In dealing with others, one is either kind and lenient or violent and cruel.

Kindness means behaving in a merciful and lenient way that produces results without any effort or cruelty, while violence is resorting to cruelty and force whether with those one is responsible for or with those who are of a similar social status, and that produces negative results.

In Islam, one is called to be kind and lenient in his relations with others. Allah has praised this Messenger for being kind. He says: It is part of the Mercy of Allah that thou dost deal gently with them Were thou severe or harsh-hearted, they would have broken away from about thee.

If you are a human whose humanitarianism opens up on others, then you are a kind - hearted who deals with others with love and mercy, especially with those whom you are responsible for …those whom you live with in your community.

Muhammad (p.) resorted to kind words that open up the heart, and minds of others… Allah tells His Messenger that this is why the people had followed him. Had he been cruel or abusive they would have dispersed from around him.

But he was not. He was the merciful kind man who studies the points of weakness in others and does not try to exploit them, but to turn them into points of strength.

Allah tells us that the Messenger (p.)’s attitude of kindness and mercy led the people to believe in His Messenger.

Talking about this virtue the Prophet says: whenever kindness has been put on something it would improve it, while it would discredit anything it is removed from it. If you try to solve the problem by being kind and lenient, Allah will give you a bigger reward than if you resort to violence. “Allah is Kind and He loves kindness, and confers upon kindness which He does not confer upon severity, and does not confer upon any thing besides it (kindness).”

In an educative incident that happened with his wife, Aysha, the Mother of believers, the Messenger(p.) said, when a Jew greeted him saying 'as-Samu 'alaykum' (death be upon you). The Prophet answered: "And you too". 'A'isha understood what they said and retorted with an abusive language, "And upon you be death and the curse!" The Prophet, said, "Gently, 'A'isha. Allah loves kindness in all things." She said, "Prophet of Allah, did you not hear what they said?" He said: "And did you not hear that I answered him.'

He wanted to teach us that even when we are abused, we could answer back by the same injury. If then any one transgresses the prohibition against you, Transgress ye likewise against him. But fear Allah, and know that Allah is with those who restrain themselves. For this attitude can establish peace among people.

Imam Al-Baqir says: "Who is given lenience is given belief", and he adds: Everything has a lock and the look of belief is lenience. If a man is not lenient, he would replace it with violence which means that could lose his belief when he loses his balance and mind, whether in his sayings or his actions.

Imam As-Sadiq says: Whenever a household is deprived of lenience it is deprived of good, for violence leads to evil...

The Messenger (p.) wants us to be lenient even with our relations with animals. He says that Allah likes kindness and helps in doing it and he adds by calling the people to feed the skinny animals. He also said that if lenience is one of Allah's creations there would have been no creation better than it. He also talks about mates in travel or in any other errand saying that Allah will love more and reward most the one who is kinder to the other. The one loved and rewarded most by Allah is the one who is kind to his mate, the one who is not violent or cruel in dealing with his mate.

The same thing goes with respect to the father's relation with his children, and the employer with his employers and in all relationships. Imam As-Sadiq (a.s.) tells us that being kind does not only benefit us in the Hereafter but also in this world. He says: "The one who is lenient. Would attain what he wants from the people". It is in the nature of people to help those who are kind to them.

All those traditions of the Messenger and the Ahl el-Beit Imams mean that we have to adhere to this ethical norm, to be lenient and kind in all our relations and in all fields of life, even when we deal with our religious duties. The Messenger (p.) says: This religion is strong, so go through it gently and do not hate for yourself the worship of Allah . If a man prays from morning to night and spends his life fasting, it is natural to lose one's motive, because one needs some rest. If you have taught yourself and forbidden it from attaining its needs it will feel that it is too much. For those as the Messenger (p.) say, who ride day and night will not reach their destination nor will they keep the animals they are riding alive. Imam As-Sadiq's father saw his son sweating heavily in the Tawaf and told him: Allah is satisfied with less than that.

We have to learn how to be lenient and kind in our familial life and with the people we are responsible for. But we have also to resort even with our adversaries to the best means. Nor can goodness and Evil be equal. Repel (Evil) with what is better: Then will he between whom and thee was hatred become as it were thy friend and intimate! In resorting to what is better we turn our enemies to friends, but through violence we turn our friends into enemies. But such a spirit needs education and training. That is why Allah says: And no one will be granted such goodness except those who exercise patience and self-restraint, none but persons of the greatest good fortune.

We have to turn our society into a society of brotherhood, friendship and love, in order to be as our Prophet said: "No one of you will believe until he loves for himself and hates for him what he hates for himself."

The Arabs political reality continues to face critical challenges that have to do with occupation and freedom, as well as the arrogant plots, especially the US and Israel, and their implementation in the region. The last Arab Summit was unable to solve any problem, despite all the media campaign to promote the resolutions the Summit made and the promises those in charge pledged; to face the internal and external challenges.

In this state of Affairs, the Palestinian situation still faces the same complications, despite the fact that a national unity government was born although the Arabs heads of states were not able to convince the major powers to recognize it or lift the blockade, nor could they benefit from their relations with the Israeli enemy to ease the great pressures imposed on the Palestinian people.

They did not also try to convince or pressurize the US to force Israel to abide by the international resolutions, beginning with Resolution 194 regarding the right of return, and ending until resolution 242 and 338 that call for the Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders and dismantling the settlements, for America that is committed to the Israeli security will not impose on Israel anything that facilitates the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Thus, we saw how the American Secretary of State yielded to the conditions of the Enemy's Prime Minister in refusing any solution that leads to the final status negotiations, since the American Administration is afraid from the pressures of the Jewish lobby and the neo-cons whose unlimited support to Israel immensely affect the American Administration in its policies towards the Arabs.

In addition, the Arab Quartet Committee whom the Secretary supervises its political and security policies and movements, has come to intersect, with its pressures, with those of the International Quartet Committee that pressurizes the Palestinian National Unity Government to unconditionally recognize Israel, and the Intifada and surrender to Israel in its strategic plan to impose its hegemony over all of Palestine, making the so-called Palestinian state void of anything that can render it viable.

The Palestinian people, meanwhile, continue to suffer from poverty and deprivation, through the economic blockade, since Washington which controls the transfer of Arabs liquidity, did not allow them to give the Palestinians any chance to endure the suffocating economic blockade.

The detainee issue is still marking time as a result of Zionist abusiveness, in releasing several prisoners who have spent decades in prison without any international or Arab objection. The number of those prisoners has reached more than ten thousands.

The American –British occupation of Iraq that has entered its fifth year is another catastrophe our nation is facing. Everyday tens of Iraqis are killed or wounded as a result of the security anarchy the occupation is imposing on the entire Iraqi people. On the other hand, we have seen that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have demonstrated demanding the withdrawal of the occupation.

The Arabs were not able in their last summit to reach a realistic solution of the problem. If some of them, those who are on American's side, are talking about toppling the dictator as a positive result of the occupation, we say that there is nothing good in both the dictator and the occupation. In fact, occupation is the worst kind of dictatorship.

The talk about an international conference in Egypt to solve the Iraqi problem, we believe that it is intended to solve the problem of America that has sunk in the Iraqi quicksand, and not that of Iraq.

On the Islamic front, the Organization of the Islamic Conference that includes all Muslim countries, has not been able to solve any political or economic problem in the Muslim world that is dominated by the arrogant powers, whether is Afghanistan that witnesses the daily killing of tens of citizens, or in Pakistan where security problems mount as a result of American interference in its internal polities.

Muslims, in all the world face death injury and displacement as a result of the American plan that was initiated when the NATO declared in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union that the new enemy is Islam.

Ever since then the arrogant forces continue to exert pressure to undermine the Muslim world reality whether political, economic or in the field of security. The Organization of the Islamic Conference, failed to do anything in the face of the massacres the Ethiopian army is committing in Somalia on behalf of America. It also failed in Sudan and in confronting the pressures against Iran that is falsely accused of building nuclear weapons, despite its repeated denial and assurances that its project is for peaceful purposes.

The problem in the Arab world lies in the fact that its resolutions are but rhetoric that do not have the ability of solving the problem, while the Organization of the Islamic Conference does not have the ability to move effectively in confronting the major challenges that face Islam and Muslims, because those in charge of both organizations have given all cards to the US and are left with no card to play.

In Lebanon, the Lebanese are being led into political labyrinths by a certain political group that is dependent on regional and international powers that want to turn Lebanon into an arena for US projects and European plans which has given way for futile debates that have paralyzed the constitutional institutions. National projects are no longer formulated by Lebanese but by international powers, while the political game in Lebanon consists of marking points against one another in issues related to government, the international court, parliamentary and presidential elections, in which the Lebanese used to wait for foreign suggestions before they decide on their future president. Lebanon was not established to be a homeland for its citizens but en arena in which regional and international plans contest.

The problem in this country lies in absence of institutions in times of crisis. There are no real institutions that could reach settlements.

Every crisis paralyzes institutions instead of rendering them the only means of salvation. Moreover any difference would turn the constitution to an antique in a museum, although there is a lot of talk about respecting it while dealing with it as a piece of dough.

As we remember the sad occasion of the civil war that started on April 13, 1975, destroyed the national consensus and harvested lots of victims, due to the surrender of some parties to a foreign plan that aimed at settling political accounts in Lebanon especially the plan of Kissinger that ignited the civil war in Lebanon to liquidate the Palestinian cause, and which was about to succeed has not been for the blessed Intifada…

It is regretted that those who ignited the war at the time, committed massacres and allied with Israel, we still speaking in the name of freedom, patriotism and human values.

We call on the Lebanese to learn the lesson of this war, to be able to know how to solve this complicated crisis that some is trying to exploit to create a new war. They should know that foreign interference will not make peace, because they wish to promote their own projects at the expense of Lebanon that is wanted to be a fire that burns its citizens and not its enemies.

Let us learn political cautiousness and political awareness, before the temple falls on our heads.