Learning from Ashoura:

On these two occasions; the Prophet's immigration and that of Imam Hussein (a.s.), we have, as we enter a new year, to pose and think about our past actions. We have to hold ourselves accountable and judge for ourselves if we have upheld the responsibility Allah has entrusted us with. The Prophet's Hijra is an event that has become a part of history, and we are left with its meanings, implications and guiding which we benefit of in our Islamic movement through time. We have to fill everyday and every month with Islam. Allah did not make time a vacuum, but wanted man to full it with the thought he produces, the spirits he motivates and the good he calls for and practices.

Similarly, when we remember Ashoura, we know that it has become a part of history, yet it opens for us in our struggle a new movement towards victory and one which we might be martyred on its way. Therefore, the nation has to live history as a lesson to turn it into a victory for the Islamic call and the progress of mankind.

Muhammad and Islam:

In this context, we have to study the Prophet's personality, for it was the embodiment of the message and of Islam as a whole.

The people used to hear a verse from the Prophet and discover that his actions reflect this verse.

That is why Allah, the most Exalted, wanted us to consider him as a role model in every thing he said or did.

He is also described to be of "sublime manners". And we have to follow his lead: to be ethical in our homes and in the community at large, so that the Muslim would be the man whom others do not expect from him except good, love and mercy.

Let each of us become the Messenger even at a rate of 10 percent. Allah has said describing His Messenger:

Certainly a Messenger has come to you from among yourselves; grievous to him is your falling into distress, excessively solicitous respecting you; to the believers (he is) compassionate. He is a Messenger who feels the pains and sufferings of his people, and he used to care about each of them with compassion and mercy like a mother who loves her children.

God is saying to the believers that you have a humanitarian Messenger who carried the grievances of the people in his heart. And you ought to be like him. You have to understand that Islam is not simply praying and fasting. It is in living the grievances, concerns, problems and challenges of Muslims.

The Messenger wanted the nation to overcome all challenges to be free and dignified… you too have to make every effort to raise your nation to this level.

The Messenger was kind and merciful: {Thus it is due to mercy from Allah that you deal with them gently, and had you been rough, hard hearted, they would certainly have dispersed from around you}

Do not be hard hearted because those who are not lose the meaning of being humane.

Al-Hussein: A continuation in the movement of the message

When we study the movement of the Imam, we will find out that his sole concern was the message of Islam and the nation of Islam.

Al-Hussein (a.s.) was the Imam just as his grandfather was the Messenger. And since the Imamate is a continuation of the role of the Messenger in defending and conveying the message, the Imam declared that " the aim of my stand is not inspired by vain exultation and it is also not for the quest of kingdom, neither it is to cause dissension and corruption nor it is to wrong anybody unjustly". His purpose was “the reformation of my grandfather's nation. I intend to enjoin goodness and forbid evil. I want to emulate my grandfather, the Holy Prophet (S) and my father Alt Bin Abu Talib (A)”.

And reminded them those who accept him, they will be accepting Allah and not him as a person. “Whosoever accepts me by accepting the truth, then Allah is higher than the truth. And whosoever rejects me then I will bear patiently until Allah adjudges between me and them and He is the best Judge”.

Then the Imam began his march to introduce to the people the Islamic ruling of confronting an unjust ruler he said:

"The one who sees a tyrant King who is making unlawful as lawful, violating the pledge (of God), opposing the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (p), ruling on the servant of Allah with sins and oppression. And by his words and actions does not oppose the King and does not strive to reform the circumstances, then it behooves Allah to hurl him into Hell along with the King."

Then he continued about the Yazidi regime thus:

"They have shunned the obedience of Allah and acted following Shaitan. They are instigating commotion and dismissing the divine laws. They are expending from the public exchequer for their selfish end and are changing the prohibited things to permissible things." 

Ashoura: a movement of struggle and awareness

The prophet's immigration from Mecca to Medina aimed at establishing an Islamic base of righteousness against the unbelievers, while the Husseini immigration from Medina to Mecca and from Mecca to Karbala aimed at protecting the Message from deviation… Thus as we commence the Ashoura sermons in the beginning of the new Islamic year, we have to fill this year with Islam… We have to change our souls to become fully Islamic that reflect themselves in their beliefs, actions, sayings…etc. We have to strive to turn our country into an Islamic country, our leadership into an Islamic leadership and our nation into an Islamic nation.

We have to fight the belief that by performing the inherited traditions we have done our duty. Ashoura is not hitting the heads with swords.

This act is against Ashoura, it is a backward act… It is not also whipping the backs; it is a movement of awareness, struggle for the cause of Islam and Islamic unity to face all challenges…

They want to eliminate Islam, and it is our duty to preserve it with all the power we have… This is what Allah has entrusted us with.

Let our commemorating of Ashoura be in an Islamic civilized way that is open on awareness, struggle and unity. Peace be on the Imam, his companions and those who fought with him. I testify that you have enjoined the good and forbade evil. Peace be on your grandfather, the Messenger, you father, Imam Ali, your mother Fatima Al-Zahra, and all the Infallible Imams.

Besieging the Intifada:

What were the results of the summit in Sharm Sheikh?

Were the Arabs who called for it able to present a clear future for the Palestinians in the political sphere which is the core of the problem since the Israeli occupation?

Did they negotiate as the champions of a cause or were they merely mediators but without any effectiveness?

The Summit was one of security meaning that it dealt with the security demands of Sharon. It also gave Sharon the normalization of diplomatic relations with Jordan and Egypt and gave a green light to the Gulf and Arab Magrib to enhance their relations with the enemy. Sharon thus became "a man of peace" without having to offer anything or even promise to give the Palestinian any of their rightful demands.

America wants to sideline all the Arab and Islamic rejection of the Israeli occupation. It is exploiting their political and security weaknesses and trying to engage each country in internal problems. What America wants it to destroy any source of strength in the Arab and Islamic World, so that it could continue to pressurize the Arabs and Muslims to force unconditional surrender. To accomplish this goal, its resorts to hot wars as in Iraq, and psychological wars as is the American stands towards Iran, Syria and Lebanon with the aim of isolating each country in its own boundaries where it could easily impose its conditions over it.

Israel is the threat

America mass media, as well as that of other Western nations, are talking about the WMDs lie in Iraq, and that some officials are worried about the new lie that accuses Syria and Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, although they have repeatedly denied it .

There is also some talk about American development of a new generation of nuclear weapons which could pose a threat on the entire world. As for Israel the Americans and Europeans claim that Israel, being a disciplined and self-controlled country, does not pose by its nuclear weapons any threat to its neighbors, while Iran in contrast is not. The fact is that Israel is a threat to the whole region and even to the entire world by its aggressions and occupation of the Palestinian territories while Iran has never been involved in any of these practices.

The Arrogant world is executing a plan to besiege all the countries of the Third world, especially the Arab and Muslim states, so that they will never acquire any strength. This is what we notice in the turtle like movement of the EU negotiations with Iran and in the way they play concerted roles that complement one another…

We warn the Palestinians people from the real motives of this summit and from the plans of the American allies of both Arabs and Europeans, for they are based on deceit.

Chirac: Sectarian Incitation

It is interesting that the French President had his say in the differences between the Shiites and the Sunnis, declaring that he cannot trust the Shiites but he can trust the Sunnis. Those who follow his lead in Lebanon have begun to talk about the Shiite threat although the Shiites have opened up on all sects and political ends, and although they do not have, in all the countries they live in, their own project.

Thus, they do not represent a danger for anyone. All they want is to live as citizens with equal rights and duties.

If some of them have certain views or relations, this is true in every sect, but this does not mean that this is the Shiite stand. It is within their right of expression.

In this context, the Shiites are wrong in their view because they have liberated Lebanon and they are still fighting. They have supported the Palestinians, and they are fighting international arrogance.

We warn all those who are talking in this way because they will be serving the occupation authority in the entire region.

Occupation in Iraq

Iraq continues to live in a state of security anarchy with more daily bombings and assassinations. The occupation forces not only are not trying to stop them, but it is encouraging them. And this renders the talk about the occupation withdrawal leading to a state of a chaos meaningless, for it is the occupation that is creating it, especially that is the American media has revealed that American companies have been stealing billions of Dollars of Iraqi money.