Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi:

Unity, key to develop Islamic world

Rasa – “With the advent of Islam, God Almighty resolved all the discord within the Islamic world and we as religious scholars need to adhere to Muhammad’s teachings and spread the message of unity,” said Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi.

News ID: 425969

Date: 22 December 2016 - 15:59

RNA – Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem-Shirazi, a Shi’ah source of emulation in Qom, received a group of Sunni scholars at Imam al-Kadhim Seminary in Qom on Wednesday, December 21.

During the meeting, Grand Ayatollah asserted that discord among Muslim community causes a lot of problems in the Islamic world adding, “In the Quran, God Almighty has mentioned the main problem and he has also provided the cure for it.”

He added, “Discord is not the only problem in the Islamic world. rather the conflicts, destructions and wars that are caused by such discords within the Muslim community. If one contemplates about the consequences of such discords, they realize it’s useless to breed such discord.”

“Israel and the US are safe and secure while Muslims are fighting many battles. Now that we’re going to start a movement towards Islamic unity they are doing everything they can to act against such unity,” the renowned scholar said.

Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi further added, “It’s really fortunate that great scholars of al-Azhar University have issued a fatwa approving of different Islamic schools including, four Sunni sects, Imamiyah Shi’ism and Zaydiyah sect. Iranian scholars’ libraries are filled with books written by Sunni scholars and we’re not biased on our sources of knowledge.”

His Eminence said, “I myself wrote an interpretation on Quran called Tafsir Nemouneh and in the course of writing this book I came to review and use many Sunni interpretations of Quran. In addition, Sunni scholars have asked for this book in order to read this Quranic interpretation.”

“There’s a cooperative atmosphere between Shi’ah and Sunni scholars and Iran is also country in which followers of both Islamic sects are living in a peaceful coexistence,” he added.

Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi concluded, “Prophet Muhammad managed to unite the people who had suffered from at discord for a long time. With the advent of Islam, God Almighty resolved all the discord within the Islamic world and we as religious scholars need to adhere to Muhammad’s teachings and further spread the message of unity.”

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