His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, delivered the two Friday prayer sermons at the Imamain Al-Hassanain Mosque, Shaaban 29th 1435 H. – June, 27th 2014. Several prominent religious scholars, dignitaries and thousands of believers attended the Jumu’a prayer.
Following is a summary:
The First Sermon
In the first sermon, His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, talked about the advent of the blessed month of Ramadan, considering it an opportunity we ought to exploit for the interests of the individual and the community.
He urged the believers to take this chance to evaluate their manners and points of weakness, for they would not find a better time to improve themselves than this month. Thus, our efforts should be concentrated on acquiring the morals of Islam since morals are the essence of our religion.
One should set out a practical plan to stop lying, backbiting and being cruel, envious etc… for fasting is a real opportunity to train on good morals, even if one writes in a diary what he succeeded in doing every day. Those who can abstain from drinking and eating should be able to abandon lying, backbiting, cheating and all bad manners.
Let us invoke Allah along with Imam As-Sajjad (a.s.):
“Give us success in this month to tighten our bonds of kin with devotion and gifts, attend to our neighbors with bestowal and giving, rid our possessions from claims, purify them through paying the alms, go back to him who has gone far from us, treat justly him who has wronged us, make peace with him who shows enmity toward us except him who is regarded as an enemy in Thee and for Thee, for he is the enemy whom we will not befriend.
And help us to fast in it by restraining our limbs from acts of disobedience toward You and our employing them in that which pleases You. We stretch not our hands toward the forbidden and stride not with our feet toward the prohibited, our bellies hold only what You have made lawful and our tongues speak only what You have exemplified, we undertake nothing but what brings close to Your reward and pursue nothing but what protects from Your punishment!”
The second sermon
In the second sermon, His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, started with Lebanon. He explained first that terrorists do not differentiate between one Lebanese region and another or one sect and another. They target all the Lebanese and their security forces. He added that these terrorist acts cannot have any religious, humanistic or political justifications, for they are merely crimes and acts of terror.
The Sayyed praised the Lebanese people for their patience and steadfastness. He also appreciated the role of the security forces and all those who condemned the terrorist acts.
The Sayyed called on the Lebanese to unite, and he asked the officials to rise to the challenges, stop their arguments, quarrels and petty politics and unite in solving the economical and living problems of the Lebanese. The Sayyed ended by asking the Lebanese not to believe the rumors about explosions in one place or another.
On another level, the Sayyed talked about the ongoing attack on Iraq under the pretense of attaining the rights of one region or sect, while it actually aims at dividing the country.
He called on the Iraqis to be aware of this conspiracy and form a government based on pluralism to correct the mistakes that could have been made in managing the political process, giving all regions their rights.
The Sayyed said that he agrees with all the people who said that the solution in Iraq is not solely a security one but it is also political. He also called on all the countries that have an influence in Iraq to hold their responsibility and stop fueling the Iraqi fire.
The Sayyed praised the release of Khalil Al-Marzouki in Bahrain, hoping that it is the first step in the course of opening the doors of dialogue.
Sayyed Ali Fadlullah ended his sermon by informing the believers that according to the jurisprudential opinion of His Eminence, the late Religious Authority, Sayyed Muhammad Fadlullah (ra), Saturday, June 28, 2014 is the first day of the month of Ramadan.
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