In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlallah, delivered the two Friday prayer sermons at the Imamain Al-Hassanain Mosque, Rabiathani 21, 1448H/ October 2, 2026. Several prominent religious scholars, dignitaries and hundreds of believers attended the Jumu’a prayer. Following is summary of his sermons
Between the Danger of Being Deceived by This World and the Responsibility of Preparing for the Hereafter
Allah, The Most Exalted, said in His Noble Book: “O mankind, indeed the promise of Allah is truth, so let not the worldly life delude you and be not deceived about Allah by the Deceiver.” Allah, The Most Exalted, has spoken the truth.
One of the most dangerous things that can happen to a person is to be deceived by this world; to be deceived by its adornments, beauty, pleasures, and desires; not to see it as it truly is: that even if it lasts long, it will not remain for them, and that they will leave it sooner or later. This causes them to become heedless of their responsibilities toward their Lord and toward people, or to compete with others over it. We all know what such competition leads to in terms of hatred, tensions, and conflicts, and it may even result in bloodshed.
This is what the verse wanted to draw people’s attention to when it called upon them not to be deceived by this world. And so that this would not happen, Allah, The Most Exalted, gave them an example of this world that would enable them to see it in its true form, when He said: “Know that the life of this world is but amusement and diversion and adornment and boasting to one another and competition in increase of wealth and children—like the example of a rain whose [resulting] plant growth pleases the tillers; then it dries and you see it turned yellow; then it becomes [scattered] debris.”
The example of this world, as the verse indicated, is like a beautiful green plant that pleases those who look at it and delights the farmers, like what we see in spring. But all of this will not last and will not remain. Autumn will come, taking everything away, and with it the green plant will turn into dry, broken debris scattered in the air. This is the state of this world: amusement, diversion, adornment, boasting of wealth and children. But after youth comes old age, after strength comes weakness, and after all of this comes death to bring everything to an end.
But this does not at all mean that Allah, The Most Exalted, who warns us about this world and what it contains of adornment, joy, beauty, and pleasures, does not want us to enjoy its blessings. Rather, He wanted this for us. He created us in it so that we may enjoy what He has placed therein for us, and He is the One who called upon every person to take their share of it, when He said: “And do not forget your share of the world.”
And He is the One who commanded us to pray to Him: “Our Lord, give us in this world [that which is] good and in the Hereafter [that which is] good and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.”
And He is the One who condemned those who deprived themselves of the pleasures of this world: “Say, ‘Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has produced for His servants and the good [lawful] things of provision?’ Say, ‘They are for those who believe during the worldly life [but] exclusively for them on the Day of Resurrection.’”
And He said: “O you who have believed, do not prohibit the good things which Allah has made lawful to you and do not transgress. Indeed, Allah does not like transgressors.”
It has been reported regarding the reason for the revelation of this verse that some of the companions of the Messenger of Allah (p.), when they heard a sermon from the Messenger of Allah (p.) speaking about the Hereafter, decided to abandon the pleasures that Allah, The Most Exalted, had made lawful for them. Some of them wanted to give up meat, some decided to give up marriage, and some wanted to continue fasting and praying throughout their lives. So, this verse was revealed.
It has been reported in the hadith: “When worldly life presents itself, its righteous people are more entitled to it than its wicked …
Therefore, when the Messenger of Allah (p.) heard a group of his companions condemning and cursing this world, he said to them: “Do not curse this world, for it is an excellent means for the believer. It is where the friends of Allah strive for goodness; through it, they attain what is good and are saved from evil.”

But Allah, The Most Exalted, wants us, first, to be aware of its reality and not to feel secure in it, as long as they are young and in good health. And not to feel that the security around us is established and that our affairs are easy, without remembering that death comes without asking permission: “Say, ‘Indeed, the death from which you flee—indeed, it will meet you. Then you will be returned to the Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, and He will inform you of what you used to do.’”
This is what Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s.) expressed when he said: “Indeed, the most fearful of what I fear for you are two things: following desires and having long hopes.”
Therefore, remembering death is of great importance. This does not mean that a person should die before his appointed time, but that they should prepare for the day when they will stand before his Lord. It has been reported in the hadith: “Remember your place of death among your family, where no physician can prevent it from reaching you, and no beloved one can benefit you.”
Visiting graves is not only so that you may recite al-Fatihah for your dead; rather, it is so that you may see what became of all those who left this life and took nothing from it except their deeds.
Second: That this world should not be the objective and ultimate goal, but that we should deal with it as a means, and that we have been placed in it so that through it we may attain His pleasure, and reach His Paradise. This is what Allah, Most Exalted, expressed when He said: “But seek, through what Allah has given you, the home of the Hereafter.” [
And He said: “And indeed, the home of the Hereafter—that is the [eternal] life, if only they knew.”
And in the hadith: “Indeed, Allah, Glorified and Exalted, has made this world for what comes after it, and He has tested its people therein, to know which of them is best in deed. We were not created for this world, nor were we commanded to strive for it.”
And in the hadith: “How excellent an aid this world is for the Hereafter.”
Third: That our dealings in it, our positions, our support, and our rejection should not be at the expense of our position before Allah. Rather, they should always be for the sake of Allah and in pursuit of attaining His pleasure; that we should not prefer it over the Hereafter, so that we do not become among those whom Allah, The Most Exalted, condemned when He said: “But you prefer the worldly life, while the
“So as for he who transgressed and preferred the life of the world, indeed, Hellfire will be his refuge.”
Fourth: That we follow the path of piety to which Allah called us when He said: “And take provisions, but indeed, the best provision is Taqwa.”
And which Imam al-Sadiq (a.s.) expressed when he said: “That Allah does not find you where He commanded you, nor see you where He prohibited you.”
And that we should neither put one foot forward nor draw the other back; that we should not utter a word, take a position, support or oppose, except after making sure that in doing so there is that which pleases Allah.
Dear beloved, we are most in need of strengthening this view of this world; to seek the world to which Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s.) called when he said: “Work for your worldly life as though you will live forever,” by obtaining from it what you can while seeking the pleasure of Allah, The Most Exalted, “and work for your Hereafter as though you will die tomorrow,” by always being ready to meet your Lord and for the Day of Reckoning, when you come before Him and He asks you about what you did in this world, what you offered for the Hereafter, and what deeds you prepared for yourself for that day.
If you did good deeds in this world and took provisions for that day, you would be among those of whom Allah said: “So Allah gave them the reward of this world and the good reward of the Hereafter. And Allah loves the doers of good.”
In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful
The Second Sermon
Worshipers of Allah, I advise you and advise myself to take a lesson from the advice of one of the kings. It was mentioned about him that when death came to him, he summoned the commander of his armies and gave him three instructions.
The first was that none should carry his coffin except his physicians.
The second was that along the road from his palace to where he was to be buried, pieces of gold, silver, and precious stones that he possessed should be scattered.
The third was that his hand should be brought out of the coffin.
When he was asked about this, he said: As for the first instruction, it is so that people may know that the skilled physicians were unable to save him and stood helpless when death came to him.
As for the second instruction, it is so that they may know that he would not take with him any of what he possessed.
As for the third instruction, it is so that people may know that they would leave this world empty-handed, carrying nothing with them of the wealth, properties, or anything else of the affairs of this world that they had accumulated.
This is the very image to which the Noble Qur’an referred when it said: “And you have certainly come to Us alone as We created you the first time, and you have left whatever We bestowed upon you behind you.”
And His statement, The Most Exalted: “How many were gardens and springs left behind, and crops and noble sites, and comforts wherein they were amused. Thus. And We caused to inherit it another people.”
When we take this to heart, we will be more aware of this world and of our responsibility in it, and thereby we will be capable of facing the challenges.
The starting point is the Israeli escalation that we are witnessing in the raids, in which the enemy has begun to go beyond the locations that had previously been subjected to bombing. We fear that this may be a prelude to expanding the scope of its aggression. Indeed, it has gone beyond the areas near its positions, while it continues its operations of demolishing and blowing up the signs of life in the villages and towns that it occupies. These operations have even reached cemeteries, in order to make their inhabitants lose hope of returning to them and to consolidate its occupation of them.
All of this is taking place without any signs on the horizon of a solution that would put an end to this tragedy, or of any pressure being exerted on it to deter it from its aggression, or of any condemnation of it.
In view of what is happening, we renew our call for the Lebanese state to undertake the role required of it, not to stand idly by and wait for solutions to come to it from others, but rather for its voice to be raised in demanding the right of the Lebanese people to recover their land and return to it, and to travel throughout the world in order to achieve this objective. It is regrettable that we do not see this happening, and if it does occur, it is not at the required level or with the necessary speed.
At the same time, we call upon the Arab and Islamic states and peoples, and the free people of the world, to stand at this stage with the people of this country because of what they face every day from the machinery of killing and destruction, and not to leave them to face what they are facing alone, without a position expressing their condemnation of what is happening, or support that would alleviate their suffering.
At the same time, we want the Lebanese to be more aware of their responsibilities toward what threatens their homeland, so that their efforts may be united during this difficult stage, and so that they do not allow those who call for strife to find a way to them.
We are aware that there is disagreement among the Lebanese over how to approach what is happening, but this does not call for dealing with it through the discourse that we are witnessing, which creates tension in the domestic arena and deepens the division within it. Rather, it calls for calm, rational dialogue that does not provoke the other side and takes its concerns into consideration. This is the way to bring the country out of its ordeal and to stop the internal bleeding that we do not want to continue.
We want the media outlets to be a platform used to strengthen this rapprochement, not a space for further tension and deepening the state of division. The country is most in need of those who bury strife, not those who kindle it; those who reach solutions, not those who contribute to obstructing them.

As for the living conditions, which are worsening day after day, we welcome any measure taken in this regard by the government. However, we believe that the measures that have been taken will not lead to addressing even the minimum of what citizens are suffering, whether in terms of securing their needs for foodstuffs, healthcare, education, or housing, or alleviating the burden on the impoverished classes. At the very least, they should not increase their suffering by imposing additional burdens on them to secure their resources.
We come to the American withdrawal that took place in Iraq, which brings to an end a period whose repercussions the Iraqi people suffered, and constitutes an opportunity for the Iraqi state to regain its sovereignty.
This calls upon the Iraqi people, with all their factions and their national, religious, sectarian, and political diversities, to stand together to confront the problems Iraq is suffering from, and to prove that Iraq, through its security forces, is capable of filling the vacuum that may arise from the withdrawal and of assuming this responsibility with all its repercussions.
Moving to the economic, financial, and maritime blockade imposed on Iran, which has reached the point of banning Iranian airlines and closing the airspace to them, with the aim of pushing Iran to abandon its rights and the interests of its people.
In view of what is happening, we call for lifting this blockade, which affects all segments of the Iranian people, and ending the state of war which, if it continues, its repercussions will not be limited to the Iranian arena, but will extend to the entire region and will leave its effects on the world.
We are confident that the Islamic Republic, despite all the circumstances it is facing, is capable of defending its rights and sovereignty and maintaining control over its decision.