At the beginning of his Fiqh lesson held in Azam Mosque, Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi referring to a narration about moralities, explained how to encounter the opponents.
Remarking that the opponents are in three different groups, he said: the first group are the “Nasebis”, those who are the enemies of our Imams and we abhor them. However, they are only a few people. The second group are the enemies of Shia’, like some Wahabi sects who are against Shia’. The third group are those who are not Shia’ but they love Ahl-al-Bait (a.s.) and Shia’, and we don’t treat these three groups in a same way.
He added that, we have a kindly treatment with the third group and this treatment has even attracted them as I have experienced this when I was deported to Mahabad before the Islamic revolution.
His highness stated: currently we have to tolerate the second group, even when we go to Mecca we pray with them, as Imam Khomeini stressed on this matter.
Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi added that any conflict among Muslims in the present situation will be exploited by the enemies of Islam, therefore we must not give any pretext to them; however it does not mean for us to forsake our religious principles, but vice versa, we seriously defend our principles.
Referring to the popular uprising in Bahrain, Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi condemned the position of Sheikh Qarzawi and said: recently, Sheikh Qarzawi has spoken uncomplimentary about Shiites of Bahrain and the uprisings in the country, saying that we do not feel sympathy for them and that they must be suppressed.
He added: is it appropriate for an Islamic scholar to say such words about Muslims which means discrimination among Islamic nations? Sheikh Qarzawi supports the revolution in Egypt and the military action in Libya. But when it comes the turn of Bahrain, he directly supports the dictatorship. Is this duplicity proper for an Islamic scholar? Somewhere he supports the revolution and somewhere else he supports the dictatorship.
Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi said that the uprising in Bahrain is not exclusive to Shia’ but belongs to both sects, Even Sunni scholars in Bahrain have supported the uprising. He added that the most important quality of an Islamic scholar is to have no bigotry and prejudice, because any duplicity and fanaticism in this field will be exploited for the benefits of Zionists and enemies of Islam.
In the continuation of his speech, his highness acknowledged that in some Islamic countries like Egypt and Lebanon, the country is ruled by all sects and religions like Shiites, Sunnis, and Christians but the enemies are only afraid of Iran.
Grand Ayatollah Makarem shirazi highlighted the significant role of Islamic Republic of Iran in the Middle East and said: I encourage Sheikh Qarzawi, the Mifti of Al-Azhar and the great Mufti of Saudi Arabia to think what would be the situation of our region, Egypt and Lebanon without the Islamic revolution? What would be our positions against the United States? He emphasized that without the position of Iran and Lebanon against Israel, the situation of our region would be more different and the global arrogance would be able to exert his plans in our region.
His highness said that one of the plots of the global arrogance is to exploit the revolutions in our region and added: people must be alert not to let the foreigners to exploit these revelations in their own favor; they take benefit from every conflict among Muslims.
He expressed that the Islamic Republic of Iran is a strong force which can prevent these revolutions from being exploited by the foreigners and this force is needed in the region.
Grand Ayatollah Makarem shirazi emphasized that sectarian matters is not involved in these revolution and they are all for Islam.
At the end of his speech he asked God, the exalted to grant us correct cognition and vision without any bigotry and prejudice.
