The SPEAKER. Today the prayer will be offered by Maulana Naseem Mahdi, national vice president and missionary in-charge of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
MAULANA NASEEM MAHDI, Guest Chaplain of the House of Representatives, offered the following prayer:

(Prayer in Arabic.)
In the name of God, the gracious, the merciful, may God’s peace and blessings be upon all of you. All praise belongs to God only, the Lord of all the worlds.  I am humbled to stand before you and join with you all as we pray to God, the one who created all that exists. We are all His children, and He is the Lord, sustainer, provider, and protector of us all. I am a Muslim, a Muslim who believes in the Messiah, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani. I belong to the oldest Muslim community in the United States, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, which was founded in the U.S. in 1920.

As a Muslim, I believe that the utter oneness of God has a most important implication, which we, the members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, have taken as our motto: “Love for All, Hatred for None.” If there is but one being who created all of us, who created all of us, and if we love Him and adore and worship Him, then how can we harbor any hate or ill will towards anyone? How can we love God and not fall in love with everyone and everything He has created? We cannot. So I stand here as a Muslim, as a believer in the one God, whom I love and worship, to pray that: O God, shower Your choicest blessings upon us all. Bless this nation, our home, and all who reside therein. The holy founder of Islam, Muhammad, peace and blessings of God be upon him, taught Muslims in a famous saying of his that “Love of one’s homeland, one’s place of residence, is a part of a Muslim’s faith.” For a Muslim who loves God and His messenger, Muhammad, there is never any question of whether his faith comes first or his country, because Islam, the faith of Muslims, demands that we love the country of our residence. Another implication of God’s unity is that He alone provides for all. He takes care of the spiritual as well as the physical needs of everyone, even for those who do not believe in His existence. Look how the sun He has created shines upon us all. God takes care of all of our physical needs. How could the same God neglect some and choose to guide others when it comes to providing spiritual enlightenment? God could not have neglected anyone. God’s love is universal and indiscriminate.  This is the God Islam calls us to fall in love with and adore and worship.

Islam teaches us that God has been sending His revelation among all the people of the world, in all ages and periods from the earliest of times. So we Muslims believe in all the prophets including Adam and Noah and Abraham and Moses and Jesus and Zoroaster and Krishna and Buddha – may peace be on all of them. All were God’s messengers sent to teach humanity about God’s existence and provide them guidance to make their lives a veritable paradise on earth. So it is with this concept of the single universal God that I stand here and pray that He may bless us all who have made the United States our home.  Grant us, O God, unity, and make us all one. Let those of us whom You have blessed with abundance discharge our responsibility of caring for those who are not so fortunate.  Remove, O God, from us all rancor and suspicion and unite us all in love and make harmony and peace reign throughout the land.
Amen. God bless us all.