Awarded
at the 2008 Global Peace and Unity Event – sponsored by the Islam Channel
(www.islamchannel.tv)
October
25th/26th, at Excel, London
I
was absolutely delighted to have been one of 16 nominees shortlisted for a
Lifetime Achievement Award to be given at the 2008 Global Peace and Unity Event
sponsored by the Islam Channel TV at the Excel Building in London, and to have
been selected as one of the four people awarded, along with Dr Akbar Ali (the
founder of the Abdullah Quilliam Society in Liverpool - Muslim Heritage Award);
Shaikh Suhaib Hasan (of the al-Qur’an Society and Islamic Shari’ah Council -
Dawah Award); and Yusuf Hansa (the chairman of the registered charity Noor ul-Islam
- Services to the Community Award). My own award was for Literature, and I
appreciate the honour paid to me very much indeed.
I was able to be accompanied by my mother Doris E. Pullen, now in her late eighties, my sister Ellena Rushbrook, and my grandson Harris Kendrick. Mother and grandson were both thrilled to be roped in to make an appearance in the limelight on the Excel stage – my mother to hand over my award, and Harris to carry on stage the award for Dr Akbar Ali. It was a most enjoyable event – the highlight for me being my meeting ‘offstage’ with the venerable peace-campaigning politician Mr Tony Benn, to the disappointment of Ellena who has been one of his fans for many years and was only brought backstage too late to meet him. I was able to write to him afterwards, and was rewarded for that my a personal telephone call from him. How very kind! All in all, a wonderful day for me, for which many, many thanks.
I
was allowed to give a one-minute speech, which went as follows:
My
dear brothers and sisters, asalaam aleikum wa rahmatullah. Our dear Prophet (pbuh)
spent his lifetime after his call being urged to ‘Recite! Recite! Recite!’
It was his mission to speak God’s words, to tell people the message. In my
case, I have spent my life under compulsion to ‘Write! Write! Write!’ I
commenced writing at a very early age, and since my conversion to Islam in 1986,
have devoted most of my time to books introducing or explaining Islam to others.
If
any of you in my audience are feeling the urge to become writers too, let me
tell you that I feel you need these three things – the gift of simplicity,
so that people can understand what it is you have to say; the character
to be ‘quirky’, and to see things in a somewhat different way to others,
in order to be original; and the ability to be pragmatic, to take
an over-view of what is important and to put it across.
The
Prophet urged us to remember that four things were very important in life, that
we had four huge responsibilities. When we faced our judgement, we would be
answerable as to:
our
bodies, and how we used them
our
lives, and how we spent them
our
money and how we earned it, and
our
knowledge, and what we did with it.
We
have such limited freedom. We don’t choose our people, or our place in the
world. We don’t know how long we’ve got, or when, where or how our souls
will be taken back from us. Here I am, but I may not even arrive at the end of
this little speech. Each breath we take is a gift.
This
is Allah’s world, and we are His khilafah, His agents in caring for it.
It is not our business to hate this world, or abuse it, or pollute it, or try to
destroy it – but to LOVE it. When we find it broken, we should do our best to
mend it. Where we find it suffering, we should try to heal it.
The
Prophet taught us: ‘You shall not enter Paradise until you have faith; and you
cannot have faith until you love one another. So, have compassion on those on
earth, and God will have compassion on you.’
May
Allah bless and richly reward you. Wasalaam aleikum, Ruqaiyyah.
I
had hoped to be able to give the audience a ‘two-minute novel’, but was
timed out. For the text of this, see my articles menu, the general
section.