His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, delivered the two Friday prayer sermons at the Imamain Al-Hassanain Mosque, Rabi Awal 5, 1444H.\September 30, 2022. Several prominent religious scholars, dignitaries, and believers attended the Jumu’a prayer. Following is the edited text of the sermons:

The first Sermon

Allah, The Most Exalted, the Most Exalted says in His Glorious Book: “O my people, there is no error in me, but I am a messenger from the Lord of the worlds. I convey to you the messages of my Lord and advise you, and I know from Allah what you do not know.” Allah, The Most Exalted, speaks the truth.

One of the most important traits of the Muslim is to advise others whoever they may be. The advice means calling others for what is good for them and asking them to leave anything that is bad. The believer feels that he is concerned with the good of those around him as well as those whom his voice can reach. He cannot see any wrong in the behavior or views of others without making every effort to correct it. This is what several Ayats as well as the narrations of The Messenger(p.), and the Imams indicated when they stated that the messages of prophets and messengers aimed to advise. The Hadith says: The person with the greatest status in the eyes of Allah on the Day of Judgment will be the person who worked most in His earth to give sincere counsel to His creatures.” It has even been said that: religion is sincere advice. On the other hand, Islam has warned against not giving advice. The Hadith says: There is no good in a people who do not give advice, and there is no good in a people who do not like advice. To encourage giving advice Islam has called those who are advised to accept the advice and not to act arrogantly towards it. Imam Zein Al-Abdien(a.s.) says:

And the right of your counselor is that you should treat him gently, then you should be whole-heartedly attentive to him, and open your ears to him so that you understand his counsel. And then study it deeply and if what he presents to you is right, you should praise God for it, accept it from him and acknowledge his favor. But if what he presents to you does not agree with you, you should be kind to him and make no accusations against him; and you should know that he spared no efforts to provide you with the best advice, but he made a mistake. Unless he deserves to be accused in which case you should not trust him under any circumstances. And there is no power but in God.

But the most important thing in the context of advice that we are going to focus on today is how to give advice and in what way. Man by his nature does not like to be drawn attention to his faults or weaknesses, as he considers it, except few, a false accusation or an exposure of his flaws…

Thus. there is a need to be concerned about how advice should be given so that it would serve its purpose and not cause adverse reactions. In this respect, the following points should be taken into consideration:

The advisor should support his advice with proof and evidence. His advice should not be based on suspicions and the like.

The advice should be given privately, to preserve the dignity of the one advised. It should not be published in the media or social media platforms or public, for this will turn it into an act of defamation, which does not serve its purpose and might lead the advised to insist on his deviation or mistakes. That is why it has been said: Public advice is a vice.

One has to choose the right time for his advice. It should not be given when the advised is angry, tense, or preoccupied with something else…

The advisor should show his love and affection for the advised. He should begin by talking about the advised good traits thus opening his mind and heart …

When talking about mistakes one should stay away from vilification. He should resort to implying or putting the advice in the form of a suggestion. And this is the way to present advice that the Messenger(p.) taught us. When he wanted to advise someone he used to stand up in the mosque and draw the attention to a certain wrong behavior without naming those who did it, adding that he should have acted in a different way which is… Thus the one who committed the fault would get the message without being hurt.

It is narrated that one day an old man came to Medina. At the time of prayers, he began to make wudu but he was making his wudu incorrectly. Hasan and Husayn (a.s.) saw the old man making wudu wrong and they wanted to correct him. They didn’t want to offend him or make him feel insulted, so they came up with a plan. They went to the old man and said, “My brother and I disagree over who amongst us performs wudu the best, would you mind watching us make wudu and be the judge to see which one of us indeed performs wudu more correctly? Could you please correct us wherever we are wrong?” The man watched carefully trying to judge who is better. In the end, he understood what was going on and said “By Allah, I did not know how to perform wudu before this. You have both taught me how to do it correctly.

When giving advice one should be lenient and talk calmly and in a low voice, to ensure that the advice would achieve its goal and the advised would not be offended by the tough words and the facial expressions that he would no longer listen to the content of the advice itself. Moreover, the advisor should be worthy of advising that he should not be known of committing similar mistakes as he should advise himself of in the first place.

Dear loved ones:

Advice is an expression of love and it is the greatest gift one could give to a fellow human being. It was the goal of all heavenly messages… That is why we should offer it to those who need it, for a word of advice might illuminate the road of the advised and guide him to the straight path of Allah, The Most Exalted’s satisfaction. Advice would also help man to face the difficulties of life, strengthen his willpower and provide him with hope and optimism… If we do not offer advice we would lose its reward in the afterlife and deprive the individuals and the society and the nation of the good and reform they would obtain…

The first Sermon

Worshippers of Allah, The Most Exalted, I advise you and myself to follow the advice of Imam Al-Hassan el-Askari whose birth anniversary is on the 8th of this month, when he said to his followers (Shia ): “… Be pious and fear Allah, be truthful, and give others, whether good or evil, their dues and be good to your neighbors… This is what Muhammad came with… If you are pious in religion, truthful in your speech, trustworthy in giving people their dues, and of good manners, when they say you are a Shiite, I will be happy… Be pious, and seek to honor …Keep on reciting the Quran and send blessing to the Prophet”. We are in dire need to follow this advice to express our loyalty to the purified Ahl el-Beit and our commitment to Islam in saying and action and become more aware and more capable of facing challenges.

We begin with the Lebanese continuous suffering in their living conditions that is getting worse every day, especially at the beginning of the academic year with all the relevant fees expenses, and transport …

In this respect, we hope that the efforts exerted by the Ministry of Education to open public schools and the Lebanese University would be successful to provide places for all those who cannot afford private. It is unfortunate that all this deterioration continues to accelerate without the slightest response from those who run the political affairs. They not only do not provide any solutions to rid the country of all this decline but also continue to do what they are used to putting their hands in the Lebanese pockets that have become empty and who are no longer able to tolerate any tax increase to secure the needs of the treasury which has been emptied as a result of corruption and waste that the responsibles themselves were either witnesses of or partners in. The increases in the wages that were provided for in the new budget are given by one hand and taken by the other as the result of tax increases and probable inflation. The budget has shown, despite some of its positive points, how much those who are supposed to be a true expression of the Lebanese sufferings ignore and neglect those sufferings since they did not consider them nor did they find solutions to the mounting crises. Faced with this catastrophic and tragic situation, we repeat our saying to those in charge that they should relieve the Lebanese from their despair, and not increase it or leave the country a hostage to the dictates of the external powers. You are able if you get rid of your personal and partisan accounts and reliance on foreign support to rid the country of its crises, knowing that there is in this world who wishes good to this country and is ready to help you. When this happens it will be easy to form the government and we will not reach a vacuum in the presidency which has become almost certain, as it is not possible due to the imbalances in the Parliament and the absence of a solid majority.

We hoped that they will all wake up after the incident of the death boat, But this incident passed as if it did not take place. There are even those who blamed the victims without thinking of what made them knowingly risk their lives.

It is not enough in this respect to punishing those who are directly responsible for the boat owners or the Mafias… We should first hold those who made this country reach the current state of collapse thus impelling these downtrodden people to try to flee out of their misery.