ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Fatima is Fatima What Should be Done? Ali distributes freedom. People are in love with Ali and yet, the young intellectuals are aware of the weaknes­ses and the decline of Ali's followers. The main reason for this contradiction is `not having come to know'. It is coming to know which has value. Love and faith have no value if they precede coming to know and choosing or commitment.

If the Qur’an is read but is not understood, it is no different from a blank book or white notebook. Ali gives his followers awareness, greatness, chastity and free­dom when they know who he is. When a book is read in our language which does not correctly give his character, when a book with his sayings is not given to his longing people, what effect can loving him, praising and eulogizing him have? Love and faith follow coming to know something.

It is that which moves the spirit and brings up the nation. This is why the face of Fatima has remained unknown be­hind the eternal praise, eulogies, crying and lamentations of her followers. In Iranian and other Islamic societies there are three visages of women. One is the visage of the traditional wo­man. Another is the visage of the new woman, European­ like, who has just begun to grow and introduce herself.

The third is the visage of Fatima which has no resemblance whatsoever to that of the traditional woman. The visage of the traditional woman which has taken form in the minds of those loyal to religion in our society, is as far away from the face of Fatima as Fatima's face is from the modern woman.

The reality which we are facing in the world today, in the East, and in particular, in an Islamic and Iranian society, the contradiction which has appeared, the crises, the change, comes from the breaking down of human qua­lities. It comes from the creation of a very strong agitation which affects the way a society behaves and its way of thinking.

Principally, the changing human form has pro­duced a particular type of intellectually educated man and woman, modernists, who contradict the traditional man or woman. This contradiction had to come into being. There was no one potent enough to stop it. It was a com­pulsion which no power could have prevented. This is not to confirm this change or to deny it. That is not within the scope of this discussion.

Rather, we refer to the change in society, the change in the dress of man, his thoughts, his lifestyle and his direction in life.