The Firm Stand:
God says in His Glorious Book:
Allah only wishes to remove all abomination from you,
ye members of the Family, and to make you pure and spotless.
On the seventh of this month, the
month of Safar, Imam al-Hasan bin Ali (a.s.) died.
He did not die naturally, but he was
martyred as a result of the poison his wife gave him acting under the
instructions of Muawiah.
As we know, the Imam was the first
baby born for Ali and Fatima (a.s.).
He was so much loved by the
Messenger that Muhammad said: O God, I love him and I ask you to love
him and love those who love him. He took take care of him and his
brother Al-Hussein as if he were their father, hugging them, playing
with them and praising them.
The Muslims quote him as saying:
Al-Hasan and Al-Hussein the masters
of Heaven's youth.
After the Prophet(p.) died, Imam
Hasan lived with his mother for a short period before she died too.
Then he lived his youth with his
father Ali (a.s.) who used to rely on him when he became a caliph. He
sent him to Kufa when it witnessed a destabilized situation. There ,he
gave a speech which aimed at telling the people how great his father
was describing him as the most pious, the most just and the most
knowledgeable... The one whom Allah made related to the Messenger in
two ways: by kin and by religion… He is the one whom Allah has made
the Messenger(p.) need not go to war while the people were
hesitant…The one who believed in him when others did not, and the one
who fought with him when others were defeated. In these words, a clear
image of Imam Ali is drawn from his own son, who knew him like no one
else did.
A model in piety
Imam Ali (a.s.) educated al-Hasan both
intellectually and spiritually, and we can take a glimpse of that
education in his last will to his son. In this regard, we can also
read his nephew's description, Imam Ali bin Al-Hussein (a.s. ), which
constitutes a great testimony telling us who Imam Al-Hasan was: He was
the most worshipful of all people (and the most austere of them (and
the most virtuous of them -
whenever he would go for Hajj he would go on
foot and sometimes even bare-footed)
and whenever he would remember death he would
weep(
and whenever he would remember the grave he
would cry)
and whenever he would remember resurrection he
would wail and whenever he would remember the passage on Siraat he
would shed tears
and whenever he would remember the
accountability before his Lord the Most High he would sob and
swoon
and whenever he would stand before his Lord in
prayers his limbs would shiver
and whenever he would remember heaven and hell
he would quiver like one bitten by snake and he would pray to the
Lord for Paradise and for protection from Punishment of Hell-fire
and whenever he read in the book of God "O You
who believe ......" he would respond by saying Labbaik Allahuma
Labbaik .
and he was never seen in any state
but he was steeped in the remembrance of God
His social position
One of the writers of the biography
of the Messenger(p.), Muhammad bin Ishak says: no one reached such an
honorable position, after the Messenger(p.) like Al-Hasan bin Ali
(a.s.) . When he went out to teach no one will pass on the road until
he went back to his house. Another historiographer narrates that once
the Imam was riding on the way to Mecca, but he decided to continue
the journey on foot . All the people who saw him descend descended too
and started walking. Even Saad bin Abi Waqas descended and walked at
his side.
This is how respected and honored
the Imam(a.s.) was. He was also quite wise and full of love to people.
Once he was walking with his brother
Al-Hussein. They saw on old man performing wudu wrongly.
They wanted to teach him the right
way. They were young and the old man did not know them. They came to
him and asked him to tell them which one of them was performing the
wudu in the right manner. When the old man saw that both were
performing it in the best way he knew that he was wrong and thanked
them for teaching him how to perform wudu.
Thus, we learn from them the best
way to teach some one something concerning his worldly or heavenly
affairs. We have to respect him and teach him in a way that does not
hurt him.
Use the way that is best
We know that Imam Al-Hasan was
humble to God. He used to feel the value of the mosque being a house
of God and not merely a place to pray. He used to feel the presence of
God in the mosque, saying whenever he entered a mosque: O God, your
guest is at your door. O virtuous one, certainly the bad door has come
to you, so overlook the ugliness that I possess with the beauty that
is with You. O Noble One.
His morals too were sublime; he used to forgive
those who hurt him, and use the methods that turn the enemy into a
friend.
One day he was crossing a street riding a horse. On
the way, he came across a man who was one of the friends of "Muawiyah".
When that man knew he was Imam Hassan (A.S.) he started using an
un-respectful language. Imam (A.S.) stopped and listened to him and
then facing him said, "I think you are a traveler and stranger and not
a local person. You have been provoked by the enemies about us and
their false words about us have made you cynical and pessimistic about
us. If you have a need I may fulfill that need. If you are hungry, I
will order to feed you. If you require a dress and clothes, I will
order to dress you up. If you don't have residence to live in I will
take you along with me to my house and extend hospitality and give you
treatment. When that disrespectful person heard those words from the
Imam (A.S.), he got very much ashamed and repented. He was so upset
and uneasy about what he had done that he started weeping and
apologized and said, "The words of your enemies had affected me.
Before this (event) you and your father were the greatest enemies of
mine among all the people. But now that I have witnessed this courtesy
of yours, you are the most respectful and gracious to me among all the
people.
I became aware that you are a family who has the
capability of becoming the heirs of the Prophet (P). Till the time I
am living I will be a friend and devotee of you and would defend your
right..
If we were to analyze the attitude
of Imam Hasan, to learn how do deal in our life what would we find?
The Imam knew that the man had lived in a closed environment and that
he was "brainwashed" by propaganda of hatred to Imam Ali and his
children. Thus, he wanted to change his ideas on the basis of the
Quranic teaching that calls us to "
repel
with what is better".
Then will he between whom
and you was hatred become us it were your friend.
This is what the Imam did, and won the love of the man
Imams Hassan and Hussein adopted the same
methodology.
When we review the problems Imam Al-Hasan
had to face, we will find that he had to face a very difficult
experience after his father's death. Muawiah bought a lot of the
Imam(a.s.)’s friends and relatives as well as the heads of the tribes,
and thus his followers were the few who were saved by God's Mercy.
Therefore, he decided that the interests of Islam and Muslims lied in
ending the war, so that he would protect the opposition of the
followers of Imam Ali (a.s.) until the circumstances change. If some
people say that he had different methodology than that of his brother,
Imam Hussein, we believe that this is not correct, since they both had
the interests of Islam and Muslims as their fundamental objective. Had
Imam Hasan been in Hussein's place he would have acted in the same
way. And this is what Imam Hussein did when he signed the peace
treaty. Imam Hasan represented the Muslims' interests to the extent
that he asked his brother when he was dying not to bury him near his
grandfather for they (the Umayads) will not allow it and consequently
blood will be shed .
Imam Al-Hasan represented the sublime human
spirituality, which he shared with the rest of Ahl al-Beit who wanted
people to open on Allah and obey Him. He says:
He who wants to be powerful and
respected without being a member of a tribe or a ruler should move
from the disgrace of disobeying Allah to the greatness of obeying Him
The Second Sermon
An irradiation war against the Palestinians.
In Palestine, Israel continues to
pursue the policy of assassinating the Intifada leaders, bombing the
Palestinian neighbourhoods in Gaza invading the towns of the West
Bank, appropriating the lands to build the separating wall and
threatening the Palestinian people by hunger and economic besiege as a
punishment for choosing Hamas in the recent elections.
Moreover, the enemy's government
threatens to use the iron first policy and bomb civilians if the
Mujahideen dared to retaliate for the aggression.
The enemy, along with America Europe
and the Quartet Committee, have given the Zionist army the freedom of
committing brutal massacres, without giving any right to retaliate,
lest they will be considered terrorists.
The West that planned the operation
of dislocating the Palestinians move them half a century ago to
establish the state of Israel is still lying and manoeuvring through
the envoys who give empty promises to the Palestinian Authority while
empowering Israel to continue to peruse its strategy of taking over
the whole of Palestine.
The Arabs and the Zionist Enemy
It is shameful and disgraceful for the Arab and
Muslim world to open up on the Zionist enemy both politically and
economically more than they open up on the Palestinians. The huge
funds they have in American banks benefit the Jewish companies over
there. At the same time they do not provide any aid to the
Palestinians, not even with a small amount of the interests on their
funds. They are afraid from the anger of America whose Secretary of
State has warned several Arab countries as well as Iran against
helping them although some of the UN officials have stated that Gaza
will be facing hunger in the near future. We are afraid that these
countries will practice hypocrisy, offering the Palestinians some nice
words while actually pressurizing them to succumb to the international
pressures. What a disgrace!
American hostility to Arabs and Islam
America's arrogant policies
continues to produce fear and hatred in the Arab and Islamic worlds,
changing the region into a state of bloody anarchy in the name of
fighting terrorism through the massacres that move from one place into
another.
In this stage, America has changed
more than ever into a state that is hostile to the interests of Arabs
and Islam. The responsibility for such a deterioration lies mainly on
the Bush Administration that currently faces a unique set of failures
in the entire Middle East. The ideas that Bush and his top
subordinates hold, in addition to the influence of the
neoconservatives inside the Administration and outside it, have made
it even pressurize states that are supposed to be America’s friends,
and consequently wage a war against the entire world in the name of
fighting terrorism.
Destroying Iraqi Unity
American has and still is trying to
destroy the Iraqi national unity and inciting sectarian and racial
strife. It has paved the way for the Israel: Mosad to tamper with the
country and supported Sharon's policies in enlarging settlements and
building the isolating and deliberately supported Israel's threats to
Iran to bomb the Iranian peaceful nuclear reactor.
We warn the Arab and Muslim world
from this American Israeli war as well as the pressures on the
European Union and other states. We have to set a plan to conform this
eminent threat on the entire region.
In the light of this, the Muslims
should solidify their unity and deploy their elements of strength
,especially in the wounded Iraq that is drawn in a sea of blood which
is planned to be transformed into a sectarian strife, as a result of
the apostates’ hateful massacres and the reaction they draw, as well
as the attempts to dislocate the Shiite from mixed neighbourhoods,
like what happened in some of Baghdad's neighbourhoods.
We say to our brothers and sisters
in Iraq: Find a solution to the current difficult situation before the
temple falls on the heads of all of you. America has never sought the
good of Iraq. The tyrannical regime was made in American and when its
role finished, America sought to establish anothetr tool that would
follow its instructions.
Citizenship in Lebanon
Lebanon is still living in the
American atmosphere, following the visit of US Secretary of State who
came to oversee the implementation of its plan in administering
political chaos in Lebanon, making the Lebanese remember the horrible
days of the civil war.
As for the dialogue the Lebanese are
anxiously following, we hope that all parties will rise to the level
of the actual problems of the collapsed economy and the anguishing
security, as well as the fall under the influence of international
tutelage. We notice that not all the issues the dialogue is supposed
to discuss are in harmony with how the Lebanese envisage their future,
especially when they remember the bloody civil war that is represented
in some of its symbols, which means that they should all learn the
lessons of the past.
The question is: Where is the new
generation that has not been smeared with treason, and that did not
joint the game of killing and destruction. We call on all of them not
to fall under the influence of emotional and instinctual slogans. They
should plan for a new Lebanon of truthfulness; trustworthiness, love
of one's country and its people to create a system of citizenship and
confessions. Lebanon is shacking as a result of the regional
earthquake. Let us try to hold it in its place firmly and prevent the
earthquake from destroying the Lebanese and their entity.