In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
All praises be to ALLAH, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon Prophet Muhammad, the Mercy sent to Mankind, upon his household and companions.
By the grace of Allah, the Almighty, the fifth meeting of the IUMS’ Board of Trustees at its fourth Term, was held from 15-17 Safar 1439 AH, corresponding to 3-5 November, 2017, in Istanbul-Turkey, under the chairmanship of his eminence Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, President of the IUMS.
The Board discussed many internal operational issues and the priorities of the Union, in addition to some concerns related to the Muslim Ummah, and endorsed the following statement:
First: The Board of Trustees expresses its appreciation of what has been achieved in accordance to the IUMS plan, and calls for the continuation of this endeavor, especially regarding the scholarly, educational, reform and advocacy awareness message concerning the Muslim Ummah.
Second: Based on what was approved by the General Assembly of the Union regarding the comprehensive advancement project of the Ummah, the Board appreciates all the efforts exerted in this regard, and calls on all involved parties to vigorously intensify their work in order to regain awareness, correct concepts and fully develop the Ummah. This could be achieved via Da‘wah activities, scientific research aiming at facing the new challenges, correcting the defects, and helping, as much as possible, in finding proper solutions to the problems and issues of concern.
Third: In pursuing the advancement of the Ummah, IUMS seeks to utilize all available proper means; including, but not restricted to, scientific, advocative, social, innovative, educational, edificational, and interactive means. On the other hand, the IUMS should try to avoid all that might hinder the achievement of its strategic goals. In this context, the Board continue the evaluation of its processes and different activities to achieve the highest possible level of performance. As such, the Board highly appreciates the efforts of the General Secretariat in assessing the performance of the IUMS during the previous phase.
Fourth: The Board reviewed the internal as well as external challenges faced by the Muslim Ummah, such as: political tyranny, social injustice, ideological fanaticism, developmental delays, and disunity resulting in fighting, bloodshed, failure to observe the ethics of disagreement, sectarian conflict, violating the essentials of Faith, and spreading corruption, which, in general, impairs the development and causes enslavement by external powers. The Board calls on all components of the Ummah to shoulder their responsibility with a view to get out of such reality that contradicts the spirit of Islam, the national interests, as well as the overall development, and, therefore, sends a number of relevant messages as follows:
1) Message to the Muslim Scholars: emphasizing the responsibility of the scholars in clarifying the juridical stance of Islam, providing the proper Fatwas to guide people towards righteousness, preserving the core essentials of Islam covering aspects of faith, Shari‘ah, morals and civilization. Scholars should also participate in developing their countries, uniting the Ummah, advancing civilizational resurgence, establishing truth and justice, and respecting the sanctity of human life, honor, and wealth. Moreover, they should also try to avoid the causes of religious, national and human disunity, while consolidating the values of cooperation, openness and the promotion of commonalities for the interests of all peoples, nations and states.
2) Message to the peoples: stressing their right to freedom, dignity, socially structuring their societies, political participation, expressing Islamic values, and the right to reform and civic-peaceful change within the collective framework utilizing all scientific and institutional means. Finally, people should carry out their responsibilities and fulfil the developmental, edificational, moral, and societal duties.
3) Message to the governments: the IUMS calls on governments to launch real and comprehensive reconciliation with their people based on justice, dignity, and positive response to their aspirations in reform, development and freedom, while refraining from tyranny, corruption, exclusion and marginalization. All this should be based on Islamic principles, national sovereignty as well as the legal responsibility of governance. Besides, the governments are called on to end unfair policies taking place against people in a number of Arab and Muslim countries. The Board also urges them to show respect for scholars and their specialized institutions, secure their positive role in bringing about awareness, education, unification and renewal. The Board stresses the necessity of freeing the imprisoned scholars, thinkers, preachers, media workers, and all the unjustly detainees. It is worth mentioning that arresting those scholars, who abide by the moderate way of thinking, and work for the interests of their Ummah, is a grave injustice, that will aggravate the problems and increase tension.
4) Message to the Elites: The Board addresses all scientific, cultural, legal, social, media and sport elites to contribute to the human development, building of nations, protection of moral values and core Islamic constants. The Board warns from the gravity of serious practices by certain elites, such as questioning the higher values and essentials, inciting scholars, thinkers, preachers and reformers, accusing individuals and bodies, and belittling the initiatives of positive reform and peaceful change. Hence, the spirit of despair and frustration may spread among young generations, in particular, in addition to inflating the causes of tension and signs of division and disunity, which possibly will nurture extremism and terrorism.
5) Message to the world: The Board urges peoples and states, and organizations all over the world to promote the values of justice, truth, peaceful coexistence, and true partnership to develop the world and establish proper life on earth according to what would please the Almighty Creator. Peoples’ cultural particularities, their right to self-determination, as well as the right to support oppressed humans should be respected. The Board calls on the freedom loving and noble supporters everywhere to double their efforts to deal with the issues that plague humanity on different levels.
The Board summons the entire Ummah to exert its utmost physical and emotional efforts in supporting their just causes and priorities, especially relating to occupied Palestine, the Judaization of Jerusalem, the illegal construction of settlements in occupied territories, the forced displacement, and the torturing the freedom seekers in their prisons, in flagrant violations of the all revealed religions as well as international laws and norms, and also to stand against persecuting the Rohingyas who suffer murder and displacement.
Fifth: the Board calls on all to pay attention to the priorities adopted by the General Assembly, the most important of which is the promotion of Islamic education and strengthening the Muslim family, and the youth in particular, against the waves of moral decay, violence, and atheism. In the same context, scholarly diligence is needed in the various issues facing Muslims in the fields of politics, society, and economy etc. in addition to reforming the flawed concepts either by outmoded cultural practices or the influence of indiscriminate imported cultures.
It is essential to liberate the collective will from laziness and defeatism, and alternatively motivate it towards construction, production, establishing life, and being witness for Allah to mankind "And thus we have made you a justly-balanced community of believers that you will be witnesses over the people…”, “He has produced you from the earth and settled you in it”, in addition to supporting the oppressed in Muslim and non-Muslim countries. The General Secretariat is urged to utilize all legitimate means for achieving these goals. The Board affirms that the Ummah, despite agonies and challenges, with all its repositories of moral power, Islamic values, civilizational will, and historical evidences, is promised to gain success and overcome hardship, “Indeed, with hardship there will be ease”.
Sixth:In conclusion, the Board of Trustees would like to express its gratitude to the Turkish people and their wise leadership, to the Municipality of Esneller for their hospitality and for facilitating the convening of this meeting. Thanks are also due to the State of Qatar, where the headquarters of IUMS is based, and to all those who contributed to the success of this meeting.
Allah is the arbiter of success