The fol­low­ing is a mes­sage from the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion on the oc­ca­sion of Eid-ul-Fitr:

As we mark the spe­cial and sa­cred day of Eid-ul-Fitr, we do so in­spired by the mes­sage this aus­pi­cious day of­fers us each year, Al­lah’s love for all of hu­man­i­ty will al­ways pre­vail.

As Mus­lims in Trinidad and To­ba­go and around the world pre­pare to cel­e­brate the holy oc­ca­sion of Eid-ul-Fitr, I wish every­one cel­e­brat­ing a hap­py and blessed Eid.

The sight­ing of the cres­cent moon of­fers a glim­mer of hope, af­ter a pe­ri­od of sac­ri­fice, fast­ing, and prayer. As we all have, Mus­lims have en­dured two years of re­stric­tions as we dealt with the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. This year, the oc­ca­sion of Eid-ul-Fitr is even more joy­ous, as once again mem­bers of the Is­lam­ic faith are able to gath­er and mark their re­li­gious fes­tiv­i­ties with their fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties safe­ly and re­spon­si­bly.

The Holy Quran tells us, “So ver­i­ly, with the hard­ship, there is re­lief. Ver­i­ly, with the hard­ship, there is re­lief” [Quran 94:5-6]

In the past two years there has been no short­age of hard­ship fac­ing our cit­i­zens, from eco­nom­ic to so­cial as a re­sult of the pre­vail­ing pan­dem­ic, but our Mus­lim broth­ers and sis­ters, through their ded­i­ca­tion to­wards Al­lah as well as faith in his teach­ings have al­ways in­spired us to know that with Al­lah’s grace, re­lief will al­ways come.

In ad­di­tion to fast­ing and re­flec­tion, dur­ing the Holy month of Ra­madan, and through­out the year, mem­bers of the faith en­gage in za­kat (char­i­ty), which is one of the five pil­lars of Is­lam. They pro­vid­ed hope to many cur­rent­ly fac­ing dif­fi­cul­ties and have demon­strat­ed the im­por­tance of uni­ty and com­mit­ment to ser­vice to Al­lah and to their fel­low man.

If there is one mes­sage we as a na­tion should take from our Is­lam­ic Com­mu­ni­ty as they cel­e­brate this spe­cial and blessed day, it is that the great­est re­ward to hu­man­i­ty, the great­est so­lu­tion to our prob­lems as well as the great­est guar­an­tee of a bet­ter to­mor­row is un­wa­ver­ing be­lief in Al­lah.

As we pre­pare to face chal­lenges ahead as a na­tion, we can draw in­spi­ra­tion from the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty for their dis­ci­pline, re­solve, and strength of faith.

Even though our coun­try is fac­ing a dark time, a time of un­cer­tain­ty and ad­ver­si­ty, we have hope that to­geth­er we can over­come these chal­lenges and emerge stronger and more unit­ed.

On this joy­ous oc­ca­sion of Eid-ul-Fitr, I wish all good health, pros­per­i­ty and peace.

Eid Mubarak!

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