FRIDAY SPEECH December 28, 2001

The world is celebrating these days the birth of Jesus Christ(p.) which we too are celebrating, for Christ as it was revealed in the Quran is Allah’s Apostle and His word which He cast Mariam, a spirit from Him”.

Allah, the Most Exalted, wished to show His ability in the way Christ was created, just as he showed it in the birth of Adam and just as He showed His ability in the way people naturally reproduce.

Moreover, when we remember Christ, we also remember his message and all the spiritual values it carried that are the same of both the Quran and the Torah. For we believe that the Torah and the Bible, are Holy Books revealed to Moses and Christ. The Quran only protested against the deviation, people had inserted in these books.

Moreover, just as Jesus believed to Moses, Muhammad believed in what was revealed to both Moses and Christ.

Thus, the value of Islam lies in that it believed in all books, and that is what Allah told us, when He talked about dialogue with to people of the Book:{And dispute ye not with the people of the Book, except in the best way, unless it be with those of them whom, do wrong but say, ”We believe in the revelation which has come down to us and in that which came down to you; our God and your God is one; and it is to Him we submit (in Islam)}

We both agree that Christ and his mother whom Allah has chosen from among all women of the worlds and honored, by the fact that each time Zakaria went to her room he found that she had plenty of food, are sacred. We only differ with them about certain theological issues, like the Christian sect who used to believe that Christ and Mary are Gods, or like the issue of Trinity. Then Islam came and explained that Christ is not a god, as for being God’s spirit, God used the same expression regarding the creation of Adam. Therefore, the spirit in this sense is God‘s ability.

Thus the Quran says that those who say that Christ is God have disbelieved. Some Christians feel offended by this word but disbelief is relative.

They might disbelieve in part of the doctrine only. That is why God has differentiated between the unbelievers and the people of the Book. We both believe in the unity of God but we differ about what this unity is. We also believe in their book and prophet but they do not believe in our Holy Book. That is why many of our religious scholars, including me, believe that the Muslim could marry a Christian or Jewish wife, but the Muslim woman can not have a Christian or Jewish husband. Because a Muslim man believes in his wife’s book and does not offend her seared beliefs, as he shares them with her, but a Christian husband would not believe that Muhammad is a prophet, and that is probably why -and God Knows best- a Muslim woman cannot marry a Christian or a Jewish man… In the light of the above, we try to celebrate the birth of Christ by reading what the Quran tells us about him. And I would like to tell all our brothers and sisters that there is nothing against celebrating the birth of Christ, but in our own way: Reading the Surahs of Maryam and Al Umran.

The Quran says:(Muhammad), mention in the book (the Quran) the story of Mary how she left her family and started living in a solitary place to the East out of her people’s sight. We sent Our spirit, some say it is Gabriel and others a great angel, before her formed to her, who stood before her in the shape of a well formed human being as angels do when they descend.

Marry said, “Would that the Beneficent God protect me from you. She was a purified woman living in solitary. It was natural she to be afraid from any one who in invades her solicitude leave me alone if you are a God fearing person’”, He said, ”I am the messengers of your Lord I am not a man I am an angel-messenger. I have come to give you a purified son” This made her more surprised because she Knew how babies are formed so she said, ”How can I have a son when no mortal has touched me nor am I an unchaste woman”.

He said,” This is true but your lord says,” It is very easy for me. This is a message from Allah and not from me. He who created the Whole universe can’t he create a son without a father We have decided to give you a son as evidence (of our existence) for human beings and a mercy from us. This is a decree already ordained.”(19:21) She conceived the child and retreated with him to a distant and solitary place. Knowing that her pregnancy will soon be apparent, but it seems that her pregnancy did not last long.

When she started to experience (the pain of) of childbirth labor, she sat by the trunk of a palm tree in sadness she said,” Would that I had died long before and passed into oblivion.” She felt week. Then she heard a voice underneath (some say it was the baby and others say the angel, saying, ”Do not be sad. Your Lord has caused a stream to run at your feet.

If you shake the trunk of the palm tree although it needs a lot of force it will provide you with fresh ripe dates. Eat, drink, and rejoice. Should you see a person going by, tell him that on this day you have promised the Beneficent God to fast and never talk to any human being.” as were their costumes. She took him to her people who were astonished and they said, ”Mary, this is indeed an strange thing.

Aaron’s sister, either because he was a good man or a bad man, your father was not bad nor was your mother unchaste”(19:28). She pointed to the baby (and referred them to him for their answer).

They said, ”How can we talk to a baby in the cradle?”

He said, ”I am the servant of God. He has given me the book and has appointed me to be a prophet.

He has blessed me, and made me benefit people. no matter where I dwell, commanded me to worship Him and pay the religious tax for as long as I live. He has commanded me to be good to my mother, and has not made me an arrogant rebellious person.

I was born with peace and I shall die and be brought to life again with peace.”

Such was the true story of Jesus, the son of Mary, about which they dispute bitterly.

God is too exalted to have a son. When He decides to bring some thing into existence He needs only command it to exist and it comes into existence. (Baby Jesus said),”Worship God who is my Lord as well as yours. This is the straight path.

This is the atmosphere we should live when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Chris and meet with the purified Virgin Mary and the greatness of God as shown by His absolute ability. And this is what we should learn from Christ; spiritual and social peace as well peace in the whole world, the peace that the Messenger taught us, upon God’s revelation to great people with. We should uphold peace even when we differ and search for the common grounds that we meet on. We should not incite any sectarian differences but we should always call for love, the love that opens up the hearts and minds of man on fellow human beings. Do not be deceived by the arrogant lies that try to portray the struggle in the world as a struggle between Christianity and Islam. No it is between the oppressor and the oppressed the arrogant and the weakened. And there are weakened and oppressed n all religions as there are oppressors in all religion

Therefore, and especially because we live in the same country that we should build together, we should look for common grounds and establish love as the basis of our relations :{Say: O people of the Book! Come to common terms as between you and us: That we worship none but Allah; that we associate no partners with Him}.

Worshippers of Allah, be pious, and know that we have to stand against all the oppressors, the arrogant and the unjust, especially as we suffer from an international, regional and internal injustice.

The Palestinians are prisoners in their homeland, due to the arrogant policies, especially that of America which gave Israel a green light to besiege the Palestinians economically and politically, destroy their houses and bulldoze their farms, and carry daily Killings of Palestinian women, elderly and children. All this with nothing but silence from the US or occasional hollow words of sorrow, at a time it is pressurizing the imprisoned Palestinian leadership in Ramallah to force it to except the Zionist demands.

On its part, the Intifada is subjected to internal pressures to stop its operations that shook the Israeli security.

To preserve the Palestinian national unity the Intifada has partially agreed … As for the negotiations between the PA and the Zionist Entity it is still going in a vicious circle. It has produced nothing and it will never produce anything. For it is a way of wasting time until the enemy is able to execute its plan of giving the Palestinian far less than what Barak offered. Then America will interfere to force the Palestinians to accept a mini state that is absolutely meaningless, in the name of real polities.

Faced by this state of affairs, we believe that the Palestinian Mujhideen, especially the Intifada heroes, should develop their methods of confrontation, even if they decide to go underground, for they are not going to obtain anything in these suffocating conditions.

On the international level, it seems that they want Israel to be the only powerful player, for any source of strength the Palestinians obtain, will threaten the interests of the international arrogant power that Israel represents its upfront base in the Arab and Muslim worlds..

We call on all the Mujahideens in Palestine and in every Arab and Muslim country to build up their strength, through a plan based on the civilizational Islamic methods and the principle of real politics. For Allah has ordered us to prepare all means of strength we could to confront them with.

The American war against the Afghani people is still going on, ruining towns and villages and killing hundreds of civilians..

We have noticed that the American Army is calling the poor and needy Afghanis to fight in the rough mountainous regions, which proves that their victories was achieved by those Afghanis who collaborated with them and not by their own strength.

The preparation for war between Pakistan and India may well be a part of the American plot, for America wants to destabilize the whole region. It exports war, disasters, chaos and terrorism to the whole world and invests them in serving its political and economic interests, especially in the poorest countries of the Third Word... We call on these countries that cannot provide the daily bread of their peoples to go back to its senses, and refrain from entering wars that will not yield any positive interests for their peoples, rather they may well make the temple fall on the heads of everybody.

In this holiday season,we look at the economic situation which does not seem hopeful. The economic crisis is still worsening and the balance deficit is still growing, the hard currency reserves are decreasing, the government may be planning to levy additional taxes-Corruption and waste of funds is on the rise , while corrupt officials are being protected by politicians who care only about their position in the political and sectarian game which deepens the sectarian differences among the Lebanese, so as the will never feel that there is a country that ought to unify them in order to solve its critical problems…

In addition, Lebanese youth are immigrating and the international and regional players are trying to impose their conditions.

Have mercy on your country, before it falls under he hegemony of the arrogant invaders who are ready to kill all its hopes and inspirations; heaven will have mercy on you.