Rasa News Agency - Today, Ayatollah Ja’far Sobhani, one of the leading sources of emulation in Qom, met members of the Association of Supporters of Expansion of the Seminaries. He stated that seminaries are blessed places and that “anywhere a seminary is built in the country brings people closer to religion.”
The Association of Supporters of Expansion of the Seminaries was established in 2012 with a mission to support Islamic seminaries with the support of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei.
He pointed to the direct impact of seminaries on people’s lives and said: “one of the most important functions of the seminary is to protect our religion against the attacks of the enemies.”
With the existence of many Persian-language satellite channels broadcasting anti-Shi’ah propaganda which are lies, Ayatollah Sobhani said: “the expansion of the seminaries and training of seminarians and missionaries in [the Shi’ah Islamic] religion is a method to confront these attacks.”
He pointed to the lack of clergy in many areas of Iran, especially in rural areas, and expressed: “there are many clerics in Qom, but other areas suffer from a lack of spiritual guidance.”
Ayatollah Sobhani said that the establishment of the Association of Supporters of Expansion of the Seminaries was a positive action. “Today there are many mosques in the country which do not have a cleric [to serve and guide the people] and we must solve this problem,” His Eminence stated.
He stated that academic support for religious schools across the country is essential, saying “The management of the seminaries must work hard to provide [suitable] teachers for their schools.”
Ayatollah Sobhani expressed concern that many of the prayer leaders (imams) in mosques throughout Iran are not clerics, “If a non-cleric is just, there is no problem if he leads prayers, but if this trend continues, the people will not understand the role of the clergy in society.”
His Eminence pointed to the increase and progress of doctors in Iran and explained: “Before the glorious Islamic Revolution, there were about 20,000 doctors in Iran, but today that number has reached 120,000 thousand! Thus, we must also increase the number of clergy and missionaries.”
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