Grand Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Hoseyn Nouri-Hamadani, has met with members, scholars and political figures and representatives from North Khorasan province in memory of the late Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad-Hasan Agha-Najafi-Qouchani in the holy city of Mashhad. He spoke about the important role scholars and clerics have in society, and stated that the late Ayatollah Agha-Najafi-Qouchani was an example worth imitating.
Grand Ayatollah Nouri-Hamadani explained the vital role of the scholars and seminaries in the moral and political education of the Islamic society. He stated that Imam Ali (A) had placed much importance on the role of the scholars in society. He also expressed concern that in the present era, society has not benefited from the presence of influential and effective scholars as it did in the past. He explained that previously every locality had at least one influential scholar, but in the present era there are relatively few influential scholars in all of Iran.
He also encouraged scholars and clerics to remember the importance of delivering sermons which effect society and encourage them in their spiritual lives. Sermons have an important role and effect on society and Ayatollah Nouri-Hamadani urged scholars to remember their important obligations to society when lecturing. He encouraged scholars to migrate to different cities to spread their knowledge and to service the spiritually underprivileged parts of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In regards to the Takfiri phenomenon and the Zionist regime’s brutal war on the Gaza Strip, Ayatollah Nouri-Hamadani condemned the world’s silence in the face of such brutality, and stated: “The scholars of the Islamic world must play their proper role by speaking out and striving to extinguish the fires of sedition and strife.”
His Eminence also urged the Muslim community to unite and to cooperate, and added: “The discord between the Sunni and Shi’ah sects of Islam as well as other sects of Islam are seditious plots which were created by the enemies. We must be vigilant against these conspiracies.”
Ayatollah Agha-Najafi-Qouchani (1878–1943) was an Iranian mujtahid and writer. He rose from humble beginnings, born into a peasant family in a village near Qouchan, to become a respected mujtahid with one of the most highly-praised works of Perso-Islamic autobiographical literature to his credit. Ayatollah Nouri-Hamadani praised the late Ayatollah’s scholarship and achievements and urged the people, especially the youth, to become familiar with the great scholars of the past.
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