2014-10-24 - Friday Prayer - Brother Hadi Khan

Khutbah Opening

Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, we ask His help, we ask His forgiveness, we believe in Him, and we put our trust in Him. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whom He misguides, none can guide him.

And we bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And we bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

Allah Almighty said in His Noble Book:

O ye who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared, and die not except as Muslims.

O ye who believe! Fear your Lord, Who created you from a single soul, and created from it a wife, and cast out from them many men and women. And fear Allah, about whom you ask, and the wombs. Verily, Allah is ever watching over you.

O ye who believe! Fear Allah, and say the right word, that He may amend for you your deeds, and forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger, he has attained a great reward. Allah Almighty has spoken the truth.

Introduction: The Journey of Building a Masjid

Dear brothers and sisters, my name is Abdul Hadi Khan, and I am here on behalf of the Islamic Center of Frisco. We have a very, very important event tomorrow — a fundraiser — for which I am here to encourage you, to urge you to participate and support the community in this noble endeavor. I am very grateful to the Shura of Plano Masjid, who has given me this opportunity to come and talk to you.

Insha'Allah, I would like to share some of my personal thoughts over the years that I have been living in this community, and I have been associated with Plano Masjid, and now with Frisco Masjid. We have gone through a very, very interesting, sometimes arduous journey to reach our goals. And it shows that if you have the commitment, and you are sincere, then despite all the hardships and difficulties, you will achieve your goal.

I am reminded of the time in 1991, when we first came to Plano, when we first realized that we should have some kind of a Masjid, Musalla, or something in Plano. Because it had become very difficult for us to commute to Richardson multiple times a day. So therefore, some of us started praying at each other's homes, once a week, rotationally.

And then we decided during those meetings that we will try to open a Musalla, and that was the genesis of this whole idea of having a Masjid in Plano. And Alhamdulillah, as the history shows, there were difficulties, there were challenges, but some of the folks that were dedicated to this task hung in there, faced all the challenges, and Allah gave us the result that we were looking for.

A Blessing in Disguise

One important lesson that I learned during this time, that I would like to share with you today, is that sometimes things happen for a good reason. You may not like the result at that time, and you may even feel that Allah has failed you, or that Allah has not responded to your call or your du'a. But you realize later on, when you look back, that that was a blessing in disguise. Had that du'a been accepted, then what we would have had at that time would have been much less valuable than what we have now.

I remember one time during mid-'95, '96 thereabouts, there was an opportunity that was given to us to buy a church here on Custer, about a couple of miles down the road. There was a church that was being sold, and we were offered to buy that church and convert it into a Masjid. We went there — it was very large land, nice building, needed a lot of renovation — but yet there was plenty of opportunity there to convert it into a halfway decent Masjid.

So we were very excited. I remember that we all gathered at our Masjid, and then we all drove there as a community to look at it. We were very excited, and we decided then and there that we will do our level best, come up with the money, and buy this church. But lo and behold, that deal did not go through.

We were very, very disappointed. And when you have a failure like this, it is human nature to start blaming each other — that you did not do your job, and he failed us, or this happened, that happened. We went through that phase too.

Personally, I was also very disappointed. But now when I look back, I realize that had that church been bought, we would not have this beautiful building. Sometimes it strikes me so much — that was Allah loving us so much, liking our effort so much, that He wanted to give us something much, much better. And Allah said, no, you deserve a lot better than this.

That's a big, huge lesson I learnt in life — that sometimes things happen that disappoint you, that make you sad, that make you frustrated. But there is a blessing in disguise. Allah knows; we don't. So this is very, very important to learn.

Seizing the Opportunities of This Life

What I wanted to talk about in my khutbah today is: how can we seize the opportunities that come our way in our lifetime? We are all presented with various opportunities in our lifetime, but alas, we miss them because we are so wrapped up in living our own lives that we cannot make good use of those opportunities. We miss them, and then we regret later on. So that is my khutbah today.

There is a very, very famous hadith. The Prophet ﷺ said:

"Take advantage of five before five: your youth before your old age, your health before your illness, your wealth before your poverty, your free time before you become busy, and your life before your death."
(Shu'ab al-Iman of al-Bayhaqi; also reported by al-Hakim in al-Mustadrak, and others)

The Prophet ﷺ said there are five things you should do before the other five take over or happen. What are those five things?

1. Youth Before Old Age

Make good use of your young age, your energy and all that, because when you become old you lose your drive. At this stage of my life, when I look back to the early 90s, the things that I had done and was willing to do — it boggles my mind. How could I ever do that? Because right now I have mellowed, and I just don't have that kind of drive anymore, that motivation anymore. I look to my colleagues and other people to take on the arduous legwork.

So when you are a young man, when you are ready to do anything and everything that comes your way, make use of that excitement, that drive, that energy. Otherwise, once you reach a certain plateau in your life, you will not be able to utilize that energy. So youth is very important.

2. Health Before Illness

Being young these days does not mean that you will be healthy always. Lots of young people get ill — and may Allah save us from all tragedies — get seriously ill. You don't know what happens; tomorrow you go for a medical checkup and what you find. So make sure that while you have your health, you are making good use of it for earning the hasanat, for earning the goodness that good health brings with it.

Because Allah will also question you about all these ni'am — all these bounties that He has given us, including our health. So make good use of your health; while you are healthy, use yourself in doing some good work.

3. Free Time Before Being Busy

Free time before becoming busy — another very important thing. A lot of people say, "Oh, I'm so busy." They would like to do lots of things, but they just don't have the time to do it. Especially people with very young children — they have so many challenges. Their children are growing up, they are worried about them, trying to raise them as good children. They have their profession; they are trying to move up the corporate ladder, trying to make themselves better. There are so many things that they are doing that only benefits them and their family, that's it.

So don't allow that phase of life to come to you without having used your free time well. If you are in a phase where you have some free time, make good use of it. Especially young people who are not married yet, who are just starting in their life — they have lots of time that they can devote to good things, to help the community, and all the nice things that come with it.

4. Wealth Before Poverty

These are the vagaries of life. You never know what happens — maybe tomorrow, God forbid — if you lose your job, hard times will befall you. You will not have that kind of luxury, that free hand to spend money in the path of Allah.

It also reminds me of an incident back in the mid-90s, when we were trying to build this Masjid. There was a brother who used to come and pray very regularly in the Masjid. And he told me one time — when I used to stand up and ask for money to build the Masjid and do all these things — he was very sympathetic with me because he knew that the Shura was trying so hard. And he confided in me; he said, "Brother, if you had approached me a couple of years back, I would have given you all the money you need to build this Masjid — that's how rich I was. But at that time, I was not that inclined towards religion. I was just inclined towards making a lot of money, and I did make a lot of money. But now I am sorry — I am just struggling to make ends meet. All that money I have spent."

He said — and this is the sentence that will never leave me — "I wish you had approached me a few years back when I had all the money. I would have given you, and I would have earned some hasanat, some goodness and Allah's pleasure by using my wealth." He was very, very remorseful. He was very sorry that he squandered all that wealth and didn't really make any inroads into his akhira.

So the point being: if you are in a situation where you have some discretionary income — some income that is over and above what you need — try to spend that money in a way that when you look back after a few years, you will feel good. You will say, "Yes, it wasn't enough, but at least I tried." And you can at least face Allah and have a good answer when you are asked what you did with your wealth.

5. Life Before Death

And then finally the Prophet ﷺ said: life before death — that is the ultimate reality that we all have to face. Please do not let yourself get to a point where you are lying on your deathbed, looking back, and you see nothing but a wasted life. No goodness came out of it, no help to others, no community service, nothing that would really make you feel good.

And now the time is over. You can't do anything at that point except to ask Allah for forgiveness. So when you reach that point in life, make sure that you have something that you can look back on and feel good about yourself. That would be the time that feeling good would be extremely beneficial, extremely useful to you — because you are dying, you are going to meet your Maker.

Conclusion: Our Choice

Brothers and sisters, these are the opportunities that each of these five phases brings. We human beings are subjected to each of these phases, and it is up to us whether we make good use of them or we just squander them — whether we allow our wealth, our goodness, all the bounties we have to serve our own nafs and not worry about others. That is your choice.

I make du'a to Allah that He will first of all encourage me and give me the tawfiq to practice on these things. Then I make du'a to Allah that He will allow you to understand my words and get some motivation out of them. And if you have been on the wrong path — if you have been wasting your life — that you will make the necessary adjustments and make full use of your time, your wealth, your health, and your youth.

Appeal for the Frisco Masjid Fundraiser

Finally, brothers and sisters, I appeal to you to participate in our fundraiser tomorrow with whatever you can. Please do so, so that we could have our own Masjid. Our Masjid in Frisco will not only help or cater to the needs of the Muslims in Frisco, but it will also lessen the burden on Plano Masjid. Plano Masjid right now is overburdened with all the pressures of serving the community. Frisco can step in as another resource for the community and do all the nice things that Plano Masjid and the Plano Shura are doing, so that we can all work together as a team.

Don't forget that it's not Plano or Frisco. If you look at the geography and demographics of the two communities, they are so intertwined. Sometimes you are living in Plano, but your kids are going to school in the Frisco school district, and vice versa. This is not a separate community — it's just two cities, that's all. Otherwise, all the Muslims living in Plano, Frisco, Allen, and all these areas, they are all one community. And we need to look after each other — just as we made the resources available to build this Masjid, we should do the same to build the Masjid in Frisco and Allen as well.

I say this and ask forgiveness from Allah, the Lord of the worlds.