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 Safar 20, 1428 AH/ March 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
Commemorating the Martyrdom of Imam Hussein (a.s.):
Let us Renew the Will for Reform
Imam Hussein (a.s.), the Reformer
The Messenger (p.) said: "Hussein is a part of me and I am a part of Hussein. May Allah love those who love Hussein."
On this occasion, the commemoration of the 40th day following the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, we recall the character of Imam Hussein (a.s.), the reformer, revolutionary, and Islamic leader who emphasized the significance of dignity in the line of the Message. He was the leader who, as he called for the Islamic doctrine and faith, wanted to elevate man, especially the believers, so as not to yield to any power that wants to subjugate his will or accept what he should not; that is, he should not yield to any illegitimacy, for Allah wanted man to be with the legitimacy of the leadership (Imamate) and that of Islam, and not with those who do not possess it.
On this occasion, as we meet with the Imam, we do not feel his absence although he was martyred about fourteen centuries ago. His presence is nevertheless felt throughout our history and his light still illuminates the mind that thinks, the heart that loves, and the actions that face the challenges.
The Martyr of the Nation
We feel that the Imam is present among us, for he was the revolutionary of Islam, its Imam and martyr. It is true that he was martyred and buried along with his family and companions in Karbala, but he was the martyr of the entire nation and the universality of Islam, in which the Imam (a.s.) initiated the need for reform, and in his grandfather's nation.
The Imam (a.s.) was committed to the truce his brother, Imam Al-Hassan (a.s.), had with Muawiyah, but after the latter died, his commitment no longer needed to be upheld. He faced the governor of Medina when he asked him to pledge allegiance to Yazid. He reminded him that he was a member of Ahl al-Bayt, of those whom Allah has purified, and explained to him who represents Islam and the Quran, and who embodies the good of the nation: “We are the family of prophethood to whom the Quran was revealed, while Yazid is a dissolute man who drinks wine and kills innocent people despite Allah's prohibition.” He ended by saying: "A man like me does not pledge loyalty to a man like him."
Let us see who is that whom the Prophet considered, along with his brother, to be the master of Heaven's youth and an Imam, whether he holds peace or revolts.
The Imamate
The Imam (a.s.) went to Makkah where he gathered the people in the Beit Al-Haram to tell them how one could be a Muslim in all his affairs, whether in religious duties, in politics, or in every other aspect of life, since Islam covers all these aspects: "O you who have believed, respond to Allah and to the Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life." Surat al-Anfal (8:24).
In Makkah, the Imam emphasized his legitimate Imamate and gathered around him an elite of followers who followed him for the sake of Islam and not for want of money or any other favor.
He preached to the people and sought to explain to them who the legitimate Imam is and what are the qualities he should possess: "People! The Prophet (p.) has said that when you see an oppressive ruler legitimizing that which has been prohibited by Allah and breaking His covenant, and opposing the customs of the Prophet, and he behaves unjustly and oppressively with Allah's servants, then if a person does not oppose him through his word or deed, it is incumbent upon Allah to place that person on the status of that oppressor."
He also taught them that they should be faithful to their commitments and support the right. This is also what he did when he met the army of Ibn Ziyad that was led by Al-Hur bin Yazid Al-Reyahi, before he repented, making them feel that they were following the wrong leadership.
Seeking Reform
The Imam (a.s.) clarified the nature of his movement. He was not seeking war, since he did not deploy thousands of fighters. He wanted to fight ignorance, hatred, and deviation in the minds and hearts of the people. He was sorry and feeling sympathy for those who chose to be with Yazid and Ibn Ziyad, for they were to go to hell because of him. He was carrying the message of his grandfather who called on Allah to guide his ignorant people.
That is why he explained that he sought reform: "I have not risen to spread evil or to show off, nor for spreading immorality or oppression. But I have left for the betterment of the ummah of my Grandfather and I desire to propagate the Religion and forbid against evil," the reform initiated by the Prophets, and he followed their steps in enjoining good and forbidding evil. And when the oppressors wanted the Imam (a.s.) to accept the illegitimate rule of those who usurped the rule of Muslims, he said to them: "By Allah! I shall not give my hand in yours like a base man, nor shall I flee away like a slave. Beware! Now this illegitimate son of the illegitimate father (Ubaydullah bin Ziyad) has stationed me between unsheathing the swords or then bearing humiliation, and far be it that we accept humiliation. Thus the one who accepts truth through me will have received truth from Allah."
Thus, the Imam (a.s.) stood for all that Islam represents in its Message of freedom, preferring martyrdom as the ultimate sacrifice to strengthen the position of Islam.
Imam Hussein loved Allah like no one else did and opened up to Allah like no one did. Like his father before him, he used to love Allah and His Messenger (p.) and he was loved by Allah, the Most Exalted, and His Messenger (p.). And he came to Karbala to give humanity a lesson on how the bearer of a Message could stay with his Message until martyrdom.
Opposing Injustice
In this great occasion in which we live with Imam Hussein as an Imam, a beloved, and a leader, we renew our faith in Islam, our readiness to defend it, and oppose injustice and arrogance. On this occasion, we have to understand the Imam’s (a.s.) revolution in the context of the movement of man for justice, dignity, and defense of Islam as a whole. We should refrain from transferring it into meaningless traditions in which we even hit ourselves. Rather, we should be inspired by it on how to strike the leaders of the enemies of Allah and humanity.
What we should do is to renew the message of Imam Hussein (a.s.) in all our messages. We should say to the Imam (a.s.): If we did not respond to your call physically, we would respond to it in our souls, hearts, and minds. We are going to stay with you… with your messages, your revolution, and your legitimacy. We are going to remain with you, with your father, grandfather, mother, brother, and the Imams who came after you from your offspring.
Peace be upon Hussein (a.s.), Ali bin Hussein (a.s.), children of Hussein, and companions of Hussein.
The Second Sermon
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
American Swaps
The American Administration continues to try to drag the Arabs and Muslims into an unfair security and political trade. It wants to trade the cessation of killing innocent Palestinians for additional concessions which could threaten the entire Palestinian cause. It also wants to let the Lebanese forego their cause in exchange for certain issues in the region. Moreover, it seeks to make the Arabs and Muslims engage in a major exchange, threatening that it will not stop inciting strife between the Shiites and Sunnis unless they make grand concessions that entail their major strategic causes.
In Palestine, the formation of the national unity government still faces complications and difficulties, with the US administration threatening that it will not recognize it unless it accepts the conditions of the Quartet Committee: recognizing Israel and ending resistance—an issue which Hamas refuses in principle and in strategy.
In the meantime, some Arab officials are trying to amend the Arab initiative of the Beirut Summit to make the Palestinian refugees return only to the PA lands, or to pay them compensations paid in part by an Arab oil country to let them stay where they are living now. There are news about some secret talks between this country and the US to reach such an agreement. And the amendment will be presented to the coming Arab Summit in Riyadh.
In the meantime, pressures are being exerted against those who oppose it, namely Syria, to accept it.
Strengthening Israel
On another level, Israel has asked the US to increase its military aid to 3 billion dollars to face the security challenges of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas.
They want to strengthen Israel to enable it to wage a new war or aggression, in accordance with the American position that seeks to enable Israel to hold the position that enables it to threaten the entire region and helps the US in dominating it.
At the same time, the Americans also want to weaken the Arab countries to ensure that they will always yield to their arrogant policies. To achieve this, the Americans continue to incite sectarian and racial strife, and force the Arab states to buy American weapons which, on the one hand, will boost the US economy and, on the other hand, will be held against other regional parties, namely Arabs and Muslims, but never the Israelis, so as to serve the American–Israeli plots of internal Arab and Muslim fighting which provides a free service for the occupation and its allies.
The Takfiri Brutality
In Iraq, the tragedy of the bombing of Mutanabi Street, the street of bookshops, has mixed the blood of innocent people with the ink of books, providing a testimony to the barbarism of those who do not respect man, whether Muslim or not, Shiite or Sunni, a child, a woman, or an old man. They also do not respect the culture and the knowledge that illuminates the mind and guides it to open up to the authentic civilizational Islam, which is against brutal violence against humanity, like that committed by the Takfiris who have given a distorted image of Islam and enabled its enemies to accuse it of terrorism.
In the meantime, the Takfiris carry on with their barbaric explosions, which have hunted the good believers on their way to visit Imam Al-Hussein (a.s.). They were brutally and ruthlessly killed. The killers might think that they are trying to undermine the security plan that they cannot deal with head-on.
But they are killing innocent Iraqi civilians, thus acting as partners to the occupation in their similar practices. It is tragicomic that they call such brutal acts a resistance to the occupation, while in actual fact they are helping it to extend its stay and achieve its arrogant goals in the entire region.
The Arab International Conference
We are afraid that the aim of the proposed Arab international conference is to pressure those who take part in it to save the occupation out of the political and military impasse it is stumbling in. They tend to think that calling certain countries whose relations with America are complicated to the conference might remove the political barrier that stands between them and the US as a result of the negotiations in the conference. The occupation is trying to find a way out of the impasse and the huge failure it found itself in by trying to open up to some of the neighbouring countries that were closed in its face, but we do not see any good in this and we do not share with certain Arab and Iraqi parties their optimism towards the results.
Unrealistic Accusation
The five permanent Security Council states, in addition to Germany, will once again discuss imposing additional sanctions on Iran, since it, as they claim, did not yield to the resolution calling on it to stop enriching Uranium, although the Atomic Energy Agency has affirmed that it is a peaceful project and that Iran could prove it. But these states, being under the hegemony of the US, are still playing the vicious game of cat and mouse, hoping that this will make Iran yield by peaceful means, since no matter how ineffective the sanctions may be, yet their own interests will be affected.
The problem lies in the fact that the West does not want to listen to the conclusive evidence that Iran has presented to prove that it is not planning to make a bomb, much the same as the Americans did when they waged the war against Iraq on the basis of possessing weapons of mass destruction, then it was proved to be a lie after occupation.
The Bier Al-Abd Massacre
In Lebanon, the anniversary of the Bier Al-Abd massacre was yesterday. It is one of the scenes of American terrorism that killed and wounded hundreds of innocent civilians, killing infants, children, women, old men, workers, and shop owners, in its attempt to kill one who had become, according to the head of the CIA: "disturbing to the American policies and has to leave."
When we denounce this horrible massacre, that was planned and followed up by the US, we want our peoples to learn what American terrorism did in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine looks like. Lebanon has also seen another example of this terrorism in the last Israeli war. That is why we want all those politically and legally concerned to uphold their responsibility towards bringing the American administration, that committed such massacres, to justice, especially since the evidence that accuses the US of committing the massacre of Bier Al-Abd is conclusive and well-documented, even in American newspapers and in what was written by well-known American writers, such as Bob Woodward in his book "Veil."
Barriers Obstructing the Solution in Lebanon
The Lebanese have been living with unrealistic hopes concerning the imminent solution in Lebanon, only to be surprised later by hearing some Lebanese officials stating that the conflict is still hanging in its place, and others who are used to hinder and undermine any attempt to solve the crisis stating that there is no solution, whether they were those who hold official positions or not…
This is because the solution is still hindered by the American–French alliance that whispers to some of the officials. The Lebanese crisis has become the favorite topic of the American officials, receiving every now and then Lebanese ministers, deputies, and notables to prevent any project to resolve the crisis as soon as it emerges. The foreign heads of state, especially George Bush, have turned into internal parties and the Lebanese crisis has turned into an international issue. Could any resolution then pass unless it carries their seals?
To sum up, the resolution to the Lebanese crisis has become a part of an international–regional deal in which the Lebanese have no part. We are not being pessimistic, but rather realistic in that we study the situation on the ground and leave our hopes aside.