His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, delivered the two Friday prayer sermons at the Imamain Al-Hassanain Mosque, Rabi Atthani 9, 144\november4, 2022. Several prominent religious scholars, dignitaries and believers attended the Jumu’a prayer. Following is the edited text of the sermons:

The first Sermon

In The Name of Allah, The Compassionate, The Merciful.

The first sermon

Allah, The Most Exalted, says in His Glorious Book:

And We made them leaders guiding by Our command. And We inspired to them the doing of good deeds, establishment of prayer, and giving of zakah; and they were worshippers of Us. Allah, the Most Exalted, speaks the truth.

On the eighth of this month, the anniversary of the birth of Imam Al-Hassan Al-Askari passed. This Imam was called as such after the place he lived in (Askar) which is now called Samera’ in Iraq.

The Imam was born in Medina. When he was two years old, his father Imam Al-Hadi took him to Samera’ as he was summoned by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakil to prevent him from communicating with people: He was twenty-two when he became the Imam following the death of his father

The Imam suffered from the restrictions and the siege his father suffered from before him. Talking about what he had to endure he asserted that none of his fathers had to suffer as much as he. He even called on his followers not to salute him for fear of being persecuted.

But all this did not prevent the Imam from performing his guiding and cultural role and confronting all forms of deviation whether directly or through his agents. Moreover, his biography testifies that he was loved by not only his followers but also his foes and enemies, as the following stories show:

The Abbasids went to Salih bin Wasif when Imam Hassan Al-Askari, peace be on him, was imprisoned. They told him: “Be hard on him. Don’t give him any ease.’ “What can I do with him?” Salih asked them. ‘I entrusted two of the evilest men I found (to guard the Imam). These two men became (men) of worship, prayer, and fasting to an amazing extent.

In another story Ahmad bin Ubaidallah bin Khakan, one of those who lived among the Abbasid elite and extremely hated Ahl et-Bait talked about the respect the Imam (a.s.) had enjoyed even among the inner elite and ruling circles. He says: "I have not known or seen any Alawite in Samera’, who is like Al-Hassan bin Ali bin Muhammad bin Al-Rida. I have never heard about anyone who matches him in his guidance, charity, chivalry, and generosity whether among his relatives or among the ruling Abbasids or all the Hashimites… I have never asked any of the Hashimites, the Military commanders, the judges, the jurists and all other people about him without getting the same answer… that he was the most respected and honored… I have never seen a friend or a foe who does not praise him”. Ahmad’s father, an Abbasid minister, says: If the caliphate were to be removed from the Abbasids, there is no one in the Hashimites who deserves it but him; he is the chastest, the most knowledgeable.. he The most pious….the most chaste.

The Imam had also provided us with certain advice that we are in dire need of today as well as at all times:

He warned us from ascribing partners to Allah, The Most Exalted, without knowing. By saying, for example, ‘had it not been for so and so, I would not have attained so and so’, and ‘Had it not been for so and so, my dependents would have been wasted. Do you not see that he has made an associate to be for Allah’: in this case, one should say ‘Had it not been for Allah, The Most Exalted,’s favoring upon me with so and so, I would have been destroyed’…

The second piece of advice: who advises his brother secretly, does him good, and he, who advises him openly, does him wrong. Advice should be done in secret lest it would turn into defamation or slander … In a third Hadith the Imam says that there is nothing above these two traits: believing in Allah, The Most Exalted, and benefiting people. . By joining between belief and serving people to gain God’s satisfaction, the Imam wanted to emphasize the significance of serving people

The fourth advice: What is uglier for a believer than to have a desire that humiliates him? By this advice the Imam wanted to warn man against following his whims and desires that would lead him to humiliate himself before those he believes can fulfill them or those who can install him in the position he seeks, for Allah does not want a man to be disgraced. The Messenger(p.) says:: "God the Almighty has left a believer’s affairs up to himself, except for being humiliated.

The fifth advice : The Imam said that those who know the rights of fellow believers and fulfill them have the best esteem in the eyes of Allah, The Most Exalted, According to the Imam these rights are: to esteem him highly in his eyes, to entertain love for him in his heart, to assist him financially from his own wealth, to love for him what he loves for himself, to prohibit [others] from backbiting him, to visit him in his sickness, to attend his funeral procession, and to not say anything but good about him after his death.

The last piece of advice: The worst servant is he who has two faces and two tongues. He compliments his brother when present and dishonors him when absent. When he is granted good, he envies him, and when he is afflicted, he fails him.”

Dear loved ones: Our loyalty to this Imam is not expressed only by visiting him or attending majlish on his behalf. We should also couple this by adopting all the virtues he called on us to hold and act by them. By this, we perform what we were called on to do

The second Sermon

Worshippers of Allah, The Most Exalted, I advise you and myself will the advice of Imam Al-Askari who said:

I advise you to fear Allah, show piety to your religion, work hard for Allah’s sake, tell truths only, and return the trust to their owners. Whether they are pious or sinful, prostrate yourselves before Allah for a long time and treat your neighbors courteously. These are the matters(morals) that Muhammad (p.) brought; offer prayers among their folks (people of different sects), attend their funeral ceremonies, visit their ill ones, and fulfill their rights. I am pleased if people point to you and say "this is a Shi’ite", when you behave piously, tell truths only, return the deposits to their owners, and conduct courteously with people. Fear Allah, be good(examples) and do not be evil. Attract people’s fondness of us and save us from every awful evil, for we are surely the people of every good thing that is said about us, but we are definitely not the owners of any evil thing that is imputed to us…

We are in dire need to be guided by this will to be true followers of Ahl el-Bait as well as becoming more active, responsible and capable of confronting challenges.

We begin with Lebanon, which has entered a stage we had previously warned of: the vacuum in the post of the presidency. This vacuum came at a time there was no agreement on a government with full powers … One that can fill the vacuum without controversy as with the current caretaking government. Moreover, it seems that it has become extremely difficult to agree on a new president in the near future since none of the principal parties is ready to abandon his conditions. This makes the country a hostage of the catastrophic consequences of this vacuum, both on the social and political level as well as allowing for foreign interference.

Thus, we call on all political parties to stop wasting precious time with every party seeking to ensure that the new president would conform to his conditions and standards, which is impossible if we take into consideration the present divisions of the parliament in a country that has always been and will always be built on mutual agreement which alone could provide stability.

We had hoped that all parties had not wasted the opportunity to engage in the dialogue proposed by speaker Berri, since it opens the door for the desired agreement.

In this respect, we call on all parties to respond to any similar invitation for dialogue to get the country out of the crisis. All parties should be profoundly aware of how critical this stage is, whether regarding the continuous economic deterioration or the regional and domestic repercussions of the Zionist elections or the international implications of the war in Ukraine since all this cannot be faced with the negligence we are witnessing.

Thus, we would like to warn the political parties against this acute political row regarding the presidency and the current caretaking government, for it has grave consequences in the sectarian and politically divided street. As, this could also cause security tensions or provide an opportunity for those who wish to destabilize the country, we are in dire need in this stage for a calm rhetoric that blocks the road towards strife and drives the minds to study the causes that made the country reach this critical situation and how to resolve the problems instead of inciting strife that would only make things worse.

As for the depositors’ crisis, we renew our call for the banks to shoulder their responsibility towards them, for they are the ones responsible in the first place for the money of the depositors so as not to lead them to use force which we do not want things to reach this far nor do we call for.

As for the Arab summit, we welcome the resolutions it took regarding the Palestinian cause and the Arab-Arab reconciliation. Nevertheless, we call to speed up their implementation so that they would not be lost as many before them.

As for the “ Israeli” elections which was won by the extreme right and which proves the Zionist Entity extremist and expansionist and racial nature, we call on the Palestinians to continue their struggle and enhance their unity and spirit of resistance. We also call on the Arab and Muslim states and peoples as well as all the free people in the world to support the Palestinians in their struggle for freedom and legitimate rights.