In his message to the Muslim and Christian Youths, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar confirms:
- Your first cause should be how to create a new world where there is no place for blood-shedding, poverty, illness or ignorance.
- Your meeting is a fruit of collaborative efforts made jointly by Al-Azhar Center for Interfaith Dialogue and major church institutions
- Shedding the blood of innocent people, assaulting or terrorizing them is a major crime and a spread of corruption on earth.
- There's no room in Islam for relations that are based on conflicts and hegemony between nations and peoples.
- Islam rejects to spread its call through weapons or under any form of compulsion.
- You should combat the destructive ideas which call for conflict, violence and hatred.
- You should be ambassadors of peace, mercy and cooperation among all peoples.
Here is the full text of the Grand Imam speech
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Dear all,
I would like to welcome all of you to Egypt and to Al-Azhar Al-Sharif. It gives me great pleasure to see promising Christian and Muslim youths from East and West have come together to meet here at Mashyakhat Al-Azhar in order to discuss an extremely crucial issue that highly preoccupies the world i.e. global peace and coexistence between East and West.
Dear participants,
Your meeting is a fruit of collaborative efforts made jointly by Al-Azhar Center for Interfaith Dialogue and major church institutes topped by the World Council of Churches (WCC).
Through this historic forum, the first thing that Al-Azhar wishes to reaffirm in its message to the whole world is that all the Divine religions, sealed by Islam affirm that man is honored and respected. They prohibit shedding the blood of, assaulting or terrorizing the innocent. From the Islamic perspective, the perpetration of any of such violations is deemed a major crime and spread of corruption that should be encountered so as to protect the society from its destructive impacts.
The Quran points out in clear terms that the norm of the relationship between people is based on ta‘aruf (getting to know one another), cooperation, and exchange of benefits in order to sustain people's lives and make the world prosperous. There's no room in Islam for relations that are based on conflicts and economic, cultural or military hegemony between nations and peoples. This is because the Quran's prespective about the issue of social peace at the local and universal levels is derived first and fromost from a logical fact that has been proved by history and reality, that is, all people will never be united by one religion, dogma, language, ethnicity or color and even fingerprints. Any attempt to bring them together upon one faith or culture is doomed to failure and a denial of history because it would be against the Will of God.
Although Islam is the last of the heavenly religions, it is a message that complemented the previous messages of God to Earth. It believes in the religions revealed down before Abraham, Moses and Jesus (Peace be upon them all) and it confirms the Scrolls of Abraham, the Torah of Moses and the Gospel of Jesus, the same as it confirms the Qur’an. Islam directs its followers to be open to the followers of Moses and Jesus to the extent of allowing Muslim men to marry Christian or Jewish women and ordaining the values of goodness, love and mercy. The Qur’an states that Allah has placed compassion and mercy in the hearts of the followers of Jesus till the Day of Resurrection.
The call to Allah in Islam is identified to be through wisdom and quiet dialogue that does not insult the other or offend him or his faith. Islam also rejects to spread its call through weapons or under any form of compulsion, even if it is an act of persuasion with money or authority or attempting to illegally win others’ hearts or minds. The Qur’an states, "There is no compulsion in religion…" and also states, "Whoever wants to believe let him believe…" The role of Prophet Muhammad as described in the Qur’an is to convey and show the path to Allah, and he (the Prophet) shall not be a controller over people and shall not force them to follow him; he just calls them to Allah and shows the path of truth and the path of misguidance. Allah says, "Your duty is but to convey (the Message)", "You are not over them a controller" and " would you compel the people …?"
For a Muslim, all people are either fellow Muslims or fellow human beings. The Muslim, as Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) tells, is the one from whose tongue and hand the people are safe. This means that the real Muslim is the one who lives in peace with people; he does not hurt them with his hands, or even his tongue. Islam prohibits hurting people who follow Divine religions in particular to the extent that any Muslim who does so becomes an enemy to Prophet Muhammad on the Day of Judgment. Moreover, Allah and His Messenger are free (from all obligations) to such person in this life and in the Hereafter.
Dear Muslim and Christian young people!
I have a great confidence in you and I have great hope in the purity of your innate disposition, souls and minds. I am sure that you have freed yourselves from old traditions that prevented my generation to fulfill their duty of spreading the culture of peace worldwide. This gives me great hope that you will deepen the human fraternity and end the wars which kill thousands of innocent people and force the poor, ill people, children and women to endure a huge price; their own lives and blood, in wars that they have nothing to do with. They were not consulted for these wars to be initiated. However, these wars were initiated by absurd decisions which do not acknowledge that the poor and fragile people have the right to live. Therefore, you should combat the destructive ideas which call for conflict, violence and hatred. I have an absolute confidence in your youthful and great enthusiasm and your heightened state of awareness that you will be ambassadors of peace, mercy and cooperation among all peoples. Your first cause should be how to create a new world where there is no place for blood-shedding, poverty, illness or ignorance. Al-Azhar Al-Sharif is fully ready to provide you complete support. This is the message of Al-Azhar and you all will convey this message.
Thank you!
May Allah’s peace and blessings be upon you!