Do Good - 25/08/2006

 

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'aban 1, 1427 AH/ August 25, 2006 AD. Several prominent religious scholars, dignitaries, officials and thousands of believers attended the Jumu’a prayer. (Edited version of the Sermons)

 

 

 The First Sermon

Allah (SWT) says in His Glorious Book: "Do Good." He also says: "Hasten to virtuous deeds." This is the big theme that Allah wants us to adopt in this life. To fill it with good by correcting all the concepts of people in what they live and do in their relations, stands and acts, for Allah does not change a people's lot unless they change what is in their hearts.

Allah also wants man to hasten to do good in his relations with others especially when they suffer from difficulties in their social, political, and economic affairs. In these times, there will be a need to all who possess money, positions or capabilities to help, which will be a kind of continuous charity that paves the road to heaven. In this respect, it is related that a group of people came to the Messenger (p.) and asked him to indicate an act that if they perform they will go to Heaven. The Messenger (p.) said: "Give from what Allah has given you." They said: "What if we are more in need than those we are should give?" The Messenger (p.) replied: "Support the wronged." And they said: "What if we were weaker than those we should support?" The Messenger (p.) said: “Then advise the unwise.” If you do not possess strength, you might have an experience and an opinion that might do good to others. But when the Messenger (p.) was told that they might be less wise he said then: “Keep silent unless what you are saying is good”. Does not it make you happy that any of these traits will lead you to Heaven?

Believers’ errands

A believer is usually in need of fellow Muslims in his financial health, social or psychological affairs, in such a way that each is a servant of the others. The employer is a servant of his employees, and they are his servants. A shop owner serves the people by providing their needs while they serve him by increasing his wealth. The wealthiest of people need the poorest, and the strongest need the weakest.

This is what all the traditions of the Messenger (p.) and Ahl el-Beit whom we adhere to their imamate have told us. Imam As-Sadiq (a.s.) says: "Listen to what I say to you, and know that it is right and do it”.

The best among you are those who wish to perform the errands of their brothers, and he who perform an errand for a fellow believer. Whoever performs a believer errand, Allah will perform for him in the Hereafter a hundred thousand errands including Paradise.

When asked about the meaning of the statement that the believer is a mercy on fellow believers, Imam Hussein (a.s.) said: "If a believer asks another believer for an errand, it is in effect a Mercy that Allah has brought on him. If he accepts to perform this errand he is accepting this mercy, while refusing it is refusing this mercy… and Allah will let a snake eat his toes in his grave until the Day of Resurrection."

Competing in doing good

Imam As-Sadiq(a.s.) says: "Every Muslim who performs an errand to another Muslim will be called by Allah, The Most Exalted, Who will tell him that he will be rewarded by Allah and that this reward in no less than Paradise."

The Imam also called on Muslims to compete in doing good saying that those who do so will enter Paradise through a special door called the door of Maa'rouf (Charity). He added that Allah will be happier by performing on errand even more than those whose errand is performed.

Imam Baqir (a.s.) tells those who perform several pilgrimages but are not prepared to pay anything to the poor: "To sustain a Muslim family… to feed them and to dress them and ensure they do not need to beg from others is more beloved to me than performing seventy pilgrimages (Hajj)."

 

We are living now in a big catastrophe that all people suffer from, especially the followers of Ahl al-Beit in the South, Biqaa and the Southern suburb. There are a lot of poor and needy people in these regions, and we therefore, have to live our Islamic brotherhood which makes us one body. We have to live social consolidation; we have to help in sustaining and providing for the needy among us.

The enemies of Allah, The Most Exalted, and the His Messenger (p.) wish to humiliate the people and have them stand at their doors begging for help. And we know how the Relief Commission acted, giving the back trodden nothing and distributing all the relief resources on its people.

Nothing reached the South, which needed every piece of bread and every drop of water it can get. On the contrary, the relief resources were distributed among those who consider the problems that hit their country a chance to become even richer.

Therefore, we have to support and help one another, each according to his abilities. We have to live Mercy and love to overcome the tragedy, we are living in, for this is what pleases Allah and His Messenger. The believer enjoys Allah's Mercy as long as he is helping his Muslim brother.

 

 

 

The Second Sermon

In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

 
Where did the problem of Muslims and Arabs in the region arise from? Where did all these massacres that move from one country to another and all this political chaos come from? They are all from the West, whose all constricts used to plan to usurp the region’s oil wealth, and disrupt its unity.

The British occupied several Arab countries and executed several plans to enable the Jews to occupy Palestine, and transformed Iraq, Najd and Hijas into colonial British bases using all forms of deceit and lies.

France was the second Western State that occupied parts of greater Syria including Lebanon and Syria, and usurped its wealth. Then America came and joined the Western countries that rallied under its Leadership in the struggle of the cold war with the Soviet Union.

Then the Eastern bloc collapsed and America became the sole superpowers, America then began to establish its empire of evil that dominated the world and appropriated its wealth. Its Administration dominated by the Zionist Christians waged several wars to occupy directly or indirectly the Third World, especially the Arab and Muslim states to usurp its oil and ensure the prosperity of America and the West in general.

Branding those who oppose American policies with terrorism

Then, there was Israel that was created by the West and sponsored by the US, which linked its interests with that of Israel, its security war and peace with that of Israel, until the world imagined that America is subjected to Israel and not the other way road.

Then came the America's occupation on Iraq and Afghanistan in the aftermath of September 11. America saw in these attacks a chance to wage a war against what it calls terrorism. Thus the US waged a war against all who oppose its policies as well as that of Israel, especially in Palestine where it considered the Intifada an act of terrorism disrupting any progress of peace there, by imposing the disarming of the Mujahideen as a precondition for negotiations. Then they moved to destabilize the security and political conditions in the region, especially in Iraq that has been the theater of daily massacres that move from one place to another.

Then the West began to plan to dominate Syria and Lebanon and turn the latter into a center for its political influence in the region. To do this they pressurized a number of Security Council members to pass successive resolutions, starting by Resolution 1559, to disarm the Resistance and open up Lebanon upon the Israeli pressures with no force to face any Israeli aggression.

The Resistance defeated Israel

The year 2000 Liberation was a shock to America and Israel, because the Resistance was able to defeat Israel in the first time in its history. That is why the West began with its Israeli allies to plan to avenge .They searched for any justification whatsoever, and found it in the abduction of the two Israeli soldiers although pervious similar indicants ended with prisoner exchange.

The real US aim was to destroy the Resistance as a preface to impose its policy of the New Middle East and not to save Lebanon of the so-called "The Arms Chaos”.

Thus, the forces of evil in the world were deployed first in Rome and then in the Security Council to issue Resolutions 1701, to save Israel that was defeated in Lebanon, at a time America was expecting the defeat of the Resistance that will be followed by disarming it. That is why the American Administration refused to pass the ceasefire that the Arab and Muslim worlds, as well as well all the free people in the world, were asking for, at a time Israel was committing daily massacres and destroying the houses on heads of the civilian women children and elderly, living in them.

Then Israel welcomed Resolution 1701 since some of its articles are vague enough to allow Israel to interpret in a way that serves its interests.

Moreover, it does not call for a ceasefire and America continues to threaten to pass another resolution to disarm the Resistance.

Meanwhile, the Western states continue to yield to the American Administration, for the West does not show any political or economic or security respect to the Arabs and Muslims, especially that the latter have grown to accept the weakness of their governments before Israel and the US. Some of these governments along with certain Lebanese politicians have even supported the Israeli war on Lebanon.

 

Throughout its history, the Security Council has never exerted any pressure on Israel to implement any of its resolutions including Resolution 194 that acknowledged the right of Palestinians to return home. Israel, aided by the American cover of vetoing, has never implemented any resolution. The Security Council still does not accept any condemnation of Israeli massacres and invasions, despite all the talk about the peaceful solution that American did nothing to realize, since Israel refused the peace that gives the Palestinian people the right of self determination and build its viable independent state. The International community, and American in its forefront, does not respect the international legitimacy if it is against Israel's interest, and affirms it if it is against the Arabs and Muslims.

In this atmosphere, we find that President Bush who talks about some financial aid to Lebanon is the one who provided Israel with the sophisticated smart bombs that killed the innocent Lebanese civilians. And Britain has acted as the bridge that participated in delivering them.

They are the barbaric killers who refuse to protect the Lebanese children. Then they talk about humanitarian aid, as if they think that our people are politically naïve.

Building the strength and the dignified will

The blind Western hatred is still subjected – just like the US – to Zionist entity and despises the Arab and Islamic worlds and does not accept any human right to them. What it wants from this world is to stay a milking cow that ensures the Western economic prosperity. We call on Arabs and Muslims to build their strength and not to yield to the actions of the International Community that target their interests in the name of international Legitimacy.

To the Lebanese politicians and rulers I say: Let you decide, even for once, to be free independent and sovereign, and forcefully condemn the air, marine and land Israeli blockade on Lebanon that is covered by America, because we need the strong word that knows how to say No to the American and Israeli humiliation of the entire Lebanese people.

And to the Arabs and Muslims I say: "You should have the will to defy and challenge the arrogance that appropriates all your strongholds of dignity and pride especially that is what Allah wants the Muslims to do."