 الحمد لله الذي هدانا لهذا وما كنا بنحتد يلولا أن هدان الله والصلاة والسلام على أنبياء الله جميعا وعلى خاتامهم حبيبي إله العالمين أب القاسم مصطفا محمد صم الله عليه وعلاه بيته الطيبين الطاهرين المقصومين ثلاثة مقصومين مهم في حالة الإسلام والمهمات المهمة في حالة الإسلام أولا هي المساعدة من محمد صلى الله عليه وعلى صلى الله عليه وعلاه وذلك بدأت أربع سنوات بعد بلده على سنوات سنوات رجب when he received the very first five verses of the Holy Qur'an while he was meditating at the top of the mountain when he was 30 years old he would leave his family and he would go there and meditate and worship and reflect until one day Gabriel came to him with this message إقرأ باسم ربك الذي خلق خلق الإنسان من عالق إقرأ وربه وعالق وعالق وعالق وعالق وعالق وعالق وعالق وعالق وعالق وعالق إسمي ربك الذي خلق خلق الإنسان من عالق إقرأ وربك الأكرم الذي علم بالقلم علم الإنسان ما لم يعلم أو محمد ريد في نام ربك ريد ما ربك ربك ريد هذا البلد ربك الذي ربك ببن ببن وبلد بلد sliding when the mantell of our religion is the pen of the book education our religion base on reading a research on contemplation so that was the first event the second important event in the history of Islam took place nineteen years later and that was the hydro المقبول من المفتاح when he left his hometown Makkah because he had to leave, God ordered him to leave, his life was under threat of his own tribe, of the people that he lived among them. لن يكون هناك بعضهم الذين يمتلونه but the vast majority of them because of their arrogance and conceit they could not believe that he is the messenger of God because he posed a threat to their interest, to their worldly interest so they could not accept him they insisted on idol worshipping, they insisted on dividing the community and the society into two groups, the rich, the influential, the powerful, the abusers versus those who are deprived and hungry so Muhammad came to change this formula but those influential were unhappy with him so they refused him, they rejected him, only a handful of people accepted him for 13 years God said to him this environment would not work for you, you have to move, go find another environment and this is where he found the city of Medina, received him with open arms, people accepted the message of God and it was the second important event in the history of Islam the Hijra, the immigration of the Prophet from the city of Makkah to the city of Medina, he lived there for 10 years and he died and he was buried in Medina now we come to the third event and I welcome Tom Thorkelson, my friend from the Mormon church, a man of honor and dignity, he always stood, always he has been standing as a loyal friend and defender of the Islamic faith in Orange County in Southern California since I came to this land, I met him, always loyal, good friend, thank you for your surprise visit today, may Allah bless you the third event in the history of Islam was the day of Ghadir, equally important to the first two, the day of Ghadir, what is the day of Ghadir, the day of Ghadir the Prophet worked very hard 23 years to teach, to educate, to transform barbaric people into civilized people, people who used to kill their daughters alive, people of Arabia used to kill their daughters alive they had no respect for females, females were treated like cattle, animals, worse than animals, in a society where there was no security when you go to your tent, to your house in the evening, you would not be assured that tomorrow morning you will be alive because your house, your tent, your neighborhood will be raided by your neighbors, not by foreigners, by your neighbors in a society based on cowboy ethics, people would be killed for no reason the land of Makkah was saturated with the blood, the blood of the brothers and the sisters from the same tribe, same people, they used to kill each other one of these wars lasted for 100 years, 100 years, between two main tribes and the reason for that war, because they had horse racing, they had horse racing and then they had a dispute between them which horse won the race, this dispute erupted in a war, in a war fighting among two tribes which lasted for 100 years and Muhammad came to put an end to that war when he came as a message society based on arrogance, exploitation, racism, bigotry, the Prophet worked 23 years to transform them through his patience, he never lost patience, through his endurance God says to him had you been heart hearted, they would have left you, but because you were patient and tolerant you did not leave your community, they treated him in a miserable way they called him nays, they threw stones at him for 13 years the Prophet, 13 full years he leaves his house in the morning, he comes back home while he was bleeding by his own people but he never lost faith in God, he never lost patience so he built this community with patience, with tolerance now, does he leave this community, does he leave this community without appointing a successor the Sunnis they say yes the Prophet Muhammad left his community without leaving a successor the Shia believed that the Prophet would never do that he would never do that no person today, no rabbi, no minister of religion no priest, no Imam, no sheikh would leave his community without appointing someone have you seen this mosque for 19 years would you come on a Friday and there is no Imam, never ever for 19 years since September 20th 1996 when we started this community September 20th 1996 until today whenever the Imam is absent there is someone there am I smarter than Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم I am not 90% of the Muslims they think that the Prophet left his community without successor 10% the Shias they say no God would not allow him to do that he worked hard, he built strong community how could he leave his community in disarray, in confusion while he knows that some of his companions they were vying for power and politics and influence and government and leadership he would not do that so on his first Hajj and last Hajj the Prophet did Hajj only one time and he did the Hajj 3 months before his death the Hajj is in the month of the Hijj and the Prophet died in the month of Safar so the Hajj is in the month of Safar less than 3 months God asked the Prophet to leave Madinah go to Makkah to perform the pilgrimage Hajj Muslims knew that the leader is going to go to Hajj so they decided to go with him people of Madinah, people of Arabia 5000 people came from Yemen Yemen which is today under the bombardment of Saudi regime at that time they converted to Islam Yemenis were mostly Christians and Jews many of them converted to Islam when they heard that the Prophet is coming to Hajj they decided to leave their home and travel north and come to join the Prophet the Prophet reached Makkah on the 5th of the Hijj on the 8th he left Makkah to Minah in Minah there is a huge congregation all the pilgrims they gather in that desert of Minah which witnessed 10 days ago a tragedy over 1000 people were killed in a stampede in Minah because of the mismanagement of the family of Ali Saud family of Ali Saud are not focusing on Hajj focusing on their corruption focusing on killing people of Yemen so this is what happened 10 days ago over 1000 people lost their life however the Prophet took that opportunity the gathering of the Hajj, pilgrims in Minah and he said to them he gave a hint that soon I am going to leave my community for my final destination going back to God and there is an important thing I want to tell you I want to appoint a successor so you don't have a dispute after me you don't have a war after me you don't kill each other after me you unify the Ummah the community around this successor and that successor's name is Ali Ibn Abi Talim so in Minah he declared that not only in Minah God said to him you need to remind them again again so when the Prophet left Mecca after performing the Hajj going to Medina he said that I want all the people who performed the Hajj with me to come with me to the direction of Medina even those who are supposed to go south to Yemen back home they should come with me to the north the direction of north because I have another statement to make even the Yemenis you know Mecca is in the middle Medina is in the north Yemen is in the south the Prophet said the Yemenis also have to come with me towards Medina to listen to this declaration so they joined them 100.000 100.000 at that time is a big number 100.000 Muslims men and women they joined him when he reached an area an oasis Gabriel came from God descended upon the Prophet he said to him now you have to make this declaration in the middle of this area the weather was very hot very hot scorching sun Gabriel said to the Prophet this is Medina God wants you to stop here and give them this declaration and appoint Imam Ali as a successor the Prophet the Quran says يا أيها الرسول this is chapter 5 verse 67 all messenger of God immediately deliver what God is asking you to deliver ما أنزل عليك يا رب and if you don't do if you don't deliver if you decline as if you have done nothing for me for God imagine the Prophet worked hard 23 years and God tell him listen if you don't deliver this final message as if you have done nothing for me all your work is going to go in vain going to be destroyed why God is talking to his beloved Muhammad with this harsh tone threatening him why because the Prophet he was reluctant to deliver this message he knew that many of those Arabs would not accept it why because Ali first of all is his first cousin Imam Ali is his first cousin so they would blame the Prophet of nepotism and favoritism they would say he is bringing his cousin second of all Ali was his friend although the difference between them in ages 30 years but Ali was the sweet heart of Muhammad and the Prophet Muhammad could not afford to be alone without Ali Ibn Abi Talib whenever he misses him for a half a day he would say where is he where is Ali today bring him to me the Prophet I can say this with full mouth with full confidence and there is a big witness there listening to me the Prophet could not survive without the service and the defense of Ali Ibn Abi Talib Islam could not survive Ali was the defense minister protecting the Prophet protecting religion putting his life online always the bravest among the Muslims so the Prophet needed him he needed his help so therefore he gave him the best gift the Prophet had four daughters but the last one the youngest one was the favorite not because the Prophet was a prejudice against others no no no فاطمة was the favorite of God not only Muhammad all Muslims agree all Muslims in their books God there is nothing bigger than God in this universe nothing greater than God nothing greater than God in this universe God says when Fatima becomes happy I become happy when she becomes sad angry I will become sad and angry for her sadness this is Fatima so the Prophet all the Muslims the companions they came asking for his daughter's hand oh Muhammad give me your daughter Fatima I want to marry her one of them said from Benny Omeya what do you think I'll give gold silver land property camels horses the Prophet listened to him first and then he took a bunch of and then the Prophet is very polite but he wanted to teach this man a lesson that my daughter is not for sale I cannot exchange I don't think I'm exchanging and he threw the couples into his face because that man was filthy and arrogant he was intimidating blackmailing the Prophet give me your daughter I'll give you money he thinks that the Prophet sells his daughter for for money and the Prophet decided to give his daughter to the poorest person in the community to Ali ibn Abi Talib Ali was 24 years old his job was farmer he used to work for a Jewish farm owner in exchange not for money in exchange for some pieces of dates to eat them and survive on them do you imagine that a farmer who works the whole day in the farm and then the landlord gives him dates food although Ali is working with the palm trees but he would not do that does not belong to him at the end of the day he would give him 10 pieces here you are this is your wage Ali had no single penny in his pocket the Prophet gave him his daughter when he came the Prophet he knew he knew everything about Ali the Prophet was the one who raised Ali Ali was a baby the Prophet took him from his father he said to his father give him to me I will raise him so he knew everything about Ali but he wanted to ask him to make it public so people would know he said to him Ali what gift you would offer my daughter Fatima dowry what marriage gift you would offer her Ali said my beloved Prophet you know everything about me you know about my bank account go and check it out check my balance Ali said I have 3 pieces that I own beside my clothing humble clothing I have 3 pieces one thing one piece is the sword the second is the shield you know the fighter they use in one hand sword and the second shield the third is the water container I put it on my shoulder to water the trees I have these 3 pieces only nothing else this is my all assets the Prophet said to him you need the sword we need your sword we can't afford that you lose your sword if you lose your sword we lose Islam the entire religion the Islam is going to be defeated so you need this weapon the sword to defend Islam and you need the water container because you work with that these are your tools you need them but Ali I you were my baby I took care of you I was the one who is raising you I know you are brave you don't need a shield you are a fighter who is in no need of shield so sell your shield give it give it to my daughter he took his shield to the market he sold it for 480 dirhams 480 dirhams he brought the money to the Prophet so the Prophet gave his daughter to the to Imam Ali the poorest man in the community the poorest materially when it comes to money he is the poorest but to the richest man in terms of ethics in terms of faith in terms of ethical standards and manners and outstanding youth in the community so the Prophet had some fear that if I tell them that my successor is Ali Ali is my first cousin Ali is my baby he is my son-in-law immediately they will blame me oh look at Muhammad he is doing favoritism today God said to him don't worry I will defend you you deliver the message I will protect you because I want I am insisting that Ali should be your successor Ali can unify the Muslims after him so he declared that 100.000 people came the Prophet took the hand of Ali he said من كنت مولاه whosoever I am his leader and guardian and a Prophet فهذا علي المولاه after my death Ali is going to be his leader and his guardian and then the Prophet said اللهم والمن والح oh Lord support whoever supports Ali وعادي من عادة and be the enemy of all those who become his enemy وانصر من نصر and give victory to those who give victory to Ali واخضل من خدلة and give defeat to those who defeat Ali or disappoint Ali the prayers of the Prophet 1400 years ago we see materialization of these prayers today those who stand with Ali are always victorious those who turn away from Ali they are always defeated and always disgraced and in the forefront of those who are disgraced because they turned their back to Ali and the Prophet and God are the Wahhabis the Takfiris ISIS Al Qaeda those forces of evil who turned their back to God 1400 years ago so this is the third important occasion in the history of Islam first the beginning of Islam the beginning of the mission second the hijrah the immigration of the Prophet from Makkah to Medina where he established the very first Islamic community based on justice and love and care and third the appointment the declaration on the 18th of their hijrah the declaration of the successorship the Imamah the leadership the guardianship of Imam Amir al-Mu'mineen Ali ibn Abi Talib Ali ibn Abi Talib Ali ibn Abi Talib let me conclude some people ask they say well what difference it makes whether Ali was the first successor to the Prophet or Abu Bakr or this or that what difference it makes what difference it makes don't you have this question in your mind do you have this question in your mind or not i'm sure you have it in your mind but you don't share it with me sometimes you think what difference it makes whether Ali became the first successor or Abu Bakr became now 2015 what difference it makes the Prophet answers this question on his deathbed the Prophet on his deathbed 3 days before his death he died on Monday Thursday before his death he said allow me to give you my will my last will my most important will to the Ummah bring me pen and paper so I write a will for you لأكتب لكم كتابا لن تضلوا بعد أبدا if you accept this will you would never be this grace you would never be weak you would never be disunited you would never all Muslims you would never go backward you would have democracies in your countries you know how many victims every single day the Mediterranean how many victims claims every single day people fleeing Syria Iraq Libya Yemen Egypt North Africa how many of them they drown in the Mediterranean every single day rather than taking shelter in Mecca and Medina the holiest place in Islam they take shelter in Germany in Britain they travel from a Muslim country and take shelter in a non-Muslim country isn't this ironic a Muslim who is supposed to enjoy Islam in his community he runs away to the non-Muslims he seeks refuge and comfort and peace in a non-Muslim country you know why because Muslim countries are just Muslim by name not by character because we have dictatorship because in Muslim countries we have Islam but we don't have Muslims we only have the name we carry the name have you seen some counterfeit products t-shirt counterfeit they put the designer name but it is counterfeit not real this is our Islam in these Muslim countries Islam is a counterfeit version not authentic had it been an authentic version the Americans would come and seek shelter the Europeans would come and seek shelter in Muslim countries not vice versa because Islam is absent from our countries and the very first country that Islam is absent from it is Saudi Arabia is Saudi Arabia country that is based on abuse of a human rights and a human dignity and the stampede in Mina is an example of that this is one example so the prophet says if you follow this Kitab Allah the book of God if you follow this book and implement this book which is very beautiful this is the most tolerant book in this book Tom this book says this book says that I have to respect you and love you and care for you and protect you in this book don't listen to ISIS listen to this book لا ينهاكم الله عن الذين لم يقاتلوكم في الدين ولم يخرجوكم من دياركم أنت بروهم وتقسطوا إليهم إن الله يحب المقصطين الله يقول في this book that I urge you all Muslims I urge you that when it comes to the people of the book the Jews and the Christians who did no harm to you like you your honor here that you love them and care for them and defend them and be nice to them and kind to them this is the book this is the message of Muhammad and this is the message of Imam Ali Imam Ali was the caliph for four years and nine months they did not allow him to be the first they pushed him back when they had a failure for 25 years we had three caliphs they were a big failure then when the first caliph second caliph third caliph they died they came begging Imam Ali now we want you to be the caliph because you are the only one who can save Islam please please Ali accept leadership he was reluctant he said leave me alone I'm not about power I'm not dying for power leave me alone I'm doing my job here they said no please Islam is collapsing you are the only one who can save Islam he said okay he accepted but even when he became caliph they rejected him many people they fought against him so he ruled for four years and nine months ultimately he was assassinated in the mosque he was doing his prayers in the sanctuary they killed him when he was a ruler one day one of the people came from Basra you know Basra in southern Iraq in Basra there were mixed community there were Christians Jews and Muslims the governor did something bad to one of the Christians citizens so this Christian citizen he traveled all the way from Basra to Kufa Kufa was the capital the seat of the Islamic capital were Ali had a small house not in a palace not in a mansion Ali he built this house with his hand when he decided to move the capital from Medina to Kufa there was already a palace there they said to him this is the seat of the governor he said no no no this is a wicked mansion keep me away from this I don't want to see this mansion this is not for me I will build my own house he built a small house he himself he built it with his children with him helping him a very small house the house still exists today after 1400 years the house still exists so this Christian man came all the way traveling for one week from Basra 500 kilometers to Kufa he stood before Ali he said Ali I am your subject I am a Christian your governor of Basra he abused me he wronged me so I am seeking justice Ali was so disturbed he was so angry at the governor so he wrote a letter to him he said to him listen listen I want you to discipline yourself otherwise I am going to remove you from this post and let it be known to you اعلم ان من آذا انجليا فقد آذاني if a Christian if anyone abuses a Christian under my leadership my caliphate as if he has abused the caliph himself so give him his right back to this man when he comes to you treat him well do justice to him Christians enjoyed Ali's justice Muslims enjoyed his justice the Jews enjoyed his justice you know another Jewish man took him to court in Kufa he took the leader to court so they stood before the judge a judge that was appointed by Imam Ali so the judge he wanted to be respectful to Imam Ali he asked the Jew about his name first name last name so the Jew said this is my name and then he turned to Imam Ali and he said to him يا امير المؤمنين all the commander of the faithful the caliph what would you say what is your re-battle against this man Imam Ali said to him stop stop stop don't call me يا امير المؤمنين call me Ali Yubnu Abi Talib with my first name and last name in the court I'm a citizen now I'm a citizen just like him in the same way that you addressed the man with his first name and last name you must do it with me you would never discriminate in the court I'm a citizen here outside the court yes I'm a leader you may call me يا امير المؤمنين inside the court call me by my first name and last name with no titles no titles this is the justice of Ali why people don't like Ali because he's a man of justice he's a man of justice many people they rejected him because he does not believe in corruption he does not believe in a bribery now we have a man sitting here by the name of Ali Yulfarouk but this is his not real name his real name is Omar Yulfarouk when he picked me up at Denver airport I never knew anything about him he told to me he said Sayed you know what is my real name I said isn't it Ali he said no I'm Omar I said really I wanted to escape open the door and run away immediate he said don't worry you are safe and he told me the story very capturing story very moving story in the shrine of Imam Hussein 10 days ago I mentioned his story in front of huge congregation and I saw the tears rolling down this man originally from the city of Mosul which is now under the control of ISIS in Northern Iraq he was born in Baghdad he was a very prominent family in Iraq atta'i atta'i comes from the tribe very prominent tribe originally they were Christians before Islam they were Christians then they converted to Islam his family were always the supporters of the regimes in Iraq his grandfather was a military pilot during the monarchy in Iraq do you remember the monarchy in Iraq which ended in 1958 I know you are young but you still remember that his grandfather was a pilot his uncles were pilots working for the military in Iraq but then when he joined the salinity in Syria he was listening to his professor one day speaking about religions so someone from Chechnya asks the professor that what do you think of Shia you mentioned all religions all traditions, all schools but you never mentioned about Shia immediately the professor becomes crazy he becomes mad, he starts yelling he says no no no don't mention Shia they are worse than Jews and Christians they are this and that they are dangerous don't even mention them so Omar was sitting and listening so he decided he is curious he decides that let me go and find out of how bad the Shias are so he goes and travels to one of the neighborhoods in Zeina in Damascus and there his journey to the truth begins of course when he goes there he was so frustrated and angry and he went there to fight and to kill and to damage because he is a professor he is a professor spoke very well about Shia and he made all the students angry and frustrated so he went there to take revenge from the Shia but imagine imagine you go with one intention and you come back with another intention why? because there is God there and God says I am behind the guidance من يحدي الله فهو الموتدي if I decide to guide I will guide despite all circumstances and then after 6 months but the journey begins with something very interesting very interesting and this is why I want you to listen to this because I want you to do the same when you confront someone okay someone whose heart on you don't be heart on him don't return it our prophet says something very important our prophet says treat people with your own manners not with their manners so if some people are low don't treat them with the same level treat them with your level which is high very beautiful treat people with your own ethics with your own standards don't go down to their own standards لا بأخلاق him so he went there to the seminary one of the seminaries that I happened to teach an study there 30 years ago but I am still young now so he goes there full of anger, frustration and he will mention the rest do you want me to mention the rest of it or you will say it let me say this part and then I will leave the podium for him so he goes and he finds a Shi'a scholar there and immediately he opens his mouth with all these the cliches of accusations against the Shi'as the Shi'as have a different Quran they fabricated another Quran they don't believe in this same Quran the Shi'as they don't face Makkah in their prayers they face Najaf of Ali this is exactly what his a professor told him the Shi'a do not believe in God and the Shi'a they have if you examine them they have a tail yeah yeah this is I am not joking you really this is what they say about it they have a tail and so on and so forth so he goes with this mentality and when he starts attacking that man standing before him after a few minutes the man tells him Shaykh take a seat please bring him a cup of tea bring him a cup of tea magical word he tells me that this was the beginning of accepting Shi'a Islam bring him a cup of tea he said I expected that he will attack back and he will call me names at least he will kick me out of the building he didn't do that he embraced me he said take a seat rest you are tired you are hungry bring him a cup of tea that is the beginning of the journey we deserve to make a movie the name of the movie bring him a cup of tea yeah treat people well you never know what happens after that be like the prophet be like Ali ibn Abi Fadiq be like our imams we the Shi'as we have to follow Muhammad al-Ali alayhim as-salam in their ethics in their manners in the way they treated people