Sayyed Fadlullah condemns storming into Sheikh Isa Qassim's house and called for an internal dialogue

The First Sermon

In the first sermon, His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, narrates one of the Quranic stories. It is about the owner of the two gardens who boasted about his wealth and did not care for his poor neighbor. He was so arrogant to the extent that, as a result of his wealth and status, he denied the Day of Judgment and thought that even if it existed, he would be in a better position than that of his poor neighbor. The neighbor responded by invoking Allah to destroy the gardens of his rich neighbor. When Allah responded, the rich man was remorseful, but it was too late and he “had no host to help him beside Allah nor was he able to defend himself”.

This story became a parable that exemplifies man’s arrogance and greed. It summarizes the struggle between those who forget themselves and their God and those who remain conscious of these facts and act accordingly. Several lessons can be deduced from this story, one if which is that wealth is no guarantee for man, for we are all equal when it comes to death and what truly matters are the good deeds we ought to take with us to the other world.

Whenever Allah bestows on us a grace, we should promise Him that we will never disobey Him in it, and whenever something bad happens to us we should thank God and ask Him to provide us with something better in this world and in the Hereafter.

We should also learn to deal with life from an ascetic perspective which, as Imam Ali taught us, does not mean that we should not possess  anything but not to become slaves of what we possess.

The story also teaches us that Allah might delay His punishment, but He would never neglect anything, and that He would humiliate any tyrant, whether an individual or a group, and empower all those who are humble to Him.

The second sermon

In the second sermon, His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, commemorated the 65th anniversary of An-Nakba of 1948. He maintained that the enemy thought that when the older generation dies, the young one will forget. But the Palestinian people, supported by all those who insist on facing the enemy, were able to show that this thinking was baseless. Thus, the Sayyed praised the continuous struggle of the Palestinians that kept their cause alive, and called on all the Arab and Muslim people, as well as all those who love freedom, to support them.

The Sayyed feared that the current reality in the Arab and Muslim world would encourage the Enemy and the super powers, especially the US, to impose making additional concessions. He added that had the zeal the Arab and Muslims exhibit in facing one another been directed against the enemy, it would have been defeated.

In Syria, where the bloodshed continues and things threaten with a great danger, not only on Syria, but on the entire region as well, the Sayyed called on the Arab and Muslim people to end this tragedy, for they are able to if they so decide.

On the other hand, the Sayyed feared that the current efforts only aim at cooling down the situation for a while to avoid a regional and international explosion.

The Sayyed condemned the act of storming into the house of one of Bahrain’s big scholars, Sheikh Isa Qassim, and called yet again for an internal dialogue in the country.

In Lebanon, the Sayyed condemned the political body that cares about its international connections and sectarian interests which makes it difficult to find solutions. But the Sayyed added that he would continue to bet on those who would interfere in the right time and find a compromise that would protect Lebanon from the foreign projects and that would not take any sectarian interests into consideration.

/129