every aspect of starting, nurturing, and
running a business, which includes branding and digital marketing. Recently I joined a
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Multinational Company as an intern to learn digital marketing in more detail, and although I
am still no expert I have gained a little bit of knowledge in the matter.
Whatever little knowledge I have is at the disposal of the call, and since I have been asked to
list out how we can improve the savior website, the following are my recommendations:
1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) although consists of multiple lines of action, is very
simple to implement. As it stands, our website has an extremely low domain score of 8%.
There are multiple methods of increasing this score, ranging from renaming pages and
adding some code to the backend of the pages to focusing on what text should be displayed
on the page. It requires us to have clarity of whom we want to visit a particular page and
then planning the page accordingly. Each page needs a purpose in terms of the message we
wish to convey and can be optimized to suit that specific message. When we search for
Ahmed Al Hasan on google, the savior website is the fourth website on the list. and although
the dreaded misinformation website about the imam is further down from us, our SEO
efforts should completely remove it from the first page of the google results. We need to
create a clarity of the message we convey across the web even outside of our website, be it
on Wikipedia or even quora, so everyone who is exposed to the name Ahmed al Hasan
knows exactly who he is and whom he is not, or can at least get to that information quickly
without being misguided.
2. Which brings us to my second point. we need to create one identity online, one that is
instantly recognized by all those who see it. This means we need to have a unified feel
across all our channels, be they the savior website, the Facebook pages, or youtube
channels, they all need to look similar enough using logos, color schemes, etc, so that when
someone sees them independently they can immediately identify that it is from the same
source. without this clarity
of message it is easy for even well-meaning Ansar to find it difficult to distinguish authentic
messages from misinformation leave alone someone newly initiated to the call.
3. In order to rank better on google, we need to not only create good content on the
website, the website itself needs to be abuzz with activity. Ideally a Forum would do this,
which can be moderated and individual posts approved like the Facebook pages, but even
without that, updating the website with relevant information through blogs and other
media content is the second-best option. Blogs need to be uploaded to the website on a
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daily basis, possibly twice a day for the first few months. Although the blogs don’t need to
be very lengthy, about 5-700 words each, yet writing so much good content is a herculean
task and therefore it will have to be opened up to the Ansar to contribute, which would also
help unify the efforts of the Ansar under one banner. This would require us to create a set
of guidelines as to how we write blogs and create content, what content to include and
what to avoid. We would also need to have a system in place to submit this content for
approval, and then only after it has been thoroughly vetted it can be uploaded to the
website.
4. Finally each page and each blog can be planned and created with a specific audience in
mind, and then when we promote the page, either by paid media or by organic methods,
that audience needs to be directed to that specific page to best serve its purpose. This is not
only relevant for people we are giving Dawa to but also to Ansars who would love to have a
central location to rally to and organize our efforts, not just in Dawa to outsiders but to train
ourselves in the tenets of our faith. -Added bonus, when Ansar share content or blogs from
our website with the outside world on Facebook or on their own websites, the page ranking
will go up automatically.
Although there are more advanced nuances that can be followed to give us more of an
edge, these are a good place to start, and inshallah I am always available in whatever
capacity that the call requires.
Best regards to all, Mehdi Ishrati 1/5/2020
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End
