In the name of God, the beneficent the merciful

All praises belong to God who is the sustainer of the worlds, and may his choicest blessings on Muhammad and his honored and selected progeny especially on the last and greatest sign of Allah, may our souls be sacrificed for the dust of his feet.

The need to connect people with the origin of creation

Linking people to the source of creation and the origin of creation has a very direct and fundamental link with the promotion of divine values and values that God wants to promote among the people. These values are shared by all religions. Monotheistic religions unanimously emphasize on these values and virtues.

The common point between Islam and the religion of Christianity and Zoroastrians is the concept of man. This man is a responsible person who is not free in this world and in his life in whatever way he wants to act, but is someone created for tomorrow, for the hereafter and has to be accountable. Such a person believes that there is a supernatural that exists beyond this universe, and everyone must be accountable for what he does. In particular, it is more necessary to carry out this mission in a situation where people in general are only focusing on material life around the world. In their interactions in material life, people have rules and criteria, and religion is for giving such a flow to these rules and these criteria among the people such that human values get promoted in the community itself. More than ever before, today's world, with all the advances in science and technology and in various fields, needs religion, faith and supernatural energy that supervise its movements.

The dominance of material thinking on today’s world

Human beings even justify their advancement of their material intentions and are even willing to ruin the rights of others. Wars happen in the world. Occasionally, the collision is on a limited level between humans; but when the collision between states and systems occurs, it will kill thousands and millions of people. Material thinking and thinking of pleasure and the originality of life and the originality of pleasure have caused the family to decline and fall today.

Due to this pleasure seeking nature, humans are abstaining from commitment. Marriage is an aspect of commitment and therefore they put aside this commitment to seek pleasure. The family foundation is loose. In our societies and yours, the official marriage has been reduced and production of the generation has a decreasing state. Even so many of your countries have migrated to work on their own. This is the fact that our world today faces.

Oppression of people in the name of religion

Human values are becoming obtrusive in every corner of the world. The wars have reached a place where millions of people are hungry; millions of children need education and life. They have problem in life and even in their own food. We live today in a world where access to medicine is not possible in many parts of the world.

Our pain is that many of these wars and the deprivation of humans from their fundamental rights is carried out in the name of religion. In the medieval period and before the Renaissance, it was done in the name of Christianity and now in the name of Islam and ISIL and al-Qaeda, and God and religion crime is carried out in the world today. People are kept hungry and children are oppressed. These issues today put forward a great responsibility to the religious men and those who work in the realm of religion, and those who are committed to and faithfully believe in the hereafter and in God.

Love and affection; foundation of religions

The basis of religious legitimacy is love and affection. In our religious texts we have narrations from the Prophet (pbuh) wherein he says, “Is religion anything apart from love?” Christianity also propagates this message and Zoroastrians too spread their message on the basis of good thoughts, good speech and good character. So what is the result of our work to date? Is there a problem with our work? Do we have a problem in carrying out this mission? Why are the people of the world, despite these teachings, all the mosques, all of the churches, all of these temples still act irresponsibly in social interactions?

What is the responsibility of the men of religion?

We, the religious leaders, have the responsibility to sit down and examine the problems within our work. What do we want today with this world? What do we want with these governments? With these wars, what do we want to do with the violation of human values and human rights in the world? Religion plays a role in removing these disasters. We are like a father to the people, we are compassionate. We want people to not live independently from their human responsibilities, while living and enjoying life. Godly responsibilities are not separate from human responsibilities.

We condemn any form of violence in the name of Islam, we condemn any war, and you also see that the Pope, the Church and various religions condemn violence and war, but we must follow a discipline and give ourselves a mandate and define responsibilities for ourselves as men of religion so that we can work more effectively among people.

The subjugation of human rights in any form and in any respect is sin in the eyes of religions and schools of thoughts, whether Islam, Christianity or other religions.

Our main problem is not people. People are peaceful. The main problem in our day is the governments. Governments that violate everything in their own interests. It is these governments which are wasting the human rights. What is our relationship with the government as the men of religion? How do we want to influence them? Therefore, I suggest introducing a way to introduce morality into our politics, introducing ethical values into politics. We would urge people not to vote for politicians who violate morality and values. Power should not be left to the Devil. This is the mission that we are dealing with today. If we want to do something for humans, let's introduce God to those who rule these people, spread love for God among these, spread human responsibility and divine responsibility among them. Again, I express my delight in meeting you beloved people, and I hope that these trips and these meetings will come to an agreement in order to succeed in fulfilling that shared mission and the responsibilities that the Almighty God has placed on our neck.

Question and answer

Question

Years ago, a friend in Cairo had visited a mufti, asking the mufti to advise him on how to improve the world. The Mufti had said that you are a Christian, just be a good Christian, and believe in your own Christianity. Now, I think a part of the speech of Your Excellency was that if we were Christian or Muslim, we should adhere to the ethics of our religion and promote it among politicians.

Answer

That's exactly the same. If all people are committed to what they believe to be, our world will be another world. The issue today is that, in the first place, followers of any religion demonstrate their commitment to their religious values in practice. Then, we should know that we belonging to different religions can live in peace with each other and be together. We can be sympathetic to each other and know that our religions are not against each other; they go side by side.

In our own religion too we must respect the followers of different religions and tolerate each other's thoughts. Islam has a Shiite and Sunni religion. Christianity has Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox schools of thoughts. Violence is not a solution. We live together and must tolerate each other and believe in what we believe to be.

Question

As you have said, in Zoroastrianism, emphasis is placed on good thought and good speech and good deeds. Our problem is, as you said, good talk and commitment to it. But what should be done to some issues, such as paying attention to the rights of those who are weaker in society, such as women or even those who have recently come to limelight, like homosexuals? Nevertheless, they too have their own views which may conflict with some of the principles of religion.

Answer

First of all, we have many links with you. Iran has been Zoroaster's origin. Your religion has a very strong theology, and there are a lot of moral values in your religion. In many cities of Iran, we and you are brothers living together and the Zoroastrians have done many services in our cities. We must increase our tolerance towards any belief, even if that belief is contrary to our religion. It's not a tool to combat violence and physical elimination. Thought is not forcibly destroyed. Now homosexuality threatens the foundation of the family. Unfortunately, in Western societies this group is being highlighted too much. Yes, they are group and have some sayings. As much as we can, we should try not to promote this idea in society. My own self is not a matter of debate such that my sense of pleasure is important to me and I do not have any social responsibilities. I am responsible for my community. Formation of the family and generation is one of the social responsibilities of man. Homosexuality eliminates this responsibility. As pro-homosexuality advocate and emerge and compel governments to give them rights, some are advocates of the family system and must have these activities. Family is also relevant in society. The consistency of society lies in the family system. This generation should remain there. The generations will not remain if homosexuality is propagated. We have to guide and then act. At least the governments that pay homosexuals should give the families more rights. They should promote marriage. Sometimes in the Western countries we have a serious question about family and marriage. It will be revealed in the coming years. The results are still unclear. In order to reach good deeds, before good deeds and good speech, we must strengthen the good idea among the people.

Question

You said that we should encourage politicians and rulers to good ethics. The problem is that humans are usually afraid of us and are afraid of a series of things that threaten us. Therefore, we are cooperating with those who can repel the threat in this way, and we are afraid of those who impose things upon us. As a result, we cannot confront them. It is one of the commonalities of societies that people imagine to be under control in order to maintain their own security. So, I want to open a conversation about how we can talk and influence each other, while not letting those who want to put their word into our mouths to be afraid and we can come up with such ideal conditions.

Answer

The problem is that if we step back from confronting the fears and if the threats are implemented, society faces backwardness. Among Latin American priests, there has been a period of strong combatants. Liberationism in Latin America starts from church. It is customary throughout the world that we crush the freedom under the pretext of security, and politicians interpret it for its own benefit.  But we have a duty to cultivate culture among the people and not let the ruling mindset spread among the people. Today, with the cyberspace and this developing situation, we have more facilities and we can have a lot more audiences. In a church or mosque, our audience is limited, but in the cyberspace, millions of people are in contact. We can use these spaces for enlightenment.

In the last few days, it was the anniversary of Martin Luther King's death. What a great impact its struggle has had on American society. His work remains until today. He stabbed racism in America. However, if we do not have these characters, history goes back to backwardness. This is always the case, and from the time of Christ it was that the reformers were not tolerated by the bullying people. But the reformers would impose themselves on them and laid down values throughout history. I give you this glad tiding that the thought of humans is perfect, and the end of human values and divine values will take its place in society and will rule.

Question

In the texts of Christianity, we have doctrines called "monkhood" such that human being devotes himself to God and engages in worship. Is there such a belief in Islam that man keeps himself aloof from everything and abides in service to God?

Answer

One of the differences of Islam and Christianity lies in ‘monasticism’ and this has been prohibited in Islam such that we keep ourselves away from the society and thus save ourselves. In our own culture there were worshippers who would keep themselves away from the society and worship God to give themselves spiritual ascension. In Islam we are encouraged to give ourselves spiritual ascension while remaining among the people i.e. we should engage with others and at the same time remain pious. Similarly, Islam has declared marriage as a social obligation so that a person should start this life and production of offspring should continue and the person should take up the societal responsibilities. Unlike Christianity, Islam does not encourage fleeing away from duties. However, I don’t mean to say that cutting away from others and purifying one’s soul and perfecting it do not have any value; what I mean to say is that Islam gives more importance to someone who engages with people while giving himself spiritual ascension; not that someone who does this work does not have any value.

Question

I want to know if there are dangers when we associate politics with religious and moral issues. It means that the religion wants to rule even people who are not the followers of that religion. The point is to discuss the relationship between religion and the introduction of religion into politics.

Answer

Our issue is related to the politics of human values. Human values ​​are the same moral values ​​that every human being apart from religion, even if it does not have religion, is bound to do so. Justice is good in everything, freedom is good for all, even if it does not believe in Islam or Christianity or Zoroastrianism. What we are looking for is that human morality cannot be ruled out in politics. It means that we do not have the power to overcome it. We are just as happy. These human values ​​are useful to those who are not from religion, because these values ​​are rational. The rationale of the world emphasizes these values. Justice, equality and peace are values ​​that all people emphasize, even those who have no religion. One of the proofs of Allah is reason, and this wisdom is in all human beings and should be used correctly.