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

The First Sermon

His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, delivered the two Friday prayer sermons at the Imamain Al-Hassanain Mosque, Shaban 4, 1444/February 24, 2023. Several prominent religious scholars, dignitaries, and hundreds of believers attended the Jumu’a prayer. Following is an edited text of the sermons.

 Allah, The Most Exalted, says in His Glorious Book: Allah intends only to remove from you the impurity [of sin], O people of the [Prophet’s] household, and to purify you with [extensive] purification.. Allah the Most Exalted, speaks the truth.

In this blessed month, the month of Shaban, we meet with the blessed births of several Ahl el-Beit Imams: Imam Hussein was on the third which passed yesterday , while today , the fourth is the anniversary of the birth of Al-Abbas, and tomorrow, the fifth is the blessed birth of the 4^th Imam, Ali bin Al-Hussein who when mentioned  one recalls worshipping, knowledge, courage , generosity, forbearance  and giving in charity . His biography records that he used to go at night carrying food on his back to distribute it among the poor without knowing him.

This Imam was raised by his father, Imam Hussein, whom he lived with for 23 years. He assisted him in preparing for the revolution and was with him throughout his trip from Medina to Karbala. He had to suffer immensely in Karbala as he had  to witness the martyrdom of his father, and his family and companions. He was eager to fight with them,  had it been not of the sickness that forced him to  lie in bed. After the battle of Karbala, the Imam played a fundamental role in keeping the revolution and the principles his father fought for alive in the minds and hearts of people, preventing Yazid from extinguishing them whether in Damascus or later in Kufa and Medina. He also supported all the revolutions during his era.

Today, we are going to benefit from this blessed occasion to go over some of the stances and positions of this Imam that demonstrate the image the Muslim must exemplify in life…

 The first stance: Al-Zuhri, one of the Imam’s companions, narrated: “During a cold night, I saw Ali bin al-Hussein carrying a bag of flour on his back, so I asked him: ‘Son of Allah’s Apostle, what is that on your back?’”

The Imam replied: “I am making preparations for a journey. I am preparing provisions for it and carrying them to a secure place.” “Let this boy of mine carry the flour instead of you,” explained Al-Zuhri.

The Imam did not answer him. Al-Zuhri begged the Imam to let him carry the flour instead of him, but the Imam insisted on carrying it and said: ” But I do not disdain what will save me during my journey and makes good my going to Whom I will go. I ask you before Allah to go to your need.”

So Al-Zuhri left the Imam and went away. After some days he met the Imam and asked him: “Son of Allah’s Apostle, I do not see any mark of that journey which you ended?”

The Imam, peace be on him, told him about that journey for which he made preparations: “Zuhri, I think that you did not understand what I meant. I meant death. I made preparations for it through refraining from the prohibited and doing good.”

. By this stance, the Imam wanted to explain that the road to Heaven, entails, after abstaining from committing Haram, providing help and support to the poor and the needy.

The second stance: The imam used to travel with people who did not know whom he was and ask the man in charge of the caravan to let him serve the travelers without being paid.: Once he met with people who knew him. They were shocked and asked the others: Do you know this man and they answered: A man from Medina, who asked to serve us. When they were told that he was Ali bin Al-Hussein, they went to the Imam and said: “O son of Muhammad; do you want us to go to hell, what if we had offended you”. The Imam said:   Don’t worry. It was my choice not yours not to be known so that I can serve the caravan. If I travel with those who know me, they will not let me serve them (I find my happiness in serving people) … I have travelled with some people and they gave me, as a tribute to the Messenger of Allah, what I do not deserve and I do not like to be given …what I cannot give something equal to it in return”.

Another stance was the way the Imam treated his mother. Although he was very dutiful to his mother he never ate with her, but used to wait until she finished.  Asked why, he explained that it was out of fear that he might eat something that his mother had looked at to pick and then he might have been undutiful to her.  This stand shows how much he was dutiful to his mother and teaches us how to be grateful , loving and faithful to our parents.

 Dear loved ones: These are some of the stances of Imam Zein Al-Abidien(a.s.) which show his humanitarianism, for he used to see his happiness in helping the poor and the needy or in serving any man, and in being dutiful to his parents and performing his duties towards God and the people. And he saw in his relation to the Messenger as merely a responsibility he had to shoulder.   That is what the Arab poet, Al-Farazdaq, pointed out to when he praised him describing him, among other things, as being the generous and the forbearing who never said no except in prayer, when he professes that there is NO god but Allah, The Most Exalted. 

 

 

 

 

The Second Sermon

Worshippers of Allah, The Most Exalted, I advise you and myself, with what Imam Hussein advised  a man who came to him asking for help as he cannot deter himself from committing  sins, the Imam said: Do five things and commit whatever sin you like;1) Don’t eat any food created by God & commit whatever sin you like .2) Get out of God’s realm(universe) and commit whatever sin you like 3)Find a place where God cannot see you and commit whatever sin you like 4)When the Angel of Death (Ezraiel) comes to withdraw soul from your body make him flee from you and commit whatever sin you like .5)When Maalika(the anges) want to cast you into the fire of hell, don’t enter into hell and commit whatever sins you like .” The man said: after today Allah will not see me where He hates.

Dear loved ones: No one can fully appreciate how vast are Allah’s blessings and that he can do  no harm or good  to himself except by Allah’s wish and that he will punished severely if he disobeys His commands. Let us be concerned with earning His satisfaction, for by this we become responsible towards ourselves, more aware and more capable of facing challenges:

We begin by Lebanon where the sufferings of the Lebanese continue to increase as a result of the continuing rise in the price of the dollar, which have led not only  to  make them unable to afford to buy their most basic living needs such as food , medication , education, power, fuel  and water , but also affects the work of the  governmental agencies as well as the public  and private education and  threatens  the Lebanese willingness to continue to  live in their country as they have begun to think of how to leave  to a country in which they can earn decent living…

It is regretful that all this is not accompanied by any attempt to resolve the economic crisis, at a time the political crisis has also reached an impasse, as a result of the failure to elect a president whose consequences (the failure) have prevented the government from meeting to solve the acute crises the Lebanese are suffering from, as well as the Parliament  which is no longer capable of performing its legislative role and the  judiciary  which also suffers from the political divisions.

Thus, we renew our call to the political parties that are represented in the Parliament to hasten to reach a formula that secures the election of a new president and form a new government that realizes the reforms and enable the country to stand on its feet  …

 We remain in Lebanon to point to the conflict  between the government and the judiciary .   In this respect, we call for keeping political interference away from the judiciary to enable it to perform its vital role of establishing justice …

As for the earthquakes that the Lebanese are worried from, we call on them not to surrender to fear. They should rather study the means of protecting themselves and begin to put them into practice. 

In this respect, we call on the government, the municipalities  and the owners of buildings to study the ability of the buildings to withstand quakes and reinforce those that need such reinforcement and take all measures that ensure public safety, keeping in mind that all scientific studies indicate that we are not threatened by  such a big threat.

As for the Russian- Ukrainian war that has entered its second year,and led to tens of thousands of military and civilian victims and the dislocation of millions, as well as spending hundreds of billions of dollars  on buying weapons while billions  of people live in hunger… a war that we fear that might expand and become a world war in which untraditional weapons would be used  that would hurt the entire planet… Thus, we call to hasten to stop the war and enter into negotiations that would respond to the fears and concerns of all parties and preserve the sovereignty of all states…

In Palestine, the Zionist Enemy has committed a massacre in Nablus, where tens of martyrs were killed and which it aims from to break the will of the Palestinian people and keep them under occupation and humiliation…

As we strongly condemn this Zionist crime, we call on international agencies, the Arab League, Organization of  Islamic Cooperation and all free men and women in the world to voice their protest against this Entity and take decisive stands that prevent him from continuing its crimes and preventing the Palestinians from their right in a decent living on it land…

Lastly, we turn to the series that is supposed to be aired in the coming month of Ramadan and which presents a biography of Muawiya, the controversial figure that committed many mistakes during the rein of Imam Ali… 

 On the basis of our concern for unity of Muslims, we call on reconsidering its airing. Our call is not limited to this figure only, for we had also called for not airing other series we were afraid that it would lead to strife among Muslims.