The General President for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque, Sheikh Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, confirmed that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, directed Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman to harness all material capabilities and follow up on every small and large and the special needs for completing projects in the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque. Sheikh Al-Sudais said, in a lengthy interview conducted with him by "Okaz", with the participation of colleague Suleiman Al-Eidi, inside his office in the Grand Mosque in Mecca, that the recent visit of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the Grand Mosque had the greatest impact and support to proceed with the completion of projects in the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Civil Mosque. He added, "The Crown Prince informed me that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques will not delay in meeting any need for the projects of the Two Holy Mosques." Regarding his vision of the Islamic Summit to be held in Makkah, Sheikh Al-Sudais said that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, is the pioneer of Islamic solidarity, and is keen on the solidarity and brotherhood of Islamic countries. And he continued, "The sophistication and wisdom of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques will lead, God willing, to the success of the summit, with the support and backing of his Crown Prince, who spares no effort in strengthening Islamic solidarity." Regarding his satisfaction with the results of the plan, Sheikh Al-Sudais said: 140 initiatives have been put forward for the operational plan for the month of Ramadan in the Two Holy Mosques, and we strive to go beyond traditional and stereotyped work and move to creative work in keeping with the vision of goodness and development (Vision 2030). And he continued: “I assure you that we work in the presidency within the framework of creative and creative work,” noting that the Ramadan initiatives were launched with a general tag, “How can we be a role model?” And your safety is our goal.” Sheikh Al-Sudais said, "The service of the guests of Rahman must be at the highest level, and I am sure that all presidential employees are fully aware of this blessed responsibility that they have been assigned." And to the text of the dialogue:
• Thank you, first of all, for giving us the opportunity to dialogue with you. We know the tightness of your program and your busy schedule, especially as we are in the month of Ramadan. I begin my first question by referring to what you made clear at the launch ceremony of the Ramadan plan. The Ramadan plan for the current year was not traditional, as it relied on qualitative initiatives. You announced 140 initiatives.. What are the initiatives that have been implemented so far?
•• Thank God; We strive to go beyond traditional and stereotyped work and move to creative work within the framework of Vision 2030. And the Ramadan initiatives were launched with a general tag; And it is “How can we be an example?”, which we borrowed from the campaign launched by the Governor of Makkah Al-Mukarramah Region, Prince Khaled Al-Faisal. Likewise, “Your security is our goal, and your safety is our goal.” The presidency, as you mentioned, launched about 140 specific initiatives during the month of Ramadan. I assure you that the employees of the Presidency have implemented many initiatives, and there are initiatives on the way to implementation in the coming days. Among the most important initiatives that were implemented was the “Travelers First” initiative, through which the presidency sought to make room for the pilgrims and pilgrims to perform their rituals with ease, following the directives of the advisor of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Emir of the Makkah Region and Chairman of the Central Hajj Committee, Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, to clear the shrine and all areas designed for circumambulation and allocate them. For pilgrims only, with the exception of the five obligatory times, and the prohibition of iftar travel inside the plate, and the allocation of the basement for the seclusions from the beginning of the blessed month of Ramadan until its end.
• But.. Honestly, are you satisfied with the performance of the presidency during the month of Ramadan?
A: This is a good question, and I thank you for asking it. We, in the presidency, are striving for performance to be at the highest levels, because we are fully aware of the great responsibility that rests on our shoulders. Especially that we all in the Presidency serve the pilgrims, visitors and pilgrims to the Two Holy Mosques, and this is a great honor for all of us, and serving the Two Holy Mosques must be at the highest level.. I am sure that all the Presidency employees are fully aware of this blessed responsibility.
• What are the foundations upon which the Ramadan plan was built?
•• In fact, the Presidency’s operational plan for the month of Ramadan was developed according to the blessed vision of the Kingdom (2030), and it was carefully studied and in full cooperation with government agencies working in the service of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque, to provide the best services to the guests of Rahman, and to deliver the message of the Two Holy Mosques according to the approach of moderation and moderation. And to highlight all that is presented in the Two Holy Mosques; Because it reflects the efforts of this blessed country in providing the finest services to the Two Holy Mosques and their destinations.
• Can you shed light on the vision and message through which you establish work in the Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques?
•• The Presidency seeks to achieve the principle of good hospitality for those who intend to spread guidance to the worlds. Our mission is centered on enabling the pilgrims to perform worship and rituals with insight in a safe, pure and enriching environment, and to achieve the scholarly and advocacy message of the Two Holy Mosques, based on professional foundations, qualified human competencies, renewable technologies, effective partnerships, towards hospitality and hospitality, devoting the spirit of one work team, abandoning individualism and presenting interest. Presidency and the adoption of the methodology of one body harmonious in its actions and positions. Also, venerating the Two Holy Mosques, sensing the greatness of Muslims’ qiblah, the love of their hearts and the center of their affiliation, venerating the Prophet’s Mosque and appreciating its status is the greatest concern, as well as mastery and perfection of work and uniqueness in preparing and directing it to be a distinguished and developed model that achieves the satisfaction of the intended.
• In your speech during the inauguration of the Ramadan plan, you talked about the Presidency's adoption of creative thought. What are the mechanisms of this work?
•• Creative thought and creative work is the basis of work. We proceed from the skill of generating creative ideas, and always benefiting from developments with the eye of the explorer, researcher and implementer. The Presidency is working to develop its work mechanisms in line with the blessed Vision (2030).
• The service axis in the operational plan for the month of Ramadan is one of the important axis; Especially since it is concerned with serving pilgrims and visitors.. What has been achieved in this axis?
•• I agree with you on the importance of this axis.. In fact, the service axis is concerned with supervising the service works needed by the pilgrims and the visitor. Among the most prominent tasks of this axis: purifying the Grand Mosque, and equipping all sites with what they need of carpets and Zamzam water; Work on smooth movement and crowds, and organize the entry and exit of worshipers. In addition to organizing charitable Iftar travel, guiding the lost inside the Grand Mosque and its courtyards, as well as supervising safety deposit boxes, addressing negative phenomena that may occur, securing vehicles of all kinds for people of determination and the elderly, and supervising the toilet complexes in the courtyards of the Grand Mosque.
• Are there numbers and statistics for the services provided by the Presidency for Umrah pilgrims and visitors during the month of Ramadan?
•• We are always striving for the best, and 10,225 wheelbarrows and 1,500 electric vehicles were provided, in addition to securing 110,000 daily breakfast meals within the courtyards of the Grand Mosque, and preparing 210 doors to regulate the entry and exit of worshipers to and from the Grand Mosque, and also preparing 25,000 Zamzam water containers, In addition to the preparation of 34,591 carpets, and the issuance of 1,500 permits for fasting breakfast inside the sanctuary, and 1,041 tons of waste were removed from the beginning of Ramadan until the seventh of it, and 200 gallons of rose water were used, and about 20,000 shoe bags were consumed that were placed at the entrances of the doors, and 1,490 were issued. Fasting breakfast permit. And these numbers will increase because these statistics are for the first week only. In addition, the operational plan for the month of Ramadan included 10 axes, including the guidance and scientific axis, which is concerned with preparing and coordinating the establishment of scientific and educational lessons, courses and lectures, organizing the imam and rhetoric, and guiding and guiding pilgrims and visitors.
• How many employees participated in the implementation of the plan?
•• 12,000 male and female employees from the workforce participated in the implementation of the plan, and this number includes official, temporary, seasonal, employees, and labor in charge of purification, maintenance, and operation. And you know that the Two Holy Mosques are witnessing a large increase of pilgrims, visitors, worshipers and seclusions during the month of Ramadan, and the Presidency has mobilized all its capabilities to serve them and enable them to perform their rituals smoothly.
• The appointment of an Assistant Undersecretary for Women's Affairs in the Presidency is a quantum leap in the Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques. What is the program launched by the General Department of Women's Affairs in the month of Ramadan?
•• The General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Noble Prophet’s Mosque announced some time ago the appointment of many women in leadership positions, in a move in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, and the General Administration for Women’s Guidance and Counseling at the Grand Mosque was established, this administration that seeks to achieve the highest standards of satisfaction of beneficiaries, Opening channels of communication with female visitors to measure their level of satisfaction, seek their opinions, listen to their suggestions, find out their complaints, benefit from their experiences, touch their needs and put them at the forefront of the goals of improving and advancing services in accordance with directives and aspirations.
• permission; Does the General Directorate of Women's Affairs have any programs or initiatives during the month of Ramadan?
•• The Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques keeps pace with Vision 2030; Where the General Administration of Women's Affairs launched 30 programs that are implemented during the Ramadan season to serve women who go to the Sacred House of God. The Women's General Administration has prepared an integrated plan to implement the initiatives of the month of Ramadan and has worked to harness all the requirements and capabilities and overcome obstacles to achieve them and facilitate their progress to serve the guests of the Sacred House of God in various fields, create a spiritual atmosphere, enhance the honorable image and good impact, and instill satisfaction in the hearts of women who go to the ancient house.
Activating Ramadan initiatives to provide distinguished services to female visitors in the corridors, courtyards and facilities of the Grand Mosque, setting precise mechanisms to follow them up to ensure their success, as a contribution to the reconstruction of the Sacred House of God and investing the time of female leaders, especially since these initiatives stem from a sense of religious duty, and the national role played by the General Administration of Women's Affairs. Keeping pace with the vision of 2030.
• To what extent has the Presidency succeeded in using technology in the Two Holy Mosques?
A: In fact, the presidency considers the use of technology to be one of the basics to improve and develop performance. Finally, it launched an updated version of the “Haramain” application for smart phones as part of its operational plan for the Ramadan season, as part of its keenness to harness smart applications and modern technologies in serving the guests of Rahman. The application, in its upgraded version, contains smart services for spatial guidance for all areas inside the Grand Mosque, in addition to real-time information on crowd density around the clock, knowing the state of congestion inside the sanctuary and in the courtyards, and the status of the doors. The application also provides a service for reporting missing and lost persons inside the campus and linking them with their families in an electronic way. The application contains many services such as live broadcasts, sermons, translated lessons, guidance and etiquette.
The Presidency is working within its strategic and development plan on an integrated plan for digital transformation through which modern technologies and creative applications are harnessed to serve the pilgrims of the Two Holy Mosques and achieve the goals of the Service of the Guests of Rahman program, one of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 programs.
• Moving on to the general axes, where we noticed this year a distinguished program by launching a program of rare recitations, preaching radiances, and excerpts from the Friday sermon?
•• The Department of Imams and Muezzins Affairs, in cooperation with their colleagues in information and communication technology, has launched a program through which we aim to link pilgrims and visitors with scientific and preaching products. For this matter, we have dedicated a work team that selects features from the sermons in the Two Holy Mosques, including the pulpit of the Grand Mosque of Mecca and the pulpit of the Grand Mosque, and raises them to Communication sites after the end of scientific lessons and pulpit speeches, and we found this matter a blessed echo. We also completed excerpts from the rare recitations of the imams of the Two Holy Mosques, linking the sanctuary with its imams, and the recipient found spirituality, good voice, and selection of the sweetest voices, in fulfillment of his saying, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, “I have been given a flute from the psalms of the family of David.”
• Among the blessed projects, the Institute, the Al-Haramain Academy and the Al-Haram Library have made commendable scientific efforts. What are the goals of these projects?
•• There is no doubt that scientific and intellectual communication is something that was taken into account when designing initiatives, and this program took a role and place in launching several specialized scientific programs supervised by eminent scholars of knowledge and specialization, and for this we prepared the cultural program for the Institute and Library of the Grand Mosque in Makkah Al-Sharif and similar ones in Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah And we launched the Answer to the Questioners program and the accompanying scientific program, which is issued on a daily schedule to deliver lectures and scientific lessons, but the library in the present era has taken a side that serves students, scholars and students of sheikhs from a distance, and we have also in the campus digitized the library and put around the clock numbers for scientific communication that are supervised by the trustees of the scientific library, including It relieves those who visit the Two Holy Mosques or Muslims throughout the Islamic world, and this is from God’s success for us in managing the Two Holy Mosques and from facilitating the delivery of knowledge with ease and ease, and what applies to the library of the Haram is undoubtedly the special academy of the Grand Mosque is concerned with it, and the Information Technology Center has cooperated in helping to achieve our goals In this direction, which my colleagues and I are pleased to move in the service of science and scholars.
• Through your previous statements, we followed the importance of translating Friday sermons into several languages, to serve Muslims in all parts of the world. Where did the translation project reach?
•• We, praise be to God, started this project some time ago. We have conducted a scientific application on translation programs for years and in languages, especially English and French, and the project of translating the Holy Qur’an in Tarawih prayers in the Two Holy Mosques is only one of the confirming evidences of the state’s interest in this service for our Muslim brothers who watch the Holy Mosque of Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque and read the Qur’an in the Two Holy Mosques, but today we are We also translate Friday sermons into Urdu, English, French, Malay and Persian languages via FM stations, especially in the Haram, in order to facilitate the understanding of the sermon and its immediate translation. We are also preparing to translate the blessed Eid Al-Fitr sermon, and we are still developing this matter successively and quickly to reach more than one language in the world. This is what we are working on with the specialized Saudi universities, to which, by the way, I thank them for their distinguished efforts in this regard, as well as our colleagues at the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Noble Qur’an in Medina for their cooperation in this field.
• Umrah pilgrims and visitors felt the completion of the campus projects and the completion of the rest of them at the beginning of the month; How do you see the state's interest in expanding and completing the projects of the Two Holy Mosques?
A: This is one of the blessings of God upon this country that He has provided it with a blessed leadership that is keen on what serves Islam and Muslims, foremost of which is the Two Holy Mosques, for which the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, may God preserve him, is keen to follow up every small and large in them. Certainly, the recent visit of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, may God grant him success, had the greatest impact and support for moving forward with the completion of projects in the Great Mosque of Mecca and the Medina. The Crown Prince informed me that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques will not delay in meeting any need of the Two Holy Mosques. This is not surprising from his honorable highness and the leaders of our country are grateful for it and pray for all of them. Expansion projects are at the forefront of the attention of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz, and his Crown Prince, Prince Muhammad bin Salman, may God reward them with good for Islam and Muslims. Achievement with the beginning of this blessed month, and by God’s will, the project will continue to be completed in accordance with the royal directives that are keen on the comfort of Umrah pilgrims, visitors and guests of God throughout the year.
• Thank you for giving us this time, wishing you success.
•• I, in turn, thank you for your efforts, and I also thank Okaz newspaper for its role in highlighting the expansion projects and the message of the Two Holy Mosques.
3 messages..to the nation, the summit, and the Islamic media
• In response to a question about his message to the Islamic nation in this holy month?
•• My message is to make this month; The month of initiatives.. and to have mercy and tolerance, Ramadan is an opportunity to sense the lofty meanings that the true Islamic religion intended. About disagreement and division, and promoting moderation and moderation.
• What about the media in the Islamic environment?
•• I say to the pen holders and the media men in the Islamic environment: Come to conclude a professional ethical charter, which preserves principles and values, guards ideals and morals, and exalts the edifice of virtue, which wept from the valley of vengeance, come to confront the biased media campaigns against Islam and its structure, and that it be activated Islamic media, from the realm of theory and advice, to the reality of movement and feasibility.
The government of the Kingdom dedicates the values of moderate Islam and the principles of moderation and peaceful coexistence, and is keen to serve the pilgrims and performers of Umrah as it is a great honor for it, looking forward to the pleasure of God Almighty. The government, while seeking to purify the image of the Islamic religion; It rejects all forms of terrorism and extremism that have nothing to do with the Islamic religion, whose laws call for the rejection of terrorism. And I call on the media in Islamic countries to exercise their important role in correcting the image of Islam that terrorists are trying to hijack and to strengthen the media efforts in Islamic countries to explain the correct image of Islam that is far from terrorism.. The media and journalists in Islamic countries have a great responsibility to defend true Islam that rejects terrorism and supports terrorism Security and tolerance, and as you know that the Kingdom plays a major role in promoting cooperation, unity and harmony among the Islamic Ummah, and all Muslims must highlight the true image of Islam and defend the Two Holy Mosques.
• On his vision of the invitation of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, to hold an Islamic summit on the twenty-sixth of Ramadan under the slogan: (Makkah Summit: Hand in Hand towards the Future).
•• At the outset, I affirm that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, is the pioneer of Islamic solidarity and is keen on the solidarity, fraternization and support of Islamic countries. The blessed endeavor of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques greatly contributes to the advancement of Islamic societies towards the perfections brought by the heavenly messages. This – praise be to God – has been the approach of the Kingdom since the era of the founding King Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, may God have mercy on him. This Islamic summit will be held in the purest parts of the earth in terms of place and at an important time in terms of time.. We are certain that the skill and wisdom of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, may God preserve him, will lead to the success of the summit, with the support and support of his Crown Prince, who spares no effort in strengthening Islamic solidarity.
Interviewer: Faheem Al-Hamid (Makkah Al-Mukarramah) @OKAZ_online
