Part 1
الله أكبر الله أكبر الله أكبر لا إله إلا الله الله أكبر الله أكبر ولله الحمد
الله اكبر كبيرا، والحمد لله كثيرا، وسبحان الله بكرةً وأصيلا
إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ ,نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ ونستغفره ونومن به ونتوكل عليه ,ونعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ,ومن سيئات أعمالنا ,مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ ,وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ ,وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ , وَأَشْهَدُ وَأَنَّ سيدنا وحبيبنا ومولانا مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُه ﷺ
عما بعد
فقال الله تعلى في كتابه العزيز بعد – أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم:
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَقُولُوا۟ قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا
يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَٰلَكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ ۗ وَمَن يُطِعِ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُۥ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمًا
You who have iman! have taqwa of Allah and speak words which hit the mark. He will put your actions right for you and forgive you your wrong deeds. All who obey Allah and His Messenger have won a mighty victory.
Taqwa is to obey Allah in all of His commands and to refrain from those things He has prohibited, inwardly and outwardly, thus protecting oneself from Allah's displeasure. His commands include performing the ‘religious obligations’ such as the daily prayers, paying zakat, fasting in Ramadan and going on Hajj if you are able, but also include ordinary transactions such as the way Muslims make money, contract marriages, and lend and borrow money. Moreover, it includes the way you treat others. It could be said that Taqwa is to be aware of Allah in such a way that it changes your behaviour. He is the Punisher and the Rewarder and so, the more we begin to realise that He is always present and observing us, the more we change the ways we behave. Then, as we become aware that His observing us includes both what we do and our inner condition, we begin to turn from our inner faults and work on the improvement of our character. The pinnacle of taqwa is for self-awareness to dissipate in awareness of His Presence. So having taqwa leads to the putting right of our actions and being given forgiveness.
الله أكبر الله أكبر الله أكبر لا إله إلا الله الله أكبر الله أكبر ولله الحمد
This, then, is the journey of the Muslim; from Islam to Iman to Ihsan. Acting correctly based on this taqwa leads to knowledge, or you could say illumination, and illumination, in turn, leads to right action. Through Allah’s generosity, He sent Messengers to guide people to correct belief and correct action. They had the most complete taqwa of all humans which was based on their deep awareness and knowledge of Allah, and our beloved Rasool salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam was the perfection and seal of this line of divinely sent messengers. In Allah’s telling of the stories of all the prophets, we see that their illumination was such that they dedicated their whole lives to serving Allah by trying to put things right in the societies in which they lived. Thus, we see that love of Allah so permeated their being, they were willing to be exposed to ridicule, slander, and even the threat of death. Sayyiduna Nuh, alayhis-salam, was ridiculed, Sayyiduna Musa, alayhis-salam, stood up to Firawn and freed Banu Isra’il from his clutches. Muhammad, the Habib Allah, was denied by his people; how many tried to kill him for calling people to relinquish the idols and to worship Allah alone?! How many saw the hatred in their hearts turn to love in an instant, simply through being in his presence?! He was steadfast and stood up to those who denied him and he was given success. Within the shortest time, from being a handful of believers in the Arab desert, Islam had spread from Spain to China.
الله أكبر الله أكبر الله أكبر لا إله إلا الله الله أكبر الله أكبر ولله الحمد
Allah says:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنْ تَنْصُرُوا اللَّهَ يَنْصُرْكُمْ وَيُثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَكُمْ
“You who have iman! if you help Allah, He will help you and make your feet firm.”
If you help Allah, He will help you. Yet, Allah does not need our help. When Allah wants a thing he says simply “kun fa yakun – be and it is”. In reality, only Allah has power and only He is completely free from needing other than Himself, so how can we help Him while we are utterly in need of Him? Our “helping Allah” is supporting His Deen, striving to implement it in ourselves and in our society and establishing justice in our financial dealings and our general behaviour. If we do this, Allah will support us and help us against our enemies and make our feet firm. If we are with Allah, then His enemies become our enemies and who can overcome Allah?
Know that there are external enemies and internal enemies. The external enemies are, in the most part, easy to pinpoint. Anyone or anything that call you away from worship of Allah or to giving power to other than Allah is a clear enemy. However, the enemy within is much more difficult to perceive. They are those elements within ourselves that are not aligned with His Deen; any attachment to other than Allah is an enemy to be conquered. In fact, such faults are the most dangerous enemy as they can defeat us while we believe we are victorious. In other words, our biggest enemy is our self. So, in sincerely taking on the Deen of Allah, Allah will give us nasr – help/victory over these negative elements that lie hidden within us, and through time this could lead to victory in the outward.
الله أكبر الله أكبر الله أكبر لا إله إلا الله الله أكبر الله أكبر ولله الحمد
In a hadith qudsi, we have from the Messenger:
يَقُولُ اللَّهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ مَنْ جَاءَ بِالْحَسَنَةِ فَلَهُ عَشْرُ أَمْثَالِهَا وَأَزِيدُ وَمَنْ جَاءَ بِالسَّيِّئَةِ فَجَزَاؤُهُ سَيِّئَةٌ مِثْلُهَا أَوْ أَغْفِرُ وَمَنْ تَقَرَّبَ مِنِّي شِبْرًا تَقَرَّبْتُ مِنْهُ ذِرَاعًا وَمَنْ تَقَرَّبَ مِنِّي ذِرَاعًا تَقَرَّبْتُ مِنْهُ بَاعًا وَمَنْ أَتَانِي يَمْشِي أَتَيْتُهُ هَرْوَلَةً وَمَنْ لَقِيَنِي بِقُرَابِ الْأَرْضِ خَطِيئَةً لَا يُشْرِكُ بِي شَيْئًا لَقِيتُهُ بِمِثْلِهَا مَغْفِرَةً
Allah says: “Whoever comes [to Me] with a good action will have [the reward for] ten similar actions or I will increase it and whoever comes with one evil action, his recompense will be an evil action similar to it or I will forgive him. Whoever draws near to me to the extent of a handspan, I will draw near to the extent of a dhiraa’ - a cubit [which is the length of one’s forearm], and whoever draws near to the extent of a cubit I will draw near to him to the extent of a baa’ [which is the length of one’s outspread arms] and whoever comes to me walking I will hasten toward him and whoever meets Me with mistakes that would fill the earth but does not associate any partners with me I will meet him with as much forgiveness.”
الله أكبر الله أكبر الله أكبر لا إله إلا الله الله أكبر الله أكبر ولله الحمد
Thus, we are, at every moment, interacting with the Divine – whether we know it or not. It is a dynamic that will remain until the qiyama. Allah says in Surat at-Tawba:
إِنَّ اللَّهَ اشْتَرَى مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَنْفُسَهُمْ وَأَمْوَالَهُمْ بِأَنَّ لَهُمُ الْجَنَّةَ يُقَاتِلُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ فَيَقْتُلُونَ وَيُقْتَلُونَ وَعْدًا عَلَيْهِ حَقًّا فِي التَّوْرَاةِ وَالْإِنْجِيلِ وَالْقُرْآنِ وَمَنْ أَوْفَى بِعَهْدِهِ مِنَ اللَّهِ فَاسْتَبْشِرُوا بِبَيْعِكُمُ الَّذِي بَايَعْتُمْ بِهِ وَذَلِكَ هُوَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ
Allah has bought from the muminun their selves and their wealth in return for the Garden. They fight in the Way of Allah and they kill and are killed. It is a promise binding on Him in the Torah, the Injil and the Qur’an and who is truer to his contract than Allah? Rejoice then in the bargain you have made. That is the great victory.
Of course, we, the Muslim community, are not required at present to engage in physical warfare, since, to engage in such a fight would be contrary to the shariah; the circumstances simply do not permit it, nor would it be a good idea. However, we are required to resist the kufr of our time. This has two aspects, pinpointing and striving against what is contrary to the Deen in ourselves and in our society and establishing, or taking on, what we are able to of the Deen in ourselves and in our social and domestic situations. This is the price of the garden – our selves and our wealth. It is through those believers who are willing to pay this price that the Deen will continue.
أقول قولي هذا واستغفر الله لي ولكم ولسائر المسلمين – واستغفرواه ، إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ
PART 2
الله أكبر الله أكبر الله أكبر لا إله إلا الله الله أكبر الله أكبر ولله الحمد
الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على خير المرسلين وعلى آله وصحبهِ أجمعين
عما بعد
قال الله تعلى في كتابه العزيز بعد أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَلْتَنْظُرْ نَفْسٌ مَا قَدَّمَتْ لِغَدٍ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ
You who have iman! have taqwa of Allah and let each self look to what it has sent forward for Tomorrow. Have taqwa of Allah. Allah is aware of what you do.
In order to understand this battle against kufr, it is useful to look at the story of Ibrahim in Surat al-Shu’ara. The sickness of his time was that people would worship idols. So he, alayhissalam, tested them according to tawhid:
He said, ‘Do they hear you when you call or do they benefit you or do you harm?’
They said, ‘No, but this is what we found our fathers doing.’
Although these idols could not benefit or harm them, and they were aware of this fact, they continued to worship them because this was the received culture. So, knowing that it was a false transaction did not stop them from engaging in it.
He said, ‘Have you really thought about what you worship, you and your fathers who came before? They are all my enemies…
So, this exalted prophet took these deities and their supporters as an enemy. He did not simply say “oh what a shame, these people are all mad, what can I do?” Rather, because of the harm that people’s worship of them was doing, he opposed them all…
except for the Lord of all the worlds:
So, he tells them of the One he worships – the Lord of the Worlds. It is interesting that he refers to him such, rather than using the name Allah. Lord of the All the Worlds indicates that the One he worships and loves manages the whole cosmos, from the smallest particles to the largest heavenly bodies and beyond. He continues to teach them tawhid:
ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَنِى فَهُوَ يَهْدِينِ
وَٱلَّذِى هُوَ يُطْعِمُنِى وَيَسْقِينِ
وَإِذَا مَرِضْتُ فَهُوَ يَشْفِينِ
وَٱلَّذِى يُمِيتُنِى ثُمَّ يُحْيِينِ
وَٱلَّذِىٓ أَطْمَعُ أَن يَغْفِرَ لِى خَطِيٓـَٔتِى يَوْمَ ٱلدِّينِ
He who created me and guides me;
He who gives me food and gives me drink;
and when I am ill, it is He who heals me;
He who will cause my death, then give me life;
He who I sincerely hope will forgive my mistakes on the Day of Reckoning.
All benefit and all harm in reality come from Allah. Although secondary causes may seem to have reality, in truth all is from Him. While it is true that we may earn money to buy our groceries, the food was written for us before we were even created. While we may take a remedy when we are ill, it is Allah who – in reality – is the healer. While it may be true that someone’s death comes at the hands of a virus or even another human being, it is Allah who causes death. While it may seem that death is the end, Allah will raise us again for our accounting and it is He alone who can forgive us or punish us.
الله أكبر الله أكبر الله أكبر لا إله إلا الله الله أكبر الله أكبر ولله الحمد
Then, in his knowledge of Allah and absolute certainty that only He, subhanahu wa ta’ala can bring benefit or harm, he addresses Allah, saying:
رَبِّ هَبْ لِى حُكْمًا وَأَلْحِقْنِى بِٱلصَّٰلِحِينَ
وَٱجْعَل لِّى لِسَانَ صِدْقٍ فِى الْآخِرِينَ
وَٱجْعَلْنِى مِن وَرَثَةِ جَنَّةِ ٱلنَّعِيمِ
وَٱغْفِرْ لِأَبِىٓ إِنَّهُۥ كَانَ مِنَ ٱلضَّآلِّينَ
وَلَا تُخْزِنِى يَوْمَ يُبْعَثُونَ
يَوْمَ لَا يَنفَعُ مَالٌ وَلَا بَنُونَ
إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى ٱللَّهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ
My Lord, give me right judgement and unite me with the righteous; and make me highly esteemed among the later peoples; and make me one of the inheritors of the Garden of Delight; and forgive my father – he was one of the misguided;
Because his father had been involved in this deceit.
and do not disgrace me on the Day they are raised up, the Day when neither wealth nor sons will be of any use – except to those who come to Allah with sound and flawless hearts.’
What is this qalb salim – sound heart? A sound heart is the opposite of a sick heart. It is a heart free from the defects of kufr and nifaq – disbelief and hypocrisy. It is a heart that gives power only to Allah and seems all harm and benefit as coming from the One Source.
الله أكبر الله أكبر الله أكبر لا إله إلا الله الله أكبر الله أكبر ولله الحمد
This knowledge, by which I do not mean simply understanding this matter intellectually, but a knowledge which illuminated the very being of Sayyiduna Ibrahim alayhi's-salam – this knowledge caused him to spend his whole life in Allah’s service and to stand up to the oppression and tyranny of his time. When he did that, he was opposed and even thrown into a firepit. As he was being thrown he said “hasbiy Allahu wa ni’ama’l-wakeel” and the fire was made cool and peaceful for him. This was a clear demonstration that the fire does not have the power to burn – in reality – but that Allah creates the fire, the heat and the burning.
If you want to know what enemy the Muslims are facing, one must reflect on what it is in society that people give power to and to which people have become enslaved. And we don’t have to look “out there” but look within ourselves to discover this, because we cannot be separated from our environment. The Messenger sall Allahu alayhi wa sallam said:
مَنْ رَأَى مِنْكُمْ مُنْكَرًا فَلْيُغَيِّرْهُ بِيَدِهِ، فَإِنْ لَمْ يَسْتَطِعْ فَبِلِسَانِهِ، فَإِنْ لَمْ يَسْتَطِعْ فَبِقَلْبِهِ، وَذَلِكَ أَضْعَفُ الْإِيمَانِ
Whoever of you sees something objectionable, he should change it with his hand. If he is unable to do so then he should change it with his tongue. If he is unable to do so, he should change it with his heart and that is the weakest of faith.
Despite calling it the weakest of faith, one should not underestimate the power of changing something in one’s heart. To consciously reject something that is wrong is in fact a very powerful thing and, it must be remembered, all change begins in the heart as it is the seat of intention.
الله أكبر الله أكبر الله أكبر لا إله إلا الله الله أكبر الله أكبر ولله الحمد
As you all know, today is a very special day. It is Eid al-ADHaa, the Eid of Sacrifice. It is the day that Sayyiduna Ibrahim, Khalil-ullah, the Close Friend of Allah, was ordered by his Lord in a dream to sacrifice his son. When he showed his willingness to do this, Allah ordered him to sacrifice a large ram in place of his son. This act of sacrifice was so great that Allah made celebrating it part of His Deen.
Therefore, we celebrate and remember this great event in a number of ways. Firstly, by attending the Eid prayer. Secondly, by making arrangements for a sacrifice if one has the means to do so – which should be a healthy sheep or goat (both of which should be at least a year old), or a cow (which should be at least three years old), or a camel (which should be at least five years old). We do this as soon as possible after the Eid prayer and it is forbidden to sell or exchange the meat. You can use it to feed your family and friends, you can set some aside, and you can give some to the poor. It is good to do all of these. During the three days of the Eid, we also recite takbirs after each of the next fifteen obligatory prayers, the last of which is subh on Sunday. This can be done using the wording I have used throughout this khutba:
الله أكبر الله أكبر الله أكبر لا إله إلا الله الله أكبر الله أكبر ولله الحمد
We ask Allah to purify us so that our hearts become sound. We ask Allah for forgiveness for unwittingly attributing power to other than Him and we seek His protection from doing so knowingly. We ask that we are given a clear understanding of the Deen. We ask Allah for a pure tawhid.
رَبَّنَآ ءَاتِنَا فِى ٱلدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِى ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ ٱلنَّارِ
رَبَّنَا لَا تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا وَهَبْ لَنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ رَحْمَةً ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلْوَهَّاب
اللهم أرنا الحق حقا وارزقنا إتباعه وأرنا الباطل باطلا وارزقنا إجتنابه
إنَّ اللهَ ومَلائِكَتَهُ يُصلُّونَ على النَّبِي يَا أَيُها الذينَ آمنوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وسَلِّمُواتَسْليماً. اللهمَّ صَلِّ وسَلِّم وبارِك على سيدنا محمد وعلى آلِهِ وصَحْبِهِأجمعين.
وارضَ اللهم عن الخلفاء الراشدين أبي بكرٍ وعمرَ وعثمانَ وعلي ، وعنسائر الصحابة أجمعين، خصوصا الأنصارَ منهم والمهاجرين، وعنالتابعين وتابعي التابعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.
إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ یَامُرُ بِٱلۡعَدۡلِ وَٱلۡإِحۡسَـٰنِ وَإِیتَاۤىِٕ ذِی ٱلۡقُرۡبَىٰ وَیَنۡهَىٰ عَنِ ٱلۡفَحۡشَاۤءِ وَٱلۡمُنكَرِ وَٱلۡبَغۡیِۚ یَعِظُكُمۡ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَذَكَّرُونَ
اذكروا الله يذكركم ولذكر الله اكبر والله يعلم ما تصنعون
Eid Mubarak to all!
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