Friday speeches 8 Rajab 1423h/5 September 2003AD

Allah only desires to keep away the uncleanness from you, O people of the House! and to purify you a (thorough) purifying.(33:33). One of those Imams is the tenth Imam, Ali bin Muhammad Al-Hadi (a.s.). Although the life of this Imam night have been short if counted in years, it was very rich in content. The Imam moved from one place to another, meeting various communities to deepen their belief in God, strengthen their adherence to Islam and act responsibly in every thing they meet in life.

For this is the Message of the Imamate, being the living embodiment of the prophetic message.

Thus, the Imams used to spread their spirituality that makes man attached to God and ascend to the realm of the spirit away from matter. This is what we should learn from their biographies, so that we can feel, despite the centuries that separate us, that they are still among us in their souls and all the knowledge they gave us that elevates life to higher levels.

Imam Al-Hadi’s era was one that witnessed certain exaggerations that began to give interpretations to the Holy Quran and certain rites that are not implied in the texts. The Imam took a firm stand against all those who tried to attribute to the members of the house certain qualities that are uniquely ascribed to God.

He asked the people to boycott, confront and isolate those who held such beliefs. For this was not a marginal issue but one that has to do with the very basic principle of the oneness and uniqueness of God, and that no human being, being a servant of God, could ascend to any position that is not granted by Allah as a result of his piety and good deeds.

Let is go over some of the sayings of the Imam(a.s.) that were intended either to emphasize a certain principle or to deplore a bad habit. In a dialogue with one of his companions the Imam(a.s.) affirms that the mind is the means that makes man distinguish between truth and falsehood . He also says that God would punish man or reward him because he has given him the mind to differentiate between right and wrong.

The dialogue that was quoted in Al-Kafi starts by explaining why the various prophets were aided with different miracles: “ When Allah sent Musa, magic was dominant in his age, and it was the power that the ruler challenged his enemies with…And Musa had to have the means that would impel the pharaoh to meet him. He brought to them something from God they could never match, that invalidated their magic and gave them the proof they demanded . As for Issa (p.) ,he come at a time that sicknesses were abundant. He brought them from God something that they could not possibly do, like returning the sight of the blind or even bringing back their dead to life… As for the time of Muhammad(p.) , the most dominate in his age was poetry and speeches…

Asked that this was at the times of the Prophet, what about now, what evidence does Allah give so that He can hold against those who are asked to believe. The Imam(a.s.) said: It is the mind that could tell who is telling the truth and believe him, and knows who is lying and does not believe him. Form this saying we deduce a general theme: When you want to believe in somebody’s leadership or intellectual authority, you have to use your mind and keep your aspirations and ambitions away.

When Allah, the most Exalted, will hold you accountable for following somebody or refusing to follow him, He would be doing so based on the fact that you have a mind you ought to have used.

This is the lesson we learn from the Imam(a.s.) especially that our societies are lost when it comes to the issue of leadership since they base their loyalties on sectarianism, tribalism and fanaticism.

In another saying, the Imam(a.s.) explains that Allah, the most Exalted, did not create the Quran for a certain time but for all times. He did not create it for a certain nation but for all nations, “It is new in every age and for every nation until the day of Judgment”.

This saying suggests or rather it explicitly says that we have to use the Quran as our reference in all our lives. We have to read it and learn form each and everything it tells us. For example, when we read the story of Adam and Satan, we have to bring to mind all incidents in which good had fought evil.

Moreover, when we read the story of Musa and pharaoh , we should see in the latter an example of all tyrants in all times, and study how the tyrants think and act. And when we read about the children of Israel, we should learn that this is a people who create problems even with prophets.

We should read the Quran as a book that teaches us how to act towards all the challenges that face us, That is why Allah, the most Exalted, commanded us to learn from the Quran and not to consider it a source of blessing, or reciting it without understanding the meanings behind the words.

The Imam(a.s.) fought many bad traditions the people used to believe in, like believing that certain days are ill-fated. He said: Why blame the days, if you are punished for what you had done in them? Don’t you know that Allah is the one who rewards and punishes whether sooner or later?

Imam Musa Al-Kazim(a.s) who wanted to fight these supernatural beliefs, chose the belief that the least Wednesday of each month is a bad day. He said: “He who goes out on this day, Allah, the most Exalted, would give him all that he needs and will protect him from every harm”. Asked about the true repentance Imam Al-Hadi (a.s.) said: “It is when what you hide is the same as what you show”. And thus your repentance to God will be one in which all your being is involved…

Those are some of the teachings of this great Imam, which we ought to learn, for they are the teachings of Islam, and they are the teachings, he lived his life for and had to tolerate all the torture and tyranny of the rulers of his time in order to call for and ask the people to adhere to…

America and Israel continue to liquidate the Palestinian militant freedom fighters, while the European Union, Russia and the United Nations continue to talk about the “Road Map” without any ability to take a step forward in executing it, for they only have a marginal role in the Quartet Committee.

Thus, the vicious scheme is being carried out by an international initiative that talks about solutions while actually protecting the existing complications. To them, and especially to the Americans who lead them, the problem is the resistance which they regard as “terrorism”, and not the occupation itself which is termed as “self-defense”.

On the other hand, the Arab official leaders not only sit still, but some of them, like the head of the Jerusalem Committee, receives the Zionist Foreign Minister to reestablish relations. We all know that this committee has turned into a diversion at times and a wailing wall at others... Meanwhile, settling activities are being intensified and the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been repeatedly violated. Nevertheless, neither Morocco nor the rest of Arabs have been able to provide any help, although they have strong ties with the enemy, since they are the ones who are pressurized and not those who exert pressures.

Why did the enemy’s foreign minister receive such a royal welcome? Is it an expression of Arab and Islamic encouragement to spill Palestinian blood and eradicate Palestinian Mujahideen by American warplanes? The entire nation asks: What kind of Arabs and Muslims are those? Did the Arab World turn into an ally to arrogant powers to liberate themselves of Palestine instead of liberating it?

They stock developed and sophisticated weapons in their countries, but these weapons are not meant to be used to defend the nation…

Even the Arab businessmen are eager to attend the Zionist Economic Conference to further Arab-Israeli economic cooperation which will pave the way for the Zionist control of Arab capitals in accordance with what some Arab kings’ Claims, that the Arabs have money and no mind while the Jews have a mind but no financial resources, and that the two should join hands. Yet they know that this is not true. The Jews have more money than the Arabs, despite the latter’s oil wealth… This is not but an expression of weakness and helplessness that made the Arab World lose its weight in the world… What bad times are those we are living in?

Faced with all this, the Palestinians ought to be very careful not to fall in the trap of civil strife that is being prepared for them; a trap that aims at creating an impasse for the Palestinian national liberation movement and ultimately for the Arab and Muslim nation as a whole.

In Iraq, the brutal massacre that targeted Martyr Sayyed Muhammad Baqir Al-Hakim and the believers who were praying with him and that violated the sanctity of the Holy Shrine of Imam Ali (a.s.) has made the country enter into new political and security mazes that threaten to create strife among Muslims; a prospect many internal and external powers seek and are using their mass media, intelligence agencies…etc to help bring about.

We warn the Iraqis against falling for these attempts, for the temple will fall on the heads of all. We also warn the Islamic world, with its religious scholars and political, social and cultural activists… of the dangers of not confronting the fanatics and the extremists who will lead them to their end, for there is nothing more devastating them sectarian divisions among the members of the same religion…

On another level, the new Iraqi government does not raise a lot of hopes. There are many doubts concerning the independence of its ministers with American advisors actually running the business, as well as the doubts regarding the resources and potentials it posses to implement its agenda of founding a new free and prosperous Iraq , especially with the American Secretary of State declaring that he wants to retain control even over the countries that would provide troops to help the United States in Iraq.

America has not started yet to acquire the regional economic, political and strategic gains it sought by occupying Iraq. Would it be expected, at least in this stage, to let the Iraqis run their own affairs except in matters that might relief the US of some of the economic and security burdens.

We wish the Iraqi people all progress and prosperity, but we have to be aware that the occupation octopus is still extending its arms over all Iraqi resources . We have to be very careful and vigilant, especially that Israel has begun to consume the Iraqi economic prey and even take hold of its security to the extent that we suspect that the UN and Najaf explosions were carried out by Israel with an American compliance and cover.

In Lebanon, the people demand that the officials should join hands in planning and in execution. They want those officials to aim at serving the national interests only to enable the citizens to stay in their homeland. They also have to draw the necessary comprehensive plans to solve the problem as whole and not to treat each individual problem as separate and independent from the others.

The people have to give an ultimatum to those who rule the country that they will take back their vote of confidence, in accordance with the Holy Ayat that says: “and if you turn back He will bring in your place another people, then they will not be like you” (47:38) .