His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, delivered the two Friday prayer sermons at the Imamain Al-Hassanain Mosque, Muharram 10, 1444 July 28, 2023. Several prominent religious scholars, dignitaries, and hundreds of believers attended the Jumu’a prayer. Following is a summary of the sermons.

The First Sermon 

Allah, The Most Exalted, says in His Glorious Book: 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.   Allah, The Most Exalted, speaks the truth.    This Ayat has clearly stated that the responsibility of enjoining good and forbidding evil is not restricted to individuals. It includes the entire nation, men and women, young and old. They should all join hands to accomplish this goal to face injustice, corruption, and deviation that act through individuals, groups, institutions and states, implying that they should rise to the challenge and unite all their efforts to ensure that they will gain the upper hand…   The believing men and believing women are allies of one another. They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. The Holy Quran has asserted that this is the criterion by which nations are measured. It considered that there is no good in a nation that does not rise against the wrong whether internal or external. Allah says:  You were the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. This Ayat clearly shows that the nation of The Messenger was the best nation when it enjoined good and forbid wrong. Conversely, Allah warned against abandoning this duty when He said: cursed were those who disbelieved among the Children of Israel by the tongue of David and of Jesus, the son of Mary. That was because they disobeyed and [habitually] transgressed.

They used not to prevent one another from wrongdoing that they did. How wretched was that which they were doing? The Messenger says: “Certainly, Allah hates the weak believer who has no religion (is not a believer).” Then, he was asked: “Who is the weak believer who has no religion?” He (p.) answered: “The one who does not prohibit people from doing evil.

Dear loved ones: In our religious, moral, social, and social reality, we suffer immensely, as we have grown indifferent to those who do wrong or abstain from doing good and we do not condemn this behavior even if only in our hearts.  We have even reached the stage of seeing wrong to be right and right to be wrong…  Either despair from any change has overwhelmed us or we have grown afraid that if we face tyranny we will undermine our interests and statuses.

Dear loved ones:  we should be concerned with what is going on around us because corruption and deviation will not exclude any of us. It will reach us in our houses and threaten our reality.  Conversely, when the right and justice spreads in our reality we will enjoy its blessings.

We, who pray, fast, and perform pilgrimage, should not forget that enjoining right and forbidding wrong are duties that are as significant as praying and fasting.  They are the gate to all other duties, which would not have existed without them… The Hadith says: Enjoining good and forbidding evil is the way of the prophets, and the method of the righteous, a great obligation by which religious obligations are fulfilled, doctrines are secured, gains are resolved, and grievances are repelled doctrines are secured, and the earth will be populated, and justice will be taken from the oppressor…

But this does not mean that we should throw ourselves into destruction for this is not what Islam calls for. We should fulfill these duties in as much as we can while taking the prevailing circumstances into consideration…

Thus, we should study the methodology we are going to adopt in performing this duty. We should also be armed with patience and wisdom and call for Allah in the way He advised us to follow: Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction and argue with them in a way that is best…  We should also follow the example of our Messenger who, as he is described in the Quran, was lenient and merciful: So by mercy from Allah, [O Muhammad], you were lenient with them. And if you had been rude [in speech] and harsh in heart, they would have disbanded from about you. Although violence might be resorted to at times, it is an exception and not the rule. Violence is to be used only when there is no other option to achieve the desired goal.

 Dear loved ones: The value of Ashoura lies in that it comes every year to remind us of this responsibility. Imam Al-Hussein did not rise and make these huge sacrifices except when he saw that the right was abandoned and the wrong was practiced with people selling their principles in return for money or positions. He says: “I did not rise as evil, arrogant, corrupt or unjust, but rather I went out to seek reform in my grandfather’s nation… He also called on the nation to practice this duty when he said: The  Messenger of God, may God’s prayers be upon him and his family, had said: Whoever sees an oppressive ruler, making it lawful for God’s prohibition, breaking God’s covenant, violating the Sunnah of the Messenger of God, working against God’s servants with sin and aggression, then he did not change it by word or deed,  would be treated by Allah in the same way …And you know that these people have obligated the obedience of Satan, turned away from the obedience of the Most Merciful, manifested corruption, violated the limits, monopolized the booty, permitted what God prohibited, and forbade what he permitted, and that I have the right to this matter …

At first, he tried using good words and dialogue, but when he saw that reform and curing the nation from its indifference or its fear over its interests demanded to sacrifice his life and those of his companions he did not hesitate…

That is why, dear loved ones, our loyalty to Ashoura and the renewal of our pledge to Al-Hussein should not be confined to attending memorial gatherings, weeping, and throwing banquets…  We should also have the will and the determination to support right, good, and justice … refuse that Allah is disobeyed while Satan is …  and not keep silent against any injustice, corruption, and deviation no matter how huge the sacrifices are…

The second sermon

Worshippers of Allah: I advise you and myself to follow the example of Imam Hussein when he was in the midst of the battle, for It is reported that on the day of Ashura at the time of Zawaal, Abu Thamama Saidawi came to the Master of Martyrs, Imam Hussain (a.s.) and said, “O my Master! We shall all be killed without any doubt and the time for noon prayer (Zuhr) has arrived. So please lead us in Prayer. This shall be our last Prayer and we hope that on this great occasion, we meet the Lord in the condition of having performed one of the religious obligations. The Master  of Martyrs, Imam Hussain,  lifted his head towards the sky and said, “You have remembered Prayer, may Allah include you among the praying ones. Yes, it is the time for Prayer.” Then, when The Imam and his companions were praying, Said bin Abdullah Al- Hanafi s guarded him by shielding himself against arrows thrown at the Imam (a) and other prayer performers. By the time the prayer ended this great companion was hit with many spears and arrows that he was martyred.

Dear loved ones: this is the Imam and these are his companions who were aware of the significance of standing before Allah in prayers in all circumstances, not letting anything stand in the way of performing them in their times.

Our loyalty to the Messenger, the Imams, and their companions should be manifested by being committed to what they were concerned with performing each prayer in its time. When we do this, we would strengthen our relationship with God and become more capable of confronting challenges.

We begin with the presidential vacancy, which, we are afraid, is not going to be filled soon, having become clear that none of the political parties wants to change its position regarding the candidate it supports,  even though they are aware that no one is capable of imposing his candidate,  and that the foreign forces which some hope that they will provide solutions seem not to be in a hurry…

 In this respect, although the French Envoy has opened a window of opportunity, it seems that it will reach a dead end as none of the parties is ready to offer any concessions… although we welcome any call for dialogue and call for it, we fear that this dialogue aims to mark time  until regional or international solutions that would precede any Lebanese ones, ripen.

That is why we renew our call to the relevant political parties to shoulder their responsibilities in performing their duties towards those who elected them and who are still supporting them despite their huge sufferings on the economic and security levels… in addition to the vacancy in the Central Bank and its consequences on the financial and fiscal levels…

In this respect, we would like to point to the responsibility of the Bank’s governor who should be held into account before the Lebanese before he leaves office and explain to them the reasons that led to the huge decline in the state’s financial reserves as well as the fate of the depositors’ savings in the banks… We are afraid that when the governor leaves we would be preoccupied with whom he will be succeeded by and the facts will be lost  and the Lebanese would not know where their money and that of the state went..

As for the massacre in the vicinity of Lady Zainab in Damascus that led to many causalities… We condemn this crime that was committed by those who seek to destabilize the Syria  and incite strife… and we call for increased vigilance and enhancement of internal unity, in an effort to prevent this criminal act from achieving its goals…