To.-day I heard the Khutbah from a Somali Imam, he is well educated in Arabic
and English. He said, "Non Muslims are uniting for a purpose, but Muslims
remain divided and no voice in the world.
He gave the example of Europe, he said some nations have fought among them
for hundred years, but now they want to work together for a purpose -- to
serve their people. But of Muslims he said if one brother gives a different
view, than the brother thinks it is an attack and makes a personal issue. He
gave the example from the time of prophet. The prophet sent a party to a
destiny, and he told them say the prayers at the destiny. But some said the
prayers at the appointed time and the other delayed and offered the prayers at
the destination. They were not satisfied some thought the others were wrong
and so they asked the prophet about this misunderstanding. The prophet said
both the parties were right. It is how they interpreted the instructions.
Then he gave another example in the time of a famous jurist. A person came
to the Imam and gave a book on a subject with different views. So the person
named the book, Ikhtilafat -- differences. The Imam said no, you should give
the tile for the book as different views and he said out of all the views
we will arrive at a better and beneficial view.
Don't say, "my views are absolute and correct". Say what comes after
consultation and comparing and checking with the book and sunnah is a better
answer to the problem.
So brother Ameen is right, but other person's view is neither wrong. Two
persons look at a issue with two different views this is rahma from Allah,
otherwise life will be dull.
The Imam said if Allah had made day light till the day of Judgment or vice
versa life will be boring.
Than finally the Imam concluded praying that Allah grant us patience and
respect and tolerance for each other. Otherwise we will go on fighting and we
will not be united.And lastly he said we should greet each other and not
Pakistani to Pakistani and Somali to Somali, etc..
"Ameen Izzadeen"@yahoo.com wrote:
Dear brothers
The article about Colombos mayor contains many inaccuracies.
He became the mayor not because he was popular. When nominations were
entertained for the local elections, the candidate list of the party which was
tipped to win the elections was dismissed by the elections commission on a
technical point. The United National Party then decided to back the
independent group of which the present mayor was a candidate. Colombo being a
UNP bastion, the independent group won the elections comfortably. But soon
after assuming office, the independent group spurned the UNP and joined the
ruling party. After all politics is the art of survival.
The comparison between the Colombo mayor and Ahmadinejad and Tayeb Erdogan
is not at all applicable.
Ameen
-----Original Message-----
From: islamcity@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of S A
Hannan
Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2006 21:50
To: eGroup For Muslims Around The World
Subject: Boycott Israel [IslamCity] the Mayor of Colombo, 23 years old, a
Muslim , a former rickshaw driver. ---http://jamaat.org/digest/colombo.html
Dear members,
Assalamu Alaikum. Please read this extra-ordinary story of the Mayor
of Colombo, 23 years old, a Muslim , a former rickshaw driver.
Shah Abdul Hannan
Mayor of Colombo
Hafiz Mohammad Idrees
Sri Lanka is an important and interesting country of our
region, having a variety of people from different religions and origins.
Despite having a small population (20.5 mill), the country has the highest
per capita income of $3250, more than that of India, Pakistan and
Bangladesh. Seventy per cent of population practice Budhism while Hindus,
Christians and Muslims comprise 15 per cent, 8 per cent and 7 per cent
respectively.
Recently, Sri Lankan capital Colombo made the headlines when a poor Muslim
rickshaw driver was elected its mayor beating strong candidate of the ruling
party. Awais Mohammad Imtiaz, 23, has a unique distinction of being the
youngest and poorest mayor of Colombo's history and he overcame strong
pressures and incentives from the ruling party to withdraw from the contest.
Hailing from a very poor and humble family, Awais got elected merely due
to his determination. His election has been termed as the most unexpected and
unique in country's history since he belonged to the smallest religious
minority and is practically resourceless to contest such a high profile
election.
Orphaned in his childhood, Awais managed education until ninth grade and
then forced to take the hard course of earning livelihood for his family
comprising a mother and a sister. He remembered how his mother sold fried
potatoes and fish to earn livelihood for the family in his childhood. Until
his elections as mayor, Awais used to earn his living as a rickshaw driver.
In the elections, he was fully backed by other opposition parties like United
Naitonal Party and other social groups for his honesty, uprightness and
steadfastness. To prevent him from harassment, Awais was kept in hiding by a
leader of opposition's party until majority of the councilors voted in his
favor in a historic decision on June 30.
Awais has a wife and a two year old daughter. His wife works as a
housemaid in a foreign country for the sake of better future for their
daughter. She returns to the country once a year to spend some time with
husband and daughter.
After his elections as Lord Mayor of Colombo, Awais is quite busy with
the world media and his newfound popularity. He meets with guests and
mediamen in his usual simple clothes. Despite knowing English language he
prefers to speak in his mother tongue Sinhali to explain his future plans for
the improvement of civic conditions for the 2.7 million residents of Colombo.
Being a poor himself, he says that he better knows the poverty and the
problems it brings for the people. He has vowed to make Colombo a model city
in South Asia with clean roads, safe neighborhoods and beautiful parks and
public places. He wants to turn the city into a tourists' hub.
He has also vowed to make all affairs of the city administration
transparent and root out corruption which has ruled the city affairs in the
past. He has also announced to investigate the corruption cases of previous
administrations afresh so as to bring all the culprits to book.
Awais has made it clear to interviewers that he is neither racist nor
practices sectarianism. He likes to serve all the residents indiscriminately
since he considers himself a representative of the whole city. He said he has
no discrimination for people with respect to being Sinhalese, Tamil, Hindu or
Muslim. However, being a Muslim who knows poverty from the deep, he is fully
aware of the problems of the Muslim community whose majority is very poor.
Awais did not wait for getting adjusted in his new position and launched
the cleanliness drive in the city from the second day of his election. For
his critics, he has relived some of the greatest mayors in the world history.
I reckon him among Tayib Ordugan, (Turkish prime minister and former mayor of
Istanbul), Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Iranian President and former mayor of Tehran)
and former mayor of Karachi Naimatullah Khan and Abdus Sattar Afghani since
he is repeating the history those three great mayors had made in their
respective cities. All the three afore mentioned Muslim personalities remained
mayors of big cities of Muslim countries but Awais has an edge over them as
he has been elected mayor of a city where Muslims are a small minority.These
three personalities were from not so affluent background but represented
middle or upper middle classes yet they had a sound educational career. But
Awais's educational and social background
is in sharp contrast to them as he had lived most of his life close to
poverty line.
The day Awais shifted into the official residence of Lord Mayor of
Colombo, he said he really did not need such a large residence for himself
and his family but had to move into the official residence to meet the
requirements of protocol and entertaining visitors. He admitted he does face
some security problems but reaffirmed that he never feared anyone but Allah
Almighty.
I wonder if Pakistani nation can trust Awais-like candidates in the
hovering national elections so that the world could know that people of
Pakistan, fully aware about their needs, have elected real representatives
and did not fall in the trap of feudal lords who had been using them as tool
of their election success and in the end of the day fail to deliver anything
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