Staff Reporter Islamabad
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday announced the formation of the Rehmatul-lil-Aalameen Authority that would be responsible for researching how best to disseminate lessons from the life of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) to the masses.
The prime minister was addressing the Ashra-e-Rehmat-ul-Lil-Aalameen (PBUH) conference in Islamabad to kick off the ten-day celebration period till the 13th of Rabiul Awwal.
He said the new authority would be composed of scholars who would be tasked with researching how to spread the Prophet’s (PBUH) teachings among children and adults and make it relevant to their lives.
“I will be the patron myself but we have started searching for a person who has written books of tafsir, has great command [over religion] and is a scholar for the chairman.
“There will be an international advisory board above him on which we will bring the Muslim world’s top scholars — we have looked at many names and are approaching them as well,” the prime minister said.
He said Islam was a religion of peace and humanity and the West did not understand it so the authority would also be tasked with explaining Islam to the world. “When they educate the world about the Prophet’s (PBUH) life, people will understand that Islam is a religion of humanity,” the premier added.
The scholars in the authority would be also be charged with monitoring the schools’ curriculum and how the course on the Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) biography was being taught and whether any changes were required to improve it.
“Side-by-side we will teach other religions as well such as Hindu[ism] and Sikh[ism] because all religions talk about humanity so we would want all of them to be aware of their religion.”
Additionally, the board of scholars would also be responsible for carrying out and promoting research in universities such as the causes behind the sudden ascent of Muslims after Islam’s arrival.
The prime minister outlined other aspects of research as well such as analysing the strengths and weaknesses of Western culture.
“Research should be conducted on topics such as whether our divorces have increased and what is the impact of this,” he said.
Similarly, the premier said that a scholar would be responsible for monitoring the media as well, including all mediums from print to social media.
“We cannot stop but we can provide alternatives,” he added. The prime minister also specifically emphasised upon the importance of cartoons, saying that presently, cartoons being shown to children were “a form of indoctrination and alien culture”.
“We cannot stop them but we should make our own cartoons to teach our children about our culture,” he stressed. Prime Minister Imran said any society whose morals were on the decline could not rise.
“Analyse the rise and fall of empires, when they decline, first their morals decline and then financial destruction follows,” he said.
The premier said social ills such as corruption and stealing public money could not stop until the society at large objected to them.
He noted that the Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity panel had found that the real reason for poverty in developing countries was “leaders stealing money [and stashing it] abroad”.
