Bahman University Hospital honored Professor Samir Alam on the thirteenth anniversary of the passing of the religious authority Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah (RA), during the academic conference it held in cooperation with a number of hospitals on heart failure, attended by the scholar Sayyed Ali Fadlallah, the Director General of Al-Mabarrat Association Dr. Mohammad Baqer Fadlallah, the hospital's director Haj Ali Karim, Bahman's medical director Dr. Hassan Nassar, Dr. Malek Mohammad, Dr. Mahmoud Shuqair and a crowd of doctors.
The conference opened with the Lebanese national anthem, then a welcoming word from Haj Ali Karim to the honoree and those present, saying: We are honoring a teacher in medicine and in humanity, and a few words cannot sum up the history of the relationship between the doctor and the religious authority Fadlallah - a relationship that rose beyond that of a patient with his doctor, a relationship in which the doctor engaged with the mission of knowledge, transcending all frames and headings and setting out toward everything that elevates the human being.
Then came the word of the honoree Professor Samir Alam, who began by expressing his thanks and gratitude for this honour, sending a greeting to the soul of the religious authority Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah (RA) and holding that “it is a great pride to me that he singled me out with his love, his counsel and his trust. It is also an honour for a person to be honored by their friends and their family and by those with whom they shared the duty of humanitarian and national work - and the honour is doubled when you are honored by a long-established institution whose roots are firm in the work of righteousness and goodness, and by a great family carrying the values and virtues of a man distinguished in his character, his culture, his philosophy, his worship and his constant striving for justice and for the defence of every person's right to a dignified life.”
He added: I knew him as a friend and a guide, radiating thought, ethics, jurisprudence and wisdom, steady and bold in his commitment to principles and to national and human positions.
The scholar Sayyed Ali Fadlallah then delivered a speech in which he began by expressing his abundant thanks and appreciation to Dr. Alam for all he gave of his time, his knowledge and his means in preserving the heart and the life of the Sayyed, his father (RA). He held that this honour is part of an acknowledgement of his kindness - even if it came late for reasons beyond our control - and an honouring of this scholarly and humane figure, not at the level of Lebanon alone but at the level of the world.
His Eminence then spoke about the firm and strong relationship that bound the religious authority Fadlallah to Dr. Alam, showing that this relationship carried deep human dimensions and all the headings of love, appreciation and praise - beginning with the historic and deep-rooted relationship between the people of his village Rmeish and the city of Bint Jbeil and the shared history and continuing present that bring them together, in addition to the shared vision in looking at this homeland and in how to deal with its crises and its people's suffering, where Lebanon can only be built through the meeting of all its components and their cooperation, and through dialogue being the means of resolving any difference that may arise among the Lebanese.
His Eminence affirmed that Dr. Alam was a heart to the Sayyed and deserves to be a doctor to all hearts, for the meanings and values, dedication, sincerity, sense of mission and professionalism he carries.
His Eminence offered abundant thanks to the medical service at the American University for sponsoring this conference, expressing the hope that this relationship would continue and widen with Bahman Hospital so as to bear humanitarian projects serving the people of this homeland at the health, medical and human level. He pointed to the importance of such conferences because they help shed light on this disease and on the new treatments medicine has reached which help ease its negative effects on people.
From this conference His Eminence called on all politicians to treat the heart of this homeland, which they have placed on artificial respiration because of their selfishness, their interests, their polemics and their mismanagement of it, so that it now lives on oxygen we import from abroad.
His Eminence expressed his fear that we have begun to lose the trust among this homeland's components which used to be a safety valve - and the reason appears to be the disorder that has struck this class's heart and led to a failure in its natural functioning, as a result of ambitions, impossible demands and a failure to understand the existing balances, which has led them to stir up anxieties, fears, sensitivities and tensions and to put forward unrealistic projects such as partition, federalism and the like, none of which is in the interest of this homeland and its people.
His Eminence addressed this class, saying: Be careful of this homeland and revive it from within, and do not wait for the outside to be a substitute for you. If you unite, if intentions are pure and concessions are made, you are capable of lifting it out of this collapse - after its people's whole concern has become to flee this country for any other homeland.
He closed his remarks: Preserve this homeland's mission in the capacity of religions to coexist and to meet, and offer a model of that.
