The First Sermon

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful  

The Islam emphasizes freedom

Allah says in His Glorious Book: And those who disbelieve say to those who believe: Follow our path and we will bear your wrongs. And never shall they be the bearers of any of their wrongs; most surely they are liars.

Responsibility in Islam is an individual issue. You alone bear the responsibility of what you do, for Allah has honored man and wanted him to be free and independent in all his actions and decisions. He wanted him to have a free will that enables him to say no to everything that he is not convinced of and yes to all that he is convinced of. He should not follow the lead of others, applauding just because others have applauded and condemning just because others have done so.

Allah has reaffirmed this in several verses as when he told us about the Day of Judgment. And every one of them will come to Him on the day of resurrection alone.

The day on which no soul shall control anything for (another) soul; and the command on that day shall be entirely Allah's.

The day on which a man shall fly from his brother. And his mother and his father. Every man of them shall on that day have an affair which will occupy him.

Except him who comes to Allah with a heart free (from evil).

But there are those who accept to follow others, without thinking what they themselves want.

They think of what the others want… The family, the clan, the neighborhood, the party…

They do not want to think, but they ask others to think for them and they will simply follow… This is actually what we witness in the East in general. If someone is a member of a political party or organization, and it issues any statement or decision, he will not stop to think if it is right or wrong…

He will just follow, although this party or any other front may be wrong... why does he do that? Because he believes that the others bear the responsibility if the decision is wrong. But who said that this is true? When you will be held accountable on the Day of Judgment, would you tell them that it was not me but the party… This will not do… Yet, unfortunately such a phenomenon exists among us. In contrast, although they are not Muslims in the West, they apply attitudes which are Islamic in their core. In Britain, for example, if the Labor government wishes the parliament to pass a law, not every Labor MP will vote for it. Each of them will study the issue and take his personal decision. For he is responsible before his own constituency. He does not consider his party to be infallible, but he would stand up and discuss any resolution he might feel to be wrong…

That is how they were able to preserve and maintain their institutions. They consider the institutions to be a trust and they are afraid that they will be held accountable by their people if they do not preserve this trust.

The rational of following others blindly was used by the infidels to lead the believers astray… And those who disbelieve say to those who believe: Follow our path and we will bear your wrongs. And never shall they be the bearers of any of their wrongs; most surely they are liars.

They are lying because they will not bear the wrongs of others.

We find this too in our community when someone tells another: "Do this and I'll hold the responsibility” What guarantee does he have that Allah will not punish you if you are wrong?

Even in the family domain when the husband does not want his wife to wear a veil and claims that he will hold the responsibility. Who gave you the authority… She is not committed except to what the marriage contract stipulates… Do not enslave others and force them to do things they do not believe in.

Thus, from all the verses we have cited we understand that Allah wants man to be free in his will and decisions, and he will be held accountable on this basis on the Day of Judgment {Then shall anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, see it * And anyone who has done an atom's weight of evil, shall see it} (99:7-8). Be free as Allah has created you free…

This is the lesson of the month of Ramadan; to be free throughout your life… but would we?

The Second Sermon

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Where to?

What is the future of the Palestinian cause, with all the political developments it has witnessed? And how could those in charge-both the authority and the various factions- manage the new stage in a way that preserves the strength and the safety of the cause, as well as its strategy of liberation.

Several diverging voices, in all international regional and local levels are talking about the need to contain the new situations.

There are those who claim that an obstacle that hindered the peaceful solution has been removed now that the historical leadership has passed away, thus opening a window of opportunity to pressurize the Palestinians to accept today what they had refused yesterday. Another voice is talking about political realism that demands offering some concessions, to help George Bush in his second tenure, especially in his policy of establishing a Palestinian state that complies with the Israeli conditions. This means that the Jewish dream of a pure Jewish state must be realized even if it means taking additional Palestinian lands to build Jewish settlements and the racial wall, and if it includes the denial of the Palestinian right to return. Since all the American Administration cares about Israeli security. To realize this plan, the Palestinians should give up their rights and their arms, and accept living in a so-called state which is merely a big prison surrounded by the racial wall and fragmented with Israeli settlements that are considered a part and parcel of Israeli security and state.

Therefore, the Palestinian people should continue to be in control of setting the policies of fighting occupation, since it will continue to assert full liberation as its goal and since it will continue to monitor the international political games such as the Road Map that has been postponed from 2005 t0 2009.

The Palestinian people will also continue to uphold national unity that seeks to protect strategy from the maze of tactics.

The Arab countries that have “liberated” themselves from their Palestinian responsibilities ought not to pressurize the Palestinians to yield to American and Israeli demands. Such a course constitutes a betrayal of the entire Arab future.

An Eradication war in Iraq

As the Americans continue to shell the city of Fallujah with their advanced weapons, killing women, children and the elderly, and as the bodies are left on the street to be eaten by cats and dogs, and as the American soldiers finish off the wounded …all this suggests that what is going on is concerted plan of eradication, just like what the Israelis are doing in Palestine.

We do not believe that this is the best way to establish security in the country in order to promote freedom and democracy as the interim Iraqi government says.

On the contrary, such a tactic of being helped by the occupation forces to achieve partisan goals will create deep wounds that could leave their mark on the political future of Iraq.

Condemning all terrorist practices

As we condemn all the terrorist practices of the American occupation in Iraq, we also condemn the abduction and execution of the hostages, especially the assassination of the British hostage that had provided humanitarian aid to the Iraqis. Such practices are not accepted by any religion, especially Islam whom the murderers claim to belong to.

At the same time, we warn against the continuous killing of innocent victims, based on sectarian grounds that could create a sectarian reaction of the same sort, as a means of self-defense. This in turn could lead to sectarian massacres in Iraq which has a potential to move to other places.

We warn all Shiite and Sunnis religious political and social leaders from the catastrophic results, and call upon them to uphold their responsibility in solving this difficult problem, for the issue is that of occupation and not of sectarian strife.

We believe that those who accuse others of disbelief constitute a fifth column for the occupation and American and Zionist intelligence agencies, and what they are doing is adding additional tragedies to the ones the Iraqis are already living.

Lebanon: Ruling is not through communiqués

Lebanon is concerned about what is happening to our immigrants in Cote d'Ivoire, and we call upon the government to uphold its responsibility in this field, and act in a state of emergency to relief them. For it’s responsible for those living abroad just as those living inside the country.

On another level, the people in Lebanon are still waiting for the government to fulfill its promises of improving their living conditions, especially with the winter season about to start.

Moreover, if the government wishes to fight corruption, it has to expose all those who are practicing or protecting corruption especially that the issue is not restricted to this government but also includes many previous ones whose members are now talking about reform.

Ruling needs courage resolve and taking stands. It is not issuing political communiqués. That is why, any official, regardless of his positions, ought not to be afraid to lose his advantages. For the country is bigger than its individuals, especially on the occasion of independence which we wish it not to remain ceremonial but to turn into a real one, in which the citizen would feel that he lives in an free, independent and sovereign country, that is not a passage or a base to occupation.

Freedom is the lung that Lebanon breaths clean air through. Those who are in charge of this country should not deprive it from this lung.