May 12, 2003

Reverend Ulemas,

Brothers and Sisters,

We meet today in this blessed night to celebrate the anniversary of the gracious Prophet's birthday whom Allah exclusively bestowed with every noble trait, protected with Divine care and attention. Allah ordered people to obey him, made him infallible and guided him to the correct patin.

As a matter of fact, our first motive behind our meeting on this gracious occasion is to ponder and contemplate in the creation of Allah Almighty and His Divine wisdom in choosing His gracious Prophet, His preference exclusive of all mankind; sending him to guide all people, promise well ( good-doers) and forewarn (evil-doers).

Allah also bestowed upon him,exclusively all noble traits so as to be an example and paragon of human perfection.

Undoubtedly our celebration today of the anniversary of the gracious Prophet's birthday is in fact a celebration of the birth of a time-honoured civilization. Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, emerged among the Arabs at a time when they were living in absolute ignorance, far detached from art, industry, religion and politics. But, he converted them into a great nation, thereby establishing the Islamic state; a deep believing one,that is deep-rooted into faith, strongly linked to Allah Almighty.

This state firmly established the heavenly religion of monotheism, Islam that of peace, justice, fraternity, freedom and equality; championing concepts of altruism, solidarity, compassion and beneficence. By doing so, peoples embraced in multitudes Allah's religion willingly, voluntarily and in full dedication to the obedience of Allah and His Messenger.

Needless to say that the state of Islam was firmly grounded on science, knowledge, freedom, virtue and ideals, as obviously Islam has the credit over humanity in science and letters.

Islam is the religion of science and enlightenment, where there is clear distinction between those who know and those who do not. In this connection, the Holy Quran says, "And Allah elevates into grades those of you who believe and those who have knowledge." Here also the gracious Prophet says " Teach your sons as they are born for a time other than yours." The Prophet calls on boys and girls alike to pursue knowledge, "Pursuit of knowledge is the duty of every Muslim, man and woman."

The Islamic nation responded to the Prophet's call; spreading all over the globe avidly availing themselves of all sources of science and letters and dedicating themselves for scientific output in the interest and for the benefit of humanity.

There were as a result hosts of scientists and writers involved in writing and research offering to humanity a great wealth. Building on this immortal scientific heritage, other civilizations rose up from deep slumber; making full use of Muslim scientists like Ar-Razy, Ibn Sina, Ibn alHaytham, al-Farabi, Jaber Ibn Hayyan, AL Jahez, Ibn Khaldoun and others who enriched the entire humanity with their thought and science.

The greatness of Islam and of our gracious Prophet demonstrated itself most obviously in the dissemination of values of fraternity and convergence among human beings. Thus, equality prevailed, discrimination faded and calls for freedom soared all over the world. Man was no longer fettered as to his opinions and ideas, imitating his ancestors in words and deeds. Islam waked up the human mind from slumber, encouraged freedom of opinion and thought and guided it to the patin of research and contemplation.

Thus, the value of the intellect and logic as a basis of sound Islamic thought and action soared high. Accordingly, the Islamic civilization emerged as a product of the religion of rightful human nature, sound logic, immortal human principles and the sublime spiritual values. God Willing, this civilization will remain armed with its divine components where all values of freedom, justice, equality of opportunities and equity among human beings and races are represented.

Reverend Scholars

Ladies and Gentlemen

Recently, there have been loud outcries and calls by thinkers to improve the image of Islam and Muslims that has been targeted by some tarnishing and misguiding claims.

I think it is time to adopt a firm and candid stand with ourselves in order to face our realities, probe our future and to get braced for a revival of our Islamic world.

With all human potentialities made available, all natural wealth bestowed by Allah on us, all our physical resources and our heritage of civilization and ideology, our Islamic nation is capable of achieving a political, economic and cultural revival that we can vie with other nations.

Even more, we can achieve all means of prosperity, welfare and decent life for our peoples. Therefore, time has come to activate the role of joint Islamic action through various Islamic collective frameworks. The object is to set up an effective, workable and clear mechanism to provide all means of integration, cooperation and communication between Islamic peoples in order to push forward our Islamic world towards the road of comprehensive revival.

Undoubtfully, this requires a clear vision to be drawn as for the future of our Islamic world and a clearer strategy to realize what we deem beneficial for our future based on a clear understanding of the concepts of our tolerant culture and specific moderation.

This strategy should ensure real interaction between our civilizational heritage and the future of our Islamic world. Future should not be separated from the past -rather, it should proceed forward, relying upon the roots of our time-honoured Islamic civilization. In so doing, we should adopt an open-minded approach to the world, reject all claims of introversion, accept and willingly indulge in dialogue on an equal-footing-and-peerage basis. This should provide all chances for benefiting from the modern experiences of those who took the lead and for investing to our advantage and assets.

It is now time to develop a clear vision of the concept of integration in establishing a strong Islamic economy capable of facing and interacting with various international economic blocs. This should be also a clear vision for the components of political integration of our Islamic nation. The object is to ensure consistency among the stances of Islamic nation towards various issues, activate the role of our regional arrangements and organizations, entrenches concepts of freedom, democracy and consultation as a basis of government system in our Islamic world.

Thus, we should derive from our True Religion all concepts of freedom and respect for human rights as a good example of realizing all means of dignity and individual respect.

We should guarantee for the citizen all rights that our gracious Prophet called for. Thus, the individual in our Muslim societies can be an effective, readily participatory member, responsive to state policies and believing in his role and the value of what he does for the sake of achieving welfare for his family, revival for his nation and prosperity for his Islamic world.

No one should imagine that the desire of the Islamic nation to unite its will, join forces, and integrate its policies is just an attempt to brace for a civilization clash or to vie with other international blocs.

This is rather a legitimate race that springs first and foremost from the nation's will to regain its glory to maintain its distinguished status and to help its peoples, like all others, realize better chances of decent life, and to arm coming generations with science, knowledge and economic potential of survival and competition. This can safeguard their own identity, and help them adhere to their values in a world now ruled by various blocs and political alliances that often foretell rising trends of hegemony and cultural influence.

Reverend Ulemas,

Brothers and Sisters,

Recently, Islamic states have experienced exceptional hard circumstances. They were targeted by random accusations of sponsoring terrorism, backing national liberation movements possessing and threatening others with weapons of mass destruction and failure to adopt concepts of democracy and human rights applicable elsewhere. Moreover, chances of targeting Islamic countries were exasperated by a number of factors that can be summed up as follows.

First: Lack of a clear vision for Islam and its tolerant teachings in non-Islamic states. This allowed undue linkage between Islam and concepts of extremism, exaggeration, violence and the desire to annihilate the other.Moreover, this was further aggravated by irresponsible acts in violation of all teachings of our tolerant religion. These actions opened the door for subjecting the Islamic countries to double standards and exclusive procedures, never applied to other nations and peoples.

Second: Several states and peoples are still suffering under the yoke of colonization occupation,belong to Islamic world. This fact has allowed the pursuit by such countries and peoples for independence and self-determination to be depicted as an aggression against other civilizations and religions.

Accordingly, the universally acknowledged principle of legitimate resistance of the foreign was so changed that sometimes resistance is now viewed as an aggression against state of occupation and a violation of its sanctity and right, heedless of the right of the occupied state and people, to security and stability. At the same time, international collective security system faltered under the pressure of military, economic and political powers and thus became no longer capable of dealing with such cases within international legitimacy.

Third: Vested interests between nations and peoples and resulting economic, political and even military alliances have increased involvement of religion in policy-making by countries and these also revived obsolete and outdated concepts, such as those of the Crusades, claims of superiority of certain religions over others. This state of affairs has even given rise to kinds of alliances between some religions against others. Unless rapidly contained, this situation portends the rise of state of inter-religion conflict,possibly leading all the world to a new wave of extremism and militancy.

In the tumulte of these successive changes our Islamic nation has to reconsider its calculations and rectify misconceptions within Islamic nation in order to improve the nation's image in its relations with the outside world.

Thus, one of the most important elements of our power at this stage is moderate religious discourse, rational interpretation of the teachings of our true religion, optimal application of Quranic teachings and the traditions of our gracious Prophet and solidarity between all parts of the nation in confronting impending dangers.

I am sure that our Islamic nation will deduce from the past and current happenings in Iraq and in the occupied Palestinian territories all learned lessons and will adopt a new strategy to address challenges facing our nation and threatening to target our states one after the other.This will surely take place, unless we will rapidly unify our ranks, agree upon our stances and put into effect those deemed suitable for application.

I was gratified to know that the Fifteenth General Conference of the Supreme Council For Islamic Affairs was entitled " The Future of the Islamic Nation" . This motto reflects clear awareness of the prerequisites of the current stage. I hope, this will form a starting-point for a serious and organized work to upgrade our Islamic nation and its peoples in all fields.

Let us pray Allah Almighty to alleviate distress off Islam and Muslims, guide us to the straight path, attune our hearts,sharpen our wills, unify our word and support us in our march towards construction and urbanization in order to achieve prosperity for our peoples, guarantee security and stability for the coming generations and uphoisting the banner of Islam and Muslims so that the Islamic nation will always be-as Allah to Whom be ascribed all perfection and majesty Wants- a nation who invites to goodness, and enjoins right conduct and forbids indecency.

May God guide us to the welfare of our Islamic nation.

May Allah's Mercy Be upon you.