Sayyed Fadlullah: "Lady Zeinab (a.s.): Transforming weakness into moral strength"

The First SermonIn the first sermon, His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, celebrated the birth anniversary of Lady Zeinab (a.s.); the woman who came to be a role model of steadfastness and patience for all men and women.He began by her birth, recalling that it was her grandfather, Prophet Muhammad (p.), who named her and gave her much love and affection in her early childhood. He added that she was raised in the house of Ali and Fatima (a.s.); the house of morals, knowledge, piety, patience and struggle for the cause of Allah. Then, when her mother died, she used to accompany her father wherever he went, even after she got married.Lady Zeinab was a scholar, a devoted and pious worshipper and a patient woman who endured all the tragedies of the Household of Muhammad, starting by his demise and not ending by the martyrdom of her brother Al-Hussein in Karbala, where she kept her promise to him and did not tear her clothes or scratch her face when he was martyred. She did not show any signs of weakness and defeat. On the contrary, she stood up and said: “O God accept this sacrifice from us.” She wanted to show the enemy that they might have killed the men and children and captured the women, but they were not able to kill the spirit.In one word, she changed the military defeat into a moral and spiritual victory that was bound to be materialized. She stood before Ibn Ziad and Yazid as a believing defiant who was sure that justice and right would eventually prevail. Thus, she became the role model of steadfastness, adherence to principles, struggle for the cause and belief in the ultimate triumph of the right and justice.The Sayyed ended by calling on Muslims to model after Lady Zeinab and stand up in the face of all oppressors and arrogant powers and against those who seek to destroy our unity and put us in confrontation against one another. Let our love for Ahl El-Beit (a.s.) be the force that unite us away from any fanaticism, for all Muslims share their love to them as it (this love) signifies devotion to Islam.The second sermonIn the second sermon, His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, began by reminding the Muslims of the Israeli aggressions in Palestine and called on them to support the Palestinian people. He also called the Arab and Muslim states, as well as the Arab League that talks about arming the opposition in some Arab countries on the basis of preventing oppression, to show the same enthusiasm in supporting the Palestinian people.As for Syria, the Sayyed believes that all international axes are actually fueling the Syrian internal front when they talk about lifting the ban on arming the opposition instead of exerting pressure to drive the Syrians to sit together. The Arab countries should not be involved [in taking conflicting stances] in the current crisis in Syria as it will weaken them all. It might also spill over to Lebanon and other countries, and create additional feuds amongst the Arabs.Moreover, The Sayyed called on all Shiite and Sunni religious scholars in Iraq to issue clear jurisprudential rulings condemning and forbidding the explosions that continue to devastate Iraq so as to prevent the struggle from taking a sectarian turn.In Lebanon, where the security situation has become alarming and the state has not yet approved of the rightful demands of the deprived and the working class, the Sayyed called for finding solutions for the ever-moving security incidents and approving the demands of the workers and employees.In the end, and on the occasion of electing the new Pope, the Sayyed repeated his call for building a solid Christian-Islamic relationship that would act as a single party in the face of all arrogance and injustice. /129