His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, delivered the two Friday prayer sermons at the Imamain Al-Hassanain Mosque, Rabi I  21, 1445 /October 6, 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: Allah, The Most Exalted, says in His Glorious Book: Those are the ones whom Allah has guided, so from their guidance take an example. Say, “I ask of you for this message no payment. It is not but a reminder for the worlds. Allah, The Most Exalted, speaks the truth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      The 17^th of this blessed month, Rabi Al-Awal is the anniversary of the blessed birth of Imam Jafar bin Muhammad As-Sadiq (a.s.). This Imam was known for his piety, knowledge, forbearance, generosity, sublime morals, openness, and readiness for dialogue…

 

He lived in an era in which the political circumstances enabled him to spread the knowledge and Hadiths of Ahl el-Beit, to the extent that the school of Ahl el-Beit was called the Jafari sect. He lived in the era of the end of the Umayyad rule and the beginning of the Abbasid rule which made both parties preoccupied with other tasks.  To demonstrate the significance of this Imam, Sheikh Al-Mufid says: None of them met as many of the reporters of traditions  as he did, nor did the latter transmit on their authority to the same extent as they transmitted on the authority of Abu Abd Allah (Ja’far ibn Muhammad), peace be on him.  This made all religious students from all sects and all Muslim countries seek to become his students, including the Imams of the most prominent Sunni schools. Many of the Imams of the other sects were among his students. Abu Hanifa Anu’man, the Imam of the Hanafi school says: were it not of the two years (he had spent as a student for the Imam )he would have perished. Imam Malik bin Anas, the Imam of the Maliki sect, says: No eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard and no mind has ever thought of someone exceeding Ja’afar Bin Muhammad, As-Sadiq (a.s.), in worship, piety, and knowledge.

 

Al-Hassan Bin Ali Al-Washa Al-Kufi, one of the narrators of Hadith, said, while pointing to Al-Kufa Mosque: “I entered the Mosque 20 years after the death of As-Sadiq and saw 900 Sheikhs – the term “Sheikh” here refers to  a religious scholar- each saying: “Jaafar Bin Muhammad told me.”

 

Today, we are going to benefit from this occasion to shed light on some of the Imam’s stances

The first stance: Imam As-Sadiq (a.s.) gave a thousand dinars to his servant, Musadif, and told him, ‘Go to Egypt and merchandise with this money, because my family has enlarged .’ Musadif bought some goods with that money and traveled to Egypt along with the merchants. When they reached near a city in Egypt, a group of people welcomed them outside the city. The merchants asked about their goods and they were told that the goods were rare in the city. So the merchants promised each other to sell their goods twice the price they had bought.

 

They did so and returned to Medina with the profit they had earned.  Thinking that the Imam would be pleased, Musadif came to the Imam with two bags of money, each containing a thousand dinars. He told the Imam (a.s.), ‘One bag is the capital and the other is the profit.’The Imam (a.s.) said, ‘This is a good profit. How did you earn it?’ Musadif related the story to Imam As-Sadiq (a.s.). who (a.s.) stated, ‘Glory be to Allah! How did you make such a promise?’ Then he took one of the bags and said, ‘This is my original money and I do not need a profit earned in this way. O Musadif! Fighting with a sword is easier than earning halal sustenance. By this, the Imam wanted to say to all traders and all those who seek to make a profit that they should not strip themselves from any humanitarian or ethical considerations which should always be present in trade, just like any other part of life. It is the merchants’ right to benefit from their trade, but this profit should not exceed a natural and balanced limit that does not hurt those who need their goods or services.

 

The second stance: The Imam (a.s.) had a friend who accompanied him almost all the time. This friend was once mad at one of his employers and said to him:”Where have you been, you son of the bitch?” The Imam raised his hand hit his friend’s forehead and angrily said: “O my Allah! How come you curse his mother? I thought you have faith and Allah fearing, but I see that there is none in you.” The man said: “O my master! His mother is polytheist.” The Imam (a.s.) said: “Did not you know that every nation has its own rules for marriage? Now leave me!” They were apart and the man never walked with the Imam anymore. The Imam (a.s.) ignored him until death separated them completely. By this stance, the Imam wanted to point out the seriousness of insulting a person or accusing him of something he is innocent of, for Islam did not deem such an act permissible. The Quran says: And do not pursue that of which you do not know. Indeed, the hearing, the sight, and the heart – about all those [one] will be questioned.

 

The third stance: One of the companions of the Imam (a.s.)Al-Mufdil bin Amr, saw two people fighting. When he knew that they were fighting over some inheritance money, he gave them the sum and told them that the money he gave them was part of what the Imam left with him to solve such differences. The Imam wanted to explain to his followers that they ought to reconcile among those who differ, whether in the same house, village, or town, and whether this difference is political or religious, even if they have to pay some money or make extraordinary efforts.

Allah, the Most Exalted, says: The believers are but brothers, so make a settlement between your brothers. And fear Allah that you may receive mercy.

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Shall I not tell you of what is better in degree than extra fasting, prayer, and charity?” They said, “Of course!” The Prophet said, “Reconciliation between people. Verily, corrupted relations between people is the razor.”

Dear loved ones: These are some of the stances of the Imam that show how pious and humanitarian he was, and how concerned he was that no one would be falsely accused regardless of his social position, as well as his concern to solve any dispute in the society before it becomes too big to contain.

 

We are called upon to be guided by these stances and practice them in our community, for this is how we prove that we are loyal and faithful to this Imam……

The second sermon

 

Worshippers of Allah, The Most Exalted: I advise you and myself with the advice of Imam As-Sadiq: Increase your prayers; Allah likes those, among his slaves, who are praying to him. Allah promised to respond to the prayers of believers as well as make their prayers parts of their deeds on the Resurrection Day and will increase it for them in Paradise. Try increasing mentioning Allah throughout the day in every hour from the day and night. Allah has ordered us to praise Him many times. Allah will remember those believers who praise Him. No believer praises Allah without the fact that Allah remembers him kindly.

 

“You have to keep on glorifying Allah and to worship Allah humbly as Allah commanded the believers in His Books earlier. You have to be kind to those deprived and poor and keep in mind that those, who are scorning at them and feel proud in front of them, are away from the religion of Allah and Allah will degrade and scorn them. Our father, the Prophet (S) said: ‘My Allah ordered me to be kind to those poor and deprived believers.’ “Be aware that those, who scorn at any one of the believers, will face Allah’s hate and dislike until people hate them to the most extreme level. So fear Allah in your poor, deprived brothers because they have the right to be liked. Allah has ordered His Prophet (S) to like them and to be kind to them. So, those, who are not kind to those whom Allah ordered to be kind to, are disobeying Allah, and those who are disobeying Allah and His Prophet will finally die, they will die the death of those who are misled and darkened. Do not seek what Allah, the Most Exalted, has prohibited. He who does so Allah will create a separating obstacle between him and Paradise and its benefits, enjoyments, and respects…

Dear loved ones: we are in dire need to be guided by these advice as a provision in this world and a path that leads to Heaven. By this, we express our love and commitment to this Imam and become more aware, responsible, and more capable of facing challenges…

We begin with the presidential vacuum crisis that does not seem on the way to be resolved because all domestic parties still hold to their stances and conditions while the foreign powers that some rely on to solve the crisis do not seem to be able to convince the domestic parties to back down and reach a concession that everyone agrees on…

This means that the Lebanese impasse will remain the same until certain domestic or foreign developments compel the Lebanese to sit at the table of dialogue that would end this division.

Faced with this, we reemphasize to all the political parties that the solution is in your hands. You have no choice but to meet and talk about your fears from the other parties and reach an agreement on the future of the country…

 Whoever places his stake on the regional and international powers may have to wait for a long time as these powers either do not have a unified approach or are indifferent as Lebanon is not among their priorities.

Meanwhile, the sufferings of the Lebanese continue. The prices continue to soar including those of medications, hospitalization, education, electricity, water, and so on, as well as imposing new taxes and tariffs. The Government, on its part, is not taking measures to reduce these burdens. If anything it is increasing them …

On another level, the crisis of Syrian refugees aggravates, as the country is not able to host these large numbers of them due to its economic crisis and the fear of being nationalized as well as fear of instability on the security level…

 Instead of dealing with these fears, the states and organizations concerned tend to increase them and coerce Lebanon to endure the refugees’ presence without considering the repercussions… We are not calling for improvisational and emotional reactions. Nor are we saying that they should be left alone to face their fate. We are calling for wise decisions that take into consideration both their humanitarian conditions and on the other hand not making things reach a point that would destabilize the security and the economy of Lebanon…

Lastly, as we observe the Islamic Unity Week, we believe that striving to achieve this unity is one of the most important practical confirmations of this unity. In this respect, we emphasize the importance of the National Unity Conference which Iran organizes annually and which  I had the honor of participating in, hoping that such events would enhance the unity of Muslims against all challenges.