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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Sarah Joseph.

Good Morning.

On this day in 1994, Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa鈥檚 first black president. I can remember the day with such joy.

For most of my life, Mandela has been a hero. Much of my youth had been spent on Anti-Apartheid marches. The organisation he headed, the African National Congress, had been described by the British Prime Minister of the day as a 鈥渢ypical terrorist organisation.鈥� I could simply see a terrible injustice being done, and supported the man who was prepared to speak truth to power. It would seem to me that that was the role of all of the prophets, and great people of religion: be that Moses, Jesus or Muhammad.

Outside the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank in London there is a bust of Mandela. The plaque reads underneath, "The Struggle Is My Life". To struggle is a strange notion. It is not something that most of us would choose to do, or advocate for ourselves or our loved ones, yet Mandela described it as the essence of his life. In Arabic the word 鈥渢o struggle鈥� is jihad - erroneously referred to as Holy War, it is simply striving for a good cause 鈥� be that birthing a child into the world, earning an honest living, or indeed opposing a racist, oppressive political system.

Mandela was a man who struggled.

I can think of no human being alive today who did what he did. Mandela lived an extraordinary life, and I feel we all have to ask ourselves how we are struggling to do that which is right.

Our Merciful Lord 鈥� Grant us the courage to stand for justice, for as the Qur鈥檃n reminds, 鈥淏e just for justice is the closest thing to God consciousness.鈥�

Ameen.

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