Shared by Hasham Siddiqui, ISB: The writings of the Iranian thinker, Dr. Ali Shariati, who was assassinated in Britain in 1977. Consider some of his wonderful descriptions of the reality of the situation:
–The mosque in the time of the Prophet had three dimensions:
Religious dimension (temple)
And an educational dimension (school)
And a political dimension (parliament)
Every citizen was a member of it.
The mosque has now become a luxurious palace, but without dimensions.
–I would rather walk in the street thinking about God than sit in the mosque thinking about my shoes.
–The war between Muslims is not a war between Shiaism and Sunnism, nor for the sake of faith, but rather it is a battle between the interests of countries whose victims are the common people, both Sunnis and Shiites.
–Let these merchants of religion know that a day will come when people will revolt against them, and I fear that religion will become a victim of that revolution.
–It is difficult to live with people who think they are always right.
–If people were not aware and cultured before the revolution, do not blame anyone when their revolution is stolen.
–If you want to ruin any revolution, just give it a sectarian or religious dimension, and it will end in vain.
–We must return the Qur’an once again from the graves and condolences to life, and recite it to the living, not to the dead.
–The problem with us who have been affiliated with Islam for centuries does not lie in our failure to implement Islam, but rather in the fact that we have not understood it yet.
–When a fire breaks out in your house, and someone calls you to pray and supplicate to God, know that it is the call of a traitor. Because caring about anything other than putting out the fire, and diverting from it to another work is performing ablution, even if it is a sacred work.
–When clerics abandon their responsibilities and turn into agents of anesthesia for people, it is expected that people will turn away from religion and search for what achieves their ambitions.
–I pity the girl when her reputation is bad, as she cannot grow a beard; Delete that picture.
–There is no difference between colonialism and colonization except that the first comes from the outside, and the second comes from the inside.
–It is better for people to hate you for your honesty than to love you for your hypocrisy.
–My father chose my name, my ancestors chose my family name, and I chose my path.
–Do not say yes to falsehood, no matter the interest.
–When you respect your mind, it will take you deeper than you can imagine.
–You do not have to agree with me, it is enough for you to understand what I want to say.
–They are afraid of your mind to understand, but they are not afraid of your body to be strong.
–We are talking about a society: half of it is asleep, drugged and enchanted, and half of it is awake and on the run. We want to wake up those who are asleep. Let them stand on their feet, and we return the fugitives to stay.
–My neighbor died yesterday of hunger, and in his condolences they slaughtered all the sheep.
–A woman who spends a year talking about her trousseau, haggling over her dowry, the jewels that are given to her, and the extravagance of the wedding, is still a slave in the full sense of the word!
(According to Wikipedia, Ali Shariati Mazinani was an Iranian revolutionary and sociologist who focused on the sociology of religion.)
