As-Salām-u-ʽAlaykum
I would like to start this welcome letter recalling the words of my beloved father, Dr Bahige Mulla Huech: "Our destiny in the afterworld will depend exclusively on the personal deeds we have performed in our life."
By these words, Dr Mulla was drawing attention to one of the precepts of Islam that encourages us to lead a healthy life in this world. To live in anticipation of the afterlife is of little use, he said, as it can sometimes distract our attention from what is essential – it is in the here and now that we have to become worthy of our human condition as we carry out our life’s work.
For my father, that great "personal work" involved working with humility, but filled with enthusiasm for attaining peaceful coexistence between people of different cultures and religions.
In Dr Bahige Mulla Huech’s various facets, his sincere concern for others was ever-present. This same interest, as in helping us to “lead a healthy life”, was evident in his work as a doctor, as a scholar of Islam – the medicine of the spirit – and as an intellectual concerned about the evils of politics or caring about the social welfare of his fellow men.
However, my father did nothing but live Islam to the full and observe his faith. Islam involves living in community – for only in society can we develop as people – and living for others, for we are accountable to our brothers.
As a Muslim – born and raised in Syria of Iraqi extraction – and as a Spaniard and European – by residence and at heart – Dr Bahige Mulla Huech embodied the harmonious coexistence between multiple collective identities, between diverse – but not exclusive – feelings of belonging. He believed it was his vital duty to strive to put across a message of coexistence in a world so sorely missing it. This was his ijtihad, his inner calling, his “best endeavours”.
When the mission is so colossal, neither the course of a lifetime nor the efforts of a single person are enough to bring it to completion. But, Dr Mulla’s convictions and his spirit shows us how to persevere in that task.
I welcome you to our Foundation for an Understanding Between Civilizations, and an understanding between Islam and the West, born to give continuity to this great project of coexistence to which Dr Bahige Mulla Huech dedicated all his efforts.
We shall persevere until we, or our heirs, attain that goal.
Anas Mulla