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. Allah, the Most Exalted, speaks the truth.

We met on the 27^th of the month of Rajab with the anniversary of the honorable Maba’th of the Prophet, when the revelation descended on him while he was worshipping God alone in the cave of Hira’… Through this revelation  he was informed  that the time has come to start his mission to rid the people of their ignorance and backwardness and take them to the realm of belief, awareness, guidance and knowledge. Responding to the call of His Lord to convey the Message, Muhammad (p.) was able in not more than 23 years to open the hearts of all people and enable the voice of Islam to reach all parts of the world.

Here a question can be asked: what made the Message reach this far? And how was the Messenger(p.)  able to change a backward and ignorant society that was devastated by tribal struggles into a society that carried a civilization to the world …

There are many elements that combined to produce this change, including the nature of the religion that the Messenger (p.) came with whose doctrines and Sharia are in accord with the rules of the mind and the appeals of the innate nature(Fitra). Another factor is the magic of the eloquence of the Glorious Quran, as well as the role of the first generation of Muslims who accompanied the Messenger(p.) and were loyal to him.

  Moreover, an additional element, which the Quran indicated, is the personality of the Messenger and the virtues he was distinguished with, which played a fundamental role in the swift spread of Islam. Allah, The Most Exalted, says: And if you had been rude [in speech] and harsh in heart, they would have disbanded from about you. And (People!) certainly, there has come to you a Messenger from among yourselves; your sufferings tell hard upon him; he is ardently desirous of your (welfare) and (he is) very loving and merciful to the believers. And: And indeed, you are of a great moral character.

The Messenger(p.) was never rude in speech or harsh in heart, and he never hated anyone including those who hurt him and accused him of magic and madness and forced him out of the city he loved most and fought him. On the contrary, he used to feel sad for them. That is why Allah, The Most Exalted, interfered to tell him: So do not let yourself perish over them in regret.

That is why when he was injured on the Day of Uhud and asked to pray against the idolaters, The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Verily, I was not sent to invoke curses, but rather I was only sent as mercy.” Thus he used to pray for those who hurt him and waged war against him, saying: O God: Guide my people for they do not know.

His sublime morals were demonstrated in all his deeds and stances. The following are some examples:

 One of his companions reports the following story:

‘I was walking with the Prophet (p.), and he was wearing a Najrani robe that had rough sides. A Bedouin came upon him and pulled him by his robe very roughly, so I looked at the side of the Prophet’s (p.) neck, and the side of the robe had left a mark from the strong pull. He then said, ‘O Muhammad, give me some of Allah’s money that you have.’ So the Prophet looked at him, laughed and ordered that he be given some.

  The second incidence: Prophet Muhammad had a Jewish neighbor and this person used every morning to throw his garbage at the door step of the Prophet’s home.  The Prophet asked him to stop but he kept on doing that every day. One morning the Prophet(p.) did not see any garbage on his door step.  He enquired and learned that the man was sick. Muhammad(p.), then, went to that Jewish neighbor and paid him a visit to check on him. The Jewish neighbor was sick and he was in bed. Our Prophet then started taking care of his Jewish neighbor and soon after the Jew embraced Islam because of our beloved Prophet’s high morals.

In a third incidence, Thumama bin Uthal, the head of the Hanafiyah tribe, was captured by the Muslims. However, Muhammad(p.) told his companions to treat him well and give him some of his food and then he set him free. This led the man to embrace Islam…

Thus, morals were the Messenger’s key to people’s minds and hearts and the means that made Islam spread. This refutes the opinion of those who claim that Islam was spread by the sword which was used only to defend the religion against those who wished to eradicate it.

Dear loved ones: We would like the day of the honorable Maba’th, which is the day that completes the march the prophets were sent for, to be a day we deploy our efforts to continue what the Messenger(p.) has started and open the minds and hearts of the people to what the Prophet(p.) came with and strived for, which we would not reach by a harsh heart and bad morals.

That is why it is not enough that we would have convincing arguments and a compelling force to deliver our message and spread our religion. They should be accompanied by good morals that open the minds and hearts.

 Let us follow the example of the Messenger(p) who asked what religion is repeated three times that religion is good morals. This will make us worthy of being among the followers of Muhammad and those who embrace Islam.        

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The second sermon

Worshippers of Allah, The Most Exalted, I advise you and myself to furnish ourselves with the provisions of the month of Sha’ban which is about to begin in a few days with all its blessings. The Prophet(p.) used to say at the beginning of this month: “O the people of Yethreb, I am the messenger of Allah to you. Be aware Sha’ban is my month and may Allah bless those who help me in this month”. Let us help the Messenger and follow his example in praying and fasting in the month of Sha’ban. Let each of us set forth his own timetable to perform his prayers, fasting, dua, charity, asking for forgiveness … in addition to celebrating the night of mid Sha’ban… So that we would not miss the blessings Allah, The Most Exalted, has promised the worshippers in this month and become nearer to Him and more capable of confronting challenges.

We begin by Lebanon, which is still under the impact of the protests that took place a few days ago, following the unprecedented rise in the price of the dollar. These protests covered all the Lebanese regions to express the people’s rage against the political class that is responsible for making the country reach where it reached and that did not carry out what it was supposed to, to stop this continuous drain that threatens the Lebanese basic needs, their security and stability. It only took some security measures to prevent road blocking and arrest those who were selling dollars in the black market or secured loans to help the poor families, without trying to deal with the actual  reasons that led to this rise… or making its priority to listen to all the domestic and foreign voices that called and continue to call to speed up the formation of a government that is capable of running all the affairs of the country, provided that it  would be totally independent from those who led the country to the pit it has fallen in and that  it  would  deal with the state’s corruption and waste and conclude a conclusive review to all the financial and monetary policies and take into consideration the interests of all its citizens , not this or that party or sect.

Regretfully, this will not happen as long as the mentality of this class is one of exclusivity and monopoly over political power …. That is why it stirs sectarian instincts and enflames the game of the street without being concerned with their effects on the security of the country and the intra-Lebanese relations. Faced by this tragic situation and a political class that only sees in the country a milking cow, we renew our call to the Lebanese to shoulder their responsibility and continue to raise their voices against corruption and the corrupt and make them feel their anger and rage, since they will not change their course and review their calculations unless they feel that the people will not back down and forgo their right for a state that works for them and not for its interests.

We say to the Lebanese: do not let them bet on your tiredness and making you afraid of one another or convincing you that change will drive the country to the unknown. But as we call for voicing the protests, we hope that these protests would remain civilized, carefully studied and independent and stays away from all that leads to chaos and destroys public and private properties and disrupts the freedom of movement. 

We would like also to join those who called for taking into consideration the social conditions of the army and the security forces and supporting them so as they would continue to play their role in preserving the security of the country and securing its unity and stability. Meanwhile, we reassert the need to enhance objective dialogue in which there are no taboos, to act as an alternative to rows and accusations of treason, which would devastate the country and enable the domestic and foreign parties who wish to tamper with it to interfere. In this respect, we welcome any dialogue that might take place between political, cultural and religious elites, for it is the only way to reach solutions and alleviate fears.

Lastly, we hope that the historic visit of Pope Francis to Iraq has participated in strengthening the relations between all the components of the Iraqis and enhancing the joint efforts of Muslims and Christians to revive moral values in all aspects of life and stand against tyranny and oppression everywhere.

 Finally, The World Food Programme report about the critical conditions of the Syrian people as the result of the siege, hostilities against it and corona drive us to call on the Arab and Muslim states to stand with Syria to enable it to return to its role towards the Arab and Muslim world and its issues.