The Supreme Religious Authority directed the employees in general of the State institutions and others, to observe the principles of goodness, proficiency and perfection of the job., and the necessity or paying attention to works ethics, duties and sincerity in order to achieve the desired goals in serving the citizen, the society and the country and its prosperity and development.
These were the important points stated in the second sermon of Friday prayer of the 14th Dhu al-Hijjah 1440 AH corresponding to August 16, 2019, which was held in the holy shrine of Imam al-Hussayn (peace be upon him) and led by his eminence Sheikh Abd al-Mahdi al-Karbala'i, in which he stated:
Dear brothers and sisters, our subject in the second sermon is the functional work between national, Islamic jurisprudential, ethical entitlements and the state of affairs of Iraq. We mean with the functional work not the assigned work to the employee, whether a doctor, engineer, teacher, professor, etc. But rather mainly those who are in charge of a job or any person who is assigned to perform a service, whether it is an employee or a handicraftsman. So, the functional work includes everybody, a farmer, a driver, a carpenter... even if he not employed by the state, but the talk about the principles of the functional work targets mainly the employees regardless of their ages and positions.
It is necessary to start by mentioning that every person is tasked with a certain job, profession, or service – it’s work that is of the necessities of living, social, economic, and educational life, as well as a principle of human perfection and the foundation for development, prosperity, welfare, dignity, and happiness that people seek. Noting that most of the verses of the Holy Quran that mention work, highlight also its relationship with faith.
Our topic is about the functional work, which has a sensitive and important role in fulfilling the basic and essential needs of life, such as health, education, services, etc. In addition to its role in achieving the prosperity, happiness, development and dignity for the individual and the society.
Thus, what are the principles of proficiency of work? And how can we achieve these goals that we all hope for?
Perfecting a job requires a number of principles one ought to be compliant with, whether that person believes in God, is subscribed to a religion or not.
The first principle represents the love for work, noting that work is of Islamic value, others deem it to be ethical, and others may deem it to be patriotic and that contributes to people’s prosperity, development, and dignity.
So, if people deem work to be of divine and religious value, their dealing will be of a supreme purpose, which will lead to nothing but serving people – on the contrary, those who deal with work materialistically won't have that vigorous urge for perfection and potential employment. Furthermore, some people in some countries are not subscribed to a certain religion, but those people have advanced and prospered, noting that if those people’s work is scrutinized, the result will show that those people deem their work to be patriotic and of a supreme value.
The second principle is: Faithfulness to work, which is one of the significant principles – it represents the key attribute based on which God has chosen the Prophet Mohammed (Allah's prayers be upon him and his pure family), the other prophets, and the divinely appointed successors. In addition, some people practice faithfulness to work for the sake of God and others practice it for the sake of patriotism and the country. If we invest our mental, physical and life potential in the best way, we have to be sincerely faithful in our work, regardless of the circumstances, my services to other should not be affected.
The third principle is manifested by the ethics of work – an employee serves people, such as a doctor serves patients and a teacher serves students; they deal with humans, not robots, and such dealings have to be based on humanitarian ethics. Therefore, every profession has its ethics that frame it in order to reach its goals.
The fourth principle is that work is a trust; a person is entrusted with performing a certain thing – an employee tasked with something ought to do their job as required to deserve their rights, for the world’s system is contingent upon rights and duties.
Another important principle is the observance of rights and duties, there should be a balance between our rights and duties in the work we are performing through laws and regulations so our rights are respected and that we observe the duties assigned to us.
We ask the Almighty Allah to protect our country and our people from all evil. And, the latest of our prayers is; praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, and Prayers and Allah's Peace be upon Mohammad and his pure and virtuous lineage.