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

His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, delivered in the context of the Friday Talk, a religious speech on   Ramadan 1, 1441 H. /April 24, 2020. Following is an edited text of his talk: And We certainly sent Moses with Our signs, [saying], “Bring out your people from darknesses into the light and remind them of the days of Allah.” Indeed in that are signs for everyone patient and grateful

Allah, the Most Exalted says the truth.

One of the favors that Allah, The Most Exalted, has bestowed on us, and one we should be thankful for, is that He has allowed us to reach the month of Ramadan to receive its blessings and good. The Messenger (p.) has pointed out to these blessings when he said:

 

“O people! A month has approached you laden with blessing, mercy and forgiveness; it is a month, which Almighty Allah regards as the best of all months. Its days, in the sight of Almighty Allah, are the best of days, its nights are the best of nights, its hours are the best of hours. It is a month in which you are invited to be the guests of Almighty Allah and you are regarded during it as worthy of enjoying Almighty Allah’s generosity. Your breathing in it is regarded as praising Almighty Allah and your sleep as adoration, your voluntary acts of worship are accepted, and your pleas are answered. O people, the doors of Paradise are open during this month… and the doors of Hell are closed, and the satans are in chains …It is a month of mercy in its beginning, forgiveness in its middle and freedom from hell in its end… Thus, only a wretch is the one who is deprived of Almighty Allah’s forgiveness during this great month.

Therefore , and despite  all we are  going through and the difficulty of fasting in these circumstances, we are going to enter this month with  joy and yearning for its advent, and we have prepared well  to perform all its duties, so that we will receive by the end of it all its provisions.

 Dear loved ones, the duties and responsibilities of this month, are not  restricted to fasting. It extends to other feats we have to attend to, as evident from the narration that states that the Prophet(p.) ordered a woman whom he heard cursing her slave in the month of Ramadan, for she would not be fasting if she curses her slave. Fasting therefore is to avoid all what Allah, The Most Exalted deemed to be Haram.

 In Addition, The Messenger (p.)  focused in his speech on these responsibilities, calling to make the month of Ramadan the month of charity, honoring the orphans, respecting the old, being merciful to the young, maintaining relations with one’s kin,  neighbors and believers, improving manners,  not lying or backbiting, easing the burdens of the weak and the workers, and not looking or listening to what Allah has prohibited. Also, this month is a month in which believers express their love to God, His Messenger  and Ahl El-Beit .  The Messenger (p.) thus, added, “O, people, in this month, the one who ameliorates his morals will be on the righteous way when the others deviate from it, and the ones who lessen the sins, God will lessen his torture, and the ones who don’t do any bad things, God will not be angry from them in the day of resurrection; besides, the one who confers honor upon the orphans, will confer honor from God when He meets him, and the person who keeps in relation with  his kin  and others, God will have mercy upon him when He meets him, while the one who puts an end for his relation with his relatives, God will not be merciful toward him in the day of resurrection. Furthermore, the person who prays a commendable pray, God will let him be exempted from the hell, and the person who performed an obligation will have the reward as if he had performed seventy obligations in other months. He who increases his praying, God will make his balances heavier at the time when the balances become reduced, and the one who recites just a single verse, will take the reward as if he had completed the Holy Quran in other months.

Based on this, we are required to set a plan that includes all our spiritual, religious and cultural needs, so that this month will not pass like any other, and become as Imam Ali (a.s.),said, when those who fasted will be rewarded, among the losers.

We have to plan well a program that  although takes into account our circumstances, would be a spiritual and religious one, in which we perform prayers on time, supplicate and praise Allah, perform recommended rites and concentrate on the Noble Quran, for this the month of The Quran by which we  purify our thoughts and our acts, and live our harmony with the Right and faith…  We should set a plan to maintain our relations with our relatives, neighbors, and the people around us, which has become easy through the modern means of communication and the social media… A program to help whether directly or indirectly the poor, the orphans and all who need help…This month constitutes a great chance to rebuild our personality through the light of guidance of faith and light   and purity of disbelief that sneaks to us out of nowhere. That is why we should prepare a special program that enables us to sit with ourselves, hold them accountable, and purify them from any sins and faults. We are not against having some time to rest , but not at the expense of the spirit and meaning of fasting.

Dear loved ones: we should consider the days hours and minutes of this month to be very precious, because we may not meet them again, for we do not   know when we will die.

Let us fill this month with worshipping, praying good, forgiveness, love and kindness, for it cannot be the month of Allah, The Most Exalted, if it is not a month of good, joy and giving. 

His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah issued on    Ramadan 1, 1441 H. /April 24, 2020 a press release in the context of his regular Friday talk. Following   are the main points he touched upon:

The Sayyed talked in the beginning about the virtue of piety that Allah, The Most Exalted, wants us to embrace in the month of Ramadan.   He said that if we are pious and fear Allah, The Most Exalted, we would not take any stand or move unless we are certain that it pleases God,   thus turning life into a place of peace and security for all people.

He then moved to the issue of Coronavirus in Lebanon, and warned that we should keep the severity of this threat in our minds, despite the fall in the number of victims, since any  laxity   in abiding by the instructions of safety will lead to the loss of all the efforts that have been made so far . He added that we should be patient so that we would come out with the least amount of losses. The Sayyed expressed his belief that abiding by the safety instructions should be general and include all regions in all the Lebanese territories, for it has become clear that any defect in any region will affect all others, since we are all in the same boat and any hole will sink the whole vessel.

 Sayyed Fadlallah then moved to the suffering of the Lebanese on the economic level, as the price of the Dollar has continued to rise in an unprecedented manner. It has reached 4000 Lebanese pounds and does not seem to be stopping at this level. Rather it will continue to rise if those who are manipulating the market are not deterred.

He added that this rise had an impact on the price of food items and the Lebanese money power of purchase to the extent that their salaries have become worthless. The Sayyed demanded that the government should move to stop this trend, since it cannot just stand idly by as the Lebanese living is threatened, knowing that it is capable of interfering if it has the courage to do so.

The Sayyed urged the government to hold the monopolists and the greedy merchants accountable, and refused the claim that there are not enough supervisors as there are a lot of civil servants in other departments who have no wor

The Sayyed regretted the Parliament’s failure to approve the social safety net bill of one thousand two hundred billions because of certain formalities or political divisions that have nothing to do with the interests of the Lebanese who belong to all religious sects and political parties.

He saw that the latest Parliament session did not rise to the level of expectation of the Lebanese in confronting the health and economic challenges, or recovering the looted public money, since it did not move to approve the bills that secure their deposits in the banks , as well as the bills that that remove  the bank secrecy  of the  accounts of the corrupt and the looters of public money, including the ministers and the parliament members.

 The Sayyed wondered about the reasons that led to the delay in passing the laws that lift the immunity of the ministers and parliament members and removing the secrecy of the accounts of the politicians …on the pretense that they need an extensive studying in the parliamentary committees which everybody knows that they are the “graveyard” of the bills.

His Eminence considered that what had happened had disappointed the Lebanese who hoped that the government would succeed in implementing a reform plan that saves the country from corruption, since it cannot be confronted as long as the officials are not held accountable. He warned that this incident could make the people take to the street, demanding their rights and taking the law in their own hands, especially after their representatives have proven that they only care about their narrow personal interests and forgot those of the ones who had elected them.

 The Sayyed saw that the people’s protests are necessary and wanted, because of their significance in imposing change, provided that they would not politicized or exploited.

The Sayyed commented on the new Zionist government and warned from the dangerousness of the alliance between the Likud  and the Blue and White party whose objectives include the implantation of the deal of the century which represents a war project in the region. He considered that Lebanon would be affected by its repercussions ,which calls for being vigilant, especially after what had happened in the Lebanese Syrian borders and the Lebanese –Palestinian borders as well as in Syria…

He also commented on the crime that took place in Baakline, calling for studying its results and meanings and making all efforts that  prevent its repetition.