Eid al-Adha 2017

Let us, as Muslims, take the first step to break this cycle of the slaughter of the innocent.

All Islamic rituals and devotions are directed towards the sacrificing of our own desires to please Allah and to serve humanity. One such act of worship, which is a pillar of faith, is the Hajj — an occasion when Muslims from across the world gather to worship the One God of all nations. This act of Hajj has many aspects. For example, all men and all women together, clad in simple white sheets, go round the Holy Ka‘ba to show that it is the humanity of a person that matters and not his or her colour, rank or creed. As people gather for the Hajj, there are no signs of distinction or segregation. One cannot tell who is a prince and who is a pauper!

The act of sacrifice, which is an essential part of the Hajj, symbolizes the sacrifice of our desires. The ongoing slaughter of innocent human beings around the world show how important it is to curb our rampant desires. The violence wrought within and upon Muslim countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Pakistan and the relentless killing of the innocent in those countries has given rise to a desire on the part of many within the Muslim Ummah for revenge, which has led to the indiscriminate killing of the equally innocent in the West. It is to eliminate such cycles of violence that Islam asks Muslims to curb their desires, including the desire for revenge, through its acts of worship. The Hajj is one such act of worship and features in its rites the sacrifice of an animal, standing for the ‘slaughtering’ or relinquishing of our wayward, all-too-often destructive impulses or desires.

The members of this organization earnestly request all Muslims to reflect upon this and to help break this cycle of revenge which is tarnishing the beautiful face of Islam.

·The Ahmadiyya Association for the Propagation of Islam (Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam) was established in 1914 at Lahore to promote the informed understanding of Islam in the West. In the UK it operated the Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking until the early 1960s. Its new headquarters is at Dar-us-Salaam, 15 Stanley Avenue, Wembley, HA0 4JQ, UK. In 1924, in Berlin, it built the first mosque in Continental Europe of the modern era. The Berlin Mosque is now recognised by the German government as part of the German national heritage. From its European and other centres around the world this organisation has taught that Islam promotes peace, harmony and mutual respect between all communities and nationalities.