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The First Sermon
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Allah says in His Glorious Book in the context of
talking to this Prophet Ibrahim, when the latter had finished building
the Kaaba And proclaim among men
the Pilgrimage: they will come to you on foot and on every lean camel,
coming from every remote path.
He also says:
That they may
witness things that are of benefit to them, and mention the name of
Allah on appointed days over the beast of cattle that He hath bestowed
upon them. Then eat thereof and feed therewith the poor unfortunate.
And:
and let
them go round the Ancient House.
That (shall be so); and whoever respects the signs
of Allah, this surely is (the outcome) of the piety of hearts.
And :
and pilgrimage to the House is incumbent upon men
for the sake of Allah, (upon) every one who is able to undertake the
journey to it; and whoever disbelieves, then surely Allah is
Self-sufficient, above any need of the worlds.
Response to Allah's Commands
We are, these days, in the pilgrimage season, when
people perform the duty of pilgrimage that Allah made incumbent on all
those who are able, so that they will meet at the sacred mosque of the
Beit Al-Haram (the first international mosque)
Most surely the first house appointed
for men is the one at Bekka, blessed and a guidance for the nations
It is the mosque that Allah wanted the Muslims to
visit and head to in their prayers, so that they will feel united by
God and go round His Ancient House.
Thus, the duty of pilgrimage is a duty in which the
believer regains his relation with God that is based on obedience of
all God's commands in what He deemed lawful and in what He prohibited.
That is why we find that Allah wanted man when he begins his
pilgrimage to take out all the fancy clothes he used to wear, and put
on the garments of Ihram, which are similar to the shroud that he will
meet Allah with in the Hereafter.
Then, the believer will perform the bath of Ihram
as if he is getting purified from all his sins in preparation of
meeting God, remembering that Allah has told him to be careful towards
his duty to his lord. He also talked to him as a believer
{O people! be careful of (your duty to)
your Lord
O you who believe } to remind
him that he should obey Him in all what he does and abstains from
doing all what he has been forbidden from.
Thus the pilgrim will then appeal to God saying: I
respond to Your call O Allah, I respond to Your call and I am obedient
to Your orders. You have no partner. I respond to Your call. All the
praises and blessings are for You. All the sovereignty is for You. By
this, the believer will be recommitting himself to obey all Allah's
commands, in all his life. He will be obedient in his familial life,
in his social life, in his political life… etc. He will be making a
covenant with Allah that all his life will be a response to what Allah
has commanded. Then after renewing one's vow he would leave all the
good things he is used to in life, and walk bareheaded, in the heat of
Mecca to reach the Sacred Mosque and go round it{
and let them go round the Ancient House}.
This act of going round the House is symbolic in
that it means beings committed to the House of Allah which is the
obedience to His commands.
When you go round the House you are not worshipping
the stones the house is built with. Even when you touch the Black
Stone you are not worshipping it. You are just earning the blessings
that Allah wants you to earn by touching it.
Moreover, who goes round the Sacred House does not
go round the houses of the wrongdoers and tyrants, or those of
dissolution and violating the rights of others.
Who goes round Allah's House should not turn his
own house to one where sin is committed (such as drinking wine,
gambling…etc) thus wronging the others at his household by such
practices.
Taking the straight Path
You have to turn all the places you live or work in
to places of worshipping Allah, by being pious, remembering Allah and
obeying His commands.
Then when you walk between As-Safa and Marwa, seven
times as it is ordained in the Quran:
Behold! Safa and Marwa are among the
Symbols of Allah, the most Exalted, you are
doing so to obey Allah and to earn His satisfaction. Therefore,
whoever goes round there two hills will never wrong a human being… He
will never go to a house of dissolution or usurp other people's rights
or property. Taking the course that runs between these two hills of
Safa and Marwa suggests to man that he has to take the course of good
and guidance. Then you shorten your hair or clip your nails to suggest
that you have cut some of your past.
Then, after you renew your Ihram and Talbiya, you
go to Arafat to supplicate, review all your actions and go back to
Allah asking for His forgiveness. In this respect, it has been said in
our traditions that whoever thinks while he is in Arafat that Allah
will not forgive him, then Allah will not forgive him. You have to
believe that Allah will forgive you, since He is the Forgiving, and
the Merciful. Then you have to review all your past and repent for all
your sins, deciding earnestly that you will start a new life.
Balancing between the two worlds
Then when you go from (Mount) Arafat to the sacred
Monument, then when ye pour down
from (Mount) Arafat, celebrate the praises of Allah, as ye used to
celebrate the praises of your fathers,
There are those who ask Allah for the Goods of this
world, those will not earn the good of the Hereafter, because they
were preoccupied with the earthly rewards and did not think about the
other life, but there are those who say:
"Our Lord! Give us good in this world
and good in the Hereafter, and defend us from the torment of the
Fire!"
To these will be allotted what they have earned;
and Allah is quick in account
Thus when you are at the sacred Monument you have
to think about both worlds and ask for Allah's forgiveness, lest you
will end up in Hell.
Then you go to Mina to throw the pebbles and
sacrifice, and feed the poor as Allah has ordained. Then you will
shorten or shave your hair, as if you are breaking up with all the
past, and your new hair (future) will grow on God's obedience. Then
you will go round the House again… and go back to Mina to supplicate
in total piety and dependence upon God, the All-Mighty.
Then you will throw the pebbles as if you are
throwing them on all your devils, be they small or big, Then the
pilgrimage will end on the 12th of Zi-Hijja. And if you had done all
what Allah has wanted you to do in this duty you will be told: your
sins have been forgiven. And you can start your life a new life that
will be spent in obeying God.
Thus, the Pilgrimage will end upon completing the
rites but a new pilgrimage will start and will go on as long as you
live.
This pilgrimage encompasses all your individual and
social actions that should all aim at earning God's satisfaction and
denouncing all devils. Thus, man can find in pilgrimage what would
educate him on sublime morals. One of our traditions says: Allah
does not care about anybody who performs pilgrimage unless he has
three traits: Piety that will prevent him from doing what Allah has
prohibited, tolerance that could counter the ignorance of the
ignorance and sublime morals that he adopts to deal with people.
Dear beloved.
We ask Allah to accept the pilgrimage of all
pilgrims… That those pilgrims will understand the real meaning of
their duty in that they will not consider it a normal trip, in which
they perform the rituals in a materialistic manner. Pilgrimage is a
revolution against the self in all the sins it made. It is the start
of a new life in which Muslims feel the Islamic unity that unifies and
strengthens them as well as the nation and enable them to face
unbelief and arrogance… the unbelievers and the arrogant.
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
The Second Sermon
Beware of the American scheme
In Palestine, a security catastrophe has unfolded
with the Palestinian blood being spilled by Palestinians, as a result
of certain partisan differences of a political character.
Based on constitutional legitimacy, one of the
parties calls for a realistic plan to resolve the problems of the
Palestinian people, and seeks a settlement that takes into account the
international situation.
This view has emerged following a series of
meetings with the American top officials including the President, as
well as some European officials; the last of them was the British
Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who came to Palestine to jumpstart the
"peace process". But he failed because he committed himself to the US
policies not only with respect to the Arab Israeli struggle but also
to the entire US world view. Thus, we find Blair talking, even
untimely, about Iran as an extremist state that poses a threat to the
region and the world. On the other hand, he calls on the Arabs to
establish good relations with Israel whose security is his main
concern, but be does not say a word about its nuclear arsenal that
poses a threat to the states of the region that demand a nuclear free
region. He also continues to support his ally, Bush, in Iraq whose
people continue to suffer from the occupation and the way its running
the political and economic affairs of Iraq.
In his talk about moderation and the need to
confront the Iranian threat which poses no danger except on the
Western arrogant interest, Blair is trying to deceive the Arab
officials, for Iran adopts a policy of friendship towards the Arab and
Islamic worlds.
We notice that this Palestinian party is trying to
open up on the devious schemes of America and Israel and their allies
and accept their internal projects concerning the political situation
in Palestine.
In contrast, the other Palestinian party remained
committed to the strategic goals of liberation and consequently
refused to recognize Israeli legitimacy. This stand has led to an Arab
and international blockade of this party. On the other hand their
proposal of a national unity government may not be realistic, which
means that the Palestinians are still living in the same whirlpool,
especially with some of the Politicians trying to dominate over the
entire state.
The dangerousness of any civil war in such
circumstances can not be underestimated. Any political conflict could
automatically turn into an armed one, with no one listening to the
calls for a ceasefire. Thus all those who are faithful to the
Palestinian cause appeal to all parties to educate their members to
respect the lives and properties of their follow believers, not only
with respect to killing but also to abductions that makes matters
worse.
We hold all parties responsible for the mentality
that changes the conflict into a civil war, at a time the Zionist
Enemy continues to kill and detain scores of civilians everyday.
We voice our demand to control the current
situation, rising to the level of the great cause of confronting
occupation. All arms should be against the enemy, especially that the
arrogant world is still supporting the Zionists in their strategic
project of obliterating the Palestinian cause.
America targets Islam
On another level, the American Administration that
has sunk in Iraqi, Afghani and Lebanese quicksand, still represents
the biggest danger on the entire region and on the integrity of Islam
in particular. Our following of the American policies towards Islam
has made us sure that it wants to destroy Islam, as a culture, thought
and nation, as a result of the complexes of the neo-conservatives and
the Jewish groups that control the American Administration. We call on
the American people not to restrict its opposition to the war in Iraq,
but also to include the American unequivocal support to Israel that
the latter relies on it to justify its brutal crimes against the
Palestinians and other peoples in the region, as well as its
undermining of world peace. All these policies lead to the hatred of
the downtrodden nations to the US, and will consequently hurt its
strategic interests.
We do not have any complex towards the American
people. It is the policies of the Administration that we are against.
This is what we want the American people to know so that by changing
these policies, there could be a friendship between the American and
other nations.
Lebanon is still in the same whirlpool moving from
one crisis to another, as the internal game tries to thwart the
initiative that tries to find a basis for national reconciliation as
well as realistic national solutions that join the Lebanese on the
basis of being loyal to Lebanon the motherland and the citizenry and
establishing unifying relations between its compatriots away from
sectarianism, personal interests and foreign regional and
international tutelage.
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