Review of Religions: Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad^aba then took to the podium to deliver his keynote address.

After reciting Tashhahud, Ta’awwuz, and Bismillah, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih V^abasaid:

“All distinguished guests – peace and blessings of Allah be upon you all.

First of all I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the distinguished guests, who have come here this evening to attend the inauguration of our new mosque, and by doing so have demonstrated their strong ties and close relations with Ahmadi Muslims. I have particularly mentioned this strong relationship because in today’s world only those who care for the feelings of others and have a strong personal connection with them would accept an invitation to a purely religious event.

Thus your attendance is extremely praiseworthy and has increased the love and respect we hold for all of you in our hearts. These are not just superficial words on my part, given as a courtesy, but rather true gratitude requires for feelings of love and respect to develop in a person’s heart. Further, the religion that we Ahmadi Muslims believe in and follow – Islam – teaches us that a person cannot reach God until he displays mutual gratitude wherever it is due and becomes an exemplary model of showing thankfulness to the people of the world.

Consequently, it is only possible to form a close bond with God Almighty and to please Him when we become those who please and love His Creation. An ordinary worldly person does not believe that pleasing God is anything special or important and certainly sees no need to strive or endeavour towards doing so. However, a person who believes in God Almighty and believes his religion to be a means of reaching Him, will and should certainly consider pleasing God to be a very great objective based upon the teachings of his religion. This is especially true from the perspective of a true Muslim whose purpose is, and should always be, to please His Creator and to become attached to Him.

Thus from the perspective of a true Muslim, my thanks is not a mere courtesy or gesture, but is actually an essential element of my faith in order to please God and to develop a close union with Him. As I have already mentioned, the overriding objective of a religious person should always be to please God. When I study the Holy Qur’an, which Muslims consider to be the direct Word of God and the final law-bearing book, I find very beautiful guidance explaining the best ways to please God and the purpose of my creation. The Qur’an very clearly and repeatedly informs us that the objective and purpose of our creation is to worship Allah the Almighty. Where the worship of God has indeed been deemed a fundamental objective, it has also been clarified how such worship should be performed.

I, and indeed every true Muslim, have been clearly commanded that merely physically prostrating or bowing or crossing our arms or repeating certain prescribed prayers do not fulfil the true objectives of worship. Rather, the purpose of worship can only be fulfilled, when a person comes to follow and act upon all of God’s commands. And God’s commands entail fulfilling the rights of both God and also of His creation. In terms of God’s creation, Islam does not teach us to fulfil only the rights of humans, but rather it teaches that every form of creation, including animals and birds, must be treated with love, mercy and compassion. The truth is that Allah has directly intertwined and interwoven the rights due to Him with the rights due to mankind.

This is why when we study the details of how to worship in the Holy Qur’an, we find that Allah the Almighty has said that a person’s prayers offered in a mosque and which he tries to perform with respect and due etiquette, will not be of any value and will not be accepted if alongside such worship he or she is not fulfilling the rights of mankind.

A person’s prayers will not be accepted if they do not seek to help the poor and deprived. A person’s prayers will not be accepted if they are not fulfilling the rights of orphans. A person’s prayers will not be accepted if they are not striving to end all forms of slavery. And a person’s prayers will not be accepted if they do not show mercy to one another and indeed to all forms of God’s creation.

Another major right taught by God is to fulfil the due rights of one’s neighbours. God has clearly stated that if a person does not fulfil the rights of his neighbours his prayers and his worship will be entirely without value or merit. Thus these are some rights due to one another and there are hundreds more that have been stipulated by Allah in the Qur’an. And so a person can only be considered a true Muslim when alongside his worship he fulfills the rights of mankind.

A person can only be deemed a true Muslim when he seeks to remove the pain of others and to alleviate their anxieties. And a person can only be considered a true Muslim when he feels the grief of others as though it was his own personal grief. As we are aware, a person’s place of worship holds a very special status in the heart of every religious person.

Thus, this mosque, which has been built here in Gillingham or in this area, also holds a special status to us and we harbour great respect and a sense of reverence towards it in our hearts. To fulfil the rights of a mosque itself has been made obligatory on all Muslims. As I said there are two overarching rights that a Muslim has to fulfil – the rights of God and the rights of mankind. I have just outlined some of the ways in which the rights of mankind are fulfilled.

Consequently the rights of this mosque will only be fulfilled when we pay due heed to this and when all of our acts prove to be those that fulfil the rights of God’s creation. As you will be aware this mosque has been named the ‘Nasir Mosque’, and ‘Nasir’ means ‘one who helps’. As such, this mosque is not only a place of worship where worshippers will come to beseech God’s help, but it is also a meeting place for people who wish to serve others and to help those who are suffering and are in any kind of need.

Thus it will be a place for people to gather in an effort to help the poor, to help orphans and to free people from every type of slavery once and for all. It will be a place for them to join together to serve humanity and benefit mankind and it will also be a place to fulfil the rights of the mosque’s neighbours and to help them. In regard to the rights owed to one’s neighbours, I would like to clarify that according to the teachings of Islam a person’s neighbours have a great value and status.

A neighbour is not just he who lives nearby, but in fact all of the people who are within reach of a Muslim are deemed to be his neighbours. The rights of neighbours are so vast that a Muslim is expected to treat them in the same way that he would treat his immediate family and dearest loved ones. Also, according to Islam, the scope of a person’s neighbours extends far and wide, and so our work colleagues and our travel companions are also included amongst our neighbours.

Thus it is incumbent upon a Muslim to help all the people who fall under this definition of a neighbour. And so according to Islam, even if you come into contact with someone just once you are duty bound to help them if they are ever in need. This is the beautiful definition of a ‘neighbour’ that Islam has provided.

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