Sessions on “Official Ethics” started/Entrance of a person to society is dangerous before he corrects himself

News News of Secretary General

Thursday, 23 June 2022

On Thursday, June 23, 2022, the first session of the ethics course on “Official Ethics” was held in the meeting hall of the AhlulBayt (a.s.) World Assembly and to be continued every month.

On Thursday, June 23, 2022, the first session of the ethics course on “Official Ethics” was held with the speech of the Secretary-General of the AhlulBayt (a.s.) World Assembly for the managers and staff of the international organization in the meeting hall of the Assembly building in Qom.

In this session, Ayatollah Reza Ramazani stated, “Ethics has different features, so that it encompasses all aspects of human life. It is defined in the individual, family, and social domains, in different dimensions, because human beings have many interactions. In the individual sphere and in the family, man must behave based on ethics. But our lecture today is about social and official ethics.”

“If social and official ethics are not observed, the individual will encounter problems in his occupational activities, and mistakes in collective activities will cause collective harm,” he stressed about the importance of official ethics.

“According to a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h), prayer, fasting and almsgiving do not make a person worthy, but it is honesty and trustworthiness that make a person worthy. Also, according to a hadith from Imam Reza (a.s.), the intellect of a believer will not be perfect unless he has ten characteristics: people feel safe towards him, he sees his great action as small, and the small action of others as great. Finally, the tenth and most crucial characteristic mentioned for perfect intellect according to the hadith is that the person does not see himself as superior to anyone. In the meantime, there is no mention of prayer and fasting, but their effects are emphasized. Prayer and fasting should build and strengthen (the personality of) a person,” added the Secretary-General of the AhlulBayt (a.s.) World Assembly.

“Arrogant behavior in an office is very dangerous. The inner personality of the arrogant person is so stinking that even hell burns from it! Arrogance of the manager and head of an office has bad effects and consequences and will spread to the office environment. The society in the era of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs is very different from the society of the time of the Prophet (p.b.u.h). If the rulers of a society are arrogant, the people will be arrogant too,” he added.

“Excessiveness (in extreme negative or positive points) is one of the harms of the office environment. In the office environment, excesses are sometimes observed. For example, an employee in an office environment holds a rosary and says dhikr instead of performing his duties! Or at the time of the call to prayer, an employee postpones the client’s work and goes to the congregational prayer! Such people do not have a proper understanding of religion. Sometimes, the inconsistency of the claim with the action leads to the hatred of others, and this is very dangerous in the office environment. Inconsistency between claim and behavior is a threat, while consistency of words and deeds can be an opportunity, and effective,” he continued.

“Patience makes us tolerate dissenting opinions. In the absence of patience, the desired goals in official and social affairs will not be achieved. Imam Khomeini (r.a.) was told that someone was against him, “Can we appoint him to a certain position?” Imam Khomeini replied, “Are we one of the principles of religion?!” Therefore, in the office environment, we must tolerate the dissenting opinion, and not alienate the dissenting person.” stated the professor of high levels of seminary, pointing to the importance of patience and endurance in the departments.

In tafsir of the Quranic verses “قَالَ رَبِّ اشْرَحْ لِي صَدْرِي* وَيَسِّرْ لِي أَمْرِي* وَاحْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِنْ لِسَانِي* يَفْقَهُوا قَوْلِي*” ((Moses) said: “O my Lord! expand me my breast;* Ease my task for me;* And remove the impediment from my speech,* So they may understand what I say”*) (Quran, Surah: Taha, Verses: 25 - 28), he stated, “In these verses, Prophet Moses asks God to expand his breast. Sharh Sadr (Breast Expansion) means mastery of matters. “Ease my task for me” refers to the fact that the task cannot be mastered without sufficient data. Also, in order for a person to be able to explain what he or she means to others, he or she must have a clear statement. The word must be expressive. Imam Khomeini's speeches were almost a translation and interpretation of Quranic verses. He spoke so fluently that everyone understood what he meant.”

“A person who takes part teamwork must have an interest and faith in the work. If he is not interested in the activity, the work will be damaged and ineffective,” Ayatollah Ramazani said on the requirements of the work in an office.

“One must have a commitment to work in the office. For the physician or pilot, the commitment is not to say night prayers. But for the physician, the commitment is to do his job properly and not to neglect, and for the pilot, the commitment is to avoid work when he is tired or unconscious. In other words, commitment in each occupation has its own definition,” he said.

“People in an official work, in addition to the personal moral etiquettes that they are required to observe, must also consider other issues. In his book Lom’ah, after mentioning the characteristics of a judge, Ash-Shahid al-Awwal (The First Martyr) said, “In addition to the characteristics of a mujtahid, a judge must have other characteristics in order to perform his duties,” added the Secretary-General of the AhlulBayt (a.s.) World Assembly, noting that in the office environment, people who believe in work have a collective responsibility.

“Is it possible for man’s morality to be changed? The Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) praised Zubair’s swordsmanship, but this person later changed. There are many people like Talha and Zubair in history who did a lot of service to Islam but didn’t end well. On the other hand, there were people like Al-Hurr ibn Yazid Ar-Riyahi who was subjected to a divine test, and eventually joined the army of Imam Hussain (a.s.),” he said.

“In offices, some people are pious at the beginning of their employment, but later their piety decreases due to material reasons and thirst of power. In the hadiths also it is mentioned that the last thing with which man is tested by God is the love of position. In the book Mersad al-Ibad, it is stated that if a ruler rules justly one day, his spiritual reward is higher than a thousand years of worship of a mystic,” Ayatollah Ramazani added.

“Entrance of a person to society is dangerous before he corrects himself. Title, position, and money can change a person’s perspective. There are people who were trustworthy at first, but later became traitors and could not control themselves,” he continued.

“There are three views on the possibility of changing human morality. Some argue that human morality cannot be changed because body and soul are interrelated; The intrinsic affairs of the body cannot be changed, therefore the soul cannot be changed either; Man is advised, but after a while he forgets and returns to his origin. The answer to the proponents of this belief is that the human soul is different from his body. Human existence has different spheres, characteristics and inclinations, and one should not consider all of them as the same,” said the professor of high levels of the Qom seminary.

“The second belief belongs to the late Mullah Mahdi Naraghi. According to him, most of the moral characteristics of human beings can be changed, while some of them are immutable,” he continued.

“According to the third view, human morality can be changed, and divine prophets have come to change morality. In the 23 years of the prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h), the morals of many people changed with his training and teachings. In fact, if human morality could not be changed, the penal laws and the existence of heaven and hell would be in vain. Heaven and hell are for the human being who is free and chooses the best way of his own free will,” Ayatollah Ramazani stated on the third view.

“The Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) educated the people in a way that their spirit and morals changed,” concluded the Secretary-General of the AhlulBayt (a.s.) World Assembly.

The series of ethics lessons entitled “Official Ethics”, which began on Thursday, June 23, 2022, at the meeting hall of the AhlulBayt (a.s.) World Assembly, to be continued every month.

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• AhlulBayt (a_s_) World Assembly
• Ayatollah Ramazani
• Official Ethics