Address of Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Basheer Hussain al Najafi

CEREMONY FOR THE SIGNING OF THE JOINT DECLARATION OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS AGAINST SLAVERY

Casina Pio IV, Tuesday, 2 December 2014

Praise be to Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

I send from Holy Najaf, the land of holiness, purity and knowledge, a salute to this crowd who is seeking to serve humanity and I hope that their efforts be crowned with success. I say: Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings on the best of creation Muhammad and his blessed Family and a permanent curse to all their enemies.

God Almighty said: “O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted”.

God Almighty has spoken the truth.

Human beings in accordance with the nature and purpose of procreation are equal, no one has honour over the other except by piety (Taqwa) that God made it the way of comparison among them and it remains within fairness and equitability and quitting it is contrary to piety.

However, humans went too far and exceeded the justice system. Some of them went off to enslave and use others for their psychological objectives, therefore slavery spread across and that became part of the social entity.

Civilizations and Royalty were formed and the slavery system became part of the public system and an essential component of the economic and service side.

It was difficult to get rid of it at once and Islam, the religion of humanity, has sought to narrow the circle with a system which ensures the spread of freedom and a sense of dignity for all.

Today, it is unfortunate that the enslavement of human beings has become a moral burden because it includes the strong preying on the weak and the