Beirut Friday Parayer: The Love of Ali (a.s.)

The First SermonIn the first sermon, His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, talked about the relations that attach us to Imam Ali and the goals the Messenger aimed at when he appointed him, as he was ordered by Allah.The love of Ali is a love that emanates from the heart, the mind and the soul. Our love for Ali is not fanatic, to love Ali is to yearn for perfection in serving God and supporting justice and seeking to have sublime morals.To love him faithfully is to know him as an Imam, a human being as a ruler, as a father as a husband and as a militant, as a scientist…etc.When could we not love him when he has drawn the way humans can reach perfection?. How can we not love him while he was the strong, powerful and courageous whose strength did not turn him to a wrongdoer or a tyrant?He was one of the most generous and ascetic people. He lived with the poor but fought poverty, and he lived with the ignorant but fought ignorance.This great Imam is a role model and guide to mankind. Thus, you cannot love Ali and not oppose a wrong doing or a humiliation. You cannot love Ali and steal even a grain. You cannot love him and commit any aggression on others.Ali, as a ruler, has provoked many people for he refused to be pragmatic and insisted on the missionary role of ruling.He refused to rule by deceit and to achieve victory by wrongdoing, or to ally with any corrupted or arrogant personality.We love Ali because he was loved by Allah and His Messenger(p.).We do not love him because he was courageous only but also because he represented, as in the Battle of the Khundok (trench), the entire faith against the entire disbelief.This is but a few of Ali’s virtues, the symbol of dignity, sacrifice, modesty, righteousness, courage, wisdom, generosity, and a lot more.We do not love in a fanatic way but as a lover who knows the traits of the one whom he loves. We love him because he is a guide to us to Allah and to the love of AllahThe second sermonIn the second sermon, His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, appreciated any stand that calls for correcting the UN course so as to support the weakened, especially in Palestine where the Zionist enemy continues its aggressions of arrest, assassination and expansion of settlements.The Sayyed expressed his fear from the violent acts in Egypt especially the aggression against one of the churches which threatens to start a sectarian conflict which will further weaken the reputation and regional role of Egypt.As Iraq still suffers from the brutal daily explosions; this ought to drive all parties to seek internal unity before the whole situation exacerbates. In Syria, which remains the focus of the political and security movement these days, the political solution is the shortest way to end the current crisis, especially after all parties have agreed that the military option is fruitless.The Sayyed asked the authorities in Bahrain to work in earnest for establishing a dialogue and not only pay lip service to the issue, for the prolongation of the crisis is not in the interest of any party.The Sayyed called on the political parties in Lebanon to take their own decisions away from any external pressure and establish a new government.The Sayyed considered the return of the hostages that were kidnapped in Syria a step on the road of reconciliation, for all parties have either participated in liberating them or welcomed their release.The Sayyed ended by calling on the government to act and put an end to the violence in Tripoli./129