Emerge from Ramadan to promote national peace, unity - Veep tells Muslims at Iftar

The Vice-President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has advised Muslims to emerge from the Ramadan (month of fasting) with a renewed commitment to promote national peace, unity and development.

“The month of Ramadan, which we are yet to conclude, is a month in which Muslims around the world are reminded of the values that are crucial to leadership, driven by public morality and targeted at effective governance,” he said.

Those values, he said, included tolerance, patience, fairness, forgiveness, charity, sacrifice, among others.

The Vice-President gave the advice when he hosted a section of the Muslim community to Iftar, a break from the Ramadan fast, at the Flagstaff House last Wednesday night.

IFTAR

The Iftar is the meal served at the end of the day during Ramadan to break the day's fast. Literally meaning ‘break fast’, it is served at sunset each day during the Ramadan. It is often done as a communal thing, with people gathering to break their fast together.

Many Muslims believe that feeding someone at Iftar as a form of charity is very rewarding and that such was practised by the Prophet Muhammad.

Peace

The Vice-President said Ramadan was a period of contemplation, reflection, compassion and reconciliation for the benefit of self and society, both spiritually and materially.

The observance of Ramadan, he said, ought to be a means of bringing strength and the earnest will to live in peace together with fellow humans.

He, therefore, called on the Muslim fraternity to extend their hand to all humanity in genuine brotherliness, saying the quest for peace was an inherent attribute of the great founders of the various faiths who practised fasting and self-denial as the path to spiritual enlightenment and the promotion of peace, love, mercy, justice and forgiveness.

Dr Bawumia said it was crucial for every leader to imbibe those basic tenets that Islam and other religions promoted as the bedrock of ethical living in society.

While declaring that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was a man of peace and tolerance, the Vice-President said the avowed passion of the President was to see all Ghanaians living together in peace, irrespective of their varied backgrounds.

Total inclusion

The President, he said, would not want to see any group left out in national development engagement, stressing: “We want to have a Ghana where everybody is included in our development, and this is why President Nana Akufo-Addo has put together the Zongo Development Fund.”

He said it was an imposing mark in the history of the country for the President, apart from setting up that fund, to appoint a minister for Inner City and Zongo Development to ensure that all sections of society were involved in national development.

Dr Bawumia described the Chief Imam, Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharabutu, who was present at the event, as the embodiment of the Islamic religion in the country and prayed for Allah’s blessings for a spirited leadership for the benefit of all.

Present at the event were ministers of state, Members of Parliament (MPs), the President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi; the Black Stars coach, Mr Kwesi Appiah; Black Star players Dede Ayew, Majid Waris and Sulley Muntari and some members of the Diplomatic Corps.