Muslim Board of Uzbekistan

The important role of religious specialists in strengthening social-spiritual stability of Uzbekistan

23.11.2017 12781 11 min.

The excerpt from the speech of Usmonkhon Alimov, Chairman of Muslim Board of Uzbekistan, Muftiy dedicated to the conference which was held in Andijan province under the title “Islam – the religion of peace and morality”

Assalamu alaykum wa rohmatullohu wa barokatuhu!

Dear imams, respected teachers and guests!

Personally, I’m really happy to see you all in good health in Andijan province, the land of scholars. Welcome to the traditional republican conference of religious sphere representatives!

The current event is different from the previous one with the participation of our dearest guests from neighboring countries. They are delegations under the leadership of Makhsatbek Tokhtamishev, Chairman of Muslim Board of Kyrgyzstan, Muftiy and Karimbek Akhmadjon, Head Imam of Southern Kazakhstan province of Kazakhstan

Dear conference participants and guests!

As you are aware of, on October 18^th as part of the international conference “Islamic solidarity: in the example of Azerbayjan and Uzbekistan” held in Tashkent we had talks with Mr. Erjan Mayamerov, Chairman of Muslim Board of Uzbekistan, Muftiy and Mr. Makhsatbek Tokhtamishev, Chairman of Muslim Board of Kyrgyzstan, Muftiy. During the conversations we agreed on future cooperation. The participation of our guests in today’s conference is the continuation of joint partnership.

It is evident that friendship among our close nations has been strengthening from centuries. Especially, Uzbek, Kirgiz and Kazakh nations have long historical roots. Cultural, spiritual and friendly relationships among our people are always stay in harmony. I believe that relationships based on mutual trust will further be reinforced.

“The development of cooperation between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan based on mutual respect and trust is main direction of our foreign policy,” stated our President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. This makes us work more proactively.

It is also appropriate to mention Uzbek Leader’s statement about Uzbek-Kazakh relationship. “Uzbek and Kazakh people have lived shoulder by shoulder for centuries. They are people of the same root.”

In this regard it should be noted that the active inter-state official visits of our leaders once again proves that friendly and fruitful relationships between Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan will constantly continue.

Dear conference participants! (continues his speech Honorable Usmonkhon Alimov )

These days we are all witnessing a great deal of positive developments throughout our country. We proclaim our thanks to The Creator for participating in these noble improvements.

Today no one stays aside of the happenings in the world scene. If a conversation is about peace and prosperity, then it has stronger magnitude. We also have been gathered in this humble hall to talk about peace and morality. Peace and stability are one of the greatest gifs of Allah. The importance of this bounty is repeatedly mentioned in Islamic sources.

Unfortunately, this great bestowal of peace is not provided to all people in our Earth. We know that all meaningless wars and conflict of interests are bringing countless casualties.

In this regard it is worth mentioning the historical speech of our President on 72^nd session of UN General Assembly, where he put the initiative forward that the struggle against destructive powers must be performed by education, by raising awareness of world community about the pure humane message of Islam, by calling people to preserve the essence of religion of Islam which is peace, morality and benevolent behavior. Today’s current event of religious specialists once again proves that struggle against evil is through spreading knowledge.

For this reason, in our ever-fast changing information age we need to work together even more closer than before to bring the real message of Islam, which stands against any kind of cruelty and brutality, promotes peace and harmony. Allah reminds us in the Holy Koran:

يَهْدِي بِهِ اللَّهُ مَنِ اتَّبَعَ رِضْوَانَهُ سُبُلَ السَّلَامِ وَيُخْرِجُهُمْ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ بِإِذْنِهِ وَيَهْدِيهِمْ إِلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ

Allah guides with it whoever follows His approval to the ways of peace, and He brings them out of darkness into light, by His per-mission, and He guides them in a straight path. (al-Ma’idah, 16)

The importance of peace for each person is mentioned by our dearest prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.):

“If one of you awakens in the morning and finds his family in peace, his health in good condition and possesses food for one day, he possesses the bounty of the whole world” (narrated by Imam Bukhari)

Dear guests in order to preserve our greatest reward which we call peace, we, religious leaders, have to work harder.

Today our country has put new steps towards development and this is the greatest endowment of Allah. With the gratitude I underline that our President is paying special attention to reconstruct divine shrines of Islamic scholars and building new mosques and madrasahs.

Only during the last year “Imam Eshon Muhammad” mosque in Karakalpakstan, “Okhun Bobo” mosque in Khorezm, “Imam Termiziy” and “Suzuk Ota” mosque in Tashkent were built in a big complex style, Imam Termiziy Shrine in Surkhandarya, Abu Muin Nasafiy Shrine in Kashkadarya were reconstructed, a new Mir Arab Higher Madrasa in Bukhara and Imam Termiziy international scientific-research center in Termez city were established.

Especially, the establishment of “Imam Bukhari International scientific-research center” in Samarkand has given an opportunity to study the rich scientific heritage of our ancestors not only for our scholars, but for the researchers from the whole world.

The expected launching of Islamic Civilization Center is expected to extend the fame of our country to far boundaries, to re-announce the name of our famous scholars to the whole world. And also Islamic Academy under the Islamic Civilization Center and other special schools for aqidah, kalam, jurisprudence and hadith sciences will raise new Imam Bukhari, Imam Termiziy, Imam Moturidi, Imam Marghilanis from our young generation.

Considering all aforementioned, all religious specialists employed within Muslim Board of Uzbekistan have put the following tasks in order to preserve peace and harmony in our country:

– Today every imam should be able to understand well all changes in new development stage of our country and be able to explain people about the reality. If we are passionate about the future of our Motherland, then we have to protect our citizens from negative influences;

– During Friday sermons imams should clearly denounce all brutalities happening around the world by explaining that there are some powers behind these acts, and proclaiming any inhumane act in any part of the world to be the tragedy of the whole humanity

– To request citizens during the preaches to be aware of dangerous ideologies spread on internet by advising to use official website of Muslim Board of Uzbekistan and other local internet sources linked on www.muslim.uz We deeply regret about the incident which happened in the US. Undoubtedly these kinds of evil deeds will surely reflect the ones who plot them. Allah mentions in the Holy Koran: “Priding themselves on earth, and scheming evil. But evil scheming overwhelms none but its authors.”(Fatir, 43)

– To talk about the negative sides of “mass culture” by advising to follow the teachings of our ancestors;

–The main purpose of destructive groups is to bring conspiracy among worshippers. Our people have been following Moturudiya aqidah and Hanafiy Mazhab for centuries. But some young people while travelling abroad are getting acquainted with some other destructive thoughts and when they return they start blaming other local worshippers on performing prayers differently. It is imams duty to clearly explain and teach our respected Islamic tradition of Hanafiya school so that young people would understand between right and wrong.

Dear conference participants!

Recently, Samarkand held International Conference on Providing Security and Sustainable Development in Central Asia under UN patronage. In this event our President Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted that common goal is bring Central Asia into Sustainable Developed Area for that reason and the best way to prevent young people from falling into extremism was to educate young about pure humane essence of religion.

Wassalamu alaykum wa rohmatullohu wa barokatuhu!

The press service of the Uzbekistan Muslim Board

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Reflection of tolerance and solidarity principles in Islam.

12.12.2017 5678 10 min.

Mr. Usmankhan Alimov

Chairman of Muslim Board of Uzbekistan,

Muftiy

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الحمد لله الذي هدانا لهذا و ما كنا لنهتدي لو لا أن هدانا الله

و الصلاة و السلام على رسوله الأمين و على آله و أصحابه الأجمعين أما بعد

Assalamu alaykum wa rohmatullohu wa barokatuhu,

Dear guests and participants of the event!

I congratulate you with International Tolerance Day and wish success to the work of this conference.

Our people have always been tolerant and hospitable. When our elder people opened their hands for the prayer, they say: “Oh Allah, bestow wide character and remaining richness on us”. The word combination “wide character” in our saints’ prayers means “tolerance”. From centuries people of different nationalities have lived shoulder to shoulder by helping to make their hardships easy. For this reason, in weddings and funeral ceremonies people of various ethnic groups lived in harmony. Today this tradition is continueing.

Today more than 130 different nationalities and various ethnic groups, 16 religious confessions are living in peace, friendship and harmony. All these people can freely perform their religious ceremonies, follow traditional customs and celebrate their holidays.

For instance, UN special speaker of on religious freedom Ahmad Shahid admitted the works carried out on preservation of peace by saying “Solidarity between nations and ethnic groups that exists in your country is not observed in any other country in the world.”

The main reason for such a harmonic life is the united goal of all religious groups to jointly act for the sake of the development and prosperity of our motherland – Uzbekistan. In this regard, we hold different joint conferences. Greet each other (means various religious groups) with our religious holidays. All our efforts are reflected in our daily lives.

Dear conference participants,

It is obvious that inter-religious tolerance means living in one land in harmony and peace by many nationalities.

Islam has never pressurized other religions in history. Islam has never gone to extremes regarding of different religious groups and ideologies.

Regarding religious tolerance Islam bases on the following,

Firstly, Qur’an says: He prescribed for you the same religion He enjoined upon Noah, and what We inspired to you, and what We enjoined upon Abra-ham, and Moses, and Jesus: “You shall up-hold the religion, and be not divided therein.” As for the idolaters, what you call them to is outrageous to them. Allah chooses to Himself whom He wills, and He guides to Himself whoever repents. (Surah ash-Shura, V-13)

Secondly, all prophets are close friends. There is no advantange between them. We believe them all as the prophets. In Qur’an: Say, “We believe in Allah; and in what was revealed to us; and in what was revealed to Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the Patriarchs; and in what was given to Moses and Jesus; and in what was given to the prophets—from their Lord. We make no dis-tinction between any of them, and to Him we surrender.” (Surah Baqara, V-136)

Thirdly, The differences in religion should not bring people to counter each other. On the other hand, they have to coopereate in doing good deeds. In this regard, Qur’an says: And cooperate with one another in virtuous conduct and conscience, and do not cooperate with one another in sin and hostility. (Surah Maida, V-2)

Fourthly, superiority of one man over another man is identified through performed good deeds only: “O people! We created you from a male and a female, and made you races and tribes, that you may know one another. The best among you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous. Allah is All-Knowing, Well-Experienced.” (Surah Hujurot, V-13)

Fifthly, the difference in religion does not prevent from hospitality and doing goodness to blood ties. Qur’an states: Today all good things are made lawful for you. And the food of those given the Scripture is lawful for you, and your food is lawful for them…(Surah al-Ma’idah, V-5).

These are the bases for the tolerance. According to this all muslims are to believe in all prophets, respect and remember them all wih good words, have good relationships with their followers and have good relationships with neighbours.

Prophet Muhammad sollallohu alayhi wasallam had neighbours who followed the Sacred Books. He used to be a good neighbor with them, used to give and receive gifts. When Christian delegation from Ephiopia visited Madina, Muhammad sollallohu alayhi wasallam placed them in a mosque and served them himself. He sollallohu alayhi wasallam said the following “They treated my followers well so I want to treat them well myself”.

Once when Najran Christians came, Muhammad sollallohu alayhi wasallam placed them in a mosque as well and let them perform their prayers inside the mosque. They Christians prayed in one side of the mosque, while muslims prayed on the other side of the same mosque. When they preached about their religion Muhammad sollallohu alayhi wasallam listened to them attentively and presented his own view. These all acts were done with beautiful behavior and kindness.

One of the examples of religious tolerance was during the rulership of Islam when mosques were neighbours with temples. During the Roman Empire Egyption copts were displaced and temples were taken over. When muslims conquered Egypt they returned temples to copts.

Nobody has forgotten Sultan Muhammad Fotih’s great compassion when he occupied Great Patriarch’s Orthodox residence in Constantinopole. He announced that all Christians’ wealth, life, religious freedom, church and Christs were safe. For the Christian leaders Sultan Fotih provided the freedom of solving problems raised in their communities without government intervention. Residents of Constantinopole (nowadays Istanbul) felt the difference between the time of rulership of Byzentinians and Sultan Muhammad Fotih. Muslim ruler even introduced the freedom of establishing government within government for the Roman Patriarch whose followers enjoyed that freedom for the rest 500 years.

One of the examples of religious tolerance is to give the tasks to the person who is the best one to perform it notwithstanding his/her religious belief. For this reason, during the Abbasi period Christian doctors were on Caliph’s attention. For a long time they had been in top managerial positions in Bagdad and Damascus’ medical schools. Christian doctor Ibn Asol was the personal doctor of Muawiyah. Sarjun was his secretary. Marwan was appointed to some state positions and later was promoted as a state secretary. He was very rich and respected. His popularity grew so high that Abdumalik ibn Marwan became the teacher of Abdulaziz. He was a father of that famous Umar ibn Abdulaziz.

Scientific circles of caliphs gathered all scientists regardless of their religious views. There were scientists from all kinds of religions and mazkhabs in the Ma’mun Academy. Ma’mun told them: “Discuss from your knowledge. In order to prevent any type of division do not site from your religious book”.

Scientific meetings of people were also like that. Khalaf ibn Musanno said the following: “We saw ten world known scholars who gathered in one meeting in Basra”.

These kind of examples could be cited a lot. The instructions, that all muslims should follow, underlined in the main sources of Islam and advised by Muhammad sollallohu alayhi wasallam are still being observed these days.

As a conclusion it could be said that the great quality of all humankind is to respect and adore every person just because he/she is a human being notwithstanding their religion, nationality and social status. Taking these all into consideration it is everyone’s obligation to live in tolerance, peace and solidarity.

Wassalamu alaykum wa rohmatullohi wa barokatuh.

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