Fear Allah and don't be Divided

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 Rabi' al-Thani 28, 1427 AH/ May 26, 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 says in His Glorious Book: "O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims [in submission to Him]. And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided. And remember the favor of Allah upon you—when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favor, brothers. And you were on the edge of a pit of the Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make clear to you His verses that you may be guided. And let there be [arising] from you a nation inviting to [all that is] good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and those will be the successful." Surah Al Imran (3:102–104) 

In these Ayahs Allah calls on the Muslims to think about Him in all the levels and situations. The believers should in all their actions and thoughts think only about what pleases Allah. For He is constantly watching how man uses his mind, to benefit people or to harm them, especially that some people, use the mind that Allah has given them to serve the arrogant and the oppressors. They are the ones who act as advisors and assistants to the oppressors and advise them of how to repress and cheat the people.

Man also has to fear Allah in every beat of his heart. He should love whom Allah loves and hate whom Allah hates. It is said in the Holy traditions: "If you want to know yourself, look at your heart, if it befriends Allah's friends and if it is an enemy to Allah's enemies, then there is goodness in you and Allah loves you. But if your heart befriends Allah's enemies and is hostile towards Allah's friends, then there is no good in you and Allah hates you".

Imam Sadiq (a.s.) says in one of his sayings: "What is religion if not love". Your religion is known through whom and what you love.

You should fear Allah in every saying action and relationship, and this is what "as he should be feared" means.

One of the traditions says: Fear Allah as if you see him. If He is in front of you while you are sinning would you not be afraid? If you do not see Him, He sees you and knows both your actions and your intentions.

Preserving Piety

Furthermore, this piety or fear should continue, throughout life. O you who believe! be careful of (your duty to) Allah with the care which is due to Him, and do not die unless you are Muslims. Thus, you should seek to preserve your Islam more that you strive to keep your money, for Islam represents your destiny. Thus, a believer ought to be cautious from those around him. He might befriend someone who will deviate him. Allah tells us about those who wronged themselves by committing sin: "And [mention] the Day when the wrongdoer will bite on his hands [in regret] and say, 'Oh, I wish I had taken with the Messenger a way. Oh, woe to me! I wish I had not taken that one as a friend. He led me away from the remembrance after it had come to me. And ever is Satan, to man, a deserter." Surah Al-Furqan (25:27-29)

 

Allah has told us about the Day of Judgement when Satan would denounce those whom he has deviated:

 

 

Therefore, one has to preserve his religion, and he should not let anybody deviate him especially when he lives in an environment of oppressors and deviations, who follow Satanic political leaders that call for enjoining evil and forbidding good.

Islamic unity

Allah's then emphasizes the need for Islamic unity, hold fast to the rope of Allah which is Islam and the Quran. In this regard, to hold fast to the Quran is to adhere to all its religious and jurisprudence principles, and do not accuse each other of unbelief.

On the country, Allah's Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet should unite all Muslims, Allah has emphasized this message when he addressed all Messengers starting by Adam: And surely this your religion is one religion and I am your Lord, therefore be careful (of your duty) to Me But they cut off their religion among themselves into sects, each part rejoicing in that which is with them. But the people remained divided. And this was the case in the era of the early call when the natives of Medina were divided between the two major tribes of Aus and Khuzraj . Allah, the most Exalted, reminded them that Islam has created a tie of brotherhood among them, since Allah considers All believers to be brothers, and it is the responsibility of fellow believers to reconcile any two brothers who differ.

Allah also holds the nation responsible for fighting all kinds of corruption (political, economic, social… etc. that the nation encounter :And from among you there should be a party who invite to good and enjoin what is right and forbid the wrong, and these it is that shall be successful Be not like those who are divided amongst themselves and fall into disputations after receiving Clear Signs: For them is a dreadful penalty .On the Day when some faces will be (lit up with) white, and some faces will be (in the gloom of) black: To those whose faces will be black, (will be said): "Did ye reject Faith after accepting it? Taste then the penalty for rejecting Faith.

In the light of this, Muslims have to cement Islamic unity to stand in one unified rank against unbelief arrogance, oppression and all wronging. And if they differ about the understanding of certain associates that are related to the doctrine and the juristic rulings or issues of a political and social nature, they have to refer then to Allah and His Messenger.

The meaning of believing in the two testimonies of believing in the oneness of Allah and in His Messenger is to obey Allah's commands and in what the Messenger conveys or teaches. You should not accuse each other of unbelief and being led astray but rather go back to the Book of Allah and the Messenger(p.)’s Sunna to see what they say.

Allah wants us to establish our relations on the basis of unity and love. We should unify our positions and stands, because the enemies of Allah, His Messenger and the believers have unified to destroy Islam and the Muslims. And this is what we notice in all the American European and Israeli plots. The Muslims are no longer in control of their own affairs, rather the arrogant and the unbelievers are the ones who tell them what to do. And, as a result, the Muslims have become fragmented and started killing each other and accusing one another of unbelief. The responsibility therefore is huge, because Allah wants us to be strong and dignified. Imam As-Sadiq says: "Allah has given the believer the right to run all his affairs, but he did not give him the right to be humiliated".

The enemy's prime minister received in the American Congress unprecedented 18 times standing ovations, an honor he would not receive even in the Israeli Keneseth. He was also warmly welcomed by the American President and his secretary of state, although they uttered a few shy words concerning the political solution with the Palestinians.

Such a welcome suggests to the Arab and Muslim worlds that the political circles in America are under the Israeli influence, especially that the US House of Representatives have voted to cut the Aid on the Palestinians people, because it consider as it a terrorist people that ought to be starved to death.

Such a vote indicates that the coming US congressional elections in the next fall has become a race to win the influential Jewish vote, while the Arab and Islamic vote is worthless. Nevertheless, we have heard some Arab and Lebanese praise and pay tribute to the American representative in the Security Council who according to the Israeli representative is the six member of the Israeli delegation to the UN due to his valuable support for the Zionist interests, which drives us to ask about why a delegation of the group of March 14 was sent to pay tribute to Bolton.

In Palestine, the Americans and the Europeans are still supporting the daily Israeli massacres that are not condemned even by the Arabs. Moreover, they are trying to force the Palestinian Government, and consider the Israeli – Palestinian struggle a security issue and not a political one. Moreover, they do not find in the settlements or the racial wall any violations of the international resolutions.

American Plots in Iraq and Iran

America and Europe also consider the Iranian Nuclear issue a threat to the world. In this respect, America is tying to suggest that it confronts Iran to protect Europe and the world, although everyone knows that America and Israel are the real threat to the entire Middle East, whether as a result of their destroying capabilities of their protective wars.

Iraq has been able to form its government, which is the subject of various internal and external challenges. It is also besieged by the occupation that does not want Iraq to become strong, because it dos not want to withdraw before implementing its strategic plans.

On the other hand, Iraq continues to be a victim of daily massacres kills civilian in their mosques and workplaces by those who are inhuman enough to destroy their own countries. We call the Iraqi people to find the support his national unity government that constitutes the basis of power and unity that opens upon freedoms sovereignty and impendence.

The Resistance: A national liberation movement

Under the influence of the US and Europe, The Security Council wishes to disarm the Resistance in Lebanon, to protect the Israeli security in the face of a liberating force that protects Lebanon from the Zionist aggression that threatens Lebanese sovereignty and territories. The Americans want to punish the Lebanese people and the Resistance because they forced the Zionist Entity to withdraw unconditionally. And some Lebanese have adopted this plan since they do not want Lebanon to remain a strong force that challenges the Israeli aggression, and they do not, on the other hand, use their relations with the American and French tutelage to empower the Lebanese Army which the American led international community wants it to remain weak.

The Resistance: a source of pride

The Lebanese Mujahideen have proven that they are the only Arabs who were able to defect the Enemy, Furthermore, their willpower and experiences able them to be the vanguard of any future confrontation with the enemy. If the Lebanese want to preserve their independence, they have to stay with the Resistance and refuse all the disarming attempts, for it continues to be a necessary need to prevent any Zionist aggression.

The Arab and Muslim worlds regardless of their sects, have stood with the Resistance, considering it the vanguard force that was able to restore the Nation's dignity in the battlefront with the enemy that defeated many Arab countries, while those in Lebanon who have made politics their profession are supporting international resolutions that were taken to promote hostile interests, to the extent that they are threatening the unity of the country and hinting of a confessional confederation that demands foreign protection to get rid of the Resistance and its weapons and its men who have restored the nation's dignity.

We would have thought that the least the Lebanese government can do is to make the liberation day one of the most important and glorified days in the Lebanese calendar in which all Lebanese celebrate as a holiday. But it is afraid from the American pressure of the American Ambassador and envoys who don't accept to consider the occasion of Israeli's defeat a day for the real Lebanese independence.

The problem is that some Lebanese are afraid of being caught as confronting Israel. That is why they talk about diplomacy. But diplomacy cannot achieve anything unless the country is strong; the weak do not achieve anything from diplomacy, and we can clearly see this in the way the international Community, especially the US, deals with the Arab word.

Internal Resistance

The Lebanese people ought to be concerned about their future and demand that the government should devise a plan of reform, whether political, economic, military or otherwise. It should try to overcome the deficit, stop the waste and punish those who became extremely rich by usurping the public money.

We need a trustworthy and faithful internal resistance against those who lie and create strife, and those who practice corruption in the name of reform and change.

We also need a resistance against poverty, hunger and foreign tutelage, a Resistance as faithful and as strong as the one that freed the country from occupation.