Mirza Yawar Baig – Invocation at the Springfield College

			Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim,
		

			I begin in the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful, for Allah,
		

			Almighty God, all praise and thanks be to you. You are the light of the heavens and the earth. You
are the truth. Your promise is true. And the meeting with you is true. Your word is the truth. All
the Prophets, peace be upon them are true, and Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam is true.
		

			I asked you to bless all those who are here, especially these young people, boys on the brink of
destiny. Give them wings to saw, and send winds to take them to heights not reached before, to see
the truth as truth and follow it
		

			and falsehood as falsehood and stay away from it. Give them courage to do what is right, and stand
up against what is wrong. Give them wisdom to find solutions to problems that they inherited from us
and to others that they will encounter in their lives. Show them how to take pride in peace and
kindness. As today we take pride in war and killing. Show them that the ROI the return on investment
on peace is much higher than that a war because it comes with life, happiness and prosperity. We
live in a world that is jaded and bereft of idealism. I ask you to make them standard bearers, who
will give others reason to hope and to make them the harbingers of the long awaited dawn, I asked
		

			you to be that guy confident their support, especially on cold dark nights when they will walk
alone. We ask you to light their path with your eternal light of guidance and lead them to actions
which will be their legacy of honor, help them to choose right over wrong. Ethics over convenience
and truth over popularity. May they travel the path of integrity without looking back. Because there
is never a wrong time to do the right thing. We ask you a lot to remind us that You created us to be
Trustees for the rest of those who share our home. We forgot that. And so despite knowing right from
wrong, we are busy killing each other and destroying our only home the Earth. We forgot that it is
		

			not a sign of health to be profoundly adjusted to a sick society. We are a very sick society, where
the color of a person's skin is more important than the color of their dreams. We have made the
single minded pursuit of wealth, the purpose of our lives. We call this success. We forgot that
growth for the sake of growth is the philosophy of the cancer cell. You created us to help others
there is no higher purpose than that, for in that we help ourselves. We ask you to help us to
remember that education is for life, not merely for making a living. That means that in everything
we say or do, we must always hold ourselves to one value. Is this worthy of me. I prayed you Oh my
		

			Lord, Lord of the universe, to bless us all, especially our young friends with hope, always hope
because you are in their corner. Bless them with hope to dream with courage to live the dream with
fortitude, consistency and persistence to see it through to completion. I pray for guidance for
protection from sin and all evil. I pray for relief from pain and sickness and debt and suffering
and hardship. I pray for justice, mercy and forgiveness. I pray for friendship, understanding and
love. And above all, I pray for compassion. Let us never allow what is not in our control to prevent
us from doing what is in our control. I would now like to introduce Dr. Mary and bugling Provost and
		

			Vice President of Academic Affairs. Thank you
		

			Thank you