Sayyed Fadlullah:  We call on all parties to resort to objective dialogue so that they could reach an understanding on the future of the country, to ensure that we will not fall again a victim of the imbalance in regional and international relations or become yet again the fuel that burns to nourish the arrogant and western projects.

Asked in his weekly seminar the following question: How does Islam view gradualism in propounding ideas, issues and stands?

The Religious Authority, Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah, said:

Islam, being a comprehensive system of life based on the belief in God, the most high, and the Hereafter, has constituted a revolution on the values of the pre-Islamic community. But it introduced its corrective vision and its ethical concepts and laws in a gradual way to avoid the shock of the people who are used to old values, and consequently reject it, feeling it is inappropriate for them.

That is why graduation in the fields of the call and social laws was the norm. If we take the prohibition of drinking wine as an example, we will find out that it was prohibited gradually with each stage more forceful than the one before it, until it was totally banned when the Holy verse saying that it was "an abomination of Satan's work" that ought to be "shunned" was revealed.

Our problem with a lot of those who are hasty in their political or culture movement is that they were not careful enough, which lead to counterproductive and destructive consequences, since once they have acted there was no way they could undo what they have already done. They have adopted a mentality of jumping over the stages, and losing their balance in moving forward towards their goal. Thus they were overwhelmed by details leaving the nation to pay the price, since the arrogant powers claimed that Islam itself was responsible for their mistakes.

I have been talking to all those who are concerned with presenting Islam as a civilized model that we have not to rush to attain results in the political and ideological fields so as the zeal to achieve goals will not be at the expense of careful planning and building.

This kind of work resembles to a large extent the human growth, where man starts as a fetus, then as a child, a teen-ager, a young man and an adult. Any quick leap could lead to a fall into the unknown. On the other hand, we believe that nobody can block the way of your march towards the future if you do not close the door yourself; similarly no body can cancel you in the political or cultural process, if you do not cancel yourself.

Thus, as we respect the motives of many of those working in the field of the Islamic call, we believe that there are those who committed a crime against Islam, whether directly or indirectly, when they believed that they can take shortcuts and achieve great victories if they resort to violence. Such attitudes did not rely on the authentic Islamic heritage; but rather they were influenced by other experiments like that of Marxism.

Moreover, we admit that some of those who resorted to violence were being led on to adopt such a stand as an emotional reaction to the other's violence, but the result was that they fell in the trap that was prepared by the Zionists and the arrogant powers and that aims at proving that Islam is a terrorist ideology that wants to cancel the other just because he has different opinions.

Therefore, we would like to warn all Lebanese responsible officials, whether those in the government or those outside it, that they have to learn from the past experiences, and to take their time to addressing sensitive or complicated issues. Certain words, which might express violence that is not called for in view of the current circumstance, might lead us back to actual violence.

In this respect, we believe that the Lebanese have learned the lesson of the past experiences and are no longer ready to engage a new devastating civil war.

We call on all parties to resort to objective dialogue so that they could reach an understanding on the future of the country, to ensure that we will not fall again a victim of the imbalance in regional and international relations or become yet again the fuel that burns to nourish the arrogant and western projects, or those who work for them whether directly of indirectly.