Tobago Muslim director urges life of humility

Muslims in Tobago are grateful to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr at their masjid after the covid19 pandemic shelved their 2020 and 2021 activities.

Tobago Muslim Organisation director Kameel Ali gave thanks for the month of Ramadan at the Masjid al Tawbah in Lowlands on Monday. Addressing those gathered, Ali said the lesson learnt over the last two years is of great importance.

“That lesson, is a lesson of gratitude and secondly, a lesson to never take nothing in life for granted.

He added: “For two years, this pandemic started just over two years ago and two years ago to now the world would have lost 6,500,000 people to the covid19. TT would have lost almost 4,000 people from covid19 and Tobago over 250 people from covid19...

"Those who are here today, we have to thank the Almighty creator, we have to be grateful to thank the Almighty that we are here today.”

He said some Muslims were eager to celebrate Eid but died before or during Ramadan.

“They have gone, so this is to teach us how we must humble ourselves in life. We must remember that all the nice clothes, nice car and all the things that we enjoy, we would leave it one day and every one of us irrespective of how high office we are, or how low the man on the street is, we all have to return underground one day.”

He added: “That is why we have to live a life of humbleness. We have to remember that life is so short, in the twinkle of an eye, in a split second, the dynamics of life can change so quickly – so fast, so it is very important that we have to live together, we have to live and coexist with each other. We have to understand that this life that we have here is just a temporary journey. Don’t ever take anything for granted because one day, it would be taken away from you.”

THA representative for the area, Wane Clarke, who holds the portfolio of Assistant Secretary of Community Development, Youth Development and Sport, in bringing greetings, pledged the assembly’s commitment to work alongside the community.

“I want to give you the assurance that this THA will work together with you with any youth programme. Anything that you have going on, you can always reach out to me. I want to make this commitment that we would work with you to achieve the goals that are common to us and that would make us all better.”

He added: “We have our differences but we could work to develop that. We could break down the barriers, we could do things different because after all we are all brothers and sisters and we need to continue to work to uplift each other, support each other, make each other better, be there for each other and I have no doubt that we would really be on the path to making Tobago the greatest little island on the planet.”