Royal Activities
Tuesday 23 July 2013

HM The King, Commander Of The Faithful, Chairs Fifth Ramadan Religious Lecture

HM The King, Commander Of The Faithful, Chairs Fifth Ramadan Religious Lecture

  HM King Mohammed VI, Commander of the Faithful, accompanied by HRH Prince Moulay Rachid and HH Prince Moulay Ismail, chaired on Tuesday, at the Royal Palace in Casablanca, the fifth religious lecture of the series of Hassanien talks of the holy month of Ramadan. HM the King, Commander of the Faithful, chairs fifth Ramadan religious lecture

 The lecture was given by Sheikh Mohamed Ahmed Hussein, grand Mufti of Al Quds and Palestine, under the theme "Journey to the Al Aqsa Mosque", based on the Qur'anic verse: "Glory to (God) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things )". The preacher began his lecture by insisting on the reverence, based on several hadiths, for the holy three sites namely the Al Haram mosque in Mecca, the prophet's mosque in Medina and the Al Aqsa mosque. If the Al Haram mosque is sacred because it is the first to be built by angels and if the Medina mosque is holy because it is the prophet's mosque, the Al Aqsa mosque is the cradle of all heavenly religions and the land of prophets since prophet Ibrahim till prophet Jesus and Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).

The lecturer said that God's command to the prophet to undertake the Al Quds journey, that took him also to the other two sites of Islam, is meaningful given the current juncture marked by what Palestinians are enduring because of the Israeli occupation which destroys buildings even those of Islamic endowments meant to serve the community. This journey to the Al Aqsa mosque for religious purposes is in line with the concern, which should be every Muslim's, to support his co-religionists facing hardship, Sheikh Mohamed Ahmed Hussein said, hailing the interest of HM the King, president of Al Quds Committee, in the Al Aqsa Mosque and in leading actions by the Moroccan people to defend and protect the sacred sites of the holy city. He also recalled the venerable place the Islamic Ummah has always given to the Al Aqsa mosque as Islam is the confirmation and fulfillment of previous revealed messages. The Al Aqsa mosque has been the target of desecration and denaturation acts including digging tunnels under its foundations for so-called archaeological research, deplored the lecturer, noting that such acts aim to destabilize the structures, assert hypothetical claims, and even take over the sites in a flagrant violation of international law.

At the end of the lecture, HM the King was greeted by Sheikh Mohamed Ahmed Hussein, Sheikh Abdellah Ben Biya, Mauritanian scholar and professor at the King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, professor Chaikhouna Ben Abdellah Ben Beyah (KSA), director of the world's center of Islamic revival in UK, professor Mohamed Mokhtar Dherar Al Moufti, member of the teaching staff at the Fiqh studies faculty at the Ahl Al Bayt university, Abdelmajid Daoud, Nigerian scholar and Professor Madani Tall, Senegalese scholar. The Sovereign was also greeted by pr. Ahmed Nafie, vice president of the Islamic Council of Niger, pr. Abderrahmane Ahmadou Toujani, permanent secretary of the Islamic Council of Niger, pr. Abubakr Fofana, President of the Higher Council of Imams of Côte d'Ivoire and pr. Mamadou Traoré, Imam and preacher of the Gulf Rivera Mosque in Côte d'Ivoire.

Minister of Islamic Affairs Ahmed Toufiq presented to HM the King a first batch of publications namely the booklet on "simplified Moroccan calligraphy" by calligrapher Mohamed Lamaâlmine, the book "Nadhm Laalie Assamt fi Housne Takwim Badie Al Khatt" by Ahmed Ben Mohamed Ben Kacem El Rifai Hassani Ribati (book annotated by pr. Mohamed Sabri ), "the fundamentalist lexicon by Abu Al Walid El baji" by dr. Larbi Bouhali, "the Heritage of Sheikh Al Ahssane Al Baakili in fiqh, its foundations and Sufism " by pr. Mostapha Samadi (in two volumes), "index of manuscripts from the library of Moulay Idriss Al Akbar in Zerhun" (under the supervision of professors Abdelhamid El Alami and Abdelhaq Ourika, and the issues 402, 403 and 404 of the magazine Daouat Al Haq.