The “Al-Mabarrat Charitable” Association held the ceremony closing the events of Al-Mabarrat Week on the care of the elderly at Dar Al-Aman for the elderly - the town of Abbassieh, in the presence of the deputy Ali Khreiss, Nabil Bawwab representing the deputy Bahia Hariri, Lina Abou Khalil representing the deputy Ali Osseiran, the president of Al-Mabarrat Association Allama Sayyed Ali Fadlallah, the former deputy Ahmad Ajami, Lieutenant Colonel Nasser Hammam the head of the Tyre intelligence office representing Brigadier Khodr Hammoud the head of the army intelligence office in the south, the president of Abbassieh municipality Ali Ezzeddine, and a gathering of scholars and figures and representatives of the Lebanese and Palestinian parties and factions.
Ezzeddine
To begin with, Ezzeddine delivered a speech in which he praised “the charitable and humanitarian role of Al-Mabarrat Association, and the decision of Al-Mabarrat's board of directors more than ten years ago, on the guidance of the late Allama Marja' Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, to establish a social and health centre in the Tyre region, so as to add another planet to the association's many multi-service edifices in Lebanon - and Abbassieh had the honour of embracing this edifice”.
He added: “This pioneering project, the only one in the south, was exposed to doubts from many people as to the extent to which it would fulfil its aims and succeed, because the idea had not matured in our area and was considered strange to our customs and our social heritage - until people saw the pioneering role this home has played and plays in the area and its attracting of residents from the various regions of Lebanon, which encouraged people of generous hands to adopt the expansion of this home so that it could accommodate additional numbers of elderly and needy people.”
Fadlallah
For his part, Sayyed Fadlallah held that “Sayyed Fadlallah's institutions continue in their giving and on the path the leader drew in the service of orphans, the poor and the sons of the homeland”, affirming “the persistent pursuit of the process of continuous development”; he also thanked the medical and administrative staff at Al-Mabarrat for the fine effort in the service of the elderly.
He said: “We are here to honour a value we are most in need of being reminded of, namely the value of righteousness (birr), because it is by righteousness that a person becomes a human being, and by it the humanity of the human being opens up to the humanity of the other.”
He added: “Through righteousness we express our faith and our message, because a person cannot rise to God if he is selfish, if he is closed to the other, if he does not think about the pains of others and their suffering, and if he is not shaken by the pains that live in his reality.”
Fadlallah pointed out that “the believer is the one who opens up to the life around him, for all creatures are God's dependants, and the most beloved of them to God is the one who brings joy to the people of his household. To be a believer is to think on the scale of the whole human being, far from all these barriers we have fabricated in our hearts and our minds towards others.”
He noted that “through righteousness we can build a homeland, because a homeland cannot be built by the selfish, the closed and the fanatical, or by those who think only of the account of themselves, of the account of their denominations, of the account of their sects”. He said: “Those who think of the homeland must think on the scale of the homeland, and think about it on the scale of the whole horizon they ought to work for so that the homeland may be as we want it - a lighthouse for the world, by which the world is guided and through which it can trust that religions and denominations, when they meet, do not divide; and when they rise up they shine as a distinguished star that meets within itself with all the values the messages came in order to affirm and to build in the arena of life.”
He regretted that “religions have in reality turned into formalities and rituals lacking content, so that the prayer that raises us up to God and through Him to the human being no longer ascends, and fasting no longer protects from selfishness”.
He concluded: “We have affirmed, do affirm and shall always affirm that we do not believe in a fanaticism of righteousness; and if we occupy a position of righteousness, we cannot close the door upon ourselves and cancel out others. We believe in open righteousness, and for that reason we see in all the institutions that work for righteousness in every position - not only the social institutions - we see ourselves in them and feel that we belong to them and that they belong to us.”
In conclusion the Al-Mabarrat choir presented hymn pieces, and the super design company, represented by Ghazwa Al-Ahmad, presented an appreciation shield to Fadlallah and to the central public relations official.
