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 Shawwal 13, 1430 AH/October 2, 2009, 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
Corruption on Earth
Allah says in His Glorious Book: "Corruption has appeared throughout the land and sea by [reason of] what the hands of people have earned so He may let them taste part of [the consequence of] what they have done that perhaps they will return." Surat ar-Rum (30:41). He also says: "And whatever strikes you of disaster - it is for what your hands have earned; but He pardons much." Surat ash-Shura (42:30).
Allah confirms in these two Ayahs, as well as in several other Ayahs, the significance of social, economic, and political security. Chaos and corruption were not directly sent down by Allah, and the strife that manipulates people's lives, their moral deviations, the diseases that might strike them, as well as the financial and economic crises are not acts of punishment by Allah for what they had committed in this world, but rather they are the results of people's actions, for what might corrupt their lives is their behavior. Corruption could also be the result of not preventing evil and not fighting oppression and tyranny, as well as indifference towards people's problems, and not doing anything to resolve them.
Therefore, Allah confirms this reality and says to the people: the problems or ordeals that might hit you are the result of what your hands have wrought, whether on land or in the sea. The best proof of this is the recent piracy operations conducted by several people in different regions of the world, and that aim at destabilizing the security of the sea and the gulfs and confiscating ships that transport people's goods from one country to another. Moreover, we heard that these operations were not the result of individual incidents, but rather, there are international axes having strategic interests that encourage these crimes and protect them with their own means.
Strife Produces Political Corruption
Corruption could also be embodied in bloody internal strife, just as the case in Somalia, where people kill one another, and in Sudan, where the security situation is always destabilized due to the ongoing fighting between the different sects; each belonging to a certain axis, or the tribes that try to eliminate one another. This could only inflict bitterness and damage on people, thus, the expression "on account of what your hands have wrought" is the best way to describe this situation.
Thus, we see in this world, including the Islamic world, how those who rule people with oppression and aggression, and by means of the local intelligence agencies and emergency laws… we see how they exert mass pressures on the people's freedoms and impose negative situations on them, so as to make them suffer from hunger, deprivation, as well as from security and economic instability. Despite all that, people do not rebel against those rulers, nor do they try to overthrow them, but rather they obey them out of greed to obtain certain gains or jobs. This is what we notice during the presidential elections in which the same president is elected for over twenty or thirty years. Actually, these elections impose on the people a specific name that they call a President of the Republic, while actually he would be more like a monarch, since his sons inherit his position.
We also notice how some people collaborate with the occupation that, in its turn, exerts pressures on their freedoms, their economy, as well as all their security situations, in an attempt to confiscate their economy and policies to the interest of its own economy and policies, and to promote its strategic interests to the detriment of the strategic interests of the peoples, yet no one rebels against such a reality. This is evident in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, as well as in the martyred Palestine and Al-Aqsa Mosque, in addition to other issues for which none of the parties that consider themselves responsible for the Arabs and the Muslims express any reaction or face with any kind of resistance or support. Rather, they feel satisfied with the worthless decisions, since they do not pressure the occupation, nor those who offend our sacred places, just as the case in Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Economic and Social Corruption
We also notice this in the universal financial crisis that ripped off and confiscated the funds deposited by many people, especially the rich Arabs who dominate over the oil and Arab wealth under and above the ground, yet we notice that they deprive their peoples of their needs and prevent their countries from building economic and industrial strength.
When we move in the social reality, in our Islamic societies, we realize that in our region and elsewhere there are people who deal with drugs and are addicted to them, and there are people who spread corruption and offend the people and commit thefts. Actually, we hear about daily burglaries taking place, whether houses or car robberies, to the extent that people do not feel safe anymore whether in their houses or in the streets, and yet no condemnation has ever been expressed by anyone. We should always remember that it was stated in a noble prophetic tradition: "When any one of you sees anything that is disapproved (of by Allah), let him change it with his hand. If he is not able to do so, then let him change it with his tongue. And if he is not able to do so, then let him change it with his heart, though that is the weakest (kind of) faith."
Moreover, we notice that many people, when their relatives, or friends, or party members commit a crime, they try their best to defend them and they even appoint them an attorney, which might encourage the criminals to further commit crimes. We also notice that many sectarian and confessional leaders foment sedition in society and defend the criminals so that people would gather around them being symbols of this sect or that confession. Moreover, we cannot but notice how America that falsely alleges to defend human rights exerts pressures on certain countries to deport some Muslim and Arab citizens, as is the case in the Emirates, where many people are being deported even though they have not committed any crime, but for the mere reason that they belong to a certain sect. Moreover, both America and France support the Emirates' attempt to empty that country from the people belonging to this sect, considering that they represent dormant spies.
Allah says: "Corruption has appeared throughout the land and sea by [reason of] what the hands of people have earned" – people ought to confront corruption if they want to live in peace – "so He may let them taste part of [the consequence of] what they have done." Therefore, we ought to arm ourselves with any means to face this corruption and bring it down. When people keep complaining about the ongoing chaos, sedition, and corruption, they ought to keep in mind the following verse: "Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves." Surat ar-Ra'd (13:11). Therefore, you ought to change the fanatic mentalities that support the criminals and the sectarian and confessional people…etc.
Examples on "Corruptors on Earth"
The Prophet (p.) talks to us about the case where the strong people in a certain society stand against the weak ones to confiscate their security and lives. He (p.) says: "How could Allah bless a people whose rights of the weak are not taken from the strong." The nation ought to strive hard to face the strong, so as the nation would be in a strong position against those who seek to spread corruption on earth.
Allah talks to us about some corruptors throughout history, for He says: "Indeed, Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and made its people into factions, oppressing a sector among them, slaughtering their [newborn] sons and keeping their females alive. Indeed, he was of the corrupters." Surat al-Qasas (28:4). He was one of those who corrupted the human reality by his policy, oppression, and tyranny.
Allah also talks about Qaroun, the tyrant and the financial corruptor, as He says: "Indeed, Qarun was from the people of Moses, but he oppressed them. And We gave him of treasures whose keys would burden a band of strong men; when his people said to him, 'Do not exult. Indeed, Allah does not like the exultant. And seek through that which Allah has given you the home of the Hereafter; and [yet], do not forget your share of the world. And do good as Allah has done good to you. And desire not corruption in the land. Indeed, Allah does not like corrupters.'" Surat al-Qasas (28:76-77). However, Qaroun was overwhelmed with arrogance and tyranny, so Allah punished him for his deeds and tortured him for the corruption he had spread in his society.
The Rulers' and Jurists' Corruption Corrupts People
The Messenger of Allah (p.) has considered that the rulers and the jurists lead the nation either to the good or to corruption. If the jurists went corrupt and did not carry out their mission and fulfill their message in guiding and consulting people, and did not uphold the knowledge they possess, but rather they tried to teach people with wrong concepts and tried to present falsehood to people as the right, and deal with religion as a trade that they sustain themselves from, then the people themselves would go corrupt as well.
There are also those who when you talk to, although they would be corrupted in their doctrines, behavior, programs, and reality, they would deny your allegations and claim to be reformers. We ought to warn people from these kinds of people, for Allah says: "And when it is said to them, 'Do not cause corruption on the earth,' they say, 'We are but reformers.' Unquestionably, it is they who are the corrupters, but they perceive [it] not." Surat al-Baqarah (2:11-12).
The entire nation ought to work hard to address the issues of corruption at the social, economic, cultural, and security levels, so as to save society and preserve its balance, security, and integrity.
The Second Sermon
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Jerusalem: Full Judaization
In Palestine, the Israeli war on the Palestinians continues and the enemy is trying to enter into a new phase, through which it embarks on the full Judaization of Jerusalem and the displacement of the remaining Palestinians, in addition to putting an end to the right to return.
In the same manner by which the enemy manipulated the mentality of the Arabs and Muslims, through hand shaking with Muslim religious scholars in order to cause the deviation of the Palestinian cause from its root principles, the enemy, once more, embarks on taking further actions to desecrate Al-Aqsa Mosque by paving the way for the Jewish settlers to break into it. The main aim behind such an act is to uproot the Mosque's veneration from the souls of the Muslims, end the singularity of its Islamic character, and pave the way for its full Judaization.
The Desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque
We say that these recent actions of desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque, in addition to the arrest operations of as many Palestinians as possible under the pretext of preventing them from preparing for a new Intifada and the investigation conducted with the Head of the Supreme Islamic Council in Jerusalem, Sheikh Akrama Sabri… all these developments represent an attempt to impose on the Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims a fait accompli implying that Jerusalem, including Al-Aqsa Mosque, has become an Israeli affair and that they ought, from now on, to get used to the coming storming operations that aim at seizing Al-Aqsa. Moreover, the enemy is not only working on confiscating all what is related to the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem and elsewhere, but it is also seeking to erase the historic heritage, by crossing out all the Islamic and Christian features from all the historic Palestinian positions.
An International Authorization to the Zionist Occupation
We realize that the enemy would not have reached this extreme level of desecration and aggression against Al-Aqsa, had it not gained an international authorization, especially from the American Administration, whose occupation movement against the Muslim world does not differ from the Zionist movement against Palestine. Moreover, the enemy would not have gone that far had the Arab and Islamic world taken a single step to stop the Zionist expansion in the heart of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, and entire Palestine, as well as in every place all around the Arab and Islamic world it has a certain ambition in.
Supporting the Palestinian Steadfastness
Actually, we praise the struggling Palestinian people who made use of every opportunity they had to defend Al-Aqsa Mosque, for we know that this patient and steadfast people was overburdened and consumed by the calls and demands, so we call on the Arab and Islamic peoples to help them to remain steadfast. We say to these peoples: since some regimes are awaiting any chance to normalize their ties with the enemy and seeking, even when it is not called for, to present more humiliating concessions in their continuous pursuit to liberate themselves from the entire cause, then the vibrant forces of the nation ought to exert every effort to undertake the necessary practical steps that could help in consecrating the Palestinians' steadfastness, especially in Jerusalem.
Moreover, the political and religious authorities are concerned with supporting the Palestinian resistance movement and preparing for the emergence of a new Palestinian Intifada in which the people take action side by side with the resistance; which might alleviate the exerted pressures on the Palestinians and prevent the enemy from tightening its grip on the Palestinian cause and occupying the people's memories after occupying their land and sacred places.
Arab Disagreement Over the Identity of the Regional Enemy
On another level, the Arab states are looking with enmity at the Iranian rocket experiments and they deem them as provocative actions rather than defensive ones undertaken by a state intimidated by an enemy that possesses a nuclear arsenal… Moreover, they do not consider Germany's awarding of submarines to Israel a provocative action even though these submarines are equipped to launch missiles with nuclear heads and are always deployed in the Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea and opposite to the occupied Palestinian coasts. They also do not consider the Israeli – American agreements through which America discloses all the secret nuclear information to be a provocative act that endangers international security, nor the Israeli – American joint maneuvers, or the technological and missile umbrella provided to the enemy by the American Administration… Ironically, it seems that security has turned into a western prize that only the criminal Zionist occupation receives.
Taking up Iran's Policy
The simplest logical political rule says that the Arab and Islamic states ought to follow the Iranian example; i.e. by confirming the logic of pride in its policies and working to build its personal strength that enables it to confront the humiliating schemes that are meant to be imposed on the entire reality and striving to find a serious Arab-Islamic cooperation system that benefits from the points of strength attained by Iran and other countries and develop them in order to fortify the entire Arab and Islamic reality against what is being plotted against it, especially that the Arabs and Muslims have relied on the arrogant powers to resolve their problems and issues.
Lebanon: A Hostage to the Arab Coordination
As for Lebanon that is awaiting an Arab gift that might emerge from the continuous Arab meetings, it has become a hostage to the sudden Arab coordination, after it had been a hostage to the escalating inter-Arab disagreements and always ready to receive good news from overseas, which suggests that the new American Administration, for compulsive reasons or new developments, has decided to enter into a pacification stage with this Arab position or the other and to move from the phase of intimidation and threatening into that of dialogue whose effects are often reflected on this small country that always looks for he who grants it its peace and security and even forms its Cabinet from outside the borders…
I congratulate the Lebanese on the understanding of the outside over their internal issues, and the interaction of the internal parties with the news of agreement reaching them from abroad… awaiting a new round of the internal discourse that is subjected to the ceiling of the inter-Arab relations and international climates. Best wishes for Lebanon with every new round.