The First Sermon

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Allah says in His Glorious Book: :{ O Prophet! surely We have sent you as a witness, and as a bearer of good news and as a warner, And as one inviting to Allah by His permission, and as a light-giving torch.} [33:45] Even as We have sent among you a Messenger from among you who recites to you Our communications and purifies you and teaches you the Book and the wisdom and teaches you that which you did not know. 2:151

Muhammad a Mercy for all mankind

We meet nowadays with the anniversary of the birth of the greatest Messenger, Muhammad (p.), whom Allah has sent as a Mercy for all mankind… He is a Mercy for their hearts in allowing them to open up on truth in all aspects of life, and a Mercy for their hearts making it full of love for all people, and a Mercy for their lives as they seek to establish justice in their relations. Muhammad (p.) is a Mercy because he has the greatest mind among people; a Mercy in his heart, being that caring and kind to the believers, who lived with the weak and the poor as if he was one of them. He was never arrogant or boastful. His greatness was a product of being associated with God. Therefore, he had to be humble among people. The more you live the greatness of God in you, the more pious and God loving you become. You would know the meaning of being a human being as well as how much every human being needs Allah and how all human beings are equal before Him, with the most pious among them becoming the closest to Allah.

The Messenger was an orphan, whose father died before he was born and whose mother died shortly afterwards. He was nursed by one of the Arab tribes as people of Quraish used to do at the time. But he was taken care of by God who, as Imam Ali said, has commissioned one of His greatest angels to teach him on a daily basis, both knowledge and ethics.

The Messenger did not read or write. Had he been literate, the unbelievers would have said that he has read what he brought them in earlier books. But despite the fact that he was illiterate, he came up with what is far more superior than all the scientists, the legislators and the poets came up with, so that the people would know that he was a prophet and that what he brought them was revealed by Allah. And this is how the Messenger used to present himself to the people: “I am not a king, I do not know what will happen in the future. I do not control any benefit or harm for my own soul except as Allah pleases; and had I known the unseen I would have had much of good and no evil would have touched me; I am nothing but a warner and the giver of good news to a people who believe” (7:188)

I am a human whose message is sent to by God: “Say: O people! surely I am the Messenger of Allah to you all, of Him Whose is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth there is no god but He; He brings to life and causes to die therefore believe in Allah and His messenger, the Ummi Prophet who believes in Allah and His words, and follow him so that you may walk in the right way”. (7:158)

This is how he presented himself with all the simplicity and spontaneity and confidence in the world. He is a human but an infallible one who says only the Truth by God’s will. His manners too are divine for they were shaped by God himself who described the Prophet as being of supreme morals.

The Prophet is the Quran

The Prophet used to represent the Quran in every move he made and every word he said. He was the moving Quran, from which you could read the original Quran by studying his actions and sayings. That is why Allah, the most Exalted, asks us to consider the Prophet as our role model, if we wish to please Him, and if we think about the hereafter.

He used to think only about Allah and never about the arrogant and the rich. That is why he said to his God when he was hurt and persecuted by his people: If You are not angry with me, I do not care. The only thing I care about is Your satisfaction.

I would never feel lonely or sad if You are with me”, and that is what he told his companion when they left for Medina: “If you will not aid him, Allah certainly aided him when those who disbelieved expelled him, he being the second of the two, when they were both in the cave, when he said to his companion: Grieve not, surely Allah is with us” (9:40)

When you are with Allah, the most Exalted, your sadness will turn to joy and you will live pleasure in the heart of pains and sorrows.

This also is what he taught his companions: To feel that they are strong in times when things get tough. “Those to whom the people said: Surely men have gathered against you, therefore fear them, but this increased their faith, and they said: Allah is sufficient for us and most excellent is the Protector” (03:173).

In his anniversary, we have to remember that the Prophet has suffered all what he has suffered, for the sake of Islam. But he did not relent.

He endured all forms of harm, torture and persecution to ensure that the message would be passed on to the following generations, carried out by his household members and his faithful companions to act as a light that illuminates the road of successive generations.

This is what Allah has said when the rumors spread in Uhud that the Prophet was killed. “And Muhammad is no more than a messenger; the messengers have already passed away before him; if then he dies or is killed will you turn back upon your heels? And whoever turns back upon his heels, he will by no means do harm to Allah in the least and Allah will reward the grateful” (3:144).

The Message has been carried from one generation to another and all these generations have lived the Message of Islam… They differed on how to understand a certain verse or about certain rulings. They also differed about which sayings of the Prophet were authentic, leading to extremism that was fueled by backwardness.

Such a development was, of course, anticipated by Allah, which made Him ask them to refer to Allah and the Messenger in all their differences, and ordered them to preserve their unity.

But they did not, and reached the stage of accusing one another of unbelief, to the extent of considering it lawful to kill other innocent Muslims, as in the recent explosions in the Islamic countries. This trend even extended to members of the same sect, with Sunnis and Shiites accusing one another of unbelief and refusing to resort to dialogue and mutual understanding.

These developments create a culture of hatred and enmity, to the extent that we no longer talk about how to call for Islam and how to face the big challenges in these critical times. All what we think about us how to fight one another in the name of Islam. What kind of Islam is this Islam?

The Messenger was a messenger of love and kindness, who was concerned with the wellbeing and safety of all Muslims. How far away have we become from his teachings? Could such attitudes claim to be representative of his teachings?

On the anniversary of the Messenger, we have to go back to him to learn how to have Mercy on follow Muslims and how to be tough with infidels, and not the other way round. We now accuse one another of unbelief and kill one another, while with unbelievers, we talk about having good relations with the Americans… We talk about freedom and democracy while they are killing us.

The Nation’s Unity

I am sorry to say that this is a matter of honor which we no longer live. We do not live the honor and dignity of Islam. We have become like the Jews who fought the Prophet. Those Jews were divided while we were united dealing with mercy among ourselves and toughness towards infidels and that is why they were defeated. But things have changed and we have got to return to that image of unity if we want to be victorious.

Now is not the time for the Shiites or the Sunnis to accuse the other party of unbelief. It is not the time to incite any kind of sectarian or partisan strife. We are only safe if Islam itself and the Islamic nation are safe… You will not gain anything by collaborating with the arrogant. They will always see you as a small replaceable instrument that they look at with disgrace, while they will respect you if you fight against them.

In a time the world has waged a war against us you have to think if you are with America, the Yazid of this era, or with Imam Hussein. You have to choose right now before you will no longer be able to.

America legitimizes Jewish Occupation

Israel celebrates the 56th anniversary of the Jewish aggression against the Palestinian people that killed and displaced the Palestinians to establish a Jewish state which in turn completely changed the situation in the region. It was supported in the beginning by Britain and then by the United States, which supported Israel’s security at the expense of the Arabs, and supported the Israeli state terror against the Palestinians, giving the Zionists a free hand to commit massacres, destroy the infrastructure, execute collective punishment against the Palestinians being a terrorist people that has to be eradicated.

America that instituted freedom in its constitution has turned to a country that legitimizes the Jewish occupation of Palestine, as well as its own occupation of Iraq, and justifies the bombing of civilians in cold blood. It shamelessly and rudely talks about human rights and freedom crying over the “sorrows” of the Jews and talking about saving the Iraqis from terrorism by practicing its own state terrorism against the Iraqis in several Iraqi cities.

The Bush declaration that intersects with that of Belford states that occupation creates facts on the ground that should be recognized by those whose lands are occupied. Palestinians, according to Bush’s letter to his ally, should be prevented from returning to their lands. It should be given to the settlers to further cement the colonial occupation of Palestine. Then his secretary of state tried to deceive the Arabs by saying that these issues will be determined in the negotiations concerning the final status, without telling them that Americans will stand with Israel giving the Jewish state all the cards it needs to prevent the Arabs from executing their agenda of a Palestinian state, the return of the refugees and the liberation of the 1967 occupied lands including Jerusalem.

By unity we keep the Palestinian cause alive

In this anniversary, we have to think of a plan to unify all the Palestinian factions on the basis of military and political resistance. We should also try to establish a united Arab Islamic front that seeks, along with all the forces of liberation in the world, to ensure that the Palestinian cause is alive and thriving.

In these circumstances, we ask the Arabs: Where is their political and pressurizing voice that protests against the American support of the Jewish massacres? Where is the Arab money to aid the Palestinians whose conditions have become, according to the UN, unbearable?

Are they afraid that America would accuse them of supporting terrorism, having branded the Palestinians as a terrorist people?

It is a question that remains unanswered, for they do not have the courage to act.

On another level, we once more like to remind the Muslims of our religious fatwa demanding to boycott American goods whenever possible and the Israeli ones whatever the circumstances, so that we could act and not just talk.

The Resistance is legitimate

In Iraq the advanced American war machine is shelling civilians and besieging the people.

But the Americans are facing a people that does not accept their occupation and that is fighting them in all means, which made them confused and not knowing how to act: They are on the one hand with the UN but they would not give it the necessary authority, and on the other hand they talk about giving the sovereignty to the Iraqis but they want to keep control of security, and economy. They also want to keep their army inside and outside the Iraqi major cities, and they want to have the right to veto any law enacted by the sovereign state…

America talks about the war on terrorism but it does not talk about what led to it, or about the difference between terrorism and resistance, because it does not want to admit that its occupation of Iraq and the Jewish occupation of Palestine are a form of state terrorism, and that the resistance against them is consequently legitimate, being a fight for freedom. It only wants to find a solution by force and not through political means.

As a result, it will sink in the Iraqi quicksand just like the Israelis in Palestine. Force could not defeat a nation. In the end, the occupation itself will be defeated.

Democracy in Lebanon:

We are afraid that the current local elections have been influenced not only by partisan fanaticism but by that of the familial one as well. There is a growing tendency to represent families away from moral and scientific qualifications, which could refuel previous enmities.

We call on all Lebanese to act in all the upcoming elections as citizens whose only concern is the wellbeing of their people, its unity and its freedom, on the basis of love, kindness and looking forward for a new human being in a new dawn of prosperity and freedom.