Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has called on civic-mind­ed cit­i­zens— which he says the coun­try needs—to be like the re­li­gious faith­ful and in­sert the scrip­tures in­to their dai­ly ac­tions.

“Such per­sons do not read about God and then try to fit His word around their par­tic­u­lar needs, they live with God’s Word,” the Prime Min­is­ter said in his Eid-ul-Fitr mes­sage yes­ter­day.

As mil­lions around the world and in T&T cel­e­brate Eid to­day, Young urged cit­i­zens to re­flect on the virtues that em­body Is­lam and how its adop­tion in our lives can im­prove the coun­try.

He said, “They ac­knowl­edge the pres­ence of God, and seek a com­plete align­ment of mind, body, heart and soul; they seek an ul­ti­mate whole­ness in God, and as good cit­i­zens they seek, in their own way, to cul­ti­vate a cul­ture of Dis­ci­pline, Pro­duc­tion and Tol­er­ance for their coun­try.”

He called on the na­tion to take in­spi­ra­tion from Mus­lims, “un­der­stand­ing that true de­vo­tion to God al­so means em­brac­ing gen­eros­i­ty and com­pas­sion.”

He added, “Let us strive to make kind­ness and self­less­ness a fun­da­men­tal part of our every­day lives, fos­ter­ing stronger com­mu­ni­ties and, ul­ti­mate­ly, a more com­pas­sion­ate, unit­ed and uni­fied na­tion. May we all com­mit to up­hold­ing the val­ues of peace, love, and equal­i­ty that are cen­tral to Is­lam­ic teach­ings. Let us work to­wards build­ing a so­ci­ety found­ed on mu­tu­al re­spect, deep bonds of uni­ty, and a shared com­mit­ment to un­der­stand­ing and har­mo­ny.”