By Steven Godfrey Mkweteza
Muslims in the country have been asked to develop an interest in education if their faith is to be preserved and practiced according to the Quran and prophetic tradition.
The call was made by the deputy presidential advisor on religious affairs, Hashim Abbas during the celebrations of the birth of prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullar in Blantyre.
Abbas, who was the guest of honour during the annual event, asked Muslims to send their children to school to attain higher education and start handling senior positions in government, mosques and other public facilitates.
According to Abbas, various interventions have revealed that the country have few Muslim scholars, a development that he said, contribute to poor participation of Muslims in development activities of the country.
He said: ” Men and women, let us work together and send our children to send to school so that they can get educated so that they should run the affairs in government, community and edu institutions in the country.”
Abbas explained that educated people were the ones who contribute significantly to the development of the nation.
“We don’t want muslims to be confined to jobs such as tailoring. We want many Muslims to attain higher education so that they can become lawyers, medical doctors, teachers or senior officials in various government departments or other organisations. If we cannot get educated, we will remain poor, which is not in line with programmes of the current government, ” Abbas said.
Among others, Abbas said he could not comment further on the proposal of making the birth of Muhammad day as a national holiday, staying the issue rest in the hands of parliament to decide.
Abbas further expressed concern over the tendency by other people within the Islamic faith, who he said were soliciting assistance from well wishers outside the country but we’re diverting the aid for their personal use.
He said islam as religion was still facing a lot of problems in the country including shortage of mosques, schools, health facilities and other social amenities owned by moslem organisations.
In his remarks, sheikh Mustafa Shafi Ahmed, from the Al_ Tariqatul Quadria sunni Association (AQSA), whose organisation was the main coordinator for the event, said the celebrations were important in Islam because it was a time when Muslims come together and celebrate the life of prophet Muhammad.
Ahmed said and asked all the Muslims in the country to work together to bring about the growth of Islam, he said: ” This is a job that other people fail to do. ”
Head of media for AQSA, Mohammad Aboo, explained that the event was a success since many people took part.
“We expected 3000 paraders but over 5000 took part. We had 60 parades in Blantyre alone since this year we designed the event in zones,” he said.
However, contrary to what was announced that this year’s ziyara parade would not engage youth and women, some women and youth joined the colourful event.
At the end of the Eid meelad uni Nabi, organisers of the event shared some few gifts to the people present as one way of showing the love that God teaches, which was an important teaching of prophet Muhammad.
Ziyara parade is part of celebrations of the birth of prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullar, who was born in the year 570 AD in the city of mecca . He is believed to be the last prophet and one who played the main role in the spread of Islam as a religion.
