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In the Name of God, the
Compassionate, the Merciful The Religious Authority,
Sayyed Fadlullah delivered the two Friday prayer sermons at the Imamain
Al-Hassanain Mosque, Jamadi'I 3 1426 H, June 10 2005 A.D. Several prominent
religious scholars, dignitaries and thousands of believers attended the
Jumu’a prayer. Fulfill the covenant of Allah when you have made
a covenant The First Sermon In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the
Merciful Talking about those whom He loves
Allah says in His Glorious Book: And fulfill the covenant of Allah when
you have made a covenant, and do not break the oaths after making them fast,
and you have indeed made Allah a surety for you; surely Allah knows what you
do. And be not like her who unravels her yarn, disintegrating it into pieces
after she has spun it strongly. You make your oaths to be means of deceit
between you because (one) nation is more numerous than (another) nation. Allah
only tries you by this; and He will most certainly make clear to you on the
resurrection day that about which you differed. One of the commitments man makes
in his relation with Allah, the most Exalted, as with other people, is the
issue of the covenant, that might be represented in many forms, such as the
covenants people make when there are matters that have to do with their
business dealings or political stands. People might ask when someone makes a
pledge whether in business or in politics that he would be committed before
Allah to keep what he had promised, or he might sign a contract as in
transactions or marriages. There are also some commitments which are defined as
conditions like when your buy or sell something provided that the other party
would fulfill certain conditions. This is also considered a form of covenant. Our
Islamic traditions narrate a saying that stipulates that the Muslims keep their
promises, unless the conditions they promise to fulfill make lawful what is not
or permit what is unlawful. Therefore, from the juristic point of view you have
to abide by the conditions you agree on. Thus if you are going to accept a
covenant, and pledge to honor certain commitments whether for a political party
or to any other group or individual, you have to study the matter thoroughly,
to assess it what you are going to promise is lawful or not, and if it is in
the interest of the people or not, because you cannot make any commitment
unless you are certain that it pleases Allah, and that it is not made under the
influence of your emotions, or out of nepotism to relatives or friends. The same
thing is true with respect to contracts. Before signing any contracts one
should be sure that is lawful and that it pleases God. One could not support a
wrong-doer on the Ground that he had promised to do so. Kinds of covenants An
oath too is one of the forms of a covenant, even when you swear to do something
like quitting a bad habit (smoking for example); because in this case you have
made God as your witness. The something is true with respect to vows. A vow is
a commitment before Allah, the most Exalted, and breaking it is breaking
Allah's covenant. Imam Ali says: “Covenants
are like necklaces that tie the necks until the Day of Judgment. Who keeps them
will be awarded by Allah and who backs them will be let down by Allah, the most
Exalted”. Imam al-Bakir says: “There are three things that God did
not exempt anyone from doing, returning the trusts and keeping your pledges to
the good and the evil-doers alike, and being good and merciful towards parents
regardless of their being good of not”. The Commander of the faithful says
to his representative in Indeed divine promises are a
blessing spread over all mankind. The promise of God is a refuge sought after
even by the most powerful on earth; for there is no risk of being cheated. So,
do not make any promise from which you may afterwards offer excuses to retract;
nor do you go back upon what you have confirmed to abide by; nor do you break
it, however galling it may at first prove to be. For, it is far better to wait
in patience for wholesome results to follow than to break it out of any
apprehensions. The Messenger says that if the
nation breaks a covenant, Allah will send their enemy to face them. This is
because breaking covenants will destabilize the society thus weakening the
community's ability to confront its enemy. He also talks about breaking a
covenant with non-Muslims in any way or in dealing with them unjustly or
talking anything form them without his consent As for the covenant with man
Allah, the most Exalted, has made one when he made man's innate nature leaning
towards worshipping Him alone, Did I not charge you, O children of Adam !
that you should not serve the Shaitan? Surely he is your open enemy, And that
you should serve Me; this is the right way. It is thus
our duty to keep our covenant with Allah by worshipping Him alone without
ascribing any partners to Him. Keeping one's pledges and
commitments, especially those that could be considered covenants is a duty that
Allah wants us to be committed to . It is necessary to keep the society stable,
as well as keeping man pious and trustworthy. The Second Sermon In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the
Merciful The anniversary of the
Israelis’ occupation of the entire When
we follow the American policies in the Arab and Islamic world, we find that the
American Administration is fighting a proxy war for Our problem with Which In
Lebanon, where electoral alliances are held in dubious ways, that only care of
winning more votes instead of agreeing on the major issues and principles, with
the voters following their superficial feeling for those who have failed them
in the past or those who are void of experience… Where are the youth of
the 14th of March, and where are their leaders? Are we going back to our dark
past? or are we making our future? we do not want to burst into accusations but
we would like to ask: How do we create awareness, how do we build our future?
or the free man who refuses any foreign tutelage? Then there is the question that no
one will answer: Which Lebanon do we want… echoing the cry of the people
who ask where the state's money went and how we came to accumulate all that
dept. *************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125) {And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33) The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest". Yahoo! Groups Links
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