In the name of Allah, Most Gracious and Most Merciful.

All praise to the Almighty Allah, who created life and death in order to test the virtue of people, and who has in stock for the most devoted to His Cause the greatest rewards for their noble deeds.  May the Great Allah bless His last Prophet Muhammad, His family and all His Companions, who were distinguished for their prominent deeds and their faith.

Respected Brethren!

The conception of peace and friendship appeared at the very outset of all religions. In Islam, this conception is closely linked together with the all-embracing and conscious outlook at the Universe, life and finally, Man.  Man is the highest creation of the Great Allah. When creating Man, Allah prefered to make him differ from all other creatures, awarding him with developed intellect, the ability to feel the joy of life and the mercy of the Almighty. Leading the human race on the right path in this world, Allah revealed to people through His Prophets His Messages. His Prophets and Messengers (may Allah bless them), inspite of great difficulties they met on their way, urged people to live in brotherhood, commanded them to learn, know each other, to love each other and to perform noble deeds. All these perfect qualities were installed in the very nature of the future man, in order that he may always keep in his mind the grace of his creator.

The man was also awarded with ability to understand his environment in order to be able to study all God's creations that surround him. He was created in order to pass his trial, to be tested in this world. Great thinkers taught people to live and create, remembering about their origin. They showed them the way how to pass their trials without failure.

Allah the Most High created all people from one root. Our Prophet (may Allah bless Him) told in His farewell Sermon: “Oh, people, verily your Lord is one, and you are from one father. We all are from Adam....”

And Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib said: "Verily all people are equal by their birth. Their father is Adam and their mother is Eve".

We find in this unity of our origine the mutual understanding among different human races. "I has the existence of collaboration and mutual assistance for the benefit of the good and progress is not at all an astonishing phenomenon. Collaboration is a natural state of things. It only proves that ties of relationship unite all human beings on earth. We understand quite well that we were created by the Almighty Allah and divided into tribes and nations not to indulge in discords and hostilities, not for the sake of war and mutual hatred, but for the sake of friendship and brotherhood. It is said in the Holy Quran: “O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that you may know one another. Lo! the noblest of you in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct.” (49/13).

The religion of our revered Prophet teaches us—Muslims to love and to respect all people on earth. Islam always proclaimed friendship and brotherhood, but never did it proclaim hatred. It called to unity, but never to estrangement. It is why all of us, all those who believe, all people of the world at large, must consolidate the principles of accord and the links of love among themselves. Only then the human race wall be able to live in peace and man’s labour on earth will bring him happiness. Only friendship is the salvation of the man from dangerous conflicts of all kinds. Verily all nations of the world can achieve a calm life only through friendship and brotherhood. We inherited this conception from our Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless Him) and his companions, from the great Islamic thinkers. They taught Muslims to love a man and to pay tribute to his kindness and virtues. It is the way our proud and honest, God-fearing and righteous ancestors lived. And we too are obliged to live in the same way, as we are hairs and followers of those, who stood with dignity by the very source of peacemaking.

Islam teaches us to spread ideas of friendship, brotherhood and mutual assistance, as well as to struggle against all kinds of hostility and hatred. Islam appeals to all people, notwithstanding their racial or religious adherence, to consolidate brotherhood and mercy, but doing so it recommends to reject fanatism, treachery and aggression from their mutual relations. And there is not any doubt that our revered Prophet was most pleased, when discovering virtue in people who surrounded him, because he considered that virtue was the very means of asserting friendship and peace as well as help to the weak and needy. Exactly such an approach would contribute to the elimination of all causes of discord and disunity in any society. The man armed with humane ideas of his religion can become gracious even to his enemy, if the latter would ask him for mercy.

“And if they incline to peace, incline thou also to it, and trust in Allah.” (8/63 (61).

In this way we shall fulfil the holy command of the Quran-Karim about reconciliation, and we shall be able to preserve the most precious blessing of humanity — peace and tranquillity.

Dear brethren! Unfortunately, there are many groups of people today, who violate these sacred precepts. Life on earth has become dependent upon aggressive designs of some evil cliques. In order to achieve world domination and hegemony over everybody, the imperialist circles are arming themselves in an unprecedented way. And all this huge arsenal of arms is aimed at the progressive mankind, against the world civilization. We, Soviet Muslims, like all Soviet people, know very well the price of war, and understand very clearly what the present international situation may lead to.

Thus, expressing the will of all Muslims, of the Soviet people as a whole, we actively participate in the movement of peace champions and support the idea of settling the existing conflicts in a peaceful way.

We believe that the world is subjected to sound intellect, but not to "hot heads" of individual rulers.

We are praying to the Almighty Allah for lasting peace on earth. We implore Allah the Most High to punish all those, who violate the sacred rights of men and above all the right to live, the right to enjoy peace.

May peace prevail in the world at large!

   Amen.

Source: Muslims of the Soviet East, 1984, no. 4, pp. 3-4; English text as published.