Return to Books Means Return to Peace

According to Iran’s Book News Agency (IBNA), citing the news headquarters of the 33rd edition of Iran’s Book Week, Mahmoud Shalooei, head of the Association for Cultural Works and Luminaries and author of works such as ‘Rumi and the Unity of Religions,’ addressed the role of books in understanding the world and achieving peace in a commentary:

Books reflect human thought and wisdom; among all human achievements, nothing but books has been able to keep the experience and knowledge of generations so alive and lasting. Every page of a book is the result of thought and an effort to understand the world and give meaning to life. Today, as the speed of life and the proliferation of visual media sometimes take away our opportunity to think, returning to books means returning to peace, deep reflection, and dialogue with oneself. In this context, ‘Book and Reading Week’ is an opportunity to re-examine this unparalleled cultural asset and redefine its place in our individual and social lives. In fact, any society that sidelines books from daily life will sooner or later become hollow from within and lose its vitality; for books are not merely tools of education but the pillars of a nation’s memory and cultural identity.

Safeguarding Written Culture

The Association for Cultural Works and Luminaries, as the country’s most established cultural institution, considers itself responsible for safeguarding Iran’s written culture and spiritual heritage. By publishing the works of Iranian and Islamic scholars, artists, and thinkers, this association is, in fact, a guardian of a treasury of Iranian thought and wisdom. Every book published by this association serves as a beacon for the continuation of thought, knowledge, and intellectualism in society. Furthermore, organizing commemorations and collecting the works of luminaries is an effort to record and keep alive the moral and intellectual values of the Iranian nation; values that, if not put into writing and preserved in our cultural memory, will gradually be hidden in the dust of time and forgotten.

Today, more than ever, we need to recreate a spirit of reading based on thinking, deep understanding, and wise dialogue. Books call us to patience and contemplation, reminding us that the path to growth and excellence passes through profound reflection and pause. Along this path, if our young and new generations are nurtured with a habit of continuous reading and conscious book selection, they will undoubtedly become more resilient and wiser against the superficiality and clamor of the times.

We in this cultural association believe that if the light of books remains luminous in the hearts of Iranians, the lamp of this land’s culture will never be extinguished. Books are not only guardians of knowledge and meaning but also preservers of human bonds and our Iranian-Islamic spirit.