Tariq Ramadan – Chronicles of Ramadan #29 To do good deeds

Peace be with you.

We have to act and we have to

change the world for the better. And we

have a principle.

It's

do good deeds.

This is what we understand coming from

our religion. This is what we understand from

all the religions and all the spiritualities

through history.

This is the way we have to be

promoting

what is good,

resisting at the same time

what is bad. So

doing and promoting what is good is essential,

and it's a principle.

It's to

command

what is right, and we understand that with

this principle

we have to go beyond some considerations

when it comes to the way we are

dealing with people.

So whoever

is in front of you, it could be

a man or woman, It could be a

black. It could be a white. It could

be a Muslim. It could be people of

other faiths. It could be someone who is

poor, someone who is rich.

You don't care.

That's none of your business. The principle

come before

all the other social, cultural,

and gender considerations.

You have to promote the good. In fact,

if you have to repair the world, you

have to be as a doctor

facing,

someone who is sick. He doesn't ask about

her or his gender,

her or his color,

her or his,

social status.

That's not the point. The point is you

have to heal. You have to cure.

You have to help the people around you,

and this is the way it should be

with our presence on earth. It should be

because very often we are not behaving that

way. We are just considering, am I going

to * because he or she is a

he or she is a Christian.

That's the wrong way of, if our message

is a universal message. We have to go

beyond to consider these considerations

and to put the principle

first

as something which is helping us to repair

the world.

And

once again, understanding this and spreading,

the good and spreading,

what is right on earth. It's very often

understood as, you know, we have to be

good and we have to show generosity. It's

not only this. It's very demanding.

It's not, you know, as the philosophy of

the sixties peace and love. No. It's we

have to go beyond that. We have to

go beyond that because sometimes you are facing

people who are spreading bad, and they are

doing bad, and they are destroying.

So your responsibility

here is to face them, is to resist

what they are doing. So promoting the good

is

on the other side, resisting the bad. And

this is important and we have it in

in the Hadith.

You have to help your brother when he's

right and when he's wrong, and how are

you going to help him when he's wrong?

By resisting, by stopping him from doing bad.

So spreading the good is

not only

the goodwill and generosity,

it's resistance.

It's about promoting and resisting.

This is the way and this is how

we have to be on earth in order

to repair the world. So the world is

not expecting us

just to be generous,

but to be courageous

at the same time. Don't forget to tell

the people you love that you love them.

Life is

fragile.