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 Sha'ban 15, 1427 AH/ September 8, 2006, 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
Islam: The Religion of Justice
Justice for All
Allah has sent all Messengers and Messages to achieve one goal: to establish justice: "We have already sent Our messengers with clear evidences and sent down with them the Scripture and the balance that the people may maintain [their affairs] in justice." (Surat al-Hadid 57:25)
Therefore, justice is the basis of all messages. It unifies their concepts and laws. Even believing in the oneness of Allah is an act of justice, because we are honoring Allah’s right in being the only God who has no partners, and whom none other should be worshipped or obeyed.
Our relation as Muslims with the Messenger (p.) is also one of justice, since it is the right of the Messenger (p.)—whom Allah sent as a Mercy to mankind and who fought and was hurt for the cause of Allah like no other prophet—to be followed and to let His Message be our guide and the law and principle we follow. We should adhere to the essence of this Message through the meaning of the two testimonies that declare that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad is His Messenger. Moreover, Allah has associated between the people's love for Allah and their following of the Prophet, when He told His Messenger to say: "If you love Allah, then follow me."
Justice is also the basis of relations among humans, whether Muslims or not, for justice is for all; it is the basis of religion.
One of our Imams narrated the following story: Allah the Great, the Almighty, enjoined one of His prophets living in a country under the rule of a tyrant: 'Go to this tyrant and tell him that I did not grant you authority to shed the blood of the people and gather wealth. I granted you authority to soothe the cries of the wronged, because you should not neglect their plight even if they were disbelievers.' Allah does not want us to wrong the unbeliever, just as He does not want us to wrong the Muslim. He wants us to give every human his rights, whether close or not and whether weak or strong, and this is the meaning of justice.
Rejecting Injustice
The Messenger (p.) says: "There is no wronging more severe than that in which the wronged finds no one to help him but Allah."
This wronging of the weak… This kind of wronging is the most severe and cruel wronging. The Messenger (p.) also says that wronging will lead to the darkness of the Hereafter. Allah wants to uproot wronging from within us and avoid it in our behavior and speech. Imam Ja'far As-Sadiq (a.s.) says: "Those who wrong, and those who support or accept the wronging, are partners." For those who accept the wronging might end up practicing it themselves. And those who find excuses for any wronging are supporting the wronging.
Imam Ali (a.s.) says: "Know that injustice is of three kinds: one, the injustice that will not be forgiven; another, that will not be left unquestioned; and another that will be forgiven without being questioned. The injustice that will not be forgiven is associating partners with Allah. Allah has said: 'Indeed, Allah does not forgive association with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills.' (Surat an-Nisa’ 4:48). The injustice that will be forgiven is the injustice a man does to himself by committing small sins; and the injustice that will not be left unquestioned is the injustice of men against other men. The retribution in such a case is severe. It is not wounding with knives, nor striking with whips, but it is so severe that all these things are small against it. You should therefore avoid change in the matter of Allah's religion, for your unity in respect of a right which you dislike is better than your scattering away in respect of a wrong that you like."
Education on Justice
In the light of all this, we have to educate ourselves and our children on justice, since Allah founded Islam on the basis of justice. We have to make every effort to unite in facing the unjust and the arrogant, and be just with the weak. We should not wrong our spouses, children, employees, or anybody we might have certain power over. Allah wanted the Muslims to establish the society of justice, being the society of Islam.
To establish justice, we have to enhance Muslim unity. Although we might have our differences, which we should solve through dialogue, we should be united against the arrogant, for "Indeed, Allah loves those who fight in His cause in a row as though they are a [single] structure joined firmly." (Surat as-Saff 61:4)
The Second Sermon
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
What is New?
As for the American President, he is holding the Lebanese government accountable for letting the Islamic Resistance be present on the Lebanese borders, which led to the war of July 12 as a result of kidnapping the two Israeli soldiers and crossing the blue line. But he does not hold the Zionist enemy accountable for violating the Lebanese borders for all the past years, several hundred times, and kidnapping scores of Lebanese, whether from their homes or even in the sea. He also does not talk about the advanced American weapons that Israel possesses and that threaten Lebanon, leading the Resistance to shoulder the responsibility of protecting its land and people and putting the issue of a national defense strategy on the table of the national dialogue. The problem of the American President is that he uses only one eye, which sees Israeli security and does not see the security of the others.
Moreover, the American President raises the level of his threats to Iran and its president, whom he calls a tyrant, and considers that the Shiite extremism represents a danger to America equivalent to the Sunni extremism… The White House also published the new strategy for fighting terrorism, that no longer focuses on al-Qaeda alone, but also on Iran and "small groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.” The new strategy considers Syria a state that supports terrorism and accuses Iran of planning to possess the bomb, giving it a "chance to extort the world and pose a greater threat to the American people."
Faced by this, we wonder who the tyrant is. Is it not he who sends all his military power, including NATO, to occupy Afghanistan under the pretext of fighting terrorism, to commit daily massacres against the civilians? In Iraq too, security chaos, demonstrated by the daily massacres, is overwhelming the political atmosphere. The occupation is indirectly supporting those who commit these massacres to prolong its stay so that it could carry out its strategy of using Iraq as a base to pressure the neighboring countries. We should not also forget its domination over the Iraqi oil resources, which constitutes a step in its goal to put its hands on all oil resources in the world.
Once again the question poses itself: Who is the tyrant? Is it not the American president and his Administration that planned with Israel the war on Lebanon that destroyed its infrastructure and killed children, women, and the elderly under the slogan of fighting Hezbollah?
Is it not the tyrant who builds an air bridge to provide the Israelis with bombs to kill more civilians?
The war on Lebanon was an American–Israeli war. As America continues to try to compensate Israel for its defeat by using the Security Council to pass more resolutions that are vague enough to be exploited by the enemy, as it did to impose its blockade. The Security Council has not even decided to call for a ceasefire.
America, and Israel, still impose a political blockade on Lebanon as part of a vicious plan to turn it into a front to continue its war of axes that serves its strategic interests. This means that this country will not enjoy any stability, as long as the Americans continue to play their game that is spearheaded by their ambassadors, their envoys, and the internal party that serves the American political goals.
The Hypocrisy of the Western States
We are also following the statements and moves of the Western leaders that ally with the US and are under its pressure. Those leaders pay lip service to democracy and human rights, while some of them are guilty of spilling Iraqi blood, while many of them turn a blind eye towards Palestine so as not to see the open daily killings of Palestinian civilians.
As for Lebanon, these states have urged Israel to continue its war to destroy the country and praised its efforts to eradicate the so-called Islamic terrorism, even as they watched the picture of the massacres of Lebanese children in Qana and in other villages of the South, the Bekaa, and the southern suburbs, and the pictures of systematic destruction of life in Lebanon.
This war was an international war on Lebanon led by the US, which aimed at ending the Resistance and intimidating the Arab and Muslim worlds. But Israel was flatly defeated… and if the International Community has deployed its forces to come to Lebanon and put it under international surveillance, it does not want to protect Lebanon; rather, it aims at protecting Israel, which made them yield to the Israeli conditions regarding its deployment and its armor.
We say to President Bush: You were able to become the supreme model in tyranny, since you continue, with your extremist and hateful administration, to threaten the Middle East and accuse any party who dares to oppose your policies with multiple accusations. In this respect, it is sarcastic that you should talk about the danger Iran represents to the Americans, while everyone knows that the danger is that of the Arrogant America that plans for additional primitive wars in the aftermath of nine eleven.
America waged the war on what it calls terrorism under the influence of nine eleven, but it did not define what terrorism is. Thus, it considered the resistance against the occupier in Palestine, Lebanon, and Afghanistan as terrorism.
But we know that the most brutal form of terrorism is that of state terrorism practiced by Israel and the US, which the world should unite to save humanity from its evils. As for Bush's talk about Sunni and Shiite terrorism, it is not balanced, since what he calls extremism is but a reaction to American extremism against Muslims and Islam, including the American Muslims.
No Neutrality in Lebanon
In Lebanon, we call for enhancing national unity and returning the dialogue to the political objectivity that could open up Lebanon to freedom, independence, and sovereignty, away from any American or European tutelage.
We call on everybody to join in building the state that is capable of deterring aggression, and not the state that resigns, claiming it is neutral in the struggle between the enemy and the Resistance…
Moreover, we have to legally and practically plan for an administration that punishes the corrupt in the past and the present.
The people want the officials to practice their responsibility on the basis of justice and integrity, with no one above the law. Thus, people will not fall under the influence of sectarianism or partisanship, and Lebanon will be a homeland for all its citizens without discrimination. Can we dream of such a state?