The reports on the meeting of the Islamic Unity Conference's guests and a group of officials
On the occasion of the Week of Unity and the birth of the Holy Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him and his descendants)
In The Name of Allah, The Most Beneficent, The Merciful
Praise is to Allah, Lord of the worlds and prayer and peace be upon our sir, Mohammad, his pure descendants, his great friends, and those who follow them righteously until the Day of Judgment.
Welcome, dear guests; it is a pleasure for us to welcome and say hello to all of you, especially the guests who participate in the meeting of Islamic unity and brothers who have come from other countries to this meeting. We congratulate the blessed birthday of the prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him and his descendants), also the blessed birthday of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq (peace be upon him), who was born in the year 83 AH on the same day as the birthday of the greatest messenger.
Indeed, the holy prophet's birth is the beginning of a new period in man's life. It is an enunciation for beginning a new period of divine will and God's grace upon humanity. Therefore, this birthday is a great event. One cannot define the greatness of this event by common words. This is a very significant event. Some honour the occasion by poems and different forms of art but all of them are just visual images of it:
"The guidance was born, and the world was lightened,
And the tongue of time smiled and praised him"
The language of art speaks thus: the guidance was born; the entire existence world sank in the light; the mouth of time was opened to smile and praise him; By these words, one can somehow bring the greatness of this event close to the mind; it is a great event.
The greatness of the birthday of the prophet Mohammad is at the same level as the greatness of his position, the great position concerning which God has not created a being like him from the beginning to the end of the creation. And God has put great trust in him; thus, he says, "Allah certainly favoured the faithful when He raised among them a Messenger from among themselves". God favours humanity; this is the greatness. The glorious God revealed the hidden book on the holy heart of the prophet, put it in the pure mouth of the prophet, gave him the welfare plan of humanity, and made him responsible for it to carry out, promote, and demand its execution from the believers.
Well, we are the believers and followers of the same prophet. We attribute ourselves to the same prophet. What is our duty? In every period, this is the duty of the believers to see in what position they are, what the religion wants them to do, and what their religious mission is. They must understand what to think and do in each period. However, religious scholars and intellectuals have discussed these subjects widely. In this session, as a viewpoint towards the Islamic nation, I try to present a concise view of these fields. It would be a view of Iran and the Islamic Republic in Iran.
There are two points to consider regarding the discourses on the Islamic world and the Muslims as a whole, and I discuss them briefly. One of them is the realization of Islam's comprehensiveness right. Islam is a comprehensive religion, and we must retain the right of its comprehensiveness. This is one of the issues. The other issue is the unity of the Muslims. These two subjects are among the main issues of our time. Of course, there are other issues, but these are among the most important.
There is always an emphasis on the subject of retaining Islam's comprehensiveness right; a significant portion of this emphasis is imposed by the material, political powers. It has always been attempted to restrict Islam in individual actions and heart beliefs. Therefore, I cannot determine a specific date for this attempt, but it has begun from about a hundred years ago in the Islamic world. It is reinforced in the era of the Islamic republic, and they try to make it seem less political and more intellectual. In foreign words, they try to theorize this issue. They give missions to the thinkers, writers, intellectuals, and the like; to write about it and prove that Islam does not address the social and life issues and the main issues of humanity. They want to show that Islam is an internal belief, a personal relationship with God, an individual obedient activity that is based on the relationship with God; this is the nature of Islam. They insist on proving this for their audiences.
From the perspective of this doctrine, which is political internally, and intellectual, apparently, the main areas of life and social relationships must be eliminated from the Islamic realm. This group of thinkers believe that Islam has no role, task, and ability in the construction of human civilization. They say Islam also has no role in managing the community, dividing the power and wealth in the community, economy, and various community issues such as war, peace, and domestic, foreign, and international politics are not related to Islam. Sometimes, you might hear them saying, "Do not make diplomacy ideological", or do not ascribe it to ideology. They mean that Islam must not concern the foreign policies and international issues. They say that there is no role for Islam in charity activities, establishing justice, confrontation with evil and oppression, and preventing the world's evils. They do not consider any role for Islam in the main subjects of human life; they do not want Islam to be an intellectual reference and not practical guidance. This is their insistence. What is the reason and origin of this insistence? Where did it start? These are no more related to my current discussion. Firstly, I want to say that this activity is indeed anti-Islam, and it is imposed by the great political powers of the world who work hard for this purpose, and they try to express these thoughts with the help of intellectuals.
However, the Islamic texts reject this clearly, and we, Muslims, must pay attention to this subject. By saying "retaining the right", I firstly mean that we must try to explain, promote, and present the view of Islam about itself and its role in life realms. It is the first step, and secondly, we must put them into practice.
What Islam presents is that the domain of its activity covers all human life, from the depth of the human heart to the social, political, international, and common issues of humanity. This is clearly presented in the Holy Quran, and those who deny it do not pay attention to the Quran at all. God says in the Quran: "O you who have faith! Remember Allah with frequent remembrance, and glorify Him morning and evening"; this is a subject related to the heart of the human, but he says somewhere else, "Those who have faith fight in the way of Allah, and those who are faithless fight in the way of fake gods. So fight the friends of Satan". This means that the vast domain of religion is from "remember Allah" to "fight the friends of Satan".
God somewhere says to the prophet that "rise (to pray) the night except a little; half the night, or a little less, or a little more; and with recitation, recite the Quran" and somewhere else says," So fight in the way of Allah: you are responsible only for yourself, but urge on the faithful [to fight]". It means that all the main realms of life, from the rising in the middle of the night for praying, crying, asking and praying God to fight in battle, are included, and the life of the holy prophet implies this.
About the financial laws, God says, "but prefer [the Immigrants] to themselves, though poverty be their lot. And those who are saved from their greed—it is they who are the felicitous"; this is a personal issue. He somewhere else says, "So that mankind may maintain justice"; the primary duty of the prophets and the friends of God is to maintain justice. He says, "Do not give the feeble-minded your property, which Allah has assigned you to manage", and somewhere says, "Take charity from their possessions to cleanse them and purify them thereby". This means that God generally addresses all of the financial issues everywhere in the Quran, which must be put into practice, and Islam has opinions on all the related subjects.
On security issues and the domestic security issue of the community, God says, "If the hypocrites and those in whose hearts is a sickness, and the rumourmongers in the city do not desist, We will prompt you [to take action] against them" or "When a report of safety or alarm comes to them, they immediately broadcast it; but had they referred it to the Apostle… (to the end of the verse)"; it means that Islam plays roles in all of the crucial dimensions of human's social life. These are only a few examples from the Quran; there are hundreds of these points in the Quran.
Those who believe in Quran and are familiar with its teachings know that this is the real Islam presented by the Quran. The Islam presented by Quran is an Islam, which contributes, judges, comments, and demands regarding every part of life. Therefore, we must know this fact and confront those who do not believe in it and those who try to deny this evident truth.
On the other hand, since there are social issues and important tasks to make community and civilization in Islam, Islam also addresses the issue of government. We cannot assume that Islam wants the social regulations in a specific way but does not determine the way of material and religious government in them. When religion became a system related to the individual and the community, and it has become a system that participates in all individual and social issues, it has to determine the top officials of the community or Imam. Therefore, according to the Quran, at least in two places, the prophets are called Imam; in one case, God says, "We made them Imams, guiding by Our command, and We revealed to them [concerning] the performance of good deeds", and in the other case he says "When they had been patient and had conviction in Our signs, we appointed amongst them Imams to guide [the people] by Our command". This means that the prophet is the Imam, leader, and commander of the community; therefore, Imam Sadegh (peace be upon him) stood in Mena among the crowd and shouted, "Oh people! Indeed, the messenger of Allah was Imam". He said this to teach the correct religious movement of the prophet. In Mena, he shouted among the people, "Oh people! Indeed, the messenger of Allah was Imam"; in order to make people understand what the right religious action of the prophet is, he shouted among the people in Mena, "Indeed the Messenger of Allah was Imam" this is a matter. In the Islamic world, religious intellects, scholars, writers, researchers, and the professors of the universities are responsible for explaining this subject because the enemies try to publish the reverse of this.
Of course, we have a more significant duty in Iran concerning this subject because we have more facilities here, which facilitates the work. The officials of Iran, especially the cultural officials and those who have access to the tribunes, should explain this subject. We need to explain this subject; although Iran is an Islamic republic country, we too need to describe this issue. No, even now there are some doubts about the subject among people, and they discuss it. Well, there it was, a topic concerning the Islamic world.
The subject of unity and the unity of the Muslims is another topic concerning the Islamic world. This is an important subject. Of course, we discussed the unity widely, the graces of God upon our great Imam who declared this week as the Unity Week and who continuously spoke about the unity of Muslims and emphasized it. We have discussed it widely, but we should discuss it more.
Before saying some words about the unity of Muslims, I should mention some prominent figures in the field of Islamic Unity, such as Mr Taskhiri (the graces of God upon him), who was one of the most hardworking men of our group in this field. For several years, he attempted, even when he was sick, to explain this matter. After him, Mr Sheikh Mohammad Vaez Zadeh (the graces of God upon him), the great wise scholar who had an excellent knowledge of Islamic sciences, worked hard in this field for several years. These two figures were from Iran. Sheikh Mohammad Ramadan al-Buti, the great martyr, worked hard in the field; he was one of the most outstanding scholars of the Islamic world, the graces of God be upon him. The great martyr, Seyyed Mohammad Bagher al-Hakim, was one of the important members of this field. One of those who encouraged me to establish this group of the closeness of the Islamic sects was the great martyr, Seyyed Mohammad Bagher al-Hakim. In Lebanon, Sheikh Ahmed al-Zain (peace be upon him), who died recently, was one of the scholars in the field of the closeness of the Islamic sects. He was also one of my friends. Before him, Sheikh Said Sha'ban from Lebanon was also one of our good friends. The graces of God be upon them who were indeed believers in the unity of Muslims. With the will of glorious God, we hope that the pure souls of all those who were mentioned and those who were not mentioned from Iraq, Iran, Egypt, and many more people from these places and other places be under the graces of the great God. Those who worked hard in this field and we cannot mention them all in this time.
I discuss some points regarding the unity of Muslims. First, the unity of Muslims is a certain obligation of the Quran; this is not an optional subject. This is a duty for us. Quran instructs that "Hold fast, all together, to Allah's cord, and do not be divided [into sects]"; this is a divine command, so why should we convert it to an ethical matter? This is a command, a rule that we must act upon it. There are also other verses in the Quran showing this point, such as "do not dispute, or you will lose heart, and your power will be gone … (to the end of the verse)."
Secondly, the unity of the Muslims is not a tactical matter; therefore, the thought of those who think we must be united for some reasons and special conditions is not correct. No, this is a fundamental value, and the synergy between the Muslims is necessary. If the Muslims are united, they cooperate and become strong; when there is a synergy between them, even those willing to cooperate, there will be no obstacles to communicating with the non-Muslims because they enter the relationship powerfully. Thus it was a point showing that the matter is an essential value, not a tactical one.
Thirdly, the reason why we, in the Islamic republic, emphasize the unity of the Muslims too much is that there is a gap between them. Nowadays, it is attempted repeatedly to make conflicts between the Islamic religions and between Shia and Sunni, and it is a planned attempt. As it is evident today, the words "Shia" and "Sunni" have entered the United States' political literature. What does the United States do with Shias and Sunnis? It is for several years that these words have entered the political literature of the United States, and they declare that one country is Shia and the other has Sunni peoples. Although they are the enemies of Islam, they do not let go of the subject of Shia and Sunny. This is an important subject. All the time, they provoke conflict and misunderstanding between the Muslims and reinforce it. Therefore, we emphasize the subject, and this is why we do this. You can see the allies of the United States provoke conflict in the Islamic world everywhere they can. Recent examples are the regretful and heart-breaking events in Afghanistan in the past two Fridays; their allies exploded the mosques in which Muslim people were praying. Who did these? Did ISIS do it? Who is the ISIS? ISIS is a group claimed clearly to be created by the democrat officials of the United States. Although at the moment they don't claim this anymore, they reject it now, but they have admitted to it and have clearly said it. Therefore, we must address this issue.
Fourthly, we must know that we have not fulfilled our duty only by gathering together, making speeches in one or more sessions in the world. No, we did not do fulfilled duty only by doing this. It is necessary for everyone to participate in this discussion everywhere they are, and we must discuss, explain, encourage, plan, and assign duties in these fields; this is a necessary task to do. When we say we must plan, for example, about the mentioned event in Afghanistan, it means that the officials themselves must participate in the Islamic centres and mosques to pray or encourage the Sunni brothers to go to these centres. Therefore, when we say they must plan, it means that they can do such works in the Islamic world.
Fifthly, one of the goals of the Islamic republic system and the Islamic revolution defined by us is to establish a new Islamic civilization, which means establishing an Islamic civilization based on current capabilities, realities, and facts. This is possible only by the unity of the Shia and Sunni Muslims. It cannot be done only by one country or religion; therefore, we must cooperate and coordinate. This is an important and necessary point.
Sixthly, the primary indicator of the unity of Muslims is the problem of Palestine; this is the main and indicative issue. If the unity of Muslims is established, then the issue of Palestine will be its objective, and it will be solved perfectly. The more serious our attention to achieving the rights of the Palestine nation, the more possible would be the unity of Muslims. About the recent relationship trying to show the problems of the usurper and oppressive Zionist regime, unfortunately, some governments made a big mistake and a great sin. This is an anti-Islamic unity movement. They must go back to the right path and correct this big mistake. This was the subject of unity. Therefore, these two main points were the points we wanted to express about the dimensions of the Islamic and international Islamic community, and we expressed them.
However, concerning what is related to our country, we must say that although the opposites and enemies of the religion and the followers of the United States governed this country for many years, the people were always believers. Thanks to God, the nation of Iran were always believers, and today we know ourselves as better followers of the prophet more than ever. Well, how is the following? Also, you must pay attention to the word "following"; this word means to follow someone and go after him. How must we follow? That is what the Quran asks of us: "There is certainly a good exemplar for you in the Messenger of Allah—for those who look forward to Allah and the Last Day, and remember Allah much". The exemplar means the example and pattern. Therefore, we should follow this exemplar and achieve the practical features, which he had. We also should follow him on the ethical features, and it is a difficult one to do because of its vast domain; this means that we have fewer capabilities than he does to do so in this field, but we must do our best.
Well, the good features of the prophet are not one or ten; when he asked his dear wife to explain his ethical features, she said "his personality was based on Quran"; Indeed, the prophet was the embodied Quran, and this is a broad subject to discuss.
I selected three points about the dear messenger and his ethical features, and these are like the three shining stars of a lightning galaxy; we, the Iranian people, should rely on these three, pay attention to them, and follow them. These are patience, justice, and morality.
Patience is a prominent matter in the life of the prophet; of course, there are several verses about the concept of patience and the effect of it are presented in various chapters of the Quran, but there are also several verses about the patience of the prophet, and maybe about twenty times God speaks with the prophet about patience in Quran. It is crucial that the glorious God instructs the prophet with patience from the beginning of the prophet's mission. God said to his prophet in the surah of Moddathther: "and be patient for the sake of your Lord" and in the surah of Mozzammel: "and be patient over what they say"; these are two of the first surah that God revealed to the prophet. From the beginning of his mission, God instructed the prophet to be patient. Yes, I noted here that God asked the prophet to be patient in the Quran about twenty times, such as "So submit patiently to the judgment of your Lord" and several other cases. What does patience mean? Patience means stableness. It is known and mentioned in several narrations that patience is divided into three categories of "patience for sin", "patience on obedience," and "patience in the occurrence of events". However, patience means stableness in resisting against sin, laziness in performing the duty, enemies, various bad events; this is the meaning of patience. Today, we need the stableness more than anything else does.
You, the officials who are present here and the officials of the country at all levels, must know that patience is the most important thing for you. You should be stable, resist against pressures and problems, and go forth; you must not stop. We, the officials of this country, must not stop, and this is necessary for stableness and patience. The movement must not be stopped and should go forth; this is patience. As God says in the Quran, "There is certainly a good exemplar for you in the Messenger of Allah"; this is how to follow the prophet.
The second case is justice. One of the most important or maybe the most important aim of the prophets' mission is justice. On this, God says in the Quran, "Certainly We sent our messengers with manifest proofs, and We sent down with them the Book and the Balance, so that mankind may maintain justice"; mainly, the aim of sending the messengers and books was to maintain justice in the community. From the prophet's words, the Quran says, "I have been commanded to do justice among you"; therefore, maintaining justice is a command of God. Not all world scholars agree with justice, but even those who are the evilest and most cruel powers of the world cannot reject the goodness of justice. Even some of them rudely claim that they are who have justice, although they are unjust! The holy Quran considers it necessary to maintain justice even about the enemies and says that we must not be unjust about our enemies. About this, the Quran says, "and ill-feeling for a people should never lead you to be unfair. Be fair; that is nearer to God's wariness". by this, God means that we must maintain justice even about our enemies. Therefore, this is another duty, and indeed, we, the officials, are specifically responsible for this. You must consider justice as one of the most important matters in every decision in the Islamic Parliament, in the state, and various country management departments, and you must make decisions based on justice. Sometimes, it is necessary to add an attachment to that law or decision that shows it is based on justice.
This concerns the second matter, which means that we must maintain justice not only for dividing the assets and wealth but also for all things. Today, we might see injustice in cyberspace; some people tell lies, slander, say something without knowing about it, and the like. These are unjust deeds and must not avoid. Those who deal with cyberspace should be careful with their deeds, and those who manage the space should monitor it precisely to prevent these unjust deeds. We must learn to treat people justly. We must not treat people unjustly, slander them, tell lies about them, or disrespect them, even when we disagree with them, and of course, we can have different opinions, but we must treat each other justly and talk to each other respectfully. We should not be trapped in unjust deeds; this is very bad. This was about justice.
Finally, there is the subject of ethics and following the prophet in ethical dimensions. About this subject, the glorious God says in the Quran, "and indeed you possess a great character,"; something that God considers as a significant matter that is truly important, and this is a great character. We must always consider these moralities as guidelines. We should have Islamic morality, which means that we must show humility and forgiveness. These are Islamic ethics. We should show forgiveness in personal affairs, not in the common issues and what is related to the rights of people or common rights. However, in personal life, we must show kindness and forgiveness. Also, we must avoid lying, slandering, and suspicion about the believers. The main content of one of the prayers of the "Sahifeh Sajjadiyyeh" (the payer book of Imam Sajjad) is about this subject, and Imam Sajjad says there "Oh my Lord! I forgive those who were cruel to me, slandered me, and made unjust things to me"; this is the prayer of Imam in this book. Therefore, we should follow the way of Imam Sajjad.
Dear brothers and sisters! We must act because mere words cannot make any change. We claim that we are Muslims and have an Islamic republic, but we have to be a truly Islamic state and be followers of the prophet. This great and blessed birthday is an opportunity to focus on this issue, study it, and make a good decision to follow the prophet and the commands of Allah in this case.
Again, I congratulate this blessed birthday to all of you, the dear nation of Iran, all the Muslims of the world, and the free people of the world. I admire and send peace to the pure souls of the martyrs of Islam and the doctrine of the holy prophet, and the pure soul of our great Imam who opened this way to us and guided us through it. I pray to God to send his peace upon them all, and I wish success for the nation of Iran, especially you, the officials, and the guests.
Peace and Allah's bless and mercy be upon you.