All praises to Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. We thank Him for giving us yet another opportunity to fast the month of Ramadhan and reap the spiritual blessings. We thank Him for all of His wonderful gifts upon us that we enjoy today: gift of faith, gift of life, health, family; we thank Him for this wonderful country that we call our home, where we enjoy peace and security.
Brothers and sisters,
I greet you all with a happy greeting of Eid. I pray that the Beneficent Lord grant us many more ramadhans to fast, redeem ourselves and come closer to Him. I pray that He accepts our fasts, prayers, charities, supplications, devotions and virtuous deeds in the blessed month; may He also bless us to keep the fragrance of the month in the weeks and months ahead of us.

Brothers and sisters,
We are living in difficult times. These are the times that the Prophet described as the times of fitan; crises coming one after another; crises that shake our faith and test our patience. In these difficult times Muslims need to keep alive the spirit and lessons of Ramadhan: lessons of self-restraint, patience, forbearance and compassion.

Today more than ever we are called upon to embrace the spirit of Ramadhan in face of the greatest challenges facing us today.

There are two types of challenges facing Muslims today.

First and foremost, we are faced with ignorance and extremism in our midst which have invited others to target us. We know that Islam is peace and yet the actions of many among us show otherwise; we say Islam is mercy and yet there are Muslims who don't hesitate to kill each other as well as others as if they were flies. We say Islam is discipline and self-restraint and yet we easily become impatient.
Extremism is a disease we must deal with. There is no way for us to move forward, unless we take responsibility for changing our conditions. "....Verily Allah will not change the conditions of a people unless they change their inner conditions." (Qur'an: 13: 11
The change can only come through education. Our children and youth need to be educated in the morals, character and virtues of Islam; we need to make them exemplars of mercy and compassion. We need to teach them values and principles; we need to nurture them as leaders who shall stand forth as witnesses of justice and compassion for all humanity. This is our mandate in the Qur'an.

"O YOU who have attained to faith! Be ever steadfast in your devotion to God, bearing witness to the truth in all equity; and never let hatred of any-one lead you into the sin of deviating from justice. Be just: this is closest to being God-conscious. And remain conscious of God: verily, God is aware of all that you do." (Qur'an:5:

To me extremism and ignorance are the greatest challenges Muslims face today; we need to come out and oppose and silence those who want to turn Islam into a faith that is against the world. We are the world; we are the humanity, and we are for peace. We are for peaceful co-existence with all. We are for mutual respect and tolerance.

In face of such challenges, every Muslim is challenged to be a true ambassador of Islam: to stop simply parroting the Quran and be determined to study the message, to live its lessons and practice them so that we become beacons of remembrance of God in a world sliding into materialism and anarchy.
In face of increasing Islamophobia we need to reach out to all other communities in a true spirit of good will and cooperation on projects of virtue and compassion. We need to demonstrate through our actions that we are for living in peace, in mutual respect with all the people.
Let us remember that we cannot expect justice from others unless we treat others with justice. This is the most beautiful example set by our beloved Prophet (peace be upon him) and his pious caliphs for they acted justly towards all people.
May Allah help us all to respond to the Qur'anic message with faith and commitment, and may He forgive our shortcomings and failings and make us instruments of peace and good will in a world torn asunder by wars, antagonism, racism, and xenophobia.

Ramadan Kareem