FRIDAY SPEECH September 14, 2001

“Believers, if any of you renounce the faith, Allah will replace them by others who love Him and are loved by Him, humble towards the faithful and stern towards the unbelievers striving for Allah’s cause and fearless of man’s censure.

He bestows it on whom He will. He is Munificent, Knowing” 5:54

In this holy verse, Allah (SWT) guides us to the model he wants the Muslim community to inspire, for it is the model that represents the vitality of Islam, the spirit of belief and the following of the path of God (SWT).

God (SWT) has described the believers in this verse as having several trails.

The first is that they love God (SWT) and are loved by Him. They have attained the Grace of Allah (SWT)’s love, because they have believed in Him. And obeyed Him and the Messenger (P) He sent to them. They have attained his love because God (SWT) loves the truthful and the pious who do not deviate away from the right path. They also love Allah (SWT) because they knew God (SWT)’s Glory and greatness and when you know God (SWT) you are bound to love Him. We love one another when we find in the other some beauty or some traits of perfection. If we know that Allah (SWT) has created all this and that His traits are so perfect that they cannot be compared with those of man, we cannot but love Him.

This is the greatest possible virtue “to love God (SWT) and be loved by him”. Which the messenger told us that his cousin and successor Ali bin Abi Talib has obtained it. He said in the Khybar war: “I will give the banner tomorrow to a man who loves Allah (SWT) and His Messenger and who is loved by Allah (SWT) and His Messenger.

The Messenger (P) entrusted Ali (a.s.) with the banner, because Ali has dedicated himself to Allah (SWT). Did not he say when he was the caliph: “My goals and yours are not the same: I want you to God (SWT) and you want me for yourselves:” He wanted the people to draw nearer to God (SWT) while they wanted to draw near him because he was a ruler.

The Second trait: “humble towards the Muslims”: The more learned and pious you are and the greater your social status becomes, you should be more humble. When you deal with fellow Muslims you deal with them quite humbly as if you are dealing with somebody who is far more important. This is what Islam teaches us, but this is not because the learned and pious are not proud, but because they respect the meaning of belief and humanism in their Muslim brothers. But when they deal with unbelievers they will be stern, as they should when belief confronts unbelief.

Thus those people do not run away from responsibility, and if they find that there a need for Jihad in a certain cause, they would” strive for Allah (SWT)’s cause”, ”fearless of man’s censure” as long they are doing pleases Allah (SWT), it is does not matter if the people like their behavior or not.

In this meeting we are going to talk about one of these virtues “humbleness’”.

Humbleness has to do with how you look at yourself and how you view others. Islam wants you not to feel that you are better than others because you have what they don’t be it money, power, Knowledge, good looks…etc. You should always know that you might be better in certain things while the others have what you don’t in other aspects.

This will make you feel the humanity of the other humans… Many traditions have clarified this point.

Muhammad (P.) and Ali (A.S.) have said, ”There is no distinguished origin like humbleness”. If the distinguished origin is what makes you great, than the only thing that makes you really great is humbleness. Imam Ali bin Al-Hussein (A.S.) said: “There is no distinguished origin for any Qurashite or Arab except by Humbleness. The Prophet (P.) said: Why don’t I see in you the sweetness of Worship” asked what was this sweetness the Messenger (P.) said: “humbleness” Because the more you worship Allah (SWT) the more you feel His greatness and become more humble towards Him which will make you more humble towards His creations.

Imam Ali (A.S) has repeatedly talked about the fact that praying with its kneeling and putting one’s face on the ground, and fasting with its hunger have the effect of teaching us the meaning and the necessity of being humble.

Imam Al-Hassan Al-Askari (a.s.) said: “He among you who is best aware of his brothers’ rights and always gives what is due to them, and he who is humble towards his fellow Muslims is a true believer and a true member of Ali’s Shiites (followers)” Being a Shiite is not a matter of a feeling in your heart, but it is to adhere to the course of the Imam in all your life, and this line of being humble towards Allah (SWT) and the believers is one of its essentials.

Imam Askari (A.S.) went on to say: The Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali, was once visited by two believers a man and his son, He stood up and gave them his seat and sat beside them. Then the table was set and when they finished eating, he insisted that he would pour the water for the father to wash his hands. The man refused and said: “But … Allah (SWT) is seeing me while you are pouring the water”, The Imam said: Sit down and wash your hands. For Allah (SWT) sees you and sees your brother who is not better than you serving you”. He seeks to be rewarded in Heaven When the Father washed his hands the Imam gave the pot to his son, Muhammad bin Al-Hanafiah, saying: Had the son come alone I would have served him myself.

But Allah (SWT) does not want us to equate between the father and the son if they happen to be in the same place” Imam Al-Askari went on conclude: “He who follows Ali in this is the true Shiite”.

Imam Al-Rida (A.S) defined humbleness as follows: Humbleness, is of many levels, one of these levels is to know your real value and act accordingly, It is also to refrain from doing what you would not like others to do to you. It is to respond to a bad deed with a good one… to hold your temper and forgive others for Allah (SWT) likes the charitable.

Imam Jaafar Al-Sadiq (A.S.) said,

Humbleness is to sit in a place that is less important than the one you ought to sit in. It is to greet those you meet, and to stop auguring even when you are right…

Traditions of Ahl Al-Beit concerning the issue of Humbleness are numerous, for it is a virtue that makes man closer to Allah (SWT) and loved by his brothers. Our Imams (A.S.) used to be the most humble to the extent that when Imam Ali was praised he used to say:

Oh, God (SWT) make me better than they think of me and forgive me for what they don’t know about me”. Imam Ali bin Al Hussein used to say:

« O God do not raise me one level unless you make me see myself at an equal lower level… ».

We become greater when we are more human and more humble. Humbleness leads to mutual respect among the members of the society. It is a virtue that should be held everywhere, at home and at work, in private life and in public life. If Satan comes to you and says: You are better than the others because of a certain advantage, tell him that they too have their advantages, and therefore we are equal… The community become greater if gets more and more ethical.

This the only way that draw us to Allah (SWT) and make us loved by our fellow human beings.

Worshippers of Allah (SWT)….

Be pious. Confront the arrogant and support the deprived and the weakened, especially as we live in a very difficult situation, waiting for the arrogant who is planning to retaliate, having lost their pride and sense of superiority.

The biggest event this week is the attack on the American vital symbols and centers in the fields of economy, defense and politics which made America live in a state of weightlessness following the new kind of suicidal operations, American officials said that this means that terrorism has waged a war against America. NATO followed suit and said that this is war against all Europe, while Israel took advantage of the opportunity to declare that Israel too is targeted by ”Islamic terrorism”… The world is still shaking with more accusations to the Arabs and Muslims being broadcasted in the Media, with many American Muslims being harassed as a result .

We have issued a communiqué in which I condemned these operations that are not justified whether by religion or the mind, regardless of who performed them. Yet the question is:

Will America study the motives and reasons that lead to such acts so as to review its policies towards the oppressed nations especially the Palestinians… the policies of oppression and plunder that lead to the haltered of the third world nations.

Is America serious in its war against terrorism? And if it is what about the terrorism of the Zionist entity that is eradicating a whole nation, having occupied its land.

The Zionist entity is chasing the Palestinian people in all its villages town and cities in a systematic operation of organized killing by means of the most modern American arms.

Nevertheless, the Americans declared that the Zionists did not violate the laws of using imported American weapons, the fact that the Israeli Army is attacking one Palestinian city after another to kill its civilians, destroy its buildings and uprooting its trees, notwithstanding.

The American response to all that was asking the victim not to resort to violence in a logic that trades places between the victim and the murderer.

We believe that America’s policies are responsible for these terrorist reactions, since political, military and economic oppression, as well as the commitment to the Israeli security at the expense of that of the Arabs, will lead to various reactions against the Arrogant powers, and turn the world into a chaotic place especially as the despair will explode in a mad way in more than one direction.

The problem lies in the fact that the arrogant deals with the regimes it made to protect its interests. It does not deal with the oppressed nations to listen to their cries and grievances.

Such an attitude is bound to lead to terrorist acts.

But we should not forget to differentiate between these acts and the liberation movement against occupation.

We feel sorry and sad for all the innocent civilians who died in the planes and the World Trade Center, but we have to be cautious so as to be aware of the Arrogant political and military plans to hit a certain target and hold responsible for the attack in order to regain its pride and prestige, whether or not those who are targeted are responsible for the attack, because America and the West intend to take advantage of the situation to implement their policies of aggression against the weakened in the Third world.

We should also not forget the Israeli exploitation of the world’s preoccupation with what is going on in America to wage a barbaric assault against the Palestinians in an attempt to stop the Intifada… The Arab and Muslim peoples should keep the support of the Intifada as their first priority and pressurize their regimes so as not to yield under the arrogant pressures to put an end to the Palestinian uprising.

In Lebanon the officials and all Lebanese citizens of all sects should keep an eye on our borders with Palestine, to monitor the Israeli movements in anticipation of any Israeli aggression They should also freeze all their side differences and fiery statements so as we would be able to hinder any attempt to incite internal strife.

We should also know that the Americans may target many a region in the middle East, therefore we should try not to make our beloved country as wood for their fie. The upcoming stage will witness several security developments and new political alliances, as the Arrogant states will pressure the small states to join them… We ought to know where we stand and where to set foot in this new political land that exploits the slogan of war against terrorism to wage a war against the weakened peoples and the third world.