Visiting Muhammad ﷺ | Jumu'ah Khutbah | Imam Imran Salha

Visiting Muhammad ﷺ

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to always visit the houses of Allah, including this house, in a way that pleases Allah. Because there are visitors that internalize the message of Allah — that Allah wants to be internalized. And there are those that visit many times, but they don't absorb what Allah azzawajal wants to be absorbed. And being able to visit Rasulullah ﷺ is an honor. May we all be honored with that. Say ameen.

Your Relationship with the Prophet ﷺ Transcends Time and Place

But the reality is that Allah azzawajal in the Qur'an reminds us that your relationship with Rasulullah ﷺ is not confined by the dimensions of time and place. Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Qur'an:

O you who believe — and Allah is speaking directly to you, and you must internalize this message in the endearing way that it was meant to be heard — يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا — answer the call of Allah and His Messenger when they call you to that which will give you life.

Answer the call of Allah and His Messenger. These words must be understood with the following question: When is Allah calling upon you? When is Rasulullah ﷺ calling upon you? When? And the answer rests in the way Rasulullah spoke to his sahaba, رضي الله تعالى عنهم أجمعين.

He said to the companions — imagine this beautiful word to hear from our beloved master, Muhammad ibn Abdullah ﷺ — where he said:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 8; Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 40; Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 313)

Allahu Akbar — "I am to you like your father; I teach you."

If your father taught you and your father died — may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala have mercy on all of the fathers who passed away from the ummah of لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّه, and all of the mothers who passed away from the ummah of لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّه — say ameen — if they taught you and then after teaching you they passed away, would their words not ring in your heart and in your ears? Would their teachings not be etched into your heart for the rest of your life? Would you not be affected by the way they walked and the way they talked and the way they spoke and the way they ate?

That is why the sahaba loved Rasulullah ﷺ — because he was a father to them. And there is not a single fatherless believer that exists, because we have a father in Muhammad ibn Abdullah ﷺ.

And that is why this ayah does not stop having a meaning after the death of Rasulullah ﷺ. Because even after he dies, his teachings are immortalized in my mind. And I look to him for guidance. And I look to him during times of confusion. And this is the reliance of the believer on Muhammad ibn Abdullah ﷺ.

Allah swears by Rasulullah ﷺ that these people will never achieve faith until they find you as the source of clarity during times of confusion. That's my relationship with Rasulullah ﷺ.

Visiting the Prophet ﷺ Through Salawat

My brothers and sisters in Islam, the one who visits Muhammad ﷺ frequently in their day — say اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّد — that is how you visit him in your mind.

Why do you think that western civilization has spent millions if not billions of dollars on music and songs and mantras and models and advertisements that are easily memorized? Because you become what you memorize. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants you to memorize اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّد. He wants you to memorize Qur'an. He wants you to memorize the words of the beloved Muhammad ibn Abdullah ﷺ — so that that becomes the reservoir of clarity that you dive into whenever you are confused. And that is the beauty of visiting Rasulullah ﷺ.

And this is actually the practical dimension from the Prophet ﷺ advising some of the companions to make their entire du'a اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّد. Because in your time of need, when the only thing that you say is "O Allah, send your peace and salutations upon Muhammad ﷺ" — psychologically you are instructing yourself to follow that guide.

I'm worried about money — اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّد — he is my guide. I'm worried about politics — he is my guide. I am worried about family. I am worried about my marriage. I'm worried about my children.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says:

Fear Allah. Be with Allah. Be with Rasulullah ﷺ. He is your safe haven.

Contentment Through the Prophet ﷺ

My brothers and sisters in Islam, the one who visits Rasulullah ﷺ in this way will notice that loving Rasulullah ﷺ makes you content with him. This is why the scholars said that if you are very busy on any given day, there are four adhkar you should make. And I will share one of them with you. No matter what, you should not wake up a single day without saying this dhikr:

"I am content with Allah as my Lord, I am content with Islam as my deen, and I am content with Muhammad as my prophet and messenger ﷺ."

Why do you want this contentment? Because when you are content with Muhammad ﷺ as your guide, you will be discontent with the chaos of the world. When you love Rasulullah ﷺ and you say "this is enough for me as a leader, I don't need anybody else beyond him" — it does not mean that loving Rasulullah ﷺ will not guide you to other specialists. Of course you will be guided to love other specialists in a variety of fields. But it stems from the tree of loving Rasulullah ﷺ.

(From the famous poem of Imam al-Busiri, al-Burdah)

All of us are drinking from the reservoir of Muhammad ﷺ.

Contentment Creates Burning Passion, Not Isolation

When you are content with him as a leader, you become discontent with the chaos of the world. Being content with Muhammad ﷺ as your leader does not mean that you isolate yourself in a bubble of worship. No — that worship creates a حُرْقَة. It creates a burning passion that makes you genuinely bothered.

SubhanAllah — all of the people who contributed magnificent contributions to the world started from this point. They were genuinely bothered with a problem, and they dedicated their life to solve that problem. Allahu Akbar. This is the story of humanity. You open a business and you sell a service; somebody realizes that the way you are selling that service is not optimized, so he optimizes the process, solves the problem, and makes the service better. Allahu Akbar.

The believer is genuinely bothered naturally. Which is why you notice that in many of the conversations with the Sahaba, they did not wait for instructions from Rasulullah ﷺ. They went to him and asked:

"What are the most beloved actions to Allah? What are the best actions to Allah?" Because they were not content with the way the world was functioning around them, and they wanted to be prepared to be the stewards of the earth. And that is the role of the believer.

The Human Being Is a Problem Solver

And that is the true تَفْسِير of the ayah where Allah azzawajal says — announcing the creation of our father Adam, alayhi al-salam:

Allahu Akbar. The ulema say Allah used الْمُضَارِع — the present tense — إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ — which means: I am continuing to create a khalifa on the earth. A representative of Allah azzawajal's law and the morality that He wants to command and flourish in humanity. SubhanAllah.

There will always be people representing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and His Messenger ﷺ. It's an ongoing project. And that ongoing project begins with being genuinely bothered. Not waiting.

None of us in this room need anybody to tell us what to do in order to contribute to the society around us. SubhanAllah — I'm looking in this room right now and I am sure that there is a high immigrant population here, and we did not need anybody to teach us how to create financial sustainability for ourselves when it comes to the dollar sign. SubhanAllah — initiative immediately exists. You don't need anybody to instruct you, to teach you how to pay the bills. That naturally exists.

That same ambition should exist for aiding Allah and His Messenger ﷺ — in promoting the word of truth, and in rectifying society, and in allowing them to come back to الصَّوَاب.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ، فَيَفُوزُ الْمُسْتَغْفِرُون

Second Part of the Khutbah

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ وَبَعْد

My beloved brothers and sisters in Islam — when Allah announced that Adam would be created, the way that the angels responded would make you think that the human beings that were created are problem makers. What did Allah say?

"Are you really going to create people who will just kill each other? And we worship you better than them?" What did Allah say? "I know what you do not know."

To teach us that the human being is not a problem maker — the human being is naturally a problem solver. And that's why when Rasulullah ﷺ wanted to teach us what Iman is, he said Iman has 70-some branches, and he highlighted the most important branch — which was what?

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 35; Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 9)

Removing harm from the path. SubhanAllah. The human being is not a problem maker, is not a trouble maker — the human being is a problem solver.

However, my brothers and sisters in Islam, we cannot become problem solvers by relying only on secular education. We become problem solvers when we know who Rasulullah ﷺ was — and is — and how he would have liked to engage with the society around us.

But the true deficiency today is in the deficiency of not knowing who he was. The more you know Rasulullah ﷺ, the more clarity there will be in these confusing times.

Supporting the Institution of Knowledge

And I will say something very clear. My name is Imran Salha and I was born and raised in America. I am the Imam of the Islamic Center of Detroit. I've been leading Tarawih since I was 16 years old. I memorized the Qur'an in America. I studied Shafi'i Fiqh in America. I went to Islamic school in America. I've been working as an Imam for the past 15 years in America.

And this is nothing foreign to you. You have people in this community, mashAllah, that are Huffadh and Ulama and teachers that were born and raised in this country and are leading the way. But this is the institution that must continue to be supported — the institution of ilm, and the institution of knowledge.

My brothers and sisters in Islam, how lost we would be if these institutions that taught our youth who is Allah and who is His Messenger ﷺ — if they would not be supported, we would be lost.

And Imam al-Shafi'i, alayhi rahmatullah, would say:

"If I had to worry about purchasing onions, then I would never be able to solve a single fiqhi question."

The financial establishment and power of the Muslims in America must be invested to sustain educational initiatives here.

And I would like to end with one thing. Alhamdulillah, I am the full-time Imam of the Islamic Center of Detroit. I work in construction management. I own a company, a management firm that has expanded Yemeni coffee shops to its 20th location. I'm not here to flex muscles in front of you — I'm telling you here that I do not have to be here. I want to be here. Allah blessed me with two children. I left this morning and I'm headed back to the airport right now. But I'm here because I believe that the missions that need to be supported with this strong message are messages like this.

You must support the financial sustainability of Islamic educational institutions. And the Islamic Services Foundation, alhamdulillah rabb al-'alamin, is creating a Waqf fund — an endowment fund — so that these educational institutions no longer have to rely on donations only, but can create sustainability for themselves. And make sure that these teachings, that were inspired by Rasulullah ﷺ, continue to inspire our children and the generations to come.

Du'a

إِنِّي دَاعٍ فَأَمِّنُوا

وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاة