Friday Speeches Mosque 4 Sha'ban 1423h

Allah says in His Glorious Book: {Allah only wishes to remove uncleanness from you, members of the Family, and to purify you} [33:33]

Once of those members of the House is Imam Hussein bin Ali (a.s), whom the Messenger (p.), talking about him and his brother, said: “O God I love them, O God I ask you to love them and love those who love them”.

He also said: “Al-Hassan and Al Hussein are the masters of the youth of Heaven”.

We remember Imam Hussein (a.s.), the second child of Ali and Fatima (a.s.), and the second grandson of the Messenger (p.)… We remember this great Imam who dedicated his life to Islam and to his Lord. His only concern was to make people know Allah, as they should. For if they knew him they would worship him and follow His line.

Imam Hussein was the revolutionary who revolted against any deviation in the Islamic community whether at the top of the political authority or the governors who ruled the provinces. He wanted the Muslims to live in dignity and pride. He refused that the head of the state and inner circle would put their hands on the nation’s money and divide it among themselves.

When Imam Al-Hussein (a.s.) decided to rebel, he wrote in his will to his brother, Muhammad bin Al-Hanafiah, that he was not revolting because he was seeking power. He was not of those who have complexes that drive them to seek power. What he sought was to save the nation from deviation, whether the cultural one that was demonstrated in the Muslim’s conception of religion, the political deviation that makes the rulers loose their legitimacy, or the social deviation that was represented by the differences among Muslims, or the willingness of many Muslims to follow those who are bought with money or power.

Thus, he wrote his legacy that outlines all the dimensions of his uprising that ended up in his martyrdom, in that bloody tragedy that still induces mixed feelings of pain and pride in the hearts of all human kind.

In his legacy, he started by confessing that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad(p.) is His servant and Messenger. Then he expressed his belief in the Hereafter and went on to explain the aims and objectives of his movement: “And surely 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.” “The purpose of my stand is the reformation of my grandfather’s nation.”

When the Imam talks about his grandfather’s nation, he is not talking about an inheritance through kinship. He is talking about moral inheritance, for the Messenger(p.), his grandfather, has held him responsible to shoulder the Message, when he said: Hussein is part of me and I am a part of Hussein…” Hussein is a part of the Messenger, because he is his grandson, and he has given him a lot of his spirit and morals. And the Messenger(p.) is part of Hussein, because he carried his message and gave it all his life until he was martyred for its cause… He revolted to reform his grandfather’s nation and rid it of all cultural ,social and political deviations, for this is the responsibility of all those who are entrusted with the Message.

“I want to enjoin goodness-every saying and action that raises the level of man that pleases Allah, and forbid evil. I want to emulate my grandfather, the Holy Prophet (p.) and my father, Ali Bin Abi Talib(a.s.). Because they are the infallibles who dedicated their life for Allah and Islam… This is my call… It is not a call for war or violence, but a call of one mind talking to another ,a call from a heart that loves all people, and a call for a just and pious line for people to follow.

Whoever accepts me –not for myself but-by accepting the truth, then Allah is higher than the truth. And whosoever rejects me then I will bear patiently until Allah judges between me and them, and He is the best Judge.”

By talking to his brother, the Imam was talking to all generations to come. He was saying to them: My movement is not a movement of a certain generation or a certain stage. It is the movement of reform whenever corruption and deviation creeps into the Islamic community whether in their thought or their actions... Therefore, if you want to follow the line of the Imam (a.s.), the leaders, as well as the nation itself, you should study all deviations ,whether in its objectives or its means, and reform them. We should all enjoin goodness and forbid evil.

This reform is not confined to the political domain, however important it may be in determining out fate. Nor should it be limited to the military struggle, although it performs the duty of protecting the Muslims. Reform should also include the cultural aspect. For in this stage, we have to struggle against the deviation that claims that Islam is the religion of violence, terror and oppression of freedoms.

We have recently heard a man who calls himself a man of religion. An American priest, who belongs to the “Zionist” Christian sect that has many followers in America …

This man said that the Messenger (p.) is a killer and a terrorist, who is motivated by violence. He added that violence in Islam is a result of Islam itself, because, as he claims, it is a religion that carries a sword to kill all those that stand in its way, while Christ(p.) calls for love and mercy. However, we have not heard any American official condemning such statements.

Let us suppose that any priest or anyone in general talked about Judaism and the Zionist massacres in Palestine , would they have allowed him? They would have accused him right away of being anti-Semitic. It is worth noting that this priest belongs to a fanatic Christian sect that has nothing to do with Christianity since it calls for killing the Palestinians, and driving them out of Palestine .

He is a man who talks about love, but when it comes to the Palestinians, he talks about killing.

Although this man has made his appalling statements a few days ago, we did not find anybody in the Islamic world who stood up to confront these violations of the Prophet’s dignity, as well as that of Islam.

We are not calling for physical violence against this man and against those who adhere to his thought, for this might lead to counterproductive results. However, we are talking about the Muslims’ need to voice their opposition to such a challenge to the Prophet, Islam and Muslims. We call upon all Muslim scholars and intellectuals to wage a cultural campaign in the entire world that aims at explaining Islam in a scientific way, targeting all those who might be deceived in these lies about Islam, for this is the Islamic way to counter such dubious campaigns.

We say to all Muslims in the world including, religious men, scholars and officials that any aggression against the Messenger(p.) is an aggression on all our pride dignity, honor, freedom and meaning, We have to stand with the Messenger(p.) in a strong manner, in which we deploy all our intellectual and practical capacities, to hinder those who might either be ignorant or driven by their fanaticism to wage such campaigns.

Our pride is driven from the Messenger(p.)’s pride, our value is part of his value…

Thus, we should not be immersed in our sectarianism, partisanships and sensitivities while Islam is being attacked.

This is the modern cry of Imam Al-Hussein’s reformation of his grandfather’s nation… enjoining goodness and forbidding evil. We have to reform all this defeatism, indifference and weakness… We have to put an end to all these marginal differences that separate and divide the Muslims, while the arrogant, the unbelievers and the oppressors are destroying daily our strongholds.

We need unity and holding to the rope of Allah to gain His support .May Allah support whom He wishes.

This is the Message of Imam Hussein, his brother Abi Al-Fadl Al-Abass, who was born on the fourth of Shaa’ban, and this is the message of his son Ali bin Al-Hussein, whose birthday anniversary is tomorrow, when he taught us to pray to Allah every day and night saying:

O God,bless Muhammad and his Household and give us success in this day of ours, this night of ours,and in all our days, to employ the good, stay away from the evil, give thanks for favors,follow the Sunna's norms, avoidinnovations,enjoin good behavior,forbid the disapproved,defend Islam,diminish falsehood and abase it,help the truth and exalt it,guide the misguided,assist the weak,and reach out to the troubled!

The Israeli’s atrocities are endless. We hear of new massacres almost daily, the last was that of Gaza where about 17 were martyred and a hundred were wounded… The enemy’s prime minister has had the nerves to boast about the success of this operation, and promised to execute more of the same, thus promising to commit additional massacres. The British and Americans found it sufficient to express their sorrow for the death of civilians, and because such actions delay the reforms. Other western powers, and even Arab and Islamic ones, did not exert any pressure because they are not independent enough to act as they see fit.

The Palestinian Intifada was the only party that retaliated by the martyr operation in Tel Aviv, as well as other operations in the West Bank and Gaza, proving that the Intifada will continue till the end of occupation. It did not care about the American support to the enemy to the extent of considering its aggression a war against terrorism. Thus, the Intifada has become a liberation movement against both Israel and America , since America is trying to legitimize the Israeli occupation…

There is an urgent need now for the Arab and Islamic peoples to stand against Nazi Zionism that is supported by American “Hitlerism”. They should study all the means that can pressurize the American interests: a full boycott of its products … withdrawing the funds from the American banks… etc

We need a decisive stand that would be elaborated by a carefully studied plan… For, in this respect, peoples have means of retaliating against the political and military brutality that the governments do not.

To serve this goal that of protecting the Intifada, we have to reject and oppose any internal Palestinian fighting, which means that all emerging problems have to be solved in a peaceful manner. Any internal fighting is against the Intifada, since it is what the American and Israeli intelligence aim at: trying to end the Intifada from the outside having failed to do so from the outside… I would like to say, acting on the basis of my religious capacity, that I emphasize that any internal strife between the Palestinians is prohibited and religiously unlawful.

It is a major sin. And thus all efforts should be dedicated to put an end to the causes and reasons of any feud.

It is ironic to listen to the American president, Bush, claiming that America is a friend of the Iraqi people. It seems that this friendship has driven him to let hundred of thousands of Iraqis, especially children, die of hunger, or become dislocated all over the world. America knows quite well that the economic blockade does not hurt the regime. It hurts the people who know that America has an economic interest in taking over the Iraqi oil and investments, and depriving the Iraqis from any chance to acquire modern technology. For America wants Israel to remain the only country that has mass destruction weapons including nuclear weapons, and thus insure its supremacy over the region.

America is trying to acquire strategic advantages in the region to besiege many countries and turn the region into a military base to safeguard its interests that run counter to the interests of its peoples… Its is a neo-colonialism that wants to form a smashing dictatorship, but adopts new means of political hypocrisy, claiming to represent democracy, progress, freedom and civilization… All nations should plan for the future in the light of the devastating repercussions of what the Americans are planning for.

In Lebanon , America is interfering, through its diplomatic pressures, to prevent Lebanon from attaining its legal rights and benefit from its waters of the Wazani and Hasbani rivers. They are playing the card of the Israeli bombing of the pumps and the rest of the facilities. Consequently, Lebanon , both the people and the government, must resist this new America-Israeli pressure, and face this new challenge with utmost vigilance, for the water pressure might turn into a political pressure and even into a military one, as we recently heard from an American politician… America ’s policy in the region has one main concern: Israeli supremacy in all fields.

In the Lebanese local politics, we find politicians looking for an issue that might win partisan concern, a sectarian instinct that is looking for sacred icons, and sectarianism that pose as patriotism … all this while the country is about to face regional hurricanes and storms.

If the Lebanese do not reconcile in this stage with the danger getting nearer and nearer, when will they choose love and peace…