AhlulBayt News Agency: Society can be transformed through ethics, education, and kind speech rather than conflict, a prominent Iranian cleric said.
Grand Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli, a leading Quran and Nahj al-Balagha commentator, made the remarks during his recent ethics class at the Azam Mosque in Qom.
“If it is obligatory for the ignorant to learn, it is also obligatory for the learned to teach the ignorant,” Ayatollah Javadi Amoli said. “We must strive to make the general public knowledgeable, and scholars must fulfill their duty.”
He added that while not everyone will reach advanced levels of religious learning, acquiring even a basic understanding of Islamic teachings is sufficient. “It is obligatory for everyone to know the general outlines of religious and Islamic rulings,” he said.
Ayatollah Javadi Amoli said he was invited to teach at Al-Zahra University, a women’s institution in Qom, in the early years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Those lectures resulted in his book “Woman in the Mirror of Divine Beauty and Glory”.
“In these discussions, we concluded that there is no difference between men and women,” he said. “The soul is neither male nor female. Therefore, men and women are equal in their essential humanity. If the body is created differently, it is for order in the natural world and its functioning.”
He noted that the Quran addresses women, men, and both together in different sets of verses. “The commands to be just, to be servants of God, to fulfill covenants, and to be believers apply equally to men and women,” he said.
He cited the Quran’s description of Mary (SA), the mother of Jesus (AS), as a model for all believers, not just women. He referenced Verses 11 and 12 of Surah At-Tahrim, which present the wife of Pharaoh and Mary, daughter of Imran, as examples for those who believe.
“We differ from Westerners in that they say men and women are equal because they do not believe in the soul,” Ayatollah Javadi Amoli said. “But we believe in the soul and say that men and women are equal in their essential humanity, not in their physical bodies.”
The cleric urged kindness toward women and girls, describing them as “angels” who may lack awareness of certain matters due to shortcomings in society’s education efforts.
“Our sisters and daughters are angels, and if they are unaware of certain issues, perhaps we have fallen short,” he said. “We must speak to girls and sisters with gentleness and kindness and advise them. We must tell them that the human being is an eternal creature and must think about their eternity.”
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