PM Imran Khan announces Rehmatul-lil-Alameen Authority

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday inaugurated the Ashra of Rehmatul lil Alameen (Peace be Upon Him) and announced the establishment of Rehmat-lil-Alameen Authority to make the country and the world aware of Islam and the life of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).

The premier, while addressing a special ceremony here, said he had decided that Pakistan will have to change course, go back to principles. “We are going to form Rehmat-lil-Alamin Authority.” He explained that the purpose of authority is to teach the life of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) to the children and adults and to bring it in their lives.

The premier said that the authority will monitor the curriculum being taught at schools and organise research in universities regarding the true message of Islam in the light of the teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). He stressed the need to undertake research on Muslim heroes.

The prime minister said a cartoon series will be made to introduce Islamic culture to our children. He said Islam has its own cultural values that need to be taught to our children to protect them from evils like sex crimes.

He said the authority will also remain vigilant of any blasphemous content being shared on the media and to portray the real picture of Islam. Referring to the organisation of the authority, PM Imran said that he will be its patron-in-chief while the chairman will be the one who has written tafseer and has command over the subject for which the search has already been started.

He said that there will be an advisory board on it all over the world, for which we have also made contacts in the world. Under it there will be a Rahmat-lil-Alameen Board and the authority will explain Islam and Seeratun Nabi to the whole world.

The prime minister emphasised that it would be the job of a scholar to review the curriculum in schools and at the same time other religions will also be taught and would like him to be fully aware and there would also be research in the university.

Under the federal government, the celebrations of Ashra Rehmat-lil-Alameen have been formally started while Prime Minister Imran Khan offered prayers of forgiveness for Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan here before his address at the ceremony to mark the start of celebrations.

He said, “I am launching a programme today to celebrate the birthday of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and I want to talk to the youth of my nation, which is in majority and I am afraid because I will talk differently. The kind of pressures are on our youth today and where the situation is going with reference to also media and social media”.

The premier said that he would start with his life because it was not always where he was today. “I thought a lot about whether to talk about it or not and then Bushra Begum told me to talk on this”.

The prime minister said that his mother had taught them to pray before going to bed that Allah (SAW) would guide them to the right path, “so we siblings used to pray the same prayer in childhood but I was educated in Aitchison where our role models were someone else who taught us.” It was said that there is a massive difference between the straight path and the role models.

He continued, “There were film actors, pop stars, athletes and glamorous people and their lives were so different that we were told to go the right way.” “It’s important to understand because that's the problem with our youth today. When I first went to England when I was 18, the atmosphere I saw there was very different from Zaman Park and we followed the role models we had at the time”.

Imran Khan said that he would not sleep until he reviewed the whole day's work which he thinks is an attribute, what was lost and what was found in the day, he always analysed himself who were the role models: “And when I saw them up close, I slowly began to understand what we say in prayer…”

He noted that the biggest revolution in the world came between 625 AD and 636 AD and 637 AD, it would never have happened but if it had happened in Europe that two super powers were brought to kneels, how many books would have been written and films would have been made. The prime minister said that it was the personality of Holy Prophet (PBUH), which had brought about this revolution: one was His personality and the other was the establishment of state of Madina, which was his Sunnah. “Then, I came to know why Allah ordains us to learn from his life,” he said.

“There are 313 people in the Battle of Badr in 625, two superpowers in 636 and 637 knelt down in 11 and 12 years. Allah is commanding us because if you build your country on the principles of the state of Madina, your country will rise, if you try to adopt His role, you will rise,” the PM said.

He said, “We celebrate Rabi-ul-Awal, resort to firecrackers and fireworks, celebrate happiness but do we try to follow His life or not, it is like we keep the Holy Quran in the house and everyone is picking it up with great literature but not reading what is written inside it.”

Premier Imran emphasised, “We are ready to give our lives for the Holy Prophet (PBUH) but should also try to learn from His character, whether we are following His character or not, Allah has commanded us to follow his Sunnah.”

He said that all the hard work of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) was for human beings, there are great democracies in the world, one can imagine that at that time, Caliph Hazrat Ali (RA) lost a case to a Jewish citizen in court, look at how big the position of Hazrat Ali (RA) was but the judge did not accept children’s testimony, it was a system of humanity and all human beings were equal, a Jew was getting the same justice from the head of state.

On the Seerat (biography) of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), he said that it was a concept of uniting human beings, given the scale of leadership that a leader unites human beings, does not divide by spreading hatred, does not say that Hindus are the greatest nation and the rest are inferior: justice is for all human beings.

"Side-by-side we will teach other religions as well such as Hindu[ism] and Sikh[ism] because all religions talk about humanity so we would want all of them to be aware of their religion."

Imran said that the message the Prophet (PBUH) brought was the greatest that human beings are united and that he is the mercy of the worlds, then people became leaders after watching him [the Prophet (PBUH)], if you study after 623 AD in such a short time so great leaders were not born, but those who saw them became leaders.

He pointed out that Hazrat Bilal (RA) was a slave but he had led the military campaign twice so everyone became great after seeing Him. He continued that justice liberates man, the weak need justice, the strong want NRO, the weak need protection from the strong and when you give justice you liberate a society. “There are also prosperous countries, they have the rule of law and they go to the top.”

He said, “Three characteristics of the personality of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), first honest and trustworthy, then freed human beings from fear, which enslaves human beings, I want all these children in our schools to know all this, it is part of history.”

PM Imran Khan said, “It is inevitable for our country if we have to uplift our country, as long as we do not follow his [the prophet’s] Sunnah, this country cannot be uplifted, this is my faith because we have got things inside us that are stopping us from moving forward.”

He said that the loser after 1970 said that rigging had taken place but this is the first time that the government has decided to change the system, because at first everyone makes a noise of rigging but does nothing after coming to power. “If you are in government, it is easy to cheat because you have money.”

Premier Imran that as we have reviewed, as soon as the voting is over, there is talk of rigging till the announcement of the result. The Supreme Court had set up a Judicial Commission in 2015, which also came to this conclusion. To do away with this, they have brought EVM machine and technology.

He noted, “Same people who are making a noise about rigging say not to bring technology. I try my best to act like a neutral umpire in elections also, why can't we do it here because they [opposition] want rigging and don't want the system to change.”

The premier said social ills such as corruption and stealing public money could not stop until the society at large objected to them. He said biggest crisis in the country was of leadership. What happened in the country was because of leadership.

Without naming former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, he said a man wnet to London after stealing public wealth, and people were showering flowers on him. “In the world history perhaps no general was greater than Khalid bin Waleed (RA), and he never lost a battle, but Hazrat Umar (RA) even asked him to leave the command as he was going to give command to someone else.”

The prime minister said, “If we train our youth, they will fight.” He said that the morality of the country has gone down, especially those who come to power and steal then the morality of the whole country goes down.

He maintained that the second thing is obscenity. When someone talks about obscenity, there is a class here that calls itself liberal, starts making a noise how great injustice has been done: they are calling us backward.

He emphasised that veil is not just a matter of women's or men's clothes but a general concept what should be done to save the family system in the society. He said that as western influence is taking place here, people sitting here adopt the western influence but they do not know what its effects are. “We should have had scholarships to know what its effects are.”

He said that he saw with his own eyes where there was one divorce in 14 marriages, seeing that 70 percent of marriages are divorced today there, “I myself saw that the effects of divorce fall on the children because the children need parents.”

The prime minister said that there was a painful report when a DIG was sent to Kasur to investigate sexual crimes but no action has been taken in this regard. These things come from Hollywood, from Hollywood to Bollywood and then here is this culture coming. He then asked if anyone thought about how much damage Hollywood has done to the family system there, a marriage lasts an average of two and a half years.

He contended, “Unless we tell our youth that these are two lifestyles, it's your choice, but tell them that it will have an impact on society. The society fights against corruption, does not fight against the law and the whole society also fights against sexual crimes, the whole society has to make a decision, this has a great responsibility on our scholars and scholars”.

“There is content on the mobile phone for children that has never existed in the world and it must be competed and drugs have reached school, we have to work for it. “Our culture is different and the culture in the cartoons is very different, so there is a confusion among the children. We should make the children aware of our culture, because technology and social media cannot stop it but we can tell the way of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).”

He contended that the job of a scholar is to look at the media, social media and see what changes are coming, because we cannot stop the media but we can provide alternatives. The prime minister directed all the ministers to participate in the programmes throughout the week and further find out from the children that they have understood the path to greatness.