Respected Elders, Dignitaries and Volunteers

Salaamun Alaykum

The opening of an Educational Centre is always a moment of immense pride, complete satisfaction, and spiritually uplifting. It is therefore, with the greatest and the most intense of heartfelt emotion, that I, on behalf of the World Federation, and the Zainabia Child Sponsorship Scheme (ZCSS), in particular, have come here to share this opening with you all.

It is a fact that an educational institution is but a birthplace of radiation of knowledge. From here, the basics of the educational foundations are laid, but coming from this centre, will be students who in time, will not only be the ambassadors of this region, but of the Shia faith in particular.

And that is what our Ahlal-bayt, have always tried to teach us. Islam, is nothing, but Submission to Allah, based on knowledge, reason and intellect. It is therefore more satisfying for all our communities, worldwide, to see that the community in Meta is embarking on this mission.

For indeed, as we all know, the first Revelation to our Prophet was nothing less than Education, Education and Education. Islam, has never differentiated between “secular” and “religious” education – for both go hand in hand, for the development path to perfection of our beings, both in the Herenow and the Hereafter.

It is therefore my earnest desire and most sincere appeal to the Governors and Teachers here that neither aspect of education, secular and religious, be scarified for one or the other. Both should be given the same preference, prominence and prevalence.

What we see today is the end of a stage from when many people, but particularly you, the community in Meta have put in a lot of efforts. The ZCSS of the World Federation is but a vehicle, important as it is, to facilitate this project. On behalf of the whole team at the World Federation and the ZCSS, and our worldwide community, I thank the community in Meta for the sterling effort and dedicated sacrifices in your time, money and hard work, in coming to this stage of the opening of this new centre.

However, whilst the opening of the is centre marks the end of that initial hard work, it opens up a new phase, of even harder work of even more sacrifices and dedication, We, at World Federation, are confident, you will raise to this challenge as you have risen to others so far. The success of the graduates of this centre will be the pinnacle not only of the Meta community, but of our entire Khoja community world wide, For in this modern age of free mobility, especially of skilled professionals, the World Federation sees graduates from local regions, serving the rest of the Khoja community worldwide.

I am also extremely grateful to Stanmore Jafferys, who worked very hard in raising funds for this project. Stanmore Jafferys are the youths of the KSIMC of Stanmore, London. To raise funds for this project, these youths performed various activities during the month of Ramadhan in 2002, including sleeping outside on a bitterly cold night, doing ibadat. Let this be a lesson for the youths of Meta, especially the ones who will no doubt benefit from this centre, that Allah loves those people and those acts of ibadat that are performed to benefit others, especially those acts that are performed to spread knowledge.

I would also like to thank the HSBC Bank, for donating towards this project, and especially Brother Shaffique Govani for having facilitated this donation. Although there were many requests for donation from various charities on the HSBC, their Board was so taken by the plight of the children in Meta, that they decided to donate towards this project. Alhamdullilah!

Now it is upto you, the people who reside in Meta, to make this project a resounding success. I pray to Allah swt to give you the guidance and the determination to make sure that every child of Meta grows up to be an upright, educated and pious individual. As special requests to my fellow brothers in Meta, I would like to strongly recommend to you, not to forget to educate your girls as well. For it is in the lap of these girls that the future generation will be nurtured, and if the mothers are educated, then the whole community of the future will be educated.

I would like to once again congratulate the momineen of Meta, for this truly wonderful achievement. Well done!

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