Qabalan: Beware the game of burning Lebanon!

Jaafari Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan said in his Friday message that, “By divine logic and human logic, the homeland is among God Almighty’s greatest trusts, and this requires the authority that manages its country’s affairs to be commensurate with the responsibility of this trust in both its human and functional structural dimensions. At its core lies the reference value of national justice, as God Almighty says: ‘Indeed, Allah commands you to render trusts to whom they are due and when you judge between people to judge with justice. Excellent is that which Allah instructs you. Indeed, Allah is Ever Hearing and Seeing.’”

He said: “This obliges us to exercise extreme caution toward any authority that betrays, or nearly betrays, the national trust, because the issue concerns the homeland as an existential value, a reference refuge, and a national creed. Only then comes the rank of functional or individual justice. The evidence today is Lebanon as an existential value and a national creed with which no authority, whatever its inclinations, may come into conflict—especially as we are living through a decisive war that the resistance is winning with full force, steadfastness, and legendary resilience, while the political authority in this country is abandoning its homeland and its sovereign fronts, especially the South, the southern suburbs, and the Bekaa. Herein lies the danger: this authority, defeated in national reason and in Lebanon’s functional and moral value, simply lives with the complex of its dependency, the failure of its wager, and the collapse of its project, which seeks to strip Lebanon of the sovereign power that restored Lebanon, all in favor of Washington, which is experiencing the bitterness of its harshest defeat in the region.”

He added: “For the record, I say: an authority that negotiates with Israel while at the same time abandoning the sovereign combat role of the resistance and preventing the Lebanese Army from carrying out its primary duty—border fighting—is betraying Lebanon, and we will not accept any treacherous deal that harms Lebanon and its sovereignty. As for the resistance’s arsenal, which restored Lebanon and still guarantees its existence and independence, I say to those concerned: any authority that comes into conflict with the resistance’s weapons loses its legitimacy, because there is no legitimacy above the legitimacy of defending Lebanon. This national legitimacy begins with the resistance, the army, and the people, and ends with the resistance, the army, and the people.”

He stressed that “the state’s extension of its authority over Lebanese territory begins at the southern border, not in back rooms at night. This is what the Lebanese executive authority is refraining from doing for reasons related to commitments that sharply conflict with Lebanon’s sovereignty and the necessities of its existence and independence. Beware of a new May 17, because the era of treason is over. What is required is to protect Lebanon, not tear it apart; what is required is to prevent sedition, not ignite it. Any thrusting of the state into the wrong place will expose the state and its national project to a national catastrophe. This is the important and pivotal moment for the state to carry out its sovereign role and man its fighting fronts—not to engage in collusion, deception, and suspicious contacts. What is certain is that this decisive war has ended with many losers and one winner, and Trump and Netanyahu are not on the winning side. It is clear that Trump’s war has produced results opposite to his goals and America’s goals, as it bleeds from failure. Negotiations in Pakistan will reflect the nature of the new battlefield and the scale of the strategic defeats that have struck the structures of America and Israel. America’s standing today is declining sharply because of its failure in this decisive war.”

He considered that “for us as Lebanese, this is a moment for meeting, solidarity, and cooperation in the context of affirming our national rights and sovereign interests—not for pleading with Washington and its partners to strike at the resistance and nullify the momentum of its victories, even if that leads to the martyrdom of hundreds of innocent civilians in a moment of Israeli madness brought on by Tel Aviv’s defeat on the battlefield.”

He concluded with “a message to the Lebanese people of all their respected sects,” saying: “Never in the history of Lebanon and the region has there been a resistance with such momentum, sacrifice, steadfastness, and victory, yet your Lebanese state is almost breathing its last because of the resistance’s victory and legendary steadfastness. There are some in power who want to burn Lebanon simply because the resistance has achieved a measure of sovereignty, pride, and dignity for its people and its dear homeland, Lebanon. So beware the game of burning Lebanon.”