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 21, 1428 AH/ February 9, 2007, 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
The Importance of Truthfulness in Islamic Morals
In all heavenly messages, moral issues are among the most important topics they seek to emphasize. Allah sent the Messengers with the Messages to ensure that man lives life on the basis of righteousness and equilibrium. Religion is meant to be an organizer of man's mind so that it will not open up except to what is right and true, and to organize his heart so that it will only beat with love. As for man's life and practice, it should seek only good and justice.
Truthfulness and Trustworthiness
In this respect, there are two major issues the Messages sought to emphasize in the field of moral education, since they are linked with the most important issues in life and in people's relations with one another and with the truth. These are the issues of truthfulness and trustworthiness. Imam As-Sadiq (a.s.) says: "Allah has not sent any prophet that was not bestowed with truthfulness and returning trusts to the good and the evil-doers." Allah wanted the prophets to educate people in this life and tell them that they ought to be truthful in what they say, and that they should not lie, because lying distorts facts and may drive one from the line of safety. They should also be educated to be trustworthy and return the trusts to the people, because it shows that one respects himself and does not go back on his word, or the commitment he has taken when he accepted the trust. Allah has considered returning the trust to be a universal commitment that is not affected by the person who has given the trust. It does not differ if he is a good person or an evil one, because when you accept the trust you should respect your commitment if you respect yourself.
The Imams of Ahl al-Bayt have emphasized the significance of being truthful in Allah’s eyes. Imam Al-Sadiq (a.s.) says: "The first to believe the truthful is Allah, who looks at the servant’s beliefs, positions, and speech and learns that he is truthful. Thus, Allah will be pleased with him and love him. The servant will also be believed by himself. If you learn that you are truthful, you would congratulate yourself and be proud of yourself."
The Imam also says: "God's servant will keep telling the truth until Allah writes him as truthful, and will keep lying until Allah writes him as a liar." He also says: "He whose tongue is truthful, his work will be blessed."
Truth is the Test of Belief
In the context of how to test the belief of a man, Imam Sadiq (a.s.) refuted the idea of seeing if the believer prays or fasts. He says: "Do not be deceived by their prayers and fasting. A man could be so immersed in praying and fasting he would feel anxious if he leaves them. Those people practice these religious duties as a habit that is rather mechanical and uninspired. It does not even make them pious in their behavior in life." Thus the Imam calls on us to test them to see if they are "truthful and return trusts"—if you find that they only speak the truth and keep their promises as well as their trusts, return the money you entrusted them with, and keep the secrets you asked them to keep…. In short, if they are truthful in their tongue and righteous in their trusts, then they are true believers, for it has been said in the Hadith: "Whoever is not prevented by his prayers from committing evil, he will only become further away from Allah."
Imam Ali bin Al-Hussein (a.s.) says to his son: "Avoid lying, whether small or big, a serious one or a joke—like the April Fool's lie, which is prohibited just like serious lying. For if a man—or a woman—dares to tell a small lie, he will dare to tell a big one. Did you not know that the Messenger (p.) has said that the servant 'will continue to tell the truth until Allah writes him as truthful, and he will continue to lie until Allah writes him a liar?' What could be worse than such a fate."
Imam Al-Baqir (a.s.) says: "Allah has made locks for evil and made drinking the keys to these locks." Since drinking makes one lose his mind and ultimately commit evil. But the Imam added: "But lying is more evil than drinking."
The Truthful are the Pious
In His Glorious Book, Allah has talked about truthfulness in a way that comprises all the practical parts of belief. Those are the ones who represent truthfulness in their belief and in the sides of life. The Quran describes the pious as those: "Righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west, but [true] righteousness is [in] one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets and gives wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask [for help], and for freeing slaves; [and who] establishes prayer and gives zakah; [those who] fulfill their promise when they promise; and [those who] are patient in poverty and hardship and during battle. Those are the ones who have been true, and it is those who are the righteous." (Surat al-Baqarah 2:177).
And He says: "And the one who has brought the truth and [they who] believed in it - those are the righteous." (Surat az-Zumar 39:33).
And He wants us to follow the truthful and faithful leaders, and reject the leaders who lie in their talks and commitments. This is what Allah meant when He ordered us: "O you who have believed, fear Allah and be with those who are true." (Surat at-Tawbah 9:119)
This is the moral Islamic line that elevates the individual and preserves the community's righteousness and safety. It wants the people to be truthful and trustworthy in all their affairs. This is what we should adopt to be nearer to Allah, and this is what we should compete in.
The Second Sermon
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Targeting the Sacred Shrines
On the Palestinian front, two phenomena have emerged. The first is at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where the Zionist enemy is demolishing certain constructions under false pretenses. The real aim, of which these demolitions are a part, is to completely destroy the Mosque and build the Temple of Solomon in its place. Israel has exploited the Muslims' preoccupation with their political and security affairs and the Palestinians' preoccupation with their disputes, which have turned into a bloody conflict, to try, time and again, to execute its demolition project under the pretense of enabling the Jews to pray in it.
Faced with such a dangerous turning point, we call on all Muslims in the entire Muslim world to confront this devious plan that aims at destroying their sacred shrine, for the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the first Qibla and the third Sacred Haram, in addition to being the destination of Muhammad's Night Journey. They should all make every effort to prevent the Jews from putting their hands on the Mosque.
Should the nation be humiliated, the world will no longer pay it any attention, since the impression it gives when it does not defend its sacred shrines suggests that it is a nation that has no dignity whatsoever.
In any case, talking about the Al-Aqsa Mosque does not mean that we should forget Jerusalem or Palestine, which is blessed by Allah. The Palestinian cause is the central cause of Muslims in this era. And although the Palestinian man is more sacred than the shrines, the Mosque represents a spiritual symbol to all Muslims. It also provides the cause with moral momentum, which is why we are focusing on it.
We call on the Islamic peoples to take to the streets in protest and defiance, to pressure their governments and demand that they take a pressuring stand against Israel and its supporters in the world. The Islamic peoples should take a position of dignity and power that lets others feel that their interests are endangered. The Arab and Muslim countries that have established diplomatic or trade ties with the Zionist enemy are in particular asked to let the enemy feel that these relations are threatened.
The Second Phenomenon
The second phenomenon is the meeting of the two Palestinian combatant parties, Fatah and Hamas, in Makkah Al-Mukarramah to study the means to stop their fighting, which has reached catastrophic stages that threaten the breaking out of a civil war.
We welcome the agreement that the two parties have reached concerning the national unity government, which could solve several problems. We hope that all efforts would concentrate on a new plan for resistance in which all guns are pointed towards the enemy, for the Americans and Israelis do not want to see such a development, since they have adopted a strategy of deflating the spirit of resistance and dissolving the Palestinian cause.
Rice and the Palestinian Authority
We are also wary of the expected meeting between the head of the Palestinian Authority and the "Israeli" prime minister, under the sponsorship of the American Department of State. We believe that this meeting will not solve anything which has to do with putting an end to occupation and achieving independence. It will only sedate the pain of the Palestinian people, just like the last International Quartet Committee meeting which achieved nothing.
America, which leads this committee, does not want to pressure the enemy to dismantle the settlements and the racist separation wall or accept the right of return. On the contrary, it tries to implement the Zionist strategy of dominating all of Palestine by means of preoccupying the Palestinians with marginal things one after the other, so as to make them forget the main issue. Thus, we have learned from our past experience with this American-Israeli alliance that we should be fearful of the loss of the entire cause.
The Arrogant American President
Despite the opposition of the American public opinion and the Democratic Party, the American Administration and President are still planning to become more involved in the war in Iraq, paying no attention to the international calls for withdrawal within a certain timetable. This president is arrogant enough to imagine that he is executing the will of God in occupying Iraq and in dominating the entire world and the Middle East in particular… In the meantime, the American vice president moves, every now and then, to threaten—through his neo-con staff—Iran with a military war, claiming that its nuclear project represents a threat to America and the civilized world in a tragicomic discourse.
It is this administration, with all its members, that represents a danger to the entire nation through its war that tries to establish American imperial hegemony over the entire world. Iraq and Afghanistan, for example, are still suffering from the brutality of its schemes, whether through the barbaric massacres that target innocent civilians or through the war waged by the Takfiri groups whom the occupation provides a cover for, by adopting a deceiving discourse that claims to oppose them while in fact it strengthens them. The US aims, through such schemes, to prolong the security chaos since it facilitates its long stay in Iraq and the region.
Resist the Occupation
Based on our religious jurisprudence, we call upon all parties to resist this ruthless aggression to force it to withdraw before it carries out its project of dominating and devastating all their interests and institutions to promote its own interests and goals.
We also call on the Iraqis to be aware of the nature of the satanic game that America—and Britain—are running against Iraqi interests. The American politicians continue to talk about stealing billions of dollars from the Iraqi people. The robbery was made by the official American envoys in Iraq as well as the American companies under the guise of fallacious construction projects. The American Administration has destroyed the security and economy of Iraq, turning it into a poor country that asks for aid from others. This is what we want the Iraqis to revolt against through honest resistance. Let all guns point towards the enemy. And down with all aims that target the Iraqi people, for they serve the occupation in their exploding behavior that kills women, children, and the elderly, and forces the people to leave their homes, creating sectarian reactions.
The American Administration represents the absolute evil that incites political and sectarian strife to shuffle all cards and destabilize the entire situation, especially in Lebanon, which it wants to act as a base to execute all the American political and security projects in the region. This is evident from their talk about the Iranian threat, as well as its organizing of the "moderate party" that is meant to serve American interests and confront Iran, although the latter is working with the regional states to establish a balanced policy that protects the security and independence of the Gulf.
Foreign Interference in Lebanon
The American blatant interference in Lebanon is preventing the internal parties from reaching a solution, since America considers the current phase of the crisis as a completion of the July aggressive war against the Lebanese and their courageous resistance.
Moreover, the Lebanese are waiting for external initiatives, especially the Arab one, since they are incapable of solving their own problems through objective dialogue, nor can they remove the sectarian mines to realize the big project of a national unity government in which all parties meet to serve Lebanon and empower it with strength, freedom, and independence.
We say to all Lebanese that those political and religious leaders who incite strife will only create black hatred in your minds and hearts. They will lead you to the edge of the abyss as a result of their fiery discourse and media, and their aggressive agendas that will destroy Lebanon over the heads of the Lebanese.
We should all know that the support of external forces would not achieve anything for internal parties. The basis of the country's security lies in the meeting of all Lebanese on the principle of citizenship that is founded on the principle of equal rights and duties.
This will enable the state to serve the entire people and open up to the region and the world on the basis of mutual respect and joint interests, so that Lebanon will become a nation of dignity, independence, and freedom in reality and not in empty slogans.