The Canadian Druze Society participated in the forty-fifth anniversary of the disappearance of Imam Sayyed Musa al-Sadr and his two companions, at the invitation of the Lebanese Canadian Risala Association, in a ceremony held at the Al-Huda Islamic Center hall in Toronto on September 2, 2023.

The head of the Arab Heritage Center, Khaled Hmeidan, representing the Canadian Druze Society in Ontario, delivered a speech in which he said:

We live some fleeting moments in confusion and bewilderment, like a passing breeze that has lost its way.

We say it for the love that was lost between the lines or for the letters that fell from them. Their words.

For the time that stopped and the distances that faded away.

For the pain that establishes separation as a barrier. And obstructs life.

For the living event that turns into a wandering question.. without an answer!

In such treacherous moments, Imam Sayyed Musa al-Sadr left us without a farewell, his chest tightened with sighs and weary of waiting, so he departed quickly to where he does not know, leaving behind memories and questions.

He came like a passing dream in the sky of Lebanon.. to carry the concerns of the citizen on his shoulders.

He demanded the lifting of the injustice and grievance inflicted upon the simple and the poor.

He addressed the free human within every person, for emancipation from fear and dependency.

He removed grudges from the hearts of believers to plant in them sprouts of affection and harmony.

He taught us how to emerge from our limited selves into a liberated, revolutionary self.

He guided us to the reservoirs of love and beauty, by confirming that within our souls lies every truth, goodness, and beauty.

This was in the seventies of the last century. And it is as if history stopped there because we are still, even today, in need of his noble teachings and his righteous path.. to save what remains of the homeland!

Why does he who filled hearts with joy and planted hope for victory in souls depart?

How can he whose soul surpassed the stars in its splendor and the stream of virtues in its generosity be disappeared?

How is he who opened his heart to tolerance and directed his conduct in a way that pleases the heavens met with treachery?

Was it too much for us to dream? Or do we not deserve to cross into the vast expanse?

Imam al-Sadr was not an ordinary, passing human being. He attracted attention and admiration from everywhere. However, it did not please some that the star of this exceptional leader should shine, so they criticized him for stirring people and inciting them to armed revolution, documenting their criticism with photos that were published in the press at the time, showing his companions around him armed to the teeth.

The Imam Sayyed replied to the critics with all calmness and dignity, saying: These men.. did not declare a revolution against anyone, nor are they resentful of anyone.. If they carried weapons, it was to signal their suffering from the injustice inflicted upon them, and there is no substitute for it to convey their voice to the concerned parties whose ears were deafened to the demands of the oppressed and the deprived, of every sect or religion.. In short, the movement of the Imam leader was a "non-violent revolution" and its goal was "human dignity!"

For Imam al-Sadr, who was disappeared in body, is ever-present in the conscience of the wise and honorable, and in the continued efforts of those loyal to his approach and his living teachings on the path of love.

May God bless his memory and return him safely.

A questioner might say: Where is the path to love..? And it is as if I see the Imam replying immediately:

Do not go far in asking, my friend.. for love itself, is the path..!