Friday Speeches Mosque Jamada Al-Awwal 22, 1423h, August 02, 2002

Allah (s.w.t) Says in His Glorious Book {Neither obey thou each feeble oath-monger. Detractor, spreader broad of slanders. Hinderer of the good, transgressor, malefactor}[68:10-12]

He also says: {whoso intervenes in a good cause will have the reward thereof, and whoso intervenes in an evil cause will bear the consequence thereof. Allah oversees all things}[4:85].

In these two Ayas, Allah (s.w.t) wishes to warn us against certain types of people whose company might result in troubles in the life of the individual as well as the community. Do not obey the oath-monger, the man who always swears by God, which implies that he does not respect Allah, since respecting your Creator means that you ought to glorify Him and distance Him from your daily marginal affairs. You should not swear by God except when absolutely necessary, or in situations of imminent danger, that is if you are asked to swear to save yourself. Imam Zien Al-Abideen (a.s.) was asked to swear when a woman claimed to a judge that he owes her 200 golden Dinars. He refused to swear and asked his son, Imam Al-Baqir (a.s), to pay the money.

Imam Al-Baqir (a.s), was surprised and asked his father “Are not you saying the truth, father?”

The Imam answered: “Yes, but Allah is far more glorious to swear by Him, even if it were truthful.”

The Imam, thus, would not swear by God, even when he is saying the truth, and we now see that those who sell their goods are prepared to swear readily, although they know that they are not truthful.

Those who do so are mean; they are slanderers who create differences among people, and spread hatred in the community. Allah (s.w.t), orders us not to obey such people: when you meet somebody who swears a lot, who does not mind talking about the defects of others and even insults them, you should not trust or befriend him.

The second Ayat tells us that people are responsible for their acts. If you try to reconcile between two people or intercede in a good cause then you will be rewarded, but if you intercede in a bad cause you would be punished for the sin you have committed.

In this meeting, we are going to take some examples, the most dangerous of which is when you tell an oppressive and unjust ruler what you know about a fellow believer, which might lead to his execution, imprisonment or paying a fine. This is usually the job of intelligence agencies whether those of the arrogant powers like the CIA and the Mossad or those of the oppressive regimes. Such as attitude is called informing.

The Messenger (p.) says:

“The worst of men is the triangular, the one who informs against his brother to the ruler -the unjust ruler whether a state or an individual- for he would be destroying himself- as a result of his sin, destroying his brothers and destroying the ruler” because he would be preparing the circumstances for him to sin.

Someone came to Imam Ali (a.s.) to inform against a fellow believer, The Imam (a.s.) told him: “If you are honest we will hate you, because we do not encourage such an act, and if you are lying we will punish you…” He also said “the worst kind of truthfulness is slander”. It might be true, but you should not say everything that is truthful if it hurts a believer. Imam Al-Sadiq (a.s) says: “Do not slander for it plants hatred in the hearts of men”.

Imam Ali warns against hasting to believe an informer, even if he pretends to have your best interests in heart. The Messenger (p.) says: “A slanderer does not enter heaven: for slandering spoils all his other good deeds and acts of worship”.

He also said: “Slander and hatred do not meet in the heart of a Muslim”.

We understand from these sayings that Allah wants the Muslim community to be one whose members love, help and protect one another. Anyone who slanders will be undermining the lives of his brothers, and he is responsible for all the consequences of his deed.

In this respect, it is said that on the Day of Judgment a bottle of blood will be brought to the slanderer, and he will be told: this is your portion of the blood of the person you slandered about, for although he did not kill him his information against him to the unjust ruler, brought death upon him. Thus, the slanderer became a partner in the crime.

Therefore, we have to be pious, and fear Allah in what we say, for our words might create hatred and lead to unjust killing. It might even destabilize the whole community.

What is going on the Palestinian front.

The Mujahideen are continuing their struggle to destabilize the Israeli security so as to protect the Palestinian security, which was totally devastated by Israel.

It is true that civilians fall in some of their operations, but they are is no way the direct target of the Mujahideen… They only aim at making the enemy understand that if he does not pull out of the occupied territories and end his aggression his security will not be maintained.

On his part [the American president George] Bush considered the operation of the Hebrew University a horrific act of terrorism, and the Mujhideen as killers, but he did not condemn the killing of civilians and children in Gaza, in a massacre that was committed by American planes, but merely a cruel act… He did not even comment on Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, its continuous aggression on Gaza and the deportation of the innocent Martyr families, in violation of basic human rights.

It is a presidential green light for the criminal, Sharon, to kill as many Palestinians as he can, to resort to collective punishment of civilians and arrest the civilian youth without any reason.

…Yet he has the nerve to talk about terrorism, human rights and confronting the countries he accuses of producing mass destruction weapons, regardless of the fact that Israel possesses the largest arsenal of American mass destruction weapons, many which may are being tried on the Palestinian people.

As for the Arab leaders, the American president said that they understand America’s military activity in Palestine by means of Israel, and its political threats to Iraq… as if he is exposing their actual positions of supporting the American aggression plan… America does not respect them, and that is why it is exposing their true positions that are quite different than what they declare.

The Secretary General of the United Nations has, under the American Hegemony, acquitted Israel of committing a massacre in Jinen (Palestinian city and camp). He only criticized Israel for not allowing humanitarian aid to reach the refugees in the camp… Israel applauded in joy, for the report claims that it is innocent, which proves that the UN has become a false witness of the crimes Israel commits.

The problem is that America was able to force the international politics to adopt its policy of supporting Israel. It has also been able to deceive the Palestinian Authority by talking about a Palestinian state that does not have a realistic chance of being executed. Instead it wants them to yield to the Israeli demands of political and security reforms as well as fighting the Mujhideen.

In the meantime, some Arab states will help in realizing the American – Israeli plan of subjugating the Palestinian people.

The Mujahideen alone are leading the liberation movement, undermining the Israeli security and entering the enemy into a security impasse, in which he no longer has the initiative…but move here and there to collect their wounded and dead, for blood calls for more blood and there is no solution except ending the occupation.. All international, Arab and even Palestinian condemnation of the struggle of the Mujahideen should stop.

On another level, Israel, through, its foreign minister, the butcher of Qana, is trying to make Europe yield to the Israeli demands of putting a number of liberation and resistance movements on the terrorist list, and consider Iran the center of terror in the middle East.

In this occasion, we would like to express our appreciation for France’s refusal of the Israeli demands, and hope that this stance would be the beginning of a general European stance that refuses to submit to the American –Israeli dictates… For Europe’s interests lie in taking an independent position… Moreover, security only does not create a peaceful and stable world order… For security based on oppression might lead, as France’s foreign minister explained, to more insecurity.

The Arab and Muslim officials should continue their serious dialogue with Europe so as not to let the latter fall under the influence of American madness that has reached the point where the American defense minister has declared that they are studying the possibility of using their ballistic missiles in their coming wars in the region.

In Lebanon, we strongly condemn the horrific massacre of the employees of the teachers’ compensation fund, in which innocent civil servants were injured or killed in an act that has no meaning or justification.

We believe that it is necessary to tighten the security around the public and private departments to prevent any repetition of such brutal crimes. The problem of the spread of weapons among the public should also be studied especially in there circumstances of tension and aggression.

If some observers feel that this crime is a result of the difficult economic situation in the country, then the officials have to study the economic plan that would ease the citizens’ hardships… for the economic tension has started to change into security tensions that could stir strife and destabilize the security.

In this already very tense situation, we warn against inciting sectarian sensitivities in analyzing these crimes that have nothing to do with sectarianism.

It is a crime against man as a being regardless of his religion. Do not throw a spark in this inflammable wood for you might not be able to contain the fire.