On the occasion of the noble Prophetic Birth and of glorious Christmas, the students of the Al-Ahibba Club at the Lebanese International University LIU in Beirut organized a dialogue meeting with His Eminence Sayyed Jaafar Fadlallah and His Excellency Father Fadi Daou, entitled “Our Spiritual and Social Peace in the Light of the Shared Values of Islam and Christianity”, attended by the university's teachers and students and by the presidents and representatives of the university's student clubs.
The meeting opened with the Lebanese national anthem, then a visual report on the club's Christmas activities, followed by an artistic segment inspired by the occasion presented by girls from Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association, whose voices rang out with the two hymns “Christ Is Born” and “Arise, O Muhammad”.
Afterwards there was a speech by Father Fadi Daou in which he spoke about “the importance of the sects meeting and taking part with one another in occasions, because all the religions and the heavenly books call for peace, love, cooperation and brotherhood among human beings”. He also affirmed “the necessity of respecting coexistence and of abandoning denominational fanaticisms and intellectual and religious quarrelling, for the good of the generations and the building of the homeland”.
Then came a speech by Sayyed Jaafar Fadlallah in which he spoke about “social peace and its reflection on inner peace and faith, which achieves intellectual peace through answering existential questions”, holding that “the relationship with God is manifested in embodying values in the various fields of life, and that in community life values must be institutionalized so as to turn into a culture of life and a lived reality”.
He pointed out “that embodying values practically makes Muslims and Christians meet along shared lines in reality without the need for sterile theoretical dialogues”.
At the close of the meeting there was a discussion between the lecturers and those present, and commemorative photographs of the members of the Al-Ahibba Club with Father Fadi Daou and Sayyed Jaafar Fadlallah.
It is worth noting that for the same occasion the students of the Al-Ahibba Club at the Lebanese International University LIU in Beirut visited their fellow students at the LIU Salloumi branch and distributed flowers to them, with the participation of the students of the Al-Risala Club and the Nour Club at the university.
There was also a meeting between the club's students and the director of the Salloumi branch at the university Dr Gaby Khoury, who praised the visit, holding “that occasions for meeting in our society have become few, and therefore we must take part in occasions that bring the sects in Lebanon together”. He also praised the love that the late His Eminence the Marja' Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah lived in his life, noting that “he was the godfather of national unity between Islam and Christianity”.
