Tohir Solomons

Ebrahim Rasool’s Eid Message

Posted on the November 12th, 2005 under Uncategorized by Tohir

I was one of the fortunate ones to attend the Eid prayers at Masjidul Quds and hear Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool give one of the most profound talks ever. In many ways, it was comparable to the ‘State of the Ummah’ speech given by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed of Malaysia.

Now the sad part is – a transcript of this speech is nowhere to be found!! The Cape Gateway (Government Portal) doesn’t feature it. Voice of the Cape had a news item on it, but I couldn’t seem to Google it. Archives as well as their internal search wasn’t too lekker (wonderful) either.

It’s more than a week later, but here are points that stood out for me:

Muslims fasted in Ramadaan and abstained from food and drink due to inner strength or Taqwa. Now Taqwa is often referred to as ‘God-consciousness’ or ‘Fear of God’. I think it’s brilliant that he brought in this idea of ‘inner strength’. Negative words are often used to describe Taqwa, but it here he actually uses positive words to describe this quality and source of morality.

The other important point he made was about ‘political gains’, and that Muslims should rise above this and implement Islam as a civilization. Using the example of the Treaty of Hudaibiya, he said that by current standards, the Holy Prophet had no ‘political gains’ of the treaty. In fact, it could have been regarded as a humiliating treaty, something His Companions noticed and were reluctant to accede to.

However, the Holy Prophet had a greater vision for the world, beyond a few humiliating clauses. Had he chose to ‘stick to his guns’, the turnout of history could have been worse. In the end, the treaty’s terms were a blessing not a curse.

The challenge that came from the talk could be said to be – Muslims must rise up to the challenge! Not through extremism, but creativity of facing the challenges that all of humanity face, not just Muslims.

He also quoted a speech made by Hewlett Packard’s (HP) CEO, Carly Fiorina, on Islamic Civilisation and its foundation for success. An extract of that speech can be found here.