His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlallah, delivered the two Friday prayer sermons at the Imamain Al-Hassanain Mosque, Safar 24,  1443 H. /October 1, 2021. Several prominent religious scholars, dignitaries and believers attended the Jumua’ prayer. Following is the edited text of the sermons:

The first sermon

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

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 .So pardon them and ask forgiveness for them and consult them in the matter. And when you have decided, then rely upon Allah. Indeed, Allah loves those who rely [upon Him]… Allah, the Most Exalted, speaks the truth.

We observe on the 28^th of the month of Safar , the death  anniversary of the prophet of mercy, Muhammad bin Abdillah (p.)

 This anniversary takes us back to the day the Messenger (p.) departed leaving sadness, pain and grief in the hearts of his companions who lost the mercy God had awarded them and the  man who was their father and guide and the one who took them out of the darkness of ignorance and backwardness and fanaticism to the light of freedom and dignity and transferred them to the best nation  ever  existed…

Imam Ali (a.s.) demonstrated the depth of this grief when he said in front of his grave: May my father and my mother shed their lives for you. O’ Messenger of Allah! With your death the process of prophethood revelation and heavenly messages has stopped which had not stopped at the death of others (prophets). Your position with us (members of your family) is so special that your grief has become a source of consolation (to us) as against the grief of all others; your grief is also common so that all Muslims share it equally. If you had not ordered endurance and prevented us from bewailing we would have produced a store of tears and even then the pain would not have subsided and this grief would not have ended and they would have been too little of our grief for you. But this (death) is a matter that cannot be reversed nor is it possible to repulse it. May my father and my mother die for you; do remember us with Allah and. take care of us.

 Dear loved ones: When we observe this anniversary, we do not aim to remember the Messenger (p.)  for he is always with us .  We do so to renew our pledge to emulate him and uphold his Sunnah, so that we would not be among those whom God warned of when He said: So if he was to die or be killed, would you turn back on your heels [to unbelief].

On this basis, we are going to recall some of his advice which he was concerned to make sure to convey to his companions before he did .  

In his last days, The Messenger (p.) gave a speech in which he emphasized that   Allah, The Most Exalted, does not accept any wronging or injustice. He added that whoever believes that he has wronged should come forward   for retribution. Thus a man came to the Prophet and said: “O Allah’s Messenger! When you left At-Taif, I welcomed you while you were mounting on your lame camel with a thin long stick in your hand wanting to aim at the camel but unfortunately the stick hit my abdomen O Messenger of Allah! The Prophet, on hearing that story, ordered him to avenge himself….  When the stick was brought and the Messenger (p.)  Uncovered his abdomen, he asked the man:

: “O Sawadah bin Qais! Would you punish or pardon? The man said: “I pardon O Messenger of Allah!”

The Messenger of Allah said: “O Allah! Pardon Sawada bin Qais as much as he pardoned your Prophet Muhammad.

By this The Messenger (p.) wanted to teach us several lessons that we desperately need :

The first lesson: In Islam there is nobody above criticism and being held accountable, even if he  reaches the status of the Messenger(p.) which no man can  ascend to.

Not only did the Messenger (p.) accept criticism, he also urged the believers to criticize him and removed any barrier that could prevent them  from doing so. By this the Prophet wished to set of himself as an example to all those who hold a big or small position or assume a certain responsibility: They should hold themselves accountable and accept criticism  when people point out to their faults . They should even call on them to do so and thank them for it, considering it as a gift . The Hadith says: May God have mercy on those who show me my faults.

The second lesson:  There is nobody above the law which should treat all people equally and not differentiate between any of them. The Messenger(p.) whose position is above any other   calls for punishing him if , God forbid , has wronged . He says:  Those who have gone before you were destroyed, because if any one of high rank committed theft amongst them, they spared him; and it anyone of low rank committed theft, they inflicted the prescribed punishment upon him. By Allah, if Fatima, daughter of Muhammad, were to steal, I would have her hand cut off.    

The third lesson:  Each one of us should ensure that he does no leave this world,  with any faults or sins  left, for the most difficult situation on the Day of Judgment is  when he has to face those whom he has wronged. Let us hurry up and settle our accounts, leaving no wronging or backbiting behind, for we never know when we will die.  We have to be always prepared for our death so that we will not say: until, when death comes to one of them, he says, “My Lord, send me back . 

The Messenger (p.)  has upheld his  responsibility   and fulfilled his duty  towards his God and nation . We too should fulfill our responsibility towards Islam that Allah, The Most Exalted, and His Messenger (p.) has entrusted us with. We should follow it and express it in our behavior and choices in life…

The Second Sermon

Worshippers of Allah, The Most Exalted, I advise you  and myself , with what the Messenger(p.) advised his companions when he said ” O people, believers are brothers… Your blood, money, and honor are sacred to you till you shall meet your Lord, as sacred as this very city, this very day and this very month…Do not return after my death into disbelievers beheading one another…O people, your Lord is one and your father Adam is one. There is no favor of an Arab over a foreigner, nor a foreigner over an Arab, except by righteousness. Have I not delivered the message…

We are in a dire need to follow these advice in our lives to build a society of peace and security among its members and diversities; a society in which people are not distinguished by their descent or money, but in as much as one shoulders his responsibility towards his God and nation.  By this we prove that we love our Messenger (p.) and that we

Are loyal to him… and more capable of facing challenges.

We begin by Lebanon, where the Lebanese expect a lot from the government whether on the domestic or foreign levels.  On the internal level, they expect serious and swift measures that  provide them  with their  needs of food ,  medicine,  power and  fuel, while the foreign powers ,expect it to perform radical reforms that deal with  corruption and waste  through  the  IMF  with all its consequences,  before it provides any aid…

As we call on the government to perform the role it is required to do without any delay on the pretense of   shortage in time or abilities, we want it to take into consideration, as it makes its decisions, the interests of the Lebanese and not let the country be a hostage to any party. This does not mean that we are unaware  that   achieving this will be difficult due  to the  immensity  and accumulation of the  problems, as well as  differences between the various political parties which will  intensify with  the approach of the elections , as parties participating in the government  will try to benefit from  their position to realize electoral gains or hinder what prevents them , while those outside it  will attempt to fail them to prove that they were right in not entering the government .

But we would like to reassert that this government is able to  achieve , if  it decides to act as a unified  homogeneous  and  cooperating team, and stayed away from  political feuds  and electoral and  partisan calculations and  concentrated on  enhancing the country’s interests and  removing the burdens its citizens suffer from…  Then the people will not let it down and they will support it and endue its tough decisions…

 In the meantime, the government will have to pass the test of appointing new civil servants and top officials in its various agencies and departments… In this respect,  we call on the government to present a new model , that is different than what we are used to in appointing officials that belong to this political party or that. These appointments should be based on competency only, even if the confessional considerations have to be   taken into consideration.

Meanwhile, the central bank continues through its circulars to steal the money of the depositors, claiming that it is unable to return it and benefiting from the need of the Lebanese to   cash money.

We call on the government, as well as the parliament, to take all the necessary measures to stop this plundering   and return the deposits to it owners as soon as possible…

As for the Zionist aggressions, we salute the Resistance confrontation of the continuous aggressions to the Lebanese sovereignty by the means of drones and its fulfillment of its promise to down any plane that  breaks the Lebanese space, which will lead the enemy  to review  its   assessment of the strength of the country before it makes any move.

Also on the Arab level, we   see a positive atmosphere that if it continues and widens will enhance the Arab and Muslim relations on all levels and develop their economies. In this respect, we welcome the return of the warmth in the Syrian-Jordanian relations, the dialogue between Iran and Saudi Arabia and what is happening between Iraq and its neighbors.