Allah says in His Glorious book {And there may spring from you a nation who invite to goodness, and enjoin right conduct and forbid evil. Such are they who are successful}. He also says in another Surah {You are the best nation that has been raised up for mankind, You enjoin right and forbid evil}[110/p71] Allah in these Ayahs describes the believers as {They believe in Allah and the Last Day, and enjoin right and forbid evil, and vie one with another in good works. They are of the righteous}.

Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil Is a Mutual Responsibility

In these Holy verses, Allah wishes to immunize the Muslim community against any deviation by making every Muslim, male and female, responsible for confronting any such deviation whether at home, in the market, on in any other forum. Every Muslim that respects his Islam should call for the good all those he meets or lives with. He also holds the duty of calling his family. Allah ordered the Messenger in the beginning of the Message to warn “your tribe of near kindred”. Parents thus should be responsible not only for the physical well being of their children, but for their moral well being as well. They ought to watch over the religious development of their families and ensure that their household members believe in Islam and enjoin the good. Allah says in the Quran: {Enjoin prayer on your people and be diligent in its observance}. Such a command is not meant for the parents only. Children too could call their parents to fast and pray, with wisdom and good words. This is a responsibility of the society as a whole in which each member is a caller for religion and the good.

But the good we are commanded by Allah to call for is very broad that it contains all what raises the level of the people, develops their potentials, unifies their ranks, draws them closer to Allah and ensures their freedom and stability in the context of pleasing God. Thus, enjoining the good covers the religious as well as social, political and economic fields, while evil covers every thing that Allah does not want us to do, especially that which destabilizes the cohesion of the individual and the society and leads them to corruption, and deviation. Enjoining good and forbidding evil represent, therefore, the social overseeing that protects the society. But do not think for one moment that this is the task of the religious scholars only. Every believer should consider this as a part of his religious duty. The Holy verse quoted above talks about the nation, describing it as the best nation only because it holds its responsibility in believing in Allah and enjoining the good.

It is true that the responsibility of the religious scholars is bigger, but this is because they are more aware of their Islamic duties being more knowledgeable of the teachings of Islam. But every believer should develop this knowledge to face corruption in the community. For many people might reach wrong conclusions or take wrong stands, simply because they are unaware of the Shari’ a law. A case in point is that many people do not think that a political figure should be a pious man… This is wrong, because being a politician is not being a liar or a hypocrite… It is serving the people and ensuring their welfare… It is making sure that they live in a just community. Politics is standing against injustice and oppression. This is what we learn from the practice of the Messenger, Muhammad, and the Imams. And this is what we notice in the speech Imam Hussein (a.s.) delivered when he was asked by the governor at Medina to pledge loyalty for Yazid(1), when he told him that he is a member of the family of prophethood which the Quran was revealed to... While Yazid(1) was a dissolute man who drinks wine and kills innocent people which Allah has deemed unlawful. “A man like me does not pledge loyalty to a man like him”. This means that any one who has these evil traits could not hold any public responsibility, be it a minor or a major one. Our problem is that we curse Yazid(1) and cry over Imam Hussein, but we, at the same time, follow people who are like Yazid(1) .

Establishing Justice Is the Best Form of Enjoining Good

But we have to understand that when we adhere to a certain principle, this principle should govern all aspects of our life. Being a Muslim covers not only your worship but your social, political and economic activities as well. You are a Muslim at home, at work, in the marketplace and in the club… We have to keep in mind always that everything we do will be written {And-it will be said unto him: Read your book. Your soul suffices as reckoner against thee this day}. In this world, you are backed by your relatives and your tribe, but when you are all alone in the grave, there is no one to support you. Therefore, we have to make sure that the book of our acts contains what helps us face that judgment in the other world. But it is a pity that our interests in this life have become materialistic, and most of us do not care if their relatives are believers or not. Some even do not allow their daughters to wear veils thinking that this will diminish their chances of getting married… Where is your piety? Where is your dependence upon Allah?

Allah has told us about the reasons that made the children of Israel cursed {Those of the children of Israel who went astray were cursed by the tongue of David, and of Jesus, son of Mary. That was because they rebelled and used to transgress.} And informed us about the reward He promised for those who do good {There is no good in much of their secret conferences save (in) him who enjoins almsgiving and kindness and peace-making among the people, Whoso does that, seeking the good pleasure of Allah, We shall bestow on him a vast reward}. He also explained that enjoining good and forbidding evil is the duty of all believers men and woman alike: {And the believers, men and women, are protecting friends one of another; they enjoin the right and forbid the wrong and they establish worship and they pay the poor-due, and they obey Allah and His Messenger. As for these, Allah will have mercy on them. Lo! Allah is Mighty, Wise.

Therefore, we should not keep women away from doing what serves our community, because they too have their own abilities just as men do.

In the light of this, we ought - as believers, both men and woman - to bear our responsibility in the Muslim community by reforming everything that we find wrong and making people become aware of their sins if we find that they are sinning. We ought to remind one another of the necessity of adhering to the right, for clinging to the right is what saves the community. The Prophet (p.) told the believers that when they leave the duty of enjoining good and forbidding evil and when they enjoin evil and forbid good instead, they will turn into a corrupt community whom Allah will not respond to their supplications.

Educate Yourself on the Morals of Heaven

In this respect, oppression and injustice are the worst forms of evil, while justice is the best form of good. When injustice becomes the norm, the community must deploy all its capabilities to eradicate oppression and restore justice, in order to make our world a part of the other world in which people do not have any hatred or malice towards one another. This the way people live in Heaven and these are their morals; the morals of good and love. Let us educate and train ourselves on the morals of Heaven, and let us pray always to Allah to help us against ourselves with what He helps the righteous against theirs.

The Second Speech

In the Name of God, The Compassionate, the Merciful

Worshippers of Allah, be pious and know that the arrogant world has decided to weaken, if not destroy, any Islamic stronghold. Thus, the Islamic nation should freeze all its marginal differences, and silence every call for prosecution or social and political instability. The enemy has united against Islam and the weakened and we have to unite in order to face him.

It Is an American War

We are facing an enemy, America, as big as the whole world, which has planted, or at least supported, another enemy in Palestine. And since then the Arab world and certain parts of the Muslim world as well, did not enjoy any stability whether in its political life or its economy and security… Since then we have been moving from one crisis into another with internal strife and conflicts following one another. Meanwhile, the enemy was growing stronger until we became quite weak. Yet our only concern was still our marginal differences and envies, although we were quite clearly warned against such an attitude in several verses of the Quran that call for unity and that warn against any internal fight, that will only lead to failure and loss of any consideration that might deter others from fighting us.

The Israeli Massacres in Palestine

Thousands of children, women, the elderly and the youth are being killed in Palestine, whether by American planes, tanks and guns or by the bulldozers which are demolishing houses to fall on those who live in them. Then the martyrs are being buried in collective graves so as to conceal the magnitude of the Zionists’ horrific crimes…

Nevertheless, we have not heard any American official condemning these massacres, although they are quite enthusiastic to condemn the martyr operations which they brand as “terrorism”.

Any Arab pressure did not meet the American Secretary of State who came to the region. We did not hear any Arab official raise his voice in condemning the US policies, despite the fact that before he came he had a meeting in Madrid to pressurize the European Union, that tried to impose sanctions on Israel, Russia that has become irrelevant and the United Nations, and force them to come up with a resolution that equates between the murderer and the victim. A decision that talks about the Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian lands in a very cold way that it does not contain any pressure, and that talks about stopping the Resistance operations in Lebanon without demanding that Israel withdraws from the Lebanese occupied lands or stopping its violations of the Lebanese airspace. All this means that America is leading the international community in trying to reach a solution that finds a way to rescue Israel out of its current political and security impasse, at the expense of the Palestinians.

In this respect, it is quite ironic that America calls Sharon “a man of peace”, despite all these operations of eradication he is carrying out in the West Bank! If this is the image of a man of peace then what would the image of a criminal of war be like? This Israeli war in Palestine looks very much like the American war in Afghanistan, with all its inhuman practices of killing civilians and burying them under the rubbles of their houses, all under the pretense of “fighting terrorism”.

Rising to the Level of the Challenge.

We believe that this brutal war that America leads against the Palestinians, with all the weapons it provided to Israel and with both parties executing a previously orchestrated plan, is a war against all the Arabs and Muslims. Thus, the whole nation should rise to the level of being aware of this challenge and of the necessity of confronting it, by declaring a war against the Zionist occupation and the American interests, especially by boycotting American goods as much as possible. This is because these two strategic allies have set out to destroy the political and economic infrastructure of Muslims and Arabs to accomplish the project of the clash of civilizations.

The Arab and Muslim conferences have clearly failed, since they did not exert any effective pressure although they have a lot of cards to play. We also call on the peoples of these regimes to carry out their responsibilities in this critical stage.

Unity… Unity

We call on the Palestinian Authority to remain steadfast in its heroic position until martyrdom to preserve this unity between the Authority and its people that proved, through the unity of all its national and Islamic parties, that it will continue to confront terrorism with resistance and martyr operations -including the Haifa operation- that will deny the Israelis any sense of security.

As we salute the Palestinian people whom we are confident that they will continue their struggle in this difficult era in which America is trying to gain for Israel through politics what the latter did not gain though war. We also call on the Arab and Muslim people to stay in the streets in an on going uprising that exerts pressure on the American arrogance for America has to feel that its interests are endangered.

Lebanon: Resistance until Liberation

We would also like to salute the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon for its confrontation of the enemy in the Shiba’ Farms, knowing quite well that it represents the glimpse of strength in this Arab dark weakness, as well as being a show of support to the Palestinians.

We ask all Lebanese to support their resistance in the face of an enemy that understands no other language than force. We should preserve our national unity both in Lebanon and Palestine, and continue our march to liberate our lands in both countries.

If the near past has proved that the resistance is able to liberate the lands why would not the near future witness another success? 

1-Yazid : The  son of Muawiya who succeeded him as the second Umayyad ruler. He gave the orders to his Wali in Kuffa  to commit the massacre of Karabla in  which Imam Hussein (a.s.) , his family and his companions were either killed or taken prisoners .