Friday speeches 30 Ramadan 1425h/12 November 2004 AD

As we prepare ourselves to bid the Holy month of Ramadan farewell, with the Eid beginning next Sunday according to precise astronomical calculations we have to pose and study what we had earned in this month. Imam Ali says that the Eid is: a Eid for those whom Allah accepts their fasting and praying. It is the Eid of being responsible, and we celebrate the Eid because we have obeyed Allah in this month".

“Each day which Allah is not disobeyed is a Eid". These Muslims could turn everyday into a Eid.

And this is known as the struggle for the cause of Allah (Jihad). It is not merely a struggle against the enemy, but it also extends to a struggle against oneself to guide it to what Allah has ordered. Many texts both in the Glorious Book and traditions confirm this fact…

They assert that we are going to work hard to meet God. Thus turning all our life into a worship in which we do what Allah has ordered us to do and avoid what He told us not to do. This is the mission that Allah has assigned for us, and that is what traditions have said: This world is the farm of the Hereafter. What you plant in this world is what you harvest in the Hereafter. If it is good you will harvest good, and if it is evil your crop will be evil {Then shall anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, see it!}(99:07).

This is what we ought to think about… We are always busy with what the others are doing, saying that some one will enter hell while another will go to heaven, but never about ourselves… Each one of us has to think if he has pleased Allah, by studying all his actions and saying, and correcting any wrong in them.

Let us read some of the texts that talk about the struggle against oneself. Allah says: {And those who strive in our (cause), we will certainly guide them to our paths: For verily Allah is with those who do right} (29/69) meaning that those who strive to make their souls act in the way that pleases Allah by keeping a constant watch over their desires and actions, they will be guided to the road that leads to Allah. He also says: {And if any strive (with might and main), they do so for their own souls: For Allah is free of all needs from all creation} (29/6).

Imam As-Sadiq says that one cannot receive Allah gracious gifts, except through obeying him. And this is what Muhammad said towards the end of his life: No one of you should claim, or wish…

Nothing will save you except your work with mercy. If I were to disobey, I will full. And this is what the Quran says in the context of the Prophet’s reply to these who asked him to join them. Say surely I fear if I disobey my Lord the penalty of a grievous day.

The Messenger says: the best jihad is when you come to a point where you no longer are unjust to anyone.

Which wears that you should not deny anybody his right, for this is what injustice is all about.

Imam Ali says: Struggle for the case of God, and do not pay attention to any blame… You should not be thinking of them.

Think only about seeking to please Allah and your own conscience.

Imam Ali asks us to follow his example, for he lived for the right that left him no friend.

That is why we used to say that being a Shiite is very costly; it demands that we adhere to the right whatever the cost, following the example of our Messenger who kept calling for Allah despite all accusations, as well as Imam Ali who was caused in mosques for over seventy years.

We also read that the Messenger has considered as the most pious those who do not commit sins. A man came to Imam Al-Baqir and said: My praying and fasting are not much, but I try not to eat or marry, except what is permitted (Halal). The Imam said: "What jihad is better than this chastity".

Therefore, at the end of this month in which we have practiced a lot of worship acts which we ask Allah to accept them, we believe that the most important thing is to preserve the spirit we lived and the obedience we practiced and extent them to everyday in the entire year. The month of Ramadan is the month that Allah wanted us to assert our relationship with our Lord, so that all our life will be a month of Ramadan not only in fasting but also in obeying Allah and doing what He told us to do and avoiding what he deemed wrong.

We should not be like those who pray and fast in this month and then stop praying when it ends.

The Eid is the day where the believer waits for the gift of the Eid, and Allah’s gift is His forgiveness, and Mercy.

Let us be ready to accept Allah's gifts, and I wish you the best in this Eid.

The Palestinian people enter a new phase whose features are not clear yet. They are going to face a difficult situation whether at the level of institutions or the political and security tactics that are open to the influence of the constantly changing international projects, especially the Roadmap which the Israelis and the Americans had frozen until they could end the Intifada and isolate the Palestinian leadership that they considered responsible for the violence including the martyr operations.

The Palestinians had a unified leadership that summarized all institutions to secure the unity of Palestinian decision in confronting the enemy. But, now as this historical leadership has demised, things might be different, and confused, especially that those who wish to create problems in the relations between the leadership and the Intifada seizing the opportunity, helped by the American pressures and the Israeli aggressions who wish to impose an unconditional surrender on the Palestinians and accept a meaningless state.

The Jews used to say that there is no Palestinian people in Palestine and that those people do not have any status in the past for there was no Palestinian state and consequently they do not have a right in this state. But this resisting people have proved its struggle… And they are talking now in America about a Palestinian state, but they did not talk about its nature borders and ability to be independent.

On the contrary, they are talking about the legitimacy of the wall and the settlements… which deprives the Palestinian state of its meaning we want the Palestinian people to be the leader whom other leaders are afraid of being the one that supervises and holds accountable, especially that the future is still loaded with various local, regional and international threats, especially that it has lost its historical leadership that whatever different assessments people have of, they all agree that it represented the Palestinian aspiration towards the future which it was able to holdfast throughout.

The Palestinian people, who were able to remain steadfast in the battle they fought for the liberation of their country, will never fall despite all conspiracies, and will continue to lead its liberation movement through national fighting unity.

In Iraq, the occupation is using the most advanced weapons against the civilians in Fallujah and other cities, claiming that it has the permission of the Iraqi government and that is cooperating with the Iraqi forces.

We condemn this aggression against civilians, just as we condemn all killings, slaughters and kidnappings targeting civilians in Iraq and making it a place where violence and anarchy dominate, without any political plans that study the negative or positive impact of such crimes on the future.

The occupation is waging this war in Iraq to promote its own interests, while the Iraqi forces are responsible for protecting their people. Consequently, they have no interests in participating on the occupier's war against the Iraqi people.

Moreover, the killing of the sectarian forces of Muslims just because they are of a different sect, and the sectarian slogans they are raising will undermine the Islamic and national unities and provide the occupation with a chance to incite a sectarian war or a confessional one through the bombing of churches.

In Lebanon, and in the Jerusalem day that represents a part of our commitment towards the Palestinian cause, we have to maintain our political position that is based on what Jerusalem represents as a sacred religious symbol, and a political symbol in its confrontation of international arrogance, especially the American one that provides comprehensive support to the Israelis... All Muslims and free people in the world should unite in their unyielding confrontation of the currents and future aggressions against Jerusalem the mosque, the city and the cause.

We also have, as our country is still under occupations, at least in part of its lands, we have to keep vigilant and ready to face the enemy, especially with the deployment of Israeli forces on the borders, and then new threats of waging a preemptive war against the Resistance, especially after its political and media war represented by the unnamed place.

In this respect we ask: Why did the Security Council consider it a violation of the blue line, while it keeps silent towards daily Israeli aggression of both in the skies and at sea.

Lastly, we want Lebanon to engage in a serious national dialogue regarding all national, social and security issues... We ask all those who are talking about waste, corruption and freedom, what did they do when they were in charge? Moreover, do they accept that they will be held accountable?

Does anybody have a magical solution for the problem? Or are we going to stay in the same whirlpool in which the old generation corrupts the new ones, keeping the country prey to all kinds of theft and corruption.