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 16, 1429 AH/ January 25, 2008, 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
Testimony and Punishment
Allah, the Most Exalted, says in His Glorious Book: And those who accuse chaste women and then do not produce four witnesses - lash them with eighty lashes and do not accept from them testimony ever after. And those are the defiantly disobedient, Except for those who repent thereafter and reform, for indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. (Surat an-Nur, 24:4-5).
Islam calls in its moral code to respect fellow human beings, especially women. That is why it does not accept charging them with adultery.
Allah does not accept false accusations, especially if it is as grave as adultery, unless there is proof that is presented to the judge. In the case of adultery, the accuser should present four just witnesses who testify that they have seen all the details of the sexual intercourse. It also stipulates that none of the four witnesses will go back on his testimony.
Those who differ with others and accuse them of having an adulteress wife or mother are committing an impermissible act since it is not allowed to make such accusations without proof. Thus, it is impermissible to say to somebody that your mother or wife is an adulteress. Even if we suppose that she had a relationship with someone, but it was not proven to be adultery, then we are not allowed to accuse her of such.
The Holy Quran emphasizes the need to punish those people who make such accusations but bring not four just witnesses who testify that they have seen the entire sexual intercourse; they should be flogged and the testimonies they will make will thereafter not be accepted.
Similarly, a brother or a husband might accuse his sister or wife of adultery and kill her in what is known as crimes of honor. These people, as we have mentioned several times, are criminals and they should be sentenced to death, like any other murderers.
The Prophet is said to have been told by someone: "If I find my wife with someone in bed, should I kill her?" The Messenger (p.) asked him: "Where are the four witnesses?" Meaning that the legal punishment should not be resorted to unless there are four witnesses.
Moreover, in exchange of accusations in a verbal row, one should not accuse one another of having an adulteress wife, mother, sister… etc.
Imam As-Sadiq used to hold those who are obscene accountable. One of his companions says: "I came to Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq who began the conversation, 'O Sama! What is it that I have heard between you and your camel driver? See that you do not become an abuser and curser.' Sama replied, 'Yes! What you have heard is correct. He had been unjust to me.' Imam (a.s.) said, 'If he has oppressed you, you have also become his equal and you oppressed more. Indeed this action is not from my behavior and neither do I advise my Shiites to do like that. Ask your Lord for forgiveness and do not repeat this act.'"
It is also narrated that he (a.s.) had a friend who was so close to him that he did not depart him in any situation. One day, they were walking in a mart and followed by a slave from Sind. The Imam's friend turned his face three times to find his slave, but he could not. In the fourth, he could see the slave; so, he shouted at him: "Son of adulteress, where were you?" As soon as Imam as-Sadiq (as) heard that expression from his friend, he slapped his forehead with the hand and said with astonishment: "Subhanallah! How strange is that! How do you defame his mother! I thought you were pious. Now, I have known that you are impious." The man said: "May Allah make me your sacrifice. His mother is only a polytheist woman of Sind." The Imam said: "You should have known that every nation has a legal form of marriage." He (as) then asked the man to leave him. After that situation, Imam as-Sadiq (as) did not accompany that man at all.
A Jew once asked Allah for three years to give him a son. When he saw that Allah was not responding to him, he said: "Am I too far from You to hear me…" Then when he was asleep, he heard someone saying: "You have been calling Allah for three years with an obscene tongue, an impure heart and a dishonest intention. Stop being obscene and purify your heart and will." The man did this and he invoked Allah and a son was born to him… This means that obscenity, cruelty and a dishonest intention might lead to denying the mercy of Allah's response to your prayers. It is also said that those who use obscene language will be denied Allah, the Most Exalted, blessings in their sustenance. Their supplication will not be responded to, unless they have a pure heart and tongue... Imam Al-Baqir (a.s.) says that Allah hates the one who uses obscene language.
The Messenger (p.) says: "Of the most evil of Allah's servants are those whom you hate to sit with because of their obscenity."
He adds that Allah has denied heaven to those who are obscene and do not care about what they say or what is said to them. It is narrated that a Jew came to Allah's Messenger and said, "As-samu 'Alaika" (Death be on you), and Aisha understood it and said to him, "'Alaikum As-Samu wa-l-la'na" (Death and curse be on you). Allah's Messenger said, "Be calm! O 'Aisha, for Allah loves that one should be kind and lenient in all matters." And I have (already) said (to them), "'waalaikum'" (Meaning: Same upon you too). The Messenger (P) added "when kindness is put on anything it adorns it, and if raised it disgraces it", and "Allah is kind and likes kindness. He gives upon kindness what He does not give upon violence."
Thus, we as Muslims have to abide by our Islamic moral code when we talk to others; we should not use obscene language with them or curse them, for Allah says: And tell My servants to say that which is best. Indeed, Satan induces [dissension] among them. Indeed Satan is ever, to mankind, a clear enemy. (Surat al-Isra, 17:53).
The Second Sermon
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Arabs and Palestinian Suffering
Is there an Arab world that respects itself and shoulders its responsibility towards the Palestinian people that have been under Jewish occupation aided by the West for sixty years?
The Palestinians are still being subjected to a medical and food supply siege, as well as the barbaric shelling that targets every neighbourhood in Gaza, killing men, women and children, and destroying official buildings and the slums of the poor and the deprived who are neither allowed to warm themselves in this cold winter, nor to leave Gaza, even for hospitalizing, studying or work.
The world is imposing slow death on Gaza. It does not allow her even to cry for help or protest, so as not to disturb the West that does not believe that the Arab citizen has any rights, and that receives every now and then a Jewish official without holding him responsible for eradicating the Palestinian people. Instead, they reward him by supporting his so-called peace with its disgraceful conditions.
The Arabs have enthusiastically gone to the Annapolis conference, because the US has forced them to do so but without giving them anything that might contribute to solving the problems that are relevant to the final status solution. On the contrary, it asked them as a prerequisite to engage in a civil war to end the Intifada and kill the Mujahideen, maintaining that the eradication war and the siege are all in self-defence.
Intimidating Iran
America and the enemy officials claim that the problem is the Palestinians' rockets that are launched on the Israeli settlements, which makes the collective punishments a retaliation against the Palestinian aggression. But the Israelis did not stop their assassinations, detentions and destructions of the Palestinian civilians in both Gaza and the West Bank.
According to the US, the Palestinians should not defend themselves. That is why Bush did not ask Israel in his visit to the region to withdraw from the occupied lands, because he does not recognize that they are occupied lands but rather disputed lands. At the same time, he continued to deceive the Arabs by talking about a Palestinian state he knows is unviable, due to the Israeli conditions which have already fragmented Palestinian lands.
Due to all these circumstances, the question is still: Is there an Arab world that holds its responsibilities towards the Arab situation? Or do these rulers continue to run after the American cowboy, who visits their countries to conclude arms deals that do not give the Arabs any strength but rather support the American economy and the American arms industry? In the meantime, the normalization process with Israel continues, and the efforts to portray Iran as an enemy continue, since it is an enemy to America and Israel.
In addition to trying to impose additional sanctions on Iran, the American president continues to accuse the Islamic Republic of planning or trying to make the nuclear bomb, claiming that it threatens the world's stability. This accusation would make a grievous mother or wife laugh, since America possesses thousands of nuclear arms while Israel has more than 200 nuclear bombs. It is funny that nobody in the Gulf countries which he was warning of the Iranian threat reminded him of the American intelligence report that confirmed that Iran had abolished its plans to make the bomb five years ago, nor did they remind him about the Atomic Agency report that Iran has given answers to all the questions it asked her, which means that the European accusations to appease the US are baseless.
America and Israel want to drag the Arabs into a war they have no interest in, and that could destroy the region while the peace Iran is offering the Arabs would give them strength, progress and economic prosperity that are in the interests of all parties.
Security Chaos in Lebanon
In Lebanon, the Arab initiative has been politically paralysed, hindering any solution, especially that some of the Arabs who took part in the initiative have adopted the American policy that tampers with the Lebanese fate by playing on their sectarian sentiments in a way that distorts any objective dialogue which could reach positive results if the political elite are faithful to their motherland.
It is also worth mentioning that the political statements made by this side or that do not give enough attention to the words they use. In addition, to the political cursing and trying to create circumstances that would further escalate sectarian tensions, thus plunging the country into the midst of the complicated crisis that the American Administration is running in the region.
Meanwhile, Lebanon continues to fall into hunger, deprivation and blackout with the Lebanese political awareness being sedated enough to follow sectarian symbols without thinking of what these leaders are saying.
The problem in the country is also one of considering sacred those who are not and treating them as infallibles.
In this context, there is a danger that some of the religious positions and their followers are presenting the religious symbols as sacred, so as to promote their sect or confession, without any national program to solve the problems of the people in this small country.
We urge the Lebanese people who respect their mind and future to follow up all what the political and religious officials are saying, and study their political connotations, since they are usually influenced by foreign interests or seek to promote personal and partisan aspirations, so that they will not fall back into the complications some of these "leaders" have made in the past in a way that made the country live in several crises and carnages, as well as impoverishing it and making it fall in debt.
Lastly, faced with this continuous tampering with the Lebanese security through these barbaric bombings that kill Lebanese personalities as well as civilians, we want the Lebanese to strive at all levels to protect their security from the criminals and those who seek to destabilize it, knowing that the only way to do so is by making every effort to reach political accord that protects the civil peace and thwarts the attempts of all those who want to destabilize the country.