Ahmed Hamed – Non Muslims Experience Ramadan In Dubai 2022

			Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh,
		

			which means made a peace, mercy, and the blessings of Almighty be upon all of you. It takes me
immense pleasure to speak before you, in this beautiful and blessed gathering in this blessed month
of Ramadan, you see, we say verbal communication is really very important. You know, as educators,
I'm sure you can relate to it really well, you know, it seems there was a couple have fought for
some reason. And they decide not to talk to each other while communicating. But they had to
communicate as a couple. So they devise a mechanism to, you know, exchange their communication in a
written form. So the husband, you know, he writes on the piece of paper that, you know, wake me up
		

			at seven o'clock, he has an urgent meeting, and he gives the slip to the wife, and the next morning,
it's about eight o'clock.
		

			And the husband, he yells, he broke the law. And he says, Why didn't you wake me up? My meeting was
there at seven o'clock. It's now eight. She says, I did but in a written form. So what she did, she
wrote, wake up, it's seven o'clock, you know. So we know that verbal communication is really very
important. So I believe, you know, Ramadan, is the month of reflection, you know, as educators
again, you can really relate well.
		

			And it actually appeals to all the intellectual minds
		

			to address certain important and powerful questions. We Muslims, we go deep in reflecting these
three key questions in life for us to make really full sense of our existence. Number one, where do
we come from? For sure, we are not here by chance, there is someone who has created us.
		

			And that shows that the source of all this existence, this entire creation, the humans and the rest,
is one on the same.
		

			Therefore, Islam invites of attention to go back to the source, and to understand that where we
belong,
		

			and this is something which is really important. And we, in Ramadan, we try to, you know, think and
reflect on this, that we belong to the One who created us, the One who created us, is not among the
creation, the one who sustains is not the one who sustained the one who has his existence, but not
within the existence of the creation, the one who has beautiful names, and perfect attributes, but
they are the epi tome of the characterised.
		

			This is the source that we come from. So where do we come from? We came from the One who created us.
Why are we here? You know, everything has a purpose. We just can't imagine a thing without a
purpose. So our existence, again, in the month of Ramadan, we tend to get into a deeper reflection
of knowing why we are here to make full sense and to give the real purpose of our existence. And
when we study the Glorious Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, we get
to know that we're here to actually fulfill two main duties. One is to fulfill the rights of the
Creator. Obviously, the One who created us has certain rights, like for example, worshipping Him,
		

			praising him doing things for his sake, in order for us to be rewardable forever. And to is to
fulfill the rights of the creation, beginning from our parents, they have great rights, our
children, our spouses, our siblings, our friends, our relatives, our neighbors, our society and the
humanity at large, so fulfilling the rights of the Creator by serving Him alone, and fulfilling the
rights of the creation by making sure that we uphold the best version of ourselves, upholding
certain key principles of life, such as belief, beautiful character, kindness.
		

			At any cost, respect for everyone, compassion and care for everyone having togetherness and
tolerance at all times. And this is what we see Alhamdulillah in this beautiful country, the United
Arab Emirates in Dubai, we have got around 200 nationalities, every now and then we exchange you
know, ideas, we interact with each other. Everyone says this is our first home, you know, forgetting
where they come from. So that kind of comfort, that kind of sense of belongingness, that kind of
cooperation, that kind of respect that despite Allah this country has extended right from the
leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who gave this clear platform for
		

			people to excel in their creativity in their intellectuality in their spirituality, and have that
remarkable legacy that can be remembered, like the forefathers of this great country, like Shin,
Zeid, Rambo Rahimullah, like Sheikh Rashid, for example. So this is the reflection of the month of
Ramadan, where we ensure that we address this powerful question of why we're here. And the last and
the final question that we all must also reflect on is where do we go obviously where we come from,
we need to go back to him. That's the reason the moment any Muslim passes away we say in the law, he
were in Nigeria he Rajon. You see where we belong, we will go back to him. And what is really
		

			important and what matters the most is what we do here is going to be counted over there in terms of
our accountability. So what all we do, we are not we were just allowed to under who here without a
purposeful existence, touching the lives of the people sharing the peaceful thing with each other,
having that real bondage as a humanity, to enjoy the beautiful togetherness, all these are going to
be counted and that will be rewarded at the expense of what all we do in this world. It's definitely
a blessing. In a blessed one, we ask Allah Almighty to really shower his choices to blessing, mercy
and peace on this gathering. We ask Allah Almighty to bless each one of us with with peace with
		

			tranquility in our lives, remove the burden, challenges, you know, difficulties that, you know,
humanity is going through. We really, really thank each one of you on behalf of the Department of
Islamic affairs, Mohammed bin Rashid center for Islamic culture, the Government of Dubai, which is
meant actually to build bridges, which is meant to bring people together which is actually set up
for this clear objective of creating the awareness. You know, I always mentioned ignorance is a
bigger virus than Coronavirus, you know, so, we actually address you know, that core thing. And as
we know each other, as we get familiar with each other, as we really understand and recognize each
		

			other, we build and develop a sense of belongingness we actually develop a sense of love for each
other, that compassion that care comes into play. So, once again, thank you so much for this great
presence of yours, it means a lot. And definitely, this is not the end of it. This is just the
beginning, we will definitely look forward for such events and you know, in a better way, perhaps in
your schools and in different gatherings, you sitting in the leadership positions can definitely
drive society in much much much a positive and better way. So, I am really thrilled and it's
definitely my pleasure once again to be speaking in front of specially the best of the category of
		

			the society, the educators, the principals, the the leadership of the education groups, the various
institutions. We are so blessed to have you and thank you so much for you for being here. Thank you