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The Celebration of Laylatul Qadr 1440 AH

  • | Thursday, 4 July, 2019
The Celebration of Laylatul Qadr 1440 AH

The Speech of his Eminence Prof Ahmad At-Tayyeb

The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar

At the Celebration of Laylatul Qadr (the Night of Glory)

Al-Azhar Center for Conferences, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt

 

Delivered on

Rammadan 28, 1440 AH

June 2, 2019 CE

 

Translated by

Dr. Kamal Boraiqa Abdelsalam Hassan

 

Published in

Al-Azhar Magazine (Dhul-Qi'dah, 1440 A.H. July, 2019.)

 

In the Name of Allah, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy

Praise be to Allah, and prayer and peace be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah, and on the people of his household and his Companions and those who were guided by his guidance

Mr. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt! may Allah protect and support him;

Ladies and Gentlemen!

May Allah’s peace, mercy and blessings be upon you.

     It gives me pleasure to begin by extending my sincere wishes and congratulations to you, Mr. President, to the people of Egypt and to our Arab and Muslim world: leaders and people, on this occasion; of the celebration of Laylat al-Qadr, the night where the Holy Quran descends from God to the heart of his prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to convey it to people, to illuminate the path of truth and goodness, and guide them to the ways of happiness in this world and the Hereafter.

     This talk about the Holy Qur’an, which is the last Divine Revelations, cannot be confined by the course of time or limited by the boundaries of place, because it transcends beyond time and above the place, and surpasses the minds, and goes far beyond history and the delights of illusion and imagination. God has ensured that he is the Guard and Preserver of it. He did not leave this to any of the human beings, either from the prophets or from others.

     And as God is the only One who have sent down the Qur‘an he is the only Preserver of it, Allah said: “We have sent down the Remembrance [Qur‘an] Ourself, and We Ourself will guard it: [15: 9] Those who know the Qur‘an and the secrets of its message are aware of using the emphasizing words and the rhetoric of interchangeability of nouns and pronouns that this short verse included.

     God has fulfilled his promise to this book of the means of preservation, the Qur’an has been preserved in both the oral memorization as well as written form in a way no other book in history has.

     The Qur’an has been nearly sent down fifteen centuries ago, and there are armies of those who are in futility waiting and vigilant for a chance to find faults and search for lapses in it. However, none of them have achieved his aim, nor could it have been recorded a single error which a sound mind rejects, or a deviation that goes against the state of purity, or a mistake that is in conflict with the well-established facts of science and its stable experiments.

     This Noble book liberates the conscience of man from the worship of stones, animals and people, and his mind of illusions, myths and superstition. Therefore, man transcends himself and his feelings over the substance of the material and the slavery of instincts, and the temptation of lusts and derivations.

     In a few decades, this Glorious book not only made men, but also made a nation and transferred it from being a local nation to global one in spite of its weakness, simplicity and ruthlessness, and was able to disseminate its civilization to the east and west of the world. The makers of today's civilization, leading figures, philosophers, scientists and thinkers are still heavily indebted to the Muslim nation. The Islamic civilization was a miracle by all standards. Historians in the West before the East are still confused in its interpretation.

     To talk about this religion of Islamic civilization, is to talk about those who help others and doomed to suffer, as no good deed goes unpunished. It is closer to the nature of the "thief" who manipulates people's capabilities, and then hates to remember them with thanks or appreciation, or gratitude. I mean the image of the Arab and Islamic nation in the mirror of the modern West, and the result of its cultural values to repay the debt of gratitude and return Islamic nation's favor.

     I mean this hateful term, which has succeeded in portraying Islam as a religion, which is thirsty for bloodshed and to demand the civilized world to track it and destroy it either in West or East.

     I am talking about ‘Islamophobia,’ this foundling word which Muslim scholars and intellectuals have been painstakingly attempting to refute it and to expose its falsehood for more than fifteen years. They have been doing so through symposiums and conferences, through scientific and critical papers, and through interfaith and cultural dialogues. They have had no significant result in curbing the Western media machine and in deterring it from planting hatred for Islam in the hearts and minds of the European and American young people and in a variety of ways, including movies, programs, books, novels, newspapers, magazines, etc. This word which means generating fear of Islam, or “the industry of making fear of Islam” would not have taken root with Western politicians and journalists, and then with the consciousness of the masses in the West, if not for the huge funding allocated to support modern colonialism and its policy of hegemony and brutality, and its “pouncing” – once again – on the resources of the Arab and Islamic worlds and our failure - we: the Arabs and Muslims - to address this term seriously, to chase it, and officially protest against it and deal with it in media.

     It is painful to say we have the material and media potentials, beside the abundance of new satellite channels that enable us to do justice to that religion that is followed by more than a billion and a half billion Muslims [worldwide], but we cared more about other concerns that have made us weaker and people summoned one another to attack us as people when eating invite others to share their dish. Up to this moment, we never heard about Christianity-phobia, Judaism-phobia, Buddhism-phobia or Hinduism-phobia. I believe that there is not a newspaper or a channel or a TV program in the West or in the East dare to utter a word about phobia of any other religion or belief or of what you want from sects, and doctrines as they will not escape the severe punishment if they do so.

     Although history attests to the fact that acts of violence have been attributed to all religions, and that these acts were committed under the banner of major religions in the world and in the heart of America itself, but there is no room to be mentioned here.

     God knows that we do not want to bequeath hatred to the next generation, nor to create grudge between us and our brothers; the followers of the religions and sects in the West. This is what Islam prevented us to do so, but we just wanted to shed light on a point of departure that is rarely highlighted by Muslims and non-Muslims; we do not hold the Christian religion, nor Christ [peace be upon him] nor Moses [peace be upon him] a single atom of responsibility for the terrible massacres that Muslims suffered at the hands of the followers of other religions. We do not label a religion with terrorism, violence and brutality. We remain deeply aware of the vast difference between religions and their teachings, and between the traders of religions who trade in the arms markets and the battlefields.

     We know that Muslims have paid a fatal price of their blood and their remains during the Crusades. Since 1948 until today, many Muslims have been killed during wars in Palestine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vietnam, the Philippines, India, Myanmar and New Zealand. However, neither a historian nor a Muslim writer dared to utter one word that distorts the divine religions of Christianity or Judaism; as it is forbidden by Islam. The Muslim knows that such a word will take him out of the boundaries of Islam before it comes out of his mouth. Another important point of departure that stands as a stumbling stone in the path of dialogue between Islam and the West is the keenness of Muslim leaders, kings, princes, scholars and thinkers to condemn terrorist groups, with all their signs and affiliations, and to decisively declare that they deviated from the religion just as the arrow deviates from its target, and that their crimes and massacres harvested the lives of innocent men, women and children more than twice as many as non-Muslims. However, all this did not succeed in correcting the image of Islam and Muslims in the eyes of the West and America.

     Because it is required to: «condemn Islam» and label it with the most blatant slander and accusations and to portray it as «a religion coming from the ages of darkness that is hostile to logic and modernity, and that it is the only cultural system that produces al-Qaeda and its leaders and sisters and children and grandchildren, the religion of images of suicide bombers, hijacking planes, assassinations, uprisings, and others that the tongue refrain to mention.

Mr. President!

     Yesterday, Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, with its scholars and students, was pleased to listen to your calm, balanced and bold speech at the Islamic summit in Makkah and in which you wisely touched upon the bleeding wound of the nation because of the violence and terror groups in the East and because of Islamophobia and its lies in the West. You called on all the concerned institutions to deal with the epidemic of terror. You also demanded that the speech of Islamophobia and hatred of Arabs and Muslims be stopped, affirming that such speech is no longer acceptable as a human or civilized. I ask Allah to reward you, Mr. President, for Islam and Muslims with the best reward.

     Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, which emphasizes what your Excellency have called for, it also demands Muslim scholars, and their brothers from the clergymen of the church in the East and West to make concerted efforts to combat this deceitful lies. Since its advent, Islam only is a call for peace and compassion among people.

At the end of my address, I am addressing you, Mr. President.

     Al Azhar Al Sharif knows and appreciates your great efforts to achieve the hopes and aspirations of the people of Egypt for a decent life, a better future and a more just social justice. It also appreciates your efforts to restore Egypt's leading role in its Arab and African and Islamic worlds.

     It is no secret to anyone that our Arab and Islamic region is passing through a dangerous and difficult circumstances that require your efforts to continue with your brothers, the rulers of the Arabs and Muslims, to lead our region pass this difficult phase of time and to achieve peace and stability for all peoples. Al-Azhar Al-Sharif with its scholars, men and students in Africa and Southeast Asia, and its status in the hearts of Arabs and Muslims - Mr. President! - appreciate your efforts and give them support at this delicate stage. We ask Allaah to help you achieve the hopes of Egypt and the Egyptians, and to help you for the good of the country and the people.

Every year and all of you are fine.

Peace, mercy and blessings of God be upon you

 

Rammadan 28, 1440 AH

June 2, 2019 CE

Sheikh Al-Azhar

Prof. Dr. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb

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