In the Name of God the Most Gracious the Most Merciful

Praise and Thanks be to God Lord of Mankind, Prayers and Peace be upon the Master of Messengers, His Family and His Companions

My dear brothers and sons,

We address our deep salutations to you, 

My dearest, we are united by the kinship affections that represent in the Unitarian significance a spiritual humanitarian link anchored by the highest values, the noblest principles and the virtues graved in the souls of the believers through many generations. No matter to what extent the storms of calamities aggravate in our society and how the Western traditions affect it, added to the divisions everywhere in the world, what was anchored in the minds of the Unitarians of their deep-rooted heritage as well as the religious and cultural customs, the light remains illuminated in their hearts no matter how far become the distances and harder become the times. 

The Holy Adha and the ten shining bright nights represent an occasion that gathers all of us with its benediction, mercy and grace. It is an obligation that binds us to stand and meditate the significances of these good days that unite our hearts with their light from the depth of the mountains towards the entire world in all the villages and towns. We all seek to repeat prayers and invocations hoping God the Merciful accepts them, added to the good acts, generosity and good coexistence by exchanging the expressions of charity and friendliness. By doing so, the benediction of goodness invades the soul and Unitarians enjoy the passion of meeting the truth. We are vigilant towards this universe that makes us busy with its occupations, ambitions, worries and delusions. Lucky is the vigilant one that wakes up to quench his thirst from the sources flowing between our hands. Lucky is that one who has preserved a place in his soul for the virtuous charity, fraternity, honesty and sincerity, and thus, he avoids all that harms his moral soul by staying away from potential slips, so he has lighted his spirit, he has been guided by the light of the obedient mind and he has felt the virtue and Unitarian dignity from his inside. 

My dearest sons,

At the tenth day of the Hajj month, the Muslims in general and the Unitarians in particular celebrate the Adha Feast as a commemoration for the readiness of the Prophet Ibrahim (Peace be upon Him) to sacrifice with His son for God and what happened to Him is a dignity represented by His saying: “We have scarified to Him with a Great slaughter”, and this is one of the Prophets’ stories from the periods of their invocations estimated at around two thousand six hundred years before Christ, and this is a part from the series of the honorable prophets to guide people, and which include a test for the Prophet Ibrahim (Peace be upon Him), and this is an apparent test for His belief in the vision, and that means an obedience and abidance by the order of God. This is summarized in three points: having faith in God His Almighty, accepting His orders and being punished or rewarded for accepting obedience.  

My dearest,

Unitarianism has assembled the fruits of the call for getting to know the Creator His Almighty and His obedience at all ages. In fact, the religious heritage stores the significances of faith since the beginnings of the known history. All the invitation messages are meant to let humans believe and have faith in God His Almighty, a faith illuminated by His good signs, wise significances and the meanings of His Verses, including the significances and conditions of religion, as a mercy for humans, a grace and a guidance. The Prophet Suleiman (Peace be upon Him) said: “If knowledge was based on something, no one could have looked at it and not ended up dying from its goodness and beauty and every light would have darkened facing its light”. They said: “Knowledge comes out of two sides: “from generosity and efforts”. Al Hallaj said: “the distance between the soul and God is determined by the quality of divine love and the heart that meets this love will never ever die”.  

Therefore, the science of religion is supplied from its source of origin, which means the teachings and principles that God His Almighty has allowed through His messengers. These principles are considered as “the proof of God for His creation and the origin of recommendation is unique and common between them” (between the messengers). The spirit is illuminated by faith and knowledge as a proof for the human to differentiate in his spirit, in the light of supplication, between his good and bad acts, between the favor and malice, since by this differentiation human feels the reality and purposes of religion and through this he collects the fruits that give life for hearts and souls.  

For this reason, one of the greatest and noblest matters would be that human quenches his thirst from the sources of mercy in a way that revives his heart and illuminates his soul, extracting from all that teaches him the rules of belief and attitude, as well as the obligations of ethics and sureness, so that he rises from the scales of knowledge towards what is meant to introduce him to the humanity’s purpose and the intention of its presence in the world. Nothing in this material life is more precious and significant than reaching this noble purpose through which human’s dignity and honor are realized being the fruit of obedience and guidance.  

My dearest, the wise man is the one who condemns his soul by punishing it. He thinks that if he punishes it, he would be lost and troubled because the soul orders bad acts without the proof of truth and mind over it. He shall then punish it with the scale of honesty and justice in the mirror of God, which means his message delivered by His Great prophets. His Almighty the creator represents in all ways charity and mercy, forgives the penitents and has the final word, as His Almighty said {The only owner of the Day of Recompense}.

Unitarians – added to the above – are deprived if the crescent of the Hajj launched a true deprivation such as Unitarianism; many of them revive the night and strive to make their souls target the face of their Merciful God, their injuries pure of guilt and defection and their intentions are pure to pursue the significance of sacrifice. This is a submission of what the human has achieved physically and morally and what he has appropriated of possessions from this universe to His Almighty so that it would be a blessed feast enriched with the significance of God’s Unitarianism with no other.  

This way, the “tenth of Adha” is the occasion by which the Unitarian recalls the truths of the journey that he should go through in Unitarianism. He feels the truths of deprivation in each day of it. He renews his commitment with the highest vigilance to the necessity of being firm in the purity of intention and the commitment to the target. He recalls in his mind the meaning of getting to the significance of quenching from the sources of science, stressing on the space of knowledge and awaiting the rise of the truth, in order to reach the feast that drives him to the satisfaction of God His Almighty. This pure link of the human to the commitments of this Great Hajj is fortified by honesty, sincerity and loyalty. Preserving this trust constitutes in itself a slaughter for sacrifice and without this slaughter Unitarianism would not take place.  

My dearest sons,

I call you with love and understanding to preserve your noble heritage that is enriched with knowledge and truths, and even represents a humanitarian flood if we approach it with a wide mind, a loving heart and a good will. If the Unitarian worships faithfully, he becomes an ideal in the world with his attitude, mind and presence; he is heading in this journey towards the house of God, getting rid of all the sinful paths and adopting the path of learning and rise all along the stairway of humanitarian right truth and virtue. Through this path reside the significances of the Adha Feast. By accepting this truth and obeying to it, the Feast would be complete and its candle is lighted in the hearts. May God His Almighty repeat this Feast for all of you and us with His satisfaction and mercy. 

Hoping we meet soon. Goodbye  

The Sheikh Akl of the Druze Unitarian Community, Naim Hassan 

Beirut, on October 8, 2013