Jumuah Khutbah | Dr. Abdul Razzak Junaid

Opening Announcements

And also a few programs tonight for the youth, specifically for young children 7 to 10 years old. After Isha they have a Dhul Hijjah story time and then the older youth are going to have some basketball games after Salatul Asr, inshallah. As you know our Amir, Ustad, Sheikh Yasir and quite a few of our community members have gone for Hajj. So we ask Allah that Allah accept their Hajj and Allah return them with Hajj Mabroor, inshallah. And one last thing, you know today we're in the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah, today being the only Friday. So inshallah let's all take advantage of this and you know assist the masjid, the masjid runs on your donation. Whatever you can do inshallah, there's many ways, there's kiosk, money boxes, inshallah it will help. Jazakallah Khair, Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah.

Hajj is the Dress Rehearsal of Yawm Al-Qiyamah

So Surah Al-Hajj, it begins by talking about Yawm Al-Qiyamah. One of the scariest descriptions of Yawm Al-Qiyamah is actually in the introduction of Surah Al-Hajj. Just imagine that:

Allah says that the quaking of that day, that terrifying, violent quaking of As-Sa'ah right before Yawm Al-Qiyamah, As-Sa'ah will be something that is absolutely tremendous. So scary, شَيْءٌ عَظِيمٌ.

And the Arabic language is very unique. Words where the pattern is repeated زَلْزَلَةَ. The pattern is repeated because even the meaning is repeated. When Allah shows us earthquakes now, it is to remind us, it is to wake us up that there will come a day when there will be an earthquake so big that all of the world and everything within it will expire. That is the final quaking إِنَّ زَلْزَلَةَ السَّاعَةِ شَيْءٌ عَظِيمٌ.

That day you will see it, you will witness that زَلْزَلَة. You will witness that final earthquake. And Allah describes it so scary:

The Terror of That Day

We all know how much our mothers love us. We all have seen how much our wives love our children. We have seen this, that bond between a mother and child when she holds her child so close. Could you ever imagine a mother abandoning her child? Let alone an infant, let alone whilst she is nursing.

You know the Arabic language - to describe female adjectives they add a تَ مَرْبُطَة. مُسْلِمٌ, مُسْلِمَةٌ. That's a female, female مُسْلِمَة. But for adjectives that are specifically for females, there is no need to add a تَ مَرْبُطَة. For example حامل - you don't need to say a woman that is pregnant that she is حاملة. For a woman that is going through her monthly cycle, you don't say حائضة, حائضة is enough.

So why does Allah say مُرْضِعَة instead of saying مُرْضِع? A woman who nurses her child is مُرْضِع, but at the time she is nursing, at the very moment where her child is in her arms, that's مُرْضِعَة. She would abandon a child that she gave birth to and that she is nursing because of the panic of that day.

تَذْهَلُ is to forget something that you would never forget unless it was due to a state of panic.

And a woman that is pregnant would drop her burden, her load. Even the usage of language - that emotional connection between mother and child will be gone because of the panic of that day.

And you will see people and you will think them to be intoxicated. You'll think them to be drunk. They will not be intoxicated, they will not be drunk. They will be in panic mode. Why? Because the punishment of Allah is very severe.

The Message of Surah Al-Hajj

Surah Al-Hajj is a reminder for all of us to repent and turn back to Allah. Surah Al-Hajj is a reminder for all of us to be people who submit to Allah, who sacrifice for His sake and worship Him and Him alone, as was the message of our father Ibrahim and all of the prophets.

That's the intro of Surah Al-Hajj. Surah Al-Hajj was revealed towards the end of the Meccan period and the beginning of the Madani period. Surah Al-Hajj is the only surah in the Qur'an that has two ayat of sajda.

The Prophet was asked by one of the companions: Is Surah Al-Hajj preferred and there is given extra status because of these two ayat of sajda? And the Prophet affirmed this. He said, yes, Surah Al-Hajj is that special because it is the only surah in the Qur'an where you see two sajdas, and it is the final sajda that was revealed, the ayat of sajda ever revealed in the Qur'an.

The First Ayah of Sajda

At the end, in the first verse of sajda, Allah says:

Do you not see that for Allah prostrates for Him and humbles before Him and submits to Him all that is in the heavens, all that is in the earth, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the mountains, and the trees, and all animals. But who is that rebellious person? Not all people, but many people.

But there will be many people who are deserving of their punishment because the rest of creation submitted and they followed their role that Allah gave them. You and I as human beings were given intellect, we were given free choice. And may Allah make us مِنَ المُسْلِمِين and not from those who rebel against God.

And whoever Allah humiliates, no one can honor him. إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَفْعَلُ مَا يَشَاءُ. When you look at all of these Islamophobes and all of these people that are spreading racism and all of this, they're humiliated. Their own people don't respect them. Bill Maher really recently, he was disrespected in front of all of his peers. These people, you think they're honored before Allah? They will not be honored in Al-Akhirah, nor will they be honored in the Dunya. Allah will do as He wills. No one can come between Him when He wills something.

That is the first ayah of sajdah that Allah says.

The Second Ayah of Sajda

The second one is really at the end of the surah, Ayah number 77. In the beginning Allah addresses all of mankind يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ - O people! At the end of the surah Allah addresses the believers يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا. The surah is half a juz', it's half of a juz', it's very long. But the end verse where Allah addresses, it's يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا.

Meaning the people that will benefit truly from this surah and its messages are the believers. May Allah make us from them. And it's also upon us that whenever we see يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا in the Qur'an - O believers! - that we try to apply what is mentioned by Allah.

Do ruku', do sujud, pray to Allah. These days of hajj, try your best to improve your relationship with salah. And worship your Lord and all ibadat. And do all good - join family ties, have suhbah with righteous Muslims - so that perhaps you may be successful.

Striving for Allah

And this last ayah is so powerful:

And strive in the path of Allah as He truly deserves. In these ten days of Dhul Hijjah, with the day of Arafah coming close, and especially us as Muslims in this climate, in this circumstance, we have to strive for our religion. We have to go and give da'wah. We have to go and show the beauty of Islam.

Allah Has Chosen You

Why?

Because He chose you and I. He chose you. You know in the Arabic language there's many ways to say "to choose someone" - اصطفاء, اختيار, اجتباء. Many ways to indicate choosing someone, selecting, choosing. In English these synonyms mean not much, but in the Qur'an it's for a reason.

Allah whenever He talks about the Prophets and even other than Prophets like scholars or even Maryam, He uses اصطفاء. إِنَّ اللَّهَ اصْطَفَاكِ when Allah talks about Maryam. إِنَّ اللَّهَ اصْطَفَى آدَمَ وَنُوحًا - all of the Prophets اصطفاء.

Why? What is اصطفاء? صاد فاء وواء in the Arabic language means the purity of something. When you say ماء صافي - clean, pure water, fresh to drink ماء صافي. صافاء الجو - the weather is very clear, there's no... it's not raining. Or you say صافاء الذهن when your mind is clear, there's no brain fog. All of these things to show purity. So when Allah says اصطفاء for the Prophets, they are chosen because they are the purest people.

اختيار is also used in the Qur'an when Allah speaks to Musa: وَأَنَا اخْتَرْتُكَ فَاسْتَمِعْ لِمَا يُوحَى - "And I have chosen you." اختيار shares the same roots as خَيْر, meaning that Musa was chosen just as all of the Prophets were chosen because they are خَيْرُ النَّاسِ - they are the best of people. Allah knows all of us, and so he chose the best of us to be the Prophets, the chosen Prophets. May Allah be pleased with all of them.

But for us Allah didn't use اختيار. He used اجتباء. This is important. Allah is telling you and I هو اجتباكم - He chose you.

The Meaning of Ijtiba

But what does اجتباء mean? It's used elsewhere in the Qur'an. When Adam sinned, when Adam made a mistake:

When Adam ate from the tree and then he repented to Allah and Allah accepted his repentance, He forgave him and he guided. Allah in that context He said ثُمَّ اجْتَبَاهُ.

When Yunus left his people: وَلَا تَكُن كَصَاحِبِ الْحُوتِ - "Don't be like صاحب الحوت, don't be like Yunus" إِذْ نَادَىٰ وَهُوَ مَكْظُومٌ until فَاجْتَبَاهُ رَبُّهُ - Allah did اجتباء of him.

What does اجتباء mean? جَبْيُ الْمَال means to gather wealth. اجتِباء means to prepare something إِعْدَادَ الشَّيْءِ وَتَهْيِئَتُهُ.

Meaning Allah when he says he chooses you and I هُوَ اجْتَبَاكُمْ, He sees something in us. He sees a light in us that sometimes we won't even see in ourselves. He sees potential in us that you and I sometimes will not even see in ourselves. هُوَ اجْتَبَاكُمْ.

Allah Loves You

Remember Allah chose you. You think you would be here in the best Friday of the year except Allah loved you? You think you would be a Muslim and say لا إله إلا الله except because Allah loves you?

Shaykh Ali ibn al-Muwaffaq, one of the great scholars, is reported in his biography that in one instance when he was doing tawaf around the Kaaba and he was doing tawaf and he came to Hijr Ismail and he began to tear up before Allah and he started to cry and said "Ya Allah, you've invited me here so many times but I have not increased in any goodness. I have not increased. You've invited me here over and over again. I've come to the masjid over and over again. I've prayed over and over again, but I don't increase in goodness."

And he heard a caller call out when he was in a tired state - this is mentioned in his biography - a caller call out that "Oh Ali, Ya Ali, do you think that we would invite someone to our house that we didn't love? You think you are sitting here because Allah doesn't love you? Allah loves you. Allah has chosen you."

No Hardship in Religion

And Allah has placed no extreme difficulty in our religion. If you sin, you do tawbah. You make a mistake, you get back up.

This is the legacy of your father Ibrahim. How was he our father? Muhammad comes from the lineage of Ibrahim. We follow the spirit of Ibrahim. We send salawat upon him in every single salah. We are the true followers of Ibrahim.