Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi:

Today, the main problems facing Iran are due to economic issues

Rasa – Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi addressed the six Iranian presidential candidates and said that although the main problems that Iran faces are economic issues there are also other issues facing the country.

News ID: 429390

Date: 09 May 2017 - 21:28

RNA – Speaking during his jurisprudence course at Qom’s Grand Mosque, Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem-Shirazi commemorated the memory of the martyr Ayatollah Mortaza Motahhari and said, “He was truly a comprehensive character and I was in the Shah’s prison for 45 days alongside him. Others quickly fell to fear and stress but those who had perseverance and courage didn’t suffer from such a situation.”

The revered source of emulation added that Ayatollah Motahhari gave great importance to ethical and academic issues and had a high morale. “Fortunately, many of his great works remain,” he noted.

In another part of his speech, Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi referred to the May 19th Iranian presidential and city and village council elections and said, “Those who participate in debates and other programs to introduce their goals and other must take three points into consideration – the first being that they must make the people hopeful for the future and not cause them to become hopeless.”

He added that we shouldn’t explain the current problems to such an amount that the people say that due to all their problems, they have no hope for the future and said, “The candidates must be people of hope as hope is the wheels on which society moves and the hope for the future forces mankind to be active. Despair is due to laziness, unemployment and escape from one’s responsibilities. The candidates must speak to the people in such a way that they are optimistic about the future.”

The teacher in the Islamic Seminary of Qom said that if candidates want to criticize each other, it must not be such that they say all of the other candidate’s actions have been disastrous and said, “Good actions must be explained and then criticized. They should say that they accomplished good things but mistakes have also been made. That only misdeeds and points of weakness are mentioned isn’t correct.”

Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi added that the third issue is something which is often overlooked – it is sometimes said that all of Iran’s problems are due to economic issues while not all of Iran’s problems are due to economic issues and social and cultural issues must also be addressed in earnest.

He said one official announced that 60% of the cases in the courts stem from some certain media networks. They must promise that the virtual networks are revised and ethical issues are corrected so that divorce, drug use and embezzlement are reduced.

The cleric added that apart from economic issues, Iran also suffers from other issues and although the main problems are due to economic issues, other major problems also exist which have reciprocal effects.

“Moral and economic problems influence each other and we hope that these points are adhered to and can have a good election and defeat the enemies,” Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi said.

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