FRIDAY SPEECH Ramadan 8, 1422h November 23, 2001

God (s.w.t.) says in his Glorious Book: “Believers do not betray God and the Messenger or Knowingly abuse your trust”. He also says talking to His Messenger(p): Content not on behalf of those who betray their own souls, for Allah loves not one given to perfidy and sin”.

One of the moral issues of great concern to both the Quran (God’s book) and the Messenger(p) on the issue of betrayal because it makes man fall in the eyes of both God and the Messenger, since we are bound by both of them by covenant .

Professing that there is no god but Allah means, that you have taken upon yourself that you will not worship or obey others. Moreover testifying that Muhammad is His Messenger means that you adhere to the Messenger he brought and all its teaching and commandments.

The same thing applies to the society .Individuals in the community are all bound by the convents they conclude either with each other or with the society and it is there convents that ensure the safety and the well being of the community, Moreover you ought not to be untrustworthy towards your own self. You should not wrong yourself by commuting sins that will lead you to hell, or earn what will bring upon you some harm in this world. You are not free to do whatever you feel like God has created you a mind to control your instincts and so as to be responsible towards all your affairs.

In the light of the aforementioned your first responsibility is towards yourself. You should not betray yourself. In the Holy Quran Allah asks His Messenger not to contend on behalf of those who betray themselves.

This verse was revealed when the relatives of a Muslim thief tried to defend him by accusing a Jew thinking that they can get away with it.

But the verse says that the Muslim is the one to bear the responsibility since he was the one who stole. It is the Muslim who has committed an act of betrayal and should be punished both in this world and in the Hereafter.

Furthermore, all sins have social implications whether adultery backbiting or supporting the unjust and they are all a form of betrayal to ones self and the community as well as to God and His Messenger.

It is a pity that some people do not understand that by committing such sins they are not promoting their own interests. They think that their interests is best taken care of by fulfilling their desires. Such an act might be beneficial in some ways on the surface, but it really is counterproductive. Because it means that you have dealt a severe blow to the spiritual side of you as well as lost the trust of others in you, and earned the dissatisfaction of Allah and His Messenger.

Therefore, the balance sheet on the whole is negative for the gain you have acquired is negligible compared with the huge loss you brought upon yourself. What good is all the money and the wealth you are going o accumulate when you lose the trust of Allah, His Messenger the society and even yourself.

Therefore, Allah wants man not to betray himself. And this is done by studying any thing you embank on carefully and thoroughly. You should study all the consequences of what you intend to do, including the social and religious repercussions. You should make sure that it does not make lose Allah’s satisfaction in both worlds, for he has given us two eyes to see all the sides of the picture. The verse we have recited in the beginning ask all believers not to betray Allah, and His Messengers, and not to abuse our trusts.

We betray Allah when we disobey Him. There is a kind of a convent between us and God. If we want Him to have Mercy on us and to look after us, we ought to worship Him alone.

We should also abide by the prophet’s Sunnah if we were to respect the convent between us, Fir the people their trust is not merely the money they might leave with us. It is every contract we make including marriage, which is not an exchange of money for goods. It is a life in exchange for life.

Thus it is one of the most important and binding covenants we make in our life.

Furthermore, there is the trust we are entrusted with in our job, and employee in the civil service or in a private institution is entrusted with the interests of the people. He should not get a medical excuse if he is not sick for this is a kind of betrayal and he should not leave during office hoarse without taking a permission… All jobs have certain conditions that we should respect otherwise we would betraying our covenants. Any responsibility you agree to uphold is a convent that you ought to respect and abide by… Thus there is your loyalty towards your homeland and which is a trust that impels you not to spy or incite any kind of internal strife, especially if we live in a sectarian or partisan community. It is a treason to incite strife in this society.

Having reviewed what the Quran says about this issues we will now turn to our traditions beginning with those of our master and prophet, Muhammad, (p.) He says: ”If one of these four things: Treason or theft, drinking alcohol and adultery enters a house it would be ruined”. He also says: “He who betrays the trust is not one of us” and also: He who betrays a Muslim in his family and money is not one of us”.

Once Imam Ali-Baqir was consulted by a man: I am not to go and stay in Mecca but I owe a man from the Merjia sect some money, what should I do’. The Imam told him: Go back to what your religion says:” you ought to meet God free from any dept, for a Muslim does not betray”. If you want to perform your pilgrimage, you have to pay you depts. Before you go.

A man called Suliaman bin Khalid asked Imam Jaa’far Al-Sadiq: There is man who owes me some money but he swore that he does not, but now I have come upon some of his money he owes me.

The Imam said: If he betrays you, do not betray him and do not do what you condemned him for doing. In Another take some one owes him, having been incident the Imam asked by a man who wants to take the money someone owes him from a large sum the man entrusted him with, he says: No, for this is treason”.

The Messenger (p.) says: “Revealing your brother’s secrets is a kind of Betrayal”.

“Believes do not be dishonest to God and the Messenger, or knowingly abuse your trust”.

The believes ought to follow this commands and they ought to repent it they had violate it and trs to educate themselves on being honest and trust worthy.

Worshippers of Allah (s.w.t.)…. Be Pious…. and do not betray His trust, whether to His religion, or to your society and yourselves. Bear your responsibilities and support fellow Muslims, for caring for the affairs of fellow Muslims is one of the responsibilities that Allah has entrusted us with.

As scores of Palestinian children are killed daily by Israeli bombs, and the Israeli army continues to besiege the Palestinian territories, and occupies several cities… America demands that the Palestinians should stop the violence, the fact that the Israelis themselves are imposing this violence by their provocations and aggressions as well as displacing Palestinians and building new settlements notwithstanding.

America finds it enough to feel sorry without exerting any pressure to stop all these killings and destructions of the houses of innocent civilians. It sends envoys accompanied by an American-European publicity campaign that promises that the solution is coming… The Arabs applaud, but they to do not exert any pressure for they are impotent… The Palestinian Authority welcomes, even before they learn about what the new American imitative is which although it is now restricted to the Mitchell project that calls for the end of the Intifada for it is the only means of pressure they have to keep the Israeli in the current security and economic impasse… Moreover, they have to keep their eyes wide open, and their resolve as strong as ever.

Most importantly they have to consolidate their national unity… The Arabs have to support this struggling people, since the Palestinian cause is the Arabs major issue and their door to history and their path to victory and pride.

In Afghanistan, the American aggression continues, under the pretense of capturing those who committed the attacks of September 11. More and more massacres are committed by the victorious side, and the attempts to install the future of the Afghanistan continue, in a effort to find a government which as they say represents all the Afghani people. Yet things are getting more and more complicated, as a result of the divergent views and interests of those who are trying to find a solution while in reality trying to secure their interests both inside and outside Afghanistan.

Behind all this talks about fighting terrorism is an American plan to re-dominate the whole world including the Third world we are part of.

The Americans, refuse to define what they mean by terrorism so as they would pressurize the Mujahideen in Lebanon and Palestine who challenge the Israeli expansion projects. For America wants to secure the Israeli security and ensures that the Israeli project reaches all its goals in the framework of the strategic alliance between them.

The American president announced that America is not at war with Islam, but we notice that it is exerting every kind of pressure and playing all kinds of political games against the Islamic world, whether in its ongoing blockade against Iraq or its economic and political war against Iran.

Therefore we ought to establish a unified Islamic political stand to ensure the safety of the Muslims political and economic future in this changing world that is being redesigned to serve the Arrogant interests.

As Lebanon celebrates its independence, the Lebanese ought to consolidate their independence by supporting the Army and the Resistance in order to liberate the rest of the occupied lands. Moreover, the Lebanese should preserve their independence, by enhancing their national unity so as to face the international peruses, especially the Americans who are accusing the Islamic Resistance of Terrorism.

On another level, all Lebanese should take part in studying the economic problems that threaten to destroy their economic security, as well as the country’s infrastructure.

All politicians should act in a state of emergency to find the means and solutions for this dreadful economic beast. Independence is not a history we read about it is a daily struggle to secure its continuity as well as the welfare of the country in the future.