20170224-1st Khutba-Imam Mokhtar Maghroui

Opening — Praise and Testimony

Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, we ask for His help, we ask for His forgiveness, and we ask for His guidance. 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 I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that our Master, our Master Muhammad, is His servant and His Messenger. As for the rest, O people, the most truthful speech is the Book of Allah.

And the best guidance is the guidance of our Master, our Master Muhammad, may Allah bless him and his family and companions. And the worst of things are their initiations, and every initiation is an invention, and every invention is a misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.

Taqwa — Consciousness of Allah

O you who have believed, fear Allah. Fear Allah as He should be feared, and you will not die except as Muslims. O you who have attained faith, be conscious of Allah. Be mindful of Allah, be aware of Allah, be reverent of Allah, in a way that is worthy of who He is.

Worthy of His essence, worthy of His attributes, and also worthy of the favours and the bounties that He incessantly continues to bestow upon us. And we should make sure we do not die except in a state of Islam — in a state of loving surrender of our souls and spirits, of our hearts and minds, of our words and deeds, of our feelings and emotions. All in loving surrender, loving surrender, loving surrender — not only surrender, loving surrender to Him Azza wa Jal.

For that which ultimately counts in this world is the last moment we leave this world. The summary of our lives is one moment — when the ruh will depart from this body. That is the ultimate moment through which we live.

No matter what our occupation, no matter what our position, no matter what our level of knowledge or of wealth or of power, no matter what responsibility we have, no matter how grand we think we are or how small we believe we are, no matter what we do and how sophisticated it could be or how simple it could be — all of that will boil down to that moment.

Therefore, make sure you do not die — He didn't say only "you do not live," because that is the summary of our lives. Make sure you do not die except in a state of Islam. And Islam is what's in the heart.

As the Prophet ﷺ teaches us: "Islam is that your heart surrenders to Allah." (Referenced in various narrations on the essence of Islam)

Islam is when your heart is in Islam — in surrender, in loving surrender to Allah. And when the qalb is not in that condition, the consequences in this life and therefore in the Hereafter are terrible and miserable.

The Root of All Conflict — The Nafs

All of the conflicts that plague humanity — at the international level, at the national levels, at the communal levels, at the family levels, at the work levels, at the individual levels — psychologically, or socially, or financially, or politically, or intellectually, or of any kind of the elements of the spectrum of life — all of that conflict, all of that pain, all of that affliction, all of that discord, all of that hurt, essentially has one reason. And that reason, interestingly, very simplified, is inside each one of us as human beings. That is my nafs.

What befalls humanity at all levels — individual and collective, in all the spectra of life — is within me, within each person: the nafs. Whether you're a king, a sovereign, a president, a secretary of state, a judge, an engineer, a housewife, an imam, a teacher, a business person, a man, or a woman — of all your concerns, anything we encounter in this life, especially that which we do not like, is because of us.

At a very global level, Allah says الْفَسَاد. Fasad is all that which we do not want — that which leads to disorder and chaos and hurt and pain and spoilage. At all levels — environmental and social and political and economic. Fasad has manifested itself everywhere, on land and in the sea. All of that fasad — of which I mentioned examples — all of it, He said, is due to your doing. Because of what you did, the choices you made, the decisions you made, the inventions you created or generated, the use of them in the way you use them — yourselves are the reasons for the manifestation and the appearance of fasad globally.

And even at the very individual level — and therefore each individual, and the world is made of a set of individuals — He says: whatever you enjoy of good, of comfort, of ease, of hasanah — that which you like — is from Allah. Whether you perceive it that way or you don't, whether you perceive Allah's hand in what you do or you don't. And whatever befalls you of that which you do not want, of that which is hurtful and painful and evil, is on account of yourself — the nafs.

And therefore the ultimate challenge and the ultimate enemy that every human being has — and the world has — is within each one of us.

"The most avowed of your enemies to you is your nafs between your two sides." (Al-Bayhaqi, Shu'ab al-Iman; also attributed in various collections of wisdom narrations)

What happens in the world is from individuals. No matter who they are and at what level they work, it is the person's nafs. And yet we look at the sources of our problems and the solutions of our problems in the world — if ever at all, and rarely — we look into our nafs. We always look at the others. In a sense we are looking at the nafs of others, but never our own nafs.

And overall the world does not analyze the afflictions of the world from this perspective. It's always about how to attain more power, how to attain more wealth, how to attain more resources, how to compete in that. And it is rarely, if ever at all, looked at — the problem — as an individual, psychological, nafsani, character, personal problem of the individuals of the world.

The Three Destroyers — ثلاث المهلكات

And therefore Rasulullah ﷺ also teaches us — and in this, in my opinion, in this sublime, wonderful way, as we shall see as we connect the words of Rasulullah ﷺ together, in addition to what we already said, and there is a lot more to be said from the Book of Allah. So he said ﷺ in another authentic hadith:

"Three are destroyers: greed that is obeyed, desire that is followed, and a person's admiration of himself." (Al-Bayhaqi, Shu'ab al-Iman; al-Tabarani, al-Awsat)

مُهْلِكَات — plural of muhlik — that which leads to perdition, to destruction. SubhanAllah, three things lead to destruction of the world, of the individual, of society, at all levels of life as we mentioned — the din and the dunya, the level of faith and the level of life in the world and the well-being of the world.

First Destroyer: شُحٌّ مُطَاعٌ — Greed That Is Obeyed

SubhanAllah — shuhh. Greed of the nafs that we obey. Greed that we obey. And by the grace of Allah it seems that He would not make us solely responsible for simply having greed, but He makes us responsible for obeying greed, externalizing greed, actualizing greed.

شُحٌّ — "Me, me, me. I, I, I. Mine, mine, mine." To keep the person like that is a source of destruction to himself, to others, and to the world at all levels. When you are a politician, or a judge, or a military person, or a teacher, or an imam, or a mufti, or a scholar, or a housewife, or an administrator, or a manager — you are simply expressing, and if the nafs has shuhh, then you become a source of destruction in this world. Just give it time.

Second Destroyer: هَوًى مُتَّبَعٌ — Desire That Is Followed

Hawa — that which we have an inclination for inside of our nafs. We incline intellectually, ideologically, philosophically — we incline towards something: an idea, a view, an opinion, a philosophy, a principle. We incline to it. It is hawa. And hawa is distinct from wahy. Wahy is from above and it lifts us high — it connects us to the higher dimensions of Allah's creation.

هَوَى يَهْوِي بِصَاحِبِه — as in the Arabic language, hawa brings the person to fall. Hawa means to fall freely. And hawa makes the individual who has it inside of himself or herself bring that person from up to low — morally, ethically, emotionally, psychologically, and therefore actively in actions.

And therefore sometimes one of the words for love in the Arabic language is hawa. But hawa used unqualified means that which we incline to inside of ourselves that is of our own selves, separated from that which is from above — the wahy.

Who else is worst of those who are lost than the one who follows his own or her own hawa disconnected from the huda — the guidance, the wahy, the revelation from the Divine? And again out of the bounty of Allah and His merciful grace, He does not hold us to account for having hawa — having it, having inclinations like that. But He holds us to account for following our hawa. He didn't say hawa only — Rasulullah ﷺ, alhamdulillah, said hawa mutaba' — hawa that we take as our imam, as our leader.

Third Destroyer: إِعْجَابُ الْمَرْءِ بِنَفْسِهِ — Self-Admiration

And thirdly, still the nafs — destructive to the world, to the self: إِعْجَابُ الْمَرْءِ بِنَفْسِهِ — self-admiration. A person who admires his own self or her own self. It is said in English sometimes — a self-conceited person, a person who has conceit.

مُعْجَبٌ بِنَفْسِه — self-admiring, sees himself or herself as special. And he or she does not see that simply as a gift from Allah to him or to her, and does not recognize it as such, and does not behave consequently in accordance with that understanding. Instead, the person is always aware of his or her achievements, his or her capacities, his or her abilities, his or her objectives and aims, his or her power and will and ability. He said: that's destruction.

And what else makes the world the way it is — in essence and in reality — except these? And yet I surmise and I am compelled to say that we — Muslims and others — do not look at the problems of the world in this way. It's always the immediate, expedient way of solving problems — of immediate killing and immediate war or immediate change economically, and pumping more power and more wealth. And the individuals continue to be, each one of us in that sense, psychologically a ticking time bomb.

The Three Saviours — ثلاث منجيات

And then he says ﷺ — and he always, always gives hope. And when he determines and identifies a problem, he usually gives a solution. And the solution he says:

"And three are saviours: justice in anger and contentment, moderation in poverty and wealth, and reverence of Allah in private and in public." (Al-Bayhaqi, Shu'ab al-Iman; al-Tabarani, al-Awsat)

By his father and his mother ﷺ — three save from that destruction. In other words, three save the individual in his or her din and dunya and save the world from destruction and self-destruction.

First Saviour: الْعَدْلُ فِي الْغَضَبِ وَالرِّضَا — Justice in Anger and Contentment

Compare the nafs versus this one — indulging the nafs through shuhh, hawa, and ijab — and now it is this: الْعَدْلُ فِي الْغَضَبِ وَالرِّضَا. Justice, fairness, equity, balance — justice.

And don't imagine — because he mentioned the nafs, remember, he mentioned the nafs — so when he says justice, don't first think of justice at the level of the others doing justice: the politicians and the judges and the generals. That's true too, but don't begin by looking at it that way, because the source of the problem in general is deeper than that. So look at justice in you as an individual — justice at home, in the family; justice at work when you are a worker or when you are an employer; justice at work — and yes, in the courts and at other levels.

Justice is to put things where they belong. Injustice is to put things where they do not belong. Don't throw garbage where it does not belong — that's not justice. Start there first. Don't throw shoes anywhere in the masjid — that's not justice. And yes, don't be unjust at home, at work, at school, in the street.

Not only that — فِي الْغَضَبِ وَالرِّضَا — he said ﷺ: justice whether we are angry and displeased and hurt and wronged, or whether we are pleased and content and at ease and at peace. Many of us are not even just when we are at ease and at peace and in security and in delight — and yet we are required to be just when we are angry, when we are wronged, when we are hurt, when we are violated — whether it is at home, in the masjid, at work, or yes at the levels of the world.

This is a recipe for rescue, salvation, and peace in the world and at home. الْعَدْلُ فِي الْغَضَبِ وَالرِّضَا — compared to the shuhh of the nafs: when there is greed of the nafs, I will not be just — let alone when I am angry.

Second Saviour: الْقَصْدُ فِي الْفَقْرِ وَالْغِنَى — Moderation in Poverty and Wealth

Balance and moderation — whether we are in hardship, in poverty, in destitution, or whether we are in ease and richness and wellness and power. Moderation — not because we have wealth and we have power do we use it abusively and extensively.

Not because I have a lot of money — it begins here — I buy all the ice cream I want, I buy all the sneakers at $120 a pair instead of $20, and if I am asked to give the $100 extra to a needy and poor person in the streets I will hold back. Al-qasd — buy for $20, and if you want to spend $120, give the $100 to those for whom $100 is a month's earning. Moderation — whether we have or we don't. الْقَصْدُ فِي الْفَقْرِ وَالْغِنَى.

Third Saviour: خَشْيَةُ اللَّهِ فِي السِّرِّ وَالْعَلَانِيَةِ — Reverence of Allah in Private and in Public

And finally — to be reverent and mindful of Allah whether we are alone or whether we are in public. Whether we are alone and nobody sees us, or whether we are in public. Whether it is inside of me, inside of my heart and what I hide, or whether that which I express openly — I must have khashyah of Allah, reverent awe for Allah.

Closing — The Contrast and the Call

Compare that to شُحٌّ مُطَاعٌ, هَوًى مُتَّبَعٌ, إِعْجَابُ الْمَرْءِ بِنَفْسِهِ — compare that to the greed obeyed, and to the whim followed, and to the self-admiration.

Instead, these are the three that save the world.