Amir Abdur Rahman Khan’s Islamic New Year’s speech, as recorded and as read out to people all over Afghanistan in the first Friday sermon of the new yearIt has been twenty years since the Will of God was made manifest to us and our glorious nation was freed from the suffering of war and chaos. It has been twenty years since the people and tribes of Afghanistan raised me above them, with God’s Will, and pledged their allegiance to the one, Islamic Amir of Afghanistan.
When I first laid my eyes upon you all, and upon this nation, all those years ago, it was with great sadness that I looked, but also with great hope. For I saw a people who had been battered by the years, by wars and foreign attacks against us. I saw a people who had been let down by one ruler after another, crushed by one invader after another, and impoverished by one deteriorating year after another. But I witnessed a people who had not lost hope, I witnessed tigers who were strong in faith and intellect, prepared to lash out against all enemies. I looked towards you then, as I do now, and you looked towards me, seeing in me the salvation which all prayed for through all the dark years. You put your trust in me, pledged your allegiance to me, and I readily took this weighty burden upon my shoulders, for the sake of my nation and my people, for all of you who are my brethren and loved ones. I pray to the Almighty God that I have done right by you and that today you see an Afghanistan prepared to rise from the ashes and the ruins.
Where before we were nothing but separate, warring cities and tribes, today we are unified as one nation, one people, with one Amir, Khan and Chief – I did not impose myself upon you, but it was you who came to me, and I who willingly serve my people. These last twenty years have been difficult, they have been difficult for you as much as they have been for me. We have battled and endeavoured to create a stable nation, a more centralised nation with an all-reaching government, a nation worthy of all Afghans. Today I command in Kabul and those in Herat obey, I speak in Kandahar and those in Mazar-i-Sharif hear. It was not always so, and in this year, this centralised nation will take its final form, so that we can turn a new page in our nation’s history.
We will no longer be riddled with worries of instability and insurgencies, no, we have become more elevated. We will now work towards the progress of our nation and not simply keeping it intact, we will work towards the happiness and enrichment of our people, we will work towards building a Muslim nation like that of our predecessors, the Timurids and the Mughal, the Umayyads and the Abbasids and the Mamelukes; we will work towards creating the New Muslim State, the reincarnation of the divine Rashidun Caliphate, that our people may rise from the darkness of ignorance and into the light of knowledge and wisdom and enlightenment.
My people, I have never hidden anything from you, when I first made contact with the British, it was before all of you that I wrote the letter, and your approval that I sought, and I do not hide from you that weak grows my body which once was strong, which once rode into battle and brought down our foes. The Almighty God has written for each soul its prescribed date, and none can hide or run from it. A new epoch has begun for our rising nation, but perhaps the Almighty may see it fitting that a new generation oversee this new epoch. So, remember the words of God should my soul depart today, tomorrow or in a year, and remember the words of God whether I remain with you or ascend to the Almighty:
“And hold fast, all together, by the rope which Allah (stretches out for you), and be not divided among yourselves; and remember with gratitude Allah's favour on you; for ye were enemies and He joined your hearts in love, so that by His Grace, ye became brethren”
Keep these verses of the Almighty God always in your heart, and do not become divided! My people, I warn you of the calamities of division, for it is through the cracks that the devils creep, and through them that our defeat emerges, and through them that we fall into the abyss of darkness and destruction. Peace and eternal unity be upon you all, and the blessings and mercy of the Most High.
Abdur Rahman Khan, By the Will and Might of the Most High, the Iron Amir of the Emirate of Afghanistan, Light of the Nation and Religion, Khan of the Tribes
Frettzo
Vec
Lord Zee
Double Capybara
