The First Sermon

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Allah says in His Glorious Book: And when We made a covenant with the children of Israel: You shall not serve any but Allah and (you shall do) good to (your) parents, and to the near of kin and to the orphans and the needy, and you shall speak to men good words and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate. Then you turned back except a few of you and (now too) you turn aside. He, the Most Exalted, also says: Alms are only for the poor and the needy, and the officials (appointed) over them, and those whose hearts are made to incline (to truth) and the (ransoming of) captives and those in debts and in the way of Allah and the wayfarer; an ordinance from Allah; and Allah is knowing, Wise.

In these two Ayahs, Allah, The Most Exalted, emphasizes certain realities in the human faith, for He has shouldered on the believer the responsibility of himself and of the societies that suffer from deprivation in addition to unifying God and being good to parents.

There are several Ayahs that join between performing prayers and giving Alms, since the latter presents an economic reserve the believers pay as a financial form of worshipping that is paid to that who are in need for it.

It is as if Allah, The Most Exalted, is saying for the believers that there are two religious duties. One that makes us ascend to Allah through our soul to reaffirm that we are His servants. It is the five daily prayers that the Prophet (p.) said that they are "like water" that if you wash your body with five times daily there will not be any dirt left on your body. Similarly if you wash your spirit five times a day no sins will be left on that day. Moreover, in interpreting the meaning of the Ayah that says:” good deeds take away evil deeds" that the prayers take all the evil deeds man has done before praying. We have in this respect a Hadith that says that the prayers are the way by which the spirit of the believer ascends to Allah, The Most Exalted. Just as the Prophet (p.) ascended by his body to Allah, the believer ascends through his soul to Allah, The Most Exalted, to meet Him in a meeting of love and opening up on Him and telling Him about one’s needs.

Alms, just like all the five religious duties, is a form of worshipping Allah, but it is associated to the society.

Yet it is a duty that man should perform to be closer to God, just as prayers. The only difference is that it is a financial worshipping in which one pays what Allah has ordained to obey God and be close to Him. and this is not restricted to Islam only: And when We made a covenant with the children of Israel: You shall not serve any but Allah and (you shall do) good to (your) parents, and to the near of kin and to the orphans and the needy, and you shall speak to men good words and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate. Then you turned back except a few of you and (now too) you turn aside.

We also read what Jesus Christ said as a baby: He said: Surely I am a servant of Allah; He has given me the Book and made me a prophet; And He hath made me blessed wheresoever I be, and has enjoined on me Prayer and Charity as long as I live.

In Islam, we read Allah's saying that: Alms is for the poor: who cannot provide for his annual needs and the needy who is worse than a poor in that he cannot provide for himself and has to ask others and the officials who are appointed to administer (the funds), and those who have been recently reconciled to the truth (those whom the Prophet wanted to strengthen their faith by giving them a good position in the society, and those in bondage since Islam wants the society free of slavery by freeing them through the money raised by alms, and those in depth who cannot pay it, and in the cause of Allah, in everything Islam needs to confront the challenges that are imposed on it, and the wayfarer the traveller who does not have any money and cannot borrow from anybody, this is ordained by Allah, The Most Exalted. It is not a charity or a matter of subjective choice. It is a duty ordained by Allah, The Most Exalted, just like the prayers. There is a Hadith that says that Allah, The Most Exalted, has ordained that a part of the money of the rich should go to the poor. And had He known that it was not enough, He would have added it.

In another version, the Hadith says that Allah, The Most Exalted, has made the poor partners in the money of the rich, which means that if the believer refuses to pay the legal rights he would be considered a thief, who has stolen the money that Allah, The Most Exalted, has ordained to the poor and the needy. Thus, a man who does not pay the Khums at the end of the year would be steeling the money of the poor and needy.

The same thing is true for the Alms since Allah's aim in ordaining it is to create a kind of social balance and cooperation. That is why He considered the one who does not perform the duty of paying alms, like the one who does not pray since both are religious duties.

In this respect, we know, dear loved ones, how many projects in our regions and Islamic states like hospitals, schools and for the support of the cause of Jihad are financed by the Khums funds.

These Islamic taxes are meant to accommodate needs whether personal needs of the poor or social needs of the orphans, students and the Resistance. The society which abides by performing this religious duty is a society that can build itself socially, economically, educationally, culturally and militantly. There is another group that Imam Ali (a.s.) talked about in the last day of his life, there are the orphans. He told his sons Al-Hassan and Hussein (a.s.): For the sake of Allah be kind to orphans and do not let them be hungry. I heard the Holy Messenger (p.) saying: "He who adopts an orphan, Allah definitely takes him/her to the Paradise. And if he/she took advantage of an orphan, Allah definitely takes him/ her to the Hell".

If you leave them without attending to their needs of housing, education …etc, they will turn into criminals and will be exploited by those who are not pious in non-Islamic and non-humanistic goals.

The Messenger (p.) is clear on the reward of who sponsors an orphan, it is Paradise. He says: Be to the orphan as a merciful father, and know that as you grow you will harvest.

He also said: one who looks after the orphan whether he is his relative or not, I and he would be together in paradise like this, and he drew his index finger and middle finger together.

He also said: There is a place in Heaven called the House of Joy that will be dwelled only by those who make the believers’ orphans happy, meaning that as you made the orphan happy I will make you happy in the Hereafter. Imam Ali says: every believer, who puts his hand on the head of an orphan as a gesture of mercy, would be rewarded a reward that is equal to the number of hairs his hands passed on.

On the other hand, we notice that in some cases when the father dies leaving some adult sons and some orphans, we find that in most cases the elder sons will put their hands on the orphan's money who have no one to defend their rights. To these Allah says: Those who unjustly eat up the property of orphans, eat up a Fire into their own bodies: They will soon be enduring a Blazing Fire!

Fatima Az-Zahra' (a.s.) tells us that we should not "eat" the money of the orphans for it is a major sin of wronging.

Moreover, we should deal with the orphan in a kind and merciful manner, even if we want to punish him, we should not do this in a violent way, for Allah, The Most Exalted, says. Therefore, treat not the orphan with harshness.

Thus dear loved ones, Allah, The Most Exalted, wants our society to be built on cooperation and consolidation. He has ordained that there is a portion of the money of those He had granted them with wealth to the poor and explained that this is the road to Heaven.

Israel continues to be shocked by the political debate over its war of aggression on July-August 2006. In this respect, we have noticed that the norms that the enemy used to boost about, that it practices accountability even at the highest level, have disappeared.

The result being that admitting defeats no longer calls for political consequences. Thus, the Jewish entity has come to resemble any other third world country that provides false pretences to avoid accountability and political responsibility.

As Israel admitted its defeat by the Resistance, many Arabs felt embarrassed and cornered by it, since it hinders the peace projects they are running after. In addition, the Lebanese internal complications have held the resistance responsible for the war, and talked about the tragedies of those who supported the Resistance making the issue of victory a controversial one. They have even talked about disarming the Resistance before the war ends, and they did not foresee a plan to arm the army and confront the Israeli aggressions suggesting the lack of responsibility towards the future and the country on the part of a large section of the political elite.

We believe that Israel's defeat is also a defeat for the US Administration, since it considered this war its gateway to the new Middle East. It exerted huge pressures to prolong this war, especially that the Security Council did not yet announce a ceasefire, giving the enemy the freedom to renew its aggressions.

This is the policy of the US towards all the nations of the region; encouraging the Israeli enemy to bomb the Palestinian cities and towns, commit massacres and assassinations under the pretence of self-defence in exactly the same manner the wolf claims self-defence when it kills the lambs.

But the heroes of the Intifada are still facing the enemy with their rockets that shocks its security. Their latest martyr operation in Dimona represented a major military and moral shock, especially that the Mujahideen have resumed this painful tactic against the enemy.

We regret that the Palestinian president had condemned the operation, forgetting that the enemy is using his political and military machine to kill civilians, and destroy houses. At the same time it sedates the Palestinian Authority by means of the meetings it concludes with the Palestinians in which the Israelis humiliate the PA without giving the Palestinians anything and continue their policies which are more like a collective punishment of starvation and besiege that enjoys the support of the USA which has rejected any condemnation of these acts in the UN, since any condemnation of the Israeli occupation will represent a condemnation of the American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The US does not acknowledge the rights of the Arabs, Muslims and the downtrodden. It regards Arab regimes as tools that serve its projects to take control of region, or as banks that finance its wars against them or even as cards that distract the attention from America's internal crises.

The Arab Governments have to return to their senses and understand the nature of the game that extends from Palestine to all the Arab countries that are subjected to the American and Israeli policies, and which makes independence a bad joke in the Arab world.

In a show of international arrogance that refuses that the regional nations build their own strength the US condemned the Iranian launch of a rocket to outer space that is designed to carry a research satellite. The US condemned the step indicating that it will only increase the isolation of the Iranian regime and people from the international community.

Our comment on this is that America does not want Iran to acquire the technology that might enable her to produce defensive missiles. Political analysts said that this test came a few weeks only after Israel made a similar one, thus consisting a message to Israel that says we can do what ever you do. It is noticeable that America did not condemn the Israeli test, since it wants Israel to remain the strongest party in the region, and use it, if the need arises, to attack Iran's peaceful nuclear location.

The Lebanese people are still waiting for the outcome of the investigation to discover the criminals who shot the innocent victims and planned to turn a peaceful demonstration into a humanistic tragedy, in a dubious plan to make Lebanon lose its particularity as a democratic country in which people peacefully protest to voice the demands just as the other civilized countries whose demonstrations might turn negative without causing any bloody reactions or hearing any statements about taking to the street as being fruitless and does not solve any problem.

Lebanon is a country of popular and political freedoms that some parties want to exploit for their own interests only.

We confirm that there is no problem with resorting to the street, demonstrations constitute a positive movement if it remains peaceful.

The refusal of some political and religious figures to allow demonstrations would deprive Lebanon of its characteristic as the country of freedom.

On another level, the massacres that happened in Chiah did not even move the humanitarian feelings to condemn the crime. Instead, it was politically used in an irrational and subjective manner. Some even tried to exploit the crime to raise some challenges. But we know that being loyal to one's country calls on everybody to review their statements to make sure that they do not contain any provocations.

Then there is the talk about the infallibility of security and military institutions that cannot be held accountable or tried. Such a talk does not help in finding a solution to the problem.

The erroneous should be called to account and the criminal should be tried. And No one is sacred when it comes to a popular cause whether he is related to a religious, political or security position.

And this is where the state starts to respect itself and its people and protect its future.