“My Muslim brothers,
I greet you on behalf of His Majesty my father the King, and in my own name. I greet you with the greeting of Islam, and in your honored persons I greet all Muslims in the East and West. I praise God who has enabled us and you to perform the rites of Hajj—fulfilling His command, responding to the call of our forefather Abraham, peace be upon him, and following the Sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
God has ordained the pilgrimage to His House as a mercy and a blessing, to unite our word in His worship, to strengthen our brotherhood in obedience to Him, and to bring our hearts together in His love: ‘That they may witness benefits for themselves and mention the name of God during known days over what He has provided them of livestock.’ And what benefit is greater than seeing the hearts of Muslims drawn to this Ancient House, meeting one another for the sake of God and pledging to uphold the Book of God.
In such a great gathering, the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) called people to the oneness of their Lord and to knowing Him. In such a gathering he delivered his Farewell Sermon, a guidance for all who seek guidance. His rightly guided successors followed this path after him, and so have we. His Majesty my father—may God preserve him—has always been, as we are, a caller to God in these great moments, urging ourselves and the Muslims to act according to the Book of God and the guidance of His Messenger.
The first thing we call to is what the Messenger of God called to: sincerity in worshipping God alone—worshipping none but Him, calling upon none but Him, associating no partner with Him: ‘Indeed, my prayer, my sacrifice, my life, and my death are for God, Lord of the worlds. No partner has He; and this I have been commanded, and I am the first of the Muslims.’
In this great gathering, I call upon Muslims to abandon all that contradicts God’s command, to enjoin one another to patience and piety, and to seek aid from God that He may grant us victory, support us, and guide us to what pleases Him. Glory be to You, O Lord—we cannot praise You as You deserve, for You have made it easy for us to obey You in Your Sacred House. We praise Him for granting us strength and resolve until the paths of this blessed valley became secure. We ask Him to grant us further strength and success in all that facilitates the pilgrimage for the guests of His House, and to aid us in serving the people of this land—those who are from our hearts, and we from theirs—living with them as a son lives with his father, and a father with his children.
My brothers,
Joy fills my heart when I see the multitudes of Muslims, their devotion to God, and their earnestness in uniting their word upon what pleases Him. By God, if we follow the path of faith and sincerity, and unite upon it, we shall never be overcome—with God’s help—and we shall attain all that we aspire to. Muslims are our brothers wherever they may be, and the Arabs are our kin wherever they travel or reside. We strive for their welfare in all fields. Near and far alike know this shared sentiment among us and this firm resolve upon which we have set our course. For this reason, we ask God to aid all so that Muslims may regain their honor and dignity, and Arabs their lands and homelands—so that they may belong to them and not to others, and so that every people may enjoy the blessings of their own country.
God willed that the Arabs unite in establishing a League of their own, and by His will that League came into being. We look upon it with our hearts and defend it and its principles with all the strength we possess. You all know its efforts and endeavors, and we, along with the other Arab states, work earnestly to achieve what is right and necessary.
I do not wish to single out the cause of Palestine alone, for every cause of the Muslims is our cause, and every cause of the Arabs is our cause. We work tirelessly to achieve our shared goals.
In conclusion, I ask God to accept from us and from you, to return you safely to your homes, to grant us the blessing of meeting you many times in this land, to lift the hardship that has befallen our sister Egypt, and to gather us in this secure land under God’s pleasure and in the presence of His Majesty the King. May God strengthen the Muslims and the Arabs and grant them victory over their enemies. Peace be upon you.”*