His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, delivered the two Friday prayer sermons at the Imamain Al-Hassanain Mosque, Jamada 1 29, 1444H.\December 23, 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, says in His Glorious Book: Say: "We believe in Allah, and in what has been revealed to us and Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the descendants (of Jacob) and in what was given to Moses and Jesus and in what the other Prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and we are those who submit to Allah.

Allah, The Most Exalted, speaks the Truth.

On the 25th of December every year we celebrate the anniversary of the blessed birth of Jesus Christ(a.s.)one of the prophets of the chain that ended with the prophethood of Muhammad (p.). God honored him by sending the angels to bring his mother Mary (a.s.) the glad tidings of his birth: [And mention] when the angels said, "O Mary, indeed Allah gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary – distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near [to Allah ]. Allah wished his birth to be a miracle and a demonstration of His ability: He said, "I am only the messenger of your Lord to give you [news of] a pure boy." Mary was shocked by the news, as she could not conceive how she could have a baby without being married. The angel ensured her that this was easy for God Who would not leave her alone, but protect her and safeguard her. Then the signs of pregnancy began to appear, and Mary decided to Jerusalem and go to Nazareth to hide… She stayed there until she was in labor when she went to the wilderness and sat by the trunk of a palm tree. She then felt how difficult she was up to: she was to deliver a baby all alone without any help or even food and drink… And she wished that she would have died before this. Jibril, whom God sent to be with her answered her quickly: So a voice reassured her from below her, “Do not grieve! Your Lord has provided a stream at your feet. And shake the trunk of this palm tree towards you, it will drop fresh, ripe dates upon you. So eat and drink, and put your heart at ease. And if you are afraid that you will be asked about how could have a baby say, ‘I have vowed silence to the Most Compassionate, so I am not talking to anyone today.’ “And this is what she did when the people said to her: O Mary! You have certainly done a horrible thing! She did not answer but pointed to the baby. At this point, a miracle took place when baby Jesus talked to defend his mother and to tell the people about his mission: [Jesus] said, "Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet.

And He has made me blessed wherever I am and has enjoined upon me prayer and Zakah as long as I remain alive

And [made me] dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a wretched tyrant.

And peace is on me the day I was born and the day I will die and the day I am raised alive."

That is Jesus, the son of Mary – the word of truth about which they are in dispute.

Thus, Christ explained clearly that he was one of God’s prophets, who was sent to continue what the prophets before him did and to correct the deviation in faith, establish justice and to bring the glad tidings of a prophet who would come after him: And call to mind when Jesus, son of Mary, said: “O Children of Israel, I am Allah’s Messenger to you, I verify the Torah which has come before me, and I give you the glad tiding of a Messenger who shall come after me, his name being Ahmad. This view does not conform in some of its aspects to the Christian view of Christ (a.s.) which gave him some of the traits of divinity, but this difference did not create a rift in the way Muhammad and the Muslims dealt with the Christians or led to a dispute with them. Following is a brief narration of some of the Muslim stances:

The first: The Messenger received the Christians of Najran in his mosque at Medina, although they were carrying crosses and allowed them to pray in it.

The second: in his letter to the bishop of Najran after Islam has spread in all of Arabiathe Prophet promised to the bishop of Najran that their churches and monasteries would be safe and that their freedom of worship would be respected….

The third: When the Prophet sent the Muslims to Abyssinia, he told them that it was ruled by a Christian king, who did not persecute anyone based on his beliefs. The Christian king welcomed the Muslims and hosted them until they returned to Mecca.

All these stances point out that the relationship between Islam and Christianity has not witnessed any tension. It is a relationship of love and brotherhood. Allah says: and the most gracious to be those who call themselves Christians. That is because there are priests and monks among them and because they are not arrogant. It is a relation of working together for the good of humanity, and justice. mercy and fighting arrogance and injustice.

The second sermon

Worshippers of Allah and fighting The Most Exalted, I advise you and myself, with the advice of Christ which is also the advice of the Messenger(p.): Blessed are those who love and respect one another, for they shall receive mercy on the Resurrection Day. Blessed are the peacemakers among the people, for they will be brought nigh unto Him on the Resurrection Day. Blessed are pure of heart, for they shall meet Allah on the Resurrection Day. Blessed are those who humble themselves in this world, for they shall inherit the thrones of sovereignty.

We are in dire need of this advice which enhances love in our hearts and mercy and good in our souls and make us nearer to God, thus becoming more responsible and more capable of facing challenges:

We begin with the unprecedented rise in the price of the dollar, which seems that it will not stop, although the financial experts have expected it to decrease, as many tourists and immigrants have come to spend the holidays in Lebanon.

This makes us wonder about the reasons for this soaring: is it the result of the fiscal policies of the Central Bank or the speculations? Or is it a part of the political pressures? Or is it because of all these reasons? Whatever the reasons are, the fact is that this rise has increased the suffering of the Lebanese, as they can no longer afford to buy their basic needs.

Faced with this reality whose repercussions will also affect the social and security domains, we renew our call to all the political parties who run the country to be faithful to those who voted for them and make every effort to curb this rise and put the country back on the track of economic and social revival.

Previous experiments have proved that it is possible to stop this soaring once the decision is taken…or at least to control the prices of commodities and confront the greed of merchants.

Nevertheless, the basis to achieve all this is the political stability, which is the guarantee of the financial and economic stability. We should, therefore, speed up the process of putting an end to the vacuum in the presidency whose consequences have even prevented the government from playing its role and would lead to vacancies in leading positions in the army.

It is regretful that those who assume responsible positions in this country are spending their vacation abroad while the country has reached this level of collapse and its citizens are suffering to the utmost degree. They should have continued their work and made every effort to agree on a president to enable the government to continue its work and end the tension that is caused by its convening in these circumstances.

On the local level, we would also like to warn of the continuous maneuvers the Zionist Enemy is performing on the Lebanese borders, which might be paving the way for a new adventure that targets this country, which calls for enhancing our national unity …

We would also like to emphasize the necessity of not impairing the stability of the border region and dealing with any problem with the spirit of love and concern. We are sure that this region that was able to overcome all the hardships it went through and maintained the best relation between its components, will be able to overcome the incident that took place lately in the village of Rmaish, and will not allow those who want to destabilize the region, in a way that preserves the rights of the village and the homeland. We also renew our call to resolve the causes and the consequences of Alaqibiya incident to secure the best relations between our people in the South and the UNIFIL…