Imam Jaafar Al-Sadek High School held the ceremony for the graduation of the students who had passed the official examinations and the honouring of the outstanding pupils for the academic year 2015-2016, under the patronage of the general religious supervisor at Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association Sayyed Jaafar Fadlallah, and in the presence of a large crowd of parents and social figures.
To begin with, the Lebanese national anthem, then varied artistic segments by the school's arts troupe and the Al-Sayyeda Mariam Mabarrat troupe, then a speech by the president of Jouaiya municipality the engineer Hassan Jishi, in which he said: “As we stand in a deeply rooted educational edifice that sows knowledge and Islamic values, we cannot but recall the great departed, His Eminence Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, who worked with all the resolve he was given to sow the seeds of this education and established its intellectual and material structure; and one of its manifestations was these institutions, which have become threshing floors of goodness and giving.”
He added: “In our present condition we are in the most urgent need of this knowledge, this light and this progress, amid the ignorance, fanaticism and extremism that add ignorance upon ignorance to the nation and thus give a distorted image of Islam and of the tolerant values of heaven.”
He continued: “We touch with our own hands this distinction that has placed Al-Mabarrat's institutions, and other institutions, in high ranks, to the point where they have become among the foremost institutions in the field of education and teaching in Lebanon, where the true image of our beliefs, our values and our understanding of the human being's role appears.”
He explained that: “As we aspire to further creativity and development, we must not lose sight of accompanying this effort by opening up the horizons of student guidance, which should not be confined to the outstanding students.”
He concluded: “We now have specialized institutions that can be drawn upon to raise our students to the rank of the outstanding. We have many examples of students who did not obtain distinguished grades during their secondary studies and before, yet we see their brilliance and their creativity when their talents are discovered at later stages, at university or in the fields of work. From here we see the importance of guidance, which must accompany the students from an early stage.”
Then came a speech by the general religious supervisor at Al-Mabarrat schools Sayyed Jaafar Fadlallah, in which he spoke about the importance of knowledge in building the self, saying: “The religions affirmed that the human being is an essence, and that essence is knowledge - the knowledge with which a person is filled so as to shape his personality, and so grants life a mind, a thought, a product and a creativity. The person filled with knowledge is the person who does not need much adornment in order to dazzle people; he dazzles minds before he dazzles eyes.”
He added: “Our generations are brought up on the sanctity of knowledge, with an insistence on educating them despite all circumstances. We know that most of our people give everything they have, and give beyond their material capacity, in order to teach their children the knowledge that is beneficial in life. This does not go to waste; rather it is an investment for our religion and our worldly life.”
He pointed out that: “The importance of knowledge lies in its being coupled with morals, and among God's blessings upon us is the existence of institutions that work on this coupling - because a generation that possesses knowledge but does not possess morals, or a generation that possesses morals but does not possess knowledge, neither of them is able to build life.”
He said: “Despite our being rooted in the land, and despite our having paid a dear price so that the country should remain the country of the fathers and the forefathers, this country is not faithful to its generations and its graduates. Many of its officials move along the line of politics, or along other lines, for the sake of personal ambition, the media and the elections, and do not provide what must be provided for the growth and the elevation of these generations.”
He concluded: “What we hope for, and what we work for, is that the future of this country in your hands should be better than its past; that you should be rooted in this good land and take the opportunity you deserve without a favour from anyone or mediation from here and there. We ask God that you should not despair at what we are bequeathing you - a worn-out country that lives on corruption and breathes corruption.”
In conclusion, the school's principal Mohammad Nasrallah, Sayyed Fadlallah and a number of figures distributed certificates of appreciation, medals and shields to the graduates and the outstanding students.
