The Ten Speeches

This book which contains ten speeches and articles, is written by “Morteza Mutahhari”, during the years 1960 to 1962.

The author
Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari (February 3, 1920 – May 1, 1979) was an Iranian scholar, cleric, University lecturer, and politician. Motahhari is considered among the important influences on the ideologies of the Islamic Republic, and was a co-founder of Hosseiniye Ershad and the Combatant Clergy ####Association (Jāme'e-ye Rowhāniyat-e Mobārez). Motahhari was a disciple of Ayatollah Khomeini during the Shah's reign and formed the Council of Revolution of Iran at Khomeini's request. He was chairman of the council at the time of his assassination. Morteza Motahhari attended the Qom hawza from 1944-1952, and then joined the University of Tehran, where he taught philosophy for 22 years. Between 1965 and 1973 he also gave regular lectures at the Hosseiniye Ershad in Northern Tehran. Morteza Motahhari wrote several books on Islam, Iran, and historical topics. His emphasis was on teaching rather than writing. However, after his death, some of his students worked on writing these lectures and manage them in order to publish them as books. As of mid-2008, the "Sadra Publishings has published more than 60 books of Motahari and about 30 books written about Motahari or quoted from his speeches. Some of them are described below. Morteza Motahhari opposed what he called groups who "depend on other schools, especially materialistic schools" but who present these "foreign ideas with Islamic emblems". In a June 1977 article he wrote to warn "all great Islamic authorities" of the danger of "these external influential ideas under the pretext and banner of Islam." It is thought he was referring to the People's Mujahideen of Iran and the Furqan Group. On May 1, 1979 Morteza Motahhari was assassinated by gunshot by a member of the later group after leaving a late meeting at the house of Yadollah Sahabi. Ordibehesht 12 (1 or 2 May), the Persian date on which Morteza Motahhari was assassinated, is celebrated as "Teachers Day" in Iran.

Structure of the book
The book contains ten speeches and articles, the following are subjects of the first to the seventh speeches:
1- Piety and its meaning, the reality of piety, the value and effect of piety, piety and astuteness
2- The rule of enjoining the good and forbidding the evil, calculation and its realm, etc.
3- Reviving religious thought, Muslims’ decline in the contemporary era, etc.
4- The religious and non-religious sciences, which science should be learnt?, etc.
5- The reasons of differences between the prophets’ miracles, the Qur’an and its abandon, etc.
6- The main purpose of the Friday Prayer, the Friday Prayer’s sermons, the sermons in the Peak of Eloquence (Nahj al-Balaqeh), etc.
7- The principles of Ijtehad in Islam, the lawfil Ijtehad (the expertise to interpret the religious and legal matters independently).

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