The Supreme Religious Authority shows the means to be taken to reach a state of preferring the public interests on private interests.

The Supreme Religious Authority showed during the second sermon of Friday prayer of the 13th of Rabi Thani 1440 AH, corresponding to December 21, 2018, and 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, the means to be taken to reach a state of preferring the public interests on private interests, which needs a range of points:

First: Give attention to the intellectual system. In fact the instinct of self-love and selfishness that stems and leads to preferring the personal interests to the public interests. On the other hand, the ethical principles and values guide this instinct in the right direction towards the service. So, our educational institutions should care of the education of the person starting from the family, school, and university to the other institutions, which must be concerned of the intellectual and ideological system. We mean here that we always emphasize in the education that others in the society are like you, wish for the good and benefit, even if they disagree with you on the issue of religious, national or sectarian affiliation, they are counterparts in creation or your brothers in religion. We must focus on this ideology.

Second: The ethical system that shows the benefits of caring for the interests of others and fulfilling their needs. The system of altruism and sacrifice and love the good for others. There must be a statement and definition of this system and its benefits.

Third: the availability of the right environment, what is the good environment? This means the availability of the good and positive role model, who’s followed by others. In such environment, we find people who seek to serve others.

The fourth: The legislative and executive institutions must protect the public interests, sometimes education alone is not enough, many people tell us to speak in the Friday sermon of such subjects. And yes, we give the advice that may be fruitful sometimes, but if there is no legislative institutions that enact laws, safeguard public interests, preserve public rights and preserve public services, and also prohibit anyone or any entity to harm others and an executive authority to apply these laws that protect public funds, public services and protect Rights and prevent from harming others, if these do not exist, no advice can be of beneficial.