Allah, The Most Exalted, is your host
Today is the last Friday in the Month of Sha'aban,
because it has been jurisprudentially proven to us that next Thursday,
September13, is the first day of the month of Ramadan. In welcoming
this blessed month, we will review the Messenger’s (p.) speech in the
last Friday before Ramadan in which he guides the Muslims as how to
prepare practically and spiritually to receive the month of Ramadan in
a way that opens up on God, good and repentance.
It says:
“O people! The
Month of Allah is drawing near to you with Blessing, Mercy and
Forgiveness. It is a month which is the best of the months to Allah
there is no better month.
Its days are the best days, there are no better
days, its nights are the best nights, and its hours are the best
hours- all days, nights and hours of this month are better than
others.
It is a month in which you have been invited to the Hospitality of
Allah- which is his forgiveness and satisfaction, and we read in
Daa Sahar the following: “And I am your guest, therefore,
make my banquet tonight to be Paradise, O the Bestower of
Paradise. O the Bestower of forgiveness, who there is no strength or
power except in Thee” and you have been assigned to be amongst the
dignitaries of Allah, since Allah will grant us Paradise as an
award for our good work in this blessed month and put us among His
dignitaries.
In it, your breathing is praise (to Allah), and your sleep is
worship (of Allah) - even your sleep is a kind of worship in this
month- and your deeds are accepted (by Allah)-which might not
be accepted in other months, and your prayers are answered.
Therefore ask Allah, your Lord, with honest intentions and purified
hearts to give you success to fast the month and recite His Book.
Is this spiritual atmosphere Allah will answer your prayers, so
benefit from this opportunity, sine it the time Allah is most
forgiving.
For the wretched, is he who is denied the forgiveness of Allah in
this Great Month- He will be like those who have not harvested
their crops, since it is the time forgiveness that only the wretched
will be denied this forgiveness.
Then, the speech talks about the hunger and thirst in this month.
Man should feel hunger in this month, he should eat as he eats
normally to feel this hunger to be reminded of the thirst and hunger
on the day of judgment that is equal to one thousand years.
By your hunger and your thirst in it remind yourselves of the
hunger and thirst of the Day of Judgment- which should drive you
to do good work, because those whom Allah are pleased with, will not
suffer from thirst and hunger on the Day of Judgment.
Give charity to the poor and the destitute- those who do not
find food and waters and do not enjoy a decent life.
Charity will be first received by Allah. And it will be as if it is
meant for Him although He does not need it.
Revere your elders -because they became Muslims before you and
because they have more experience-and have mercy upon the young,
because they do not have the some experience or broadmindedness you
do.
Keep your ties with relatives- because it makes you live longer
and pleases God- and preserve re your tongues- Do not say what
hurts others.
Close your eyes from that which (you are) not allowed to look at
and cover ears from that which (you are) not allowed to hear- Do
not listen to what is prohibited.
Sympathize with the orphans of the people; your orphans would be
sympathized with. Imam Ali says in his will: Fear Allah in
matters concerning orphans. Attend to their nutrition and do not
forget their interests in the middle of yours- because you will
die and leave orphans who need to be taken care of by others. So if
you have sympathized with other orphans Allah will make others be good
to your orphans.
Repent to Allah for your sins
Remember all of your sins and repent from all of them because
with yours Allah will forgive you, and raise your hands to Him in
supplication during the times of your prayers- because these are
the most spiritual times in their nearness to Allah for they are the
best hours . . . as during these times Allah looks at his worshippers
with mercy. He answers them if they call Him in their intimate
discourse and He responds to them if they seek Him, and He gives to
them if they request from Him, and He answers their prayers.
The Path of Paradise
O people! He who improves his manner and behavior in this month,
with his wife, children and all others that would constitute a
permission to pass through the Sirat (the path to Paradise) on
the day that (others’) feet would slip off (the Sirat)-
He will walk firmly to Paradise.
He who lessens the burden upon those under his authority in this
month, whether as employee or wife and children, Allah would
treat him lightly when called to account. He who prevents his bad
deeds or harm from reaching others in this month, Allah would prevent
His wrath from reaching him on the Day of Judgment. He who honors and
venerates an orphan in this month, Allah would honor him on the Day of
Judgment. He who keeps his (family) ties in this month, Allah would
keep him to His mercy on the Day of Judgment. And he who breaks his
(family) ties in this month, Allah would break His mercy from him on
the Day of Judgment. And he who volunteers (an optional) prayer, Allah
would write for him (a guarantee of) security from Fire. Whoever
performs a religious duty it would be rewarded by seventy times the
reward in other months. And whoever asks for Allah's blessing on His
Prophet will also be rewarded, just like those who would recite one
Ayah of the Quran. They will be rewarded by the reward of those who
have read the entire Book.
"O people! The gates of the paradises are wide open in this month,
so ask your Lord that He would not close them to you, and the gates of
Fire are shut, so ask Allah that He would not open them to you. And
the hands of Satan are tied, so ask your Lord that He would not enable
them over you."
This is the spirit of the Month of Ramadan whom the
believer should prepare himself for both spiritually and practically.
He should be ready to do good in all fields of life. We ask God to let
us enter it with obedience and forgiveness. He is the Most Merciful.
The Second Sermon
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
In Israel, the enemy is talking about waging a wide
aggression on Gaza and liquidating the leaders of the factions of the
Palestinians Resistance as well as imposing sanctions and submitting a
complaint to the UN Security Council regarding the launching of
rockets, which suggests that Israel is about to launch new massacres
against the Palestinians.
Everyone knows that the Palestinians Resistance is
reacting to the Zionist Enemy and its massacres that are the result of
the shelling of its American made planes and tanks. This enemy wants
the Palestinians to accept all its aggressions without any protest.
They want the Palestinian people to surrender unconditionally, and
accept all the Israeli's harsh and humiliating conditions including
that they stop any mentioning of their right of return, acceptance of
humiliating treatment on the road blocks, and confiscating their
lands, as well as controlling their electric and water recourses. All
this puts the Palestinians even in Gaza in a permanent jail, just like
they are in the West Bank which is nominally under the rule of the
Palestinian Authority whose head is holding meetings with the enemy's
Prime Minister that are practically useless, and have not led to any
change in the Israeli barbaric practices… Meanwhile, the envoys of the
so-called international community are preparing for the international
conference that the American President Bush has called for.
He is using the EU to prepare the atmosphere for
the illusion of peace which the Israelis will not accept unless its
impossible conditions which ensure its dominance of most of Palestine
are accepted.
Isolating Hamas
What America and the International Community want
is for the Palestinian to stop demanding for his land and freedom, at
a time they insist on leaving Hamas out of the Political process by
giving the Head of the PA the chance to issue decrees that will
isolate it and by threatening him by stopping all aid if he resumes
his relations with the Resistance factions.
We warn the Palestinians on whom occupation is
imposed and who are prevented from achieving national unity, against
trusting this Conference which the Arab regimes that had fallen under
the influence of Israel and America are running after. It will not
achieve any of their big goals of freedom, independence, return of
their lands and viable state.
They should know that stopping resistance
operations that was imposed by the PA on certain factions will not
stop the Israeli storming and assassination operations…
Therefore, the future needs a unified and strong
stand that opens up the only way to undermine the occupation strategy
of the enemy.
America's failures:
In America President Bush is still suffering from
the political pressures of both the general public opinion and the
Democratic majority in the Congress. They are demanding a withdrawal
of the troops from Iraq at a time his British Partner is completing
its withdrawal from Basra in admission of failing to protect the
security of his soldiers and the Iraqi public. This is what drove Bush
to visit Iraq and declare that it is possible to reduce his own troops
as a tactical move to rescue himself from the impasse of opposition,
by means of claiming that such withdrawal is taken from a position of
strength and not one of weakness, and warning that any overdoing will
increase the risk of attacking the American homeland. But we know that
his administration has failed in occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, which
made the region in a state of confusion and instability. That is why
it is planning to run forward by attacking Iran and bombing its
nuclear sites. But this is an act of psychological warfare that
includes military muscle flexing by deploying aircraft carries in the
Gulf. Any real war could burn its bases in the region as well as the
region resources which cannot be tolerated by the Gulf countries that
Iran is trying to establish normal political and security relations
with.
We call on the Arab and Muslim peoples to be
steadfast in the face of this war that America is waging to strengthen
its dictatorship and leadership of the world, through intimidating the
downtrodden nations who actually have a lot of strong elements of
force to face American schemes and plots under the pretence of
fighting terrorism, while actually it is a war against all those who
oppose American policies in the Muslim World. We might have to
exercise more patience and forbearance of the acute pains and
sanctions that are imposed on us, as a result of America's war and
economic besiege. The war of freedom against arrogance takes a long
time before it yields the ultimate victory.
Lebanon’s crisis
In Lebanon where the victory of the Lebanese Army
was able to end the mad war of terrorism, the Lebanese political
crisis is poisoning the lives of the Lebanese who are besieged by the
complex nature of the Lebanese polities, foreign intervention in
Lebanon’s internal issues, the daily partisan and sectarian political
statements and the links to the regional conflict and the
international projects which consider Lebanon an open front for its
international games…
In addition to all this, there are the politicians
who do not want to help to put an end to the crisis and subsequently,
try to topple any international or local initiative, because they are
afraid that their role will be reduced if a realistic solution is
reached. Those politicians do not care about the Lebanese as much as
they care about fulfilling their own interests and continue to
increase their wealth that they accumulated when they "served" in the
public domain.