Friday speeches Shawwal 16 1426 H, November 18 2005 A.D

God says in His Glorious Book `For We assuredly sent amongst every People a messenger, (with the Command), "Serve Allah, and eschew Evil": of the People were some whom Allah guided, and some on whom error became inevitably (established). So travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those who denied (the Truth).

It also says: Those who eschew Evil,- and fall not into its worship,- and turn to Allah (in repentance),- for them is Good News: so announce the Good News to My servants

The Holy Quran talks in several ayats (verses), about Tyranny and tyrants. It explains the meaning of tyranny as exceeding the reasonable limit, the Quran, describes the flood as being tyrannical when the water exceeded the normal limit and started to threaten the land and the people. Allah tells us about the tyrants that made corruption in the land, talking about the sources of power they possess, and their oppression to the people, exploiting their need to them. He gave us the example of Pharaoh whom Allah sent Moses (a.s.) to, to guide him and advise him to put an end to his tyranny that reached the level of killing the children of the downtrodden and enslaving their women. Moses' Message was to challenge Pharaoh’s, tyranny since, all messages have as one of its goals ending tyranny to enable the downtrodden to live in peace and freedom.

Allah says: Go thou to Pharaoh for he has indeed transgressed all bounds whether in his rule his thoughts or actions. And say to him, 'Wouldst thou that thou should be purified (from sin)?- 'And that I guide thee to thy Lord, so thou should hear Him?'

and change this wronging and tyrannical spirit to a balanced humbled and open one, for such a spirit will ultimately not only destroy those who cling to it but the people around them as well , and I will lead you away from deviation and falsehood, towards guidance and thus discovering Allah whom you will fear, because he has absolute authority over this servants. And when you fear Allah you will try to be pious and obey them in all what he deemed lawful or unlawful Then did (Moses) show him the Great Sign The cane that turns into a python and the white hand :the miracles that prove that he was a messenger . But pharaoh considered that these miracles are form of magic but (Pharaoh) rejected it and disobeyed (guidance); He wanted to stand till before Moses, but he felt afraid and had to run away because it a was a power he had never encountered before Further, he turned his back, striving hard (against Allah). He called upon all the magicians, and resorted to the strength of words saying Then he collected (his men) and made a proclamation, Saying, "I am your Lord, Most High".

But Allah humiliated him and showed that he was only human who could turn to a dead body But Allah did punish him, (and made an) example of him, - in the Hereafter, as in this life to be a subject lessons to all tyrants.

Allah also tells us about another kind of tyranny which is a subjective one, practiced by the unbelieving sinners who forget their god and use the powers they have to change their strength into tyranny, thus deviating from the straight path. He tells us that Then, for such as had transgressed all bounds And had preferred the life of this world thinking that this world is the ultimate world forgetting about all those who had come before him but ended up dead and forgotten , because he has yielded to Satan and rebelled against God, thus he deserves to dwell in hell.

The Abode will be Hell-Fire;
but he who felt Allah's greatness and that he will stand before Him (And for such as had entertained the fear of standing before their Lord's (tribunal) and had restrained (their) soul from lower desires,
facing his passion and desires and obeying his mind and the Heavenly messages Their abode will be the Garden for he has chosen the road of piety that leads to heaven.

God tells us that the Prophets' messages can be summarized in two words: Worship Allah alone , by making all your life and relations seek God's satisfaction and no one else. You should not even make any step forward or backward without making sure it pleases God. The second word is eschew evil (tyranny) which could be represented in a man who wrongs and oppresses others and practices all forms of corruption. It could also be represented in laws that man made and that violates Allah's Shariah. Thus man has to worship God and eschew evil to earn God's satisfaction.

This is what we should think about to make sure that we are following the straight path that leads us to Allah. In this respect, Imam Ali (a.s) says: "How fast is the end of the tyrant”. "The oppressor is a tyrant that awaits one of two avenges :that of the opposed and that of the Hereafter.

The believers should learn how to educate themselves and how to advise themselves. They should strive to get nearer to Allah, to obey Allah alone and stay away from everything that will make them forget God, the most high, And be ye not like those who forgot Allah; and He made them forget their own souls! Such are the rebellious transgressors! : Not equal are the Companions of the Fire (Hell) and the Companions of the Garden: it is the Companions of the Garden, that will achieve Felicity.

The US continues its unconditional support to Israel. The most recent manifestation of this support was pressurizing the Palestinians to accept Israeli conditions regarding the opening of the Rafah border crossing, which undermines yet again the Palestinian sovereignty, and proves that Gaza is but a big prison despite the fact that the American secretary of state has talked in a shy manner about the settlement policy to use it as a pretence for her call for the dismantling of the Intifada factions. If America respects human rights as it claims then, why does not it call on Israel to withdraw from all occupied Palestinian lands, so that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be resolved, instead of destabilizing and fragmenting the region, so as to hide the general strategic issue under small partial ones?

On its part, Israel continues to implement its policy of daily assassinations of the Mujahideen, as well as continuous detaining and incursions of villages and camps, which could lead to destabilizing the entire Middle East and turn it to a pot of catastrophe explosions as some Western analysts say. All this proves that America took the wrong decisions when it decided to provide absolute protection for Israel.

On another level, we find that Tunisia has received the enemy's foreign minister to attend the world Summit on information society.

He asked it to hurry up and establish diplomatic relations with his state without having to wait for the final solution of Palestine. On the other hand we don't have any Arab country demanding that Israel should resolve the Palestinian problem on the basis of giving the Palestinians their lands, dismantling settlements and the racist wall, as well as the return of the Palestinian refugees to their homes because the problem is that the Arab states began to normalize with the enemy more than with Palestinian people.

In this atmosphere, the US began to plan its project for the grand Middle East to integrate Israel in the "efforts to build democracy and human rights in the region", and to make it a part of the regional dialogue that America wants the Arabs to take part in.

This means that the enemy will interfere in the critical internal issues in the region as a result of the American pressure that seeks to turn Israel into a vital affective element in all Arab issues, being the country that will teach the Arabs human rights, democracy and equality!!! And this is which America seeks when it calls for normalization.

The question is: what kind of democracy does Israel represent when it practices racial discrimination against the Arabs and Palestinians in its state? And what kind of human rights, it is talking about when it occupies Palestinian lands, appropriates all their rights in their hands, destroys their infrastructure, and uses the most sophisticated weapons that are only used in major wars to kill Palestinian civilians…

All this is an indication of how the Israeli racism intersects with the American racism, which means that the Arab and Muslim world that might be deceived by this American scheme has to keep in mind the future of their peoples in the aftermath of this American – Israeli invasion of their resources and vital causes.

Iraq remains in the midst of the security whirlpool and economic chaos, with on the one hand the occupation that does not seem to find the right plan to preserve its arrogant and exploitive interests and the apostating powers that continue to kill innocent civilians in an act of terrorism fuelled by fanatical sectarianism that deems lawful the killing of Muslim civilians and even their children.

Nevertheless we have not heard one Islamic cleric condemning this naïve identification between terrorism and the free resistance.

Iraq is preparing for his vital and critical elections, as well as the coming conference in Cairo that will study its internal affairs in an effort to reach national reconciliation.

And we hope that it will not be influenced by certain American guideless that would by covered by an Arab disguise.

We wish for the Iraqis who suffered a lot from its tyrannical regime and its brutal occupation to resort to unity and awareness to establish stability and progress. We ask the Arab and Muslim countries to have mercy on the Iraqis and help them in finding solutions for their difficult problems.

As for Lebanon, we would like to see more political stability through dialogue and promoting national unity away from sectarian and emotional reactions. We would like the Lebanese to be aware of the difficult stage the region is passing in as a result of the pressurizing international and especially American policies that are manifested by the UN solutions as well as the investigation of the assassination of Hariri, which make us wonder: Why did not America cooperate with the investigation committee by submitting the satellite pictures that photographed the entire crime with all its details?

And why did not the Security Council accuse the US of not cooperating? Lebanon needs to know who killed Hariri and why, for it will not enjoy stability until it does.

In this atmosphere, we appreciate the government response to popular living demands, especially the diesel, and we hope it will take additional positive stands in this regard. And we would like to rows that are full of accusations of treason to stop. Lebanon needs its unity to build its future. It needs a dialogue that remains committed to the nation’s priorities in the face of internal and foreign challenges.

Everybody should have mercy on this country to enable it to remain the homeland of spiritual and moral values that make it that distinguished in the region and in the entire world.