Referring to the rallies of Quds Day, in his speech delivered on the third Night of Qadr in Imam Kadhim (a) seminary school in Qom, Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi stated: “one of your acts of worship that has to be presented before Allah the Almighty is due tomorrow. Taking part in the rallies of Quds Day has to be considered as an act of worship presented before Allah the Almighty”.
He continued: “there is a difference, though, between this year’s Quds Day and that of the previous years; the difference is that today almost all of the Muslim countries have been set on fire by the enemies, and the enemies have not done this to us themselves, but this has been done be means of a number of unbelievers and liars who have impersonated themselves as Muslims. Thus, a number of these unbelievers, who call themselves the An-Nusrah Front, have been deployed to Syria to devastate that country, another group of these infidels, who call themselves the ISIL, have been sent to Iraq to demolish it, and the Saudis and the Al-Khalifa regimes have been given the mission to set Yemen and Bahrain on fire respectively”.
Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, then, continued: “the enemies have plotted to burn all the Muslim countries to the ground by means of the Muslims themselves. In such grave situations, Quds Day can be a unifying factor which can awaken and gather all Muslims under the same banner once more. We hope that, by Allah’s grace, these rallies and the processions on Quds Day will awaken the Muslims, for Palestine and the holy city of Jerusalem Al Quds, as the first Qibla of the Muslims, is of great importance to all Muslims”.
Stressing the importance of the special attention that must be paid to Quds Day by the Muslims all around the world, he further said: “today’s world is the world of media, press, and propaganda; the enemies of Islam have dominated all the media and they are exploiting them to show everyone an upside-down version of the truth.”
His eminence continued: “but no matter how hard they try to conceal or distort the truth, they cannot hide the majestic procession of millions of people attending Quds Day rallies all around the world; even this much coverage of the truth will expose their sinister plots. Such a simple action taken by the Muslims has so many blessings”.
Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi further noted: “we hope that all the Muslims around the world will appreciate the importance of Quds Day and consider it as an act of worship. In some countries tomorrow is the last Friday of the month of Ramadan, but in our country the next Friday can also be a day in the month of Ramadan. Nonetheless, in order for all Muslims to hold the rallies of Quds day on the same day, and in a united fashion, we will also attend the rallies of Quds Day tomorrow.”
At the beginning of his speech, his eminence discussed Imam Ali’s last words reflected in his last will, and stated: “this great Imam addressed his followers, companions and children and said: “you should all be edified by the fact that I was a healthy man yesterday, but today I am in my death bed, after sustaining a fatal wound in the head, and tomorrow I will depart forever””.
His eminence continued: “as it was reflected in Imam Ali’s last will, we should not get entangled with this world and negligence should not make us forget Allah the Almighty. In order to find felicity in this world we should all take heed of the warnings that Allah the Almighty has given us, and avoid getting caught up with the fake beauties and mundane pleasures of this world”.
Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi further stated: “from the Quranic verses and the traditions, one can identify ten sources of warning and admonition for mankind in this world, which are meant to prevent him from falling in to negligence. The first source is the divine Prophets, Allah’s saints, and the divine s c r i p tures, which, only one sentence said by these Godly people, or sent down in these divine Books can be enough to edify mankind for a lifetime.”
He, then, stated: “hospitals, cemeteries and tombs, and those who are suffering from incurable diseases are the best sources of warning and admonition for mankind, which is a fact reflected and elaborated perfectly in the traditions of the infallible Imams, and in particular in the traditions by Imam Sadiq (a)”.
Referring to a related tradition by Imam Ali (a), his eminence said: “the lifeless corpse of a human being, placed in its coffin, and off to the cemetery is the best admonition for man; the dead body is silent but the admonition and warning that it sends can be perfectly appreciated and grasped; the warning is for man to beware not to fall in negligence, not to go astray, and to be awakened before it is too late”.
