God says in His Glorious Book:  Certainly Allah conferred a benefit upon the believers when He raised among them a Messenger from among themselves, reciting to them His communications and purifying them, and teaching them the Book and the wisdom, although before that they were surely in manifest error.

O Prophet! surely We have sent you as a witness, and as a bearer of good news and as a warner, And as one who invites to Allah's (grace) by His leave, and as a lamp spreading light.

Say (O Muhammad): O mankind! Lo! I am the messenger of Allah to you all

We meet these days with the anniversary of the birth of Prophet Muhammad, who was sent to all mankind to bring them far from darkness into light: He it is who sends down clear communications upon His servant, that he may bring you forth from utter darkness into light; and most surely Allah is Kind, Merciful to you.

This Prophet has lived his childhood as an orphan. He was very poor, and he had to be supported by his uncle.

Yet Allah's Mercy saw to it that he was assigned one of the greatest angels to teach him; then when his spiritual, mental and ethical development was completed, Allah sent him as a messenger who possessed the most perfect intellect and manner. The Prophet was famous in his community for truthfulness and trust worthiness. When people saw him coming, they used to say: "Here comes the truthful and the trustworthy".

And this is but natural for someone who is supposed to be responsible for the entire nation. Thus the Messenger began to convey the Message and confront atheism. He lived among the downtrodden, giving them his love, mercy and compassion: «And withhold yourself with those who call on their Lord morning and evening desiring His goodwill, and let not your eyes pass from them, desiring the beauties of this world's life; and do not follow him whose heart We have made unmindful to Our remembrance, and he follows his low desires and his case is one in which due bounds are exceeded. Do not strain your eyes after what We have given certain classes of them to enjoy, and do not grieve for them, and make yourself gentle to the believers».

In Mecca, the Messenger used to move from one group to another of those who visited Mecca either for trade or to perform pilgrimage or other reasons. Then, he left for Medina and fought the unbelievers until Allah made him victorious, and the following Surah was revelated in which God wanted His Prophet to lighten the minds of people and full their hearts with love and mercy. « When there comes the help of Allah and the victory*, and you see men entering the religion of Allah in companies*, then celebrate the praise of your Lord, and ask His forgiveness; surely He is oft-returning (to mercy) ». He wanted to build a new nation whose religion is Islam and whose guide is the Quran and whose role model is Muhammad: Certainly you have in the Messenger of Allah an excellent exemplar for him who hopes in Allah and the latter day and remembers Allah much.

The Messenger was able to enhance the nation and enable it to unite and win the battle against all unbelief. The Quran describes this situation as such: Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and those with him are firm of heart against the unbelievers, compassionate among themselves; you will see them bowing down, prostrating themselves, seeking grace from Allah and pleasure; their marks are in their faces because of the effect of prostration; that is their description in the Taurat and their description in the Injeel; like as seed-produce that puts forth its sprout, then strengthens it, so it becomes stout and stands firmly on its stem, delighting the sowers that He may enrage the unbelievers on account of them; Allah has promised those among them who believe and do good, forgiveness and a great reward. The believers are strong and united against the enemy while merciful among each other.

Moreover, God wanted the nation to cling to the right and maintain their patience… For keeping their pledge to the right requires a lot of sacrifices in the face of the various challenges.

Going back to the relations among Muslims, we have seen that they are based on Mercy. The Messenger compares the believers to the human body, if an organ gets sick, the others will wait on and support it. He and His Messenger told us that we have to unify the nation « And hold fast by the covenant of Allah all t ogether and be not disunited, and remember the favor of Allah on you when you were enemies, then He united your hearts so by His favor you became brethren; and you were on the brink of a pit of fire, then He saved you from it, thus does Allah make clear to you His communications that you may follow the right way ».

Islam wants us to uphold the unity of the Islamic nations especially in times of critical challenges. We might differ as Shiites and Sunnis, or inside the same sect, but we should not curse one another. Instead we should refer any difference to Allah and His Messenger.

Thus, we should always hold fast to Allah's rope, the Quran, and listen to its teachings that already state that we are "one nation" having one god. We should allow the enemy to incite strife among us. We should meet on what we agree on, which covers a great part of theology and religious concepts and refer what we disagreed on to God and His Messenger.

And we should avoid cursing : « And do not abuse those whom they call upon besides Allah, lest exceeding the limits they should abuse Allah out of ignorance. Thus have We made fair seeming to every people their deeds; then to their Lord shall be their return, so He will inform them of what they did ».

This also what we learn from Imam Ali, the champion of Islamic unity, when he tells his followers that they should not abuse the people of Damascus, but they should describe their action and “ask God to save our lives and theirs, and to guide them to the right”.

We have reached the time that the Messenger has described when he talked about the time all nations will fight over you. In these times we have to cling to our unity and not listen to these who curse other Muslims, creating strife, and enable the enemy to extend its hegemony in the region for God wants us to be of a firm and compact will.

Be Callers for Islamic unity and try to resort to dialogue to solve your difference if you wish to a force reckoned with. Muslims in the world are over one billion in number, and they possess vast resources that will enable them to be a super power in this world, but they have to enhance their unity, and learn how to not let their unity be affected by their differences.

On the anniversary of the birth of the Prophet, we call upon all Muslims to strive to unify the nation and to carry on the Message of Islam to the coming generations as well to the other nations of the world, for this is what Allah has entrusted us with.

Allah said: You are the best of the nations raised up for (the benefit of) men; you enjoin what is right and forbid the wrong and believe in Allah; and if the followers of the Book had believed it would have been better for them; of them (some) are believers and most of them are transgressors.

You are the best nation, not because of your descent, but because you have a role to perform. This is the real meaning of celebrating the Message to follow the step of Muhammad in calling and struggling for the Message to convey to the entire world in an open and rational way. "Work and Allah will see your work and so will His Messenger and the believers".

American President continues his imperial discourse claiming on the one hand that he is not interfering whether directly or through his agents in Lebanon. As he is telling the Lebanese what they should do, he considers this as spreading democracy. But did he confer with the Lebanese on how to run the political affairs in Lebanon, or when he decided to replace one hegemony by another.

As to Syria, we question his motives when he pressurizes Syria to follow is instructions in Iraq to secure his interests at the expense of the Syrian national interests.

As to Palestine, Bush is pressurizing Syria even to close the offices of the factions of the Palestinian of the factions of the Palestinian Intifada, since America’s only concern is Israeli security even if it means strengthening its hegemony over the occupied lands and building new settlements. Thus, we ask who gave him this authority.

The American president claims to be representing international legitimacy. But America does not respect this legitimacy as evident from its occupation of Iraq and the pressures on the Security Council to freeze the implementation of all the resolutions it took against Israel Moreover, America pressurizes various countries in the world to accept its polices and that of Israel. In this context, it is worth mentioning that its new UN envoy believes that the UN should cease to exist, since it sometimes does not conform with the American world strategies.

On the Palestinian level, we ask: What legitimacy does America have to force the Palestinians to accept the de facto Israeli actions on the ground, whether in enlarging settlements or depriving them from their right to return, all in violation of the Road Map that has become a distraction or a game played by the UN, the EU and Russia; meanwhile Israel continues to execute its security and settling plans, until a time comes when America could say that it is unrealistic to talk about a Palestinian state.

Furthermore, the American President considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization, claiming that it killed some Americans in the past. But how many people of various nations did the Americans kill, whether Afghanis, Iraqis or Lebanese (The Beir Al-Abd Massacre). America believes that it soldiers could commit war crimes all over the world, but they could not be tried by the international court that deals with these crimes.

We warn the Palestinians, the Authority, the Intifada and the people against the American plans that seek to deceive the Palestinians, by their cosmetic changes which aim to secure the Israeli hegemony. We also warn the Lebanese against the plans the American envoys carrying with them to reshuffle political and security cards.

Iraq is still struggling to form a government based on ethnic and sectarian calculations that does not care about the general interests of the Iraqis who took part in the elections so that the government that would emerge will provide security for him and economic stability as well as the sectarian massacres.

We are afraid that if these massacres continue, they might spread a reaction of civil war, since those who are committing these acts are indirectly linked to the American and Israeli intelligence services. That is why we call for the unity of all Iraqis-Arab, Kurds and Turkmen; and ask each one of them to play his role in protecting the security of the Iraqis. Let the wise among them whether religious man or politicians face the situation in a responsible manner that seeks to find solutions before it is too late. At the same time, we consider occupation to be responsible in everything that is going on in Iraq.

As a new pope was elected, we find, as Muslims, that we and the Christians have a joint responsibility in emphasizing the need of continuing the Islamic-Christian dialogue and extend it to all cultures and religions. Such a dialogue will promote the peace that is based on justice for it is based on combining standing with the downtrodden and the religious against arrogance and atheism.

We believe that religion is opening up and not isolation and it is a felling of responsibility towards the affairs of all people for religion is love, mercy and peace for all mankind.

The white smoke came out of the Lebanese chimney, but it was the result of a foreign effort on the regional and international levels that helped in reaching this balanced settlement. Such a development should lead the Lebanese to become more rational and plan for a dialogue that lays the foundation for a national unity that is not instituted on the basis of a victorious party and defeated one.