As reported by the public relations of Xorasan Seminary, in the conference of “the vitality of enriching cultural issues in the holy Mashhad suburbs”, ayatollah Makarem called jihad one of the important bases of Islam and considered it containing cultural, martial, economical, and self-refinement fields. He said that cultural jihad is more important and higher than martial jihad, and today, we need it more than anything else.
This marja emphasized that as any boundary gets attacked by the enemy, it must be checked where in the cultural field is attacked.
Mentioning the attentions drawn to the suburbs, he said that Mashhad is one of those areas that has its own criticality and the enemy has plans for it. Therefore, religious scholars in the cultural field and the authorities in the constructive field have rich presence and activity. Today with the actions taken, the conditions of the suburb have changed desirably.
Comparing the number of pilgrims of Bayt-ullah al-Haram, Karbala, and the holy Mashhad, ayatollah Makarem said that Razavi shrine with 30 million pilgrims has the capacity to bless other areas and internationally more and more.
He also emphasized that religious scholars and authorities must permanently take care of the suburbs issues and declared that if we are not careful, the enemy will penetrate lying and using the cyberspace.
This marja continued his speech pointing that there are different problems in the country, but as the enemy attacked at the beginning of the revolution and the whole world was fighting us and could not achieve anything, today we must keep that in mind and not let people get hopeless.
In another part of his speech, ayatollah Makarem Shirazi mentioned that the life of Wahhabism will finish in the near future and said that ISIS and their followers are profaning the Islamic sacred things, have committed cruelties, have executed innocent people, and have made a very wrong depravity common among themselves named jihad al-nikah, and all these are results of Wahhabism.
This marja pointed to the pilgrimage and respecting tombs among all Muslims and said that everybody respects the dead while Wahhabis believe it to be idolatry. They believe so although they perform Tawaf and kiss the Black Stone (Al-Hajar al-Aswad). In fact, performing Tawaf and kissing the Black Stone (Al-Hajar al-Aswad) can be considered a kind of idolatry from their point of view, but we respect them since the building and the stone are sacred and respectable.
Mentioning that Wahhabis are busy with illusions and imagine that these issues are polytheism while the prophet (pbuh) himself went on pilgrimage to the graves and said to them, “Mecca and Medina are not yours; all Muslims must be free doing the Islamic issues while Wahhabis try to impose their beliefs on everyone”.
In this conference, Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi endowed a building, located on Hor boulevard containing a mosque, a library, and a seminary, called Samen al-hojaj (as) in the name of Astan Quds Razavi and gave the endowment deed to the trusteeship of Astan Qods Razavi.