The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and his family) learned Surah Al-Baqarah and Al-Imran, because learning them is a blessing and leaving them is regret, and magicians cannot learn them. Surah Al-Baqarah and Al-Imran will come on the Day of Resurrection like two pieces of clouds or two cloaks or two groups of birds spreading their wings, defending their friend and companion, and the Almighty Allah will speak to them. They will say: “O Lord of Lords! This servant of Yours called upon Us, and We made him thirsty during the days and keep him awake at night, and his body was tired.” Allah the Almighty says: “O Quran! How was his obedience to what I commanded him in You, that he should prefer Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him), the brother of Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and his family)?” They say: “O Lord of Lords and God of Lords! He loved him and loved his friends and was an enemy to his enemies; whenever he was able, he would show his friendship and whenever he was unable, he would be pious and hide it.” God Almighty says: “So, he acted upon you as I had commanded him and honored you and your orders that I honored him with have been given precedence. O Ali (peace be upon him)! Do you not hear the testimony of the Quran about this friend of yours?” Ali (peace be upon him) says: “O my Lord! Yes, I hear.” God Almighty says: “So suggest to this reciter of the Quran something that will increase his desires many times over, which no one knows except God Almighty.” Ali (peace be upon him) suggests many times over what the reciter of the Quran desires; so it is said: “O Ali (peace be upon him)! I gave him what you suggested.” The Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) said: “A crown of honor will be placed on the head of the father and mother of the reciter of the Quran, the light of which will illuminate their path for ten thousand years, and a garment will be draped over their bodies, which if all the good deeds in the world were multiplied by a hundred thousand, would still not be equal to the first thread of this garment. Then the kingship will be given to the right hand of this reciter of the Quran and immortality will be given to his left hand.”

Tafsir Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) Vol. 2, p. 452 Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 7, p. 292

Imam Sadiq (a.s.) - Abu Basir says: Imam Sadiq (a.s.) said: “Surah An’am was revealed all at once, and when it was revealed to the Messenger of God (s.a.w.s.), seventy thousand angels accompanied it; so consider it great and honor it; because the name of God Almighty is in seventy places in it, and if people knew what virtue there is in reciting it, they would not abandon it.” Then Imam Sadiq (a.s.) said: “Whoever has a need from God that he wants to be fulfilled, then he should recite four rak’ahs with Surah Hamd and Surah An’am, and when he finishes reciting it, he should say in his prayer: “O Generous! O Generous! O Generous! O Great! O Great! O Great! O Greatest of all greatness! O Hearer of supplication! O One who does not change him day or night! Send blessings upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad (peace be upon them) and have mercy on my weakness, poverty, need and nothingness; for You are more aware of it than I am and You are more aware of my need. O He who showed mercy to the old man Jacob when the light of his sight returned to him Joseph! O He who showed mercy to Job (peace be upon him) after grief and sorrow had set in! O He who showed mercy to Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and sheltered him from being an orphan and helped him against the arrogant Quraysh and his oppressors and made him victorious over them! O Helper! O Helper! O Helper! O Helper! He says it many times and swears by the One in Whose Hand is my soul, if after the prayer you recite behind this Surah, you recite Allah with it and then ask Allah for all your needs, He will not be stingy with you and He will grant it to you, God willing.”

Tafsir of the Ahlul Bayt (peace be upon them) Vol. 4, p. 314 Bihar Al-Anwar, Vol. 88, p. 348/ Al-Burhan

At least three people, including a senior figure from the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in southern Lebanon, in the latest blatant violation of a shaky ceasefire agreement with the Arab country.

Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television reported that an Israeli drone strike targeted an apartment on Dalaa Street in the Lebanese port city of Sidon, located 48 kilometers (29 miles) south of Beirut.

Hassan Farhat, a member of Hamas, and his son were reportedly killed in the airstrike. 

Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, confirmed the assassination in a statement, pledging that "the path of resistance will continue until the complete liberation of the land of Palestine, and the blood of the martyrs will be the light of the path" for its fighters. 

"The policy of cowardly assassinations by the Israeli occupation regime against our children and fighters, whether in the occupied Palestinian territories or outside them, will never be able to stop us from continuing the path of jihad and sacrifice," it said. 

A statement issued by Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam's media office said, "The attack on Sidon or any other Lebanese region is a blatant violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a clear breach of UN Resolution 1701 and the security arrangements for halting hostilities."

"Prime Minister Salam emphasizes the need to exert maximum pressure on Israel to compel it to stop its ongoing assaults, particularly on residential areas, stressing that a complete cessation of military operations is essential," it said. 

Israeli military forces also launched hours-long raids on other regions in southern Lebanon, including the towns of Naqoura and Nabatieh, resulting in damage and casualties.

An Israeli airstrike on a car near the city of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon injured two people on Thursday morning.

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji urged the EU to step up pressure on Israel to withdraw from all occupied Lebanese territories, cease attacks, and respect Lebanon's sovereignty.

Rajji made the appeal during talks with Stefano Sannino, director-general for the Middle East and North Africa at the European Commission, who led an EU delegation visiting Beirut, Lebanon's official National News Agency reported.

The minister condemned Israel's continued military aggression, including daily strikes in southern Lebanon and renewed attacks on Beirut.

Israel had to agree to a ceasefire with Hezbollah following significant losses incurred over nearly 14 months of conflict, failing to achieve its goals in the onslaught against Lebanon. The ceasefire took effect on November 27.

Since the commencement of the agreement, the occupying forces have been carrying out near-daily assaults on Lebanon, breaching the ceasefire, which includes airstrikes throughout the Arab nation.

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The Yemeni Armed Forces have conducted a retaliatory attack against US warships in the Red Sea, including USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, thwarting two planned strikes targeting the impoverished nation.

In a statement on Friday, army spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the country’s military targeted “hostile warships in the Red Sea, including the US aircraft carrier, [USS Harry S.] Truman, with a number of cruise missiles and drones,” in response to the US strikes on Yemen.

He noted that the operation, “the second in the past 24 hours,” thwarted two planned US aerial attacks against Yemen.

This comes as the US has intensified its strikes on Yemen since President Donald Trump ordered a “powerful military action” against Yemen’s Army last month.

In his statement, Saree stressed Yemen’s readiness to confront any possible escalation, and vowed that pro-Palestine operations will continue until Israel’s war in Gaza ends.

“The aggressor will know that Great Yemen can’t be broken or surrender, and will not abandon its religious, moral and human duties towards the oppressed Palestinian people, whatever the repercussions and whatever the outcomes,” he said, stressing that “Victory will belong to Yemen, God willing.”

Since the onset of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, Yemeni forces have carried out scores of operations in support of the war-hit Gazans, striking targets throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, in addition to targeting Israeli ships or vessels heading toward ports in the occupied territories.

In support of Israel, the US announced the formation of a maritime task force in the Red Sea in December 2023 to protect the passage of vessels bound for the Israeli-occupied territories.

The Yemeni forces responded by ramping up their strikes against strategic and sensitive Israeli and American targets, including the US warships and aircraft carriers that are deployed off Yemen’s coastline.

The Yemeni forces had paused their retaliatory strikes in support of the ceasefire that took effect in Gaza on January 19, before Israel broke it last month.

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The pilgrim must pay attention to the truth of his intention before traveling; any act of worship that is done with sincere intention and for God is considered true worship and is worthy of acceptance by God, and is deserving of a great reward.

Worship, if done sincerely and with the intention of obeying God, is an act of duty, and if it is otherwise, it is a hardship and toil without reward issued from man and will not be acceptable to God; and ultimately, it is not recorded in the record of the act as a performance of duty and is wasted according to the Quran:

“And We will examine and account for every good deed they have done, then We will scatter them all [those done with insincere intentions and with hypocrisy and showing off] as scattered dust.”Furqan/ 23

The pilgrim should, with regard to God and the Day of Judgment and taking as an example the saints of God, especially the prophets and the household of God:

 keep his intention pure and do not contaminate it with selfish desires, and in this worship should have no thought except for the “face of God”:

"Indeed, we only feed you for the face of God; we do not want from you any reward or gratitude". Insan/ 9

Once again, the purpose of a pilgrim to the Sacred House of God should not be tourism, business, rest, seeing another country, etc., because this will damage the spirituality of this journey.

In any case, if the action, movement, effort and fulfillment of responsibility is based on pure and honest intentions, it will be permanent and worthy of the acceptance of the Almighty! And a great reward and great reward will be determined for it.

Iran has strongly condemned the latest string of Israeli aerial and ground attacks on civilian, scientific and research facilities besides a number of military sites across Syria, stressing the need to protect the Arab nation’s territorial integrity. 

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei, in a statement released on Thursday, vehemently denounced the Israeli assaults in the Syrian capital Damascus, the central provinces of Hama and Homs, and the southwestern province of Dara'a.

He said the Zionist regime’s recurrent acts of aggression, strikes on Syria’s most valuable defense assets and civilian installations, alongside the occupation of strategic areas of the Arab country since the fall of the former government of Bashar al-Assad devolve responsibility to all concerned parties in order to prevent Israel’s abuses and atrocities.

The senior Iranian diplomat said the Islamic Republic, in the course of consultations with regional countries over the past few months, had been warning against the Zionist regime’s abuse of the status quo in Syria, the expansion of Israeli occupation, and its belligerence against Syria and other regional countries.

“As before, the Islamic Republic of Iran stresses the need to maintain and protect the territorial integrity, dignity and national sovereignty of Syria as a deep-rooted and dignity-seeking nation in the important region of West Asia,” Baghaei said.

The Iranian spokesman finally urged the international community, particularly regional states and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), to take immediate and effective measures to stop Israel’s acts of aggression, end the regime’s impunity, and hold it accountable for egregious breaches of the law, constant acts of aggression against regional countries and ongoing genocidal crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Nine civilians were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli airstrike that targeted Syria's southwestern Dara’a province late on Wednesday.

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said the strike hit the Jubailiyah Forest area between the cities of Nawa and Tasil.

It also reported heightened public anger and widespread mobilization in response to the "massacre," as Israeli forces penetrated deeper than ever before into Syrian territory.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli military aircraft targeted the vicinity of the scientific research center in the Barzeh neighborhood of Syria’s capital Damascus, as well as the airport in the central city of Hama.

Since the collapse of Assad’s government, the Israeli military has been launching airstrikes against military installations, facilities, and arsenals belonging to Syria’s now-defunct army.

Israel has been widely condemned for the termination of the 1974 ceasefire agreement with Syria and for exploiting the chaos in the Arab nation in the wake of Assad’s downfall to make a land grab.

The United Nations has condemned ongoing Israeli attacks inside Syrian territory and continuing violations in and around the buffer zone created as part of a 1974 ceasefire agreement with Damascus.

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New round of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 77 people, marking the deadliest day for Palestinians since the regime resumed its genocidal war on the besieged territory two weeks ago.

A medical facility in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza was among the targets of the Israeli aerial assaults on Wednesday.

At least 22 people, including children and members of the Gaza police force, were killed in the attack on the clinic run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

The government media office in Gaza condemned the "barbaric attack" that took place amid the Israeli genocide against civilians and displaced people in Gaza.

Several other air raids on Wednesday hit the cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah, as well as the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

In an X post on Thursday, US Senator Bernie Sanders announced that he will be forcing a vote to block the government's $8.8 billion weapons sales to the occupying regime.

The Tel Aviv regime "has killed 50,000 people in Gaza & wounded 112,000. Two weeks ago, they broke the ceasefire and have since killed 322 children & wounded 600. The US must end its complicity," he said.

The deadly Israeli strikes came after Israeli minister of military affairs Israel Katz threatened to expand the Gaza onslaught, saying the regime's military would seize "large areas" of the Palestinian territory.

Turkey slams Israel's blatant disregard for intl. law

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said that the Gaza plan along with Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank are "yet another demonstration of Israel's blatant disregard for international law and its complete detachment from the pursuit of peace."

It also called on the international community to take a firm stance in order to "end Israel's efforts to expand its territory through occupation." 

Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, but it failed to achieve its declared objectives despite killing 50,423 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring more than 114,638 others. 

The usurping entity accepted longstanding negotiation terms by the Hamas resistance group under a Gaza ceasefire, which began on January 19.

On March 18, however, Israel resumed its relentless bombing of Gaza in blatant violation of the truce.

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At least 22 civilians, including nine children, were killed when an UNRWA clinic sheltering displaced people was struck by an Israeli airstrike in the Jabalia camp north of the besieged Palestinian territory.   

Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said dozens of people were wounded in the strike, which "targeted the UNRWA building housing a medical clinic."

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the "massacre at the UNRWA clinic in Jabalia," calling for "serious international pressure" to halt Israel's widening offensive.

The Islamic Jihad resistance group has called the bombing a "blatant war crime."

Israel has, on several occasions, conducted strikes on UNRWA buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for most of the past 18 months.

A strike on the United Nations-run al-Jawni school in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said six of its staff were among the 18 people reported killed.

Separately, an airstrike in the southern city of Khan Yunis also claimed the lives of at least 13 Palestinians, including a child, and left several others injured.

The situation in the southern city of Rafah has also deteriorated, with intensified airstrikes and artillery shelling killing at least five people. 

Meanwhile, the Israeli minister of military affairs, Israel Katz, announced plans to expand the military's ground offensive in Gaza, aiming to seize large areas to be added to the so-called buffer zones in the Strip.

Israel resumed the war on the Palestinian territory on March 18 in violation of the Gaza ceasefire. 

The renewed aggression has killed over one thousand Palestinians. The overall toll from the genocide in Gaza has topped 50,420.

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Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has reiterated Tehran’s readiness to take part in indirect negotiations with the United States over its peaceful nuclear program, warning that US threats are “complicating” the current situation.

“The Islamic Republic, as in the past, is ready for real negotiations from an equal position and indirectly,” Araghchi said in a phone call with his Dutch counterpart, Caspar Veldkamp, on Wednesday. He stressed that this “requires a constructive atmosphere and the avoidance of approaches based on threats, intimidation and blackmail.”

The minister decried threats made by US officials against Iran as “unacceptable”, adding that they violate the UN Charter and international law and “complicate” the current situation.

Araghchi warned that Iran will “swiftly and decisively” respond to any aggression on its territorial integrity, sovereignty, and national interests.

Iran’s top diplomat also stressed that all United Nations member states have a responsibility to uphold the rule of law at the international level.

Meanwhile, he criticized the European Union over its failure to adopt a stance against the “provocative” rhetoric of US officials, which he said “threatens” international peace and security.

For his part, Veldkamp expressed his concern about heightened tensions in the region, stressing the need for diplomacy to resolve disputes.

US President Donald Trump threatened over the weekend that he might order military strikes against Iran if Tehran refused to enter negotiations to “make a new deal” on its nuclear program.

During his first term in office, Trump withdrew the United States from a previous agreement on Iran’s nuclear program and launched a maximum pressure campaign against the country.

Trump restored that policy after returning to the White House for a second term in January, but he has since signaled a willingness to make a new deal to replace the 2015 deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

On March 12, Trump sent a letter to Iran’s leadership, asking for negotiations to reach a new deal and threatening military action if Tehran refused.

Iran has ruled out direct negotiations with the US under pressure and threats but says indirect talks remain an option. 

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Israel has eliminated all its remaining tariffs on imports from the United States despite a global trend that has seen many countries reciprocating US President Donald Trump’s policy of imposing tariffs on their exports to the US.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a joint statement with Economy Minister Nir Barkat and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Tuesday that the removal of tariffs would benefit the Israeli economy and would enable the regime to further strengthen its alliance and ties with the US.

Israel has a free trade agreement with the US that dates back to 40 years ago. However, it used to collect tariffs on some agriculture imports from the US that amounted to about 42 million shekels ($11.3 million) per year.

The move came a day before Trump was to announce sweeping levies on imports from both “friendly and enemy countries”, a decision that has sparked widespread international criticism with many countries vowing to retaliate by imposing their own tariffs on imports from the US.

However, Smotrich, a controversial minister known for his extremist views, urged other Israeli ministries to swiftly coordinate with relevant US entities to protect Israeli imports from any harm that might be caused by US tariff announcements on April 2.

The minister, who briefly resigned on Monday to become a member of parliament, claimed that the elimination of tariffs on imports from the US was a significant step in safeguarding the Israeli economy.

However, the decision, which has been seen by many as another act of subservience to Washington, is expected to harm the agriculture sector in the Israeli-occupied territories.    

That comes as Israel’s Agriculture Ministry has said that it might compensate Israeli farmers if they were damaged by Trump’s tariff policies.

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