Hawzah News Agency- Speaking during a meeting with Science, Research and Technology Minister Hossein Simaei Sarraf, Ayatollah Rajabi presented a report on the institute's scientific, research and cultural activities and achievements, describing the Imam Khomeini Institute as an active hub for the production of Islamic humanities at the frontiers of knowledge.
He said Islamic humanities are among the fields that shape both culture and identity and give direction to society, adding that enemies have invested heavily in this area with colonial objectives—making the strengthening of Islamic humanities all the more important.
Ayatollah Rajabi said modern Islamic civilization has both form and content, with its content comprising culture and the humanities, for which Islam's rich culture offers abundant resources. He stressed the need to extract society's needs from this rich culture in the field of humanities.
He said the institute's main mission is to train professors and researchers, develop theories and compile works on Islamic humanities, noting that it currently offers 14 undergraduate disciplines, 22 master's degree programs and 25 doctoral programs in Islamic humanities.
The top cleric said that while work in this field inside and outside the country has so far not been fundamental, the institute has been at the forefront of research across various humanities disciplines by compiling a document on the production of Islamic humanities. He said the first step in this effort was a 16-volume collection on the philosophy of science, the philosophy of humanities and the philosophies of 14 specialized disciplines.
Referring to scientific exchanges and dialogue between Islamic and Christian thinkers on justice and other strategic issues, Ayatollah Rajabi highlighted the institute's library in the holy city of Qom, describing it as unparalleled in the field of Islamic humanities. The library holds 256,000 volumes in Persian, Arabic and Latin along with 2,800 academic theses, he said, adding that it also includes a digital section and the library of the Center for the Encyclopedia of Intellectual Sciences.
Ayatollah Rajabi said the encyclopedia center is working on logic, philosophy, mysticism and theology, with the first volume of the logic encyclopedia nearing publication. He said 68 reference works in 776 volumes, 30 source books, 37 specialized software packages, 68 scientific journal issues on logic and intellectual sciences, and specialized terminology databases have been produced so far.
On the publication of the collected works of Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, he said 84 volumes have been published in line with the late scholar's wish to publish selected works, with parts translated into 14 languages. Nearly 40 audiobooks, recordings of 1,400 lessons posted online, a comprehensive database of the scholar's works offering free access to researchers, and answers to 15,000 questions are among other activities, he added.
Ayatollah Rajabi said 40 books have been summarized and published in line with the late founder of the Islamic Revolution's directive to condense Ayatollah Mesbah's detailed works for the general public.
He said the Velayat project—a six-volume epistemological system of fundamental Islamic thought for university students, cultural activists, state managers and outstanding seminary students—has been published and taught, along with a single-volume edition for university professors, a six-volume edition for high school students and a 36-volume story-based edition for children. The project has been translated into five living languages and more than 100,000 people from various segments of society have benefited from the courses, he said.
The institute head also reported on the virtual education center, which offers 14 undergraduate and seven master's disciplines with more than 1,500 undergraduate students, 181 master's students and 80 international students currently enrolled. A total of 3,729 people have received official degrees so far, he said, adding that 167 books have been compiled for virtual education, 5,600 hours of online teaching were held this year, nationwide exams were held at 100 locations and free Islamic studies courses drew 22,500 participants.
He said the institute's Mava counseling center, with 28 experienced male and female counselors, provides 6,000 hours of specialized counseling annually and is recognized as one of the country's top centers, having published 250 scientific products.
Ayatollah Rajabi said about 15,000 instructors and professors have been dispatched to universities and revolutionary institutions across the country, and the institute is in continuous contact with more than 2,000 cultural activists. Its publications have released over 2,000 book titles and won 124 top national rankings, he added.
On the international front, he said student exchanges have been pursued since Ayatollah Mesbah's time and graduates are now teaching and conducting scientific and religious activities at universities abroad. In the field of new technologies, 69 bases and 85 systems have been launched and artificial intelligence is being used in research, he added.
For his part, Science Minister Hossein Simaei Sarraf described the institute's activities as a "blessed tree" rooted in the soil with branches reaching to the sky, praising Ayatollah Mesbah as its founder.
Recalling his youth and seminary years in Mashhad and his encounters with Ayatollah Mesbah, the minister said some post-revolutionary misconduct and labeling had obscured a true understanding of the scholar's outstanding personality, with some individuals seeking to destroy his entire legacy despite intellectual differences. He said a country deprived of scientific and religious figures will not achieve prosperity, and the first duty is to remove these cognitive barriers for the younger generation and researchers.
Simaei Sarraf stressed the need to revise methods of promoting Islamic ethics and teachings, saying people and the youth see the effectiveness of religion in the behavior of preachers and seminary students, and the institute can offer a worthy model by properly guiding ethical and educational methods.
Drawing a distinction between genuine, high-quality seminary research and university activities, the minister said seminary research enjoys depth and authenticity because it is free of credentialism and driven by sincere intentions for personal development. He said seminary research institutions should be the main claimants of the important demand for Islamic humanities.
He recalled Imam Khomeini's emphasis on developing and doubling activities in up-to-date humanities such as psychology and sociology in the seminary, saying Iran should not content itself with repeating obsolete Western theories and that the task of producing Islamic theories in these sciences falls to weighty institutions such as the Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute.
Simaei Sarraf announced the formation of a new humanities council at the Science Ministry and invited the institute's head to nominate an active representative for meaningful participation in the council so that the capacities of Qom's humanities research centers can be put to best use.
The minister also pointed to gaps and the need to protect the "gray stratum" and students against the onslaught of foreign media, calling for stronger ties between the seminary and university, and expressing hope that joint cooperation between the Science Ministry, Qom University and the institute would familiarize more young people and students with seminary scholars and thinkers.
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