“I think that the seminaries, especially the Seminary of Qom, should truly strive in order to return the teachings of the prophets to the people, because in Islam even the disbelievers are respected, unless they commit crimes. God states in the Qur’an:
“God forbids you not, regarding those who haven’t fought against your Faith, nor driven you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them; for God loves those who are just.”
It means that God approves kindness even to the disbelievers. Some might object to treating them with kindness because they are infidels, but Islam treats them with respect as long as they haven’t committed a crime, “Quenching anyone’s thirst is a rewarded deed.” With respect to unbelievers who are at peace with Muslims, scholars state that if one was to choose between performing ablution or give water to an infidel, then one must give the water to the infidel and not do his ablution.
The seminaries must put serious effort in order to save the Muslims in general, because the Muslims are truly under much torture and oppression. One issue is to save the whole world, and another one is to solve the problems of the Muslims in particular.”
Sayed Muhammad Shirazi
The Birth Celebration of Imam Ali ع
I had a great time at Imam Ali Center last night. Sayed Hassan Qazwini delivered a great speech and talked about many different topics. One that stuck out to me was about the leadership of Imam Ali ع.
He said that if we had a leader like Imam Ali ع today we would not have these riots and uprisings like the Baltimore incident recently. That is because Imam Ali ع treated everyone with justice and fairly. There was no police brutality and people were given their due rights.
He said that Imam Ali ع treated everyone good no matter what their race or religion. He said that his close companions Qambar and Maytham at-Tammar were black men and that the Imam loved these companions so much that he treated them as family. He then emphasized on how we treat other races asking the crowd if an African American were to walk in the center how would you treat them? He said that we must treat them in same way Imam Ali ع would have, giving the example of Qambar and Maytham.
He also spoke about how all other religions have outreach offices in their places of worship, but what have we been doing to help others know the true Islam. How we should invite other people to attend the mosque and not make it an exclusive club for one ethnic group or the other, excluding all the other people. He spoke on how we should be proud to be Muslims and at the same time be brave to share our beliefs with the American people.
It was a great speech. There are so many other things he spoke about, but these are just a few.
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