Why do we need to create this discourse? Because this discourse can promote religious thought and knowledge among our audience. When religious thought is promoted among the people and it is accompanied by a sense of commitment, it gives rise to actions and becomes exactly what prophets were after.

Gathering together to celebrate the Prophet's birthday and reciting poems and mentioning the virtues and merits of his holiness are not worshiping him. If someone knows even a little about general rules of Divine Law and religious principles, (s)he will not call these actions worship. Of course, these works are for celebration and respect and glorification of Imams, but any veneration and glorification is not worship. If this is in this way, any speech or sermon on reverence toward any person will be worship.

Those who have ugly and appalling characteristics have a negative influence on their friends and associates. They can even irreparably damage their friends.

Open disobedience on the part of some companions and their refusal to join the army of Usamah was an evidence of a series of underground activities and the earnest determination of the persons concerned that after the demise of the Prophet they would take possession of the governmental and political affairs of Islam and would push back the person who had been formally appointed on the Day of Ghadir as the successor to the Prophet. 

Since everything manifests God in some way or other, God can be found everywhere, if only we learn how to look. May Allah help us to look properly and to find His manifestations in all things, especially in the best of His creatures Muhammad and his Ahlul Bayt, the immaculate and pure, and in all the prophets and guides He has sent to humanity, and may we, too, in our own humble ways, come to manifest Him in our own lives.

The mission of Imam Hussain is a distinctly unique political and religious revolutionary movement in the history of the world. His was a tremendous undertaking which still reverberates throughout the Muslim nation. He has been a propelling force and a seminal element in events throughout Islamic history, particularly in the sphere of Jihad (the holy struggle in the way of Almighty God). Imam Hussain's example has remained vividly alive for generations and centuries. His uprising movement and ideals still have a deep impact on the conscience and awareness of the Muslim empire.

With the recent earthquake in Haiti which has devastated that country, taken an astonishing amount of victims, and left many, many lives in ruin, many people ask the questions: why does God makes us suffer so much?

Without a doubt, when we reflect on the Qur'anic narratives and the reasons why they are in the Qur'an, we see that Allah has introduced stories into the Qur'an, and the Prophet and the infallible members of his family have also given us such narratives for these same reasons that a parent tells his or her child the proverbial bed-time stories!

Adoption does not change the relationship of a person. It does not end the blood relationship between the child and his real parents and siblings, nor does it create a real relationship between him and his adoptive parents and their children.

Victory does not mean that one leaves the battlefield untouched or that one's enemy was killed. Victory means that man progressed along the path of his ultimate goal and did not allow his enemy to reach his goal.