AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The closing ceremony of the cultural training course of "Al-‘Asr" institute of London was held this morning in Qom with the presence of university students from Europe, America, Africa, Pakistan and Afghanistan and the speech of the eminent jurist Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani.
At the beginning of this ceremony, Hujjat al-Islam Wal-Muslemin Sabzevari, the head of the institution, explained the activities and measures of this center and said the presence of 6,000 students in these courses over the years of activity of this institution is a great success and the role of the encouragement and guidance of the late Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani is very important. Then Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani, welcoming the participants in this course, praised and honored the international activities of this institution.
He went on to state that the purpose of holding these courses should be attracting the attention of the participants to the basis of religion and said: “The basic and main question, the answer of which can be the foundation of the life of all human beings, is what is the true value of a human being? And what constitutes the truth of humanity?
In the next part of his speech and referring to some value components such as knowledge, wealth and power, His Eminence added: “When a person thinks and pays attention, he understands that none of these components can certainly give a person permanent and eternal truth and identity; rather, it is only religion and religiosity that can form the true identity of a person.
The outstanding scholar of the Kharej course in the Islamic seminary of Qom continued: “If a person understands religion correctly and strengthens it inside himself day by day, he will attain the position of closeness to Allah (s.w.t) and even become superior to the angels. And if he does not benefit from religion, even if he owns the whole world and has knowledge of all sciences, not only will he not reach the position of closeness to Allah (s.w.t) but he will decrease in degree day by day.
Stating that after clarifying the answer to the identity-giving component, the man should try to achieve it, the head of the Specialized Research Center of Innocent Imams (a.s) added: “We need to communicate with religious scholars who are experts in understanding it.” Imam Ali (a.s), the Commander of the Faithful (a.s) always emphasized that "O’ people, take care of your religion".
In another part of his advice to the participants of this course, Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani said: “Religion is a protection for the man to prevent him from falling; As Imam Ali (a.s) says, "... because the paradox of religion is the paradox of security " which means that a person who does not have religion has not actually protected himself. Without religion, the human’s soul will be captured by worldliness and will be closer to falling day by day.
He declared that the Holy Prophet (s) says: "“If a calamity befalls you, put your money before your blood. If the calamity overtakes you, put your money and your blood before your religion, for the robbed is the one whose religion is robbed, and the ruined is the one whose religion is ruined”, according to this meaningful narration, preserving religion is more important than life and property, and if someone is religious, he has everything and if not, he has not gained anything.
The source of acquiring and studying religion was another important issue that His Eminence stated: “We should take our true religion from the Holy Quran; As Imam Sadiq (a.s) says: “Whoever knows his religion from the Book of Allah Almighty, the mountains will move away before he disappears”; that is, if the religion is taken from its main and clear source, i.e. the Holy Qur'an, it will not be destroyed even if all the mountains are destroyed; Of course, the Qur'an which is interpreted and explained by the Infallible Imams (a.s). For this reason, it is very necessary and important to communicate with the Holy Qur'an and think about it.
Then the respected member of the Community of Scholars of Qom pointed to the pure thoughts of Imam Khomeini (r.a) and said: “In contrary to the opinion of some people who believed that religion only includes the individual aspect, by the blessing of the Islamic revolution and the pure thoughts of Imam Khomeini (r.a), the Islamic seminaries and its scholars came to the conclusion that religion has both individual and social aspects; Because religion has general orders and rules for all aspects of human life, and it even has a plan for people in subjects such as economy, government, and education.
His Eminence continued by referring to the interpretation of the Holy verse: “Surely We offered the trust ...” and added: The meaning of this trust is the same covenant that Allah (s.w.t) took from mankind, and that covenant is acting to the Holy Qur'an and following its teachings.
At the end of this meeting, the distinguished and chosen students of this course were honored.
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