RNA – Ayatollah Sayyed Ahmad Khatami, the temporary Friday prayer leader of Tehran, has met with members of an organization which has been established to promote the true message of the event of Ghadir. His Eminence emphasized that in order to spread the true message of Ghadir, education must start in elementary schools.
Eid al-Ghadir is an upcoming Shi’ah Muslim religious occasion which a celebration of the appointment of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib by the Prophet Muhammad as his successor.
He explained that we must always perform our religious obligations in relation to the wilayah (guardianship of the Ahlul-Bayt). “The same way that we renew our pledge to the guardianship of the Ahlul-Bayt (A) on Tasu’a and Ashura, the event of Ghadir must have the same effect on us,” he added in reference to the commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Husayn (A).
Ayatollah Khatami added that in order for the event of Ghadir to be institutionalized in the culture of the people as Tasu’a and Ashura have been, they need to participate in the revival of the event of Ghadir. He also referred to the importance Imam Khomeini gave to the revival of Ghadir and the cultural of guardianship and said that the Imam emphasized that the culture of Ghadir must always live and that guardianship must never be oppressed.
“With a continuous review of the methods used to revive the culture of Ghadir we can find its strengths and weaknesses and amend these methods. We should not relay on government funding because religious rituals should not be tied to the state. The people themselves should establish mosques and husayniyahs. This revives the true culture of Ghadir among the people,” the renowned cleric stated.
“Friday prayer leaders across the country have an important role in teaching the lessons of Ghadir through their sermons,” Ayatollah Khatami stated in reference to one of the methods of reviving the culture of Ghadir among the Iranian people.
Ayatollah Khatami also stated that many of Iran’s youth who were born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution are unaware of the events which led to the Islamic Revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. They are also unaware of the events at the beginning of the leadership of Ayatollah Khamenei. “We must explain these events thoroughly for the new generation,” the teacher in the Islamic Seminary of Qom emphasized.
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