During his speech at Al-Azhar's virtual celebration of the International Day of Human Fraternity, Deputy of Al-Azhar Grand Imam, “The Human Fraternity Document included noble values stipulated in all divine laws”.
• The principles of the Human Fraternity Document (HFD) provide the human beings with all the elements necessary for a decent life.
• The HFD confronts the cultural and moral decline afflicting the world.
• The HFD called for the establishment of justice based on mercy.
His Eminence Prof. Dr. Muḥammad Ad-Duwīnī, Al-Azhar Grand Imam Deputy said, “Al-Azhar has realized with its religious sense, humanitarian duty and global role humankind’s need for this light that dispels the darkness of violence and extremism, exposing the deviant currents. Thus, Al-Azhar announced two documents; The first document, Al-Azhar Declaration of Citizenship and Coexistence, was signed in 2017, through which Al-Azhar affirmed that the Muslims and the Christians are brothers in humanity and partners in the homeland, and that they are all citizens with equal rights and duties. Such declaration also stipulated that “citizenship” is an original term in Islam, based on the acceptance of religious, ethnic and social pluralism. The second document “The Human Fraternity Document” was signed in 2019, through which Al-Azhar addressed the entire world, notably the world leaders and the international and global economic policy makers, urging them to stop the wars and unjustified bloodshed, and joint hands to spread the culture of tolerance, coexistence and peace. Al-Azhar also sent a message through the HFD to thinkers, philosophers, clerics, artists, media professionals and innovators, showing them the need to work on activating these bright principles, stressing that the principles of the HFD meant to face the cultural and moral decline from which the world is suffering, and which opposes the moral values and constant principles.
Al-Azhar Grand Imam’s Deputy added, “Today we celebrate an important and influential historical event,” explaining that signing the HFD opens the doors to reconsidering the rules and ideologies that regulate the relations between the followers of various religions and beliefs, in a manner that guarantees human dignity and does not eliminate identities. He also added, “Today we are celebrating the second anniversary of signing the HFD at a time when the world is most in need of real initiatives and a sincere and effective effort to curb religious and intellectual extremism, and to expose the funded agendas that threaten to strike the foundations and pillars of relations between the nations and that feed the hypotheses and theories of civilization clash.
Dr. Ad-Duwīnī emphasized that the HFD included noble values stipulated in all divine laws. The HFD urged the promotion of peace, and adopting it as a life attitude. It called for upholding the values of acquaintance and coexistence. It also affirmed the human right to responsible freedom, whether in belief, thought, expression or practice. Furthermore, it established an etiquette for dealing in the light of pluralism and variety in religion, color, gender, race and language. He explained that this document has called for the establishment of justice based on mercy, dialogue and understanding, and the dissemination of a culture of tolerance and the acceptance of others. Such principles provide human beings with all the elements of a decent life, and leads humanity with these noble values to all goodness.
This came during Al-Azhar's virtual online celebration of the International Day of Human Fraternity, on Wednesday, with the participation of a group of Al-Azhar scholars, Egyptian and international churches, experts and professors in the fields of religions, law, sociology, mass media and literature, to talk about the role of the HFD in establishing world peace, coexistence, and the role of religious and international institutions in promoting human fraternity. This comes after the United Nations General Assembly had, at its seventy-fifth session, approved the anniversary of signing the HFD, February 4, as the International Day of Human Fraternity. This historic document was signed by the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and the Pope of the Vatican in Abu Dhabi on February 4, 2019.