In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
The Religious Authority, Grand Ayatullah H.E. Sayyed M. H. Fadlullah delivered the two Friday prayer sermons at the Imamain Al-Hassanain Mosque on Rabi' al-Awwal 2, 1422 AH / May 25, 2001, AD. Several prominent religious scholars, dignitaries, officials, and thousands of believers attended the Jumu’a prayer. (Edited version of the Sermons)
The First Sermon
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Tyranny: A Sin That Leads to Hell
One of the evils in this life that Allah tells us about in His Glorious Book is tyranny, whether he who practices it is a leader of his people or whether it is restricted to one’s personal life and is simply transgressing Allah’s boundaries.
Allah says: "Then as for he who transgressed. And preferred the life of the world, Then indeed, Hellfire will be [his] refuge." (Surat an-Nazi'at 79:37-39)
Those who prefer the pleasures of this world and chose to transgress the bounds that Allah has decreed unlawful, forgetting about the hereafter, are described in the Quran in the following way: "And if We had willed, We could have elevated him thereby, but he adhered [instead] to the earth and followed his own desire. So his example is like that of the dog: if you chase him, he pants, or if you leave him, he [still] pants. That is the example of the people who denied Our signs. So relate the stories that perhaps they will give thought." (Surat al-A'raf 7:176)
Adhering to Allah’s Rules
There are many kinds of tyranny, including that of water when the water floods and causes problems as in the case of Noah; and then there is the tyranny of action as in the case of Noah’s son whose fate was to be drowned: "And Noah called to his Lord and said, 'My Lord, indeed my son is of my family; and indeed, Your promise is true; and You are the most just of judges!'" (Surat Hud 11:45).
Therefore, Allah has explained all the bounds, even in our actions and desires, and that we ought to abide by them or we will meet the same fate as Noah’s son. He ordered us to keep to them, saying: "It is not for a believing man or a believing woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decided a matter, that they should [thereafter] have any choice about their affair. And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly strayed into clear error." (Surat al-Ahzab 33:36)
You can say that you are free to all people because Allah has created you free and equal to them, but when Allah tells you to do something you are not free not to do it. You should surrender yourself and all your affairs to Allah, and Allah alone. You should not kneel or bow to anyone else; even prostrating to Adam was in reality a prostration to Allah for creating Adam.
The disobedient that transgresses Allah’s bounds ends in hell, but the pious believer will be rewarded in Heaven. Some people may say that they are free before Allah, but they become humble slaves to various leaders or dignitaries who have some powerful resources. Those people, when they say to Allah that they are His servants, they say it as a kind of lip service and do not mean it in their hearts, and this is a kind of psychological tyranny.
In another verse, Allah talks about Pharaoh when He tells Moses and his brother: "Go, both of you, to Pharaoh. Indeed, he has transgressed. And speak to him with gentle speech that perhaps he may be reminded or fear [Allah]." (Surat Ta-Ha 20:43-44). Although he used to kill the sons of the children of Israel and treat them all in an unjust and aggressive manner, you should first try to speak mildly, for he might think about Allah and the hereafter. But he did not until it was too late and he was drowning. Thus, Pharaoh’s fate is the fate of all tyrants, as described in the Quran: Hell-fire.
Aspects of Tyranny
Imam Ali (a.s.) considers injustice to be a form of tyranny, and those who do wrong will meet their fate either in this world or in the hereafter.
Another form of tyranny is the one that results from having a lot of money that would make man feel conceited: Karun, for example, when his people said to him: "And do not exult. Indeed, Allah does not like the exultant. But seek, through that which Allah has given you, the home of the Hereafter; and [yet], do not forget your share of the world. And do good as Allah has done good to you. And desire not corruption in the land. Indeed, Allah does not like corrupters." (Surat al-Qasas 28:76-77).
He said: "[Karun] said, 'I was only given it because of knowledge I have.' Did he not know that Allah had destroyed before him of generations those who were greater than him in power and greater in accumulation [of wealth]?" (Surat al-Qasas 28:78).
"So We caused the earth to swallow him and his home. And there was for him no company to aid him other than Allah, nor was he of those who [could] defend themselves." (Surat al-Qasas 28:81)
People like Karun are found in all generations or places. They forget about Allah when they become rich. And when you tell them they should give the poor and the deprived their rightful share, they would say: Allah could have fed them, had He wished to do so.
Another form is the tyranny of force, like what happens when a man is physically strong or when he is the only one who has an armed group, or when he has certain power. Satan would incite him to make use of this force by intimidating others and subjecting them to his will. This might also happen to political organizations or parties, or even between a husband and his wife. Nevertheless, one of the signs of belief is the fact that if the believer possesses any sort of power, he would only use it in what pleases Allah and serves the right cause.
Sometimes knowledge, whether scientific or religious, might lead to tyranny. Although knowledge should lead to modesty, since the more you know, the more you understand that what you have learnt is little, yet there are those who might feel that they are better than those who know less. This attitude is evidently wrong, and consequently we cannot say about a certain individual that he is the most learned in the world, for knowledge is relative and it is becoming more and more specialized even within the same field.
If those conceited hold a certain position, they will feel that they are superior and thus become unbalanced. Therefore, we have to be moderate and balanced, and we should never lessen the importance of those whom we hate or inflate those whom we love.
The victory we have achieved against occupation is important, but this is only the minor jihad (struggle for the cause of Allah) while the major one is the struggle against oneself. We have to liberate ourselves from the occupation of Satan that drives us to lie, backbite, be unjust and conceited…etc. Allah says: "Indeed, Satan is an enemy to you; so take him as an enemy. He only invites his party to be among the companions of the Blaze." (Surat Fatir 35:6)
We have to practice this internal struggle in order to liberate ourselves as we liberated our lands. When we revolted against occupation, it was because it is a form of tyranny and injustice. Thus, we should hate all its forms, including being unjust towards our families, neighbors, fellow Muslims and all mankind.
When we celebrate Liberation Day, the day the Resistance gave the Lebanese, the Arabs and the Muslims one of the greatest medals, we have to consider this liberation as merely a beginning, that should be continued until the liberation of Palestine and extend to our own personal combat against Satan. We have to liberate ourselves from every kind of fanaticism and sectarianism that the enemy used to penetrate us. For the day you are liberated from the evil inside you is a day of Eid (celebration). Imam Ali (a.s.) says: "Every day that Allah is not disobeyed in is a day of celebration." Let us make all our days Eids in obeying Allah.
The Second Sermon
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Exactly one year ago, Lebanon, along with the Arabs and the rest of the world, witnessed the enemy’s defeat and its humiliating withdrawal from Lebanon, an event that all freedom fighters should study to learn its lessons.
Last year, I stood here on the 26th of May, a day after the liberation was completed, and said: "The Lebanese example has given a lesson to the whole world. Thus, it is natural that some of the Arabs will learn." I also added: "I realize that what happened in Lebanon will have echoes in occupied Palestine; the beginnings of a new Intifada indicate that a new dawn is about to rise away from any secret or public negotiations." I added also that our joy with the liberation should not make us forget about our great responsibilities in building the South and West Beqaa, that were devastated by the occupation.
If we look today, a year later, what do we see? I dare say that a lot of what I was hoping for has been realized, especially with respect to the Palestinians, where a new dawn has actually risen. The Palestinian people were able, after eight months of their great Intifada, to make the enemy live in a state of political confusion and chaos, which has been demonstrated both by the political stands and differences of its parties on the internal level, as well as its use of brutal force against the Palestinian civilians.
Based on these facts, I believe that the enemy’s prime minister’s declaration of a ceasefire is but a maneuver, in that it aims at trying to change its image towards the international public opinion after all the massacres it committed against the Palestinians.
The enemy, that is talking nowadays about peace and calling Lebanon and Syria to "choose the road of peace," is actually preparing for a long-term war. It is talking about preparing to control the Intifada for a period of three years. It is also planning to build new settlements and bring the rest of the Falasha from Ethiopia. All this proves that the enemy is preparing for a war against all the Arab and Muslim world, despite all the maneuvers that aim at presenting itself as a dove of peace.
I also believe that the American adoption of the Mitchell report is an attempt to find a way out of the bottleneck the Intifada has put the Zionists in. The contacts that some of the Arab regimes are still making with the enemy, despite the decision of the Arab follow-up committee to stop all contacts, aim in their turn at providing a way out of the impasse the enemy finds itself in.
The recent Israeli threats against Lebanon and Syria are a reminder that the enemy will continue its policy of aggression. It also reminds us that if the liberation is not comprehensive, Lebanon will have to endure more hardships and troubles, not least of which are the daily Israeli violations of its borders.
One year after liberation, I feel that Lebanon has been able to be victorious and reject all the Israeli conditions that they tried to impose. The enemy was not able to force us to accept anything that will make him feel secure. Yet the state, on the other hand, has not been able to help our people in the South and did not even implement any development project.
The occupation has gone, but we have another enemy to fight: that of poverty and deprivation. The liberated region is deprived of the most essential services, and if any project happens to be executed, most of the funds will end up as bribes to certain officials or politicians. If things continue to go on in this manner, we are certainly going to reach a catastrophe.
Lastly, when I learned that certain practical steps were being taken to unify the internal front, through certain meetings, I felt relieved. I hope that these meetings are not merely a matter of course but are rather part of a comprehensive plan to strengthen the country and enable it to confront the coming aggressions the enemy is preparing against Lebanon. The coming stage is very critical, and the only way we can confront it is by consolidating our national unity.