Focus on Islam

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. We begin with the permission of the President, the honorable, Mr. Justice Laxmanan seated to my left, I call upon this meeting to order. Mr. Justice Laxmanan, ladies, and gentleman, the purpose of this meeting, is to give all our Non-Muslims friends here, an opportunity to hear something about Islam, from one who is competent and knowledgeable in the subject, with a view to dispelling wrong ideas from notions, and prejudices. The distinguished speaker we have this evening, is Dr. Zakir Naik, to my right. Dr. Zakir Naik hails from Bombay; he is a doctor and a medical practitioner by training, by education, and by profession. But for the last several years, Dr. Zakir Naik has specialized in the mission of speaking, on various aspects of Islam. He has distinguished himself in this work, and he has spoken in several places all over the world, and his tapes, his talks, his lectures, his cassettes, are very much in demand. You can secure some of them over here. He is the founder of Islamic Research Foundation of Bombay, an organization which does a great deal, to spread the true knowledge of Islam, among Non-Muslims and Muslims too, with a view to dispelling as I said earlier... false ideas, prejudices and wrong notions, perpetuated and propagated, against Islam and Muslims with a view to disrupting communal harmony. The programme for this evening will be as follows. The meeting proper will open with recitation by the Master Kabeel Abdullah. It will be followed... it will be followed, by our President, the honorable Mr. Justice Laxmanan’s address, followed by our brother Mohammed Abdul Ali... principal in talks and remarks, and thereafter Dr. Zakir Naik will speak. Before Dr. Zakir Naik speaks, I shall spell out, as desired by the organizers, the rules and knobs, whereby this meeting will conduct itself. Now, with permission of the President, I now request Master Kabeel Abdullah, to recite verses from the Holy Qur’an. (Arabic)...  I now request the honorable Mr. Justice Laxmanan, of the Madras High Court, to deliver his address. His highness, Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali, Dr. Zakir Abdul Karim Naik, President of Islamic Research Foundation, Mumbai, Mr. Muhammed Abdullah Badshah, Mr. Nizam A. Erris, my revered friend Mr. Faizur Rehman, other dignitaries, ladies and gentlemen... at the outset I thank the organizers of this function, for having given me the opportunity to be in your midst and preside over this evenings function. The preannual to our Constitution of India provides that we are secular in nature and character. The word ‘secular’ has been introduced by our Constitution’s 42^nd amendment, with effect from 3^rd January 1997. Our secularism has always meant the concept of equal respect, for all faiths and Religion. It is also provided in the constitution of India, that no citizen shall be discriminated, inter believed. On the basis of the Religion... right of Religions, minority has been recognized in the article 30 of the Constitution. Right of belief and propagation of Religion, has been given to the citizen, in article 25 of Constitution. Thus our Constitution recognizes the concept of equality, integrity and unity of Religious peace. I am sure the conference like this, would go a long way in bringing about mutual respects and regard, for persons following different Religions in the longer interest of the great nation. Before I resume, I once again thank the organizers, for having given me this opportunity to be in your midst, this evening. When I was in Mysore, I was asked to be there by our highness, Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali. I was asked to be the chief guest. He as my revered good friend immediately agreed. He told me that... ‘Our Dr. Zakir Abdul Karim Naik will speak on ‘Focus on Islam, and Universal brotherhood’. I have to this morning... I told him, that I have another commitment by 8 o’clock - so I told him, that I have to deny the pleasure of hearing his speech on ‘Focus on Islam and Universal brotherhood’. Please pardon me Dr. Zakir Naik, and my friend Faizur Rehman, and our Mohammed Abdul Ali, for not being able to be present here, till the meeting is over. Any how, I have requested our Dr. Zakir Naik and I am told, he is one of the very excellent, and very fine speaker on Islam and he is going to make his speech... Focus on Islam and Universal brotherhood. I have requested him to give me an audiocassette so that I can hear the speech and give my opinion on that, with this few words I thank the organizers for having given me this opportunity and the people who are present here in this evening’s function. Thank you all. We thank the honorable Mr. Justice Laxmanan, for a thought provoking and insight full speech, which gives us much food for thought and reflection. On behalf of the organizers I should like to make a request to our Muslims friends if they could please kindly cooperate and please make room for our non-Muslims friends and guests. This seminar intended primarily for them if they could cooperate and make available some seats for our Non-Muslims friends to comfortably sit down please. Thank you very much. The purpose of this meeting this evening is to promote inter Religious understanding. India being a country where many different kinds of people with different Religious faith live. It is of the utmost important we at the very minimum understand each other. The purpose of this evenings meeting is to enable our non-Muslims friends at least some of them to understand what exactly Muslims believe why they believe in what they believe and why their action are to be explained very largely in terms of their Religion belief. The distinguished speaker Dr. Zakir Naik will speak very shortly on the topic being Focus on Islam and Universal brotherhood. His talk will be followed by a Question and Answer session. This Question and Answer session is intended exclusively for our non-Muslims friends. To our Muslims friends I apologize for this, this is due to the extreme shortage of time. You have had opportunities in the past, when Dr. Zakir Naik visited, and God willing you will have opportunities again, when Dr. Zakir Naik will visit again. But this evenings meeting…Question and Answer session is exclusive, for the benefit of our non-Muslims friends, who are free to ask the questions they wish. With these words, I now request Dr. Zakir Naik to please deliver his speech, on Islam and Universal brotherhood.