Islamic literature scholar Mahmud Hakimi honored

TEHRAN,Feb.29(MNA) -- Scholar Mahmud Hakimi was honored by the Iranian Fiction Foundation for his 40-year achievements in religious literature during a ceremony on Monday. Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance for Cultural Affairs Bahman Dorri and several cultural officials and authors attended the ceremony which was held at the venue of the Institute of Culture, Art and Architecture. During the event, Hosseini called the books written by Hakimi as guidance for life and a model for the younger generation of writers. He said that Hakimi has published 147 books and will release seven more books before the upcoming Tehran International Book Fair in April 2012. Iran’s Art Bureau Director Mohsen Momeni-Sharif also delivered a speech during the ceremony. Hakimi has written and translated several books on history, science and education and he has used fiction to convey religious beliefs, he mentioned. “He uses fictional elements to narrate historical facts and in all of his writings, he considers Islam as a global religion,” Momeni-Sharif added. Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi and Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani also extolled his achievements in religious fields via different messages to the ceremony. At the ceremony, Hakimi expressed his happiness over holding such a commemoration ceremony recalling writer Mostafa Zamani Vejdani and children’s author Mehdi Azar Yazdi, whose works are precious in the field of religious literature. “The 1960s in Iran was a decade during which Muslim authors were assaulted by different political parties but I promised myself to promote the religious beliefs during my lifetime,” he mentioned. He asked the writers to focus on the Shia school of theology and teachings of the Prophet’s household and Islamic beliefs more than ever. At the end of the ceremony, “A Commemoration Book for Master Mahmud Hakimi”, which contains the comments of 40 scholars on Hakimi and his works, was unveiled. The 21-volume “The Story of Civilization - The Life of Humanity”, “Personality Traits of Imam Mahdi (AS)”, “An Approach to Contemporary World History - The Crisis of Our Time”, and “The Basics of Literature for Children and Young Adults: Focus on Religious Literature” are among his credits.