Attended by thousands of people including who came from all parts of Lahore and
the adjacent areas including 15 thousand ‘Mutakifeen’, the spiritual gathering of
Juma-tul-Wida (Last Friday of Ramadan) was held under the banner of Minhaj-ul-Quran
International in the Itikaf City, Township Lahore on August 26, 2011.
Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri delivered his keynote speech on the
subject of ‘Spiritualism’. He said that the basic reason behind the decline of the
Muslim world is their estrangement from knowledge. The Muslims, he said, cannot
start their journey towards regaining the lost glory unless they ignite in them
the raging desire to acquire knowledge. He said that the fundamental cause that
explains the presence of extremism and narrow-mindedness in society is lack of promotion
of real Islamic teachings. “This has resulted in the slaughtering of the Muslims
at the hands of their co-religionists. Our life has been devoid of peace and happiness.
Serious threats have been posed to the national integrity and security while questions
are being raised with regard to our sovereignty,” he added.
Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri expressed these views while addressing a big congregation
of the faithful on the occasion of Juma-tul-Wida (Last Friday of Ramadan) through
video conferencing from London.
Shaykh-ul-Islam said that the last ten days of the holy month of Ramadan are
coming to an end. The nation needs to bow their head before Allah Almighty and seek
His forgiveness. It must beseech Allah to confer on it the willingness and capacity
to reform its conduct so that the people could get rid of feeling of insecurity,
fear, lawlessness, killing, and shortage of energy and water. He said that in a
society in which narrow-mindedness becomes rampant, it is the sign of Allah’s displeasure.
Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri said that Pakistan’s image has adversely suffered at
the international level as a result of recent incidents with the result that extremism
and terrorism have come to define its identity. He underscored the need of working
on war-footing basis at individual and collective levels to regain the country’s
identity.
