If we establish a close relationship with the Holy Quran, then an opportunity will be provided for thinkers, from various social backgrounds, to think about Quranic concepts, to understand certain things from the Holy book, and to gain answers to various questions.
By "questions,” I do not mean fallacies; rather, I mean questions about life and about lifestyle issues. In the present time, there are millions of questions ahead of us. And when a society within a particular government is moving life towards certain ideals, this society is faced with thousands upon thousands of questions about relations, about behaviour, about positions, about enmities and friends, about property and about one's way of confronting material affairs. These are all the questions that exist, but there are answers to all these questions.
Humanity lost its path and was ruined because it did not find the correct answers for these questions. The disaster of today's world and humanity today is that it did not learn the correct answers to these questions. It received and thought up false, deviant, and misleading answers; and then, it acted on them. That is why it has reached this point. The world does not have security, sincerity, spirituality and psychological tranquillity. The hearts of the masses of people in society are not sincere to one another. This is the condition of today's world, and this condition exists throughout the world.
Humans have been created to communicate with one another. Hearts should be connected to one another. They should show kindness, too, and help one another. Individuals should be like a single body in this world. —Humanity has been created on the basis of this idea. This has been the plan for humankind, but, today, if you look out on the world, you will see that there is war, insecurity, fear and deviation everywhere.
Hearts are distant from one another, everywhere, families are ruined, class differences are huge, some people are wealthy and prosperous, and some are poor. All these disasters exist because the questions about life have not been answered correctly, and they have been misunderstood.
Furthermore, some deviant, economic and political systems have come into being as well, and humanity is suffering. Billions of individuals are afflicted with this situation. Even those who are wealthy are afflicted. When we say that there are class differences, this does not mean that those who are among the one percent of rich American society are comfortable and are enjoying themselves. No, they have numerous anxieties, concerns and psychological problems, and sometimes these problems are larger in number compared to the problems of the poor. —This means that everyone is afflicted with this situation.
A society which does not know the correct path—the straight path—and a society which is not in touch with God, wallows in such conditions. Unfortunately, today, human societies are suffering from such depravities and deviations. That is why you frequently repeat, "Show us the straight path." [part of daily prayers, The Holy Quran, 1: 6]
That is why they have said that we should repeat this Quranic ayah frequently. The "straight path" is a path which is free of these annoyances and problems. —This is the meaning of the "straight path.”
You constantly ask Allah the Exalted to guide you, and this guidance exists, it is there in the Holy Quran. If we establish a close relationship with the Holy Quran, if we understand it correctly and delve into it, then the correct answers to questions about life will be given to us. We should pursue this because it is an important issue. The closer our dear youth get to the Holy Quran, the clearer these truths will become for them, God willing. The more you drink from this sweet beverage, the more enthusiastic and thirsty you will become: the Holy Quran works like this.
Imam Khamenei, May 27, 2017
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