Sayyed Fadlullah: We are with the internal reform that enhances the truly independent Lebanon, and with the political reform that stands in the way of all the regional and international powers that want to put the country's future at stake in order to serve their own plots and schemes.

Asked in his weekly seminar the following question : How does Islam view reform?

The Religious Authority, Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah, said:

Reform has always been a fundamental issue in the Heavenly messages that the Prophets were sent to establish.

It was also a major goal of the Imams and the reformers throughout the history of the nation. Imam Hussein (a.s. ) adopted reform as the major goal of his movement, associating it with "enjoining the good and forbidding evil".

We deduce from the above that the religions scholars have to, being the inheritors of the prophet, and the Imams, to be greatly concerned and lay a lot of emphasis on the issue of reform.

While we know that seeking reform is a form of worship and a religious duty, it represents in most cases, a heavy burden, since it contradicts with what people believe to be a part of the faith while in actual fact it is but traditions and habits that have distorted the image of religion.

Nevertheless religious scholars have to firm and clear. They ought to stand with the truth without any favoritism, although such stands might be costly, and could sometimes lead to the loss of their lives.

Islam has emphasized the universality of the reform process. Any partial approach would be unproductive, and would lead the freezing of the entire process, .that is why we did not accept the rulers’ pretenses to hinder reform , such as the imperatives of the struggle with the enemy. On the other hand, we saw in the American calls for reform as using the right aims to achieve goals of falsehood. It wants a reform that serves its interests in the region at the expense of the interests of the region's peoples.

Moreover, reform should be reflected in the practice and behavior of those who call for it. It should not be confined to words and slogans. Most tyrants in history used the fly the banner of reform while actually besieging it along with those who work for it, by declaring a state of emergency that would control the entire political process.

The problem in our reality lies not only in the fact that we have corrupt leaders who claim to be reformers, and whom the nation must be able to discover their reality. It has become more critical now that they have succeeded in introducing corruption as a de facto reality that one has to cope with, if not make use of. The problem in our political reality does not lie only in the corrupt leaders. Those corrupt leaders were able to corrupt the reality as well as the public mentality in order to establish the social basis that accepts them. Therefore, we believe that the first step towards reform should be the reform of the human being.

Thus, the reform process is basically a cultural endeavor that reforms the mentality, produces reformers and reform as an educational agenda.

Our problem in Lebanon has been that we lack those who are politically and ethically pure, and are at the same time, faithful and dedicated that they no longer care about their private interests. Moreover, we have lacked those whose belief in reform has turned into a daily concern as well as a strategic goal, and not one that is limited to the political discourse. In addition, reform should be transformed into projects and plans, so that people could evaluate them and hold their proponents responsible for carrying them out.

We, in the Arab and Muslim reality, were not aware of the fact the corrupt not matter how much he talks of reform cannot purge the institutions or reform them.

But, as we feel that there is a dire need for internal reform at all levels, we warn that there are regional and international powers that have been trying to conclude bargains, saying they would facilitate reform only if it serves their international agenda and curbs the resistance trends.

We are with the internal reform that enhances the truly independent Lebanon, and with the political reform that stands in the way of all the regional and international powers that want to put the country's future at stake in order to serve their own plots and schemes.