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 13, 1429 AH/ August 15, 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
Al-Mahdi (a.s.): Extension of the Imamate and the Book
The Two Weighty Things
The Messenger (p.) says: "I am leaving among you what if you adhere to, you will never be deviated: The Book of Allah and my progeny, who will not part until they come to me at the Hawd (The Pool in Heaven)."
As long as the Book of Allah is present, an Imam who is from the Messenger’s (p.) progeny will also be present, so that he will guide the people to its rulings and meanings.
The Messenger says: "This life will not finish until a man from the members of my house will rule. He will lead Islam to have the upper hand and defeat all oppressing tyrants. He will fill this world with justice."
He also says: "A man will emerge in the final era from my progeny. His name will be like mine and his title will be like mine. He will fill the earth with justice just as it was filled with oppression."
He is Allah's proof to His believers, Imam Al-Mahdi (May Allah hasten his return), whom we meet with his birth anniversary next Sunday the 15th of the month of Sha'ban.
When we want to study this point from a theological perspective we learn that Allah wants man to reach in the end of time the universal justice.
All which we pass through in this world contains both justice and oppression, but the last stage which Allah has prepared this great man for (Imam Al-Mahdi) is one of pure justice that has no room for any kind of injustice.
The Responsibility of the Call
In the light of this, we can affirm that the Imams, as the Messenger (p.) said, are twelve, all of them from Quraish, which applies only to Ahl al-Bayt. When we read their heritage we find out that they did not leave any ruling or guidance the Muslims need to know that they did not talk about. That is why when Imam Al-Mahdi was asked about whom should be referred to at the time of his absence, he said: "With respect to the new events that you encounter, you should go back to the narrators of my Hadith, since they are my proof, while I am Allah's proof."
The narrators of the Hadith have narrated all what the people need to the extent that the people no longer need anyone to tell them what Allah's rulings are. They have all what they need in the Book and the Hadiths of the Messenger and the Imams.
That is why the religious scholars did not find during all the stages of the greater absence any problem in deducing the juristic rulings even towards events that were not found in the beginning of the Message, since the general Islamic principles could well serve as a guide to reach rulings towards new events.
We have all we need in the Book, the Sunnah of His Prophet (p.), and the traditions of the Imams that are the traditions of the Messenger (p.).
Preparing for Universal Justice
Allah has prepared the Imam for the stage of universal justice, which we do not know when it will begin. In the meantime, He left the people the choice of what they adopt and what they do not, having left them with all they need to know to take the right decision. Therefore, we do not need to borrow anything from ideologies or laws that man laid out to develop Islam. Islam is the one that develops life, but it is not subject to its development. The religious scholars and authorities can explain through their personal judgments how to deal with any new event. Any backwardness in this respect is not caused by Islam, but rather by the backwardness of those who claim to represent Islam without having acquired enough knowledge and depth, whether a religious scholar or an intellectual.
In this respect, there is a point that we should shed light on: Some people might think that the Imam does not appear because he is afraid of the oppression of the tyrants; they cite some verses that might suggest this to them: He it is Who sent down tranquillity into the hearts of the believers that they would increase in faith along with their (present) faith. And to Allah belong the hosts of the heavens and the earth, and Allah is Ever All-Knower, All-Wise. (Surat al-Fath, 48:4). Moreover, in some visits he is referred to as the one who is afraid. But we do not accept this, because the Imam is absent due to Allah's wisdom, and because Allah has prepared him to be the Imam of the entire world when Islam will be the governing principle in law, politics, security, economy… etc.
A Task of Strength
Thus, the Imam's task is one of strength. It is a task in which he changes the world, and overcomes all injustice and arrogance, and all despots and tyrants. It has no place for fear. If he has stayed so long, this is due to Allah's wisdom who alone can determine how much one lives. Noah, for example, stayed with his people for 950 years, and might have lived thousands of years after the flood. Therefore, no one has the right to talk about how long the Imam will live. As for his role, it is to prepare life for universal justice.
Between the Personal and the Dutiful
Thus, our association with the Imam is not personal as some supplications visualize it. It is that of following an Imam and a leader and a message that seeks to change the entire world to become Islamic and filled with justice. If you are faithful to his memory, and if you are committed to his imamate, you have to establish justice wherever you may be; in your houses, in your markets, in your politics…
Being faithful to the Imam is to plan to be the just Muslim who supports the cause of justice anywhere in the world, even in non-Islamic countries.
It has been narrated that 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 make use of you (grant you authority) to shed the blood (of the people) and gather wealth. I made use of you to soothe the cries of the wronged, because I would not neglect their plight even if they were disbelievers."' Thus, oppression does not have a religion, nor does justice.
Our relationship with Imam Al-Mahdi is not an emotional one, even if we love him and believe in his imamate. It is the same as our relationship with the Prophet and the Imams: It is the relationship of the message. That is why we should transfer this love to a movement for the cause of Islam, its call, its law and its principles as well as to confrontation of all arrogance and injustice.
O Allah, hasten his reappearance, make his arrival smooth, hasten his path, make us tread on his way, and let us become among his supporters and those who will be martyred for his cause.
The Second Sermon
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
An Arab Implicit Support
The Israeli siege of the Palestinians, especially in Gaza, enjoys an Arab support, whereby the crossings that enable the Palestinians to get their food and medicine supplies are being closed. Things are not any better at the Palestinians’ crossing to Egypt through Rafah, since this crossing is subjected to similar siege measures. And those who tried to break the siege by means of the tunnels ended up dying in suffocation when the tunnel was destroyed over their heads. That was yet a new message to tell the Israelis that they were not done pressurizing the Palestinians, as part of an American–Israeli plan, which the Arabs take part in and even the Palestinian Authority cannot be considered totally innocent of all its activities.
In the meantime, the enemy is preparing to build new settlements or expanding the present ones to move in additional Israeli families and kick out more Palestinians.
Observers have also noticed that some PA officials have suggested substituting the independent Palestinian state on the lands occupied on the fourth of June with a bi-national Jewish-Palestinian state. Such a proposition indicates the state of collapse the Authority has fallen into, that has reached the level of accepting to exist with the occupier at the expense of the Palestinian rights, which represents an additional concession to the enemy whose goal is to establish a pure Jewish state in which the Arabs have no role whatsoever.
All parties know that the Israelis have been pressurizing – in alliance with the US and certain European states – the Arabs to offer additional concessions that would leave no chance for a viable independent Palestinian state.
We say to the Arab world and to the Palestinians that if they are not able to liberate their lands in the current stage, the continuing of the Intifada from one generation to the other will accomplish in the end the major goals of the people, since no right is lost as long as there are those who demand it.
Bush and Democracy
In the United States, the American President’s statement that Russia has invaded a neighbouring country and threatened an elected government, which is not acceptable in the twenty-first century, was rather repulsive.
Mr. Bush was the first to do this in this century when he invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, and when he supported the Israeli war against the democratically elected government of Hamas. Bush too has supported the Israeli war on Lebanon, in which Lebanon was supposed to fall into the hands of the Israelis, although things did not quite turn out the way he wanted.
As we reject all kinds of aggression and injustice, we find in the current American Administration the ugliest image of violating the sovereignty of states, the rights of nations and human rights, as well as support of terrorism and tyrannical regimes.
Therefore, Bush and his deputy are the last persons on earth who can talk about such issues having filled the world with wars and devastated its economies.
On another level, we notice that the mentality of siege has started to impose itself in international relations, with the arrogant states trying to besiege the opposition states that reject their humiliating conditions. We have noticed lately that the American, French and British fleets have moved towards the Gulf after taking part in joint maneuvers that simulate an offensive against Iran in the aftermath of the new EU decision of imposing strong sanctions on Iran.
We see in these new steps a prelude for an economic, political and perhaps military aggression against Iran to force it to yield to the American-Israeli conditions and forego its legitimate right of a peaceful nuclear program. Thus, we should prepare on all levels to confront the coming stage that is marked with increasing the pressures from all sides.
The arrogant powers feel that time is not on their side, which makes them feel the need to hurry up in their aggressions and escalating measures.
We, on our turn, should confront this by Islamic unity in the Arab and Islamic reality, and by being ready to confront anything that might come up.
The Zionist enemy too is making new threats after its maneuvers in the Golan and the talk of the enemy's minister of war that these maneuvers are not meaningless and that the enemy will not let the Resistance change the existing balance.
And as we feel the threat of the Zionist moves and Israeli preparations on all levels for a new aggression on Lebanon, we are surprised by the silence of many parties in Lebanon that are not taking these threats seriously. We are also stunned by the escalating debate about the Resistance arms just as the enemy wants. They aim at scoring political points instead of all parties agreeing on preparing a plan to confront any new possible Israeli aggression.
The Devastating Political Language
In Lebanon too, we have seen in the last few days a new act of political absurdity that took place in the Parliament in a muscle-flexing show of delivering speeches which some of the MPs were unable even to read. But they were able to incite the instincts and win the voters to their side by arousing their sectarian sensitivities, making the Parliament a "street" that is backward in its language and means. Thus the people will take from this political elite a big dose of hatred instead of love and friendship that can build the country on a firm basis.
We say to the Lebanese: This is the political class that you have produced and made it responsible for running your affairs in the legislative institution. And this is the result of the way you cast your votes which makes those MPs feel that the best way to return to the Parliament is by inciting sectarian strife, even if it leads to ruining the country and aborting any attempts to save it.
This class does not rise to the level of Lebanon or to the level of the causes of the nation. That is why we call on the Lebanese to practice their natural right of preventing these people from tampering with their issues and from coming back to the Parliament.
We need a new generation of citizens who believe in Allah as the embodiment of love and Mercy; a generation which will shoulder the responsibility of their homeland in a rational and faithful way; a generation that would hold accountable those who have been the problem of Lebanon and not part of the solution, since their movement still seeks to create new hatreds that will spill more blood… Meanwhile the regional and international powers continue to exploit the sectarian regime in the Lebanese front, since this regime that implants sectarianism in the minds and hearts has left no one that believes in something called the Lebanese homeland.