Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association honoured the girls from its schools in Beirut who had reached the age of religious obligation, at a ceremony held in the Al-Zahraa (a.s.) hall at the Al-Hasanain (a.s.) complex in Haret Hreik, under the patronage and in the presence of Allama Sayyed Ali Fadlallah, with scholarly, cultural and social figures and the girls' families.
The ceremony opened with verses from the Holy Quran, then the national anthem, after which Al-Mabarrat's Zahraat presented a number of anthems and plays inspired by the occasion. Then came the speech of the ceremony's patron Allama Fadlallah, who congratulated the girls on reaching religious obligation, saying to them: “We are proud of you, and we are confident that you will bear this trust with every care and seriousness and will be equal to bearing this responsibility, despite all the difficult circumstances we suffer and that the people of this country face. You will be keen on your worship and your conduct, and will work to serve your society at every level so as to raise its standing.”
His Eminence added: “Before this difficult economic reality and this crisis-ridden political one, and before the dangers threatening the country, we must feel the hope we always look to - through this determination present in this nation not to fall before reality, the insistence on facing backwardness and ignorance, and the work with every confidence and seriousness to change the human being's reality for the better, on the basis that change begins with the self and from within, then extends to other places.”
His Eminence continued: “We stand in a position in which we take pride, and we hold that if we can, through the joining of the efforts of those working in these institutions with the dear families, offer a constellation of our own flesh and blood raised on goodness, love and humanity, and on having God present with them in all their works and their lives - in word, in deed, in action and in conduct - then we will produce an aware generation that appreciates its responsibilities, preserves this country and its resources, and holds fast to the values of justice, integrity and transparency in any position it assumes.”
His Eminence added: “We have learned from Lady Al-Zahraa (a.s.), as we mark the anniversary of her birth, to be the aware nation that lives others' concerns and their needs, far from selfishness, insularity and sectarian, denominational and political affiliations”, stressing the necessity of being keen on justice in this country, on fighting corruption in all its colours and shades, and on preserving public money.
His Eminence affirmed that Islam called upon people to attend to health and cleanliness, holding that prevention - especially before the danger of corona to which the world is exposed - becomes a responsibility and a duty, given the burdens and dangers to all humanity that result from recklessness about prevention.
His Eminence called on the relevant ministries, the municipalities and the civil associations to work to ease the pains of this bad reality people are living, by activating their role - especially the Ministry of Economy, so that it may carry out its duty of monitoring the rise in the prices of goods, particularly the essential ones, and of limiting the policy of monopoly pursued by some traders who raise the prices of their goods arbitrarily, exploiting the rise in the dollar exchange rate.
His Eminence addressed the government and all the political forces of the loyalist camp and the opposition, calling on them to halt their disputes and their squabbles and to work as one team within an emergency plan to bring the country out of the state of collapse and bankruptcy we may have entered. He pointed out that there are internal and external parties seeking to complicate this crisis so as to make the country hostage to external dictates and to what the International Monetary Fund imposes and to its policies, which contain harsh conditions and measures whose consequences the Lebanese people cannot bear.
His Eminence concluded by saying: “These institutions will continue on these foundations and values in raising their generations and in serving the homeland and its people, far from sectarian and denominational calculations and political considerations. We set out from the people and to the people, and we will continue to work to serve them despite all the difficult circumstances we are living through - for our trust is in God first, and in the nation of goodness, and in this society that supplies it and is keen on it.”
