On the 17th of Rabi Al-Awal, we met with the anniversary of the birth of the greatest messenger, Muhammad (p.), and we also meet in this day with the birth of Imam As-Sadiq (a.s.).

When we view the Imamate, we will find that it is the extension of the Message in reforming all deviations. In the first place, the Prophet (p.) came up with his Message to move the world from the darkness of Jahiliah to the light of knowledge and progress.

That is how we have seen that Allah has presented His Messenger and the : hath come to you from Allah a (new) light and a perspicuous Book, He made the Prophet's task to take people from the darkness to the light. Allah also made the value of man equivalent to how much knowledge he has Are those equal, those who know and those who do not know? Those who know are the privileged, and they are most appreciated by Allah who wanted the Prophet and the nations to invoke Him in every special supplication: O my Lord! Increase me in knowledge

Islam was able, through the Message and the call of Muhammad (p.) to raise the ignorant nation within the scope of few years, to the nation of civilization, knowledge and progress who gave humanity several aspects of its development and progress.

The Imamate followed the same path. This is why we find Imam Ali saying: "The Messenger taught me one thousand branches of knowledge…and from every branch a thousand branches are opened for me”. He developed the knowledge he was given by the Messenger (p.), opening it on new horizons and using it in the various fields of life.

The Messenger (p.) used to watch how his student was benefiting from the knowledge he has given him. And came to the conclusion that he was the best, the most profound and the one who had learned all what he has been told. That is why he said: "I am city of knowledge and Ali is its gate, whoever wants to enter this city he has to enter through the gate".

Ali (a.s.), thus, did not need to ask anybody, he had the knowledge of the Prophet(p.) and the inspiration of Allah, The Most Exalted, who has given him the spiritual and intellectual potentials. All things were clear in his mind to the extent that no other companion matched him in his knowledge. They all used to ask him while he did not have to ask anybody. That is why one of the great scholars of the Arabic language, Al- Farahidi, when asked why he put Ali at the top, he said: they all need him and he needs nobody. This proves that he is the Imam of all.

Then the knowledge of the Messenger (p.) passed through Ali (a.s.) to Imam Al-Hassan and Imam Al-Hussein(a.s.). And then to Al-Hussein's son Zein Al-Abideen(a.s.), until it reached Imam As-Sadiq (a.s.), the Imam whom all scholars of his age felt the need to learn from. But the Imam(a.s.) said to all who asked him that his knowledge is not something that he came up with. It is the knowledge of Muhammad (p.): "My Hadith is that of my father whose Hadith is that of his father then his father. The Hadith of Ali is that of the Messenger and the Hadith of the Messenger is that of Allah".

When Imam As-Sadiq's father was dying he promised his father who asked him to take care of the Shiites, that he would teach them until they have to ask no one about anything. He would answer all their questions. And he would ask them if they did not ask, making them the learned scholars that if they sit with scholars of other sects they would appreciate their profound knowledge.

Imam As-Sadiq (a.s.) was also concerned to educate his people on sublime morals which would raise them to the highest levels. He used to tell them. "Our Shiites (supporters and followers) are the people of guidance, piety, good and faith. They are the people of conquest and victory". He used to say to some of his followers: the Shia of Ali are those who abstain from the food and the sexual appetites, work sincerely for their creator, hope for gaining His reward, and fear from His punishment. If you see this in them, then those are the Shiites of Jaafar".

Thus the Shiites are not those who claim to be the followers of Ahl el-Beit, but then they would disobey Allah and deviate from the straight path. The Shiite is he who adheres to faith in its entirety and who practice its commands in absolute piety.

The Imam (a.s.) used to educate the people in the need of having good manners with members of other sects, opening on all issues of the good and the right. Asked by someone about how to deal with those they deal with (of the other sects), the Imam(a.s.) said: “Pray with their tribes, take part in their funerals, visit their sick and give them what is due to them if any of you become pious, truthful and of good manners and thus he is known to be one of my followers this will make me happy. If he is not, then I will be disgraced”.

He wanted his followers to open up always on the others, seeking to unite Muslims and not to further disperse them.

We have seen how the Imam filled his age with knowledge in the entire Muslim world whether those who support him or those who did not. One of the Hadith scholars who belongs to another sects says: I entered the mosque and saw 900 Sheiks each saying: Jafar bin Muhammad As-Sadiq told me. He was the master teacher who raises the cultural and academic level of knowledge in the age he lived in without any sectarian discrimination. Historians tell us that his students were about 4000 scholars who they spread his knowledge in the Muslim world.

He was also appreciated by all other scholars, even the Imams of the Sunni sects. Malik bin Anas says: "No eyes have seen or ears have heard someone who is better than Jaafar bin Muhammad As-Sadiq (a.s.), whether in his knowledge or piety". Abu Hunfia was asked about who was the most knowledgeable person and he said: "It is Jaafar bin Muhammad, since he is the most knowledgeable about the People's differences".

We have also seen how the atheists who did not believe in God or Islam and had many reservations on the faith and the rulings of Islam world come and sit in the Beit Al-Haram to discuss these issues with him. He used to be occupied with trying to guide them to the right path. So much so that one of them said: The only one who deserves to be called a human being in Jaafar bin Muhammad As-sadiq.

He (a.s.) used to represent the man of dialogue who was never annoyed or fed up with any one who had a different opinion. He was very tolerant as was his grandfather, the Prophet (p.), who used to listen to everybody, the young and the old, the poor and the wealthy… This is what the Imam (a.s.) wanted to emphasize in the Muslim community, to keep people away from myth and make them lean on knowledge, and reason. He used to say: "The Prophet(p.) is Allah's proof on his servants, And the proof between the servants and Allah, The Most Exalted, is the reason".

Reason is what Allah, The Most Exalted, based on the right to punish and reward on the day of Judgement. For it is reason that makes up believe in Allah and the Messenger and open up on all truths.

Imam As-Sadiq (a.s.) used to quote the Messenger (p.) as saying: "Seeking knowledge is the duty of all Muslims". And if it is the responsibility of the ignorant to learn, it is the responsibility of the learned to teach those who are in need of knowledge. He used to urge the nation to be a nation of knowledge and not of ignorance. To rely on reason and to fight backwardness, for this is the nation that can be, as God said, the best nation.

He also asserted the importance of freedom for Allah wanted man free except before Him. He wanted people to be free and refuse all tyranny. He used to say: "A free man is free in all situations". He could say no to the tyrant even in prison, He could also be in a desert and be not free if he does not posses the freedom of will power (computers)...

He will always be free inside himself …the freedom of willpower and the freedom of stand. He also emphasized the importance of patience saying that it is to belief as the head is to the body.

When we study the Imam, we find that he has presented all the aspects of Islam to the people and emphasized the need of commitment in practice. That is why when we are committed to their line and we call the people to adhere to their teachings, we are calling them to the line of Allah and His Messenger, for this is what the Imams called for.

Imam Al-Baqir say: "Whoever obeys God is our friend and whoever disobeys him in our enemy". Our friendship cannot be attained accept by work and piety. When we remember Imam As-Sadiq (a.s.), we remember all that raises the level of the nation's knowledge, piety and morals.

May Allah have Mercy on him the day he was born, the day he died, and the day he will be returned back to life.

The Arabs are running after the settlement with the enemy. They want him to accept to engage with the so-called "peace" negotiations by providing historic concessions including the abandonment or the three nos that used to represent the Arab dignity, whether with respect to refusing the Zionist invasion of Palestine, or the brutal atrocities that killed tens of thousands of Palestinian women, children, youth and elderly in cold blood and displacing hundreds of thousands of them to neighbouring countries. The Arab regime divisions on the one hand, and the American pressure on the other, made some of the Arabs accept in a direct manner the humiliating peace with the enemy, while others hid behind trade representatives, until Israel became a de facto, reality in Arab policies and a friend in the American circle that includes everybody.

Israel was not satisfied with all these concessions for it wanted no less then absolute surrender. The Arabs sought through their Summits to present a collective peace initiative, and again the enemy reacted coldly and rejected the initiative, with America supporting its stand by saying that the initiative provides a basic for negotiations, and not implementation, since it did not meet with the Israeli strategy of rejecting the withdrawal to the 1967 borders and the return of the Palestinians to their lands.

Yet the Arabs still seek to present the "Beirut" initiative, relying on Bush's talk of the two state solutions, through the final status negotiations, that Israel has rejected, despite the fact that the American Secretary of State’s visit to the Middle East was a total failure, for she does not have the authority to pressurize Israel… Nevertheless the Arabs are still waiting for the Security Council who is not his own boss.

This Council will amend what the Arabs did not amend in their summit. All this at a time the Arab fall down is looking for a hole to burry its cause. This cause that was pronounced dead by the Arab League Secretary General in a previous summit.

The problem between the Arabs and Israel lies in the fact that the Jewish state does not want a peace with the Arabs, especially the Palestinians, except after it has confiscated and annexed most of the Palestinian lands. That is why it wants normalization before peace, to pressurize the Arabs through the Quartet Committee, forcing them to offer additional concessions that will leave the Palestinian state meaningless. As for the Arabs who are used to offer one concession after another and one initiative after another, they are falling down in the circle of moderation that the American Administration is driving them to, asking them not to stand with their causes of liberation and independence, for many Arabs rulers have imposed on their countries many concessions to the enemy and the Americans on the basis of their personal and familial record of falling in the traps of intelligence agencies.

Thus, we saw the enemy's Prime Minister demanding that the Arabs should receive or visit him as an alternative to the Arab initiative. He is used to refusing what they want and force them to accept what he wants. Israel has not changed anything in its strategy, at a time the Arabs are left with no strategy whatever. Meanwhile, the Israeli Army continues its daily practices of assassinating activists, killing civilians, detaining Mujahideen and besieging neighbourhoods and cities. In this respect, their last aggression was asking 1000 Jerusalemites to leave their homes since they are built on a land owned by a Jew, but without providing any solution for their humanitarian problem… Meanwhile, the political and economic besiege is still imposed by the Americans the Europeans and the Israelis on the national unity government, especially the Hamas ministers, while the Arabs continue to keep their mouths shut.

The American intelligence agencies are still playing the game of nations in the Arab and Muslim world, as well as Latin America and all countries that oppose its policies, and who seek freedom and independence both politically and economically. Thus, we saw how it insists on occupying Iraq and even sending additional troops, despite the opposition of both the American public opinion and the Iraqis to such a development. In the meantime, the entire world has witnessed the failure of this occupation and its sinking in the Iraqi quicksand, which led the free nations to organize big demonstrations demanding the withdrawal from Iraq itself that still suffers from this occupation that has turned into a cover for the Takifiri terrorists who kill even children, as in their latest massacre. Moreover they now kill arbitrarily and no longer target a certain sect.

As we emphasize that the occupation as the root cause Iraqi problem, we want the Iraqis to engage in a well studied comprehensive resistance to liberate the entire country and stand in the face of those who target Muslims instead of the occupiers.

In Somalia, the downtrodden, impoverished and hungry country, the people still suffer form the mad war of the international American and European game that seeks to create favourable conditions for the dominance of the Americans over the African Horn by regional powers that serve the interests of the international arrogance.

In Lebanon, the political struggle of the current Lebanese crisis is still freezing all the country’s security and economic potentials. The issues the parties differ on is not impossible to resolve had it not been for the foreign interference that exert pressure to keep the crisis frozen. Then, there is the lack of confidence between the authority and the opposition, and the refusal of this party or that to study the legal and political guarantees that would prevent any undermining of the national unity government or to that matter the international tribunal. They continue to use the same consumed words that aim at inciting their masses in a sectarian manner. As if what is wanted is not to reach a solution.

We are afraid that the way the Lebanese crisis is run not only aims at preoccupying the Lebanese to drive them to ignore their vital issues and concerns, but also to distract the Arab World that is supposed to concentrate on its major causes, especially the struggle against the Israeli enemy, who played a major role in the aggressions on Lebanon.

As we feel that it is necessary for Lebanon to go back to its natural position in the political sphere as a country that attracts Arab international and UN officials. We see in the latest visits that have taken an exploratory or intimidating character, without any mention of the Israeli violation of Resolution 1701, an attempt to score points in the goals of many Arab and Islamic powers.

Describing the political situation in Lebanon, some political analysts have said that Lebanon is searching for its decision outside it, making the country a state that does not make its own decisions, or a country that belongs to strangers more than it belongs to its citizens, at a time there is a sincere Lebanese call for the MPS to become representatives of the people instead of a liability and even a catastrophe in the midst of this political anarchy that is about to destroy the entire country.