FRIDAY SPEECH January 04, 2002

God says in His Holy Book:{Believers, have fear of Allah. Let every soul look what it offers for the morrow. Fear Allah, for He is cognizant of all your actions. Do not act like those who have forgotten Allah so that he has caused them to forget themselves. Such men are evil-doers. The dwellers of Paradise and the people of the Fire shall not be held alike. The dwellers of Paradise alone shall be triumphant}

A few days ago we celebrated the new year. We have talked about this issue several times, and we said that we celebrate the new year that marks 2002 years since the birth of Jesus Christ, just as we celebrate the Hijri year that marks the Prophet’s Hijra. For it is said in the Quran that we do not differentiate between any of His Messengers. Moreover, we believe in Christ(p), God’s Messenger, servant, and His word that He sent to Mary(a.s) just as we believe in Muhammad(p.)

But we have also underlined many a time, that the history of a nation represents the national historical personality that engulfs the whole history of the nation, since its birth.

As Muslims, the Hijri calendar represents the whole movement of Islam in history since the day Muhammad started his mission. It tracks the Muslims’ weaknesses and points of strength, their victories and defeats, their cultural heritage represented by the Islamic civilization that reached various parts of the world, and last but not least the Muslim leaders who enriched the Muslim nation on the political, social and even religions levels. When we use the Hijri calendar we would feel our huge responsibility to continue the march in the present and future.

The Glorious Quran has outlined this thought, when it described us as a nation{You are the Best nation that has ever been raised up for mankind. You enjoin justice and forbid evil. You believe in Allah}.

Therefore the nation in the Quran is associated with doing all what is good for the people and forbidding all what undermines, their level as human beings all within the context of believing in God. The glory of a nation lies in the history that was made by the grandparents as well as the history that will be made by the coming generations.

Therefore, we always insist on using our calendar in our correspondence and transactions, It is alright to use the Gregorian calendar, next to the Hijri, but not to the extent of forgetting all about the latter. There are many Muslims who do not know the Hijri months nor the Hijri new year. A nation that forgets its history forgets it future and personality. We have nothing against the Gregorian calendar or any other one, for we do not want to cancel the history of other nations, but every nation has its own identity; ours is the Islamic identity that opens up to all other religious.

Therefore, teach yourselves and your families the Islamic calendar, and you don’t have to neglect the Georgian calendar.

Secondly, the New Year represents a stop between two periods of time, the year that has passed and the year that is coming. What should we do on such an occasion? Some people think that we ought to sing, dance and the like, but these are not Christian traditions. Christianity keeps one away from all such acts. These are pagan habits, and when the Christians in our country practice them they are imitating the pagan West and not the Christian West.

We notice in this occasion that the world has gone crazy, just because a new year has come. What dos this new year represent? It represents a chance to reassess our status, just as banks do towards the end of the year.

But is gaining and losing in money alone. We, as Muslims, count our gains and losses by what good deeds we have done and sins or disobedience acts we have committed. In the Hereafter, there is no Dollar or Euro, there is only good and evil.

What we lose or gain, is what good we made and what evils we committed.

We should do such an evaluation not only each year but each day.

There is a supplication for Imam Zein Al-Abideen “Morning an evening” that illustrates this point….

I have always advised to read three books, The Quran Ali’s heritage in Nahi Al-Bulagha and Imam Ali Bin Al-Hussein supplications in Sahifa Ali-Jadiah. The Imam says: O, God in this new day, and new year, that witnesses our deeds, If we do good it would part us thankfully and if we do bad it will scorn us. O, God, make it part us well and not badly. O God, make us thankful for your graces, Follow the authentic tradition and discard innovations, enjoin the Good and forbid the evil… Support the right… Guide those led astray help the weak and support those who ask for our help.

These points represent the straight path of good that get us nearer to Allah.

We have to keep in mind that we have to answer for our deeds, and that with the passing of each day, the day of judgment draws nearer. This is what the Ayat we recited in the beginning means: that we have to look for what we have offered to meet this day. We should reflect and contemplate on New Year’s Eve about what we have prepared for this day. I cannot understand what do people like in firearms on this occasion, nor can I understand, why we encourage our children to celebrate with fire- works. What a backward habit. Our children should learn how to enjoy calm and quietness and to care not disturb others. Why should our neighborhood be noisy and unfit for living peacefully.

This is backwardness. Believers, have fear of Allah. Let every soul look what it offers for the morrow. Fear Allah, for He is cognizant of all your actions. Do not act like those who have forgotten Allah so that he has caused them to forget themselves. Such men are evil-doers. The dwellers of Paradise and the people of the Fire shall not be held alike. The dwellers of Paradise alone shall be triumphant. This is the certificate of success, and such certificates are not free, they are earned by hard work.

Worshippers of Allah be pious in everything you do to become closer to Allah. Uphold your responsibilities in your private and public lives, especially towards the challenges the nation is facing.

The Palestinian cause has entered into the maze of details, through the Mitchell project, and the Tenent plan. We all know that the devil lies in the details. Both devils, the American and the Israeli, are trying to sink the issue in the swamp of details to blur the real problem of the Jewish occupation of the Palestinian homeland. America is not ready to recognize this occupation for it considered the matter as a conflict over disputed lands, which should find a solution through negotiations. But the political negotiations is under the hegemony of Israeli security conditions which makes it turn in a vicious circle. The Israeli siege and assassinations call for a Palestinian defensive stand which the enemy exploits to commit more crimes and killings which in turn make the whole situation more violent.

Meanwhile the Palestinian president is at house arrest in Ramallah And America does not exercise any pressure to release him, for its position coincides with that of Sharon in his demand to liquidate the Intifada and destroy its infrastructure. Moreover, the PA has to bring to ”justice” the Intifada activists which amounts to prosecuting the whole Palestinian people, because they fought the Israeli occupation.

As for the political issues like the Palestinian statehood, the refugee’s return and Jerusalem, they remain subject to constant postponement.

The Arabs who talked in the beginning about giving Sharon a chance, did not pressurize him because the Americans asked them not to. He was given thus a golden opportunity to force his own security project, at the expense of any Palestinian security, and consequently to make use of the new conditions to serve his political project.

All Arab conferences, be they at the ministerial level or the presidential one, did not produce but ink on paper, waiting for the American pressure, which will never come, for America wishes only to execute the Israeli plan of a Palestinian state which does not have any of the state’s foundations whether geographically, economically or politically.

America will not pressurize Israel. On the country it will help the Jewish entity face any Arab and Muslim pressures -if any- so that the Arabs would concentrate on crushing the Intifadas of their own peoples on the pretext that their demonstrations n support of the Palestinian Intifada undermine public security, and denounce them as “terrorists” according to the American classification. On this occasion, the new year, we would like to advise the Palestinian people, as well as the Arab and Muslim nations to continue their intifada according to a well development plan that confronts any change with a mobile and militant political realism. The international alliance that supports Israel is using the false pretext of “war against terrorism” to rescue Israel out of the impasse it put itself in, as well as saving America from being embarrassed by its policies that support Israeli terrorism, and help the USA in pretending to be serving the causes of freedom and democracy.

Therefore, we should keep the Israelis in this impasse and revel the real goals of the American policies in the region by continuing the Intifada and supporting the Mujahideen.

In the end, and in spite of all the bleeding wounds and the unbearable pains, the cause of freedom will triumph and the arrogant forces will yield.

In Afghanistan, America is killing every now and then hundreds of poor civilian villages under the pretense of haunting Taliban and Al-Qaida elements. The world does nothing but watches, and the West finds excuses, while the Organization of the Islamic Conference remains silent, and the new Afghani government that tried to protest against the brutal shelling in the beginning was forced to accept.

The Question in how could the Islamic World remain silent with these Barbarian massacres continuing in an effort to restore the American ”pride” and dominate the whole world.

They want to prove that what is going is a clash of civilizations by destroying any presence of the Islamic civilization…although they are in fact leading the new international terror movement against the people of the Third World having plundered its economies and established their control over its political will.

Lebanon, meanwhile, is like a ship facing a rough sea and looking for a safe harbor without a compass that could lead it. This ship is hit by one wave after another, starting by an internal wave and ending by an international one. Meanwhile Lebanese officials continue to discuss whether the angels are male or female, although the occupier is still on their territories, darkness moves from one region to the other, and the people are thirsty in a country full of springs and rivers that no one utilizes. The beautiful country is surrendering to all the features of ugliness. While the row mounts and the country is being lost.

The question has always been and still is which Lebanon do we want: The Lebanon of conflicting sects and sharing the cake or the country of freedom and humanity of human beings?