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 8, 1441 H. /May 1, 2020. Following is an edited text of his talk:

Indeed, the righteous will be among gardens and springs. Accepting what their Lord has given them. Indeed, they were before those doers of good .They used to sleep but little of the night. And in their wealth was appointed a due share for the beggars and the destitute (i.e., all the needy

Allah, the Most Exalted says the truth.

In this Ayat, Allah, The Most Exalted, portrays a very clear equation: the relation with Him and attaining His love and pleasure cannot be achieved by performing the religious rites of fast, prayers and pilgrimage only.   They should be coupled with helping and serving the people.  That is why we find that  when the Ayat we have recited above talks  about  becoming  pious and  promises    gardens and springs, did not  consider it to be sufficient to spend  most of the night in prayers and ask for forgiveness to be considered as pious .  One has also to serve   and help the people, for Allah, The Most Exalted, has associated His love with serving the people, benefiting them and entering joy to their hearts .The Messenger said: All creatures are the dependents of Allah. The most beloved of them to Allah is he who is most beneficial to his family or (to his dependents.

Allah, The Most Exalted, has coupled Thanking Him with thanking the people .Imam Zein Al-Abidien says: The most thankful to Allah, The Most Exalted, is the most thankful to people.  He also said: On the Day of Judgment, He(God) will say to His servant: ‘Did you thank so-and-so?’ The servant will say: ‘I thanked You, my Lord.’ Allah, the Glorified, will say to him: ‘You did not thank me because you did not thank him.’ Therefore, Islam considers that reaching the highest level of worship is demonstrated by serving people and fulfilling their needs:

when one  reaches the peak in his worship, he becomes a walker regarding the needs of the people.  God even made helping fellow servants a condition for receiving His help: Allah helps the servant as long as he helps his brother.

 Moreover, when man’s relationship with Allah, The Most Exalted, is shaken, as a result of sinning or the like, the way to restore it and gain Allah, The Most Exalted’s satisfaction is by helping the needy among His servants. Imam Ali (a.s.) says:  To render relief to the distressed and to help the oppressed make amends for great sins.

Furthermore, Allah, The Most Exalted, has urged believers to give in charity, considering it as a means to protect oneself from Hellfire, to evade disasters, to increase sustenance and to elongate life. It also falls in the hands of God before it reaches His servants: Do they not know that it is Allah who accepts repentance from His servants and receives charities. Imam As-Sadiq says: Everything has a key, and the key to sustenance is charity. Imam Zein Al- Abidien used to feel happy when a man asks him for charity and say: here comes the one who will carry my provisions until the Day of Judgment…

Allah, The Most Exalted, was so concerned with this virtue that He made it a duty: Take, [O, Muhammad], from their wealth a charity by which you purify them and cause them increase, and invoke [ Allah’s blessings] upon them. Indeed, your invocations are reassurance for them. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing .It is narrated that Imam As-Sadiq (a.s.) said: “Indeed, Allah has established a portion of the food for the poor in the wealth of the rich, and had he known that it was not enough, He would have increased it.”

Dear loved ones: this religious duty that was ordained by Allah, The Most Exalted, aims to   awaken the feelings of the rich towards the poor. But the rich here means anyone whose money exceeds his needs and not the conventional meaning of wealth as we have come to understand nowadays.   And there is nothing stronger than pain to awaken this feeling and act as a motive to ease the burden of those who suffer all their lives from   hunger and pain: Imam As-Sadiq says: “Zakat has been imposed as a measure of trying the rich and a source of subsidy for the poor.  And if people paid the Zakat due on their property, there will not be any needy or poor Muslims.  What you see of want, poverty, and hunger are the result of the rich not fulfilling their obligations.  It is worthy of God, the Glorified, to hold back His mercy from those who withheld His right in His property (that was entrusted to them .

 The association between fasting and helping the poor is evident in the fact that the religious ruling makes the alternative for fasting for those who are unable to perform it  the  feeding a  needy person,  as well as Zakat Al-Fitra which no fasting is complete if it is not  given to those who need it.

Thus, the Messenger,in his Ramadan speech, called to help the poor and the needy and take care of the orphans and expanded it to all  those who suffer, as evident  from the Dua that is recommended to recite  in  all the days of Ramadan:   O  Allah, gladden the people of the graves,  O Allah, enrich every poor person, O Allah, satisfy every hungry O Allah, clothe every unclothed one, O Allah, help every debtor pay his debts,

O Allah, relieve every distressed one,

O Allah, return every traveler (to his home),

O Allah release every prisoner, Q Allah; correct every wrong in the affairs of the Muslims,

O Allah, cure every sick one,

O Allah, ease our poverty by Your wealth,  O Allah, change our evil state to a good one

through Your excellent state,

O Allah, relieve us of our debts, and help us against poverty,

Surely, you have power over all things.

We are in a dire need to  implant this virtue in our souls  to get nearer to Allah,The Most Exalted, and earn His love and mercy, by  deepening  the spirit of giving  and the feeling of responsibility towards His servants and helping them in these times of hardship, where by the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. And this needs more cooperation and collaboration to shoulder this responsibility. Although we appreciate the individual initiatives in this respect and believe that they are necessary, the collective initiatives are the ones that   shoulder the main responsibility and carry most of the burden. Thus, we should offer help to them, as they are no longer able to carry the burden on their own.

Moreover, since it is the responsibility of the entire community to help these benevolent societies, we ought to support them and offer them advice.  Furthermore, we  ought to consider helping the poor and the needy  the criterion of our success in shouldering our responsibilities  in this month , so that Allah, The Most Exalted ,would accept our deeds ,as He would ask us on the Day of Judgment : What did you give My servants in this blessed month?

His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah issued on    Ramadan 8, 1441 H. /May 1, 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 need to free ourselves from our selfishness and tensions in the month of Ramadan and live piety in all its political, religious and spiritual dimensions.

He then warned that we cannot say as of yet that we have come out of the circle of fear of the spread of the Coronavirus although the number of those infected have lessened. The health organizations are warning that the second round will be more severe, which means that we should remain cautious and committed to abide by all the precautionary means , especially as we begin to gradually return to normal life.

The Sayyed added that he is sure that the citizens will demonstrate, as they have in the past few weeks, a high level of responsibility. He hoped that the return of the Lebanese living abroad would be safe and abiding by all the measures that were observed in the previous stages.

He added that he understands the resentment of those who took to the streets and their inability to endure   their current circumstances. The Sayyed said that he stands with them in their rightful demands, but he warns against the loss of the peacefulness of their protests, which will have a negative impact on their image and their rightful demands. The protests should not also turn into a platform to settle internal and regional accounts or used to carry messages in various directions.

He stressed the need that the voice of the hungry and downtrodden should be loud enough to be heard by those who are in charge in this country who should make these demands their highest priority.  They should stop treating this country as a milking cow that serves their interests or those of their clients.   We want, the Sayyed went on to say, this movement to be a conscious and well-studied one that would not allow those who want to exploit it, including those wasted the public money, to do so and would not also clash with the security forces who are suffering from the same grievances.

The Sayyed regretted the fact that in these circumstances of suffering and distress, the politicians are still engaged in their differences whether between those who support the government and those who oppose it or those who are responsible of implementing the financial policies and those who are in charge of the political affairs. These conflicts would soon turn into sectarian ones that the religious figures take part, instead of the cooperation of all parties to remove these sectarian mines, adding to the trouble this country suffers from instead of joining hands to resolve them.

 We say to all of them: this is not the time to lay the blame on others or to score points.  It is the time to save the country and get it out of its swift downward course with the least possible losses as well as the dependence to foreign forces.

 The Sayyed praised the government’s decision to keep away from all these rows and dedicate its efforts to perform its duties towards its citizens, including the economic and financial reform. The Sayyed hoped that the economic plan the government approved yesterday would contribute in finding real solutions to the economic crisis, especially the corruption, waste   and retrieving the looted money. It should keep away from any private or partisan calculations and not a means of settling political accounts. It should also deal with all the corrupt of all sects and constituents and   not succumb to any pressure from any source.

He explained that the Lebanese have grown tired from promises and wishes. They want to see some action, and they expect the government to rise to the level of their expectations. They want it to go ahead and start tackling the issues and they will support it; They do not want from the government except what is capable of, and they will share it its patience.  Finally, the Sayyed congratulated the workers on the first of May, and considered that the best appreciation we can show to them on this occasion is to secure their decent living and   rights. These rights should not be lost in these difficult economic times, nor that they would be laid off at the emergence of any crisis.