Welcome to the 15th episode of Heavenly Call on the occasion of the blessed fasting month of Ramadhan and congratulations on the birth anniversary of Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), the elder grandson and second Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny).

We start with the special supplication of the 15^th day, please listen:

“O Allah, grant me this day the obedience of the humble; open my breast therein to the penitence of the humble; with Your clemency, O Haven of the frightened.”

We have seen people or systems which claim to be at the service of fellow humans and the community or country, but in practice, their claims are hollow words. The Late thinker and philosopher, Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari, who was martyred in 1979, had said, “In no age, there has been talk of human rights, democracy and justice as the current century; and in no century have these principles and ideals been violated to such an extent.”

The holy Qur’an has in several ayahs criticized hypocrisy and duplicity, especially when addressing the believers. In ayahs 2 and 3 of surah Saff, we read, “O you who have faith! Why do you say what you do not do? It is greatly outrageous to Allah that you should say what you do not do.”

Duplicity and nonconformity in speech and behavior, at any level, especially among the rulers and officials, indicates hypocrisy and will have ruinous impacts on the society. The first impact of duplicity of speech and behavior is emergence of the culture of hypocrisy among the various strata of society. This leads to the destruction of trust and confidence among people.

Another impact of saying something and doing something else is that it dampens hope in the society and creates an atmosphere of despondency. When people see that officials do not fulfill their promises they will lose hope in the future and this will lead to the collapse of the society.

Another impact of this vice is growth of suspicion between the people and officials.

A hadith from the Prophet’s First Infallible Successor, the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), elaborates this fact with such dynamic words:

“There are three characteristics that make a person a hypocrite even if he performs daily ritual prayer and observes fasting. They are: when he speaks he lies; when he promises he acts the opposite; and when he is trusted he betrays.”

From the ayahs and the hadith that we recited, we can conclude that hypocrisy is not restricted to the disbelievers and the polytheists; rather it can be seen in even those who are regular in their observance of the rites and rituals of Islam including the daily ritual prayers and fasting in the month of Ramadhan, but because of lack of piety, at times, indulge in such sordid behaviour that is not the characteristic of true believers. Such persons are more dangerous to Islam than the open enemies of Muslims.

Throughout history, Islam has suffered the blows of turncoats and hypocrites. Today, there are rulers of Muslim countries who sow seeds of discord among Muslims but shamelessly extend the hand of friendship to the sworn enemies of Islam, like the US, the Great Satan and the illegitimate Zionist entity called Israel.

Since today happens to be the birthday anniversary of Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), who with a master stroke of a peace treaty ripped off the veil of hypocrisy from the face of the Godless Mu’awiya ibn Abu Sufyan and his claims to be a Muslim, we end our 15^th of Ramadhan episode with a statement from the Prophet’s elder grandson on true Islamic politics that are devoid of hypocrisy and continue to serve as food for thought for the faithful:

"Politics means observing the rights of God and the rights of the living, and the rights of the dead. The rights of God mean that you should obey His orders, and avoid what He forbids. The rights of the living mean that you should observe your duty to your brethren and not tarry in serving your people. You should be faithful to the one in (legitimate) authority among you as long as he is faithful to the people. You should speak up in his face should he deviate from the right path. The rights of the dead mean that you should remember their good deeds and overlook their bad ones."