When Imam Ali bin Musa Al-Rida whom we are still celebrating his anniversary, was asked about the best servants whom Allah and His Messenger loved he said: those when they do good they are cheerful.

They love to do good, by obeying Allah and by helping His servants and they feel happy when they do so because Allah wanted them to do good and enjoin justice Surely Allah enjoins the doing of justice and the doing of good; when they sin or misbehave, they ask for forgiveness, because those who believe do not insist on their sin. And those who when they commit an indecency or do injustice to their souls remember Allah and ask forgiveness for their faults-- and who forgives the faults but Allah, and (who) do not knowingly persist in what they have done.

Those when given they would be thankful. They are thankful for Allah's graces and for the gifts of fellow humans, since as the Hadith says: if you do not thank those who are created you will not thank the Creator.

Those whom when tried they will be patient: And We will most certainly try you with somewhat of fear and hunger and loss of property and lives and fruits; and give good news to the patient,

Those are they on whom are blessings and mercy from their Lord, and those are the followers of the right course; And those if angered they will forgive and will not do anything in revenge.

In another saying, it is narrated that Imam Al-Rida -and probably the Messenger and Imam Al-Baqir, since they all say the same thing being the words of Allah and the Quran- said about the traits of the rational or wise Muslim he said: The mind of the Muslim is not complete except after he acquires ten merits: The good from him is hoped: If he lives in a community, this community will feel confident to expect good from him to every one he lives with, whether his family who would expect that he would sustain them and care for them, or the bigger community he is expected to care for and provide every service he is capable of. "Evil from him is impossible ". He is a man who does not treat anybody with evil, for he respects them being his brothers and fellow citizens, whom he loves for what he loves for himself and hates what he hates for himself. In addition, His belief would prevent him from doing evil.
"He regards little good from others much". If others do good to him he will appreciate it and consider it plenty.
"He regards his own good as little". When he is good to others he does not feel it is more than what he ought to, this is because he believes that the potentials Allah has given him are but a trust that he should give back to its owners. He is not fed up with those who request favors or needs, since he knows that needing him is one of the graces Allah has bestowed on him. He is not tired of seeking knowledge throughout his life. Allah says: "O my Lord! Advance me in knowledge "and he differentiated between those who know and those who know not. Poverty in Allah is more lovable for him than richness with the enemy. If he has to choose between being poor while keeping his faithfulness towards God and between becoming rich through his relations with the enemies of God he would choose poverty, because Allah is the one who enriches him if he becomes poor, and He is the one who bestows on him His Mercy and makes his abode in Heaven… Humbleness in God is more lovable for him than high rank with His enemy… for Allah is the one who is the, Master of the Kingdom! Thou givest the kingdom to whomsoever Thou pleasest and takest away the kingdom from whomsoever Thou pleasest, and Thou exaltest whom Thou pleasest and abasest whom Thou pleasest in Thine hand is the good; surety, Thou hast power over all things.

He believes that: People are two men – one man is better than me and more pious, the other is more evil and lower than me. If he sees the one that is more evil and lower than him he would say: perhaps the good of this person is hidden, which is good for him, while my good is apparent which is bad for me which means that I might not be better than him. Then when he sees the one who is better and more pious than him, he would be humble to him to reach his state. If he does that, his glory becomes high, and he will become the lord of the people of his time.

This is some of what Imam Al-Rida said… This Imam (a.s.) who opened up on all people, He did not leave a chance that he did not make use of to teach the people their religion, their attitude towards various things in life and guide them to the straight path. This is the role that Allah, The Most Exalted, entrusted the Imams of Ahl el-Beit with, and this is the road they followed; the path of their grandfather, The Messenger of Allah who dedicated his life to raise the level of the people and to introduce them to God and to make them close to Him, turning this nation a strong and civilized one.

Thus, dear loved ones, those who go and visit Imam Al-Rida, should not be satisfied by visiting the sacred shrine and reading the supplications.

They should stand and think about the greatness of the Imam (a.s.). Then they should study the great heritage of knowledge he left them. The Imams (a.s.) may not be with us now but their heritage is. And those who claim to follow them should follow their path, by learning from them as if they were with us.

Peace be on Imam Ali bin Musa Al-Rida the day he was born, the day he died, and the day he will be brought back to life.

Is the Annapolis international Conference that has transformed into an international Arab and Israeli demonstration that is supervised by the US, an end to an era of struggle between the Arabs and Israel? Or does it mark the beginning of a new phase of this struggle that is accompanied by the Arabs incapability to resist after Egypt has left the battle with Israel which made the rest of regimes to hasten to reconcile with the enemies.

These regimes would have fallen down a long time ago were not for the international powers who run for help every time they seem about to fall.

Lebanon too is not in a better condition, and it is now a kind of a republic of vacuum, since some of the Arab leaders do not plan for the future, making their countries live in a state of political, security and economic vacuum.

It is interesting that the enemy's foreign minister is warning all the Arabs against interfering in the negotiations with Palestinians since she wants the Palestinian people to be isolated for the Arab world facing all its problems and challenges all alone, just as it was in Madrid when Israel refused to negotiate with the Arabs as a unified team, for it wanted to exploit each country's weak points. And this is what made the Palestinian case enter into a lot of political mazes that distanced it from achieving any of its major gaols.

At the same time, the enemy's Prime Minister has expressed his hope that the normalization process with the Arab world should not be linked with finding a solution to the Palestinian issue, while the Israeli Foreign Minister emphasized that the Arab states’ change from extremism to moderation has opened the doors of friendships with the Zionist Enemy, meaning of course, yielding to American demands, which include allying with Israel and the US against Iran.

This is how the Enemy's President, Shimon Perez, interprets the Arabs’ presence in this conference: to confront the Iranian threat, thus drawing a new line for the Arab policies that is imposed by the Israeli and American demands and not the Arab interests.

What are the realistic results of the conference?

We have heard President Bush in his emotional and exciting speech talking about a two state solution, allowing the Palestinians to live an independent and settled life.

He talked about the committees that will be established to steer the negotiations, but he did not talk about the final status issues, such as Jerusalem, the borders, the settlements and the refugees. He did not also talk about the mechanisms that could achieve these gaols although the negotiations had lasted for tens of years.

The Oslo agreements, for example, only resulted in barbaric occupations and invasions, detentions that filled all jails, and assassinations that hunted all freedom fighters, the suffocating besiege, the racial war, and judaizing Jerusalem as well as destroying the infrastructure and other similar aggressions.

Meanwhile, the successive the American Administrations did not take any step to stop all this. Rather it considered that all that Israel does falls in the category of fighting terrorism and self-defence. In addition, considering Israel as a state for the Jewish people represents an indirect declaration that encourages Israel to deport the 1948 Palestinians.

This conference was not meant to achieve peace for the Arabs and the Palestinians, especially that final-status negotiations are postponed, but rather as an opportunity for President Bush to present himself to the world as a man working for peace, especially in the Palestinian issue which the world is still waiting for realistic solutions for, being affected politically and economically by its repercussions.

The question is: What would the Arabs, especially Lebanon, benefit from this conference that is meant to be a new pressure tool forcing the Palestinians to accomplish the goals of Israel, especially the Arab normalization with Israel.

On another level, Iraq continues to witness daily massacres in which the parents are slaughtered before the very eyes of their children, as in the case of the family that was killed to avenge for an opposing journalist. The occupation forces are also practicing violence in several places, and spreading chaos in all fields.

Faced by this situation, we can only reaffirm the statement of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who said a few days ago that the US is the worst occupier and that the war on Iraq has lead to the worst situation in the world.

In Lebanon, the French and Arab mediators have become certain that the Americans have made a trap for them in the middle of the road to the presidential elections. That is why they concentrated their efforts on organizing the vacuum. They were told that this vacuum is going to stay long in the presidential palace. Whoever wants to wait for the strike against Iran or an Israeli strike against Syria, has to wait, according to certain intelligence reports which we do not know how precise it is, until March.

America respects its strategic interests only. These interests make the US wants Lebanon and its presidency, government, army and the political group supporting it to serve its projects in the region, especially the new Middle East and protecting the Israelis and American national security, and fighting any opposition to its security policies especially in Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran and Lebanon.

All the Lebanese should pay attention to statements made by the US ambassador and his flagrant interference in Lebanon's domestic affairs when it comes to the presidential elections and other issues.

This is part of the US official political strategy to impose its tutelage on Lebanon; they also have to be aware of the negative effect of the Arab disappointment from the Annapolis Conference on the Arabs situation and on Lebanon in particular. This means that we have to protect the national unity in Lebanon and not take the country to where some of the external axis want, producing additional complications in the country.