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 18, 1425 AH / September 3, 2004, 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
Fulfill Your Obligations
Allah, the Most Exalted, says in His Glorious Book: "O you who have believed, fulfill [all] contracts..." Surat al-Ma'idah (05:01).
"And fulfill the covenant of Allah when you have taken it, and do not break oaths after their confirmation while you have made Allah your surety. Indeed, Allah knows what you do. And do not be like she who untwisted her spun thread after it was strong by taking your oaths as a means of deception among yourselves because one community is more numerous than another community. Allah only tries you thereby, and He will make clear to you on the Day of Resurrection that over which you used to differ." Surat an-Nahl (16:91-92).
Commitment to Contracts and Promises
In these Holy Verses, Allah talks about the bonds that are established among people in their social, political, and financial daily interactions.
To explain these bonds, we start by emphasizing the fact that each human being is free to do what he wants. Since Allah has created us to be free in our sayings, dealings, and actions, what makes an individual committed to do something? It is those commitments, contracts, and promises you have made to others. Thus, you are free to do what you like unless you have entered into a contract or even a treaty, if we are talking about a state, with someone else.
Thus, as an example, a man and a woman are free before they become a husband and a wife. The marriage contract binds each of them to the terms of this contract, which Allah considers to be a firm covenant.
This is also true with respect to all contracts, including when buying or selling something. In this case, one should be committed to every single term.
Jurists believe that it is enough to agree verbally for the exchange operation to take place. The writing is just to document the deal and not to initiate it. You cannot go back on a deal once you have given your word. If you have bought something, then unless you have been cheated either by the price or by the quality you cannot undo the deal. And if you sell something, and then you consume it or sell it to someone else, then you are a usurper. Therefore, you ought to be committed to the transaction that you verbally agreed to.
The Messenger has explained that Muslims abide by what they committed themselves to unless it is something that is unlawful from the religious point of view. Imam Ali says that as long as you keep silent you are in command of what you say, but once you say it, it binds you. If you respect your religion, then you ought to respect your word. In the Verses cited above, Allah draws a simile between those who do not respect their word and a foolish woman who used to break the yarn that she had spun after it had become strong. Thus, a believer who does not respect his promises and contracts is in fact rather foolish.
Imagine a society that does not respect its contracts, like, for example, the contract of marriage, especially the temporary one. Such a marriage may not be documented, but it is a "firm covenant". If you conclude such a marriage and try to deceive the girl you marry by not holding to your commitments, in that you are responsible for the children that might be the product of this marriage, or ask your wife to have an abortion, you will be committing a grave sin and actually killing a human being. This is inexcusable as far as there is no danger to the woman's life; only then do some jurists believe that it is lawful in that case only.
Being Pious Towards Commitments Applies to All Human Beings
Being committed to your word applies to all human beings, good or bad, including one's enemies. In his letter to his governor, Malik al-Ashtar, Imam Ali (a.s.) says: "But if under the peace treaty you have accepted any obligations, discharge those obligations scrupulously. It is a trust and must be faithfully upheld and whenever you have promised anything, keep it with all the strength that you command, for whatever differences of opinion might exist on other matters, there is nothing so noble as the fulfillment of a promise. This is recognized even among the non-Muslims, for they know the dire consequences which follow from the breaking of covenants. So never make excuses in discharging your responsibility and never break a promise, nor betray your trust. Do not go back on your word, nor should you be cruel and unjust, for breaking a promise is an act against Allah. Indeed, divine promises are a blessing spread over all mankind. The promise of Allah is a refuge sought after even by the most powerful on earth; for there is no risk of being cheated. So, do not make any promise from which you may afterwards offer excuses to retract; nor do you go back upon what you have confirmed to abide by; nor do you break it, however galling it may at first prove to be. For it is far better to wait in patience for wholesome result to follow than to break it out of any apprehensions."
Our Prophet Muhammad warns those who do injustice to those with whom we have entered into an agreement… who have taken from them anything that they do not willingly wish to give us, that they will be held accountable for what they did in the Hereafter. We refer all those who consider the property of non-Muslims as lawful to this saying and remind all those who pray and fast but do not abide by their commitment that Muhammad says that those who do so do not have a religion.
This is the true Islam, in its civilized and humanistic dimension.
Let us provide through our actions this shining image of the real Islam and become, as Imam al-Sadiq has called on us, callers to Islam not by our tongues but by our good deeds.
The Second Sermon
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
America Has Created an Atmosphere of Terror
What kind of world are we living in? It is a world that the arrogant have blown up to promote their interests. The Americans, in particular, have announced that they are changing the Middle East by waging – according to President Bush – preemptive wars that are actually brutal aggressions against the peoples of the region that undermine their interests to promote their own. These aggressions have made the US sink in the Afghan and Iraqi quicksand and resort to creating an atmosphere of terror by killing women and children and demolishing houses on the heads of those who live in them, all in the name of fighting terror and protecting its soldiers who have become the target of many a resistance.
Such a situation has led to a security chaos demonstrated by abducting innocent civilians, even children, for the sake of financial extortion or other political gains. The kidnappers claim that they are acting under an Islamic banner, although Islam does not approve of such acts that distort its image; like killing the 12 Nepalese who committed no guilt, thus provoking several anti-Islamic reactions. In addition, these unlawful acts include kidnapping of children for ransom and the assassination of some persons for the sake of stirring sectarian strife.
In Russia, too, the holding of school children hostage in their school building and threatening to kill them is a brutal act that is prohibited by Islam. It is a major sin, which we call upon the nation to exert pressure on those who committed it.
Palestine: The Enemy Fails Again
The daily Zionist practices of assassinating Palestinians, detaining them, and destroying their houses have led to a Palestinian reaction, with a major difference in that the Palestinian violence aims at pressurizing the enemy to withdraw. In this respect, if the international arrogance has denounced the latest martyr operation, why has it never condemned the Israeli atrocities that have made the Palestinians reach a virtual state of despair in which they found no other solution to their problem except the human bomb?
If some are claiming that the martyr operations against civilians are not ethical, they ought to study the issue from the point of view of the deadlock the Palestinians have found themselves in due to the Zionist aggression. Accusing Syria of being responsible, because Hamas leadership takes "refuge" there, is an indication of the failure of the enemy to face the Mujahideen in Palestine. The enemy that failed to confront the Mujahideen is trying to create a problem outside its borders, hoping that it can get out of the impasse it has found itself in within its borders.
In its turn, America is trying to create an internal Palestinian civil war by calling upon the Palestinian Authority to fight the Mujahideen. It is a plan that the Palestinians cannot accept. On the contrary, they should uphold and strengthen their national unity in the face of the great challenges.
Iraq, too, should try, led by the faithful vanguard that did not submit to the occupation, to establish a broad, unified popular base to deny the occupation the chance of prolonging its stay. For this is the only way the people can find deliverance. The Iraqis should also be united in their opposition to all acts of killing, abduction, and the like that distort the image of Iraq and prolong occupation.
Lebanon: A Sudden French-American Zeal
What made the Americans and the French all of a sudden show such sympathy with Lebanon? Is it because they believe in freedom, which led them to ask the Security Council to pass a resolution calling for the Syrian forces to withdraw and disarm the Resistance and support the holding of the Presidential elections without any delay?
Why then do they not demand that the Security Council would pass a resolution calling the Israelis to withdraw from all the 1967 occupied lands? Why is it not allowed to implement the previous related Security Council resolutions? Why does America consider any resolution condemning Israel as one that hinders the settlement?
Why does the Security Council not ask Lebanon to present its view towards such a vital issue concerning its relations with Syria? Do they not recognize the Lebanese state? … Are those Parliament members, who have supported the extension of the president's term, traitors while those who opposed are the only loyalists? What if it were a French or American development, would it be met with such an uproar?
Independence for Lebanon
We want Lebanon to be free and not to turn to the external powers. But the problem lies with our political culture that turns leftward at times and rightward at others… We have even made the Lebanese addicted to sectarianism and made the elections a mere game and not a responsibility that secures the freedom of the country. We have started to debate the new election law, although the vast majority opposes the current one… Then again, why is there that talk about betrayal and clientelism?
We do not want to talk about a result that is completely positive or totally negative, since things in this world are relative; but we have to turn our attention to the outside challenges, posed by those who wish to subdue the entire region to promote their interests.
It is the rational, objective dialogue between parties that recognize one another that defines the choices of the country regarding independence and the future. Moreover, all Lebanese should understand that freedom comes from the inside. Let us be independent in our thoughts and actions, but in a realistic way that does not forget or deviate away from the principles and that does not destroy the temple on the heads of all parties.
The problem is that America is trying to use Lebanon as a card in its hands to undermine the unity of the Syrian-Lebanese track. Let us discuss with Syria the issue of freedom, and let us determine our position: Are we with the Lebanon that serves the American interests or with Lebanon the entity that founds its Arab relations on the basis of common fate?