This is a translation of the Sermon that the Mufti of Australia made whilst in Lebanon in 2004. This translation comes from the Australian Embassy in Beirut.
It is provided here as some context to the present controversy concerning the Australian Mufti.
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Dear Brothers,
As I examine the situation of our nation from North to South and East to West, I notice that our nation is managed by leaders who act like Pharaohs, whose policies are pro-American and who have devilish plots.
As I examine the status of our nation, run by half men, I tell myself that the children of Palestine are real men. Whenever someone asks me: did our nation die? I answer: no, because there is a vein of life beating in the south, in cities like Sidon and Tyre, and in Southern Lebanon, that tells us that our nation is not dead and will never die. Our nation has never knelt down and it will only kneel before God.
Thus I thought that the true meaning of manhood should be the title and the theme of this blessed gathering at this Mosque, the Mosque of Jihad and manhood. This Mosque reminds me of the time when Muslims used to gather on Friday at the Prophet's Mosque.
The Prophet's Mosque was built of palms, had only three columns and was two meters by four. That was the Mosque where Islam first started and spread throughout the world. The sons of that Mosque trampled with their feet the palaces of Cesar and the King of Perse, stopped people from worshipping stones and taught them to worship God.
So I told myself, thank God, for what makes a Mosque are the men in it and not the stones or minarets nor slogans, nor sycophantic behaviour. Before we run short of time, I would like to ask this question: what's the difference between a man and a male in Islam.
This is a topic that we discussed two or three years ago in the North, but some brothers asked me to link this concept to the positions of Jihad taken by the sons of Palestine and the sons of the south in these difficult moments.
Dear brothers, what's the difference between a man and a male?
A male is one of two kinds created by God. He created all human beings, male and female. Even liquids, solids and gases are male and female but it is called negative and positive.
Electricity for example, cannot give birth to light unless there is a marriage between negative and positive. God said 'we have created everything in couples'. Blessed be God who created everything on earth in couples, and who based the life system on this duality: male and female.
As for manhood, it's a quality that has a special meaning in Islam. Some think that every male is a man. But the fact is that every man is a male but not every male is a man. God, when he talks about those who defended and protected our religion, he is referring to men and not males.
When the Koran talks about one of these people in the old times, he refers to him as a 'man' and not a 'male'. Some think that manhood means making children. But I tell you, and I have four wives and plenty of children, that this is not true. Don't think that the true meaning of manhood is restricted to having children.
If this was the case then a rooster will be a better man than you and you fathers. Remember that a rabbit has children every 40 days. Manhood cannot be measured by weight because an elephant weighs more than an entire family, nor by length because camels and giraffes are very tall, nor by speed because a dog runs faster than a whole running team, nor by cleverness because a fox can be more clever than you, nor by carefulness because a crow can be more careful than you.
Thus manhood in Islam has a special meaning. Believers are men who did what they promised God to do, and where did they graduate from (sic)? I refer to the Sura of Light which defines the meaning and conditions of manhood in Islam. According to Islam, real men are those who don't put business before prayer and religious duties.
They are those who fear God and who are rewarded by God for what they do because God rewards without limits. Dear brothers, according to Islam, manhood has specific conditions and characteristics.
Before I come and stand before you, I was reading a daily newspaper. On its front page, I read the following: '(Arab leaders) are searching for a place to hold the Arab summit'. Your leaders are looking for a place to hold their summit because none of them has the courage to host the meeting.
There is no Arab capital capable of convening a summit; a summit without men, a summit for half men. When I think of the true meaning of manhood and then think of them (Arab leaders), I can't help but say that they are trash, that they are a shame, that they sold their values and their brothers, they dishonoured themselves and their honour.
What do we tell God? We tell him that wolves are running his sheep? They are trash, they meet for a Summit but in the end they don't give birth to either a mouse or a cockroach because they lack manhood.
Brothers of Islam, there is a war of infidels taking place that requires real men and strong positions that prove our manhood towards God, his prophet and his religion. True manhood appears before God. A real man does what is asked of him and abstains from doing what he shouldn't.
Those who put their business before their religion are not real men. If it's time for prayer and you don't pray, then you are not a real man. Those who care for their living more than they do for he who gives life are not real men. Those who care for their gifts more than they do for he who gives them gifts are not real men.
Real men shouldn't put their business before God. Do you remember when our nation used to be ruled by real and honest men? In those days, a Muslim woman was made prisoner by the Roman forces. So she asked the Caliph to help her. When the prince of believers heard her cry for help, he called his generals for an urgent meeting to help one single woman.
So the Caliph sent a very famous letter to the King of the Romans and told him: 'When you receive this letter, release the Muslim woman you hold prisoner. If you don't, I will send an army that starts where you are standing and ends where I am standing. When the king received the letter, he not only he released the Muslim woman, but also sent Roman women to take care of her and guard her until she entered the borders of the Muslim kingdom.
How many Palestinian women are being imprisoned by Zionists in Israel? How many women were raped in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Chechnya? Where are real men my brothers? I want to remind you of some facts that happened in the past. On 5/9/1795, remember this date very well, a treaty was signed. There are still copies of it in Europe and Turkey.
This treaty was signed between Dari Hassan, the Head of the Islamic fleet and the representative of the Sultan of Algeria, and Washington, the President of the USA at the time. This treaty was signed on 5/9/1795. Repeat this date after me. This treaty stipulated that the US should pay Dari Hassan a certain amount of money if he granted protection to US ships when they passed through the Mediterranean Sea, because at that time the Mediterranean Sea was an Islamic lake.
So the US had to pay money to the Muslim fleet to protect its ships. Why is that? Because we were ruled by real men, whereas now we are ruled by half men who take their orders from the black house. May God help us defeat them. May they and their belongings become the prey of Islam and Muslims when we recover our manhood. Real men should not put their business before God, prayer and their religious duties.
Do you remember my dear brothers when Abdallah the son of Omar, was busy working in his field and couldn't attend the prayers with the prophet of God.
So he told himself: is this possible? My field is keeping me from attending the prayers next to the prophet of God? He fell on the ground, and was taken to his home to receive 'condolences' because he did not attend the prayers.
When the house was full of people, he said: my dear friends, you have noticed that my field has kept me from attending the prayers with the prophet of God. This field is evil, and I'm telling you now that I'm giving it up to the Muslim Wakf.
Whereas nowadays, we skip prayers to watch a game or a series on television, and we don't even feel sad. Why? Because we are not real men towards God.
A real man acts like one before God and his prophet. When a man wants to do something when God asks him to do something else, if he decides to do what he wants and not what God wants, then he is not a real man in the eyes of the Prophet. True manhood doesn't depend on age.
Sometimes we find a man who is over 40 or 50 years old and still acting like a teenager, still going to the beach in summer. Is that a real man? No. True manhood in Islam doesn't depend on age.
A child might act like a real man, while a man may act like a teenager. Some men, for example, don't like what the Sheikhs tell them. These people are unbalanced and cannot be considered true men no matter how old they are.
Those who don't believe what the Ulemas say, are not men, they are children. Those who are over 40 and do more evil than good should prepare themselves for fire. Those who don't believe in what the Ulemas say, those who don't respect any Imam whether he is alive or dead, are a catastrophe for Islam.
They want to get closer to God by cursing the Imams, They even go on the pilgrimage but don't pray with the Imam, neither in Mecca nor in Medina.
They pretend to be Muslims, but their ideas serve the Zionist and American project.
Real manhood has nothing to do with age. I want to remind you of the positions of the men and children of Palestine who are paying the price of our nation's powerlessness and who fight tanks with their bare chests, bombs with their prayers, and airplanes with their resistance.
The flowers of Al Aqsa are falling day after day. And our leaders are still looking for a place to meet. My dear brothers I want to remind you of a story that demonstrates the honourable position taken by a child. In the old days, there used to be a tyrant ruling Iraq.
One day a little boy passed near the tyrant's palace without showing any sign of fear of the soldiers. He passed near the palace, and the tyrant called the little boy.
The tyrant asked the little boy: what's your name. The boy answered: 'Abdallah'. The tyrant asked: 'The son of whom?' The boy, not wishing to implicate his parents, answered: 'I'm the son of my mother and father'. 'Where do you live?' asked the ruler. 'I live where God wishes', answered the boy. 'Where are you going?' 'I'm going to study the Holy Koran'.
The ruler asked: 'Have you memorised the Holy Koran?' And the boy answered: 'It is not appropriate to ask such question about the Koran? You shouldn't ask have you memorised the Koran. Only God has memorised the Koran'. So the ruler asked: 'Do you know the Koran?', and the boy answered: 'this is not an appropriate question to ask because only God knows the Koran'.
And the ruler said: 'What do you want me to say then?' The boy answered: 'ask me have you studied the Koran?' So the ruler asked the boy the question and asked him also to recite some verses from the Holy book. This boy was a true man because he stood up to the tyrant and was not afraid of him.
As for you, the sons of this country, a country small in surface but great in its positions, we were following closely the manly positions you took and what you have achieved when you intensified your strikes and heroic acts that forced Israel to withdraw and leave behind it its donkey Lahd (the Leader of the South Lebanon Army).
We felt proud of you and we thought there are still some men and some dignity left in this nation capable of achieving what you have achieved in the initiative between Hizbollah and the Israeli enemy (ie. The recent prisoner swap). This was an initiative that demonstrated the strength of Islam, and the tolerance, justice and openness of Islam.
Dear brothers, we need real men to answer the call of Jerusalem and the call of Palestine. Oh half men, you who look for a place to meet, if ever you meet you will stab your nation in the back. Jerusalem is calling you, but there is no answer. Al Aqsa is calling you and telling you 'I'm torn apart'.
Children and mothers are crying. Sons of Islam, there is a war of infidels taking place everywhere. The true man is the boy who opposes Israeli tanks with strength and faith. The boy who, despite his mother's objections, goes out to war to become a martyr like his elder brother.
The boy who tells his mother: 'Oh mother don't cry for me if a die. Oh mother, Jihad has been imposed on me and I want to become a martyr. Oh mother, Al Aqsa is imprisoned and I won't hesitate to help. Oh mother, come and say good bye for I'm going to fight and sacrifice myself.
Oh mother, free men defend their honour and consider martyrdom as an honour. Oh mother, I'm going with a stone in my hand to become a martyr' (cut)
Islam started with strangers and will return to strangers. In the old times they used to say that Islam started with strangers because it was defended by them.
The Islamic revolution started in the Arab peninsula but Islam was defended by non Arabs and the most prominent religious leaders in old times were non Arabs. Therefore we say that Islam started with strangers.
And I tell you that Islam will return to strangers if Arabs give up their religion or if preachers of Islam are persecuted. If this is the case, then Islam will become stronger and its strength will appear in other countries. And perhaps we will find one day an Islamic revolution, and Islamic ideology in western countries.
Don't be surprised if one day you hear the Muezzin calling for prayer and saying 'Allah Akbar (Allah is Great)' from the top of the white house. September 11 is God's work against oppressors. Some of the things that happen in the world cannot be explained; a civilian airplane whose secrets cannot be explained if we ask its pilot who reached his objective without error, who led your steps? (An allusion to 7/11) Or if we ask the giant that fell, who humiliated you? Or if we ask the President, who made you cry? God is the answer.
I'm telling you that there are no English Korans left in Australia or America or Europe. Everyone is converting to Islam: soldiers, pilots, engineers - those who are spending money to stop the ways of God will spend their money but will be defeated eventually. Trust me my dear friends.
Sometimes good lies in evil. Perhaps there will be an Islamic awakening that starts in the heart of America and restores the Islamic regime and the dignity of human beings. Islam is trying to find its way to people's hearts but it's being hidden by our attitudes, our mistakes, our behaviour and our divisions.
Islam is doing well in America, in Europe and in Australia. People are converting to the religion of God, and we feel proud when the banners of Islam are high and when our nation is united by Islam and we see that the nation follows God. In western countries, Islam is gaining ground every day.
We look forward to the day when religious texts are no longer misinterpreted and when there are no interpretations of Islam. It is not acceptable to limit Islam to one group or one sect. We shouldn't imprison Islam in one idea.
And if someone asks 'what's your nationality', answer him my nationality is 'there's no God but God'. If someone asks you to which party you belong, answer him 'My party is 'there's no God but God' and tell him 'Islam is my father'.
References:
ABC: Religion and Ethics: Sheikh Hilaly Sermon at Sidon Mosque
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