Speeches at Cllr Clark civic service
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00:00Okay, good afternoon everybody. I'd like to thank each and every one of you for joining
00:09me here today for my civic service during my year as chairman of East Hampshire District
00:12Council. I'd like to do some special thank yous to a few people today, especially to
00:20my great friend and fellow councillor Adil Shah. Not only did I at the very last minute
00:25suddenly decide to go against tradition in the 50 years of East Hampshire and have a
00:31service not held in its traditional way in a church, he has helped me with a lot of other
00:40things which makes him a special friend. I'd like to thank the Aberdeen Muslim community
00:47for welcoming us here today. Again, above and beyond, I couldn't have asked for a better
00:52service. They have been amazing. Thank you to Kim, my PA, who couldn't make it here today.
01:01Apparently she's having a new kitchen fitted. She's been a fantastic support in inviting
01:06everybody who's come today and have travelled across the district to be here with me.
01:14I don't like to say he's not going to like this, but a thank you to councillor Andy True.
01:19If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be stood here today. It's a long way from the conversation
01:25that we had in a play park discussing whether I fancied joining the town council, possibly being
01:31mayor of the town, to now being chairman of East Hampshire. He supported me all the way through
01:37that. And finally, the big, big thank you goes to my family and friends who supported me throughout
01:44my journey. At the start of my term in May, I chose the Rainbow Trust Children's Charity
01:53as my charity for the year for their support of families in our district who have a child with a
01:58life-threatening or terminal illness. I have welcomed them here today. It is not a usual
02:05thing to be done at a Muslim ceremony. The civic services normally involve a collection at the
02:10church, but they will be at the door as you leave with a collection bucket if you would like to
02:15donate. As I said, it is not compulsory. Any contribution received, they will be very grateful
02:23for. I really hope you've enjoyed your afternoon as I have. It's been lovely to meet people that
02:28I haven't met before and lovely to see old faces. I hope you do agree with me that hospitality has
02:35been amazing. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chairman. A few days ago, Madam Chairman, we were
02:48in an anxiety phase of whether we were putting up the marquee and the various variations.
02:55We wanted to make sure everything was going to go well. This morning, we were worried about the
02:59weather. About 20 minutes ago, I realised I hadn't written my welcome speech. Here's to an
03:06impromptu welcome speech, if you want to call it. I'd just like to share with everyone here the first
03:12meeting I had with Madam Chairman, Councillor Catherine Clark. It was in a restaurant. We were
03:18having lunch. Fellow Councillor, Councillor Andy Tree, was there as well. Little did I know that
03:25it was going to be a recruitment lunch and they wanted me to join the town council.
03:30Throughout our discussions, when the question was posed, the first hesitation I had, and I
03:37mentioned this to them, that do you really want a Muslim name on the ballot paper when people go to
03:43vote? I thought that because of it being a Muslim name, the party will lose vote because of me being
03:51the only Muslim as a councillor, if it was to follow through. Both Councillor Tree and Madam
03:57Chairman said something which was so profound and is still stuck with me today. The party that we
04:05all belong to, the White and Lombardian Community Party, won all 15 town council seats and they knew
04:11they were going to win all 15 seats. But knowing that, both of them said to me, on the basis that
04:18you're a Muslim and you don't stand because someone's going to go to the ballot paper
04:22and not choose our party, because you're a Muslim, we're ready to finish this party and not stand a
04:27single candidate. That tolerance, that interfaith cohesion that you have brought into Borden, I am
04:34sure is being appreciated by everyone that you represent. I remember it was the month of Ramadan
04:40going forward a few months and Madam Chairman recently found out, or we were sharing, exchanging
04:46what Ramadan means to a Muslim and coincidentally we had a town council meeting scheduled right in
04:52the middle of when we break our fast in the evening. And knowing how important breaking the
04:58fast is and then reading a prayer straight after, I remember Madam Chairman you halted the meeting,
05:03called a comfort break, allowed me to break my fast, do my prayers and then join the meeting
05:09and then you continue the meeting. Very recently you've been to the Lajna-e-Ma'ila Peace Symposium,
05:15the peace symposium that our women auxiliary organisation hold and you've spoken there as well.
05:21But most recently, and I'm sure this has been the highlight of me being a councillor and I'm sure of
05:25yours as well, was the audience that some councillors of us had with His Holiness the
05:31Khalif of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and you were fortunate to ask a question to him about how
05:37you can serve your role with justice when you do become Madam Chairman. And part of his answer was
05:43always remember that you should fight for the rights of everyone. You now represent, as an
05:48elected official, every single person, whether they voted for you or not, you are their representative.
05:55And as a local Muslim in Borden, I'd like to share with you that you are fighting for the rights of
06:01all and I'm glad that that message that His Holiness has given you, you've been practising.
06:06So thank you so much for your support as well. I'd now like to request the National President of
06:13the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, who's very kindly joined us today and is chairing today's session,
06:20to come and give the keynote address.
06:37Respected civic leaders, esteemed guests, ladies and gentlemen,
06:42As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon you all.
06:49We'd like to thank Madam Chair for inviting us to host this great event and I was saying to
06:56Madam Chair whilst the ceremony was going on that this is such a unique event that everyone who is
07:03attending it will remember it for many years to come because it's so different from what all of
07:09you have experienced before and us as well. So this community cohesion that's taking place here,
07:15this melting pot that is happening here today is the best thing that could happen to our community
07:21at large and I'm very grateful to you Madam for bringing this together. Now Madam Chairman
07:29is the Chair of the East Hampshire District Council. She's elected Chair for the 50th
07:36anniversary of the District Council and every year the District Council elects a Chair to be
07:42the Civic Head of the Council and represent the organisation across the district and beyond.
07:49Councillor Clark is from Borden and serves as the Deputy Leader of the Town Council also.
07:54As mentioned previously she has visited the largest mosque in Europe,
07:58Battle of Fatu and spoken at the Ladies Peace Conference there and she has visited this
08:06unique event that takes place here and has been for the last 20 years in this site called the
08:11Jalsa Salana. This is where we have representatives from over 100 countries, we have faith leaders,
08:21we have civic leaders, we have national presidents of countries. Today I was told a couple of kings
08:28are also going to be joining us from different countries. So this is such a unique event and it
08:34is most appropriate that today is the day when this event will be inaugurated this evening by
08:40His Holiness. So this very ceremony that is taking place today has a great significance for the
08:48community and I thank you Madam for allowing us to host you today.
08:55So I thought I'd take the opportunity to mention something about we're living in a world which is
09:04torn with conflict. We've seen wars taking place everywhere and a lot of time faith is blamed
09:15for what is happening in the world but this is so far from the truth because
09:26if we all believe in the same God it is not possible that he's given a different message
09:33to Prophet Ibrahim, different message to Prophet Jesus, a different message to Prophet Moses
09:39and a different message to Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be on all of them.
09:46The fundamental message and that's contained in all the holy books that were revealed by God
09:53Almighty is how you can have a peaceful and harmonious society, how you can live in peaceful
10:01coexistence with each other and you can read the holy Quran, you can read the Torah, you can read
10:08the Bible, you'll find that exactly the same things are repeated in all three of those books.
10:15There may be some variations over time as human beings developed the message got refined a little
10:24bit and we believe the final message was in holy Quran but the fundamental message from God
10:31is how we can live in peaceful harmony with each other.
10:369-11, before 9-11, all the major world religions lived in harmony with each other.
10:47The Muslims were accepted as a very large major religion, Christianity, Judaism
10:54but 9-11 changed that. From 9-11 people started to wonder whether
11:01Islam was fit for the 21st century. They thought this is faith which propagates jihad.
11:13I was with a journalist just two days ago and he knew a lot about faith
11:21and I said to him, I said do you really even know what jihad means? He said yes, holy war.
11:28He said no, it doesn't mean holy war at all.
11:35This is where people make a mistake. Jihad actually means strife and the biggest jihad
11:44is the strife within where we have to develop ourselves into a material being that is the
11:53biggest jihad that Islam finds and the holy Quran actually tells us how we can achieve this.
12:06The holy Quran says that a man has three particular constituents. One is the body
12:16which is the physical body. Second is the soul and the third is something called nafs
12:23which is the development of the soul and it says that when we are born, we are born pure.
12:34However, as we grow up, unless we are refined spiritually, we live a very animal existence.
12:42We eat, we live, we sleep, we go about our daily routines and we can survive in that
12:51for all our life but would not obtain any spiritual development.
12:57In order to obtain spiritual development, the first stage of our spiritual existence is called
13:04nafs-e-amara. This is defined in the Quran. From there, we have to go on to the second stage
13:10which is called nafs-e-allamama. This is a stage where we become conscious of what is right and
13:18what is wrong and we begin applying this to everything that we do. Before we do anything,
13:25before we take any action, we think about it. We think, is this right? This is going to do
13:30any damage to anyone. This is going to harm people. So, this is something that we have to think about
13:40because at this moment in time when we find so much conflict
13:45and leaders of our world talk about humanitarianism and humanity but if we allow what is going on
13:57without having a conscience, then we are going to live in the lowest possible stage
14:05of human spirituality. We haven't developed to the next stage and when we develop to the
14:12next stage, we will not allow such things to occur. We will prevent such things and we'll stand up
14:21and we'll speak against anyone who propagates such crime whether it is in Gaza, whether it is in
14:30Ukraine or whether it is in Sudan. Any of these conflicts where people are dying unnecessarily,
14:38where people do not have food to eat, people are starving. So, we as human beings,
14:48doesn't matter what sect we belong to, doesn't matter what religions we belong to,
14:54we should all stand together in unison and say this is not acceptable for mankind.
15:04Unless we all raise our voice together, this injustice will continue to flourish
15:11and the reason why this injustice takes place is nothing to do with faith at all.
15:16All the faith gets blamed for everything. This injustice takes place because there are leaders,
15:24whether they're faith leaders or political leaders, who want power. They want more.
15:32They're materialistic issues that they want to fulfill for themselves
15:37and we'll never be happy. If you look at the research that's going on, it shows that
15:48just because you have more money doesn't make you any happier. Happiness must come from within us
15:54and this brings us back to the cycle of the spiritual development. So, the third part
16:01is where we have something called
16:05this is when we are one with our creator. We have achieved internal peace
16:13and we only think good of other people. We only behave correctly towards other people
16:21and that is the ultimate state when if we are able to achieve that, then we will have peace
16:29within us and that is what jihad means. It is about the internal strife about how we can actually
16:39achieve peace within us and that peace then will lead to peace in the society.
16:45You've already heard what Islam says, the rights of neighbors. You know, neighbors have lots of
16:53rights over us and it doesn't matter again what faith they belong to or whatever happens
17:00and today is a demonstration of how we can all come together under one banner
17:08and we can stand up and say yes we are one with God's creation.
17:12Now, we read in five times a day, we read the first chapter of the holy Quran and I'll read it in Arabic first and then I'll translate for you.
17:42Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem-e-Malik-e-Yawm-e-Din
17:48Iyyaka-Nabudu Iyyaka-Nasta'eem
17:54Ihdana-Siraat-al-Mustaqeema Siraat-al-Lazeena-Namta-Alaihim
18:00Ghair-al-Maghdoob-e-Alaihim Al-Atwaa-Al-Aleem
18:04Ameen
18:07So Allah the Almighty says
18:12in the holy Quran and this is the English translation of the verses I just recited
18:17I seek refuge with Allah from the satan the curse in the name of Allah the most gracious ever merciful
18:25all praise belongs to Allah alone the lord of all the worlds the gracious the merciful
18:32the master of the day of judgment thee alone do we worship and thee alone do we implore for help
18:39guide us in the right path the path of those whom thou hast bestowed thy favor
18:46those who have not incurred thy pleasure and those that have not gone astray
18:53now this verse I'm sure you have heard in a church as well or something very similar
19:00this is the fundamental teaching of Islam
19:08and if you look at these verses Allah the Almighty is addressed as lord of all the worlds
19:18this means he's the provider and protector of all of humanity
19:23there's no discrimination differentiation or distinction in who he helps and provides for
19:30as his creation we must also follow this example and do our best to provide for one another
19:38in every way we can so madam chair I'm so pleased that we've been here we've been able to gather here
19:50in such large numbers to celebrate your initiation and I hope that this is the beginning
19:59of many years of all of you coming and joining us here every year and be part of this beautiful
20:08setting that we have here and you'll be able to be people from around the world you'll see different
20:14cultures different languages you'll be able to see and you'll be able to listen to the verses of
20:20his holiness and the fundamental message that his holiness is going to portray is going to tell us
20:30is again how we can make ourselves into better human beings and how we can bring peace in this
20:36world and there can be never a better message than that and if all of us join together and
20:46promote this message then I think we will start finding peace initially in this area but then
20:55hopefully it emanates from here and the whole world will join us in this very great message
21:02may god bless you all I hope you have a wonderful day there are lots of exhibitions
21:08here that you can visit there are lots of things that you can do here even this afternoon
21:13please enjoy and you're welcome to attend this conference for all three days
21:19Friday Saturday Sunday and I hope that it will be a peaceful and joyous event for all of you
21:28thank you very much god bless you
21:36thank you Amisah we'll now conclude today's formal proceedings and I would like to request
21:43Amisah if you could lead us in silent prayer and all may as we start our program with the
21:47recitation of the holy quran and we'll