20170120- 2nd Khutba - Imam Mokhtar Maghroui

Opening — The Khutbah of Need

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَسْتَهْدِيهِ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ 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

Says Allah azza wa jal: O you who have attained faith — believing men and women — ittaqullah, have taqwa in your hearts for Allah azza wa jal. Be mindful of Allah, be aware of Allah, be reverently conscious of Allah azza wa jal — and do that in a way that is very special, in a way worthy of who He is, worthy of His essence, worthy of His names and attributes, worthy of His bounties and favours upon us. And with that, make sure we do not die except in a state of loving surrender — in a state of Islam — loving surrender of our hearts and minds and words and deeds and actions and inactions, moves and lack thereof, all done in loving surrender to Allah.

Allahumma aj'alna minhum. And that loving surrender of our hearts and souls and minds — and consequently of words and deeds and actions and reactions or inactions — to be all constant with that loving surrender of our hearts to Allah azza wa jal. We need certain essential things first.

The Heart Is What Counts

Why must our hearts be in that condition? I only remind you and myself — as Allah says in so many places in the Quran — that what counts ultimately, as a result of our lives, is when we die, when we leave this dunya: in which condition is our heart? I lived in this dunya — in which condition? And I died — in which condition of my heart? Because the heart, the inner being, the inner self, the mind, the internal image of ourselves — that is what identifies me. And that identity I come with to Allah azza wa jal. And if that is not in the right condition, I have lost everything.

As Allah azza wa jal says:

Ultimately, Allah tells us the one who will — inshallah ta'ala — be awarded and recompensed with Jannah, Paradise, the eternal life, is the one ultimately who comes to Allah بِقَلْبٍ مُنِيبٍ — comes to Allah with a heart that is munib, completely devoted to Him azza wa jal. Not simply an external reality. Not simply words or external actions. Words and external actions sometimes, as we know, are not always consistent with what we are inside. Sometimes we are hypocritical — when we say the good things and we do the good things externally, but in our hearts we are the opposite. We do what we do for the sake of certain personal, self-aggrandizing motives, for example.

And Allah azza wa jal also says:

Again, through the tongue of Sayyidina Ibrahim alayhi salam, Allah azza wa jal tells us again that those who will be in the company of the divine in Jannah, the home of peace, are those who will come to Allah ultimately with their hearts — their hearts, our emotions, our feelings, our drives, our inner image. If we come to Allah with the قَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ — sane and sound and liberated from that which murkies and darkens and clouds and vilifies, makes it ugly — the heart.

The Best of People

(Sunan Ibn Mājah, Hadith 4216)

As he said, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam: the best of people is the one whose heart is makhmoum and whose tongue is very truthful. They asked him: "Ya Rasulallah, what is مَخْمُومُ الْقَلْبِ?" He said:

(Sunan Ibn Mājah, Hadith 4216)

He says: the heart that is clean — makhmoum, taqī, God-conscious, and naqī — clean, liberated, free from violent envy, from grudge, from hate, from vindictiveness, etc. All of our lives is about nurturing our qulūb, nurturing our souls, nurturing our minds — the quality of our minds, the quality of our souls, the quality of our hearts. And in that pursuit: when we die, in which condition were our hearts when we died?

(Related from the Prophet ﷺ — cf. Shu'ab al-Īmān of al-Bayhaqī)

As it is related that Rasulallah ﷺ said — ultimately, again, this is the equation and summary of life: every person shall die the way he lived. How did I live this life? What was I struggling about? What was I striving for? What was I during this life? That is the way I am going to die. Every person will die the way he or she lived. And then what happens? He or she will be resurrected in the way he died. And I will be resurrected the way I died. When I died — in which condition was my heart and my mind and my soul? What were my priorities and my values? What were my emotions, my drives, my likes, my dislikes, my love, my hope, my fear, my concern, my worries — where were they? For what? For whom? What was my character in my heart, in my mind, in my soul — what was it? The way I died, the way I will be resurrected, said he ﷺ.

We Are Born upon Fiṭrah

My beloved brothers and sisters, what affects my heart? Are we not created ʿalā al-fiṭrah? Are we not created in accordance with the most natural, pristine, innocent tendency and inclination? Aren't we? We are.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1385; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2658)

As Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned: every human being is born in accordance with that natural, innocent condition and tendency. But what happened? So in other words, when we come to this world, our qulūb are clean. When we are born, we are born like a heart — a clean heart.

And do remember that embryology teaches us that the human being — the first thing that the human being becomes, after the male and female cells meet and mitosis begins — the first thing that forms is the heart. The being, the human being in the embryo of his or her mother, in its beginning, the first beginning in this world, in the embryo, in the smaller universe, in the smaller world, is a beating heart. There is nothing else except a beating heart beating — nothing else. You are a heart in your original state. As though Allah is telling us: this is your essence. And this is — make sure — your end: as a heart, a pure heart.

But then what happens? My beloved brothers — two reasons. One internal and one external. A set of reasons: one set internal reasons, and the second one external reasons — as to why our hearts change, and they change negatively. And when they change negatively, and it is in that condition that some of us might die.

Internal Causes of Sin and the Darkening of the Heart

First Internal Cause: Al-Jahl — Ignorance

The first set of internal conditions — as to why our hearts change badly, why we commit sins, why we disobey Allah, why we make deliberately the wrong choices, detrimental to our minds and souls and hearts in this world and in the hereafter — number one in that first set of internal conditions: al-jahl — ignorance. Ignorance is not bliss.

When we don't know what we must know — and when we don't know what we must know, sometimes it is because we choose not to know. We choose to remain in the condition in which we are satisfied with what we are, and not pursue a condition that is better than the condition in which we currently find ourselves. And that is why ignorance is not bliss. When we don't know — sometimes we don't know because we didn't also have the chance to know. And sometimes we don't know because we had the chance to know but we chose, for some other reasons, to remain in that condition.

And when we don't know — and of the most important things we don't know, that would lead us to commit sins and therefore to tarnish our hearts and our future and our abode — we don't know who Allah is. We don't know the beauty of the divine, the infinite beauty of the divine. We don't know the majesty, the jalāl of the divine, and the infinite jalāl of the divine. We don't ponder that.

Wouldn't you say that — and may Allah be exalted from analogies — if in front of one who is so beautiful, so beautiful externally and internally, of beautiful attributes, compellingly beautiful, and you stand in front of that person or that being, immediately your response is one of respect, if not even love? But when we don't see beauty, when we don't know beauty, then we act and react in ways inconsistent with what our awareness of that beauty would have been.

We don't know. If we knew someone who is majestically powerful and just and unbending, would we dare to behave in their presence in ways that are irreverent? No. If we knew divine majesty, His justice, His exalted attribute of ʿizzah — of unapproachability, of ultimate reverence and overwhelmingness — we would not.

Al-jahl bi aḥkāmillah — ignorance also about what Allah willed and instructed and ordered and loved and hated and did not want and wanted. When we don't know aḥkāmallah — what does He will from me? What does He love from me? What does He forbid from me? When we don't know, then we don't know whether we are obeying Him or not obeying Him. And that leads a person to sin.

When we don't know the consequences of violating the proper relationship that we must have with Allah azza wa jal — when we don't know the consequences of that — and when we don't know the consequences truly of obeying Allah — as we started with the āyah — if we don't know what Jannah is, what the other world is — after not knowing what Allah is and what Allah is not — and when we don't know what the other world is and what it is not, and the consequences of doing wrong in that world and the consequences of doing good in that world. But also we don't know the consequences of what we do wrong or good in this world. In this world there are consequences.

When we don't know, we sin. And we don't know — I repeat — because on average we choose not to know. We prioritize our lives in ways that are not balanced. When we know that something has a factor of infinity and something has a factor of a trillion — or zero point zero — when we don't know the difference between one having a factor of infinity and something having a factor of a trillion — if not ten to the minus forty-five — when we don't know the difference between the two, we are not going to know what we are missing and what we are doing. Allah is infinite in His beauty and majesty. Anything else that we seek in this dunya is finite in its beauty and majesty. Compared to the infinity of His beauty and majesty, it is zero.

There are consequences also in this dunya, in this life, when we sin. Consequences of grief, consequences of anxieties, of depressions — yes, not only about other things in this dunya. The way sins are manifested in this dunya in our lives is sometimes: anxieties, depressions, insecurities, fear, restlessness — let alone other things: health and wealth and power, and you name them. There are consequences in this dunya.

One of the righteous predecessors of our early expert scholars and reverend people — rahimahallahu ta'ala — Sayyiduna Muhammad ibn Sirin — he said: I was possessed once by grief and anxiety after incurring a debt which I was not able to pay on time. I felt ghamm and hamm and it continued, and it wouldn't stop, it wouldn't go. Look how he thought versus how many of us — so materialistic — think. He said: I pondered why this is happening to me. His remedy, after he thought and pondered in dhikr, in du'ā, and in self-reflection — he realized and said: until I found out أَنَّهُ مِنْ ذَنْبٍ اقْتَرَفْتُهُ قَبْلَ أَرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً — then I realized that this was the consequence of a sin I committed forty years ago. Allahu Akbar!

Look at the sensibility and sensitivity of this heart — versus those of us who do the most terrible things and we continue to do them and we look at ourselves as so clean and so pristine and so meticulous. And then when things happen to us, we blame the others. We blame the others immediately — at home we blame the one next to us, spouse or children. And then at work, we blame the one close to us — co-workers, supervisors, workers. And in the masjid we blame even those who are lovingly sitting next to us. And in social differences and in political differences and consequences we blame those who are next to us. And rarely, if at all, do we blame ourselves — blaming me, and the consequences of my ignorance in my life.

Second Internal Cause: Al-Nafs and Al-Hawā

And upon that — on top of that — even if I know, even if I know, many of us still do the wrong things willingly. Isn't it? Even when we know. What is the reason? The second reason internally — my internal second element — is al-nafs.

When my mizāj — my internal characteristics, my psyche, my inner self — is one that is not clean, one inside of which there are leanings and inclinations — inside of me, the way I grew up, the way I was brought up, the way I intermingled, how I lived — and there are certain things inside of me, an energy inside of me, that is more described sometimes as emotional and sometimes intellectual as well, that many times: I know what is right, I know the truth, but something inside of me prevents me from doing what is right, and from saying what is right, and from acting in a way that is right, or reacting in a way that is right. That is called al-nafs and al-hawā.

That inclination — because it is an inclination — if I take an object of knowledge that I know and I put it in my heart, in which there is inclination, the law in nature implies that that object will roll down the inclination. So when I know something and I have an inclination inside of me, what I know will be perceived by me after it rolls down my inclination. I have an inclination, so I interpret it, I understand it, I read it in accordance to my inclined — spiritual and moral and emotional — plane inside of me. That is al-hawā, that is ittibāʿ al-hawā.

And when there is that — whether I know or I don't know, if I don't know it is worse — and when I know but with hawā, I could be — in terms of information, in terms of the ability to talk and to argue and to read and to communicate — very highly evaluated, a high IQ if you will. With all of that, with that inclination, however, because the process of knowledge and the outcome of knowledge does not depend only on what we know, but it depends on how it is processed — and the processor is the nafs inside of me — and if the nafs inside of me is in a very low and slow spiritual condition and moral condition, then the knowledge that I have will be translated by me in ways that are detrimental still. And I will sin internally and externally.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ الْعَظِيمَ لِي وَلَكُمْ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ — طُوبَى لِلْمُسْتَغْفِرِينَ

This I remind myself and you of, and I seek the forgiveness of Allah for me and for you. Seek His forgiveness. What an excellent abode awaits those who honestly and sincerely seek forgiveness from Him.

Second Khutbah — External Causes and the Remedy

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَكَفَى وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى عِبَادِهِ الَّذِينَ اصْطَفَى، اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا وَمَوْلَانَا مُحَمَّدٍ الْفَاتِحِ لِمَا أُغْلِقَ وَالْخَاتِمِ لِمَا سَبَقَ نَاصِرِ الْحَقِّ بِالْحَقِّ وَالْهَادِي إِلَى صِرَاطِكَ الْمُسْتَقِيمِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ وَمِقْدَارِهِ الْعَظِيمِ وَلَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ الْعَظِيمِ

Didn't you notice, my dear brothers and sisters, that if I or you are in an emotional condition of anger, or even anxiety or fear, will we react to the information we receive in a balanced way? The answer that everybody and every sane adult knows is: no. And you see in that simple example how our nafs affects the way we receive information.

External Causes: The Surrounding Environment

The external conditions that contribute to us falling and sinning, and therefore losing our hearts, and therefore losing chances of nearness to Allah in this dunya and in ākhirah — this, our condition, is external: the surroundings in which we put ourselves.

Number one: all of us as human beings are, on average, affected by the milieu in which we find ourselves — the environment, the surrounding in which we find ourselves, in which we put ourselves. We rub with each other, we receive from one another traits and characteristics. We receive pressures — social pressures, psychological pressures, emotional pressures — which make us think and act in ways that, freed from those conditions, we would perhaps not have acted or reacted the same way. Even when we know of the pressures.

And therefore, do know where you put yourself. And before that — do know. We must know. We must not choose not to know. And therefore, second: do know where we put ourselves. Which gathering? Which company? Which people? Which surrounding? Which friends? Which group? What we listen to? What we look at? All of that — we have a certain power of control over — and we must have that control.

Consequently, there is something called availability and something called accessibility. Even when we know, even when I put myself in the proper surrounding, but if the means of sin, the means of evil, are made available to me — and nowadays they are in our pockets. Not only there. There used to be the theatres in the Roman time — available then. After the Roman style we have other theatres: the cinema. And then the cinema was brought closer in availability — the television. Then the television is now becoming obsolete and we have something carrying everywhere we go. And Allah knows what the future will show, when they enter into sometimes biological technology.

Availability — one wants to do good, but if he or she has available to him or to her evil and the means of evil, and they interact with the weakness that we have, one falls. And finally, accessibility — something may be available but I have no access to it. And once I have access to it, the chances increase drastically for me to fall — even when I don't want to fall. Let alone those of us who are so weak in knowledge and so weak in nafs, who want to fall, and with surrounding, availability, and accessibility — it is a recipe for disaster.

And the choice is still yours and mine. This is why we sin. This is why we lose our hearts.

The Remedy: Implore Allah with Du'ā

And what do we need to do? First: raise your hands and implore Him constantly. Implore Him for help, constantly. Testify and confess to Allah of our weakness, and stop playing this foolish, deluded role of "I am so special." You know that Allah knows. Confess, and implore Allah for help against all these odds.

Ya Allah, I truly don't want to will except what You will — help me will only what You will. Ya Allah, I truly don't want to will except what You will — help me will only what You will.

Implore Allah constantly. And this is something we are missing. Du'ā is becoming scarce in our lives — in our Ṣalāh, after Ṣalāh, in the masjid, when we walk, at home. And the relationship — spiritual — of du'ā and Ṣalāh with Allah is taken very lightly. And of course, if it is taken very lightly, the consequences are going to be very costly.

Ya Allah, we are weak, we are weak, we are weak — please change our weakness into strength in what You love, and let the most beautiful moment of our lives be the moment we have to and ultimately come to You.