In The Name of Allah, The Compassionate, The Merciful

His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, delivered the two Friday prayer sermons at the Imamain Al-Hassanain Mosque, Zul-Qida 17, 1443H. – June 17, 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: whoever kills a believer intentionally – his recompense is Hell, wherein he will abide eternally, and Allah has become angry with him and has cursed him and has prepared for him a great punishment. The Most Exalted, speaks the truth. Life is one of the greatest graces Allah, The Most Exalted, has bestowed on man , through which he realizes the goal of existence in this world and attains God’s satisfaction and paradise in the Hereafter. That is why God wanted man to preserve this life and prevent any harm from befalling on it . He did not allow man to put an end to his life whether out of need or depression and despair…and not even resorting to mercy killing when one is too old to move or suffering from a fatal illness…

Allah, The Most Exalted, has warned us about the consequences of such an act in His Book. He says : And do not kill yourselves. Indeed, Allah is to you ever Merciful.

And whoever does that in aggression and injustice – then We will drive him into a Fire. And that, for Allah , is [always] easy.

The Messenger(p.) said: here was amongst those before you a man who had a wound. He was in [such] anguish that he took a knife and made with it a cut in his hand, and the blood did not cease to flow till he died. Allah the Almighty said: My servant has himself forestalled Me; I have forbidden him Paradise.

Moreover, God wanted this respect for life to extend to the relations with others. He deemed impermissible to end the life of others who live in the same country or other countries, even if they are of a different religion and ideas, except in self-defense or to fight corruption. This ruling extends even to unborn babies, whereby the mother is not allowed to abort whether because she is unwilling to have children or due to financial conditions or because she already has many children, even if the father agrees. She is allowed to do so only if her continued pregnancy is life threatening. Allah, The Most Exalted, has warned against this big sin in several Ayats including: But whoever kills a believer intentionally – his recompense is Hell, wherein he will abide eternally, and Allah has become angry with him and has cursed him and has prepared for him a great punishment. And whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land. God pointed out to the significance of the sin of killing when He talked about the first murder on earth in which Cain killed Abel: And recite to them the story of Adam’s two sons, in truth, when they both offered a sacrifice [to Allah ], and it was accepted from one of them but was not accepted from the other. Said [the latter], “I will surely kill you.” Said [the former], “Indeed, Allah only accepts from the righteous [who fear Him]. If you should raise your hand against me to kill me – I shall not raise my hand against you to kill you. Indeed, I fear Allah, Lord of the worlds. ndeed I want you to obtain [thereby] my sin and your sin so you will be among the companions of the Fire. And that is the recompense of wrongdoers.

The Hadiths, too, have underscored the graveness of killing saying that the end of the entire world is easier to Allah, The Most Exalted, than an unrightful blood shedding…

The consequences of killing were not restricted to the punishment in the Hereafter, although it is a quite sufficient deterrent to prevent man from committing this crime. It extended to this world making the killing of an innocent person punished by death, considering it as the only means to prevent murder in the society. God says:

And there is for you in legal retribution [saving of] life, O you [people] of understanding, that you may become righteous. Although capital punishment involves the end of the life of a human being, The Holy Quran has considered it a life for it gives life to the society by enabling it to stabilize and develop… At the same time, it sought to eliminate the causes of killing and personal avenge or seeking revenge That is why Allah, The Most Exalted, has established very strict criteria for killing anyone as a punishment ¨ And do not kill the soul which Allah has forbidden, except by right. And whoever is killed unjustly – We have given his heir authority, but let him not exceed limits in [the matter of] taking life. Indeed, he has been supported [by the law].

Thus the criteria of capital punishment in Islam are :

Firstly: the killing should be deliberate and not by mistake or in self-defense…

Secondly: even when it is a deliberate killing only the killer himself should be punished and not any of his family, tribe, sect …etc, regardless of the social status of the one killed…

Thirdly: The religious judge should study all the circumstances that accompanied the killing to make sure that it was made deliberately and not in self-defense, before he issues his verdict.

Fourthly: the door of mercy and forgiving should be left open, but forgiving has to be made by the family of the victim. Moreover, the murderer should not be forgiven if it leads to encouraging him to commit more crimes.

Dear loved ones: we witness in our close and further reality a grave disregard of life, in such a way that any tension or difference is solved by killing especially that most people are armed. This calls for working hard to deal with these causes and resort to spiritual, religious and moral education, as well as activating deterring legal punishments , providing a much needed social stability…

The second sermon

Worshippers of Allah, The Most Exalted, I advise you and myself with God’s advise to us when He said: >O you who have believed, seek help through patience and prayer. Indeed, Allah is with the patient.

There are many challenges and difficulties in life which Allah, The Most Exalted, has tried us with. To overcome them, He calls on us to be armed with two crucial weapons: the first is to be patient, strong and steadfast so as not to be defeated by these trials. The second weapon is to pray to God and ask Him for His support. Allah, The Most Exalted, has promised those who do that that He will not let them down. He will provide them with His support and help them be more capable of facing challenges…

We begin by Lebanon where the Lebanese continue to suffer, as a result of the rise of the prices of the most basic services and commodities including the prices of fuel which have been skyrocketing and which would lead to a similar rise in the prices of transport and power… In the meantime, many essential medications especially those of cancer are missing, while the hospitals can no longer afford the rise in the price of diesel or medical equipment and the patients cannot afford the high cost of hospitalization. Education, too, has begun to suffer, with schools and universities having to raise their fees, to be able to go on.

At the same time, the banks continue to withhold the deposits of the citizens and the salaries of the workers and the employees continue to fall despite the latest insufficient increases. The only option left for the Lebanese is to immigrate or beg those who are abroad.

Regretfully, all this is taking place, at a time the political reality is dealing with the country as if every thing is alright. Many believe that even if a new prime minister is nominated the new government will not be formed, as there is a heated competition to divide the cake and win the weighty portfolios, especially that this government will effectively run the country if a new president is not elected.

On our part, we call for speeding the formation of a government that is able to shoulder the responsibility of this difficult stage, since the country cannot withstand a new stage of waiting which would be more difficult than ever.

The responsible political parties should not wait for the solutions to come from outside as the foreign countries are preoccupied with their own crises, and Lebanon is no longer on their list of priorities.

As for the maritime border negotiations that took place last week, after the enemy took the provocative step of bringing the gas production ship to the disputed region. In these negotiations, the government presented its viewpoint and emphasized that there would be no gas production before the end of the negotiations.

As we wait for the reply of the Zionist entity, we reiterate what we previously said about the necessity of holding fast to the Lebanese maritime borders without any compromises or yielding to the enemy’s threats and psychological wars or succumb to its intimidation under the pressures of the need for benefiting from the oil wealth. Lebanon is not weak and the enemy is not strong enough to impose its conditions… We are aware of the pressures Lebanon is subjected to in the midst of our economic crisis that aim to drive us to ask for foreign support. we are also aware of the dangers of going to war in this stage… But this is no reason for concessions and offering free gifts for the enemy , who also is afraid of engaging in a very costly war with the Lebanese whom he knows through past experience that they do not withstand aggression and occupation . Moreover, the enemy, too, needs the gas that it made an agreement with Europe to export.

Furthermore, we would like to warn again from making the mistake of adopting a stalling policy, which the enemy benefited from in the past stage of negotiations, and enabled it to end the phase of exploration and reach the phase of production. The Lebanese rights should not be compromised and it should be based on the international maritime law.