Friday speeches 26 Safar 1425h/16 April 2004AD

Allah says in His Glorious Book: {Truly thou wilt die (one day), and truly they (too) will die) (one day)} (39:30),{We granted not to any man before thee permanently} (21:34),{Muhammad is no more than a Messenger: Many were the Messengers that passed away before him. If he died or were slain, will ye then turn back on your heels? If any did turn Allah (on the other hand) will swiftly reward those who (serve him) with gratitude} (3:144)

According to the most widely accepted accounts, our Prophet, Muhammad, died on the 28th of the month of Safar. But we do not remember him only in his birth and death, for we live with him in all our prayers and supplications.

Moreover, he is not merely someone to remember. He is a mind that builds our minds, a heart the beats in our hearts and a movement that draws us nearer to God, and prevents us from seeing anybody else with Allah, as well as asking anything from none other than Allah.

Living with the Message, does not part us from living with the Messenger for he has come to us as a messenger from Allah. He has brought us the truth and he was told by Allah that he will die, being a mortal who will die like every other mortal. Those who will pleased by his death will also die. Thus, suggesting to all people that they should not be pleased by the death of the Prophet as though they themselves are immortal.

Allah then clarifies to us that the life of the Message is not associated with the life of the Messenger. The Messenger might die in his body although he will remain with us in his soul, but the Message remains whether as a revelation and a doctrine or a movement and a guiding time in life. The Message in this sense is something that was sent by Allah who wanted His Messenger to be a witness, a missionary, a warner, a caller, and a source of illuminating life who came to take the people out of darkness and guide them to light.

The Ayah, cited above, was revealed in the aftermath of the battle of Uhud, when the Messenger was injured and rumors had it that he was dead, to the extent that some of them were looking for someone to intercede for them with Abi Sufian. But the truthful believers in Islam and its Message said: If Muhammad had died, his Lord has not died. Come, let us fight for what he fought for, and die for what he died for. Many were the messengers that passed away before him. If he died or were slain, will ye then turn back on your heels? If any did turn Allah (on the other hand) will swiftly reward those who (serve him) with gratitude} (3:144)

For Allah does not need any of his worshippers. He told the universe to be and there it was, and he told the people to be and there they were. He is neither harmed by those who disobey him, nor does he benefit, from those who obey him.

In this occasion, in which we commemorate his death, we go back to his last days, when he was fatally sick. He knew that he was about to meet his God and wanted to reemphasize the Islamic position towards the major issues in life. In his last speech, known as there farewell speech, he reasserted the principles people should adhere to in their lives.

He said: “O People lend me an attentive ear, for I know not whether after this year I shall ever be amongst you again. Listen to what I am saying very carefully and take these words to those who could not be present here today.

O People, just as you regard this month, this day, and this city as Sacred, so regard the life and property of every Muslim as a sacred trust. Return the goods entrusted to you to their rightful owners. Hurt no one, so that no one may hurt you. Remember that you will indeed meet your Lord, and that He will indeed reckon your deeds.

Beware of Satan, for the safety of your religion. He has lost all hope of that he will be able to lead you astray in big things, so beware of following him in small things.

O People, it is true that you have certain rights with regard to your women but they also have rights over you. Remember that you have taken them as your wives only under Allah’s trust and with His permission. If they abide by your right, then to them belongs the right to be fed and clothes in Kindness. Do treat your women well and be kind to them for they are your partners and committed helpers. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim, unless it was given freely and willingly.

I leave behind me two things, the Quran and my progeny. They shall not separate from each other till they meet me in Heaven. And if you follow these you will never go astray.

All those who listen to me shall pass on my words to others and those to others again. Be my witness, O Allah, that I have conveyed your Message to Your people”.

This is a rule that the Messenger has established and it commits any Muslim who learns about a religious ruling or an interpretation of an Ayah or the like, to pass them over to those who are ignorant of them. Each Muslim, therefore, is responsible to convey what he knows of Islam to those around him, and act as a caller to God teaching people all what he knows.

In one of his speeches in his last days, he told the people that he is about to leave and asked them to claim any dept he might owe them. Then he added: “There is nothing that would make Allah give you what is good or keep evil away from you except your deeds. O people do not claim otherwise nor wish (like those who say, I can do everything and Ahl el-Beit will arrange everything for me in the hereafter). By He who sent me as a prophet in Truth, Were I to sin, I would fall”.

The biographers also report that Muhammad told those who were around him including his uncle Abbas bin Abdulmutalib and his aunt Safia bint Abdulmutalib and his daughter Fatima al-Zahra, that they have to do good to earn Allah’s satisfaction for he cannot make up for Allah.

In another of his last speeches he presented a model of how all leaders, religious or otherwise, lawful or unlawful except what the Quran made lawful or unlawful. He the master of all God’s creations, who was chosen by Allah and not by the people and he asks the people to hold him accountable, to lay the grounds for all those who would claim to be leaders in the future.

He also said in his last days. I am about to be called, his book and my progeny. And I was told by Allah, the Kind and the Knowing, that the Ahl el-Beit can not be separated from the Book and the Holy Book cannot be divergent. Imam Al-Baqir and Imam Al-Sadiq tell us: “If you hear a tradition, compare it with what it is said in the book of God. If it conforms with it then take, but if it does not throw it away. For we only say what the Quran accepts.

On the anniversary of the Messenger, we ought to carry Islam as he carried it and to convey it to our family, children and the coming generations as he did.

It is a trust we should worthy of which means that we should face all the challenges that confront Islam. Islam is the responsibility of all Muslims and not some of them only. This is what we inspire from this occasion and all similar ones. To carry the torch they had given us to illuminate the lives of mankind with Islam.

Israel, along with the Jews of the world are politically invading America, and they are pressurizing Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, and have succeeded in paralyzing the international community and the Quartet Committee, thus shutting the door for any solution.

Yet, it is not merely an alliance between Bush and Sharon; the American president has yielded to Sharon to the extent that he has turned to an ordinary member of his cabinet or a Likud party member.

The world has seen how Bush became so small like a dwarf before Sharon, especially when he asked the Palestinian people not to return to their land… He has also legitimized Israeli injustice in the name of being realistic, emphasizing that the Jews could keep the settlements… He also found a justifying motive for the racial wall: Israeli security…

Then, he ended his speech by a political joke when he talked about a Palestinian state in which the Palestinians would like in a small geographical and fragmented location.

This state will be disarmed of water and other resources. The Palestinians will be left to die out of hunger, thirst and suffocation in an atmosphere full of American Jewish initiatives that would threaten their physical political and economic security in the name of safeguarding Israel’s security.

The question is: who gave the US the right to give the Palestinian lands and even the people to the Jews who came from very far way places to dislocate the Palestinians? What is historic courage he is talking about? When has the occupier’s withdrawal from an occupied land become an act of courage? And what is the meaning of freedom and human rights in this context?

How does the American Administration ask us to respect it when its president kneels under the feet of a butcher like Sharon and describe him as a courageous man of peace?

Then again what could the American president have told all his visiting Arab officials, as he is doing away with all the decisions of the previous Arab summits, including that of Beirut?

What tasks did he commission them to do in order to facilitate the execution of Sharon’s plot! What is their stand regarding all these American concessions to Israel? Could any of them dare to ask Bush: Which human right or international law gives Bush the right to do that? They are afraid of American anger, and tell one another that they have to beg America to give them something that they could save their faces through certain interpretations that could make Bush’s talk look lesser in its rudeness.

I believe that Bush and Sharon are laughing at the Arab officials, for they have become addicted to submit to what is being dictated on them. They are happy to play certain marginal roles that do not affect Sharon plan of separation; a plan that contains thousand of mines that can blow in their faces at every junction…

The question is: which summit are they waiting for? Do they have the courage to say anything that reflects their respect to their peoples?

As for Iraq, the American occupying power continues to talk about freedom, democracy and human rights. They claim to feel sorry for the Iraqis who are being influenced by terrorism, while they are killing Iraqi children, women and the elderly, destroying houses, mosques and hospitals, imposing collective punishments to avenge the death of one of their soldiers and threaten any group that calls for freedom… They also try to talk about the Shiites in one way and the Sunnis in another, and try to blame the neighboring countries to find excurses for their own failures undermines its freedom. We also refuse the threatening of sacred cities and religions symbols including the talk about killing or arresting Sayyed Muqtada Al-Sadr…

And we call on the Iraqi people that faces all these atrocities to uphold and promote its national unity and take the firm stands that address this critical stage so as to build a new and free Iraq that is run by its own people.

Although the civil war has calmed in Lebanon, what we are living now might be a continuation of the war by other means that might be more dangerous than bombs and bullets, since it kills our souls. Confessionalism and sectarianism have turned into a giant beast that eats our vital issues and devastates our future in a way the war was unable to accomplish.

The poor are getting poorer and the freedoms are being further and further restrained, the dept has reached unprecedented levels amid a growing economic depression.

There is no light in the end of tunnel, and the cold war inside the government is both violent and jeopardizing the country.

Yet, all this should not lead us to feel sorry for ourselves and consequently unable to institute any change… We ought to find ways to end sectarianism so that the Lebanese people could become the people who lead their country to freedom and prosperity.

We have become tired of playing the role of the herd, and we have to start holding our leaders accountable for their actions… The persistence of the current situation will only promote more fanatic and sectarian differences and forget about our national unity.