بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
شهر رمضان الذي أنزل فيه القرآن هدى للناس وبينات من الهدى والفرقان
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Faith and Humanity
As-Salaamu ‘Alaikum (Peace and Blessings be Upon You)
As the Holy Month of Ramadan once again blesses us with its presence we at The Cordoba Foundation would like to congratulate you on the advent of this Holy Month.
We are all travellers on the same journey, struggling to seek God’s pleasure. Ramadan is an opportunity for us to remember the many lessons to be learnt and taught on this journey.
A wise man once said, ‘Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In those choices lie our growth and happiness.’
Within this space, there is God and one’s heart, as the Qur’an reminds us: “...and know that [the knowledge of] God lies between the human being and his heart.” Such is the meaning of profound spirituality. Hence within this space everyone is asked to take up a dialogue of intimacy and sincerity with The Most-High. Within this space we marry the purpose of our existence with the purpose of our subsistence. Man is asked to acquire a force of being and doing rather than to undergo a despotic relentlessness of a life reduced to mere instinct. We are thus responsible for the actions we take.
At the heart of our consumer society, where materialism and individualism drive our daily lives, the Blessed Month of Ramadan reinforces our personal effort and commitment, invites us towards the deep horizons of introspection and meaning, reminds us of silence, restraint and remembrance, and inculcates the importance of detail, precision, rigour and discipline of practice.
The Blessed Month of Ramadan is a feast of the faith of fraternal atmosphere that is shared with all brothers and sisters, to portray the humility and compassion of the Prophet (saw) towards the downtrodden and distressed, irrespective of culture and creed. This year in particular as millions are suffering in East Africa due to famine; millions of people are affected by war and natural disaster and countless of our neighbors are struggling to make ends meet in times of economic hardship, let us realize the prophetic vision of a just world by reflecting it in our mindset, etiquette, and actions, so that we become 21st century ambassadors of the Prophet (saw): advocating justice, compassion and love for the whole of humanity.
Ramadan Mubarak and many happy and blessed returns
Anas Altikriti
Chief Executive of The Cordoba Foundation
