His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, delivered the two Friday prayer sermons at the Imamain Al-Hassanain Mosque, Safar 2, 1445, August 18, 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: Say, “O Allah, Owner of Sovereignty, You give sovereignty to whom You will and You take sovereignty away from whom You will. You honor whom You will and You humble whom You will. In Your hand is [all] good. Indeed, You are overall things competent. Allah, The Most Exalted, speaks the truth.

The month of Safar has commenced. It is one of the lunar months that Allah, The Most Exalted, said that they have existed since the beginning of the universe and before man did. Indeed, the number of months with Allah is twelve [lunar] months in the register of Allah [from] the day He created the heavens and the earth.

But it is worth noting that many describe this month as one in which bad luck is dominant. A month that its advent makes some people afraid of what might happen in it. Thus, they would not marry, buy a house, or engage in any contract… in addition to their fear of illnesses and other disasters.

Such beliefs are not restricted to one nation or a state including those who claim they are advanced…  They believe that certain numbers or seeing certain animals and birds are bad omens. Nevertheless, such beliefs become very dangerous when they are given a religious dimension, as they could undermine. Therefore,  we should be very careful not to integrate into our religion anything that has no basis or authentic reference in the Quran, and The Sunnah and which is not accepted by the mind.  We read, for example, in one of the Dua books in the context of describing the month of Safar:” Know that this month is known for its inauspicious character and there is nothing better than giving in charity and making supplications seeking Allah’s protection. Anyone desiring to remain secure from the afflictions of this month should recite daily ten times the following supplication:

O Possessor of great strength, O possessor of great might, O Almighty! All Your creation submits meekly before Your supremacy, so protect me from the evil of Your creatures!

But whoever is versed in the Quranic and the authentic Hadiths of the Prophet and the Imams and their connotations could ensure that this allegation is not true, whether concerning the month of Safar or any other month or the movement of the stars or any number.  Allah did not put in any time anything that might affect man’s life and lead to despair or even to happiness.

Time, in Allah, The Most Exalted’s,  view is merely a medium where things happen and it does not affect them. It is Allah, The Most Exalted, who plays this role and none other than Him. Everything happens in accordance with universal laws that He has set: Say, Indeed, You are over all things competent. Allah, The Most Exalted, speaks the truth.

Any crises or problems people encounter in their lives are a result of their bad choices or behavior… Certain disasters occur due to natural laws given circumstances…that Allah has devised.

Furthermore, we find in some Hadiths the exact opposite: Imam As-Sadiq (a.) says:” Do not curse the mountains, the hours, the days and the nights….” For they are not responsible for what happens. Moreover, when the sun eclipsed after Muhammad (p.)’s son had died and the people said that it had eclipsed as a token of mourning, The Messenger said that the sun and the moon are two of Allah’s signs that orbit according to His orders adding that they do not eclipse for the death of anyone.

He also confronted this phenomenon when he said that whoever lets a bad omen stop him from doing something is guilty of Shirk (ascribing partners to Allah, The Most Exalted).

On the other hand, some cited Holy Ayats to prove that there are jinx days, such as the Ayats that describe the punishment of the people of Aad: So We sent upon them a screaming wind during days of misfortune to make them taste the punishment of disgrace in the worldly life, but the punishment of the Hereafter is more disgracing, and they will not be helped. Nevertheless, such an interpretation does not hold before any objective criticism. The Holy Quran did not talk about the days as elements that influence happenings, thus bringing distress or happiness, but only as a medium in which things take place.

This is our answer to all those who claim that Safar is a month of misfortune, being the month in which the Messenger and some of the Imams died. Despite being immensely sad events, it does not follow that it is a month of misfortune, for if we want to consider any day in which a prophet, an Imam, a cleric, or a loved one died a bad omen all days would fall in this category.

Moreover, we do not consider the death or martyrdom of prophets or Imams to be a result of evil omens. They are the result of God’s regulations and universal laws, and we humbly accept His decisions. The day Imam Hussein was martyred is not jinxed. It is a blessed day, for his martyrdom awakened the nation…

Furthermore, if we were to accept this principle, how then do we explain that there were also happy events in the month of Safar, such as the birth of Imam Al-Kazim and the marriage of the Prophet and Lady Khadija. Therefore, there is no religious basis for saying that time, stars, or planets… affect man’s life for they all move in accordance with the law Allah, The Most Exalted, has set to the universe… which provides good for man and life.

Yet, Islam was realistic in dealing with those who believe in bad omens. It realized that it might have been due to cultural or psychological factors… and called on them to rely on Allah, The Most Exalted, and ask for His help. It is narrated that the Messenger (p.)  Used to ask his companions who felt pessimistic whenever they saw something they believed to be a bad omen to say: O Allah! No one produces good deeds except You, no one erases misdeeds except You, and there is no strength or power except in Allah, the Exalted, the All-Mighty.

Dear loved ones: let us enter the month of Safar just as we enter any other month or day feeling optimistic and reciting the following Dua: make this the most fortunate day (month) we have known, the most excellent companion we have accompanied, and the best time in which we have lingered!

Place us among the most satisfied of Your creatures whom night and day have passed by,

the most thankful of them

for the favors You have done,

the firmest of them in the laws You have set down in the Shari’a,

and the most unyielding of them toward the prohibited acts against which You have cautioned!

The second sermon

Worshippers of Allah, The Most Exalted: I advise you and myself, with what The Messenger(p.) warned from when he told his companions to beware of money. For there was a man who gathered a lot of money. The angel of death came to him disguised as a poor man and knocked on his door. The genitors refused to let him in.  When he told them that he was the angel of death and the rich man heard that he came to take his soul, he told his family to open the boxes and throw all the gold and silver they contained. Then he cursed the money he had saying that it had made him forget his Lord and the Hereafter until the command of God came to him all out of a sudden…

Dear loved ones: Let us follow this advice that reminds us of our duties that we should never abandon in search of money and position… When we do that, we will be more capable of confronting challenges.

We begin with what happened in Kahale, which revealed how fragile the internal reality is and how tense the political and sectarian conditions are.

In such circumstances,   we had hoped the political parties would have hastened to conduct a dialogue among them that would have dealt with the reasons that had led to what happened, preventing its repetition  …If that could not have been accomplished due to the existing complications, they should have at least reviewed their provoking political rhetoric that played a significant role in what happened and that could lead to new and more violent incidents…

Instead, we witnessed an escalation of the political rhetoric that reached the level of declaring the boycotting of a weighing and effective… Lebanese party that has played a major role in protecting the country. Ending any dialogue with this party without taking into consideration the results of such a step on the political, sectarian, and national levels, can only increase the tension and allow the enemy to achieve its goals and further destabilize the country…

Therefore, we renew our call to all parties to have pity on this crumbling country and resort to dialogue being the only and the soundest way to deal with crises and differences… If some feel that they have tried dialogue before and it did not work, this does not mean that we should not try again after studying why the previous experiment failed. The only alternative to dialogue is the destruction of the country.

As for the report regarding the forensic audit, which pointed to the corruption and waste that had been going on in the Central Bank and the other governmental departments and named those who were involved in them…  we call on the just and unbiased judiciary to hold into account those who took part in this waste and corruption and work on returning the money that was wasted or smuggled out of the country to the treasury that  if returned will contribute in decreasing the need for foreign loans whose conditions will not serve the country’s interests.

As for the hope the Lebanese are looking up to as a means of ridding the country of their living crisis, after the drilling ship has reached its destination…we are afraid that if we discover a large quantity of oil and gas it will be usurped, yet again, by the dominating parties, as we noticed  that several political parties already seek to seize the sovereign fund, thus committing treason against the homeland and its people…

Lastly, we had hoped that the decision attributed to The Higher Islamic Shiite Council would not have been issued, as it damages this institution that was meant to contain all different views of the Shia community. Moreover, we have seen the extent of the rift it has made; by shaking the internal union at a time, we are in dire need of enhancing it.  It has also distorted the image of this sect, which has always shouldered the big causes …