The Office of the Supreme Leader

Alims must move abreast of time

Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei raised the nowadays economic, political and social concerns with hundreds of Iranian scholars in Yazd province central Iran Wednesday night, urging them to take the urgency of providing the society with religious support.

Ayatollah Khamenei noted that the present time concerns require the convention of Islamic scholars to observe prudence and foresight and enhance their faithfulness and knowledge command so that they could meet the needs and demands of people from all walks of life.

Ayatollah Khamenei noted that to keep pace with the demands of time the society requires a double effort by theory-making Islamic scholars who have a strong jurisprudent command and move abreast of time.

Ayatollah Khamenei urged for further enhancement of educational structure of Howzeh (Islamic jurisprudence faculties) countrywide and appreciated the Qom province-based Howze for the new educational approach it has taken lately.

"The auspicious flourish must expand so that after a defintie time, highly educated jurisprudents emerge in all cities to promote religious knowledge. The mission first requires enhancement of knowledge command in Howzeh," the IR Leader encouraged.

Ayatollah Khamenei also required the Alims (Islamic scholars) to adopt a comprehensive look in their researches and arguments. The IR Leader recalled the great job of Imam Khomeini, the departed, to raise the concerns of society and world in Howzeh, adding that given an Alim suffers lack of the comprehensive look he would risk misidentifying the call of Divine orders or trivializing the scope of those prospering directives.

In the same regard, Ayatollah Khamenei raised the much-discussed issue of 'promotion of virtue and prevention of vice' in society, adding that the virtue will be appropriately promoted when an Islamic community is established and the vice will be fully prevented when a scoundrel, non-believer community is demoted.

"Given lack of a comprehensive look, this great Divine directive would be confined to trivial matters," Ayatollah Khamenei alerted.

Ayatollah Khamenei also named foresight as another requirement for an Alim, saying, "An Alim would be helpful only when he practices foresight because without foresight, a scholar would mistake the position of enemy and would direct at the friends as having already occured in several unfortunate cases in political, social, and religious spheres."

Ayatollah Khamenei urged the jurisprudence students not to get stuck to in-faculty studies and instead also move outside to identify the internal political trends and the possible enemy routes of infiltration into society.

In the same account, Ayatollah Khamenei urged the Alims to try to supply religious feed for different strata of people in society and abandon the perception that some people are unconcerned about faith.

Ayatollah Khamenei appreciated Imam Khomeini, may Allah be pleased with him, for being the one who realized and pointed to the faithfulness of the Iranian nation and always trusted them.

"Also today, people are interested in the Koran, the religion and the Rohaniyat (community of Alims). The Alims must abandon cliche-laden arguments and offer fresh words to different classes of people with different intellectual levels," Ayatollah Khamenei called, noting that to realize the goal, extensive study of the works and thoughts of the martyred scholar Morteza Motahhari was essential for the religious researchers.

The Islamic Revolution Leader moreover urged the Alims to couple devoutness with knowledge, saying that the scholars must purify their souls so that people could trace no greed in their character.

The Islamic Revolution Leader concluded his remarks by urging the community of religious scholars to widen mutual relations with the country's management, particularly the executive body.
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