20170421-1st Khutba- imam Mokhtar Maghroui

Khutbah Opening

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 وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَأَصْحَابِهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا، وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ، وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ، وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ.

O you who have attained faith, have reverence and awe for Allah in a way that is worthy of who He is — of His names and attributes, of His essence, and of the bounties that He incessantly continues to bestow upon us — in a way that is worthy of His beauty and majesty. And make sure we do not die except in a state of Islam, in a state of loving surrender: of our spirits and souls, of our hearts and minds, of our words and deeds, of our limbs and senses, of our drives — all in loving surrender to Allah.

Ya Allah, please grant us a true, loving, sincere surrender of our hearts to You. Our hearts — that is what is most worthwhile, the most praiseworthy and most valuable gift of Allah to us. If we lose that, whether we realize it or not, then we would lose life — we would lose the essence of why we are here in this world.

My dear brothers and sisters, to have a heart that is dead in the spiritual sense is for sure much worse than having a limb that is dead, or a body that is dead. Allah created us and imposed upon us — by His wisdom and grace and merciful love — imposed upon us that our hearts, our inner consciousness, our emotions, our feelings, and our thoughts all be in loving surrender to Him.

The Three Kinds of Hearts

Rasulullah, Mawlana, صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَسَلَّمَ, told us there are three kinds of hearts.

The First Heart: The Heart of the True Believer

One kind of heart is the heart of a believing man or woman — qalbul mu'min — and he described it, صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ, as:

The way he described it, صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ — the qalb of a true believing person, of a true mu'min: ajrad — ajrad means completely free, empty, liberated. Inside this spiritual space there is nothing of the created world; there is nothing of attachments, of inclinations, of likes or dislikes. Except — he said — fihi sirajun yuzhir: wherein there is a glowing light, or glowing lamp.

The Second Heart: The Heart of the Unbeliever

The second is a heart that light cannot penetrate — it is filled with created things: aghlaf, saturated, filled, sealed. He said that is the qalb of the kafir — that is the qalb of the unbeliever — in the spiritual reality of the heart.

The Third Heart: The Sick Heart

And then he tells us also, صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ, there is another kind of heart:

Another heart — fed by two sources: one source of iman and one source of kufr or nifaq. Fed by both. That heart — the person of that heart — receives both signals, both inputs, and is receptive to both. And that is a sick heart — al-qalbul marid.

Fahuwa ila ma ghalaba alayhi minhuma — that heart would take the identity of whichever of the two sources happens to be more dominant at the moment. Sometimes that person is like a beautiful believing person, and sometimes that person — wal iyādhu billāh — in terms of character, in terms of thoughts, in terms of emotions, in terms of words, in terms of deeds, in terms of actions, in terms of reactions — would be like one of the two, depending on whichever of the two sources happens to be more dominant at the moment. And that is also called a sick heart. It's not the first one and it's not the worst one — it's a sick heart. Many ulama say most of us as Muslims belong to this category. Ya Latif — long way to go.

What Makes the Heart Sick

What makes a heart sick? Two very brief things, my dear sisters and brothers.

First: Al-Dhunub — Sins

Al-dhunub — sins. Committing sins. The more we commit sins, the more our hearts become sicker and sicker and sicker in the spiritual sense. And Allah tells us that in the Quran, when for example He says — that is on account of what people have earned: their foul, stained, sinful, disobedient deeds. Every time we commit a deed of disobedience, a word of disobedience, a sin of any sort — minor or major — He says a dark spot is generated on the heart. A dark spot. It prevents light from entering in the spiritual realm. And the more we commit of dhunub, the more there are of those spots, and the more they accumulate, and the bigger they get, until there is a ran — a covering — upon the heart.

And when that happens — when that happens to some of us — then we would be disconnected from Allah, veiled from Allah. The heart does not enjoy what it means to be nearer to Allah. The heart doesn't feel the sweet taste of obedience to Allah. The heart is veiled from connecting to Allah, and therefore from discerning the truth as truth and falsehood as falsehood. The heart will be unable to do that — is deficient in that — because of that ran and that covering.

Dhunub do that. Every time we commit a dhunb — major or minor, public or private, internal inside of us or external — through our eyes, or tongues, or ears, or hands, or legs and feet, or sexual drives — every time we commit a dhunb in violation of the right of Allah or in violation of a right of a creation of Allah — that's a dhunb, and that stains the heart and weakens the heart and makes the heart sick. And a sick heart is distant from Allah, and is deprived of connectedness with the source of life, with the source of knowledge, with the source of love, with the source of clarity.

We need clarity as we navigate in this life, as we face the challenges of this life. If our hearts are not clear and do not see clearly, then in this life, as we face the challenges of this life, we will understand them and perceive them the wrong way — and we will react to them the wrong way — because of the ran.

Second: Al-Ghafla — Heedlessness

The second — to be very brief — of what makes our hearts prone to sickness is al-ghafla. In general, al-ghafla is a condition in which we are not aware of Allah, we are not in dhikr of Allah of some sort. Al-ghafla — an Allāh. Al-ghafla — an dhikrillāh.

The time I or you spend not in dhikr of Allah — not in remembrance of Allah — mentally and emotionally and with our tongues — every time we spend it like that, it's a time against us; it's a time that makes the condition of the heart deteriorate. For every time I or you am not in dhikr of Allah, Shaytan is unleashed. Shaytan has power over myself and yours — whether you are super intelligent or not, whether you are so knowing spiritually or not. The less dhikr of Allah, the more Shaytani power unleashed against us.

Reported in various collections on the authority of companions; related by Imam al-Bayhaqi in Shu'ab al-Iman and others.

As Rasulullah ﷺ is related to have said: Verily Shaytan is watchful over the heart of the human being. If the person's heart is not in dhikr of Allah, then Shaytan attacks; and if the person is in dhikr of Allah, then Shaytan escapes — khanas. And such is the case all along.

Al-ghafla — being heedless of dhikr of Allah — such as being heedless of du'a. And du'a is dhikr of Allah. Being needless and unmindful and careless and not meticulous about being in one form or the other of dhikr of Allah; such as to be prayerful, such as to turn to Allah in so many ways of dhikr, including internal reflection about what is in my heart:

Muraqabatu ahwali qalbi ma' Allah — of the most near and most beneficial kinds of dhikr to Allah — that when I learn and strive to be conscious of the conditions of my heart, what goes inside of me, and watch that, and screen what goes into my heart on the basis of my awareness of Allah and of tawheed. And I would allow only that which the screen of tawheed allows to enter into my heart, and screen out that which the screen of tawheed does not allow — a feeling of arrogance, a feeling of ostentation, a feeling of exhilaration, a feeling of delusion, a feeling of belittling the other — feelings that go inside of us, a feeling of attachment to something improper. Watch the feelings before they become wills and volitions, and then they become words and deeds.

And of that which helps us is to implore Allah for help, never to forget Allah — at least and especially in our prayers, in our du'a, even if that we very infrequently do.

Dhunub and ghafla affect and make the heart sick, and a sick heart is distant from Allah, and thus repercussions and consequences of that in all aspects of our lives — personal and collective, economic, political, social, spiritual. These are the basics, these are the root causes, these are the essential elements we need to always know and be equipped with and strive to internalize and actualize in our lives.

The Danger of Excessive Attachment to Dunya

Rasuluna Muhammad, Mawlana, صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ, said — because in the context of the hearts, what also makes the heart fall into sickness — in addition to what we mentioned, and that would also lead us to sin — is some of us the attachments we develop excessively or unnecessarily for the elements of this dunya. The legitimate elements, the illegitimate elements of this dunya go without saying, but excessive attachment, unnecessary attachment to the elements of this world contributes to the sickening of the heart, and contributes to building those attachments to other than the Creator until they become independent in our hearts, in our drives, from Allah. We make them so.

So Rasuluna wa Mawlana, صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ, said — and I remind myself first and then you:

"I do not absolve myself, for the self is indeed evil-commanding." Thus I remind myself and then you.

The One Whose Concern is the Akhira

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 4105; also reported by al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2465 — graded sahih)

The one for whom — whether it is a man or a woman — the one for whom akhira, the home of the hereafter, becomes and is his or her worry and concern and objective and aim and focus — his hamm inside, his resolve and his himma — is towards al-akhira, the home of the hereafter:

First — he said, صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ: ja'ala Allahu ghinahu fi qalbihi — Allah will make his wealth, his richness, in his or her heart. Allahu Akbar! The heart is rich. Fahuwa ghaniyyun billahi — such a person is rich by Allah, with Allah, in no need of other than Allah in his or her heart. His poverty and need is only for Allah. And the person lives it like that, feels it like that — is like that truly, in feeling and in taste.

Second — wa jama'a lahu shamlahu — and on top of that, Allah will make the matters of his life connected, unified — not dispersed and shattered. When we are dispersed inside of us and shattered, it's very painful — that's when depressions override us, and anxieties and insecurities and anger — when the qalb is shattered, mutafarriq al-shaml, laysa majmu' al-shaml. Allah says that person — Allah will make his inner being, his inner self, his emotions, his feelings, his heart — yajma'u Allahu shamlahu.

Third — he said last, because these two are most important — and on top of that: wa'atathu al-dunya wahiya raghima. His or her shares of the matters of this world — the legitimate matters of this world — will be granted to him, will come to him or to her, despite them. In other words: imagine matters of this world that don't want to come to you — Allah will impose it on them — not to come to you — and you are unaware of that and you did not plan that way. You were a person whose aim is Allah and the home of the hereafter, and you do what you need to do of that which is necessary — al-akhdhu bil-asbab — and yet what comes to that person is a lot more than what people usually associate with such acts of asbab and such endeavors.

Because often times, when we want something from dunya, we can achieve it — we can achieve it by spending, let's say, an N amount of energy. But because our qalb is directed towards dunya, we spend N times a thousand to get only the same results. But the one whose qalb is towards akhira would spend only N amount of energy or less, and Allah would give him or her that which someone else spends one thousand times more to get.

The One Whose Concern is Dunya

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 4105; also reported by al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2465 — graded sahih)

Ya Latif! And the one amongst us who makes dunya — the matters of this world — the priority, the focus, the objective, the aim — "my life is all about that" — this is the consequence:

Number one: such a person will never lose sight of his own state of poverty — will always, as though it is put between his eyes: ja'ala Allahu faqarahu bayna 'aynayhi. Literally it says Allah will make poverty in front of his eyes — always seeing it, haunted by that all the time. That's an emotional hal — that's the hal of the qalb — the condition of the heart.

Second: farraqallahu alayhi shamlahu — instead of being collected inside, he or she will be dispersed inside. And the consequences, my dear sisters and brothers — may Allah forgive us all — are, as I said, sometimes anxieties, depressions, restlessness, anger, high-temperedness, hopelessness, etc.

Third: walam ya'atihi mina al-dunya illa ma quddira lah — and on top of that, that person will not have of this dunya, of the matters of this world — whether it is a billionaire or a trillionaire or a little one — will not have more of this dunya than what was already destined for him. All those excessive efforts are not what brought it to you — that was destined to you. But what such a person will have — may Allah protect us all and forgive us all — is dispersion inside, and never losing sight of poverty and fear from poverty.

My dear brothers and sisters, attachments and orientations of our hearts and minds towards the matters of this world stains and makes the heart sick. It is not worth it.

Closing Du'a

May Allah help us. Seek the forgiveness of Allah — what an excellent abode awaits those who sincerely seek forgiveness from Allah.

May Allah bless His chosen servants. May Allah bless and bless our master, our master Muhammad — the one who opens what is closed, and the one who closes what has preceded, the one who teaches the truth with the truth, the one who supports the truth with the truth, and the one who guides to the straight path of Allah — and to his family, the ones who achieved his rank. O Allah, we are weak — please change our weakness into strength in what is obedience to You and in what You love.

Ya Allah, please do not entrust us to our own selves nor to anything of Your creation, even if it were for as short a time as a blink of an eye — ya Arham al-Rahimeen. And rectify for us all our matters. Rectify for us our hearts. Rectify for us our selves. Rectify for us our minds, our thoughts, our feelings, our emotions, our drives, our eyes and how we use our eyes, our tongues and how we use our tongues, our ears and how we use our ears, our resources and might and hands and power and how we use those — rectify all of those for us, ya Allah. Don't entrust us to our own preferences and priorities and likes and dislikes and choices and drives.

O servants of Allah:

Remember Allah — He will remember you. Now rise to prayer.