Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association held its central iftar at Al-Saha Heritage Village in the presence of the President of Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association, His Eminence Sayyed Ali Fadlallah, and its Director General Dr. Mohammad Baqer Fadlallah; MP Fadi Alameh, representing the Speaker of Parliament; Labor Minister Mohammad Haidar, representing the Prime Minister; Ministers Yassine Jaber, Dr. Rakan Nassereddine and Fadi Makki; MP Mohammad Raad, head of the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, representing the Secretary-General of Hezbollah; Sheikh Ali Janani, representing former Prime Minister Saad Hariri; MPs Melhem Khalaf, Ghazi Zaiter, Kassem Hashem, Kabalan Kabalan and Hussein Hajj Hassan; MP Salim Sayegh, representing the leader of the Kataeb Party; former Minister Tarek Al-Khatib, representing the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement; Iranian Chargé d'Affaires Tawfiq Samadi; the Ambassador of the State of Palestine Mohammad Al-Asaad; Sheikh Kamal Abi Al-Mouna, representing the Sheikh Akl of the Druze community; Sayyed Hassan Hassan, representing the Islamic Shia Council; representatives of the Minister of Defense, the Army Commander, the Director General of the Internal Security Forces and the Director General of General Security; former Minister Mostafa Bayram; Major General Abbas Ibrahim; former Minister Naji Boustani; former MP Nazih Mansour; former MP Ammar Moussawi; the President of the Court of Audit, Judge Mohammad Badran; and a large gathering of religious, military, diplomatic, social, municipal and cultural figures.
The ceremony, introduced by the Director of the Islamic Cultural Center Sayyed Shafiq Al-Moussawi, opened with verses from the Holy Quran followed by the Lebanese national anthem. The Al-Mabarrat choir then performed the anthem “And Al-Mabarrat Remains”, after which the Director General of Al-Mabarrat Association Dr. Mohammad Baqer Fadlallah delivered a speech in which he said: “It is a great blessing that we return to meet around the table of the blessed month of Ramadan, which carries every banner of goodness and mercy, which opens onto the substance of giving, and which celebrates every shade of human values that know no boundaries of names or places, that no labels or frameworks can contain, and before which all spaces prove too narrow”.
He noted that “the month of Ramadan represents a banner that transcends every boundary, opens onto every horizon, and rises above sects and denominations”.
He added: “From here, and after years of absence, we welcome you around this table of goodness, in which you represent the element of continuity and elevation, and an icon of goodness in its premises that are open to society as a whole, to the human being as a whole, and to the whole of Lebanon, this country that we all look to and all work for, so that it may rise again above all this rubble of crises, wars and aggression”.
He continued: “At Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association, we took it upon ourselves from the very beginning, from the first moment the idea took shape and dreams took flight, to rise above the rubble of our great problems that have clamored and still clamor in our societies, from poverty and orphanhood, to the absence of optimal educational opportunities, to health and psychological pain and more”.
He said: “We feel that the burdens remain light and that the movement remains smooth, as long as you are with us, and as long as we all cooperate in lifting all these worries from the shoulders of our people, whom experience has shown to be worthy of every service, and who deserve that we stand with them in every ordeal, before all these mountains of crises and these hills of problems”.
He pointed out that “despite the challenges and crises this country is living through, by joining our efforts and standing together in our positions we have been able to overcome them, to wipe away what tears we could, and to drive away what pain and worry we could”.
He spoke about “the role the Association played during the war, by standing beside its displaced people and providing assistance”, affirming “that our charities and schools became a shelter worthy of our displaced people”.
At the close of his speech he spoke about the achievements of Al-Mabarrat's educational, care, health and university institutions both at home and abroad.
At the end of the ceremony, Sayyed Ali Fadlallah delivered a speech in which he began by stressing “that it is our duty to renew the human sense in people's souls and to strengthen it within them so that we may emerge from our whole reality. We suffer because we live in a world where feelings have gone numb, and where values, principles, human rights and the interests of peoples no longer have a place, because the major and influential states in this world act only for their own interests and comfort, and have no trouble igniting wars, conflicts and strife, or causing destruction, siege and starvation, as we have witnessed in Palestine and Lebanon”.
He added: “When they speak of humanity… their talk serves an interest that prompts it, to the point that it has become part of the vocabulary of politics and the media that tragedies and massacres are made noise about not out of a humanitarian motive, but in the service of a political reality, or to justify an intervention aimed at economic gain, or at extending influence or control”.
He noted “that the religions which came to strengthen love and mercy in hearts, to call for communication and building bridges with others, to foster an atmosphere of unity, to confront injustice and to root justice, freedom and human rights, are targeted by some who seek to empty them of the values they came to call for, and to turn them into a cause for division and conflict or a tool for reaching personal or political ends and achieving private interests”.
He continued: “This reality, which contradicts human values, is what has made and continues to make the world less safe, less secure and less at peace, and leaves vulnerable peoples exposed to the winds of unjust and dominant power. Talk of the peace that peoples hope for, built on respect for their wealth and their right to sovereignty, has become talk of a peace imposed by force, which is not peace at all but rather submission and surrender”.
He explained: “These words may be a cry in the wilderness, given the dominance of the logic of force that we witness and the decline we see in values and justice. But that does not absolve us of the responsibility to raise our voice in rejection of this reality and to stand with the oppressed and the vulnerable. Meanwhile, in this country whose security and safety are our concern, we are called upon to do our utmost to protect it from all the attacks it faces…
This calls on us to marshal our strength and not squander it, to free ourselves from our private calculations and our factional, denominational and sectarian interests, and to make our calculations those of the whole nation”.
He said: “It is regrettable that we witness division in this country despite the challenge we face from an enemy lying in wait to undermine its formula, an enemy that violates its land, its sky and its sea, kills its young people and destroys its homes… and wants us to enter negotiations through which it dictates its conditions to us so that we surrender to it.
We do not wish to make light of the scale of the suffering caused by what the enemy is doing, the capabilities it possesses, and the cover that enables it to do as it wishes. But this does not call for surrendering to this enemy and its conditions so much as it calls on the state to make every effort to stop the bleeding and the destruction, and to take into account all the options that help drive the enemy out in a way that does not threaten our security, our sovereignty and our future”..
He continued: “As we speak of the suffering of the people of this country, we should not overlook the economic and livelihood challenge and the rebuilding of what has been destroyed. Here we call on the state to take into account its citizens' suffering, to feel their pain and hardship rather than add to it, as has happened, and as we fear may happen again”.
He concluded by saying: “We will remain committed to building a strong, just state capable of protecting the land, sovereignty and security of its citizens; but before that lie obstacles that require everyone's combined efforts and cooperation.
We will remain committed to continuing what we began with you: to continue the mission of goodness and charity, the mission of giving, the mission of openness to the whole nation and to every human being… the mission of peace and love for all”.
