True religious belonging and strength of faith are not defined by mere confessions or rituals, but by the active implementation of ethical virtues such as self-criticism, social care, and respectful dialogue in everyday life.
The text celebrates the birth of the Shia Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq and honours his role as teacher and dialogue partner in Islamic history. It emphasises that true belonging to this Imam consists not only in faith, but in the practical imitation of his ethical teachings. Six central traditions of the Imam are presented, which call for self-examination, humility, anger management, and social justice. Particular emphasis is placed on the duty of the rich to care for the poor, as a criterion for genuine religious belonging. The text calls for living the teachings of the Imam in everyday life, in order to build bridges of communication and coexistence. It combines historical honour with concrete ethical instructions for the present-day action of believers.
Analysed with qwen/qwen3.8-27b, version v3.
The same standards apply to every tradition, see Values.
Full text in English
Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, said: {That is what Allah gives as good news to His servants who have believed and done righteous deeds. Say: I do not ask you for any reward for it except affection for those near in kinship}. True is the Great Allah.
On the seventeenth of the month of Rabi al-Awwal, the commemoration of the blessed birth of one of the Imams of Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) passed us by, namely Imam Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq (peace be upon him).
This Imam, who was known for his knowledge, forbearance, worship, frequent remembrance of Allah, good character, and frequent charity, giving, and generosity.
The School of Openness and Dialogue
Imam al-Sadiq (peace be upon him) lived during the transitional phase between the decline of the Umayyad rule and the beginning of the Abbasid rule, which afforded him a degree of freedom not available to the other Imams (peace be upon them), and contributed to the dissemination of the sciences of Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them), until the school of Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) became associated with his name, and it is called the Ja'fari school. Al-Shaykh al-Mufid referred to this when he said: "So much knowledge was transmitted from him that it traveled with the caravans, and his mention spread in the lands, and no one of the scholars of his family had as much transmitted from him as was transmitted from him."
And his mosque, the Mosque of Kufa, was the destination for students of knowledge who flocked to him from various parts of the Islamic lands to study under his guidance, and they found with him extensive knowledge and satisfactory answers to the questions and doubts that were being raised in the Islamic arena at that time. In this regard, one of the narrators said: "I entered the Mosque of Kufa – and after twenty years of the death of Imam al-Sadiq (peace be upon him) – and I found nine hundred sheikhs (i.e., scholars), and each one says: Ja'far ibn Muhammad narrated to me."
And this Imam was distinguished by his openness to all jurisprudential, intellectual, and doctrinal variations on the Islamic level... We find that Abu Hanifa al-Nu'man, the Imam of the Hanafi school, did not find any problem in studying under his guidance (peace be upon him) and drawing from his sciences, and the matter reached the point where he said: "Were it not for the two years, Nu'man would have perished," and that Malik ibn Anas, the Imam of the Maliki school, studied under his guidance, and he said: "No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor has it occurred to the heart of any human being, anything better than Ja'far al-Sadiq in virtue, knowledge, worship, and piety."
And he (peace be upon him) was known for his dialogues, so he debated the Zindiqs, the atheists, the extremists, the Sufis, and the followers of the heavenly religions, and everyone he debated testified to his good discourse and respect for the other's opinion, and to his solid logic and rationality in his responses.
And we today, on the occasion of the birth of this great Imam, will point out in this occasion some of the narrations he deposited with us to guide us.
The Most Beloved of Brothers
The first narration: "The most beloved of my brothers to me is the one who points out my faults to me."
The Imam (peace be upon him) intended through this narration to clarify a standard by which we measure the love of others for us; that the most beloved people to us should not be those who praise us or agree with our opinion or remain silent about our mistakes, but rather those who point out our faults and indicate our errors to us, because by doing so they help us to reform ourselves to be better in conduct, path, and action. One of us sees the mistakes of others easily, but he often does not pay attention to his own faults, and in order to remove the annoyance that often arises from being pointed out our mistakes by those who alert us to them, the Imam (peace be upon him) called for considering the one who points them out to us as one bearing a gift for us, so that we receive it and rejoice in it, and that we thank him for it.
Constant Self-Accounting
The second narration: "It is not one of us who does not account for himself every day, for if he does good, he asks Allah for more of it and praises Allah for it, and if he does evil, he seeks forgiveness from Allah for it and repents to Him."
This narration points to the importance of a person accounting for himself, when he considered that a believer is not a believer if he does not account for himself every day. And his accounting for it is that he asks it about what good it has presented, and if it erred, that he asks it why it erred and transgressed the limits with Allah and with people, and if it fell short in performing its duties and responsibilities, why it fell short, and if it did a deed, why it was not the best in performing it. If the believer sees good in himself, he praises Allah for His success and does not become arrogant with his deed, but rather asks Allah to help him with more, but if he finds shortcoming in himself, he does not surrender to the sin, nor does he despair of the mercy of his Lord, but rather he hastens to repent, correct the error, and turn away from the sin.
The Key of Evil
The third narration: "Anger is the key to all evil."
This hadith refers to what anger leads to, when the Imam (peace be upon him) considered it a gate and key to evil, because if a person is overcome by anger, he loses the ability to think rationally and to be aware of the consequences, thereby losing control over his actions, words, and decisions on one hand, and causing harm to himself and those around him on the other hand. A mere look at reality is sufficient for us to realize the problems, tensions, conflicts, and fitna (sedition) that anger leads to. Hence it was said: “Beware of anger; for its beginning is madness, and its end is regret.” This calls upon the person to control his anger so that his decisions and stances do not stem from it, and so that he may attain what those who suppress their anger have been promised, as it is reported in the hadith: “Whoever suppresses his anger, Allah will fill his heart with security and faith on the Day of Resurrection.”
Good Opinion of the Believers
The Fourth Hadith: “Place the matter of your brother upon its best aspect, and do not assume evil from a word that came out of your brother, while you find for it a good interpretation.”
The Imam (peace be upon him) calls upon the believing person that if he sees from his Muslim brother a matter that can be interpreted as either good or bad, he should not rush to interpret this matter, or this word, or this stance as bad, but rather in a good way, as long as this interpretation is possible… For example, you may find a person who does not want to reply to your messages, so do not rush to say that he is arrogant towards me or intentionally ignoring me; he may be busy, or sick, or he may not have seen the message at all. And if he speaks a word that can have two meanings, do not let the bad probability overpower the good one. This saves society from many enmities that do not arise from the words themselves, but from their bad interpretation.
Who are the Shia?
The Fifth Hadith: It is reported that the Imam (peace be upon him) met one of his companions who had returned from a journey. He said to him: “How are the brothers you left behind?” The man praised them highly and pointed to their loyalty to the Imam (peace be upon him). Then the Imam (peace be upon him) asked him: “How is the visitation of their rich to their poor?” He said: “Little.” The Imam asked: “How is the meeting of their rich with their poor?” He said: “Little.” The Imam (peace be upon him) asked: “How is the support of their rich for their poor with their own hands?” The man said: “You are mentioning qualities that are rarely found among us.” Then the Imam (peace be upon him) said: “How do these people claim to be Shia?”
Through this hadith, the Imam (peace be upon him) intended to define his view of the Shia. For him, the Shia are those who maintain contact, exchange gifts, and show mercy to one another, where their rich support their poor, and they do not differentiate themselves by status or wealth.
Abundance in Supplication
The Final Hadith: “Increase in supplication, for Allah loves among His servants those who call upon Him, and He has promised the believing servants a response. And Allah will make the supplication of the believers on the Day of Resurrection a deed for them, by which He will increase them in Paradise. And increase in the remembrance of Allah as much as you can in every hour of the night and day, for Allah has commanded you to increase in His remembrance, and Allah remembers those among the believers who remember Him. And you must maintain the prayers, and the middle prayer, and stand before Allah in humble devotion, as Allah commanded the believers before you in His Book… Beware that your souls become greedy for anything that Allah has forbidden you, for whoever violates what Allah has forbidden here in this world, Allah will place a barrier between him and Paradise, its bliss, its pleasure, and its honor.”
The Meaning of Loyalty to the Imam (peace be upon him)
O beloved ones: Our loyalty to this Imam will not stop at the limits of belonging to him, mentioning his name, and visiting him. Rather, the belonging he called for is adopting his morals, following the guidance of his words, adhering to his dialogical approach which reached hearts and minds, and striving to build bridges of communication with others, which we are most in need of, and through which we embody him and follow his example, so that we may thus be an adornment for him, and so that people may say: “May Allah have mercy on Ja’far ibn Muhammad; how beautifully he educated his companions!”
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
The Second Sermon
O servants of Allah, I advise you and myself with what the Imam al-Sadiq (peace be upon him) advised one of his companions, when he said to him: “If Allah bestows upon you a blessing, and you desire its continuation and permanence, then increase in praise and gratitude for it, for Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, said in His Book: {If you are grateful, I will surely increase you}. And if you delay in receiving sustenance, then increase in seeking forgiveness, for Allah, the Most High, says in His Book: {Seek forgiveness of your Lord; indeed, He is ever Forgiving. * He will send down upon you the sky in abundance. * And He will provide you with wealth and sons, and He will make for you gardens, and He will make for you rivers}. And if a matter saddens you, then increase in saying: There is no power nor strength except with Allah, the Most High, the Greatest, for it is the key to relief, and a treasure among the treasures of Paradise.”
And if you wish to supplicate to Allah, then supplicate with the supplication of the Imam al-Sadiq (peace be upon him): “O Allah, honor me through Your obedience, and do not humiliate me through Your disobedience. O Allah, grant me the means to support those whom You have restricted in their sustenance, with what You have expanded for me from Your grace.”
The Imam (peace be upon him) considered that the key to our security in this life is for God to be present in our hearts and on our tongues, that we remember Him and give thanks to Him, and that we see power and strength only as coming from Him. He is the one in whose hand is the command over our existence, the existence of what surrounds us and those around us, in the corners of the earth, the horizons of the sky, and the depths of the seas.
Whenever we live this reality in its true essence, in the depths of our hearts, we will feel strength, determination, security, and tranquility, and we will be more capable of facing challenges.
Escalation of Aggression
We begin with the unceasing Israeli aggressions through airstrikes and artillery shelling, which the enemy has expanded beyond the villages and towns adjacent to its occupation sites. Meanwhile, it is completing operations of demolition, bulldozing, and burning of the infrastructure in the sites it occupies. In doing so, it benefits from the capabilities it possesses and the cover granted to it, which secures its freedom in everything it does and its silence regarding its crimes, as no voice rises to condemn what it is doing.
All this is happening amid the closure of the doors to solutions, after the enemy’s refusal to respond to any of the offers presented by the Lebanese side, and its explicit declaration that it will not withdraw from any of the areas it has occupied, including the buffer zones, which it has considered its own security zones. Rather, it threatens to expand the scope of its occupation.
Betting on Unity
In light of what is happening, we call for patience, steadfastness, and a refusal to despair or collapse, despite the severity of the events. At the same time, we renew our call to the Lebanese state not to base its response to the enemy’s actions solely on pressures exerted on it, or on changes occurring within the entity, or on formal initiatives. Although important, these do not touch the core of the problem nor lead to a solution, such as the release of some prisoners. Instead, its bet should be on strengthening internal unity, whether at the state level or the popular level, not compromising it, standing against those who threaten it, and not relinquishing any of the positions of strength it possesses internally. It should also benefit from any sincere hand extended to it from outside, from those who wish well for this country and stand with it to restore its land and sovereignty over it. Here, we highlight the initiatives taking place on this front, which we see as contributing to strengthening and reinforcing the Lebanese position.
Caring for Displaced Persons and Strengthening Social Solidarity
At this time, we renew our call to the Lebanese state to fulfill its responsibility towards the displaced persons from their villages and towns occupied by the enemy, or those who have lost their homes or had them damaged, by providing them with decent housing or assisting them in securing it. This is especially urgent after the decision issued regarding the evacuation of official schools and public places, where large numbers of them still reside. This situation requires the relevant ministries to fulfill their duty in this regard. At the same time, we renew the call to strengthen social solidarity among all Lebanese people, to extend a helping hand to those who have suffered and continue to suffer from the repercussions of the aggression that has struck this homeland, to help them overcome this difficult phase, thereby reinforcing their steadfastness and resilience in their land.
The Livelihood Crisis
We remain in this country to point out the difficult social and economic situation that many Lebanese people are suffering from, which is worsening day by day due to the rising prices of foodstuffs and their basic necessities, rent, and the financial burden that has come to be imposed on them due to the near-total electricity outage. This raises the price of the bills imposed on them by generator owners, while they are already burdened by the costs of education with the start of the academic year. This calls on the Lebanese state to listen to their suffering and fulfill its responsibility to alleviate the burden on its citizens by mobilizing its efforts to control prices, reduce their burdens, and increase aid to the poor and vulnerable classes, so that they feel there is a state caring for them and standing by their side amidst the successive crises they face, at all levels.
Gaza: Absence of a Position
Finally, we arrive at what is happening in Gaza, where the enemy continues its aggressive practices against the residents of Gaza, disregarding the decisions issued by the Council of Peace, which called for a halt to military operations and the lifting of the siege. This is to empty it of its people, displace them, remove them from it, and end their cause, which is what it is doing in the West Bank. This calls for Arab and Islamic solidarity with the Palestinian people, even if only through raising their voice and objecting with a tone that has been lacking since the Al-Aqsa Flood until now.
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