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-Thani 14, 1427 AH/ May 12, 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
Establishing Justice is the Aim of the Islamic Message
Justice is the Basis of All Messages
In Islam, there is a positive value that Allah wants to govern all of man's relations, whether with his Lord, himself, and even animals and nature. This is the issue of justice.
Allah wants man to be just in all his affairs, in his stances, words, worship, and dealings with others… etc. He also considered religion in all the Messages as a movement of justice.
Then there is a negative value that is the opposite of this positive value, which is injustice or wronging.
Justice is to give each human being his right, whoever and whatever he is. It does not differ if he is a Muslim or an unbeliever, a relative or a stranger. It is impermissible to deny anyone his right, be it a moral or a material one.
Ascribing Partners to Allah is the Greatest Injustice
Allah has explained the various kinds of injustice, beginning with injustice towards Allah. Allah's right is to unify Him and not to ascribe partners to Him. Those who wrong Allah by committing this sin. Luqman’s will to his son explains that ascribing partners to Allah is a wrong-doing: "And [mention, O Muhammad], when Luqman said to his son while he was instructing him, 'O my son, do not associate [anything] with Allah. Indeed, association [with Him] is great injustice.'" Surat Luqman (31:13). Man wrongs Allah when he disobeys Him.
Then there is the wronging of man to himself. We have to be just towards ourselves by giving ourselves the rights that belong to them. That is by doing what will deliver and save them. Anyone who disobeys Allah wrongs himself because he is calling for Allah's punishment, and he who does not believe wrongs himself because he is leading himself to Hell. Moreover, all those who deviate from the right path in all their affairs wrong themselves and, therefore, deserve punishment, as Allah told us: "We did not wrong them, but they wronged themselves."
Wronging Others
Then there is the wronging of others, especially if the wronged was among the downtrodden, like wronging one's wife, especially in the East, when the man feels that the woman has no rights while he has every right. Then the man might wrong his children by interfering in their affairs in what is against their interest.
Allah has warned us against all kinds of injustice. Imam Ali (a.s.) divides injustice into three categories. One that is not forgiven, which is ascribing partners to Allah, and one that is forgiven, which is the wronging of the servant to himself by committing trivial sins. The third kind is the wronging that could not be left unpunished, which is the wronging of others. The punishment of this kind of wronging is severe. It is not, according to the Imam (a.s.), stabbing with knives or whipping with lashes, but it is something compared to which these kinds of punishments would look minor, because the wronged will stand in front of Allah and say: "O Allah, take my right from this person, for he has wronged me."
The Messenger asks us to refrain from wronging since it is the darkness of the Day of Judgement. Imam Ali (a.s.) explains to us the negative consequences of wronging when he says that it hastens Allah's vengeance, for Allah answers the call of the wronged and lies in wait for the unjust. Some narrations tell us that Allah told one of the Prophets to go to a tyrant and tell him: "I have appointed you to respond to the cries of the wronged, for I will not ignore their wronging even if they were pagans."
In this respect, Imam Ali (a.s.) deals with the issue in the following way:
"By Allah, if I were given the seven continents and what there is under their horizons to disobey Allah just by extorting the shell of a barleycorn from an ant, I will never do it."
He also said: "By Allah, I would rather pass a night in wakefulness on the thorns of as-sa'dan (a plant having sharp prickles) or be driven in chains as a prisoner than meet Allah and His Messenger on the Day of Judgment as an oppressor over any person or a usurper of anything out of worldly wealth. And how can I oppress anyone for (the sake of a life) that is fast moving towards destruction and is to remain under the earth for a long time."
Imam Ali (a.s.) singles out one kind of injustice as the most severe, which is the wronging of the weak. Muhammad says: "Allah's wrath is severe against those who wrong those who do not find anybody to support them except Allah."
Then there is this thought that Allah wants man to think about when he finds himself strong and others weak and when he is tempted to wrong the weak.
The sacred tradition says: "If you are tempted to wrong others when you are able to, remember that Allah is capable of punishing you, and that your power will go while what you have brought on yourself will stay."
The Fate of the Unjust
On supporting the oppressors and the unjust, whether a state, a party, a tribe… etc., the Messenger says: "The oppressors and their supporters are in Hell." He also says: "Avoid the prayer of the wronged, for he would be asking Allah for his rights," and Allah always gives everyone his right. Imam al-Sadiq (a.s.) says: "Those who know about injustice and those who accept it and those who support it are partners with those who commit it."
Therefore, when we are tempted to wrong others, we have to remember that Allah does not leave the wronging of anyone.
One tradition talks about a man who would come on the Day of Judgment with his good deeds as big as mountains. Then those who have rights would come and claim them. Allah will tell the angels to take from his good deeds and give them to the wronged. When they finish, Allah will say: "Take from the sins of the wronged and add them to the unjust."
When we are tempted to wrong others, we are thinking about this world, but we have to base our calculations on the Hereafter, for the slogan of the Day of Judgment is "No wronging today." How can we avoid such a tough situation when everyone will only have his deeds to defend him?
The Second Sermon
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
An American Project for Israeli Security
The Russian President Putin has described America as the "fox that eats and does not listen to anybody, and does not wish to listen to anybody." How does all this talk about democracy and human rights disappear when it has to do with its own interests? Everything in this case becomes possible, and there are no limitations.
On another level, the American Administration continues to talk about the diplomatic option to deal with the Iranian nuclear project, but it continues to threaten to resort to the military option in the end, in coordination with the EU whose states, especially Britain and France, lie under American influence in their policies concerning the region… In addition to pressurizing Syria and Lebanon and interfering in their internal affairs and relations, through a new resolution of the Security Council that has turned into a tool for America and its allies to wage a political and military war against the peoples of the region to promote arrogant interests.
The world might wonder about why America pressurizes Iran and wages a psychological, economic, political and military war on Iran, while it does not pressurize North Korea that has announced that it possesses the bomb? Is America fighting its war against Iran on behalf of Israel, which is afraid of the Islamic power in Iran and the region, since America is under the influence of the Jewish Lobby in addition to the neo-conservatives? This puts America in the position of the strategic enemy of Arab and Muslim interests. At the same time, America is developing nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction to intimidate the free world and the Third World in particular.
We warn the downtrodden peoples of these American imminent threats to their security and independence, which means that they should devise a plan to protect their vital interests, since America does not inspire confidence even among its allies, who live in fear of its plans and pressures.
In light of this, Iran has to consolidate its strategic defence positions and insist on its plan of strategic, scientific and peaceful challenge. It should prepare to defend itself against the American and Israeli war threats. We also warn the Iranian Muslim people of all the intelligence attempts to create internal strife so that it would win in peace what it cannot win in war.
Internal Palestinian Fighting is a Major Crime
In Palestine, we meet the 58th anniversary of the Jewish occupation of the country, supported by the West that gave them all they needed to establish their state that was founded on dislocating the Palestinians and preventing them from returning. It also relied on using the most powerful American weapons to commit daily massacres, staging an economic blockade, detaining tens of thousands... etc.
In all this, the Jews relied on American and European support, who played a game of stalling and foot-dragging, as well as practicing hypocrisy with all that empty sweet talk about the Palestinian state.
The Quartet committee that always talks about this state is doing nothing to implement its decisions. And if it decided in its last meeting to commission the EU to create a provisional mechanism to send aid directly to the Palestinians, we believe that it will be postponed until after the Palestinians yield to the pressures of starvation.
In such circumstances, there could be nothing more dangerous than the fighting between Hamas and Fatah. Such a development might give the Israelis a chance to exploit the struggle for power between the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas cabinet and consolidate its control over the entire Palestinian reality.
We believe that such internal fighting represents a major crime and a grand treason. And we call on all parties to try to break this deadly impasse and return to the line of unity that preserves the resistance.
As for Iraq, it continues to live in the spectre of daily massacres that are planned and executed by the Israeli Mossad and supported by the American-British occupation. Moreover, they are still destabilizing the political sphere with the partisan differences that hinder the formation of a national unity government, thus prolonging the occupation and undermining national liberation.
The Lebanese Maze
The majority of Lebanese still live under the line of poverty, while at the political level they are living a tragicomedy of the struggle between the majority and the minority, with both parties accusing each other of treason and loyalty to a foreign power, whether Syria or America and Israel. Their dialogue is becoming more and more like the row regarding the sex of the angels, although they all know that the economic situation is the major problem that is suffocating the people.
The dialogue participants should start discussing the economic conditions and find solutions that do not raise additional taxes that target the poor only. They do not touch the privileges of the wealthy or the officials who used to steal public money, claiming loyalty to the former tutelage power, yet they now talk about reform, but they do not accept accountability for the national debt that put the country on the brink of collapse.
Moreover, what about the national defence strategy? Is Israel the problem of the Resistance?
These are the problems and the questions that ought to be addressed before the temple falls on the head of all Lebanese.