BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

To become nation that develops true to commandments, teachings of God

RELIGIOUS education should be compulsory, an obligation and not a choice, so as to create the kind of development that follows the teachings of Allah and His Prophet which can bring blessings and benefits to the country, said His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam last night.

During the Nuzul Al-Quran National Celebration at the International Convention Centre (ICC) yesterday, His Majesty, in his titah, urged Muslims nationwide to strengthen their religious knowledge, as something that is ever present in their lives, towards achieving development that stays true to the commandments and teachings of God.

"Once this happens, then we can be eligible and capable of becoming a nation that is aware of Al-Quran and religion without feeling the need to be worried about the existence of those who have gone astray," said His Majesty, adding that this is what he envisions for the country.

"Al-Quran to us is everything. It is our friend, our companion, our teacher as well as our sustenance, our clothing and our enrichment," he said.

The monarch went on to say that a person who associates himself with Al-Quran is a person who submits to God and he accepts, without a doubt, every revelation and lesson that comes from Al-Quran.

"To stray from Al-Quran means to stray from Allah. It also applies to those who stray from its commandments," he said.

"History has proven that violating the certainty and commandments of God usually brings grave consequences and this can be observed from previous stories of our Ummah that has been mentioned by Al-Quran."

He added that all these serve as examples or lessons for the following Ummah, not excluding the Ummah of our time.

"It is not that people don't want to learn from them, but because of bad habits and being embraced by temptation, they have forgotten this important example."

Therefore, His Majesty said that it is the human's own hand that disobeys God's commandments, by continually violating the certainty of Halal and Haram in food, in socialising and the like, that has brought forth Allah's wrath in the form of natural disasters, famine, disease, turmoil and others.

"This is why our country will remain consistent to our own ways," he said, adding that we shall work and develop following the guidance of Allah and the Prophet.

He continued by saying that there is no other development that is better than the kind of development that is centred around Allah's commandments and guidance.

The Brunei Times