Al-Jawad (PBUH) Secondary School in Ali Al-Nahri in the Bekaa honored its girls who had reached the age of religious maturity at a large ceremony held in the school's function hall, under the patronage of the scholar Sayyed Ali Fadlallah and attended by the school's director Souad Marah Al-Moussawi, His Eminence Sheikh Fouad Khreiss, and scholarly, educational, social and cultural figures and the families of the girls coming of age.
The ceremony opened with clear verses from the Holy Quran, then the national anthem, after which the girls entered amid an atmosphere of joy and delight, presenting segments and artistic tableaux inspired by the occasion and taking the oath of loyalty and the pledge to keep to the hijab. The scholar Sayyed Ali Fadlallah then delivered a speech in which he said: We meet every year to present a constellation of our dear girls to our society and to our homeland - girls who have been careful, by their own will and their own choice, to hold to the road God drew for them and which they came to know through this aware upbringing at home and at school.
His Eminence added: In this homeland we sadly find those who speak in the language of: why do you build Islamic institutions, what do you produce from them and what do you do in them? Has this homeland not had enough of divisions and conflicts, that every sect should build its own entity? To those who speak with this logic and in this language we say: the problem in this homeland is not religion, as is claimed, but moving away from it and from its teachings and values. We raise and educate these generations on the values of love, openness and acceptance of the other, because a religious person cannot but live justice, giving, truthfulness, trustworthiness and love for everyone. He affirmed that these institutions came into being to be a bridge of communication and love between this homeland's components, seeking to strengthen human, national and faith values and to spread them in society.
His Eminence continued: To those people we say: whoever holds to religion's teachings and values cannot be corrupt in any position or post they reach, cannot misuse public money, cannot break the rules and cannot take bribes. The problem, therefore, is not in religion but in the sectarianism that carries religion's heading without living its values and its authenticity. The sectarians set out from religious headings but work to empty them of their ethical and human content for the sake of their own and their faction's interests - and this is what brought us to this reality of corruption, contempt for public money and people's interests, and absence of responsibility.
His Eminence said: When we present this constellation to the homeland it is because they carry all these values and concepts brought by the heavenly messages - the spirit of openness, of building bridges, of love, of knowledge and of distinction. He addressed
the parents to congratulate them on this aware upbringing and on the concepts they have planted in their children, commending the cooperation between them and this institution.
His Eminence valued the great role played by those working at this institution in building a mission-driven generation that will be an alternative to the reality in which corruption, mismanagement and disorder are nesting at every level. He commended their efforts and their dedication in fulfilling their mission in these difficult circumstances, saying: we cannot appreciate you as you deserve
In closing he addressed the girls coming of age, saying: Blessed be this hijab for you. We are confident that you will be equal to this responsibility, not only at the level of form but also in substance, in knowledge, in ethics and in distinction.
