A Community in the spirit of the Holy Qur’an
The following is Hujjat al-Islam Dr Mohammad Ali Shomali’s address to a gathering of religious preachers titled ‘Role of Community in Establishing the Book’
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
I am grateful to God for giving us the blessing of getting together again to renew our bonds of brotherhood, to renew our allegiance to Imam Mahdi(

In Ziyarat Aminullah (salutation to the holy imams) we say to Imam Ali(a), “‘amilta
Imam Ali(a) is someone about whom we can say he acted upon the Qur’an and, therefore, he is qualified to say to people, “By God do not let other to overtake you in acting according to God’s Book”.

He himself implemented the Qur’an; thus, we can say to people as a summary of his achievements in life is that one of the things we must make sure we observe is to act upon the Qur’an and
So, it is very important to beable to qualify as a person or as an individual who is acting upon the Qur’an. However

They were loaded with the Torah, but they did not manage to carry it; so, what does it mean to carry the Torah? Likewise, what does it mean to be a carrier of the Qur’an? Do you think carrying the Qur’an is easier than carrying the ‘Throneof God’? I don’t think it is easier,
“Those who bear the Throne, and those who are around it (Qur’an 40:7).”

I do not think they are able to carry the Qur’an; only pious believers who have certain qualities are able to be carriers of the Qur’an. It is a beautiful concept, but I do not want to talk about it right now. Another concept which is rarely discussed is the concept of
“Say, ‘O People of the Book! You do not stand on anything until you observe the Torah and the Evangel and what was sent down to you from your Lord (5:68).’”
Hence, you can establish and raise the Book, but what does it mean to do iqamatul kitab? Why is it so important that God says: “You do not stand on anything until you observe…”

Some commentators say that it means to have certain qualifications, weight and value so that you can establish Torah and Evangel and what God has revealed in the form of the Qur’an, but I think it is more than that. It is important to note that the verse states you are not able to achieve anything and you have empty hands unless “until you observe the Torah and the Evangel and what was sent down…” No matter how much we succeed in our personal life, no matter how much I and you act upon the Qur’an, teach, learn, share, and spread the teachings of Qur’an, it seems to me that we as a community can only establish the Book of God when we all dedicate our
If we go back two verses, God says in the Qur’an:
“Had they observed the Torah and the Evangel, and what was sent down to them from their Lord, they would surely have drawn nourishment from above them and from beneath their feet (5:66).”
God does not specifically mention the Qur’an because it is not a matter of name; it is a matter of welcoming the message of your Lord. If they had established Torah, Evangel, and what has been revealed to them from their Lord, then God would have given them so much that they were able to eat blessings coming from Heaven and from the earth, from the top and from the bottom. God says elsewhere,
“If the people of the towns had been faithful and Godwary, we would have opened to them blessings from the heaven and the earth (7:96).”

What does this beautiful point mean?
Does it mean that there was no single person who acted upon the Torah and Evangel? There were not even a few people among them who acted upon the Qur’an, Torah or Evangel? On the contrary, I think this needs collective commitment. It is not enough to have a few people. It is not even enough to have a large number when they are in minority because God says,
“There is an upright group among them (5:66).”
“But most of them are transgressors (5:81).”
So, even having
If we want to follow ImamHusayn(a), look what Imam Husayn(a) did with respect to the Qur’an. Praise be to God, my brothers mentioned very important hadith; one particular hadith that I want to mention, and you all know this hadith, is that when a teacher of the Qur’an in Medina who was called Abdur Rahman taught a child of theImam the chapter of al-Hamd, when Imam Husayn(a) heard this he called this teacher of the Qur’an and gave him 1,000 dinars and 1,000
Of course, I am not advising people to give this much, but I think the Imam here wanted to leave a great lesson for us. What is the lesson? The lesson is that your resources must go for teaching the Qur’an, your best of space, your best of time, and your best of teachers should go to serve the Qur’an. We as followers of Ahlul Bayt(a)should not be behind other Muslim communities. It starts with teaching, with learning, with recitation, with the commentary, with memorisation, but more than all we need to establish a culture which is based on the Qur’an. Yet, this culture does not comein a vacuum. It comes from this majlis (religious gathering) of recitation, teaching, and learning, for when we dedicate everything to the Qur’an and when we try to paint everything with the colour of the Qur’an then God willing we would have a generation who would be able to establish the Qur’an and to do
I hope God the Exalted, gives us
God willing in Muharram, in your
I do not think if Imam Husayn(a)was going to talk to us today he would have used anything other than the Qur’an as his point of reference or brought any framework other than the Qur’an because at the end of the day, every truth and everything that is beneficial comes from God (and goes back to God. Surely, what is the better manifestation of guidance of God than His book and His revelation?
May God help us to do justice from the pulpit of Imam Husayn(a), which is a great responsibility and a great honour. God willing, He will help all of us to do justice to this pulpit and to do what we are supposed to do in the best possible way. I ask Imam Mahdi(
“And our concluding call, ‘All praise belongsto God, the Lord of all the Worlds.’”
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