O Allah, send blessings on the Custodian of thy commandments, the
vigilant Guardian, the reliable Patron, the awaited Justice,
surrounded by Thy favourite angels, assisted by the Holy Spirit.
O Lord of the worlds. O Allah, send him to call the people unto Thy
Book for establishing Thy religion, and make him succeed in the earth,
as Thou caused those who were before him to succeed, and establish for
him his faith which Thou has approved for him, and give him in
exchange safety after fear. He serves Thee.
He ascribes nothing as partner unto Thee.
O Allah, give him power and authority, and through him strengthen
the people. Give him the necessary assistance, and through him support
the people, and make him prevail over allya final decisive victory,
and delegate him Thy controlling authority.
O Allah, give currency to Thy religion, and the way of life of Thy
Prophet, through him till nothing which is just and genuine is kept
concealed from any human being.
O Allah, we ardently desire that in [his] kind, just, and fair era,
Thou should reactivate Islam and stimulate its followers, and humble
and humiliate the imposters and their double-dealing, and include us
among those who invite people unto Thy obedience, and lead them to Thy
approved path, and give us the good of this world and the world to
come.
This is the God's argument, the custodian of His
commandment, May Allah hasten his release. And make us tread or his
way and implement his authority birth Anniversary is in the Middle of
this month, the 15the of the month of Sha'aban.
We remember him, because he is the holder of the
time that the Messenger has brought us glad tidings of.
Did not he (a.s.) say: "I am leaving among you
that which if you hold to, you will never go astray: the Book of Allah
and my household."
The Messenger has also told us about our Imam and
that is why we believe in him although we have not met or seen him.
On this occasion, we have to assert a fact for
those who talk about his long absence or about the benefit one can
attain form an absent Imam.
To those we say that Allah wanted to provide people
with the proper evidence by sending His messengers and good men to
guide the people to the straight path. But how could that be achieved
in view of the imam's absence?
The answer is: the Imamate of Ahl el-Beit is of two
kinds. The first is the Imamate that begun with Imam Ali (a.s.) and
ended at the time of Imam Al-Hasan Al-Askari, The role of this Imamate
was to stay with the people, correct their concepts, answer their
questions and ensure that they follow the straight path and confront
disbelief, falsehood and arrogance. And this is what the Imams of Ahl
El-Beit did.
The Educating Role:
The Imams were able to respond to all the needs of
the people in providing them all relevant juristic rulings. They
explained for them everything they did not understand in the Quran and
the Sunnah. And established the general rules that could be relied on
in any new development, and which can enable the jurists to pass
judgments on any new thing that might occur, on the basis of the
Islamic foundations of the Quran and the Sunnah. So when the minor
absence occurred the people used to contact the Imam through his
Ambassadors. In his last letter he said: "As far as newly occurring
circumstances are concerned, you should turn (for guidance) to the
narrators of our Hadiths, for they are my proof over you just as I am
Allah's proof ".
It is as if he was saying to all Muslims,
especially the followers of Ahl el-Beit, that the Imams have given the
people all that they need that they no longer need the presence of an
Imam to ask him. If they need anything they can go back to the
reliable narrators of "our" Hadiths, or to the religious scholars who
can deduce the Sharia rulings from these Hadiths, and they would let
you know all your responsibilities and commitments.
Thus, having clarified everything the educational
role of the Imam ended. And that is why we see that the jurists who
have reached "highest academic standards do not find a problem is
deducing a judgment of a new incident or phenomenon, for they are
guided by the Book, the Sunnah and the Hadith of Ahl-el-Beit
Imamate and justice:
The second role of the Imams, is the universal role
of changing the world on the basis of establishing justice, as Islam
meant the world to be found on. Such a task needs the passage of many
eras. That is why Allah has prepared the twelfth Imam to realize the
goals the Messages came for: establishing justice so as there will be
no place on earth where the arrogant the wrong-doers and the tyrants
can continue to practice their wronging.
For this purpose, Allah wanted the people to be
educated on justice which means to be educated on Islam, because the
Message of Islam is a message of juristic, that gives everyone his
right: Giving God the right of unification, the Messenger the right of
obeying him, and each one what is due to him.
Thus our duty in the age of the Imam's absence; it
is to seek to establish justice. If we are awaiting the Imam, it means
that we should not wrong anybody we deal with, whether socially (in
the family's domain) or economically or in any other dealing.
Therefore, those who are faithful to the Imam are not those who
organize festivals to celebrate his birth, or those who pray for his
quick appearance, but rather those who are committed to Islam in their
relations towards themselves and towards others, whether in their
family life or in their politics or business and social dealings. This
is the meaning of following the Imam, and this is what Allah wanted us
to do: To create wherever we are a position for justice and Islam, and
to seek to establish an Islamic society and an Islamic state, in
preparation for the great Islamic state that supports Islam and its
people and humiliates hypocrisy and its people. Thus everyone should
be a caller for Allah in a way that makes him a leader in serving
Islam and Muslims.
We would like to point out to a certain
misunderstanding, which could be understood from the Iftitah
supplication we read in the beginning: To change the Imam’s concern or
fear into tranquility, which might indicate that he might be afraid of
reappearing. But we believe that he does not have such fears. The
Imams have appeared in many cases where they were exposed to many
pressures. The Imam is acting on Allah's commands. His absence was a
part of what Allah considered appropriate and so his return will be.
He did not disappear because he was afraid of being killed or
persecuted, because his strength is from God, and because he will
appear to establish justice on earth. How can we then think that he is
afraid?
Another point we have to indicate in this respect.
When a war occurs between Israel and the Arabs or some other wars as
in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are those who come out and say that
these are sings of the appearance.
No one knows when will this time come except Allah,
and therefore we must not occupy ourselves with such things.
There is also the fact that there are those who
exploit the people's ignorance and naivety to claim that they are the
ambassadors of the Imams. Those are liars who want to exploit people
and money. The Imam is absent and no one will see him. And whoever
claims otherwise will be untruthful.
Our responsibility in the era of his absence is to
shoulder the responsibility of Islam and the straight path that the
Imams have taken; we have to seek to strengthen Islam and promote
justice as we face disbelief and arrogance.
We are the ones who have pledged loyalty of Imam
Ali whom the Messenger described when he fought Amr bin Abdwid in the
battle of Ahzab, as the entire faith who was fighting the entire
unbelief.
If you are loyal to Imam Ali and the Imams that
followed him, you have to be with the entire Islam and always follow
the straight path. We have to act like a one body, if any organ
suffers the whole body will look after it.
O God let us Show us the rightly guided face of (Imam a.s.), the
praiseworthy moon (referring to the face of Imam a.s.) and enlighten
our vision by looking at him. And hasten his reappearance, make his
arrival smooth, hasten his path, make us tread on his way and
implement his authority and strengthen his back.
The Second Sermon
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Some American officials are talking about the
necessity of taking action in the political, security and economic
domains, to ensure that the US stays in the position of leading the
world, ensuring that withdrawing from Iraq will deprive the US from
this leadership.
But who gave America the right to impose its
leadership or the world, and practice its hegemony over the Security
Council, and ally with Britain and France to prevent Iran from
continuing its peaceful nuclear project to deprive the Arab and Muslim
world from attaining self-sufficiency in the field of energy.
Is the United States exploiting the balance of
power that currently tilts in its favour to become an international
empire and a political and economic dictatorship under the pretence of
spreading democracy?
We call on all nations, especially the downtrodden
ones, to realize this, so as to build its strength and confront the
arrogance and achieve independence and a balanced policy.
On another level, Bush has expressed his
disappointment towards the Iraqi leadership, which proves that the
American policies have failed in Iraq, and that the American presence
had led to an increase in security chaos, a continuity of the
atrocities, and the loss basic services, not to mention the
causalities the occupation is suffering from on an increasing daily
basis.
If the American officials are talking about the
failure of the Iraqi government in achieving its goal, everybody knows
that the occupation is pressurizing this government and playing one
party against the other in the internal Iraqi politics, especially
through inciting sectarian strife to fail any attempt that aims at
ensuring Iraqi unity and stability, for achieving stability will not
leave any excuse for the occupations forces to stay.
On the regional level, we also notice that the USA
is trying to create several conflicts in the region. After the
resounding failure of its Middle East project, it has abounded its
project of spreading democracy in the Arab World, and is now trying to
divide it into an axis of moderation facing one of extremist states.
But what it means by moderation is allying or opening up on the
Israeli entity and announcing that they agree to attend the conference
Bush has called for to establish "peace"… Thus, providing a wide cover
for the Zionist Entity to implement its strategy of usurping the land
of Palestine, leaving limited areas that could not constitute a
foundation of a viable Palestinian state.
Palestine: Judaizing Jerusalem
In this atmosphere, we meet with the Arab state of
weakness, especially that of the Palestinian authority that could not
improve the security of the West Bank, whether by stopping the
storming, detentions or removing the roadblocks. It might also have
joined the US , Israel, the EU and some Arab states in planning for
pressurizing Gaza economically, to pressurize Hamas, at a time the
Israeli planes continue to target both the Mujahideen, and innocent
civilians, under the pretence of defending the Jewish people. But they
do not talk about the occupation of Palestinian lands that calls on
the Resistance to continue its confrontation. This is the logic of the
West that gives the enemy the pretence to continue its atrocities, and
this is the official Arab position that has turned its back to the
Palestinian people, and did not try to help to reunite the
Palestinians in a national government, because America and Israel
refuse that Hamas restores its positions in the government.
The problem is that there are several Arab
positions that are pressurizing the Palestinian Government to yield to
the American Israeli plan in downsizing the Palestinian cause with the
aim of the logic of defeatism of the Arab summits and foreign
ministers conferences the dominant one. The Arab and Muslim people
should be aware of the gloomy future their rulers want them to accept.
In this respect, we would like to point out that
the danger that threatens the very existence of the Aqsa Mosque is
still looming. We call on all people to commemorate the anniversary of
trying to burn the Aqsa Mosque to keep in mind that the old/new plan
of Judaizing Jerusalem is still being carried out.
Lebanon: Citizenry in the solution:
In Lebanon, we continue to face the US interference
to pressurize the Lebanese current and future decisions to the extent
of choosing Lebanon's next president, so as to preserve its own
interests in Lebanon. It is funny how some politicians still boast
about Lebanon's freedom and independence, and talk about rejecting
foreign hegemony, when it is clear that the US interferes in all
aspects of Lebanese political life. All large-scale meetings which
took place during the last week to discuss the presidential issue and
to stress the importance of having a "made in Lebanon" presidential
poll do not conceal the fact that a number of foreign factors
contribute in choosing Lebanon's next president.
But we believe Lebanon's next president ought to
represent all Lebanese sects, "and not just his own sect". The
identity of the president does in no way imply that other sects
refrain from contributing in the choice of our next president.
Furthermore, all the problems Lebanon has long
suffered from are due "to its deep-rooted sectarian makeup. Lebanon's
shaky state on the political as well as economic and security levels,
in addition to the incessant interference of foreign forces in
Lebanese domestic issues are all due to Lebanon's sectarian
composition.
It was "