FridaySpeeches > 2006 Speeches > 23/06/2006

In the Name of Allah, The Compassionate, the Merciful.

The Religious Authority H.E. Sayyed M. H. Fadlullah delivered the two Friday prayer sermons at the Imamain Al-Hassanain Mosque,23th June 2006, Several prominent religious scholars, dignitaries and thousands of believers attended the Jumu’a prayer.

Let Following Ali (a.s.) be the Following of the Right Path of Islam

 

The First Sermon

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Ali's Role

Allah says in His Glorious Book: And among men is he who sells himself to seek the pleasure of Allah; and Allah is Affectionate to the servants. Several interpreters say that this Ayah talks about Ali, for he was for God in everything he had; his mind, his heart, his feelings … etc. His message was to raise people to become closer to God by obeying and fearing Him.

When he talked about his caliphate, he said: "You and I do not want the same goals. I want you for God and you want me for yourself".

My role is a missionary one that aims to open people’s minds on truth, their heart on good, and their life on justice.

His goal as a caliph was to pursue the missionary role that the Prophet assigned when he chose him to be his successor. Muhammad(p.) knew that Imam Ali (a.s.) whom he raised was in his entirety for God and the nation. Did not he say that the right left him no friend, and that the caliphate was not wroth a shoe had it not been to enjoin a right or to forbid a wrong.

That is why when Ali (a.s.) became a caliph after 15 years of having been denied his right, he performed his duty according to Allah's and His Messenger(p.)’s teachings. He wanted the people to comprehend the whole message. He wanted the nation to know all the principles and rules of Islam, and seek to increase their knowledge: He used to stand up every now and then to address the people and teach them the principles of Islam and how to become pious and good Muslims.

We have to read and understand his words, because Ali (a.s.) is not the Imam of the period he was a caliph and he is still with us by the thought he produced and the advices he gave.

Following the straight path

He used to address the people and say: Action! Action! Then (look at) the end; the end, and the end is meeting God who will hold you accountable for all and (remain) steadfast; steadfast. Therefore (exercise) endurance, so that the end will be in harmony with the beginning endurance, and piety, piety because commitment to Islam implies many responsibilities that need a lot of patience and include many prohibitions that require patience and piety.

Islam has an objective.

You have an objective. To elevate main to become nearer to Allah.

Proceed towards your objective, you have a singe. Take guidance from your sign.

. Proceed towards Allah's by fulfilling His rights which He has enjoined upon you. He has clearly stated His demands for you. I am a witness for you and shall plead excuses on your behalf on the Day of Judgement.

If you accompany me, on this straight line I will stand on the Day of Judgment and say: O God those people have obeyed you.

I am calling you to what Allah commanded Allah the Sublime, has said:

Verily, those who say: Our Lord is Allah! And persevere aright; the angels descend upon them (saying): "Fear ye not, nor be grieved, and receive the glad tidings of the Garden which ye were promised." (Qur'an, 41:30).

You have said. "Our Lord is Allah".

And we all say our lord is Allah when we pronounce the testimonies. Then keep steadfast to His Book, to the way of His command and to the virtuous course of His worship. Thereafter do not go out of it, do not introduce innovations in it.

Do not say anything Allah did not permit, and do not turn away from it, because those who go away from this course will be cut off from (the mercy of) Allah on the Day of Judgement.

Beware from destroying your manners and changing them, and then the Imam holds the people responsible for what they say since it expresses their feelings and needs. Maintain one tongue and not two. A man should control his tongue because the tongue is obstinate with its master. By Allah, I do not find that fear of Allah benefits a man who practises it unless he controls his tongue. Some people pray and fast but they let their tongue lie and curse, All this practiced piety will not benefit them unless they holds their tongue.

Certainly the tongue of a believer is at the back of his heart while the heart of a hypocrite is at the back of his tongue; because, when a believer intends to say anything, he thinks it over in his mind. If it is good he discloses it, but if it is bat lest it remain concealed. While a hypocrite speaks whatever comes to his tongue, without knowing what is in his favour and what goes against him.

The Prophet of Allah – peace and blessing of Allah be upon him and his descendants-said: "The belief of a person cannot be firm unless his heart is firm, and his heart cannot be firm unless his tongue is firm.”So whoever of you can manage to meet Allah, the Sublime, in such a position that his hands are unsmeared with the blood of Muslims and their property and his tongue is safe from exposing them, he should do so.

Rulings do not change with time

The Imam then discussed a thought that many of us tend to believe in: our time is different than that of our grandfathers. What was prohibited then has become lawful with the passage of time.

This is what the people believe in regarding the issues of the veil and interest for example. Although they argue that time has changed this is but a deviation form the straight path. The Imam says:

Know, O' creatures of Allah, that a believer should regard lawful this year what he regarded lawful in the previous year, for what Muhammad made lawful is lawful to the day of judgement, and what he prohibited is prohibited to the day of judgement, and should consider lawful this year what he considered unlawful in the previous year.

Certainly people's innovation cannot make lawful for you what has been declared unlawful; rather, lawful is that which Allah has made lawful and unlawful is that which Allah has made unlawful.

You have already tested the matters and tried them; you have been preached by those before you. Illustrations have been drawn for you and you have been called to clear fact. Only a deaf man can remain deaf to all this, and only a blind man can remain blind to all this.

He whom Allah does not allow benefit trials and experience cannot benefit from preaching. He will be faced with losses form in front, so that he will approve what is bad and disapprove what is good. People are of two categories – the follower of the Shari’a (religious laws), and the follower of the innovations to whom Allah has not given any testimony by way of Sunnah or the light of any plea.

Allah the Glorified, has not counselled anyone on the lines of this Qur'an, for it is the strong rope of Allah and His trustworthy means. It contains the blossoming of the heart and springs of knowledge. For the heart there is no other gloss than the Qur'an although those who remembered it have passed away while those who forgot to pretend to have forgotten it have remained. If you see any good give your support to it, but if you see evil evade it, because the Messenger of Allah used to say: "O son of Adam, do good and evade evil; by doing so you will be treading correctly.

Unity on the basis of the Right

Then the Imam says:

Know that injustice is of three kinds – one, the injustice that will not be forgiven, another, that will not be left unquestioned, and another that will be forgiven without being questioned. The injustice that will not be forgiven is duality of Allah. Allah has said: Verily Allah forgives not that (anything) be associated with Him…. The injustice that will be forgiven is the injustice a man does to himself by committing small sins; and the injustice that will not be left unquestioned is the injustice of men against other men. The retribution in such a case is severe. It is not wounding with knives, nor striking with whips, but it is so severe that all these things are small against it.

You should therefore avoid change in the matter of Allah's religion for your unity in respect of a right which you dislike is better than your scattering away in respect of a wrong that you like. Let the principle of unity be the basis of your like the Imam ends his sermon by saying.

O' people, blessed is the man whose own shortcomings keep him away from (looking into) the shortcomings of others, do not preoccupy yourself with the flows of others, because you are responsible for you own mistakes and not theirs, and also blessed is the man who is confined to his house, eats his meat, buries himself in obeying his Allah, and weeps over his sins, so that is engaged in himself and people are in safety from him.

Do you love Ali? Do you follow Ali! Ali is these words and this path the path of Islam that he followed all his life, and which he struggled for and ended all difficulties to ensure its success. When Allah called him to Him he said:

In the name of Allah and following the religion of His Messenger. I have own by the Lord of Kaaba..

Let us follow the path of Ali, the path of love of Allah and His messenger the path of the straight line.

The Second Sermon

Death of human conscience

In occupied Palestine, civilians are shelled daily. Poor familiars are pounded in their houses, with children, pregnant mothers and the elderly falling as a result of the "courageous" actions of the Jewish army that are praised by the Western world.

America and EU states no longer have any human conscience. Children's blood in this world is worthless, Dead children are merely a scene to be watched, in a game the Zionist leaders are playing to score military goals.

In the meantime, President Bush and his European Allies are encouraging the enemy's government to commit more crimes at a time the Zionists are not only killing children but also starving the Palestinians for electing Hamas.

Aid as an attempt to humiliate Palestinians

If these people are talking about providing some negligible humane aid, they are following the instructions of Israel which asked the EU not to give the Palestinians any aid except after the Palestinians sign a document that renounces what they call terrorism, which is the Resistance. As for the Arab world, it also, yielded as a result of its weakness to the EU resolutions on distributing aid. The Arab leaders are divided between those who have surrendered to the occupation and rule on its behalf, and those who are trying to negotiate with Israel although it has no desire for peace, and continues to condemn the Resistance and consider its fighting occupation a kind of war crimes.

Bush legitimises the Massacres

In Iraq, those who are going to be killed tomorrow are burying those who are killed today. Hundreds fall everyday, and the rest wait for the massacres that occur, under American sponsorship, round the clock.

The American President who has defended the Israeli massacres against Palestinian children continues to talk about a Palestinian state but in a vague way, and whose borders are what is left of the land which all international and Arab pressures are forcing the Palestinians to accept.

Iran too

The American President continues his threats to Iran, telling her that her refusal of the international incentives will lead to imposing serve political and economic sanctions. He claims that its nuclear weapon constitutes a danger to the world, while disregarding the threat of Israel to all nations.

At the same time, he pressurises the EU to be very strict in their negotiations with Iran so that they will fail. America wants to impose conditions that promote its interests on Iran including concessions that would strengthen the American occupation in Iraq.

They want the security there to remain unstable, and Iraq to remain an American base against the neighbouring countries.

American deceit

As for Lebanon, the American President announced that he will not rest until he secures "full Lebanese independence".

It seems that the indications of this independence is according to the Americans that Lebanon should be a theatre of Israeli intelligence networks that execute assassinations and incites internal strife.

That is why neither the American President nor his Secretary of State or even his ambassador in Lebanon condemned the existence of the Mosad network in Lebanon; they deal with it as if it was an ordinary event that compliments the American plans in Lebanon. They only want the Lebanese to talk about the necessity of the withdrawal of the Syrian intelligence, while the Israeli intelligence has the right to undermine Lebanese security. American allies and followers in Lebanon have to accept this in the name of freedom and independence, for what the American President wants is to confront Syria and forget about Israel.

We want the Lebanese to know that America is not truthful in its talk about the Lebanese independence. Its strategy demands that Lebanon should remain a theatre of Israeli plots and a card that could be used against Syria in the regional game of political and security pressures and counter pressures.

We also want the Lebanese – regardless of their sects- not be too enthusiastic in defending the leaders of other countries at the expense of their country's dignity. They should be balanced in their statements and stands. The main goal should be to reach a mutual understanding and the respect of dialogue that is based on solidifying the national unity in which every party does not think about its sectarian or electoral interests.

The problem in this respect is that Lebanon has not reached the level of having a state of citizenry in which every Lebanese feels that his interests surpasses sectarian quotas, and the only quota one should think about is that of the homeland and all its citizens.