His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, delivered the two Friday prayer sermons at the Imamain Al-Hassanain Mosque, Zul-Hijjah 23, 1443H. /July 22, 2022. Several prominent religious scholars, dignitaries and believers attended the Jumu’a prayer. Following is the edited text of the two sermons:

The first sermon

Allah, The Most Exalted, says in His Glorious Book: The truth is from your Lord, so do not be among the doubters.

Then whoever argues with you about it after [this] knowledge has come to you – say, “Come, let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves, then supplicate earnestly [together] and invoke the curse of Allah upon the liars [among us].” “Allah, The Most Exalted, speaks the truth.

We meet on the 24th of Zul-Hijja with an important event: The Mubahalat Day .

It happened when the Messenger(p.) Invited the Archbishop of the Najran Christians to Medina to conduct a dialogue, in accordance with God’s call to His Messenger(p.) Say, “O People of the Scripture, come to a word that is equitable between us and you – that we will not worship except Allah and not associate anything with Him and not take one another as lords instead of Allah .”

The archbishop of Najran accepted and sent a big delegation of sixty priests. The Messenger(p.) received them in his mosque in Medina . In the beginning of the meeting, he started by pointing out that what he came up with did not come up from vacuum. He came to complete the message of Jesus Christ and the heavenly messages before him, and that he calls to what Allah, The Most Exalted, has called to, when He said : Say, [O believers], “We have believed in Allah and what has been revealed to us and what has been revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the Descendants and what was given to Moses and Jesus and what was given to the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and we are Muslims [in submission] to Him.” We also believe that Christ is what he himself said”, “Indeed, I am the servant of Allah . He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet. And He has made me blessed wherever I am and has enjoined upon me prayer and zakah as long as I remain alive. Christ in our belief is , as Allah, The Most Exalted, says: the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. Thus, we do not believe that he has the attributes of deity or that he was crucified.

The archbishop asked: if you say that Christ is a human being and a prophet, but not the son of God, then who is his father? How could he have been born without a father? The Prophet answered that if God wished so for some wise reason, He is capable of everything. Moreover, God created Adam without a father and a mother …

The head of the delegation then asked :You say he is a servant of God. How could he give life to the dead and cure the blind and the leper if he was not a god?

The Messenger (p.) said : This was done by Allah, The Most Exalted’s command Who enabled him to perform these miracles. He says: And [make him] a messenger to the Children of Israel, [who will say], ‘Indeed I have come to you with a sign from your Lord in that I design for you from clay [that which is] like the form of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird by permission of Allah . And I cure the blind and the leper, and I give life to the dead – by permission of Allah . And I inform you of what you eat and what you store in your houses. Indeed in that is a sign for you, if you are believers. …

When the discussion went on and on without reaching the much desired agreement, the Prophet called on them to resort to Mubahalat which is that both parties call Allah to punish the liar.

When the Christians returned to the places they were staying in, their leaders said: “If he challenges us with his people, we accept the challenge for he is not a prophet; but if he challenges us with his family in particular we don’t challenge him, for he is not going to put forward his family unless he is truthful”.

In the morning, the Messenger of Allah came with the Commander of the Faithful, Fatimah, Hassan and Hussein . When the Christians saw this, they decided not to enter in the Mubahala and reached an agreement with the Messenger(p.) giving them the freedom to practice their religion and the full rights of citizenship.

Dear loved ones : This event came to prove many things. Firstly: the nature of the relationship between Muslims and Christians was built , by Islam, on the basis of mutual respect, as the Muslims , for example, allowed the Christians in Medina to keep their crosses on and to pray in the Prophet’s Mosque.

Secondly: it stressed that objective and calm dialogue should be adopted whenever a disagreement occurs.

Thirdly: Mubahalat can be used to resolve any difference between people , by leaving the judgment to God.

Lastly: the event confirmed the status of Hassan and Hussein proving that they are the sons of the Messenger(p.), and that Ali (a.s.) is the soul of the Messenger(p.).

The second sermon

Worshippers of Allah, The Most Exalted, I advise you and myself to follow the lead of Imam Ali (a.s.) , when he gave his ring to a poor man as he was praying , giving an example to all who follow him not to turn their backs to the poor and try to relief them.

If we do this, we would deserve to be of the followers to the Imam, and build a cooperating and strong society that is able to face challenges

We begin with the Lebanese immigrants who are coming to Lebanon for the summer in big numbers. They were not hindered by the tough circumstances the country is suffering from, and despite the corruption country and the mismanagement that drove them out of it in the first place and in the injustice they suffered from when their money was seized in the banks. This shows how much they love their country ,and that they did not leave it in the most difficult of times .Moreover , it has become clear that they have played a significant role in reducing the sufferings of their countrymen in these tough days.

We would like to praise this patriotic role that guarantees the stability of the country and call on the government to play an active role in enhancing their presence abroad and protect them in times of crisis.

In the meantime, the Lebanese continue to suffer in their daily agony to secure their most basic needs, at a time the government continues to detach itself, as if it does not shoulder a responsibility towards its citizens and even towards the employee in the public sector. Instead, it resorts to imposing additional taxes and customs, without taking the consequences into consideration.

Nevertheless , we still believe that the government is able to initiate reform , if those in power decide to put aside their personal , partisan and sectarian interests and join hands to get the country out of the collapse it has plunged in, instead of scoring points and exchanging charges…

It has become clear that the first step to accomplish this is to form a capable and efficient government that enjoys the confidence of all internal and external parties. In addition, there should be a serious preparation for the election of a new president for all the Lebanese, instead of talking about a prolonged vacuum.

On another level, and with respect to the polarization on judiciary level, and as it became clear that the judiciary is not able to perform its role, due to the red lines drawn by this and that party, we renew our call for giving it a free hand to deal with the issues of corruption waste… and instability, provided it is just and equates between all parties and not influenced by any political interference…

Meanwhile, the Lebanese are waiting to learn about the positive atmospheres concerning the maritime border negotiations which we want to guarantee Lebanon’s full right its in its resources.

It has become clear that this positivity has emerged only after the seriousness the Resistance exhibited in refusing the Zionist policy of stalling.

As we hope that this atmosphere persists, we call to remain vigilant in dealing with an enemy that is experienced in deceit and exploiting any favorable circumstances to obtain additional gains…

With respect to the summit for Syria held that was held in Tehran, we hope it will produce positive results that we will witness soon, that concerns the unity, sovereignty and stability of Syria as well as enabling it to benefit from its wealth and preventing the enemy from targeting it with its aggressions.

In Iraq, we call on the Iraqis to enhance their unity and not let any strife penetrate into them, as they are in a dire need for unity to nominate a prime minister and form a new government that enjoys the trust of the Iraqi people and resolve the various crises the country suffers from , in addition to the foreign interferences…