Statement by the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, H.E. Emomali Rahmon

Meeting with community representatives on the eve of the Holy Month of Ramadan

Distinguished Compatriots,

Dear Participants,

These days the peoples of the Islamic World, including the inhabitants of our country, are on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan, which will start on May 17th as the time of thanksgiving, remission and forgiving sins and grievances, purification of souls and the performance of good and noble deeds.

With this regard, I would like to offer my sincere congratulation to the glorious people of Tajikistan, our compatriots living overseas and all of you, dear participants, and wish everybody health and prosperity, diligence and patience, and peaceful environment for prosperity and abundance to every family.

For Muslims of our Motherland, who are followers of the moderate and tolerant Hanafi Mazhab, Islam is the embodiment of the strength of faith, the perfection of moral principles and the assertion of high spirituality and ethical norms.

Our people freely fulfil all religious prefects and highly appreciate humanistic and virtuous values of Sharia Laws.

According to the heavenly book of the Almighty, Ramadan is the month of implementation of good intentions, repentance and good deeds. Particularly in this period our people makes efforts to stronger comply with the injunctions and abstinence, especially wicked deeds, visit their parents, the sick and the needy people, and those, who have opportunity, must support orphans, persons with disabilities and needy ones.

At the same time, the holy month of Ramadan, as one of the pillars of the sacred religion of Islam, tests people's patience, respect towards one another, mercy and help the needy and the poor people. This is the very reason, people respect this holy month, the essence of the moral wisdom of which is the victory of the mind over greed and acquisitiveness.

I have to note that all world religions, cultures and civilizations of humanity from ancient times to the new era served to form the moral world of mankind, and their main goal is the education of a perfect and good-willed personality.

According to analysis outcomes the world changing with cosmic velocity, as an outcome of superpowers' fight for division of material and natural resources, alongside with stratospheric access, became vulnerable, which is more vividly visible in formation of human moral worldview. Such a situation complicates the life of the core value of creation, i.e. mankind in his cradle - the Earth every day.

With this regard, I would like to introduce some analytical conclusions of reputable international organizations on impacts of climate change and conflicts of recent years on human life.

Annually, 1.4bn children suffer only from the lack of drinking water and one new-born child dies every second from polluted environment and water-born infectious diseases. Annually, 3,4bn people throughout the Globe die due to the lack of drinking water and 31% of educational institutions have no access to clean drinking water. Moreover, almost 80mln of planet inhabitants suffer from the lack of food, one billion children live in poverty and as a result 22 000 infants die.

Only during the war period in Syria 12 000 children died and the number of internally displaced people reached 7,6mln people. In total, 460 000 people died in the Syrian war.

These days, armed conflicts are on-going in 40 areas across the Globe with direct or indirect engagement of approximately 30 states. Furthermore, about 70m people in more than 100 states in the world became displaced as a result of worsening security situation and terrorist acts. Alongside with this, being in a whirlpool of egoism and greediness, the mankind increasingly gets far from the nature and causes enormous harm to his cradle of existence - the Earth with through his unreasonable and regrettable attitude towards natural resources, including water and soil, flora and fauna, the outcomes of which are unpredictable and fatal.

The changes caused to the world by humankind during the last 70-80 years is not comparable with the transformations faced by the nature during the multimillion period of its evolution and existence of human civilization for more than 10 000 years.

In addition to this, currently the humankind faces a great loss from natural disasters as a result of global warming (drought, floods and mankind hazards), spread of infectious diseases, including HIV, as well as narcotics.

For instance, only in our country, almost 2500 people died from HIV, which had not even existed 2-3 decades ago, within the last 20 years, and 500 people died from drug addiction within the last 10 years accordingly.

While almost 3 000 000 people died in Europe in the 17th century in the aftermath of various wars and conflicts, this number reached 5 000 000 in the 18th century, approximately 10 000 000 in the 19th century and more than 100 000 000 in the 20th century.

These figures belong to the continent, which is considered a progress model during the last three centuries. Millions of people died in the armed conflicts within 13 years of the 21st century.

The start of the third millennium brought severe political scandals, wars, religion-based bloodshed, countless political, economic and cultural revolutions and confrontations to humanity, the damage from which is significantly greater compared with the previous two world wars.

Currently the world superpowers are in a very hard situation of the cold war, and they transformed the science, information, economy, technology and even religion into means for export and exposure of their political, vested and regional interests.

Such a situation weakens the world order system, undermines universal justice, promotes imposed and violent export of foreign values, and further complicates the situation with human rights and freedom.

At present, as a result of interference by foreign vested interests, residential areas, cities and thousand-year historical sites are burnt and destructed, and thousands of innocent people died in a number of Islamic countries. In other words, Muslims constitute the greater part of victims of such interferences and conflicts.

A question comes to mind: is the mankind created on the Earth to cause such difficulties and destructive actions? Certainly not and should not be. Neither nature, the integral part of which is humankind, nor the Almighty, who wishes the humanity relief, stability, happiness and justice, would accept this.

This means that all of these are the outcome of actions by humanity himself, i.e. the core source of these conflicts is illiteracy, lower level of cultural awareness and ignorance. As the expression goes: "Islam has no deficiencies by its nature, and the cause of every deficiency is our Muslim behaviour".

Therefore, the humanity has to think on these issues adequately, undertake collective measures to prevent any kind of destruction and focus on minimizing the tension of political and economic conflicts.

We have to state this truth to avoid indifference toward these processes. The empirical study of war victims and refugees of the last decades through prism shows that no plague and no bloody conflict resulted in such an enormous human loss.

Such an unstable and volatile situation across the world urges us to be as vigilant as never before, not to be caught off base, be aware of threats, appreciate the most valuable assets independence, statehood, peace, stability and national unity. Particularly our state independence made it possible for us to live in freedom, peace and welfare.

Every inhabitant of our country has to understand well one very important point. Only the peoples and nations, who alongside the application of their wisdom and technological advancement, are also united based on their own creativity, able to secure their state strategic objectives, existence of their nation and are not puppies of biased political groups, can survive and flourish within the current global situation.

That is to say, the people need to have advanced national mentality and sense of patriotism, have to be resistant, tolerant and go forward through the historical pathway chosen by the Constitution.

It is worth mentioning that formation of nation from the mentality, self-awareness, self-consciousness and civilization point of view is the most challenging task. Moreover, this long-lasting process related to strengthening of educational activities in families, kinder gardens, schools and universities is the on-going task of government officials, intelligentsia, political parties, public movements and religious leaders, which origin from millennia lasting dreams of our freedom-loving people, good intentions of citizens with the sense of patriotism and rich moral heritage of our noble ancestors.

I would like to reiterate that in the context of values changing under the influence of globalization, and the increasingly intensified struggle of strong powers for new split of the world and tangible assets, our primary immediate task is to build fundamental values through educational and enlightening activities for forming and developing thinking and behaviour of our present and future generations.

The human history proves that only the states and nations, who apply their existing opportunities in a rational and correct way, bring up new educated and creative generations, aware of their passionate mission resistant to new historical conditions, and committed to aspirations and goals of their sovereign state can be granted comparatively long existence.

It is pertinent to note that a lot has been done in terms of political, legal, spiritual and pastoral activities in this area, however we still have a lot of challenges and shortcomings in the area of national identity and religious awareness of our citizens.

It is impossible to overcome these difficulties just with words, ad-hoc awareness activities and even with pinchbeck patriotism. It requires continuous moral and legal education of every individual starting from family up to staff level.

Only enduring unity and unification of the people of Tajikistan and its current and future generations around fundamental values of national statehood and constructive ideas of the state can protect our nation from the negative impact of religious and political disasters over the centuries and introduce the Tajik people to the world as the real ancient well-educated and civilized nation.

This is the very reason, I decided to meet with you as representatives of various segments of society on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan and express my thoughts regarding some issues to settle the issues and difficulties still existing in our country.

I would like to emphasize that the main objective of the Leadership of the State and the Government of the country is to improve our people's living standards, promote sustainable development of our national statehood, bring happiness and welfare in each Tajik family and improve its image at the international stage.

I have to recall that correcting moral and social situation largely related to tolerance, generosity and donations, mutual respect and spiritual peace should not be limited to Ramadan month, but need to be a part of our continuous efforts.

The Almighty's grace is boundless and any faithful follower should nourish his/her soul with them on a continuous basis.

The right attitude towards moral values and belief in the light of public policy interests is the guarantor of national unity, stability and overall peace in society.

Thus, improvement of people's moral and spiritual beliefs is one of the most important means for better protection of state independence originating from historical roots of humane thinking of our ancestors and advanced human worldview, ensures freedom of thought and belief.

We need always to remember that our ancestors made a unique input to moral development of humankind with their valuable scientific and ethical achievements within many centuries.

Studying the doctrine of the Founder of Hanafi mazhab Abuhanifa Nu'mon ibn Sobit (Imom A'zam), and other noble sons of the Tajik Nation like Muhammad al-Bukhori, Abukhavsi Kabiri Bukhoroi, Abunasri Forobi, Abu Ali ibn Sino, Nosiri Khisrav, Muhammad Khujandi, Abuhakimi Samarqandi, Saadii Sherozi, Mavlono Jaloliddini Bukhoroi, Bakhoviddini Naqshband, Abdurahmoni Jomi, Moturiddini Samarqandi, who decently contributed to development of universal science and philosophy, would be of a great benefit.

The doctrine of the Founder of Hanafi mazhab Imomi Azam and his apprentices is of particular significance for Muslim people as the brilliant example of moderate Islam.

There are many indications in the doctrine of Imomi Azam, Hanafi mazhab Leader, with regard to Ramadan, including refraining from unworthy words and deeds, i.e. maintaining pure language and noble actions, high communication standards, good-minded and sincere attitude to others. This is the important and compulsory prerequisite for confession of faith and followers of Islam ought to honor them. In one word, maintaining purity of language and advanced culture is the best indicator of civilized nation.

Imom Abuhanifa believes that the purity of soul and the high standard of conduct is the sign of Muslim's inner and outer beauty and emphasizes that a person doing a good deed in the name of Almighty during Ramadan is at the same level with a man implementing seventy mandated acts beyond Ramadan.

As our Maharishis noted in the past, the point of these indications is not only in number of good deeds, but rather to transfer it into a common practice and people continue doing them on an ongoing basis. It is a great pleasure for me to emphasize that lately we see greater number of generous people and entrepreneurs lending a helping hand to orphans, persons with disabilities, poor and needy people, which became a good tradition in our country. Such an honourable behaviour is of a great moral, ethical and educational importance and promotes the spread of compassion, strengthens friendly relations between people, and to some extent, addresses social issues in the society.

Alongside with this, it is my firm belief that if public officials, entrepreneurs, religious leaders, and every person with available resources, or as our people say, with "donation hand" will make efforts to implement good deeds during this blessed month, for instance, by implementing projects on water supply in some settlements, construction or repair of schools, medical points, bridges or road sections. The Almighty's mercy and blessings will be upon them and this would be their input for prosperity of our beloved country.

Our people, particularly well-off people had a good tradition in the past: they used to build water wells and constructed caravan-serais in deserts and caravan roads and thereby eased the journey of travellers.

At the Government Session held on April 27 of this year, I strongly instructed the heads of ministry and agency, chairs of province, city, town and district, village and jamoat, organization and enterprise, disregard of their form of ownership, to expanded construction and development activities across the country by September 9, 2021 to decently celebrate the 30th anniversary of our State independence.

We need to implement more activities on construction, repair and reconstruction of preschool and general education institutions, healthcare centres with maternity hospitals with at least 10-15 beds and specially equipped rooms for circumcisions, medical points, sports grounds in each residential area and jamoat and large villages over the next three years. In addition, activities on establishment of libraries and bathhouses with barbershops and beauty salons, parks, squares and areas of leisure, production enterprises, including sewing workshops, handicrafts, drinking water supply, repair of roads between villages and all settlements, planting young trees and creation of new orchards need to be completed on the occasion of this grand national holiday.

Everybody, starting from Government members and public officials to entrepreneurs, religious leaders and individual citizens of our country need to make their own patriotic contribution to this process aimed at prosperity of our Motherland and more decent life of our citizens.

We have to bear in mind that according to Islam doctrine, activities for improvement of Motherland also refers to good deeds and is blessed by the Almighty.

I would like to highlight that undertaking such activities on one hand will contribute to elimination of social issues, improve lives throughout our Motherland and on the other hand, create favourable environment for teenagers and youth, i.e. next generations of Tajik nation's creators, for their training and education, and modern healthcare and social services for the entire population of the country.

As you can see, any person with high sense of patriotism and endeavours for donation can do a lot as long as s/he has a strong will for this. In this respect, I would like to outline that every faithful believer, revering precepts of Islam, has to undertake good deeds in this world. Perhaps, I am repeating, but still I would like to emphasize that we need to take care of and respect our parents, brothers and sisters, elderly people, value one another still while they are alive and create necessary environment for education of whom we are responsible.

Precisely such deeds alongside with praying will thrill the souls of deceased. We should also keep in mind that Ramadan does not only imply fasting and solitary life.

The true meaning and essence of Ramadan is in appreciating blessings, demonstrating mutual respect and following the Founder of Naqshbandi mazhab Khoja Bahoviddini Naqshband, who stated: "My soul is with Almighty and my body is busy working". We also have to work hard and not be afraid of any challenges.

Hence, dedicating ourselves to fasting and not thinking about the future is not a feature of a faithful believer. The faithful believer should envision the future, be able to discern good and bad and make efforts to ensure happy life in this world and restful one in the other world.

If we do not work hard this month, which coincided with the sowing and harvesting season of agricultural products, i.e. our piece of bread, we will miss the season, the harvest will perish and certainly, we, and accordingly our families, will be lack of food products during the winter.

I would like to recall that efforts to make bread and salt, and food items is above pietism and theopathy, as limited access to bread will weaken human faith. It is, therefore, aspirations for a better life during holy month of Ramadan are also prayer. According to known sources, Prophet Muhammad (peace upon him) substantively increased his efforts and love towards others during holy Ramadan.

According to respected religious sources, alms as one of the important attributes of the holy month of Ramadan, is also a good means to support needy people and we should make charity not to wealthy ulamas and religious leaders, but rather to needy relatives, orphans, persons with disabilities and lonely people. According to the Glorious Quran’s 60th ayah of Repentance Surah, only these categories of people are entitled to benefit from alms and charity.

With this regard, it is essential to collect Zakat-ul-Fitr and other donations to support the needy people, repair houses of low-income families and lonely people and purchase necessary supplies for them.

I have also to recall that the low-income parents with many children, orphans, persons with disabilities and those with several incapable dependents must not give alms and make donations.

In connection to holy month of Ramadan, I would like to touch upon one more issue, i.e. the beginning of procedure of preparation for pilgrimage after the completion of this month. It seems that some of Muslims in our country do not yet understand the true value and essence of Islam religion and its prescriptions. As I said many times, some of our compatriots turned the worship into business and visit Hajj for many times.

They may use their money spent for repeated pilgrimage to help their needy relatives, repair the roads in their residential district or construction of schools, which their children and grandchildren could attend in better comfort. To date some generous and forward-looking people did so. They constructed schools, repaired roads in their settlements, launched recreational centers and medical points and, we can imagine what a reward is expecting them.

People's thanksgiving prayers will bless their names for centuries and will thrill their parents' souls.

The Almighty announced in Surah Al-Hadid-25: "Indeed We sent Our Messengers with Clear Signs, and sent down with them the Book and the Balance that people may uphold justice ...".

Good deeds, ensuring justice and behaving honestly towards everybody/everything, but not blindly imitating is the very attitude reflected in the Islam prescriptions. Some of our compatriots think that fasting is the main sign of faith and they insist the sick and weak persons to fast, who in fact are not able to do so. This is a great sin for oneself and oppression towards others, which causes harm to their nature. Believers should not risk their lives by fasting. The Almighty defined the justice in Surah Al-Baqarah-286 as follows: "Allah does not charge a soul except (with that within) its capacity".

That is, imputing the responsibility on keeping fast for sick and weak people, pregnant women and mothers of new-borns, as well as those, who are not able or engaged in heavy physical labour, reproaching and claiming that they are not real Muslims, is not indication of wisdom and fairness. Pilgrimage by the people without financial resources and enabling conditions is not in line with the pilgrimage requirements. Such unlawful actions are the heavy burden for soul and faith of Muslims.

This is outlined in various chronicles, and Mavlono Balkhi also narrates in one of his paroemias "Masnavii Ma'navi" that the world Sufis' Sultan Boyazid Bastomi started for visiting the God's House, but he returned soon. His friends asked him: "You never turned off the road, what happened?" His answer was: "I met one man on the way and he asked me where I go". I answered that I wanted to make pilgrimage. That man asked me again "What do you have?" I answered: "Two hundred dirhams". He said: "Give them to me, because I have many children, circle around me seven times and your pilgrimage will be accepted". Boyazid Bastomi did so as the man asked him. The man said: "Oh, the Sufi's Sultan, do you know that the Creator of the Earth has two dwellings?" I said: "No I don't know". He explained that one of them is made of clay (hinted at the House of God in Mecca) where he never entered from the day of its establishment, and the other one is the soul abode, which He never leaves. Allah in his writings outlined "My house" only one time and "Servant of the God" seventy times. Having heard this story I turned back of the way".

Following the Islam prescriptions is the very formation of a perfect and wise person, who is always ready to help the people in need. Our great poets Khoja Abdullohi Ansori, Mavlono Balkhi and others confirmed this in their masterpieces.

Dear Participants,

Terrorism and extremism have been spreading wider in various regions and countries of the world now and leading to death of hundreds of civilians and migration of thousands of people all over the world every day. As a result of Islam politicization, this phenomenon became a serious global threat.

We learn from the Mass Media almost every day how thousands of people in Islamic countries leave their motherlands and houses, lose their lives on the roads and borders of other states and in seas while seeking for a peaceful corner. It is particularly painful and hard witnessing such terrible pictures, because once our country was also presented to the world as the point aflame into war.

Thanks God that thanks to the wisdom and will of our civilized people we managed to get out of this deadly whirlpool. However, given the very unstable world now, it is reasonable to remember those terrible days for the sake of better vigilance. At that time, some vested interests also dragged us into the imposed civil war to establish an Islamic State by abusing religion and belief.

Our nation has not forgotten those terrible days and I believe that they will never do so. The ill-wishers of our nation still continue acting against our State from overseas through the hands of their bribed wards, i.e. enemies of our nation.

The bribed traitors of the nation betrayed their faith and mazhab and shamelessly slander their people and desecrate our ancient history and culture through the media established by their foreign masters of 90s. But they do not understand that they are cutting the branch they are on, and they are digging a grave for themselves.

The Tajik nation should know this. Particularly for this reason, I always emphasize that we must never lose our political vigilance and always be ready for resistance. Committing terrorist attacks and radical measures on behalf of the sacred Islam turned into a discrediting phenomenon now. We strongly adhere to the opinion that Islam should not be confused with preconceived political goals in any way. Islam is our religion, our faith and truth, as well the source of our life purity.

Several days ago in my remarks at the High-Level International Conference on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism, which we hosted in our capital city of Dushanbe, I clearly outlined the position of Tajikistan on the issue of cooperation with the countries of the world and reputable international organizations on countering the current threats and challenges, including terrorism and extremism.

One of the factors of dynamic expansion of terrorism and extremism is the wide use of the modern information technologies. Currently, unfortunately, terrorist and extremist groups use the Internet for dissemination of extremist ideas, recruitment of new members, preparation for and supervision of destructive actions.

Those, who transform Islam into the tool for coming to power and pretend for so called Islamic state, do not understand that they confuse their belief and dignity with ungodly deeds in this slippery path and miss the Islam as the centuries-proved source of education and formation of a perfect personality.

And this is when there are dozens of ayahs and hadiths that emphasize the superiority of truth and justice over piety and consider justice as the true feature of any Muslim.

Although dozens of holy ayahs and hadiths state the significance of peaceful and balanced human life, some groups from Islamic countries, instead of resolving their practical issues and making efforts for development and progress, make their lives difficult by their own hands and turn their countries into the field of armed clashes and religious disputes. In this way, they become puppets of foreign enemies and contribute to increasing Islamophobia and hatred towards Muslims.

We are seriously concerned with the more aggravating situation in the neighbouring Afghanistan. It is not the fault of Afghan people to be subject to such harsh living environment, since as a result of contradiction between powers and outside interference during the last 40 years the Afghan land has turned into the field of destructive war.

We see that the joint efforts by a number of developed countries of the world have not been able to normalize the situation. We believe that the Afghan people need to decide itself about their future and the world community should provide any possible type of support to the Afghan people in this case.

Given the fact that security in Central Asian region, including in Tajikistan directly depends on the situation in Afghanistan, we cannot be indifferent towards this issue and in any case we will be trying to extend our hand of support to our neighbours - inhabitants of the fraternal and brotherly Afghanistan.

As I mentioned many times, some of our confused young men have also been joining the fighters of terrorist and extremist groups and movements and participating in bloodshed fights in other countries.

There are cases of the movement of entire families to those countries. The majority of those in the territory of war-torn states were killed as a result of antiterrorist operations and their minor children became orphans. According to statistics, so far 675 out of the total number of Tajik citizens participating in armed conflicts in other countries were detained and convicted for criminal offence and more than 500 persons were killed.

After the Terrorist Group of Islamic State was defeated in Iraq and Syria, a part of Tajik citizens, who were its members, gathered in Afghanistan to continue their criminal actions, as they did in 90s of the last century with the leadership of the Terrorist and Extremist (former) Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan. The data show that this Group's members included some citizens of other former soviet countries also.

I have to note that the majority of Tajik citizens joined the extremist groups during their labour migration, and others during the pilgrimage, while some others during their illegal study of religion abroad.

It is well known that the role of clergy, particularly Imam-khatibs, is very significant in educating and guiding people, especially teenagers and youth to implement good actions, developing the sense of self-awareness, diligence, and respect towards adults and raising their awareness on the genuine values of Islam.

However, sadly, some of them against their sacred task as members of terrorist groups started promoting extremist ideas. During the last several years 23 khatibs and their deputies, who turned out to be members of terrorists and extremist groups were detained.

So far, we returned more than 3400 citizens of Tajikistan, who were engaged in illegal religious study overseas. However, still almost 400 Tajik citizens are in so-called religious education institutions overseas, who need to be returned to Tajikistan. Both parents and relatives of these young men should take part in this important initiative and they should not allow their children to join the destructive radical, terrorist and extremist groups, do not disgrace their parents and relatives and not discredit their State and nation.

We have our own Islamic Studies Institute, which can train highly qualified professionals. Creating barriers for enrolment of children to school is one of the main causes of this phenomenon.

Criminal cases were launched against 157 parents for such actions in 2017 and three months of this year, and they were charged for criminal offence, which we are seriously concerned with. Despite the strengthened oversight, the enforcement of the laws of Tajikistan "On responsibility of parents for education and raising children" and "On regulation of customs and traditions in Tajikistan" still requires to be improved. For instance, in 2017 and during the three months of this year more than 23 000 parents were charged for administrative offence for violation of regulations in education and upbringing of children.

During this period, only in the entertainment centres the law-enforcement authorities detained more than 3000 minors, which proves the irresponsible behaviour of some parents ill educating and raising their children.

Thanks to our independence, the peace and stability we have in our country, our citizens freely exercise their religions and understand well that humane and peace-loving values of Islam are an integral part of our national culture. Therefore, pride sons of our nation and every citizen of our country, by appreciating our independence, are obliged to make efforts for protection of our Motherland's independence and freedom, strengthen political stability, national unity and national and state interests. Everybody of us need to appreciate that we have our Motherland and State. We have to love our Homeland like we do our lives and always stand ready for its protection. We are obliged to overcome the challenges faced by our country jointly, ensure development of our Motherland, and transform it into a developed and strong state.

We must focus all our efforts and channel our possibilities to raise our children in a spirit of patriotism, self-consciousness, love to science and knowledge, desire to learn modern occupations. In other words, it is our task to bring our science and education in line with international standards, and educate creative generation and professionals meeting the requirements of the new era.

However, we should not forget that only educated nation with its highly qualified experts in all areas will be able to present the Tajik independent state to the world community with honor and increase Tajikistan's credibility among advanced countries of the world in the future.

I would like to emphasize that any country's development is proportionate to the level of its population's professionalism. Every patriot, intelligentsia, educators, parents, activists of cities and towns, villages and jamoats, in one word, the entire population of the country must contribute to the implementation of this noble task, from which depends prosperous future of our beloved Motherland.

During the holy month of Ramadan and beyond, the Council of Ulema, Center for Islamic Studies, Committee for Religion, Regulation of National Traditions, Celebrations and Customs under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, and all religious leaders need to raise the awareness of our people that freedom, peace and stability are invaluable gifts for us, love towards Homeland is a critical criterion of strong faith, and we need to appreciate our independent state.

I would like to address our entrepreneurs and traders and once again remind them not to raise foodstuff prices unreasonably during Ramadan and not to irritate and depress our compatriots' moods. In many Islamic countries, businesses rather deflate prices to deserve mercy thereby.

We observe that on the eve of holidays, particularly in Eid-al-Adha and Eid-Al-Fitr, some of our compatriots purchase extreme amount of foodstuff to show off their hospitality and it makes an impression as if they are reaching the Judgment Day the next day. I would like to reiterate that such a deed is no more than show-off and waste of resources. Such people must know that effective use of foodstuff, refraining from overspending and arrangement of modest hospitality is for the benefit of everybody in our families.

I would like to avail myself of this opportunity to touch upon one more issue. Low precipitation in the last autumn and winter and hot weather in this spring, i.e. drought, will affect the agricultural yield and livestock breeding, particularly in Khatlon province as the largest foodstuff producer as well as other districts and regions.

According to analysis, water reserves' volume in our rivers is less almost by five times compared to the usual annual rate. Such a situation urges us to attach primary attention to rational use of water and land, enhance crop productivity, increase agricultural production maximum possible, particularly in irrigated lands and ensure proper preparation for 2018-2019 autumn and winter period.

Within such a global crisis, our country residents should not forget the Shariah injunctions on waste and overspending detriment. In this context, they have to make further efforts on effective use of resources, and not show off their wealth and accomplishments at wedding parties and other celebrations during the holy Ramadan and strictly follow the provisions of the Law on Regulation of Traditions and Celebrations in the Republic of Tajikistan.

Our dear compatriots need to bear in mind that compliance with provisions of this Law would only benefit of every family, ensure decent life of our citizens, i.e. a steady growth of our population's living standards and improve conditions for our children's education. This is the very objective we introduced amendments and additions into this Law last year. I would like to inform the noble people of Tajikistan that according to weather forecast next autumn-winter period will arrive early and be long and cold. Therefore, every family, agency and institution, organization and enterprise, first and foremost, social institutions need to begin preparing for winter now. In addition, it is essential for every family to store foodstuff and fuel sufficient for two years.

It is my firm belief that every pride patriot of our country will undertake efforts onwards to contribute to the municipal improvement and development of our dear Motherland, peaceful life of people, peace and stability, national unity and decent celebration of the 30th Anniversary of State Independence of our beloved Tajikistan with honor.

The Executive Office of the President need to strictly oversee the implementation of these instructions and orders and mandatory compliance with state discipline.

Let me once again extend my sincerely congratulation to the people of our country, our compatriots living overseas and all of you, esteemed participants on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan, and wish the descend of the Almighty's mercy to every family, peace and happiness, welfare and abundance and better life for every household and everlasting peace and stability, improvement and sustainable prosperity to our beloved Tajikistan.

Wishing you all continued health and happiness!