Friday speeches 1 Rajab 1423h/29 August 2003AD

There are two occasions that we celebrate today. The first is the beginning of the sacred month of Rajab, and the second is the birth of Imam Al-Baqir (a.s.).

Rajab is one of the four months which Allah ordained that they should be months of peace. In addition to Rajab the other months are: Zilqua’da, Zilhujja and Muharram.

In normal circumstances, they are months of peace so that people could meditate and study the mistakes they have committed and the negative impact that war produces such as hatred and enmity that might have a devastating effect on the nation.

In addition, Allah has made also a certain geographic location as an area of peace in which war is prohibited. This the area that has the Sacred Mosque in Mecca as its center and that includes Mecca and Mina and other locations related to the Mosque.

Though these two peace zones, one in time and one in place, Allah wanted the people to live the spirit of peace… to think about how to avoid war and meet in peace. The importance of peace can not be exaggerated, yet there is one case in which we are allowed to fight in these months: when there is an aggression Allah says: They ask thee concerning fighting in the Prohibited Month. Say: "Fighting therein is a grave (offence); but graver is it in the sight of Allah to prevent access to the path of Allah, to deny Him, to prevent access to the Sacred Mosque, and drive out its members." Tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter. (2:217). In the case of absolute necessity, and in the face of a major aggression like that of the Zionists against the Palestinians, or the American aggression against several Muslim countries… In such circumstances Muslims are allowed to fight back, because the Muslim’s sacredness is more important than that of times or places .

As this month begins, we should meditate and think about how we could live the spirit of peace in our private and public lives… how could we act with love and only love inside us... for hatred produces violence and war while love produces solidarity and collaboration.

Thus with the beginning of this month we have to fight ourselves so that we get rid of many of our feelings of hatred and enmity. Several people fast in this month and in the months of Sha’ban and Ramadan. But in addition to fasting the ordinary fast on food we have to fast on evil and hatred. If fasting was ordained in the month of Ramadan and recommended in other times it was meant to be as a means of piety that will make us more watchful of our feelings and actions towards Allah and fellow human beings.

The second occasion is the birth of Imam Muhammad Al-Baqir(a.s.). When we study the life of this great Imam, we notice that he and his son Imam Jaafar Al-Sadiq were able to publish, the line of Islam, the only line of Ahl El-Biet. Through their school most of the heritage that has reached us has originated from the teaching of these two Imams, for the political circumstances of their times allowed them to convey to others, the knowledge they inherited from the Prophet(p.).

When Imam Al-Baqir used to sit in the mosques, the Islamic school at that times, where Muslims of various sects and tends used to attend, other scholars used to feel that they were young students learning from their teacher. Moreover, the Imam(a.s.) used to be opened up on all sects. He used to teach them the sciences of Islam, and they did not feel any embarrassment to learn from him being non-Shiites,

The Imam(a.s.) used to live with the people like one of them with no barriers whatsoever. He used to sit among them just the Messenger(p.) used to, “just like any of them.

The high rank of the Imams did not drive them to live in a different manner and separate themselves from the population. If we study the heritage of Imam Al-Baqir, we would find that he answered all questions, no matter how trivial any question might be. He followed the example of the Messenger(p.) and the previous Imams, for those who ask have something they do not have an answer for and therefore you have to answer it.

Thus, the Muslim scholars have to follow the example of Ahl El-beit in being humble and in answering al questions.

The Imam(a.s.) had a farm in whish he used to work in. Once, he went to his farm at high noon and he was seem by one of the dignitaries of Medina who wanted to advise him and said: “One of the nobleman of Quraish goes out in such a time seeking matters of this world; what about if you die now? The Imam(a.s.) said: If I die, I would die obeying God. I only fear death if I were sinning”.

This is the true and wonderful Islamic understanding for obeying Allah. It is not only fasting and praying, but rather holding all your responsibilities and trying your best not ask anything from others. If you this you will be worshipping even when you are working.

The Imam(a.s.) used to go all his way to change certain misconceptions of the Muslims in his time.

He talked, for example, about those who would perform Hajj several times, but they were not ready to help a poor family saying that providing for such a family is more important than performing Hajj seventy times.

Thus Islam has attached special importance for the social issues. It made helping those who are in need better than performing recommended rites. This does not mean that one should not perform pilgrimage more than once if he can, but it means that this should not deter him from helping the poor and the needy.

In another saying the Imam asserts: If you want to know that you are good, look at your heart. If you find that your heart loves those that obey Allah and hates those when disobey him then you are good and Allah loves you. If you love those who disobey Allah, the most Exalted, and hate those that obey Him then Allah, the most Exalted, hates you.

On another level, the Imam talks about how his followers ought to be. One of his followers once told him that there are a lot of Shiites in his neighborhood, and the Imam asked him: “Does the rich sympathize with the poor, and does the charitable forgive those who hurt others… If they don’t they are not Shiites. For Shiism is the Islamic line with all its moral axioms.

In a message carried by one of his followers to his Shiites, the Imam says: “…And advise them to fear Allah, the Magnificent, tell them that their rich should sympathize with the poor, and the strong should sympathize with the weak. They should attend the funerals of their dead and visit one another, for their meeting keeps our cause alive… Tell our Shiites that we could do nothing to them except by their own deeds, And that they cannot become among our followers excepts by piety…

The ones who will fear the greatest remorse on the Day of Judgment are those who know what is right yet they practice something else… Ali’s Shiites are those… who strive for the cause of Justice, those who love one another and visit each other. Those who if angered will not become unjust and if pleased will not exceed the proper bounds…They are a blessing for their neighbors and a peace for those they mix with.”

This is the cause of Ahl El-Beit and these are their morals. This is the line they want us to follow; the line of the straight path of Islam…

Let us be with them in our practice and in our morals. Peace be on them the day they were born, the day they were born, the day they die and the day we will meet them in the Hereafter.

The Bush-Sharon alliance continues its war on the Palestinian people through mass punishment, destroying the infrastructure of the cities and towns, that turns occupied Palestine to ruins, and assassinating the Palestinian militants in the name of protecting peace and establishing a Palestinian state.

The American plan aims at turning the Palestinian people, the authority the leadership the factions and all sectors, into a tool that serves the Israeli security, by taking large Palestinian lands to build the separating fence and additional settlements.

Al what the Palestinians are left with is the specter of a state that is made of several disconnected localities. President Bush is making countless statements to announce that the Palestinian state could not be established unless, the “violence of the Palestinian factions” stops, but what he really means is that the Palestinian concessions to the Zionist entity could not be delivered except by a bloody war between the Palestinian Authority that is “blessed” by the Americans, and the Israelis, and the Palestinian factions that are knitted in the fabric of the Palestinian people, as evident from those huge angry demonstrations in the funeral of martyr Ismail AbuShanab.

What Sharon and Bush hope for is what the Palestinians, the Authority and the people, will come out of this war so weakened that they will not have any negotiation cards, and thus ready to sign any concessions regarding the reservations that Sharon has on the “Road Map”, especially that the Palestinians lack any Arab, Islamic and international support. Israel will then become the only force in the region in which all states and peoples in the region have to acknowledge.

Asked about the situation in Palestine when he assumed office, President Bush said: “let the blood flow and then we will see what to do”. He actually meant was that the Palestinian Arab and Muslim blood which is very cheap, while the Zionist blood, in contrast, is the blood of democracy, civilization and human rights.

Now he is saying the same thing but in a different way; when he supports the assassinations and the collective punishments he is saying: “Have no mercy in killing all of them. Let Israel’s security be secured even if all Palestinians die”.

The American president knows that the problem is one of occupation and not resistance, for resistance is basically a reaction… If he claims that he is independent, we ask him to try to ask the Israelis to withdraw, thus putting the ball in the Palestinian court, for the Palestinians have repeatedly declared that they will stop all violence if the Israelis withdraw... If he claims that he does not trust the Palestinians, we remind him that the Zionists could reoccupy the Palestinian territories. Moreover the Palestinian people will not be ready to accept any violence practiced by the militants after the withdrawal. Bush’s problem lies in that he does not enjoy any independence in his decision making especially with his bloodthirsty Zionist administration that is starving to extend its domination all over the world. That is why he is putting the carriage in front of the horse.

Nevertheless, we are sure that the Palestinian people will neither engage in a civil war, nor will it forego its right of liberating its homeland. We ask the Palestinian Authority-leadership and cabinet-

not to become the authority that strikes at the militants and closes their charity organizations that takes are of the poor, the orphans and the sick. This would be equivalent to grand treason… The American pressures will not give you anything. It has been the problem in the past and the present and it will continue to be the problem in the future…

America has opened Iraq for Israeli trade, allowing the Zionists to take part in the projects of reconstruction and exploiting the present political-economic chaotic conditions in which the Iraqis have no say.

The situation in Iraq has become so messy that the Americans who face daily attacks are preoccupied with the security of their own soldiers, and no longer pay any attention to the security of the Iraqis who have also to endure the lack of basic services as well as social and economic instability. The Americans are calling other governments to send their troops to help the American forces in all this…

Yet it talks about letting the Iraqis run their own affairs by establishing an Iraqi government and founding a constitution but of course, under the Americans’ control who have the right to veto and impose their decrees.

Could such a chaotic picture turn into a model democracy for the region? This is a bad American joke especially that the US administration has become intolerant with the liberties of the Americans themselves, and began to borrow some third would laws to restrict public freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism.

Meanwhile, pressures, especially American pressure, are mounting on Iran, whether through the International Atomic Agency, or by detaining some of its ambassadors, the economic siege and media campaigns. It falsely accuses Iran of producing mass destruction weapons, despite the fact that America has started to experiment a small nuclear device that could be used in traditional wars.

The explosion in Bombay in which more than 50 innocent civilians were killed and more than 100 injured, makes us repeat our call to all parties, Muslims and non-Indians alike, to resort to dialogue and cooperation.

We find no religious, political or humanistic justification for such actions regardless of who did it or who was targeted by it.

Indians should respect the citizenship of other Indians… Hindus and Muslims should respect the others’ sacred places and religions freedom... The Indian government should not try to solve the problem in unrealistic manner, by taking sides with one party against the other. It is not in the interest of any party, since it only complicates things.

A Lebanon moves in total blackout as a result of the political “electricity” that burns the stability of the country, and that only cares about settling accounts and scoring personal points.

Where has the reform gone... Did it go to Mars , or it still on earth, where do we look for it among the officials or among our citizens..?