Friday speeches 23 Sha'ban 1425h/8 October 2004AD

This is, according to our ruling, the last Friday in this month, since the coming Friday is the first day of the month of Ramadan.

On this occasion, we would like to recall the Prophet’s sermon that dealt with how to receive this month and how the believers would prepare themselves spiritually and socially to receive it, so as when the month begins, the believer would live Islam in his mind, spirit, and actions. For this month is, as expressed by Imam Ali bin Al-Hussein, in his supplication welcoming the advent of this month, the month of Islam and purity.

What did the Messenger say? The speech is divided into many parts; the first part describes the greatness of this month in which Allah wants to bestow His blessings, mercy, and forgiveness on His worshippers… He also wants to make them dine at His table, eating the best of food and drinking the best of drink. He is their host and there could be no better hospitality than that of Allah, the most Exalted. He is the one who created all physical and spiritual rewards.

In this regard, any reward or benefit we receive from other people is actually one of the rewards He bestowed on those people.

The Messenger (p.) says: “O' people, the month of Allah (Ramadan) has approached you with His mercy and blessing”, even our existence is a mercy of Allah, along with everything else He has given us.

“And forgiveness”. Allah forgives in this month what He does not forgive all year long. "This is the month that is the best of all months in the view of Allah. Its days are the best among the days" the days that we live in praying and worshiping God, its nights are the best of nights where man spends the night, invoking Allah and asking Him to fulfill his needs, feeling the tranquility that Allah, the most Exalted, bestows on him. Its hours are the best of hours; every hour is equal to months, since it is filled with Allah's grace and forgiveness.

This is a month in which you have been invited by Him.

He is sending each of you an invitation card not like any other, since this one is from the Quran. “O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may guard (against evil). The month of Ramadan is that in which the Quran was revealed, a guidance to men and clear proofs of the guidance and the distinction”; therefore, whoever of you is present in the month, he shall fast therein. This is the invitation card but it is not inviting to food and drink, it is inviting as to a banquet of mercy, blessings, and forgiveness. You have been, in this month, selected as the recipients of honors of Allah, the Merciful.

What better honor could there be... If all people honor you but Allah despises you, it will be all worthless… You are being honored in this month, by Allah's call to come to Him and receive His blessings and forgiveness, when nothing could save you, except your good deeds.

Your breath in this month has the reward of Tasbih (mentioning the name of Allah, the most Exalted,) even enough you will not be saying it with your tongue… When you live true belief, your spirit will be remembering God. It is not like other people who might mention God with their tongue without living the meaning of this in their spirits.

Your sleep has the reward of worship. You sleep to enable your body to rest so that you can perform your duties towards Allah and fellow human beings the next day.

Your good deeds are accepted in this month. So are your invocations. Therefore, you must invoke your Lord, in right earnest with hearts that are free from sins and evils, that Allah may bless you, observe fast, in this month, and recite the Holy Quran.

For the Quran is the light, and we have to recite Quran at all times and especially during the month of Ramadan, since it is the constitution of our doctrine, the basic guide of all our relations and dealings and the constitution of war and peace.

Therefore, we have to read it in a thorough way to understand it and abide by it.

Verily! The person who may not receive the mercy and benevolence of Allah in this month must be very unfortunate having an end as bad (in the Hereafter).

Then, there is a lot of people who feel hunger and thirst, and for whom Ramadan is not the month of overeating. Thus, in this month what we should remember while fasting, the hunger and thirst in the hereafter…because if we are faithful to Allah, we will not have to suffer from it.

"Give alms to the poor and needy”. Charity drives off calamities; it makes you live longer and heals your sicknesses.

In addition to the Khums and to alms giving, Allah has ordained that we have to pay a part of our money to the deprived and those who ask for aid.

“Pay respects to your elders. Have pity on those younger than you and be kind towards your relatives and kinsmen. Guard your tongues against unworthy words, and your eyes from such scenes.

Anybody who makes his servants (male or female) take light work, in this month, Allah will make easy his accounting on the Day of Judgment.

Anybody who does not tease others in this month, Allah will keep him safe from His wrath in Qiyamat. Anybody who respects and treats an orphan with kindness in this month, Allah shall look at him with dignity in Qiyamat. Anybody who treats well his kinsmen, in this month, Allah will bestow His mercy on him in Qiyamat, while anybody who maltreats his kinsmen in this month, Allah will keep him away from His mercy, in Qiyamat

O People! The Gates of Paradise remain opened in this month. Do invoke that the Gates may not be closed on you, while the Gates of Hell be closed. Do invoke that these Gates may never be opened."

The previous parts of the Prophet's sermon summarize man's responsibility when he stands before Allah in this month, to receive the Holy Month of Ramadan so that he might be welcomed to the spiritual banquet Allah has invited him for.

What is new in the Israel brutal project of eradicating the Palestinian people whether in its attack of northern Gaza or the successive operations in the West Bank which have so far led to the martyrdom of about 100 Palestinians, 28 of them were children, and the injury of about 400 people... But although it is still killing, wounding, demolishing houses and bulldozing farms, it has not been able to solve the problem of Kassam rockets.

On its part, America has vetoed the Security Council resolution that demanded putting an end to the Israeli operations in Gaza, thus reaffirming time and again that it will not allow the implementation of international law in anything that relates to Israel, claiming that Israel is in a state of self-defense against Palestinian "terrorism”. But the problem is that America sees in any condemnation of Israel a condemnation of itself, since it is a partner of Israel in the on-going operation of eradicating the Palestinian people. They are working together in crushing the Palestinian will power of liberation.

This is what a senior advisor for Sharon has announced when he talked about crossing out the establishment of a Palestinian state from the agenda, as well as preserving most settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. When you freeze the political process you are actually preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state and ending any discussion of the issues of Jerusalem, borders and the refugees.

Such a political trend leaves no chance, from the American Israeli point of view, for the Palestinians to practice their right in self-determination. Nevertheless, the American President and his administration continue to deceive the world with their talk about the Palestinian state. Facing such a state of affairs, the Arab and Islamic world should, if it still have some dignity and feels its political existence, move and confront this new American policy with its comprehensive support of the Zionist army in its eradication of the Palestinian people…

It should also view the Intifada as the only means to pressurize the enemy in a war that would only end by independence.

If we want to go back to the American Veto, we find that it demonstrates America's political isolation. The American Administration was not able to find one vote in favor of its position. The draft resolution was supported by eleven members of the Security Council, with three European countries abstaining under American pressures.

If the American UN representative is justifying the veto on the grounds that it jeopardizes the implementation of the Road Map, it is the American policies that jeopardized the entire peace process in the region and made it enter in a series of wars, each one producing the next. Thus, the American president, who is obsessed by the Holy war, might burn the world provided that he stays as president of the United States.

On another level, America has condemned Iran for developing missile technology, and moved to take precautionary measures to address the threat the Iranian missiles pose on the United States.

It is a ploy that aims to make the American public opinion afraid of Iran as it did with the WMDS in Iraq, whose existence has been proven false even by the American intelligence agencies.

America does not want Iran to possess any missile power to defend itself, nor does it want it to obtain any nuclear power even for peaceful purposes, because it seeks to remain the strongest power in the world and wants to sustain the supremacy of Israel in the region. And this cannot be accepted by the downtrodden in every part of the world.

Iraq is still sinking in a sea of blood, as a result of the security anarchy created by the occupation, which also enables the sectarian parties to practice organized assassinations that are not worthy of being considered as acts of resistance.

In addition to all this, the Kurds are also calling for separation and establishing an independent state which could create a crisis that spreads into Turkey, Iran and Syria.

It could also create a civil war in Kirkuk as a result of claiming it to be a Kurdish city.

We are afraid that this anarchy on the security level will extend to the economic, political and social spheres. And this is what we want to warn the Iraqis from and call upon them to face it with wisdom, consciousness and unity.

The bloody situation in Pakistan with Sunni and Shiite worship places bombed every now and then makes us feel that there is plot being executed by international intelligence agencies to incite civil strife.

We condemn the horrible massacre that killed 40 Muslims in Multan just as forcefully as we had condemned the massacre that killed some Muslim Shiites a week before... We call upon the Pakistani Authorities to step up their investigation and arrest the criminals, and we also call upon the Sunni and Shiite clerics to stand up and face these conspiracies plotted by the arrogant powers to find a way out of their impasse even it devastates the entire country and take it to a civil war.

The total darkness Lebanon lived in is a result of the crisis of the electricity company that are been plagued by corruption and waste under several Lebanese presidents.

The latest blackout has lead to enormous economic loses, in addition to the shortage of water that was coupled with other economic hardships that usually take place when children go back to school.

Yet the politicians are still in the midst of a row concerning the form of the new government or the various polarizations and waiting for the Security Council resolution concerning Lebanon.

All this prevents any opening up, thwarts any effort for stabilizing the country and provides those who seek to incite strife with a favorable climate.

Meanwhile, the entire region around us is destabilizing with America and Israel acting as prosecutors whose task is to charge all countries, and incite civil strife in them and especially in Lebanon.

To both the Lebanese people and the officials we say: Your differences are destabilizing the country. You should learn how to manage your differences in a way that does not negatively affect your homeland.