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 Rajab 23, 1422 AH / October 21, 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
Good-Doing is Never Too Much
The 25th of Rajab is the death anniversary of Imam Musa bin Ja’afar Al-Kazim(a.s). On this occasion, we are going to recall some of the teachings and stands of this tolerant and martyred Imam, who suffered a lot and used to suppress his anger to continue to hold his responsibility as an Imam.
Imam Al-Kazim(a.s.) is the seventh Imam of the Twelve Imams of the Household (Ahl el-Beit) (a.s.). He succeeded his father, Imam Ja’afar Al-Sadiq(a.s.) and he gave Islam all the knowledge that Allah, the Most Exalted, has stowed on him whether in religion or in the private and public lives of Muslims, and whether with their relationship with their fellow believers or with the rulers.
He also used to educate Muslims on all internal controversial issues, as well as the issues they might differ about with non-Muslims. He used to educate Muslims to remove from their hearts any love for any unjust or oppressive person, since those who love such people might carry the seed of oppression in their hearts. If you hate injustice, then you cannot possibly practice such an act, and it is only natural that you hate the unjust. The feeling of Muslims should conform with their principles. Thus, a Muslim hates oppression and injustice and loves justice and the just.
We might practice such attitudes in our lives… We might, for example, encourage someone to wrong his family or those of different sects or parties. But Allah, the Most Exalted, wants us to be just even with our foes. The Imam once told one of his followers, Safwan Al- Jammal: “Everything about you is good except your renting your camels to that man (Al-Rashied).” When the men answered, “I am doing so because I want to travel to Mecca (for the sake of Hajj), the Imam told him that this means you wish that man to stay alive until he gives you the money, though you do not really feel so. If you really want him to live more, then you are one of his followers.
At the same time, he used to encourage some of his followers to be in the public sector so as to help the weakened attain their rights. He was so ethical that when he heard that a man hated him and used to curse him to the extent that his companions wanted a permission to kill him, he rode his horse and went to the man’s garden. The man shouted: “You are spoiling my plants”. The Imam asked him: “How much do you think you will earn from them?” Then, the Imam (a.s.) gave him the sum he asked for without any discussion and began to talk to him kindly and lovingly. The man felt that he was wrong and went to pray behind the Imam saying: “Allah, the Most Exalted knows best whom He makes responsible for His Message”.
This proves that treating people in a good way turns the enemy into a friend. In this life and in the modern society that we live in, we need to be patient and tolerant and look for the best ways to befriend others. This is what plants love in the hearts of others and this is what we need in our societies, as well as parties and clams… we need love not hatred.
The Imam was also called the Good servant of Allah, the Most Exalted, and he used to be so popular that Haroon al-Rashid was afraid that he would topple him. The caliph chose, like all dictators in all times, to imprison him so as to isolate him. Such dictators establish their jails for reformers and the revolutionaries and not for criminals. The Imam spent several years in prison until he was poisoned by Al-Sundy Bin Shak, who tried to prove that the Imam’s death was natural. He brought witnesses to testify that he was not struck by the sword, but the Imam was able to tell them before he died that he was poisoned.
On this occasion I would like to recall some of the Imam’s religious teachings to learn how to worship and how to deal with ourselves and with others.
He says: “He who does not review what he has done daily is not one of us. If the deeds were good, he should ask Allah, the Most Exalted, to multiply them and thank Him for His Grace. If they were evil he should ask Allah, the Most Exalted for forgiveness and repent”.
Thus, we ought to hold ourselves accountable before Allah, the Most Exalted, everyday, so that we will learn to stop doing any evil and multiply our good deeds. In another saying, he says: “Do not think that there is such thing as doing too much good or a little amount of sins, because they will accumulate to become a lot, Fear Allah, the Most Exalted, publicly and privately so that you will be just. Hasten to obey Allah, the Most Exalted and always be truthful and trustworthy... Do not be unjust or embark in what is unlawful.”
As for the social and ethical matters, we will take a few examples:
When the Imam found once forged Dinar, he told his companions to drain it in the sink. In our own community, do not we find those who forge Dollars claiming that they will give it to the unbelievers forgetting that Allah, the Most Exalted,has forbidden us to take any money from any human being in an unlawful way:
"Allah does not forbid you from those who do not fight you because of religion and do not expel you from your homes - from being righteous toward them and acting justly toward them. Indeed, Allah loves those who act justly." Surah Al-Mumtahanah (60:8)
These are some of the teachings of the Imam, which we ought to learn and follow, so as to be on the night path of Islam in this world and in the Hereafter. May peace be upon him the day he was born, the day he became a martyr and the day he will be reborn.
The Second Sermon
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
America’s war of Collective Punishment
Under the pretense of the “War against terror” that is represented by bin-Laden, the United States of America is waging –along with NATO- what could amount to a war of annihilation and collective punishment against the Afghani people…
It is actually trying the state of the art high-tech weapons on the weakened Afghanis, who have been dislocated for the last two decades as a result of civil and external wars that devastated their economy and security. America now is destroying what is left of their villages and infrastructure, claiming that such an action is justified because the Taliban government did not hand in those accused of being terrorists.
But since one of the very basic conditions of justice demands that the prosecutor should provide evidence of indictment, and since America did not bother to do that except for its allies, such an action could not be related to the basic observance of the procedures of carrying out justice… The prosecutor, in this case, has turned himself into a judge and even an executor that executes the verdict it pronounced, not against the accused but against the entire Afghani people, although the officials in this country have denied the accusation. Is not such a behavior worthy of being denounced as “state terror”.
Based on these facts, I issued an edict (Fatwa) deeming unlawful to help America in this war, being an illegitimate one on all levels… Furthermore, America is threatening to wage wars against other states that “Harbor Terrorists”, since “Anybody who is not with America sides with terrorism”, should be treated as such even if it means killing all its civilian population. America wants the whole world to stand with it against the aggression and participate in carrying out all its military, economic, and political plans, but as for the terror committed by America’s allies against the other nations, especially the Palestinians whose infrastructure is being destroyed and whose women children and elderly are being daily Killed, it is according to the Americans a kind of self-defense.
The Palestinians’ struggle for their freedom and defending their country is on the other hand brutal terror.. This is why the American president did not receive any Palestinian officials, while he met several times with the butcher, Sharon, who committed the massacre of Sabra and Shatila. We have also heard the American president talk about a Palestinian state, but in the same way Clinton described it: A Palestinian state that does not have any sovereignty or any of the foundations of an actual state. Moreover, if the Palestinians do not accept those Israeli conditions, they will be against peace.
The Arab and Muslim nations do not have a problem per se with America, rather the problem lies in its unreserved support for Israel in its aggression against the Palestinians and the entire region.
In addition America besieges Iraq while in actual fact it is hurting the entire Iraqi people. It also besieges Libya and Sudan for reasons that are not justified by the charter of human rights. I believe that the solution is for America to return to its initial slogans of peoples’, freedom and self-determination, as well as respecting their political, economic and security interests of all nations. If it does, it will see that it will gain the friendship of the Arab and Muslim peoples and the nations of the third world in general. Terrorism will end as it root-causes will end. The whole world will confront the terrorists who are devastating the human civilization and killing innocent civilians.
America claims that its war is not against Islam and Muslims, but against terror. Yet we notice that America and its allies are threatening time and again the Arab and Muslim countries.Then we have the racial campaign in the West against the Arabs and Muslims and probably against Islam in the media… They all know that Islam is against terror… If they hear people talking about Jihad "Holy War" Jihad is restricted to self-defense while Islam calls for peaceful solutions to resolve all problems, and calls upon Muslims to strive to turn their enemies into friends, to befriend all nations without providing any concessions concerning their religion or their vital interests.
This is why we call Muslims everywhere for Islamic unity against arrogant challenges, coupled by finding the ways to continue to defend ourselves and find a civilizational mechanism to befriend the nations, to prove how civilized we are and how much we seek freedom, friendship, and dialogue.
The Arab and Islamic conferences.
We have followed up the Arab and Islamic conferences and read their resolutions, but they are merely ink on paper, because they did not contain any mechanism to execute them. As for the Arabs, they did not comply with the Arab joint-defense treaty, and kept the Palestinians suffering from their political isolation were it not for some American and British declarations that aim to resume the negotiations, although they were only for consuming purposes.
The Problem with such conferences is that they base their resolutions on the foundations of the incompetence of their regimes, and not the people’s readiness to struggle and confront the challenges… As for the talk about going back to the UN to counter terrorism it is really ironic, for the UN Security Council is under American hegemony in all matters whether regarding concepts, plans or declaration of wars.
Unity… Unity
In Lebanon, and as the new challenges would pose new and more difficult problems, I call on all Lebanese to cement their national unity, to continue the liberation of our occupied lands and solve all internal issue through dialogue…
There are grave dangers ahead, as the arrogant powers try to get in this stage what they could not attain in the previous stage whether regarding the Palestinian cause or the future of the struggle with the Zionists.