Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama, Member of Parliament (MP) for Yendi and Chairman of the Muslim Caucus of Parliament said Muslims must always see themselves as one in humanity and wish for its neighbors and fellow citizens all the good things they wish for themselves.
“Allah tells us in the Holy Quran that he has created us all out of a single soul. The Prophet Mohammed also teaches us in his Hadith that our practice of Islam will not be complete until we love our brothers how much we love ourselves.”
He said it was compelling that the Muslim brotherhood established for us by our Prophet is more stronger than party colours and ethnicity as the Prophet described our brotherhood as a building where the bricks depend on one another.
Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama said the description of the Muslim brotherhood was what defines the Muslim Caucus of Parliament and their relationship with one another from different political parties and as Citizens of Ghana working together.
“We sometimes disagree on how to govern, but always accept our differences and forge ahead together in the interest of our country Ghana”.
He made the remarks at the 13th Annual Night of Power organised by the Muslim Caucus of Parliament in collaboration with the Parliamentary Service at the Parliament House in Accra.
The “Night of Power” is sacrosanct to every believing Muslim. It was the Night in which our Holy Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) had his first spiritual encounter with the Arch Angel Gabriel where the first six verses of the Holy Quran were revealed and eventually culminated to the establishment of Islam.
Islam means peace and submission to the Sovereign Will of Allah, and for us to become successful in this life and the hereafter, we must first of all make peace with Allah, peace with ourselves and peace with other creations of Allah.
This year’s Night of Power is on the theme: “Peace, Unity and Tolerance: The Road-Map to Prosperous Ghana”.
The MP said no nation in the world can prosper without peace and that it was important for us to know and understand that Peace is a bio-product of justice that is based on equity, equality, tolerance, honesty and respect for human dignity.
“Even as we desire in our various political parties to run the affairs of our country, we should carry out our campaigns with respect, dignity and liberties of one another without insults and false accusations against one another as Muslims.
He urged Muslims in Ghana to be proud of their Members of Parliament as they continue to truly serve their interest in Parliament.
“As Ghanaian Muslim MP’s, we have over the years worked hard to protect the interest of Muslims in the legislative process in the Parliament of Ghana and always stand united on matters affecting the lives of Muslim without taking our party affiliation into consideration”.
The Muslim Caucus Chairman revealed that in order to ameliorate the extreme poverty of Muslims in Ghana, the Caucus collaborated with the National Chief Imam and other Imams to establish an Independent Zakat and Sadaqa Institution which is being managed by credible Board of Trustees currently under the Chairmanship of Chief Alhassan Andani, a renowned Banker and Traditional Chief.
“The Fund now have Branches in Tamale, Kumasi and Takoradi and is in the Process of acquiring Lands for future developmental purposes and it is our hope that the Trustees will work hard to open offices in the remaining Regions of the Country”.
He said the Controller and Accountant General had provided the fund with two different Codes since its establishment in 2010 to enable Civil servants pay their annual Zakat and Sadaqa from their salaries, whilst the Ghana Police Service has now taken the lead from Parliament as the leading institution in the payment of Zakat and Sadaqa to help the needy.
“We express our profound gratitude to the former IGP, Mr. Ahmed Alhassan for ensuring that all Muslim Police Officers during his tenure signed up to the Zakat Fund. We also urged Muslims in other Public and Civil Service to emulate the shining example of the Police Service by taking advantage of the Code provided by the Accountant General to meet their Zakat and Sadaqa obligations.
“The Fund Trustees has also opened accounts in about 11 different Banks who have branches across the country. This is to enable Muslim operating in the private sector to pay from their annual salaries by Standing Orders and also as their Corporate Social Responsibility support into the Fund”.
“Today, many Muslims are in our various Universities, some of which obtain scholarship every year to study in Malaysia under a collaborative programme between the Fund and Al-Bukhari University of Malaysia and many stranded Muslims and non-Muslims at our various hospitals across the country benefit from the support of the Fund. Also many poor people have been supported to raise capital to start small scale businesses out of the economic empowerment programme of the Fund”.
Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama urged Muslims to take advantage of the SMS Code provided to donate at least One Cedi a month into the Fund.
He mentioned that the Muslim Caucus again collaborated with the National Chief Imam and the national Imams of the four main Muslim sects to establish the National Muslim Conference of Ghana (NMCG), which objective is to be the official mouthpiece of the Muslim Community in their dealings with three main arms of Government.
“As a matter of fact, the NMCG has even become proactive by submitting the needs of the Muslim communities to political parties to be captured in their Manifestoes in order for them to secure our votes”.
The Yendi Legislator recognize and gives gratitude to the Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Alban Sumana Bagbin for his continuous support to the Muslim Caucus and the former Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye for being the First Speaker to give approval to enable the Parliamentary Service Board to adopt the full budget of the observance of the Night of Power.
He thanked the Muslim Staff of Parliament for their untiring support to the activities of the Muslim Caucus, the Diplomatic community, Muslim chiefs and other Muslim organizations for helping the Caucus in diverse ways.
“We also thanked the media, especially the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) for its faithfulness to the Muslim Caucus by bringing our programmes live to the homes of Ghanaians across the country since 2011.
