Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Official Report 1144KB pdf

Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. Our first item of business today is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader is Madinah Javed of Andalus Glasgow, who is a law graduate, peace activist and campaigner for women’s rights to perform public Qur’an recitations.

Presiding Officer and members of the Scottish Parliament, thank you for the opportunity to address you today.

Two years ago, I was invited to the same cathedral in which I had spent my childhood attending the Montessori nursery. My local Christian friends welcomed me back to St Mary’s cathedral in Glasgow to share a recitation of the Qur’an. I was touched when the congregation came up to thank me and express how moved they were. News of the event reached all corners of the world. There was an outcry from groups in America. As offensive and threatening messages were sent, the congregation showed me an outpouring of love, support and kindness.

Madinah Javed recited from the Qur’an in Arabic and provided the following translation.

“O humankind! We created you from a male and female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you might come to know each other.”

During Eastertide, Dr Greta-Mary Hair, whom I met at the cathedral, sent me a card wishing me a wonderful Ramadan with a gift of a box of ma’amoul, which are pastries from the middle east that are made with dates. She told me that the design on top of the pastries represents the crown of thorns and that the pastries are shared between Muslims and Christians. We had run out of dates to break our fast that evening, so I had one of Greta-Mary’s ma’amoul. The reward of my fast was thus shared with her, as whoever feeds a fasting person will have the reward of their fast too.

Ramadan is here once more. The purpose of fasting is to reconnect with God, to renew intentions and to recognise the potential within oneself to be a more beautiful-hearted human being.

Love of God does not mean much at all if it does not mean love for our neighbours. We draw closer to God when we draw closer to one another. At St Mary’s cathedral, we all came together to know one another. We must all come together—people of faith and people of no faith at all.

Madinah Javed recited from the Qur’an in Arabic and provided the following translation.

“Each person faces a particular direction so race each other to do good deeds. Wherever you are, God will bring you all together. God has power over all things.”