In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Dear book-loving brothers and sisters, welcome. This meeting is a purely cultural meeting. The main purpose for which I arranged this meeting with you dear brothers and sisters was to thank our librarians and library officials across the country for their efforts and for the great and important responsibility that they are shouldering. The other purpose was to show respect for books and reading books and to underline the importance of books in society.
The more we move ahead, the more we will need books. It is wrong to think that books will be sidelined after the emergence of new communication equipment. Books will gain increasing importance in human communities. The best new communication technologies can do is facilitate availability of books and conveying the content of books. Nothing will replace books.
One point is that if we are after increasing cooperation among our people in terms of thought, experience and artistic talent, we should increase our contact with books. A book is a collection of intellectual and artistic products, a collection of the knowledge of one or several people. We should truly appreciate the opportunity to use the intellectual products by different people and this is what books can give us. Therefore, books are a valuable phenomenon and a precious entity. This has always been the case and the future will be no different. Therefore, it is necessary to pay serious attention to books, particularly to reading books.
It is necessary to promote book reading in society. This is the benefit of teaching literacy. The effect of the movement that is carried out in different countries in order to root out illiteracy is to enable people to make use of the collection of other people's thoughts and artistic talents. This is not possible without reading books. I believe one of the worst and most harmful kinds of laziness is the lack of energy to read books. And if you do not do anything about this laziness, it will increase. Reading books should be promoted in society and this is a duty that should be shouldered by all the organizations which are responsible in this regard, ranging from primary schools to mass media, the IRIB and public relations systems. There should be certain programs to make our children used to close and careful reading since early childhood.
One of the great and important things that could be done in society is to promote reading books and make it a prevalent reality. We see today that owners of unimportant products, which have little effect on the lives of people, use various forms of advertisement to promote their products. They use mass media, the press and the IRIB while their products are not at all necessary in life: sometimes they are beneficial and sometimes they are not even beneficial or they may even prove harmful in certain cases. A product as great and valuable as books deserves to be advertised. Those who can read should be encouraged to read books. We should turn this into a habit.
I would say I am not satisfied with the situation of our society in this regard. Yes, today the number of books that are published is a lot more than the past. This is a fact. Sometimes the number of books that are published or the copies that are printed each time is several times more than the past. But this is not enough for our country. An acceptable portion of families' income should be spent on books. They should buy books to read, not to decorate their bookshelves and show them off to different people. Therefore, one point is the issue of reading books in society.
The issue related to libraries is another issue. Our honorable librarians make major efforts in this regard and they take on major responsibilities. Since my youth, I have noticed the role of librarians whenever I went to libraries. I used to go to the library at Imam Ridha's (a.s.) shrine and I used to see what important role the librarians played there. I saw how hard they worked and how empathetic they were. Librarianship is a prominent cultural endeavor. But the role of a librarian is not limited to finding and handing out books. A librarian can act as a guide for those who refer to him or her.
One of the important things is that we should make our minds used to disciplined studying. Sometimes referring to a book at the right time is far more effective than referring to the same book without having read related books. That is to say, if a book is read after similar books have been studied, the reading will be far more effective. Well, this requires guidance.
Certain people are used to reading books, but books that do not require thinking. Nothing is wrong with this. After all, this is a kind of reading. I would not deny this. But it is better to combine recreational reading - like reading novels, autobiographies and easy historical books - with reading serious books, books that require thinking and careful studying. It is necessary to promote reading such books. We should make our minds used to careful thinking and reflection. Our minds should be actively engaged when reading a book. This requires guidance.
One of the things that we need today is a list of books for people from different social backgrounds. Often when I encourage our youth to read books, they come to me and ask which books they should read. There is no fixed answer to this question. Probably there are many different answers. Those who are responsible - both in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and in our libraries - should work seriously on this issue. In different areas and for people from various social backgrounds, they should recommend a series of books with acceptable variety. They should tell people which books to read before others. When a youth or somebody who is not used to reading books is encouraged to start studying and to move ahead, he or she will often find a way that is appropriate for him or her. This is another point.
The next point is selecting books for reading. A book is the outcome of the thought, experience or art of the people who have prepared and produced that book. Not every book is beneficial. Not every book is harmless. Certain books are harmful. Just as health officials warn people and do not allow poisonous drugs, dangerous drugs and habit-forming drugs to be available to everybody, so those who are responsible for the affairs related to books should not argue that people are free to choose which book to read and let every harmful book be read. Books are spiritual food. If they are corrupt, poisoned and harmful, publishers, librarians, library officials, those in charge of distribution and others do not have the right to make them available to unsuspecting people. This is a topic in Islamic fiqh. Therefore, it is necessary to be careful. It is necessary to make good and wholesome books available. Attention should be mainly focused on whether a particular book will provide intellectual nourishment and point out the right path. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to this point besides providing a list of books to read.
As Iranians and a Muslim nation, we have had a fundamental, deep and long-lasting relationship with books. Books have not been recently introduced into our society. Big libraries, scholarly communities and valuable writings have a long history in our country, especially after the spread of Islam. We have a long historical background as far as books are concerned. We have been familiar with books for many centuries. Of course those days it was not easy to have access to books. Copying books was difficult, but people who loved and needed books made a lot of efforts in this regard. We have read or heard many stories about people who owned a particular book and were not prepared to lend it to other people. The people who needed the book had to beg the owner to lend it to them for a couple of days and then they had to stay up day and night to hand-copy the book without resting so that they could have a copy of the book. There are many such stories. Today these obstacles have been removed. The progress of science has facilitated the process of producing, copying and publishing books. Today we should take this long historical background into consideration and try to improve our position in publishing and reading books.
Those who produce books should also pay attention to this point. When producing books - in the sense of producing copies of books, translating them or making them available to people - it is necessary to pay attention to the needs and shortcomings in society. They should identify and eliminate intellectual shortcomings and needs. We see that they sometimes provide misleading advice in the book market. In particular, they go after issues that are harmful to the country's mentality in moral, religious, ideological or political matters. One can clearly see that there are certain hands in the book market that try to promote certain ideas and have certain things translated with ulterior political motives. Their activities are disguised as a cultural endeavor, but they are political in nature.
I would say that as far as cultural matters are concerned many of the activities that are promoted in our country by foreigners and by the enemies of Islam and the Islamic Republic appear to be cultural, but they are political in nature. One can see these things. Those who are in charge of the affairs related to books - including librarians, library managers, officials working for the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and publishers - should pay attention to the point that they should promote healthy, beneficial and nutritious spiritual nourishment in society. Fortunately literacy has been widely promoted in our society and it is possible for people to make use of books. We should make use of this opportunity.
I would like to take this opportunity to ask our government officials to review the matters related to books, reading books and good and beneficial books. I would like to ask them to start a movement in the country. A new perspective should be adopted by those who make plans, those who produce books, those who are in charge of advertisement and those who read books - including our youth and others. Printing 1000-3000 copies is not good for a country with 75 million people and with so many highly motivated youth. We should be able to print a lot more copies. Fortunately certain books are published many times, but in general the situation is not satisfactory. It is necessary to start a movement.
In any case I would like to thank the officials in charge of the affairs related to books. I would also like to ask them to adopt a new perspective on the affairs related to books. Let us do something that reading books is turned into a prevalent phenomenon and our youth do not put books aside. The statistics about the average amount of time that our people spend on reading books are not a pleasant picture. This average amount of time should be far more than this. The need for books will never be eliminated. People need books from early adolescence and from early years of learning literacy to the end of their life. They need to understand different matters and absorb the spiritual and intellectual nutrients in books. This is a matter that should be understood and followed up by the entire society.
I hope Allah the Exalted will make you successful. I am grateful to you for your efforts. I am happy about what has been done so far and I expect you to intensify your efforts. May God help you. By Allah's favor, you will benefit from the prayers of the Imam of the Age (may our souls be sacrificed for his sake).
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings