20160701- 1st Khutba-Imam Mokhtar Maghroui

Khutbah Opening

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَسْتَهْدِيهِ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ سَيِّدَنَا وَمَوْلَانَا مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَمَّا بَعْدُ أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْكَلَامِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ وَخَيْرَ الْهُدَى هُدَى سَيِّدِنَا وَمَوْلَانَا مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ

O you who have attained faith — as Allah says in the meaning of the text — be Allah-conscious, be reverent of Allah in a way that is worthy of who He is, worthy of His beauty and majesty, worthy of the perfection in His beauty and majesty, worthy of the favours and bounties He gives and bestows upon us internally and externally, incessantly. Worthy, most importantly, of who He is. And make sure we do not die except in a state of Islam, in a state of loving, internal, loving surrender to Allah.

The Final Days of Ramadan

This is the last part of this most blessed month of Ramadan. I pray and I hope that up to this point all of us have awakened in a way that is better than before Ramadan. That at this point, I hope that as we fasted from food and drink and other physical, material, worldly pleasures, we have learned the spirit of fasting — to fast with our senses and limbs, not to use them in that which Allah does not love. I hope that we have learned to fast with our minds, that we do not entertain thoughts and plans that do not please Allah. I hope that we have learned to fast with our hearts, that we do not hold inside of us characteristics, sifat, attributes that are not pleasing to Allah. That we have learned to fast with the deepest recesses of our hearts and therefore souls, and that we do not hold inside of us other than Allah. That we have fasted from the attachments we have for other than Allah, or at the expense of Allah.

I pray that we would achieve that. And these are the last few moments, the last few days of this most blessed presence — a gift from Allah, a companion, a sahib — Ramadan. And he is ready to leave. I hope that we are feeling already how much we miss him. I hope that we are feeling truly the values that he was sent — this person, the spirit of Ramadan — was sent to give us by Allah. I hope that we will hold fast to those values, despite us, despite the urges inside of us to do otherwise. I hope we will commit ourselves to those values.

Al-Qana'a: Contentment with Generosity

Of those values is al-qana'a — contentment, along with generosity and benevolence. Contentment along with generosity and benevolence.

Allah has created everything in due measure. There is not an atom or a quark in this universe that is in excess or less. There is not a person or a leaf that is in excess or less in this universe. There is not a disease that is in excess or less in this universe, in this world. There is not a virtue that is in excess or less in this universe.

As Allah says: verily, We have created everything in due measures. In due measures. Even our feelings are in due measures, and yet we think otherwise often times.

And so, as He created everything in due measure — I will never have something, no matter what that thing is, in excess of what Allah has willed and what Allah has created. I will never have less — never — in anything: in my feelings, in my emotions, in my possessions, less or more than He has willed and created in His wisdom.

To follow the desires and the wishes and the likes — nay, and the whims — of every human being, the world will be corrupt and human beings will be even more corrupt than we are.

As Allah said: if He were to open freely for the human beings provisions and sustenance and wealth and resources in the way they wanted, then they will be tyrannical on earth. They will be more excessive than what they are. They will not be thankful. They will be even more greedy and more violent and more hurtful to themselves and to others — if He were to give them in the way they want, individually, or nations, or communities, or groups. But He يُنَزِّلُ بِقَدَرٍ — again, that qadar — مَّا يَشَاءُ — He allows to descend upon them by measure, as He wills, when He wills, in accordance to His schedule — not in accordance to my schedule and my want and my timetable. يُنَزِّلُ بِقَدَرٍ مَّا يَشَاءُ. For He is all expertly knowing and all-seeing of His servants and of His ibad, and what really is good for them and what really is bad for them. مَا يُصْلِحُهُمْ وَمَا يُفْسِدُهُمْ هُوَ خَبِيرٌ بَصِيرٌ بِذَلِكَ.

Often times we desire and want and seek and pray for that which, when we ultimately have it, leads us to disasters — individuals, or groups, or nations. And often times that which we miss and we want to have and we do not have, maybe that is a means of blessing and of peace and of happiness and of balance for us. We often times count what we do not have and we forget to be thankful for what we have. We spend our energies counting and thinking and missing and feeling anxious about what we do not have, and we spend less quality time and energy in being thankful for what we have.

A person who has and is thankful is very praiseworthy before Allah. And "to have" is not only wealth and power. To have is also health, sanity, knowledge, love, peace, security, balance, internal richness — not only wealth and power, and not only health.

Do Not Let the World Make You Heedless

Allah says also in a surah that is recited almost every Jumu'ah — Surah Al-Munafiqun, towards the last part of it: O you who have attained faith, don't let your possessions — your wealth, legitimate ones — and your offsprings and your children, because they are resources and families, don't let that make you unmindful and forgetful of your dhikr of Allah, of your remembrance, of your awareness, of your consciousness of Allah — intellectually and emotionally, and yes, through your tongue, through your dhikr of Allah. Don't let those things be reasons — reasons that we summon to justify the fact that we are not internally conscious and aware of Allah, and that we are not also, with our tongues at least, in dhikr of Allah.

Don't let that happen to you. Yes, these resources of the world are Allah's creation, and as we said, He allows that in due measures. But if I desire and want and do things in undue measures, I will lose the balance for which I was intended — which I was intended to live in this dunya. I will lose my soul at the expense of my body, and that's not worth it. It's not worth it. My body is meant to serve my soul. The needs of my body are meant to serve my soul. My soul lives; my body disintegrates, and it will.

True Freedom: Being the 'Abd of Allah Alone

One of the salihun says: of the complete way from Allah to finish bestowing His grace and favor upon you, is that He will give you what you really need and will keep away from you what will make you tyrannical. He wants me and you to be free for Him. He doesn't want me and you to be slaves to anything. And that thing which we have in our minds and hearts, to which we are strongly attached, which is not via Allah's attachments or not within Allah's attachments — is a chain of slavery. Is a chain of slavery. Anything I attach myself to independent from Allah, at the expense of Allah, not within what Allah loves — that's a means of chains of slavery in reality for me. I am not free.

So he said, the righteous teacher and scholar and wali, rahimahu Allah ta'ala: whenever you have a strong attachment to something, you become abd of that thing, because 'ubudiyyah is internal submission in reality, not only external. If external submission is but internal is not, that's not submission — that's why that's not Islam. So whenever we have a strong attachment to something, we are abd for it. And He does not love that you or I become abd to anyone besides Him.

And so — you know what happens — sometimes He takes away from us that which we have strong attachments to, to help me, to help you, be liberated from other than Him, and to be His abd, not the abd of anything else. Often times we want something and we want it so bad, and we forget this concept of freedom, and then we become even more entrenched in our slavery. May Allah liberate us. May Allah help us. May Allah guard us.

Please seek the forgiveness of Allah. What an excellent abode awaits those who sincerely seek forgiveness from Allah.

The Story of Tha'labah ibn Hatib al-Ansari

A man — as the ulama relate, of a narration referenced by most of the commentators in the Quran, in Surah At-Tawbah — a man by the name of Tha'labah ibn Hatib al-Ansari came one day to Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and said: "Ya Rasulallah, please pray for me, invoke Allah on my behalf to make me rich, to give me wealth."

First, Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam — it is said — replied: "Less that you are able to be grateful for is better for you than much which is beyond you to be thankful for, unable to be grateful to Allah for."

He said: "Ya Rasulallah." He insisted again. He said again: "Ya Tha'labah, wouldn't you wish to be like the Nabi of Allah? By the One in whose hands my soul lies, if I were to wish that mountains would walk along with me in gold and silver, they would."

Tha'labah says again: "Ya Rasulallah, I want this," and he promised: "If you pray for me and if Allah grants me wealth, I will — and I promise — I will give the due right to that favour."

So he said: "Allahumma, grant Tha'labah wealth." The days passed, the months passed, the years passed. And Tha'labah became very rich. He had so much cattle that he could not stay in Medina anymore. He had to leave to the outskirts of Medina, in the open, to tend to his flocks and grazing territory. Then it was so busy that he would come to prayer, and the rest he would not. Then they kept multiplying — the text teaches — like worms coming in, very rich quickly. And then he stopped coming to the masjid except on Jumu'ah. And then it kept multiplying, to the extent that with time he stopped coming to Jumu'ah, and he would only ask about the news of Medina through the travellers who crossed around his territory.

And Allah revealed in Surah At-Tawbah the ayah pertaining to the obligation of Zakah:

You cleanse them and you purge them by that. تُطَهِّرُهُمْ وَتُزَكِّيهِم بِهَا. Zakah is tathir — is cleansing, is purification. It's not a toll, it's not a tax. It's tathir. It's liberation from that attachment. That's the balance, the due measure that Allah wills in what He gives and He creates.

So he sent, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, his emissaries to different tribes to collect Zakah. They go, they get to Tha'labah, and the time has passed. And they told him — they showed him the message of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his command. And he said: "What is this? هَذِهِ جِزْيَةٌ، هَذِهِ أُخْتُ الْجِزْيَةِ — this is jizyah! This is a tax imposed! This is like a tax imposed." He says: "Go — come back to me, let me think — after you collect the Zakah from others."

To make this long story short: he would not give Zakah. He said: "This is tax." The heart had changed. The slavery had taken place to something else. And he did not commit to his promise. He forgot to be thankful. Time does that to us — inside. Not time itself, but that is, we do that to ourselves as time passes. The hearts harden, and the more we have of wealth, or health, or knowledge, or power, or resources, or allegiances, the more we harden — إِلَّا قَلِيلٌ.

So when they were coming back to Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, having brought the Zakah from other places, before they addressed him, he saw those whom he had sent also to Tha'labah. They told him what happened. And Allah revealed the other part of that ayah:

Allahu Akbar. The result is that Allah generated in their hearts nifaq — they became people with nifaq characteristics — on account of having broken their word with Allah, on account of not having been grateful for what He gave them. They wanted that, but they did not live gratefully.

When he heard that, he sent — he said: "No, it will not be accepted from you. Allah commanded me not to do that." Our Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam passed away — Sayyiduna Abu Bakr would not accept it from him. Sayyiduna Umar would not accept it from him. Sayyiduna Uthman would not accept it from him. And he died that way.

If Allah were to open the provisions and the resources for human beings the way they want, they will be tyrannical on earth. But He, out of His grace, allows to descend upon us by measure. And He is infinite in His wisdom, infinite in His knowledge, infinite in His merciful love and compassion.

Closing: Gratitude and Commitment

I remind myself with these words, and then you, on the occasion of this most blessed month of Ramadan, on the occasion of this most blessed day of Jumu'ah — the last Jumu'ah of this month. You can feel this is the last Jumu'ah. There will be no other Jumu'ah in Ramadan. There will be no Ramadan anymore for this year. May we make the best of it. May it be a reminder for us. May we be grateful for what we have and not count what we don't have.

May we, through that gratefulness, show it through our eyes and ears and tongues and hands and legs and givings — emotionally and physically. May we show that through sujood and ruku' and dhikr. May we show that through forgiveness and pardoning and being kind and benevolent and magnanimous and just and fair and forgiving. May we show the ni'mah of Allah upon us. May we not withhold the zakah that is due upon every cell in our body. May Allah save us and liberate us.

Today outside there is a booth, insha'Allah, for helping our masjid, for its good projects. May we all be of those who will be, insha'Allah, sadiqun with Allah — those who will not break their word and their promise to Allah.

Qumu ila salatikum yurhamkumullah.