Faisal, chairman of the board of directors of King Faisal Center for Islamic Research and Studies, delivered the following speech at the American University of Sharjah, Sunday. Brothers and Sisters, Talking about diplomacy requires volumes of words and sentences, but thank God, talking about Saudi diplomacy is much easier than talking about others, because the diplomacy of my country is governed by clear and well-defined principles. I may start by saying that on 28/06/1426H, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah, may Allah protect him, succeeded his brother King Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz. In his speech on that sad day, King Abdullah said: “I ask God to grant me the strength to follow in the footsteps of the Founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, His Majesty King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud a course followed by his honorable sons.” “I solemnly pledge to Allah and to you that I will take the Qur'an as my constitution and Islam as my guide,” he added and ended his speech with these words: “I pray to Allah to protect the security and stability of this country and to protect its people against any evil. There is no power of might but that of Allah the Almighty.” Wisdom exists in abundance in these words. The pledge of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques is exceptionally important and a serious commitment to Allah the Almighty and to the citizens of the nation, to uphold and defend right, promote justice and serve all the citizens without any discrimination, a great and welcome ambition of the leader of this nation. Please accept my invitation to see how our King carried all these huge responsibilities upon his shoulders. Power is the capabilities made available by the leader to shoulder responsibilities and duties. This includes the policies of the state and how it manages its resources, projects, achievements and how well it manages things. Strength, God willing, is the tool used by the ruler to motivate all the power including the ministries and concerned bodies such as the Ministry of Defense and Aviation, which hopefully would be the last resort of the leader to face the threats and challenges, and then the ministry of interior, by which the leader manages the daily security procedures. There are also the other ministries such as the Ministries of Finance, Health, Education with several levels, and Transport… etc. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Public Intelligence is the first line of defense in safeguarding the homeland and the citizens against external sources of threat through diplomacy and intelligence as deployed by the ambassadors of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and others, led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Public Intelligence. These are soldiers not in uniform or military ranks. A state is exposed to danger when these soldiers fail to defend the country against the sources of danger, and the state is obliged to mobilize the other sources of power and strength. Let us go back to what the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques said regarding the course of the action and constitutions. Referring to the course of action adopted by King Abdul Aziz brings back to life what the founder said at the first Islamic conference in the history of Islam, held on 29 Dhul Qa'da, 1344H, that is 86 years ago: You Muslims, keen on safeguarding the religion, your meeting in its form and content might be the first meeting in the history of Islam. We pray to Allah to make it a pleasant welcome annual practice as Allah ordered when He said: Help you one another in Al Birr and At-Taqwa (virtue, righteousness and piety) but do not help one another in sin and transgression” and his call, “To accept the advice of the other in a just way.” By this, (King Abdul Aziz) laid down the first foundation of Saudi diplomacy which is to have a unified Arab opinion. “As you may well know, there was nothing less valuable than what is now called ‘the Islamic public opinion' or the domestic public opinion, used by the rulers to exchange ideas about what should be done in the field of reformation in the Islamic era,” he added, reiterating by this the principle of consultation in his diplomacy. (King Abdul Aziz) through these sentences was explaining a pure diplomacy governed by the morals of Islam and Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). “The government does not impose any restrictions beyond those imposed by your religion by committing yourselves to its rules and regulations, with the exception of one negative thing, which is to refrain from getting involved in international politics, and in the differences among Muslim peoples and governments. These are special domestic interests characteristic of these peoples. Muslims have been weakened by the differences in their sects and ethnicity. Please spare no efforts to bring them together, and help them serve their interests and the general good. You should not let sectarian or ethnic differences be a reason for enmity among them.” And the Qur'anic verse, “Remember Allah's favor on you, for you were enemies one to another, but He joined your hearts together, so that by His grace, you became brothers.” This settles the principle of non-interference in the affairs of others. What a great legacy and a great course of action embraced by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in managing the diplomacy of the country. Let us now present a clear definition of the Saudi Arabian policy. This was a course of action adopted and promoted by the Founder King to apply his instructions and his aspirations for the Saudi state. This is how King Faisal described the main principles of the policy of this country after he was proclaimed as king. He said on Jumada Al-Akhira 27, 1384H, “We do not even need to repeat the traditional foundation adopted by our foreign policy. We have, since the Founder of the State, King Abdul Aziz, reiterated and proved our belief in international peace in the international community, made sincere efforts to support and strengthen and promote it in the four corners of the world. We were and we are still doing that, inspired by the teachings of our religion, and our genuine Arab traditions. For the sake of that we still support disarmament to save humanity from the risks of destructive weapons. We also call for freedom of self-determination for all the peoples of the world, and for resolving international disputes by means based on right and justice. Among the well-known objectives of our foreign policy, are promoting cooperation to the best of our ability with the brotherly Arab countries, implementing the resolutions of the two Arab summits, and liberating all parts of the Arab world that are still under the yoke of occupation and colonization. Besides supporting the Arab countries and encouraging the efforts of Islamic states to maintain their dignity and pride, we also support the Arab League Charter and that of the United Nations, the resolutions of the Bandung conference and non-aligned countries. We will do our best to create just peace and freedom.” These words were said 44 years earlier, nearly half the period after the words of the founder king. They are indicative of the strong heritage of Saudi diplomacy. He believed that diplomacy is to be honest in what you say and do, even with your enemies. In that way, we can avoid misunderstanding which usually brings disputes and possibly war. We have not finished our overview of Saudi diplomacy's principles. Our late kings, Abdul Aziz, Saud, Faisal, Khalid and Fahd, and our current King Abdullah used to focus on Islamic teaching, the Qur'an and the Sunnah, in order to urge Saudi diplomats to follow the course set by the Qur'an, Prophet Muhammad and his rightly-guided Caliphs. Even before his mission as a prophet, Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, sought to relieve the hearts of his people from hard feelings when he innovated a way to raise the Black Stone to its position in Ka'ba. The Prophet also witnessed the “Alliance of Al-Fudool” which was formed by Quraish to end the injustice. The Prophet said about this alliance after the conferment of his Prophetic mission, “I witnessed (the formation of) an alliance in Dar Abu Juda'n, which if I were invited to after the mission of Prophethood was conferred upon me, I would join it. They agreed to end injustice and not help an oppressor become victorious over his victim.” Establishing his foreign diplomacy, the Prophet sent some of his followers to Al-Habasha (currently Ethiopia), and said to them, “I recommend you to go to Al-Habasha for its king is just and to remain there until things get improved by Allah.” The Prophet also practiced diplomacy in his call to Islam, which was most fruitful with Al-Aus and Al-Khazraj (the two main tribes in Madina). His diplomacy peaked in his strategy to foster brotherhood between the immigrants and the helpers, and his pact with non-Muslim residents and tribesmen of the newly established state. Below are some provisions of the Prophet's diplomacy: “In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. This is the agreement of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, between the believers from Makkah and Madina and those who follow them in Islam and fought with them: They are all one nation They should ally against anyone trying to attack them or seeking to create hostility, enmity or discord among them. They should join forces against him even if he was a son of one of them. Those who convert from Judaism to Islam shall be supported as one of us and neither oppressed nor treated unjustly. The Jews, free or in bondage, shall have their own religion and Muslims shall have their own. Those violating this agreement will harm themselves and their families. Jews shall spend on their families, and Muslims shall do so on theirs. Muslims and Jews shall support each other, fight against those violating this agreement and advise each other in a good, not sinful manner. Those who get out of Madina are secure and those who stay are so, with the exception of the violators of this agreement. Even in warfare, the Prophet (peace and blessing of Allah be upon him) established time-honored principles when he ordered the leaders of the army not to kill an old man, a woman, a captive or a wounded fighter. The diplomacy of the Prophet (peace be upon him) reached a culmination in terms of wisdom, insight, innovation and acumen during the Truce of Al-Hudaibiah. The wisdom of the Prophet (peace be upon him) was proved when he consulted his companions about whether to enter Makkah or not. He had deep understanding of the psychology of Quraish negotiators as observed when he ordered his companions to receive Al-Hulais Ibn Alqama in the garb of Ihram and sacrificial offering in front of them because the Prophet knew that Al-Hulais had much respect for the offering. As a result, Al-Hulais went back to Quraish to warn them against preventing Muslims from Al-Bait Al-Haram (Al-Ka'ba). His grace and wisdom showed clearly during the encounter with Suhail Bin Amr, the negotiator of Quraish, when the Prophet agreed to replace “in the Name of Allah the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful” with “In the Name of Allah,” and deleted the phrase “Messenger of Allah” from the agreement. His skill was quite obvious in renewing the allegiance of the Muslims to him in Ridwan Allegiance, consolidating his position in the eyes of the non-believers and affecting their morale. In the time that followed the accord, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) creatively worked to benefit from the clause on reconciliation which put an end to Quraish patronage of other tribes. The clause says “Whoever wanted to join the promise of Muhammad, has already done that.” Even when he addressed the leaders of other nations, Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) used their titles. He also added the adjective of “greatness” when he addressed Caesar with the title the “Greatest Roman.” This was also followed when addressing the other leaders. When he received the ambassadors of other rulers, he was generous to them, even those who abused his generosity; he told two of them, “Had it been possible to kill messengers, I would have killed you.” It seemed as if he was saying, “Be generous to the generous people.” These are a few examples of the Prophet's diplomacy. I would like to proceed with another glimpse of wise diplomacy. In his farewell speech to the army of Osama Bin Zayd, Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq (the first Caliph) says, “Do not betray, do not steal, do not mutilate bodies, do not kill little children, old men, women, and do not cut a fruit bearing tree. You will pass by some people who have secluded themselves in monasteries, leave them to do what they have chosen to do.” We cannot but mention in this context the Pledge of Umar Bin Al-Khattab which protected the rights of non-Muslims and provided them with the care and protection in return for duties assigned to them by the state. In the most recent Arab summit in Kuwait, we witnessed the Saudi diplomacy at its best in the speech of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. Few words but they are rich with content. He put an end to the atmosphere of discord and conflict among the Arabs and replaced it with harmony. He brought the Arab Peace Initiative to the attention of the international community and cautioned that it would not remain forever on the table. He concluded by announcing a billion dollars for the re-building of Gaza, and he said that one drop of a Gazan's blood is worth the treasures of the earth. From this history rich in wisdom, our leader gets his diplomatic wisdom and so will his successors. Thanks to Allah for whatever He destined for us on this day. Thanks to Him for sending His leaders to this nation. If they promise, they fulfill their promise and when they do, they excel. We congratulate ourselves on the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz and his faithful Crown Prince Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz. May Allah guide them to achieve what is best for the country and citizens. Peace and Mercy of Allah be upon you. __
