Mr Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity that was given to Hon Wahab Wumbei Suhuyini to make the Statement on Ramadan.
Mr Speaker, like you said, it is a ceremonial Statement and we have the opportunity to speak about Ramadan year in, year out.
Mr Speaker, I would want to add that it is not just abstaining from eating, but it is doing the very best that one can as a Muslim to increase one's good deeds. It is perceived that during the month of Ramadan, we do not eat and so we spend less. But in actual sense, if one takes the practice of Islam seriously, it is in the month of Ramadan that one actually spends so much.
Mr Speaker, because of time, I would want to say that it is very worrying to hear that in the month of Ramadan for whatever reason that a Muslim would go and kill people. This is because it is in the month of Ramadan that one is supposed to be mood submissive, to reflect over the eleven months that have passed and to be able to remember that we are constantly before Allah and to put up the best of behaviours.
And so, it cannot be justified for whatever reason regardless of the provocation, for a Muslim to pick a vehicle and run into innocent citizens like it happened few days in London and kill them and to say that he or she was fighting for Islam. I do not believe those persons by any school of thought, can qualify or
describe themselves as Muslims. This is because it is said in the Holy Quran that if one kills an innocent person, it is equivalent to killing the whole of mankind.
So, for whatever reason, if a person has been offended, Islam and the Holy Quran says that the person can retaliate in equal measure, but because a person cannot put a tape to the retaliation of equal measure, it is best for the person to be patient and let go and expect a reward from Allah.
Mr Speaker, in the month of Ramadan, I would want to urge our Muslim brothers to be more patient and tolerant in our communities. They should remember the fundamentals and the values inculcated in fasting so that at the end of the day we would not only fast in vain.
This is because it is said by the Holy Prophet Muhammed Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, that if it is only just abstaining from food and yet one goes ahead with the lies, the insults and all the other wrong reasons, then one would have better eaten because Allah would not accept that person's fasting.
The same Allah in the Holy Quran said that, with almost every activity in Islam, one is told the volume of reward but it is only fasting that Allah Subhanahu Wata Aala himself said in the Holy Quran, that the reward of the one who fasts sincerely and genuinely is with him. And so nobody can tell a person that when he or she fasts for a day, this would be his or her reward.
It is only Allah who knows the reward. So, we need to remember that and keep the piety and ensure that at all times, we would live at peace with our neighbours, our friends -- not only our Muslim neighbours, because in Islam, the Holy Prophet said repeatedly that one is not a believer until one wishes for his or her
