Fars News Agency – Mosque and Board Group – Amir Hossein Kasai: Hojjatul Islam Seyyed Mohammad Bagher Alavi Tehrani was born in 1347. He is the son of the late Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammadreza Alavi Tehrani, one of Tehran’s prominent scholars, who became the source of many charities by attending Hazrat Amir’s (AS) mosque and establishing Hazrat Amir’s (AS) school. After his death in 1375 A.H., his son Mohammad Baqer went to Tehran from Qom on the advice of scholars and eminent authorities and assumed the role of imam of Hazrat Amir (AS) mosque. He implements different programs in this mosque, one of which is the establishment of Fares-ul-Momenin (AS) Foundation, which serves the people in different sectors. Hojjat-ul-Islam Alavi Tehrani is also one of the famous speakers of Tehran, whose lectures are enthusiastically received by the people. We were his guest for a few hours in his office in Ayatollah Alavi Tehrani Hosseini, and in conversation we discussed various topics, including the duties of the Imam of the Islamic class, how to attract people to mosques, how to make the pulpit more attractive, etc., which you will read below:
Spirituality, which means commitment to obligations, has not decreased
Today, due to the changes made in the world and people’s lifestyle, people are forced to work in two shifts or to work together, we see that people left the mosques empty in all these inevitable daily troubles and simply turned this holy place into a place for The elderly and retirees have become, and we see less continuous presence of young people, is this a sign of the decline of spirituality in the society?
What is important in human life, which determines the direction of his life, is human thinking. Religious teachings constantly point the direction of life towards God, the hereafter and goodness, and this is spirituality. One of the circles that define this spirituality is the mosque. Therefore, in the path of spirituality, one should first pay attention to the human thinking that determines the direction of life and then to the circle of achieving it, which is the mosque.
Today’s preoccupations in human life are formed based on the same thinking. If spirituality has a place in a person’s thinking, he plans to attend the mosque and acquire it, but if it does not have a place, he does not have a plan. The achievement of the mosque for people should be taken into consideration, that is, the mosque should not only be a place for praying, but it should have more benefits, in which case people will refer more.
In order to increase spirituality in the lives of people and society, the thinking must first be changed. The teachings of the heavenly leaders are also based on the same principle that they say divide your daily life into several parts and put one part of your life into the teachings of your religion and excellence and progress. All of these require an educational resource and a person must find a place to use it.
This expression has two aspects. First, the person says that I do not allocate that place and time because it is not important to me, or secondly, he says that I allocate this time, but where should I look for it. Mosques should be helpful in this regard, if the mosque is at the level of the prayer room, only those who can come first will attend it, and if they come from other guilds, they may have free time at that time, but their presence is not permanent. For example, a student may pray his first prayer in a mosque, but only on Saturdays and Mondays, because he does not have classes at that time. Therefore, it cannot be said that our society today is alien to spirituality and presence in the mosque.
Spirituality, which means commitment to perfection and progress, is rarely seen in society
Is this not alienation of people by attending the mosque, a sign of the lack of spirituality?
If we consider spirituality only as praying, we must say that it has not decreased because if we look realistically, in society there are a spectrum of people who pray and a spectrum of people who don’t pray. Praying people do not necessarily pray in the mosque, so it cannot be said that the spirituality of these people has decreased.
If spirituality means that a person adheres to a part of the rules of religion, then from this point of view, there is spirituality in the society, but if spirituality means the obligation to perfection and progress, then unfortunately it is less seen in the society, but the obligation to perform duties and Its manifestations exist in society.
Being open in mosques is valuable for providing ways in people’s lives
One of the things you mentioned about attracting people to the mosque is to improve the level of activities and benefits from the mosque. During the early days of Islam, we saw that the Prophet (pbuh) and the Imams of Athar (pbuh) carried out all their governmental, judicial and social affairs in the mosque. Sending such actions to the mosque, to be open to the people, can it be a way forward even today?
Merely being open in the mosque to people does not have any special value, what is the value of being open in the mosques but not having any other program among the three times of offering prayers? Being open in mosques is valuable for providing ways in people’s lives.
Being open in the mosque requires the availability of facilities. Can the door of the mosque be kept open for a long time? Because this openness is costly. It is true that Godly and divine work is done in the mosque, but it requires tools and activities, one of which is the servant. Maybe some people complain that why mosques are closed, I am discussing about the possibility of it. For example, in order to be open in the mosque, it is not enough to have only one servant, but the presence of many servants in two or three time shifts is required. Then for each of them, rights should be considered. The mosques of the country are often in trouble in terms of source of income. One should not make an opinion just by looking at some mosques that have the resources to hold funeral ceremonies or have competitors and endowments, because not all mosques are like them and do not have such income. It is not possible to manage a servant only with the attitude of being in love with Hazrat Haqq and being for the sake of Allah, because this attitude is in the intention and we must compensate him for his services. When this income is not there, nothing can be done.
The correct presentation of religious education in mosques causes people to attend
now What should be done to be open in mosques with these current conditions? First of all, it is not possible to do all the affairs in the mosque, as in the beginning of Islam, because the country has a government, organizations and subordinate institutions, and the affairs are being done in these institutions, but in order to be open in the mosques, it is possible to provide religious education for the people to refer to. It can be said that religious teachings are presented correctly in few places today, and if people find a place, they refer to it. I used to present discussions about the principles of beliefs and religious knowledge at a specialized level in Hazrat Amir’s (AS) mosque, which was well received by the people.
If in the mosque we can provide ways in the affairs of people’s lives, people will come, in this case, it is definitely necessary to open the mosque at the desired times. Other parts of people’s lives are spirituality, conduct, ethics and education, legal advice, etc. If these things exist in the mosque, we will need the door to be open, but these things are less.
I talk to people for about 6 hours a day
Objectively and as a model, you are the imam of the congregation who comes to the mosque earlier than the prayer time and spends hours talking with the people and you have other plans in this direction. you have?
Next to the mosque, I have established a non-profit group called “Fares Al-Mu’minin (PBUH) Foundation” to manage the work of the mosque and respond to the needs in a transparent manner. I provide the fields of family education system, marriage counseling, answers to questions on religious foundations, etc. and I even refer people to different institutions because sometimes people come to me and raise a topic that is not my area of expertise, so I refer people to I refer the collections that I know.
