Allama Sayyed Ali Fadlallah visited Al-Rahma High School in Nabatieh, in the context of the visits he makes to the institutions of Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association. He was received by the school's principal Nidal Jouni and a number of members of the teaching and administrative bodies and the high school's students.
After the Al-Mabarrat Scouts gave the scouting salute, Fadlallah made a tour of the high school's sections and classes and learned about the teaching methods and the work mechanisms.
The high school's children presented artistic and theatrical performances inspired by the visit, after which Fadlallah led the students in prayer, then delivered a speech in which he expressed his pride in them and affirmed the importance of “the inseparability of knowledge and faith, because the whole danger lies in knowledge being without faith and values”, calling on the students to “strengthen their relationship with God and to persevere in their academic journey, so as to raise the level of the society in which they live”.
He pointed to “the necessity of their openness to the other and of extending bridges of communication with him, far from closure, fanaticism and the raising of barricades, while preserving the convictions we believe in”, warning the students “against those who seek to drown our reality in denominational, political and sectarian strifes”.
Fadlallah then spoke in the high school's hall, in the presence of the parents' council, the teaching and administrative bodies at the high school and a number of the area's social and educational figures, expressing his thanks and appreciation for the giving and the efforts they exert, “in which we all share for the sake of building the personality of the human being whom we want to be free and distinguished in his moral, faith-based, behavioural and educational level”.
He said: “In Lebanon we have become used to pulling out our thorns with our own fingernails, and to working to close many gaps and to meet needs which are in origin the state's responsibility and its tasks. We do not want the state to withdraw, so much as we want it to shoulder its tasks at every level.”
He affirmed “the importance of joining everyone's efforts to confront everything our society and our reality suffer of problems at every level, in these difficult circumstances that the human being of this country is living”, warning against “the contagion of the fanaticisms of sects and denominations spreading to the educational and social institutions”, and pointing to “the moral challenge, which needs joined efforts to confront the intellectual and moral poisons blowing upon us from every direction”.
He concluded his speech by warning against “the strife that is meant to convulse this homeland, and against the takfiri reality that has begun to creep into our reality and that works at distorting the image of religion and its principles and values and all this history and this civilization - which imposes on us a great responsibility to confront it, requiring cooperation among all the community, educational, health and social institutions”.
He called for “not summoning up the events of history in a way that arouses sensitivities in the other, at a time when we are in the greatest need of cohesion at the level of the homeland and of the Arab and Islamic world”.
Fadlallah then visited Imam Al-Rida Mabarrat, checking on the students' families and learning about their conditions. He delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of a sports club at the Mabarrat, in the presence of the Council of Friends of Imam Al-Rida Mabarrat and a number of the area's figures, in which he affirmed “the importance of sporting upbringing for the rising generations, given the role it has in easing psychological tensions”. He touched on “the necessity of deepening the sporting spirit that we need in the whole of our political and social reality”.
In conclusion, he cut the opening ribbon and toured the club with those present.
