Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association held a ceremony honouring its students who had passed the general secondary certificate at Imam Al-Hassan and Al-Kawthar High Schools and its top students in Al-Mabarrat schools, in the presence of educational and social figures and the graduates' parents, in the Al-Sayyeda Al-Zahraa hall in Haret Hreik.
To begin with, the Lebanese national anthem, then a theatrical performance presented by the children of Al-Mabarrat, then the president of the Lebanese University Dr Adnan Al-Sayyed Hussein delivered a speech in which he said: “How much we need today the heritage and the thought of His Eminence Allama Marja' Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah in a time of decline and deviation. He devoted a great portion of his life to knowledge and to calling to it, and founded Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association, and through it this cultural and scientific garden came into being.”
He added: “Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association has committed itself in its journey to three rules: first, respect for knowledge - indeed the sanctification of knowledge, since there is no deliverance for this nation from its backwardness except through knowledge. Second, respect for the law: the more we achieve equality among people in equal opportunities, the more we arrive at a result like today's, where eight students in the secondary certificate in life sciences, general sciences and economics and sociology were among the top ten in the Lebanese Republic. And third, the call to general peace among the components of Lebanese society.”
The president of the Lebanese University congratulated the students who had passed the official examinations, pointing out “that the Lebanese University's doors are open to you in all specializations”, and calling on them to “continue paying attention to the Arabic, French and English languages, whose level has been observed to decline in Lebanon over the last twenty years”.
Afterwards came a speech by the president of Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association His Eminence Allama Sayyed Ali Fadlallah, in which he congratulated the parents: “those who feel responsibility towards their children and so do not leave them for life to manage their affairs, but are present in the arenas of life alongside their children”.
He also congratulated Al-Mabarrat schools: “which were keen to build their foundations on spiritual bases, and worked to build values, to build faith and to build the spirit of openness to the other; which extended bridges of communication with all the sons of the homeland, and worked to be an oasis in the heart of all this reality that suffers fragmentation, disintegration, fanaticism and closure; and which decided to be an image we want for this homeland - the homeland of love and openness, the homeland of religions that is built on the basis of communication among its sects and denominations”.
He called on the students to “continue the journey of knowledge, so that you may be in the image we dream of for our human being in this country, the image His Eminence Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah used to dream of”. He said: “We want you in your universities, in your institutes and wherever you go in life to be in the image we hope for, and we shall be with you. We shall not consider that the stage you spent in your institutions has ended; rather we shall continue the journey with you, and you will find that the institutions you set out from will remain a protection and a support for you in facing the demands of life.”
He continued, addressing the students: “We know that the scale of the challenges facing you is great, especially in this country which suffers what it suffers. The suffering has reached the universities and those who graduate from the universities - who, when they graduate possessing many capacities, abilities and a presence in the fields of their learning, find no field in this country in which to work or in which to express their energies.”
He concluded by saying: “We must always strive to build a homeland in which there are opportunities for everyone. This is what we should demand, and this is what all our children deserve - those who hold fast to living in their country, and who have a right upon their country that it should absorb the energies deposited in them.”
