Imam Al-Jawad High School in Ali Al-Nahri, which belongs to Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association, held the graduation celebration of its students under the patronage of the association's director general Dr Mohammad Baqir Fadlallah, and in the presence of the director of Al-Mabarrat schools in the central Bekaa Ibrahim Saeed, the high school's principal Souad Farraj, members of the parents' council, figures from the area and a crowd of the students' families.
Saeed delivered a speech in which he affirmed “the keenness to continue the journey begun by the renewing marja' Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, and among the seasons of its goodness and the blessings of its fruits is this pioneering, lofty edifice of knowledge, Imam Al-Jawad High School, in the shade of whose accomplishments and of the giving of its teaching and educational staff we have taken shelter for 25 years”.
He pointed out that “the experience of Al-Mabarrat schools in the Bekaa region has been able to turn into a model followed by every mind and every knowledge-seeker who has laid the foundation for the journey of education and teaching. We are all awaiting the launch of Al-Sayyeda Zeinab Mabarrat, which will be a refuge and a shelter protecting our orphans from all the pressing psychological, social and economic crises surrounding our society, so that every effort and endeavour may be completed through which we aim at forming our message-driven human being, who should be an image of the Quranic Muslim and of civilizational Islam, at a time when many of our young people have become ashamed of that, in the shadow of the image they wanted to spread that Islam is the religion of slaughter and killing”.
Fadlallah spoke about “the ordeal that shades our horizon and takes shape like pieces of a dark night in our surroundings, and close to this dear Bekaa, which deprivation and neglect have never left, in its land and its human being, since it began the journey of life. In this exceptional, difficult and barren time, the torches of hope remain alight through the will of its people and its sons and through the resolve of its men.”
He addressed the students being honoured: “We were waiting for you to rejoice in excellence and distinction, but we ask with bitterness about the bitterness met with by the outstanding among our children through the breaking of their dreams on the rock of the disagreements between the Ministry of Education and the coordination committee, and the replacement of the certificate by an attestation - which deprives our children in their universities of the joy of distinction in entering the universities, despite our great confidence in this high school's teaching level; and you all know that its journey in previous years has been a journey of excellence and distinction. We also believe that you are stronger than certificates and greater than attestations, and therefore we are glad and take pride in you; and the opportunity remains before you to prove your competence and your ability to be distinguished in the future. Our hope is that this scene will not be repeated in Lebanon in the future, and that the chemistry of love of the other and of sacrifice for his sake will remain stronger than the chemistry of self-interest and withdrawal.”
He concluded: “In an atmosphere of sectarian and denominational fanaticism, we must be aware of our dynamic Quranic human being, who rejects arrogance and superstition and lives the culture of unity, dialogue and acceptance of difference and diversity. At the universities you will live with a varied environment, and we want you to trust the culture the Sayyed used to provide us with - he who used to say: ‘Let us think how to wash our hearts with love, goodness, mercy and openness to God.' You will meet others with love, not with rancour or fanaticism, even if they differ with you in opinion.”
In conclusion the graduation certificates were distributed.
