International Seerat Congress (March 3, 1976)

Through a Golden colour arch appears the Green dome and minaret of the Rauza-e-Mubarak (Mausoleum) of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him). The details of minaret and dome are shown in Ultra-marine which is the colour of the inverted L-shape panel supporting arch. The denomination with word ‘postage’ underneath appears at the top of the vertical panel and the wording ‘International Congress on Seerat – 1976’ appears below in Gold alongside the vertical panel. ‘Pakistan’ in Urdu and English appears in reverse in the bottom panel. In case of 20 P stamp the background or sky colour is blue and silver grey in case of Rs. 3/- stamp. Pakistan is holding an International Congress on Seerat from March 3rd, 1976 to March 15, 1976. This will be the first Congress of its kind to be held anywhere in the world and scholars from different parts of the world will read papers on the life and teachings of the Holy Prophet. To celebrate this auspicious occasion, Pakistan Post Office is issuing a set of two stamps of 20 Paisa and Rs. 3/- denominations on 3rd March, 1976.
The theme selected for the Congress is the message of Muhammad (peace be upon him) for the modern man. It would highlight the historical and immediate relevance of the message of the Holy Prophet and would seek to find solutions for the various problems confronting mankind in the mordern age in the light of the Holy Quran and Sunnah. The Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) inaugurated a new era of Al-Iman (Right belief) and Al-Amal-al –Salih (Enlightened action). He was a model man whose examples will continue to inspire the believers for all time to come.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) lived a complete and and fully balanced life. Although he resolutely rejected the monastic way of life which emphasizes the need of renunciation, he nevertheless placed before man the social concept of ‘Taqwa’- of man’s responsibility and accountability to society and the need for him to subdue his innate instincts and cultivate the higher virtues. The ideal of ‘Taqwa’ of the fully integrated man is something radically new in human history and can truly be associated with the Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) who was its perfect manifestation. No higher values have been pointed out in the last fourteen hundred years by anyone else.
Mankind owes a great debt of gratitude to the Propet who took it out from darkness to light and taught human values like tolerance liberty, social justice , pursuit of knowledge, realisation of the ideal of beauty and the shaping of human conduct to reflect higher vistas of human grace. Similarly the high status of women in the family and in the society that has been advocated by Islam is also an enduring contribution which the Prophet has made to the general cause of human civilization and culture.
In its socoi-ethical scheme, Islam has made man responsible to himself, to society and to Allah, comprehending social organism, nature and Allah in a coherent whole. Man is held accountable for what he does and for what he does not do. He has to undertake the social responsibility of being his brother’s keeper and has to share his surplus wealth with the under privileged members of the society. The Divine Command is to give away freely that which God has given to man to relieve his fellow men from want and hunger. This social and humanitarian obligation underlines the Prophet’s saying- “The best amongst you is one who benefits other people”.
The Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) is also the fouder of the science of comparative religion. The religions in the past were exclusive in the sense that one religion did not affirm the validity of other religious systems of belief and rituals. But the fundamental principal of Islam is that there is no compulsion in Islam, that all revealed religions are one, all prophets are co-equal in dignity and their character of impeccability, nevertheless some excel others in some particular grace: Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is their synthesis and being the first in the celestial reality he is the last in time, according to the principle of inverse reflection. Islam thus dissolves the diverse religious beliefs and practices and invites mankind to walk on one path which thereafter become Din Allah. Islam mantains that no Prophet after Muhammed (pbuh) will come to deliver man kind. And it must follow from this that the messege brought by him his final in the sense
That no revealed word thereafter would come to add to or subtract from it. Because the messege is final it must also follow that it is complete in the sence that no further need of Divine guidance for man will ever arise. Man has with in the frame work of the Quranic messege and the practice of the Prophet enough guidance to help him fulfill his destiny.