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 Muharram 22, 1423 AH/ April 5, 2002, 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
A Commemoration of Imam Zain al-Abidin: Pure Love and Rejecting Lies
Allah says in His Glorious Book: "Allah intends only to remove from you the impurity [of sin], O people of the [Prophet's] household, and to purify you with [extensive] purification." (Al-Ahzab 33:33). One of those Members of the Household is Imam Ali ibn Al-Hussein (a.s.), known as Zain al-Abidin, whose death anniversary is on the 25th of this month, next Monday.
Imam al-Sajjad (a.s.)—another nickname of his, meaning "the one who constantly prostrates"—dedicated all his life to Allah, Islam, and all human beings. He lived as a youth with his father, Imam Hussein (a.s.), and his uncle Imam al-Hassan (a.s.), and witnessed all the events that preceded Karbala, becoming aware of the problems of the Muslim community and its suffering from injustice and tyranny.
He then lived the tragedy of Karbala, but he was so sick that he could not take part in the actual fighting, perhaps due to Allah’s wisdom. On that day, he lost his father, his relatives, and his companions in one of the most dramatic tragedies one can ever encounter.
But he was extraordinarily patient, for he accepted Allah’s will, being the faithful believer he was. Then he lived the second tragedy when he was taken with his sisters and aunts and the rest of the companions’ wives and daughters as prisoners—an unprecedented act in the history of internal Muslim conflicts. We know, for example, that when Imam Ali (a.s.) won the Battle of the Camel, he sent all the women who were with the Prophet’s wife, Aisha, back to Medina with all due respect. But this was the first time in Islam that Muslim prisoners were taken—and not just any Muslims, but women and men of the noblest origin, not only in descent but in their piety and values, as embodied by Lady Zainab and Imam Ali ibn al-Hussein (a.s.).
The Imam represented the Imamate in its full meaning, as well as the continuity of the true line of Islam, and he was loved and respected by all Muslims on this basis. We know, for instance, that when he went to Hajj, there were huge masses turning around the Black Stone to the extent that the crown prince of the Umayyads could not pass through and had to sit on a chair. But when the people saw the Imam coming, they moved aside to let him reach the Stone.
The Imam (a.s.) was taken to al-Sham, where he delivered an important speech in which he exposed Yazid and silenced him. He was able to emphasize the values and reasons for Imam Hussein’s revolution through several methods, for he—like all the Imams who followed him—wanted this revolution to inspire people in all times and places to revolt against oppression and deviation. He did not sink into the memory of the tragedy to the extent that he forgot about his responsibilities toward the Islamic world. What is being told by some narrators of Ashura is untrue: the Imam did not spend all his life crying for the death of his father. He cried only when he saw that crying would provide a window of opportunity to make people more adherent to the cause.
On the contrary, he was as patient as anyone could be, for the Members of the Household are the role models in patience and in overcoming grief. Historians tell us that most scientists and thinkers of that time were among his students. Thus, it could be said that he was the teacher of Islamic culture. He also left us his supplications, which represent a moving spiritual, social, and moral Islamic course. If we read his supplications—whether al-Sahifah al-Sajjadiyyah or the others—we find that those who read them will come away with a comprehensive Islamic cultural education that covers all basic Islamic principles and concepts.
Therefore, I believe we should read these supplications to become spiritually and religiously educated. The Imam also left us a book about rights, in which he explains Allah’s rights over His servants and the rights those servants have on one another.
In this short meeting, we will try to take certain glimpses of the Imam’s life:
One of the well-known Islamic personalities, al-Zuhri, was asked: “Have you met Ali ibn al-Hussein?” He answered: “Yes, I have, and I have never seen anyone better than him. And I have never known that he has a friend in secret or any enemy in public, because even those who love him would envy him, and those who hate him would avoid angering him, because he used to be so sensitive to the feelings of all people.”
This same al-Zuhri once saw the Imam on a cold, rainy night carrying a bag of flour on his back and asked him why he was carrying it. The Imam said: “It will help me in my journey.” The man asked the Imam to let his boy carry it, but the Imam refused. He offered to carry it himself, but the Imam again refused, saying: “But I do not want to remove the burden of what saves me in my journey. I ask you by Allah to go and take care of your errands…” A few days later, al-Zuhri saw the Imam and discovered that the Imam had not left. But the Imam explained to him that the journey he was talking about was the journey to death, in which no one could help another in preparing for it. Only one’s good deeds will help him.
When you prepare to stand before Allah, you should make sure that you do not lie, commit adultery, drink alcohol, or commit any unlawful act. Moreover, you should spend from what Allah has given you on the poor, orphans, and needy.
Imam Zain al-Abidin (a.s.) has a saying from which everyone who seeks to earn his living in a lawful way could benefit. He used to say when he was asked in the morning while on his way to work that he was going “to seek charity for my children,” and he explained: “For going to work to earn a living is a charity from Allah which He bestows upon His servants.” This is what we ought to learn from our Imams. Their thought must enter our minds as their love enters our hearts.
When the Imam was asked once: “How did you wake up this morning?” he said: “I woke up with eight things I am asked to do: Allah wants me to perform the religious duties, the Prophet wants me to adhere to his sayings and traditions (Sunnah), my children want me to provide for them, my psyche wants its desires fulfilled, Satan wants me to follow him, the two angels want me to perform good deeds, the angel of death wants my spirit, and the grave wants my body.”
To teach us how to love the Members of the Household, the Imam (a.s.) says: “Love us with the love of Islam, for your love has become so exaggerated that it has turned against us.” The author of Bihar al-Anwar⁴ comments on this saying by noting that the Imam may be warning against extremism—that your love for the Members of the Household should not violate the teachings of Islam, lest your love hurt them as well as Islam when you exaggerate and ascribe to them false attributes. He also says: “Avoid small lies—like April Fool’s, which is unlawful—and big ones, both when you are serious and when you are joking, for if you tell small lies you will be encouraged to say bigger ones.”
Finally, the Imam reminds us that Allah loves the sinful believers who repent. Thus, in this meeting, as we stand before Allah, we must remember our sins and open our hearts to Allah, saying: “O Allah, forgive us our sins… and accept our repentance… You are the Merciful, the Forgiver.”
The Second Sermon
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
O Servants of Allah... Fear Allah in ordering your affairs and setting right what is between you. Confront your responsibilities, which grow greater as the challenges grow greater, as problems confront you, and as the enemies of Allah—the arrogant and the oppressors—launch their efforts to humiliate you and confiscate your causes. Strive to be among those who are an adversary to the oppressor and a support to the oppressed. Take a stand when challenges demand of you to affirm your position in order to support the truth and abolish falsehood. For events follow one after another, aiming to destroy the might and dignity of this nation in all political, economic, and security aspects. This is what we face in this difficult stage. So, what is there to be done?
American The Pinnacle of Terrorism
The American Israeli war in Palestine has turned into a huge fire that is killing and destroying everything. It is killing women, children the elderly, and the civilian unarmed youth… and destroying houses, mosques and churches under the pretense of destroying the infrastructure of terrorism. It is America’s second war in the region in which it describes the murderer as a victim and calls the victim a murderer… This is the logic of the American president who condemns the martyr operations although the Mujahideen have no other means to fight with in the face of the tanks, plans and rockets.
But the American President does not mention the Israeli occupation of all of Palestine which is the most horrible form of state terror… the problem is that America like any arrogant power-turns the facts upside down to suit its interests. It declares wars on nations in the name of protecting civilization and human freedoms. It destroys the economies of these nations in the name of globalization… it haunts the freemen in the name of the fight against terror.
Arab Collapse in the Face of Zionist Brutality
The plan to invade Palestinian cities and towns was set out jointly between Israel and the US. Sharon could not have embarked on any military action in Palestine without coordinating with America, for they share the same strategy of subjecting the Palestinians to the American Israeli hegemony. Moreover, certain Arab countries were informed of the plan; while others were threatened… as a result we witnessed this dubious official Arab silence.
The Arab regimes allowed its people to demonstrate, but within the limits of the state of emergency laws and under the watchful eyes of the intelligence agencies. In some of these Arab countries, demonstrations are allowed only in the universities’ campuses or inside mosques because they are afraid that the masses will revolt in a way that might threaten the regimes… Thus, Israeli embassies and trade offices remained open in the heart of the Arab lands with Arab regimes defending their decision to keep them open by the absurd excuse that keeping them open will help to defend Palestine. It is the era of Arab failure and incompetence. But the Arab masses still have its roaring voice that shook the powers of international arrogance, especially America, that grew afraid of endangering their interests…
The Intifada, which continues to fight the enemy with its bare hands and chests and chase him from one alley to another to inflict causalities, has a big role to play in confronting the enemy and being steadfast against the aggression. This is what forced the American president to change his tone and not his plan and make him ask for an Israeli withdrawal and a freeze of settlement expansion. But he delayed sending his secretary of state until next week to leave ample time for the enemy to invade all the Palestinian cities, towns and camps that are left.
The Enemy's Goal is to Subjugate the Palestinians
Thus, the American President resorted to lip service and did not exert any pressure on his partner, Israel, which refused to withdraw before ending the Intifada by accepting the ceasefire, for the major issue in the enemy’s view is that the Palestinian must admit that they were defeated, and consequently accept all the Israeli conditions including a peaceful Palestinian state which is only a self-rule authority that is controlled by Israel… It is odd enough in the on-going contacts that the delegation of the European Union to the region met the Israelis and did not meet the Palestinians because the enemy did not allow them to. What kind of deception are they playing? And if they were not playing any trick, how would they react to this insult?
We have reached now, with the unfolding events, to a stage that resembles what happened in 1948, with Israel considering its war against the Palestinians a continuation of what its calls the war of independence… It might propose to transfer the Palestinians to Jordan, their suggested state. And this is what the Mujahdeen should be aware of so that the game of the 1948 defeat will not be repeated…
Standing Against Challenges and Threats
Thus, it is crucial that the Intifada must go on and consolidate its national unity. In this respect, we ask the Palestinian Authority not to yield to the American and Israeli pressures. If America demands a crack on the Palestinian militant organizations, as well as the Resistance in Lebanon, as a part of a plan that threatens also Syria, Lebanon and Iran – which is asked to stop its support to the Mujahideen in Lebanon and Palestine - we, as free peoples, ought to stand against all this and move to confront the American policies and its interests everywhere. We should also oppose the American military bases in the region that threaten all its peoples. America has waged its new war against the Arab and Muslim worlds in the name of fighting terrorism, because it wants to turn the region into an American ranch, at the expense of its peoples… and we have to plan to face all this by surpassing all our marginal differences, because the issue has to do with our political and economic freedom.
The Battle for Palestine's Independence
The battle now is a battle of Palestinian independence and liberation, as well as that of retrieving the free decision of the regional counties. We have to prepare ourselves by careful planning, patience, resolve and careful moves… without any passionate movements or rush improvisations.
In Lebanon, whose Resistance confronted the Israeli brutality with force dignity and a high sense of challenge, we have to holdfast and confront all the American Israeli threats and intimidations… and consolidate our alliance with Syria… Beware of any voices that try to reshuffle the cards or create differences, for unity is our fundamental weapon in this era of major critical challenges.
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 Muharram 22, 1423 AH/ April 5, 2002, 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
A Commemoration of Imam Zain al-Abidin: Pure Love and Rejecting Lies
Allah says in His Glorious Book: "Allah intends only to remove from you the impurity [of sin], O people of the [Prophet's] household, and to purify you with [extensive] purification." (Al-Ahzab 33:33). One of those Members of the Household is Imam Ali ibn Al-Hussein (a.s.), known as Zain al-Abidin, whose death anniversary is on the 25th of this month, next Monday.
Imam al-Sajjad (a.s.)—another nickname of his, meaning "the one who constantly prostrates"—dedicated all his life to Allah, Islam, and all human beings. He lived as a youth with his father, Imam Hussein (a.s.), and his uncle Imam al-Hassan (a.s.), and witnessed all the events that preceded Karbala, becoming aware of the problems of the Muslim community and its suffering from injustice and tyranny.
He then lived the tragedy of Karbala, but he was so sick that he could not take part in the actual fighting, perhaps due to Allah’s wisdom. On that day, he lost his father, his relatives, and his companions in one of the most dramatic tragedies one can ever encounter.
But he was extraordinarily patient, for he accepted Allah’s will, being the faithful believer he was. Then he lived the second tragedy when he was taken with his sisters and aunts and the rest of the companions’ wives and daughters as prisoners—an unprecedented act in the history of internal Muslim conflicts. We know, for example, that when Imam Ali (a.s.) won the Battle of the Camel, he sent all the women who were with the Prophet’s wife, Aisha, back to Medina with all due respect. But this was the first time in Islam that Muslim prisoners were taken—and not just any Muslims, but women and men of the noblest origin, not only in descent but in their piety and values, as embodied by Lady Zainab and Imam Ali ibn al-Hussein (a.s.).
The Imam represented the Imamate in its full meaning, as well as the continuity of the true line of Islam, and he was loved and respected by all Muslims on this basis. We know, for instance, that when he went to Hajj, there were huge masses turning around the Black Stone to the extent that the crown prince of the Umayyads could not pass through and had to sit on a chair. But when the people saw the Imam coming, they moved aside to let him reach the Stone.
The Imam (a.s.) was taken to al-Sham, where he delivered an important speech in which he exposed Yazid and silenced him. He was able to emphasize the values and reasons for Imam Hussein’s revolution through several methods, for he—like all the Imams who followed him—wanted this revolution to inspire people in all times and places to revolt against oppression and deviation. He did not sink into the memory of the tragedy to the extent that he forgot about his responsibilities toward the Islamic world. What is being told by some narrators of Ashura is untrue: the Imam did not spend all his life crying for the death of his father. He cried only when he saw that crying would provide a window of opportunity to make people more adherent to the cause.
On the contrary, he was as patient as anyone could be, for the Members of the Household are the role models in patience and in overcoming grief. Historians tell us that most scientists and thinkers of that time were among his students. Thus, it could be said that he was the teacher of Islamic culture. He also left us his supplications, which represent a moving spiritual, social, and moral Islamic course. If we read his supplications—whether al-Sahifah al-Sajjadiyyah or the others—we find that those who read them will come away with a comprehensive Islamic cultural education that covers all basic Islamic principles and concepts.
Therefore, I believe we should read these supplications to become spiritually and religiously educated. The Imam also left us a book about rights, in which he explains Allah’s rights over His servants and the rights those servants have on one another.
In this short meeting, we will try to take certain glimpses of the Imam’s life:
One of the well-known Islamic personalities, al-Zuhri, was asked: “Have you met Ali ibn al-Hussein?” He answered: “Yes, I have, and I have never seen anyone better than him. And I have never known that he has a friend in secret or any enemy in public, because even those who love him would envy him, and those who hate him would avoid angering him, because he used to be so sensitive to the feelings of all people.”
This same al-Zuhri once saw the Imam on a cold, rainy night carrying a bag of flour on his back and asked him why he was carrying it. The Imam said: “It will help me in my journey.” The man asked the Imam to let his boy carry it, but the Imam refused. He offered to carry it himself, but the Imam again refused, saying: “But I do not want to remove the burden of what saves me in my journey. I ask you by Allah to go and take care of your errands…” A few days later, al-Zuhri saw the Imam and discovered that the Imam had not left. But the Imam explained to him that the journey he was talking about was the journey to death, in which no one could help another in preparing for it. Only one’s good deeds will help him.
When you prepare to stand before Allah, you should make sure that you do not lie, commit adultery, drink alcohol, or commit any unlawful act. Moreover, you should spend from what Allah has given you on the poor, orphans, and needy.
Imam Zain al-Abidin (a.s.) has a saying from which everyone who seeks to earn his living in a lawful way could benefit. He used to say when he was asked in the morning while on his way to work that he was going “to seek charity for my children,” and he explained: “For going to work to earn a living is a charity from Allah which He bestows upon His servants.” This is what we ought to learn from our Imams. Their thought must enter our minds as their love enters our hearts.
When the Imam was asked once: “How did you wake up this morning?” he said: “I woke up with eight things I am asked to do: Allah wants me to perform the religious duties, the Prophet wants me to adhere to his sayings and traditions (Sunnah), my children want me to provide for them, my psyche wants its desires fulfilled, Satan wants me to follow him, the two angels want me to perform good deeds, the angel of death wants my spirit, and the grave wants my body.”
To teach us how to love the Members of the Household, the Imam (a.s.) says: “Love us with the love of Islam, for your love has become so exaggerated that it has turned against us.” The author of Bihar al-Anwar⁴ comments on this saying by noting that the Imam may be warning against extremism—that your love for the Members of the Household should not violate the teachings of Islam, lest your love hurt them as well as Islam when you exaggerate and ascribe to them false attributes. He also says: “Avoid small lies—like April Fool’s, which is unlawful—and big ones, both when you are serious and when you are joking, for if you tell small lies you will be encouraged to say bigger ones.”
Finally, the Imam reminds us that Allah loves the sinful believers who repent. Thus, in this meeting, as we stand before Allah, we must remember our sins and open our hearts to Allah, saying: “O Allah, forgive us our sins… and accept our repentance… You are the Merciful, the Forgiver.”
The Second Sermon
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
O Servants of Allah... Fear Allah in ordering your affairs and setting right what is between you. Confront your responsibilities, which grow greater as the challenges grow greater, as problems confront you, and as the enemies of Allah—the arrogant and the oppressors—launch their efforts to humiliate you and confiscate your causes. Strive to be among those who are an adversary to the oppressor and a support to the oppressed. Take a stand when challenges demand of you to affirm your position in order to support the truth and abolish falsehood. For events follow one after another, aiming to destroy the might and dignity of this nation in all political, economic, and security aspects. This is what we face in this difficult stage. So, what is there to be done?
American The Pinnacle of Terrorism
The American Israeli war in Palestine has turned into a huge fire that is killing and destroying everything. It is killing women, children the elderly, and the civilian unarmed youth… and destroying houses, mosques and churches under the pretense of destroying the infrastructure of terrorism. It is America’s second war in the region in which it describes the murderer as a victim and calls the victim a murderer… This is the logic of the American president who condemns the martyr operations although the Mujahideen have no other means to fight with in the face of the tanks, plans and rockets.
But the American President does not mention the Israeli occupation of all of Palestine which is the most horrible form of state terror… the problem is that America like any arrogant power-turns the facts upside down to suit its interests. It declares wars on nations in the name of protecting civilization and human freedoms. It destroys the economies of these nations in the name of globalization… it haunts the freemen in the name of the fight against terror.
Arab Collapse in the Face of Zionist Brutality
The plan to invade Palestinian cities and towns was set out jointly between Israel and the US. Sharon could not have embarked on any military action in Palestine without coordinating with America, for they share the same strategy of subjecting the Palestinians to the American Israeli hegemony. Moreover, certain Arab countries were informed of the plan; while others were threatened… as a result we witnessed this dubious official Arab silence.
The Arab regimes allowed its people to demonstrate, but within the limits of the state of emergency laws and under the watchful eyes of the intelligence agencies. In some of these Arab countries, demonstrations are allowed only in the universities’ campuses or inside mosques because they are afraid that the masses will revolt in a way that might threaten the regimes… Thus, Israeli embassies and trade offices remained open in the heart of the Arab lands with Arab regimes defending their decision to keep them open by the absurd excuse that keeping them open will help to defend Palestine. It is the era of Arab failure and incompetence. But the Arab masses still have its roaring voice that shook the powers of international arrogance, especially America, that grew afraid of endangering their interests…
The Intifada, which continues to fight the enemy with its bare hands and chests and chase him from one alley to another to inflict causalities, has a big role to play in confronting the enemy and being steadfast against the aggression. This is what forced the American president to change his tone and not his plan and make him ask for an Israeli withdrawal and a freeze of settlement expansion. But he delayed sending his secretary of state until next week to leave ample time for the enemy to invade all the Palestinian cities, towns and camps that are left.
The Enemy's Goal is to Subjugate the Palestinians
Thus, the American President resorted to lip service and did not exert any pressure on his partner, Israel, which refused to withdraw before ending the Intifada by accepting the ceasefire, for the major issue in the enemy’s view is that the Palestinian must admit that they were defeated, and consequently accept all the Israeli conditions including a peaceful Palestinian state which is only a self-rule authority that is controlled by Israel… It is odd enough in the on-going contacts that the delegation of the European Union to the region met the Israelis and did not meet the Palestinians because the enemy did not allow them to. What kind of deception are they playing? And if they were not playing any trick, how would they react to this insult?
We have reached now, with the unfolding events, to a stage that resembles what happened in 1948, with Israel considering its war against the Palestinians a continuation of what its calls the war of independence… It might propose to transfer the Palestinians to Jordan, their suggested state. And this is what the Mujahdeen should be aware of so that the game of the 1948 defeat will not be repeated…
Standing Against Challenges and Threats
Thus, it is crucial that the Intifada must go on and consolidate its national unity. In this respect, we ask the Palestinian Authority not to yield to the American and Israeli pressures. If America demands a crack on the Palestinian militant organizations, as well as the Resistance in Lebanon, as a part of a plan that threatens also Syria, Lebanon and Iran – which is asked to stop its support to the Mujahideen in Lebanon and Palestine - we, as free peoples, ought to stand against all this and move to confront the American policies and its interests everywhere. We should also oppose the American military bases in the region that threaten all its peoples. America has waged its new war against the Arab and Muslim worlds in the name of fighting terrorism, because it wants to turn the region into an American ranch, at the expense of its peoples… and we have to plan to face all this by surpassing all our marginal differences, because the issue has to do with our political and economic freedom.
The Battle for Palestine's Independence
The battle now is a battle of Palestinian independence and liberation, as well as that of retrieving the free decision of the regional counties. We have to prepare ourselves by careful planning, patience, resolve and careful moves… without any passionate movements or rush improvisations.
In Lebanon, whose Resistance confronted the Israeli brutality with force dignity and a high sense of challenge, we have to holdfast and confront all the American Israeli threats and intimidations… and consolidate our alliance with Syria… Beware of any voices that try to reshuffle the cards or create differences, for unity is our fundamental weapon in this era of major critical challenges.