It is fitting that we adorn the front of this issue with the speech of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, delivered on his behalf—by his order—by His Excellency the Minister of State and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Yusuf Yassin, at the grand banquet held by His Highness in the resplendent Royal Palace last Thursday night in honor of the delegations of the Sacred House of God. The text is as follows:
My Muslim brothers,
I greet you, on behalf of His Majesty my father the King, and in my own name, with the greeting of Islam. In your honored persons, I greet the Muslims in the East and West of the earth. I praise God, who has enabled us and you to perform the rites of pilgrimage—fulfilling God’s command, responding to the call of our master Abraham, peace be upon him, and following the Sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad, may God’s blessings and peace be upon him.
God has prescribed the pilgrimage to His House as a mercy and a favor, to unite our word upon His worship, to bind us together in obedience to Him, and to bring our hearts together in His love. What greater benefit could there be than for the hearts of Muslims to yearn toward this Ancient House, where they meet for God’s sake and pledge themselves to act according to the Book of God.
In a gathering such as this, the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, called people to the oneness of their Lord and to knowledge of Him. In such a gathering he delivered his Farewell Sermon, a guiding light for all who seek guidance. His rightly guided successors followed this path after him. And so have we continued in this tradition: His Majesty my father—may God preserve him—has always been, as we are, a caller to God in such great assemblies, where we counsel one another and the Muslims to act according to the Book of God and follow the guidance of His Messenger.
The first thing we call to is what the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, called to: sincerity in worshipping God alone. We worship none but God, call upon none but God, and associate no partner with Him. I call upon the Muslims in this great gathering to abandon all that contradicts God’s command, and to counsel one another in patience and piety. We seek help from God, that He may grant us victory, support us, and guide us to what pleases Him.
Glory be to You, O God—we cannot enumerate Your praise for what You have made easy for us in obeying You in Your Sacred House. We praise Him for the strength and resolve He has granted us, through which the paths in this blessed valley have become secure. We ask Him to grant us strength and success in doing all that eases the pilgrimage for the pilgrims of His House. We ask Him to grant us success in serving the people of this land—those who are from our hearts, and we from theirs. We live with them as a son lives with his father, and a father with his children.
My brothers,
My heart is filled with joy when I witness the multitudes of Muslims, their eagerness to obey God, and their striving to unite their word upon what pleases Him. By God, if we follow the path of faith and sincerity, and unite our word 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 reside. We strive for their welfare in all fields. All people, near and far, know this shared sentiment and the resolve we have committed ourselves to. For this reason, we ask God to aid all, so that the Muslims may regain their honor and dignity, and the Arabs their lands and homelands—so that each people may enjoy the blessings of their own country.
God willed that the Arabs unite in establishing a league for themselves, and His will was fulfilled in the founding of that League. All of us look to it with our hearts, defending it and its principles with all the strength we possess. You all know its efforts and endeavors, and we—together with the other Arab states—strive earnestly to achieve what is necessary and desired.
I do not wish, in this gathering, 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 goals.
In conclusion, I ask God to accept from us and from you, to return you safely to your homelands, 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 His pleasure and in the presence of His Majesty the King. May God grant honor to the Muslims and the Arabs, and grant them victory over their enemies.
Peace be upon you.
Umm al‑Qura Newspaper