Allah says in His Glorious Book: {Most certainly then We will question those to whom (the messengers) were sent, and most certainly We will also question the messengers; And stop them, for they shall be questioned

And the Messenger says: “I am responsible and so are you”.

We understand form these illuminating words that every one of us should study where he stands in all ideological and practical levels of life.

He should study any idea he believes in, any word he says and any action he takes to see whether it pleases Allah or it falls within the category of the things that Allah has prohibited, being a human being who has a mind, and as such he is responsible for not taking any step before knowing the basis that made him take it.

Thus I say to you: You should never let your instinct or your lust drive you. Equally important: you should study the results or repercussions of your actions. Your mind is your responsibility; meaning that you should never let it be led by your instincts and lusts. Instead, your emotions should be controlled by your mind. When you love you should rationalize this love and make it a responsible love; when you hate, hate rationally.

Do not love some one because your father or your family does. Love because those you love are worthy of it… This should be your criterion in all your actions whether on the personal, social or political levels… You should always think that you would stand before God when nothing will do you any good except the good deeds you have done.

No one will be exempt from being held responsible, not even the Prophet (p.): Most certainly then We will question those to whom (the messengers) were sent, and most certainly We will also question the messengers.

When Allah sends a Messenger not only will he ask the people that the messenger was sent to if they listened to what he had to say and if they believed in his message and followed it, but he will also ask the messengers about the way they conveyed the Message . Both parties (the messengers and the peoples) are responsible, but each human being is responsible in accordance to his intellectual abilities and to the objective conditions he lives in.

This is what the Messenger (p.) meant when he said: "I am responsible and so are you".

And that is why the Prophet (p.) who was chosen by Allah, the most Exalted, and not by the people through elections, came out to the people in his last days to say: "You cannot hold anything against me for I only made lawful what the Quran did and I only made unlawful what the Quran did”. This is a lesson to all leaders and authorities that there is nobody above the law. The nation thus could and should hold its leaders accountable; whenever they are wrong, the nation has a right to tell the leaders that they are mistaken... This makes being in authority a responsibility and not an honor. Each leader, in every level, is responsible, and each public servant is, as the expression suggests, a servant of the public.

Imam Ali (a.s.) further explains this notion in one of his sayings: He says: I advise you to fear Allah in what you are responsible for. For he says: Every soul will be held in pledge for what it earns… In another saying the Imam (a.s.) says: Fear Allah in His servants… Do not wrong them or deny them their rights whether at home or in the society at large. Fear Allah in your country… It is your responsibility to protect your country from any internal or external enemy or instability.

You are even responsible for the lands and the animals. The Prophet (p.) tells the people: "Each of you is a shepherd and responsible for his flock". An Imam is a shepherd and he is responsible for those in this care. A man is a shepherd in his family and is responsible for those in his care. The woman is a shepherd in her husband's house and is responsible for those in her care. The servant is a shepherd of his master's property and is responsible for what is in his care.

Allah, the most Exalted, said too, that he will also ask the sight, the hearing and the heart (the mind). But one should make sure that when one testifies he should be sure that he has seen it with his own eyes, and not merely relying on what he has heard from a third party. Imam Ali (a.s.) asserts that this is the difference between truth and falsehood. To be righteous is to say: I have seen [so and so] while it is a false [testimony] to say I have heard [so and so].

We should seek to be responsible towards every action we take or thing we say. We have to prepare our answers for the day in which each and every one of us will have to answer. We ask God to help us to answer on that day and bestow His Mercy on us.

The American President presented himself in the American-European Summit, as a Messenger for peace, reform and democracy in the entire world.

He wants the Middle East to act as the central base of his new experiment and wants NATO and the EU to take part in his strategy, promising to give them a marginal role in Iraq that will only help him to get out of his impasse. He also wants to pressurize Syria and Lebanon and besiege Iran… according to a master plan that aims at depriving the region from any element of strength that could stand against arrogant exploitation.

If he is talking about democracy to the peoples in the region, we know that some of them might well be against the political and security policies of their regimes but they are also opposed to the US policy of allying with the Zionist occupation of Palestine and considering the Palestinians to be terrorists, just because they want to liberate their country from occupation.

Our Muslim and Arab peoples do not believe the America, when it talks about freedom whether in Lebanon or in the entire nation. For they are only seek to promote their own interests.

On this occasion, we ask the American President, as well as the EU: Why does not he call for an immediate Israeli withdrawal from the occupied lands in Palestine, as he calls for an immediate Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, although the Syrian presence in Lebanon is not an occupation? Why does not he call for an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan and from the Shiba' farms regardless if it is Syrian or Lebanese? Moreover, why does not America withdraw from Iraq whose people have refused the occupation even if based on an agreement between the occupation forces and the Iraqi government they have appointed.

On another level, Although President Bush claims that he wants a Palestinian state, he has not talked about its borders, its viability or the return of its people. On the contrary, Bush has assured Sharon, in the letters exchanged between them that he is against their return and against the dismantling of the settlements in the occupied Palestinian lands…

If the American President is talking about the freedom of the Lebanese people we believe that it is the right of this people to have the freedom of running its own affairs as well as self-determination. We also believe that the Lebanese have the right to participate in free elections without any American pressures.

But America, along with France, has pressurized the Security Council to issue resolution 1559. This resolution does not stop at the Syrian withdrawal, it also calls for disarming the Resistance whose arms defend Lebanon against Israel daily aggressions. It also seeks to resettle the Palestinians in Lebanon. It is quite understandable that some Lebanese see in this resolution a chance for liberation by changing it into an international mandate… They also accept the American occupation of Iraq, being, as they claim, the beginning of the spread of democracy in the region.

As for the Iran’s nuclear program, the Iranian President has expressed his readiness to provide international guarantees that Iran does not seek to make nuclear bombs. Nevertheless, Bush is still pressurizing and threatening Iran and trying to force Europe to stand with him.

But he continues, on the other hand, to support Israel's possession of the nuclear bomb and its threats to destroy Iran's nuclear reactor. He is even threatening to bomb it himself.

Thus we ask: Is America honest in confronting the WMDs, or does it merely seek to prevent the states that oppose its policies from acquiring any nuclear know-how even if it were for peaceful purposes.

We had hopped that the current administration could provide a proof that it seeks peace, democracy and freedom, but we have noticed that the world has become less safe, less peaceful and less free since Bush came to power.

The nations of the world no longer believe in sayings, nor do they believe the American slogans that are coined by the CIA that aim at legalizing preemptive wars against any country that opposes the American polices.

We call on our peoples to face the arrogant pressures and move to regain their freedom from those who wish to exploit them be they international or internal powers.

We call in particular the Palestinian, Iraqi and Lebanese people, for the region is being shaken by the moving wars created by the American Empire to conduct a calm and truthful dialogue that is based on mutual trust as well as common interests.

They should not yield to the American pressures that aim at exploiting it to serve the American strategic interests.

As for Lebanon, we warn the Lebanese against the American motives, for America is not concerned with the freedom and sovereignty of Lebanon. It only cares about the security of Israel. This is what the aim of the war that Kissinger led against the Palestinians at the expense of the Lebanese was, and this is what is happening now to resettle the Palestinians in this country. We warn the Lebanese that the debate could even reach the level of accusing the Resistance itself. We say to the Lebanese: Watch the international political developments but do not listen to what they are telling you for they only seek to create internal strife. Let not the severity of the differences prevent you from resorting to dialogue, for we are afraid that they want you to go back to the civil war that we have agreed to leave behind… Go back to your values.