The First Sermon
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Allah says in His Glorious Book
:
Surely you shall
die and they (too) shall surely die.
He also says: And
We did not ordain abiding for any mortal before you. What! Then if you
die, will they abide?
God, did not give the opportunity of
immortality to any of His servants, rather He emphasized that :
every
soul shall taste of death.
Moreover, one of the verses
emphasize that the role of the Prophet from the point of view of his
relations with the people is to convey the message and then meet his
God. But when the Messenger dies the Message does not die with him. It
stays as a trust with those the Muslims who believe in it.
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.
This verse was revealed during the
battle of Uhud. When someone said: "Muhammad is killed" and another
one answered him: "If Muhammad has died, his God has not".
But another man of those whose faith
was not strong enough suggested that they should go to Abu-Sufain, one
of the leaders of Quraish and surrender.
That is why this verse was revealed
to emphasize to the Muslims that if the Messenger(p.) were to be
killed or died, the Message would not die and the responsibility of
conveying it from each generation to the next until Allah inherits the
earth, and those on it would not cease.
No Muslim could be indifferent
towards Islam. And Muslims have a responsibility to educate their
children on Islam and to consider this duty as one of their top
priorities. God says:
Enjoin prayer on thy
people, and be constant therein.
He also says:
O ye who
believe! save yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is
Men and Stones, over which are (appointed) angels stern (and) severe,
who flinch not (from executing) the Commands they receive from Allah,
but do (precisely) what they are commanded.
Completing the Message
Towards the end of his life, the Messenger(p.) stood in Mina to
deliver his farewell speech through which he was completing his
mission. He stood up and asked the people :what city is this?. They
all answered it is the sacred city, and what month is this and what
day. And they said it is the sacred month and the sacred day . The
Messenger then told them.: Just as you regard this month, this day and
this city sacred, so regard the lives and property of all amongst you
as sacred and inviolable
Then the Messenger(p.) reached a
place called Ghadir Khum where he gave his farewell speech, so that
the people will know who is the best, the most pious, the nearest to
God and the most experienced in running the affairs of Muslims. He was
the one who loved Allah and His Messenger and who was loved by Allah
and His Messenger(p.) .
He was following Allah's command to deliver Allah
has revealed to you
from your Lord; and if you do it not, then you have not
delivered His message.
The Messenger(p.) , thus gathered the people in the
blazing sun and stood up to say
Do I not have more right over the believers than
what they have over themselves?"
People cried and answered:
"Yes, O' Messenger of God
He then held up the hand of 'Ali and said:
"For whoever I am his Leader (mawla), 'Ali is his
Leader (mawla)." O' God, love those who love him, and be hostile to
those who are hostile to him."
The Messenger(p.) wanted the people
to pledge their loyalty to Ali, but it was a pledge that many were not
committed to. The Messenger(p.) felt that there was some instability
among the Muslims, so tried to solve the problem, and asked while he
was on his deathbed to bring him a pen and something to write on, to
write to them what if they adhere to they will never fall astray. But
some of them said that the Prophet was hallucinating, forgetting what
Allah has said that the Prophet never says anything on his own, and
that it was always revealed from God.
The Messenger(p.) addressed the
people and said:
I am about to be called and I will
respond. O people. Let no one hope or claim anything. There is nothing
in the relation between Allah and His servants that would lead Him to
bestow good on them or repel evil except good work.
He added that if he were to sin he
too would have fallen. Then he asked the people to claim any trust,
they have left with him. Then, he talked to his closet relatives
saying: O Bani Abdul Muttalib! You should act in such away that Allah
may not punish you, and you should know that I cannot help you in the
matter. O Ban
i
Murra bin Kāb! O Bani Hashim! O Bani Abdush-Shams! Deliver yourselves
from the torture on account of polytheism by worshipping Allah, for I
cannot do anything for you in this regard. O Abbas, (uncle of the
Prophet)! You, too, should free yourself from Divine torture. O Safia,
(aunt of Muhammad)! You too should think of your freedom and
deliverance for I cannot do anything for you. Neither your profit in
this world nor your share in the Hereafter is in my hands. So you must
believe in Allah and say: "There is no deity but Allah". O Fatima
daughter of Muhammad! You must also endeavor to save yourself from
Divine punishment because your father cannot help you in the matter
and has no control over your gain and loss
". The Messenger(p.) wanted to tell all the people that what relates
them to God is not their wealth or their linage, but rather actions.
To emphasize this issue, Imam Ali
says: "Friends of Muhammad are those who obey Allah even if they are
not related to him, while his enemies are those who disobey Allah even
if they were close relations.”
When we commemorate the occasion of
the Prophet's death on the 25th of the month of Safar, we have to
remember the responsibility towards the end of the revelation after
Allah has completed His religion, chose Islam as our religion and told
us :
Let
there arise out of you a band of people inviting to all that is good,
enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong: They are the
ones to attain felicity.
Therefore, Allah and His Messenger(p.) have entrusted us with Islam,
we have to hold fast to the rope of Allah which is Islam and the
Quran… we should be united by them adhere to them, and call on the
people to introduce to them the truths of Islam, especially to those
who did not study it in depth and accuse it of terrorism and
backwardness.
We have to carry Islam to this
world, and act as a role model to others in adhering to its teachings
and values. This is our responsibility before God on the Day of
Judgement. In this respect, God asked us to learn the Prophet's morals
and actions and follow their lead:
Certainly you
have in the Messenger of Allah an excellent exemplar for him who hopes
in Allah and the latter day and remembers Allah much.
The arrogant world and the vicious
Zionism have mobilized all their forces and unified their ranks to
face Islam and limit its movement to become the religion of man in the
world.
That is why we have to unite all of
us, and let not our differences stand in the face of this unity. We
have also to solve our differences on the basis of referring them, as
we are told in the Quran, to Allah and His Messenger.
This stage is one of the most
critical with respect to the future of Islam and Muslims. We have to
unify our ranks to fight on the cultural, political, security and
econometric levels, for Allah says
:
Truly Allah loves those who fight in His Cause in battle array, as if
they were a solid cemented structure
The Second Sermon
The American lies
The American President is using an
underlying threatening language in his daily talks about the region.
He accuses Syria of acting against democracy in Lebanon through its
intelligence elements, which , he claims, are still in Lebanon. He
also questions the Syrian cooperation with the international
investigation committee on the assassination of Premier Harriri,
despite Syria's continuous announcement that it is ready to fully
cooperate. We in turn ask about the US intelligence elements that are
in Lebanon and interfere through the US Embassy with its political
affairs.
On another level. It is funny that
the American President claims to sympathize with the Palestinian
sufferings, but he does not mention the occupation, the root cause of
all the Palestinian sufferings, nor does he do anything to elevate
them. He also talks about a viable Palestinian state, but he does not
exert any pressure on Israel that had unilaterally defined is borders,
thus preventing the establishment of the state. Israel depends on the
American and European support to the extent that it has set the line
between Jerusalem and the West Bank as the line of its borders, with
no objection from president Bush who has become addicted to lying
since he talked about mass destruction weapons to justify his
occupation of Iraq, and accusing Syria and the militant Palestinian
factions of terrorism as well as accusing Iran of supporting
terrorism… He is lying at his people and the entire world, and
pressurizing the European Union in all that…
Moreover, President Bush asserts
that Israel has the right to possess nuclear weapons, but he
pressurizes Iran to stop its peaceful nuclear program and refuses to
talk with Iran and listen to what it has to say about its peaceful
project.
Furthermore, although President Bush
recognizes that the Palestinian elections was democratic, he refused
to accept the results of these elections, which unveils the biggest
American lie of spreading democracy in the world. The American
President wants Israel to continue its project of appropriating the
Palestinian lands killing the people and executing its terrorist
projects that encourage terrorism in the region.
Destroying Iraq:
In Iraq, the American Occupation has
revealed its real face yet again, through the bloody massacre in the
Mustupah Hassaynie, by which America tried to say to the Iraqis that
you are not free to draw your own policies or to determine your own
destiny and build your unified independent country.
The American and British occupation
is even pressurizing all Iraqi political parties, even in matters like
choosing the prime minister or other posts. They also incite sectarian
strife as in the latest statemens by President Bush and his ambassador
in Baghdad.
As for Bush's talk about a national
unity government, he is in fact defining the agenda of this government
that he wants to serve his occupation policies.
Therefore we call on all Iraqis to
confront the occupation plans of a long stay in Iraq in order to usurp
Iraqi national resources. The occupation has destroyed Iraq in the
name of destroying tyranny and created anarchy in the name or
spreading democracy.
The Arab Summit
Although the Arab summit has preserved the right of
the Resistance, it did not say no in the face of Israel and America.
The three nos of Khartoum (No peace, no recognition and no surrender)
have been dropped of the Arab Leaders' dictionary , for they have
become addicted to saying yes to the US that wants the culture of
defeatism to impose itself on the Arab and Islamic reality, even in
the age of Resistance in Lebanon and Palestine.
Political Anarchy in Lebanon
Lebanon is
still stumbling through political chaos under the banner of dialogue
and reform, keeping the country in a state of stagnation in matters of
economy finance and security. Lebanon has not come up with a defense
policy to liberate the remaining occupied territories and stand up to
the Israeli threat which reminds us of its hostility through water,
land and air violations, at a time some Lebanese officials who,
despite this critical phase, are still discussing the legitimacy of
the arms of the resistance indirectly reinforcing the U.S.-Israeli
plan for the region, and recalling the slogan that says that Lebanese
strength lies in its weakness.
It is the
Resistance that gave Lebanon its real independence power , and honor ,
in this Arab climate of defeatism . That is why the Arab peoples stand
with the resistance that some Lebanese have begun to shun. Is there a
state in Lebanon or is the country represented by a handful of former
warlords and confessional leaders aiming to keep the Lebanese caught
in the labyrinth where they have been thrown?