An Extension of the Message

Allah says in his Glorious Book: Allah only desires to keep away the uncleanness from you, O people of the House! and to purify you a (thorough) purifying. (33:33). One of the members of this sacred family is the last Imam (a.s.), the Imam of the age, the Imam of life and Justice who comes to fill the earth with justice having been filled with wrong doing and injustice.

On the eve of this night, the night of 15th of the Month of Sha’ban, the night of Prayer, supplication and closeness to God, by piety and obedience that make us full our absolute submission (slavery) to the absolute God… On this night, the night of the birth of our Imam (may Allah hasten his relief) whose secrets, meaning and Allah’s preparation, have made the end of life an end to oppression, so that life will turn for the first time to life of justice in which no human being wrongs another…

This is the great dream humanity has in every generation inspired. People since the first feud among Adam’s sons have never lived but aggression that was motivated by envy, hatred of one other and similar negative emotions which made brothers kill each other. Allah, the most Exalted, sent several prophets to end this wrong doing so but the enemies of Allah and life used to kill those prophets and go back on their word ” Those who break the covenant of Allah after ratifying it”, (2:27), as we witness in the history of the Jews.

That is the meaning of the coming of the Mahdi in Islam, whom all Muslims although they might differ in certain details believe in. Ibn Khaldoun says in his Introduction that there is a consensus regarding the reports concerning the prophetic traditions about the Mahdi: On of the narrations, reported by the Sunni scholars: “life in the world will not end until a man from the members of my house whose name is the same as mine would lead… Sunni scholars also quote the Prophet’s companion, Abu Huzaifa, as saying that he heard the Messenger of Allah warn of a time the nation will be governed by tyrants then the Messenger added promising that Allah will save the nation: “If there were only one day left in the life of this world, Allah will prolong this day, until a member of my house will rule... and Islam will be victorious, Allah keeps his promises...”

The Messenger (p.) also says: “I am leaving among you two weights: The Book of Allah and the Members of my family, which if you hold fast to you will not be deviated, and which will never be separated until they come back to me on the Day of Judgment: “The Messenger(p.) , thus emphasizes that as long as the Book is in the hands of Muslims, there will always be a Member of the House who will be leading the nation and this applies only on the Mahdi.

The Imamate and the Enrichment of the human thought.

How should we inspire the role of Imam Mahdi in our life? We are not going to talk about his age and how long or short it is, for this issue is no longer controversial since we know that Noah lived about 1000 years, and since as science discovers the secrets of life, man will be able to live thousands of years… But the question that is being raised has to do with the significance of the role of an absent Imam, since we cannot benefit from his guidance or leadership…

To answer this question, we have to clarify that Allah, the most Exalted, has assigned two roles for the Imams:

The first is the one that defends Islam and provides solutions to the events and problems the Muslim community faces in each generation, thus enriching, as the 11 Imams did, the Islamic culture in the face of those who want to marginalize. They inspire the need to confront unbelief and injustice, and set the necessary plans that address the given circumstances challenges and conditions.

By doing this the Imams have left a cultural-ideological, methodological and judicial heritage that suffices in its details and its generalities the needs of the people…

That is why we find Imam Al-Mahdi telling those who asked him while absent of certain issues to go back to those who “narrate our traditions”, the religious scholars who carry all this heritage; who have learnt the Book of Allah in a cultural and open way, and who learnt all what the Prophet(p.) and Imams said and did, and were consequently able to enrich the human mind and life with the Islamic culture, as if the Prophet(p.) and the Imams were still living. Thus, Allah did not leave the nation in a cultural vacuum, while the Imam is absent because what the Imams have left could fill such a vacuum… It is as if the Imam is still among us, since his presence is not restricted to the physical aspect, but to the presence of the Imamate itself, which will always be present through this cultural heritage.

If you want to feel this… just think of the Messenger (p.) or of Ali (a.s.). Doesn’t everybody feel that they are still leading us and guiding us, for the cultural and spiritual life is more important as an extension of man than the physical life? That is why we feel that the Messenger (p.), the companions and the Imams who were tough with the unbelievers and kind among themselves are still living among us through all this heritage they have left us... This is one of the roles of the Imamate, which the Imams have accomplished, in all their leading cultural and spiritual roles.

The Imam (a.s.)’s Universal Role

This is the role that the Imam plays when Allah ends life as we were told by the Messenger: “Even if the entire duration of the world's existence has already been exhausted and only one day is left before Doomsday, Allah will expand that day to such length of time as to accommodate the kingdom of a person from my House who will be called by my name. He will fill out the earth with peace and justice, as it will have been full of injustice and tyranny (by then)."

This life will not finish until a man from the members of my house will rule, he will lead Islam to have the upper hand and defeat all oppressing tyrants. He will fill this world with justice… This role is different than the first even if they are based on the same principles of that of the Messenger (p.) and the religion of Islam… The Imam will not be bringing a new religion but rather he will come to support the religion of Islam and ensure its victory in the whole world…. Thus he will come to ensure the victory of Islam both culturally and politically in the whole world.

The Imam’s absence

But to perform this role, the Imam in his absence, which remains one of the secrets that Allah did not reveal to us, needs to be prepared by Allah, the most Exalted, whether spiritually, psychologically or intellectually under the direct supervision of Allah.

Allah, the most Exalted, would ,thus, make sure that all the aspects of the Imam’s personality would be developed and enriched to enable him to perform the role assigned to him of optimizing all the messages of all prophets. Thus he should live these messages and he should be “brought up before Allah’s eyes”

Therefore, his absence is one of Allah’s secrets that we were not told about, but Allah’s wisdom has willed that he should be prepared for this universal role, that he will uphold justice on earth, and so that people on earth will live the morals of Heaven in this earth before they go to Heaven itself. Heaven has its laws, ethics and climates. We should not go to Heaven while we hate one another and curse one another...

On the anniversary of the Birth of Imam Al-Mahdi (a.s.), we have to rise our spirits to Allah, and open our hearts to Allah, the most Exalted, so that there will no place in them for hatred and evil. Our hearts are the throne of Allah’s, which, as such, cannot be a place where hatred, envy, and evil live.

The Message of Imam Al-Mahdi is the Message of universal justice. Be with all who call for justice even if the source of the call is from adherers of other religions. For Allah, the most Exalted, wants justice for all human beings and justice is something that transcends all friendships and enmities..

We pray to Allah, the most Exalted, that we will to be among his supporters, companions and those who die for his cause... to let us be with Muhammad and his House Members …on the road that takes us to Allah, the most Exalted, and nothing but Allah.

The Second Sermon

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Bush: legitimacy of occupation

Has the American President lost his humane balance and sided with the extreme right in his administration that has turned into a political and security apparatus to the Israelis?

How could Bush respect his mind and his position as a head of a state that calls for freedom and human rights if he issues statements like the one in which he justified the Israeli aggression against Syria and claimed that Israel should: “defend herself” and that the Americans would be doing the same thing”?

Sharon, on his part, threatened that Israel “will strike its enemies in every place”. He was encouraged by the American green light that suggests the Americans and Israel are waging the same war against the peoples of the region..

We want to ask Bush:

Did he investigate and found out that the martyr operations are being initiated from Syria? Or is this a new lie that is added to the series of Israeli-American lies to justify aggression? Didn’t his intelligence agencies report to him that the Zionist army did not hit a training camp but one of homeless refuges whom Israel have forced to leave their country?

Moreover, President Bush constantly repeats that Israel has the right to defend itself, but we have never heard him talking about the same rights when it comes to the Palestinians… It he talks about the “Road Map” and claims to be the first American president to talk about a Palestinian state, which is something he demands that the Arabs and Muslims should be grateful for, he has never taken any step forward to establish it. All what he has done is to demand that terrorism, meaning the militant freedom fighters, should be stopped.

He has even gone out of his way to find justification for building the racial separating wall.

This means that all his statements serve to legitimize the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians, just as he justifies his occupation of Iraq. But he does not allow the Arabs and Muslims to talk about the difference between terrorism and resistance, since he has adopted the mentality of the emperor of the world whom the nations, especially those of the Third World, are not permitted to oppose.

Thus, President Bush’s actions will create a political state of hatred to the American policies; a hatred that all public diplomacy cannot elevate... We want to emphasize that we seek to be friends with the American people whom we respect their scientific and technological progress and sincerely hope that it will be coupled with humanistic progress of defending the back trodden nations in their quest for freedom… We call on the American people to stand against their administration, which is bound to isolate America from the rest of the world as a result of its arrogant policies.

A confrontation plan

We also call upon Arabs and Muslims, both governments and people, to rise to the level of the current challenges, for Sharon’s project that is backed by the US administration plans to eradicate the Palestinian people... Furthermore, the strategic American-Israeli alliance will not spare any Arab or Muslim country, for the charge is already posted; either protecting terrorism or committing an aggression against Israel. In this respect, issuing statements and empty words are useless; we have to jeopardize the political and economic interests of our common enemy, and devise a comprehensive plan to confront it. For the issue has to with the future of the nation, which will affect even those who are allied with the arrogant powers, since America does not respect those who are afraid of her.

No to the Occupation in Palestine and Iraq

On another level, Iraq is still suffering from the state of anarchy under occupation... Civilians are shot by American soldiers who do not respect the humanity of the Iraqis, as their sole concern is the security of those soldiers.

The Iraqis are unified in their stand and they continue to say in one voice: Get out of the country… For Iraqis are able to run their own affairs and they do not need American political supervision…

We condemn sedition among Muslims.

We have been following the painful bloody events that occurred between the Muslims in Pakistan… The bombing of a bus carrying Shiite worshippers on their way to the Friday prayers, as well as reaction that killed a Sunni leaders and the calls for considering the Shiites as infidels and... Consequently for killing them…

We say to all Muslims in Pakistan and in the entire world: the problem of the Shiites is not the Sunnis and the problem of the Sunnis is not the Shiites. The problem of both is the international arrogance that wants to put its hands on the Muslim wealth and independence… Accusing one another of unbelief is not an Islamic behavior... For Allah has set a Quarnic rule for us to follow in case we differ; to refer our differences to Allah, the most Exalted, and His Messenger (p.), which means that every body should resort to objective and rational dialogue to reach common grounds.

We condemn all attempts to incite strife among Muslims as well as every act of violence, and call upon the Muslim religious scholars in Pakistan to put off this fire that will burn everything.

We also call upon them to consolidate Islamic unity and hold fast to the rope of Allah, the most Exalted. May Allah’s curse be upon those who strive persecution.

Israel first

In Lebanon, which is subjected daily to Israel’s aggression without any international denouncement on condemnation… Everybody, including America began to call for self-restraint and diffusion the tension. But all they had in mind was Israel’s interest and not Lebanon’s, because on the international level Israel always comes first.

We call on the Lebanese, including the officials of various levels, to rise to the level of the challenges in order to protect the independence of the country and activate the institutions, which might provide some solutions, if those who wish to confiscate them for their own good do not interfere.

Two kinds of reform should be integrated to solve the economic problem in the country: The political reform and the administrative one.

Meanwhile, all parties should stop their meaningless accusations behind the scenes, and this sectarian game whose victim is but the country, for the hurricane that is heading towards the region might sink everybody in its tides.