Truth-oriented Islamic studies in the Islamic Republic of Iran gained a significant boom.

In this conference, a number of Iran's scholars and scientific figures gave speeches.

Dr. Davood Mahdavizadegan, the President of SAMT organization, was among the speakers who presented a webinar speech at this conference.

  What follows is the text of the speech of  SAMT President:

"Truth" is the inner realm and the essence of existence. Every question about the foundation of existence is in fact a question about the truth of existence. Fact is the manifestation of the principle and foundation of existence and may not be its accurate narrator. This is why, when faced with a fact, we ask "What is the truth?", "Is this fact true?", "Is this fact the manifestation of truth?".  The conceptual difference between thobout (ثبوت , a confirmed concrete truth) and ’ithbāt ( اثبات , an assumed abstract truth) is in this feature. Every human being is faced with some question about the truth of a matter. Because such a question is formed at the first encounter with any unknown thing. Faced with any unknown thing, man asks himself what is the truth of that thing. But such a question is a passing phenomenon and many people do not seek to answer it. Various factors speed up the ignoring of this question and prevent it from settling in man's mind.   Material, utilitarian and secular views play a significant role in this negligence, as is the same about the truth of secular civilization. In modern thought, fact, independent of truth, has gained authenticity and credibility. Therefore, in modern mentality, question about truth is not as valid and important as the question about fact. This is why philosophy, whose job is to question about truth, has been sidelined in modern thought. But spiritual civilizations, such as Islamic civilization and Christian civilization, unlike Western civilization, ask questions about the truth and the foundation of existence. The Holy Quran defines this attention to human ignorance in Islamic thought, and states that the oppression of man diverts his gaze from paying attention to this ignorance.

«إِنَّا عَرَضْنَا الْأَمَانَةَ عَلَى السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَالْجِبَالِ فَأَبَیْنَ أَنْ یَحْمِلْنَهَا وَأَشْفَقْنَ مِنْهَا وَحَمَلَهَا الْإِنْسَانُ إِنَّهُ کَانَ ظَلُومًا جَهُولًا» (اﻷحزاب: ۷۲) 

We offered the trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to bear it, and were afraid of it, and the human carried it. Surely, he is a harm-doer, and ignorant.

[Sura 33: AL-AHZAB (THE CLANS):72.][1]

The trust mentioned in this honorable verse refers to the fact that the heavens and the earth refused to bear the burden of such a trust, but man took it upon himself to bear this burden due to the divine and heavenly nature that is embedded in him. It means that man succeeded in being the bearer of truth. For this reason, the Holy Quran has taught the relevant audience the methodology of understanding the truth, by stating:

 " We will show them Our signs in all the horizons and in themselves, until it is clear to them that it is the truth. Is it not sufficient that your Lord is witness over everything?" [Sura 41: FUSSILAT (EXPLAINED IN DETAIL): 53] and the interpretation of the truth, by stating:

"And on that Day We shall raise up from every nation a witness from their own against them, and We shall bring you (Prophet Muhammad) as a witness against those. And We have sent down to you the Book making everything clear, as a guidance, and mercy, and glad tidings to those who submit." [Sura 16: AN-NAHL (THE BEE): 89].

However, since man is very oppressive and very ignorant, he stops paying attention to the promise of carrying the trust of truth. Since the beginning of the revelation, the establishment of attention to ignorance in the Holy Quran has caused the mentality of Muslims to be attracted to the issue of truth and to the questions about it. The truth-seeking tendency of Islamic studies has always been much stronger than fact-understanding and fact-questioning tendency and has overcome it. The vast comprehensiveness of Quranic teachings has caused the proliferation of many different methods in Islamic studies. For this reason, in certain periods of Islamic civilization, various types of Islamic thought and studies, including jurisprudence, hadith, interpretation, philosophy, theology and mysticism, lived together with a gentle song of peaceful life, establishing the great heritage of Islamic thought. In these periods, Muslim thinkers were more enthusiastic about the question of truth. But unfortunately, the dominance of mundane and secular mindsets on the Islamic world in the last one or two centuries has caused little progress in truth-oriented Islamic studies. Maybe the attention of these studies to the cultural invasion of the secular thought justifies this little progress, but it cannot absolve the responsibility [of Moslem Scholars]. Because the foundation and inherent value of Islamic studies is in this wise attention to the truth. For this reason, great contemporary Muslim thinkers have risen to revive the elevation of Islamic studies. It is safe to say that the most prominent of these Muslim thinkers was Imam Khomeini^(RA)[2]. This motivation can be understood in Imam Khomeini's^(RA) historic letter to President Gorbachev and her final reply to her Foreign Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze. Imam Khomeini's divine political project in reviving and promoting truth-oriented Islamic studies is based on the necessity of cultural revolution. Of course, in his opinion, the political revolution is the precursor of such a revolution. By God's grace, Imam Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Khamenei (May God grant him long lifetime), followed and follows his path by emphasizing the new Islamic civilization. For this reason, thanks to God, and thanks to the divine political leadership of these two great men of God, due to the efforts of Muslim thinkers who are concerned about the revolution, truth-oriented Islamic studies have flourished significantly in the Islamic Republic Era, and numerous related study and cultural centers and institutions have emerged. Fortunately, with the establishment of the Revolutionary Government of Ayatollah Raisi, the process of this movement has intensified. The Organization for Researching and Composing University Textbooks in the Humanities (SAMT) was established in 1984 by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution of the Islamic Republic during the early years of the Islamic Revolution to revive truth-oriented Islamic studies in universities. Because regarding the Islamic revolution discourse, it is impossible to review and develop the new Islamic civilization without the active participation of the two academic institutions, the university and the seminary of Islamic sciences. Therefore, in the period of more than 30 years of scientific activity, SAMT organization has been able to take steps in realizing this sacred goal by mobilizing university and seminary professors, and by producing more than 2,500 university textbooks and basic books. With this [spiritual] capital and with this ability, and with the intention of growing and promoting Islamic studies in the world, this organization is ready to cooperate and share ideas with all centers and scientific and cultural institutions concerned in the field of Islamic studies.

SAMT organization started its international activities in 2010 in line with the constructive and effective interaction with the world and benefiting from international capacities in the field of the humanities and Islamic sciences. These activities are followed in Afghanistan, Russia, Iraq, Azerbaijan, United Kingdom, Tajikistan, India, China, Germany, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia. So far, 22 titles of SAMT's works in the fields of Islamic Studies and Iranian Studies have been translated into Russian, in cooperation with Russian universities and scientific centers, and were published and distributed in this country.

SAMT is ready to cooperate with Russia's academic centers and university books publishers in the following fields:

• Holding joint conferences and scientific meetings, carrying out joint research projects, exchanging university professors in the fields of humanities and Islamic sciences by using the academic capacity of SAMT's research institute and its faculty members.
• Holding educational and knowledge-enhancing courses, dispatching professors, writing joint books and articles in the field of teaching Persian language and literature, Iranian studies (art, history and civilization, archeology, etc.) and Islamic studies.
• Cooperation in developing academic courses topics for Russian universities and provision of resources in the field of Persian language and literature, and Iranian studies.
• Cooperation with Russian institutions in translation and printing SAMT books in Russian language.

Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to participate in this conference.

Peace and God's mercy and blessings be upon you.