Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection, for which our leader today is Ms Samina Ansari, who is the employability co-ordinator at Amina—the Muslim Women’s Resource Centre, in Glasgow.
Presiding Officer, members of the Scottish Parliament: thank you for inviting me to address you today.
A man whom I have never met, never heard speak and never even seen a picture of, but whom I love and respect so very dearly, taught me, and millions of others, to love for my brothers and sisters—Muslim or not Muslim—what I love for myself: to treat others how I want to be treated.
The Prophet Mohammed—peace and blessings be upon him—said:
“None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.”
What is it that we love for ourselves? Is it respect and honour, or to be understood and valued? Is it to be comfortable and have good things in life? I work with some of the most isolated and vulnerable women in the community, who are often invisible to the rest of the world. They are women who desperately want to be a part of society: they want to be valued and respected and to give their children the opportunities and the things that they never had in life.
How many of us take the same route to work day in, day out and week in, week out? We see the same faces and the same people, not knowing their stories or anything about them—not knowing their struggle. We all have struggles.
It is the small acts of kindness that show respect, compassion and love for one another. Recently, a friend of mine reminded me that giving is not always monetary. We were passing by a young homeless gentleman, who was sitting in the freezing cold and pouring rain. I searched for change and felt frustrated because I thought that I had nothing to give. At the same time, my friend opened her handbag, handed over her lunch and started chatting to that man. The respect and time that she gave him was probably more valuable than the actual food. So many passers-by were pretending that the young gentleman was not there. They thought that it was not their problem—or, like me perhaps, they thought that they had nothing to give at that time. Here is the thing: we all have something to give, even if it is a smile, a hello, a kind gesture or a few minutes of our time.
I urge you, as men and women in positions of power and influence, to know the communities that you serve and represent, and never to forget to love for the people what you love for yourselves, and to desire for the people what you desire for yourselves.