Friday sermon: Honouring the UAE’s fallen soldiers

Meanwhile, the President, Sheikh Khalifa, ordered absentee prayers for the UAE’s heroes whose bodies have yet to be found.

ABU DHABI // Friday'ssermon will honour the sacrifice of the 45 soldiers who were killed in Yemen.

Worshippers will hear that the servicemen obeyed the call to protect their nation from attack and to preserve its safety.

It will also urge their families to be patient and remember that the fallen soldiers will have great rewards in the hereafter.

President Sheikh Khalifa ordered absentee prayers for the UAE's heroes whose bodies have yet to be found.

The sermon will say: “So be happy and remember the high status Allah has provided your sons with, and their high grades.”

The sermon cites an incident when a woman, the mother Haretha bin Suraqa, went to the Prophet Mohammed and said to him: “Oh Prophet of Allah, will you tell me about Haretha? Haretha has been killed (martyred) on the day (battle) of Badr with an arrow thrown by an unidentified person.

“If he is in paradise, I will be patient. Otherwise, I will weep bitterly for him.”

The Prophet Mohammed replied: “Oh mother of Haretha! There are gardens in Paradise and your son got the Firdusal-ala (the best place in Paradise).”

The sermon stresses that the UAE people “are one family, and their word is one, they line up behind their wise leadership with the heart of one man”.

It cites a verse from the Quran that says: “Allah hath bought from the believers their lives and their wealth because the Garden will be theirs: they shall fight in the way of Allah and shall slay and be slain.

“It is a promise which is binding on Him, in the Torah and the Gospel and the Quran. Who fulfilleth His covenant better than Allah? Rejoice then in your bargain that ye have made, for that is the supreme triumph.”