2015-04-17 - Friday Prayer - Imam Mujahid Fletcher

The Adhan

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Opening of the Khutbah

Alhamdulillah. We begin by praising Allah. We praise Him and we seek assistance from the evil that is within our own selves and the evil within our actions. Whomsoever Allah wills to guide, none can lead astray. And whomsoever is led astray, none can guide except Allah. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah — He is alone and He has no partners. And I bear witness that Muhammad is a slave and final messenger.

It is a blessing to be back in this community. May Allah bless this community. We have been here, alhamdulillah, some time last year. And as we travel, we hear good, alhamdulillah, about this community. And I personally congratulate you, alhamdulillah, for your new Imam — mashAllah, he is a great man, alhamdulillah.

Inviting to Allah in Challenging Times

Today we would like to look at the selected title for this Jumu'ah khutbah: inviting to Allah in challenging times — times that we may consider challenging. Nevertheless, the God-given opportunity and duty of inviting or calling to Allah, Azza wa Jal.

We need to consider a little bit about who we are, first and foremost. Secondly, we look a little bit about what our role is. And thirdly, we look at the benefits that we will obtain when we carry out our God-given role — the role that Allah, Azza wa Jal, chose for us.

Who Are We as a People?

In the time of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, Allah, Azza wa Jal, was revealing the Quran at all stages, based on hikmah. Allah, Azza wa Jal, would not reveal an ayah unless it was the exact time, at the right circumstance, where Allah, Azza wa Jal, would reveal the ayah to give context, based on His wisdom. And Allah, Azza wa Jal, revealed an ayah where He ordered the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam — and if we look at this ayah carefully, he is being ordered to embrace and live his life based on sincerity first and foremost.

Allah, Azza wa Jal, mentions — I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Shaytan:

The Prophet was told by Allah, Azza wa Jal: Say — this is a command — Say, indeed, or with assurance, without any doubt: my prayer, my sacrificing and slaughtering, my living and my dying, are all for Allah, the Lord of all worlds.

The Prayer: Our Connection with Allah

Allah, Azza wa Jal, began by explaining the issue of Salat being of utmost importance — with assurity, the Salat. This vessel, this connection, is for Allah alone. His servant, the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam — as we know, he had a connection with Allah, Azza wa Jal. This Salat and this prayer was a time of ease for him. It relieved him from so many pressures.

The Salat is a way for us to connect, based on the remembrance of who Allah, Azza wa Jal is, and to connect with Him at times that He has appointed for us. It is a blessing that we in this room, alhamdulillah, know that this is a blessing of Allah — offering to the human being to connect with Him.

A person such as myself who did not come from a Muslim household, was not Muslim all my life — at one point in time I didn't even know this. So many people who live here don't know, in society. I have many family members; the majority of my family members are not Muslim. This very essence of the remembrance and connection with Allah, being only for Allah, is a ni'mah.

Sacrifice, Living, and Dying — All for Allah

Second of all, it is mentioned that sacrificing anything is only for Allah. There are people who may sacrifice something that Allah, Azza wa Jal, created for another creation. And we know in the time of the Prophet, people were doing this — the offerings. Today, people still do this. Times such as Halloween — it is known that so many people go out and slaughter in the name of other things. So this is only for Allah — again, another ni'mah. Whenever we slaughter an animal and we only do it for Allah, that food becomes, alhamdulillah, halal. It becomes pure, it becomes good for the body.

The living and the dying — death, life. Sometimes people who may not know about Islam, and they hear death associated with Islam, it sounds negative, because the context that has been given in the general media may seem as if it is a negative thing. But it is something natural that will happen to every human being. So when it comes to this Deen, when it comes to this ayah, it is mainly about the preservation of the soul, the mind, and the body as we are alive — living out that way of life — and then when we die, that which we leave: the legacy.

Each one of us will either be forgotten or remembered. If you do something significant, alhamdulillah, Allah knows it. But as we know, so many people in the past have left so many beneficial things that we know of them. Imam Bukhari, for example, subhanAllah, left so many beneficial works that we still benefit from, and he is still getting rewarded. And every single thing — Deen for Allah, Azza wa Jal — has to do with direct and indirect actions. Sometimes we think worshipping Allah is only the Salah, or only the fasting, or the Hajj. These are direct actions. But how about those indirect actions that also allow us to worship Allah, Azza wa Jal? How we deal with His creation, how we deal with people, how we deal with the environment, and how we deal with the animals and everything — this is all within the Deen of Allah. For us to be able to have that relationship, everything is for Allah, Azza wa Jal.

The Muslim World: Demographics and Growth

When we look at the Muslim world, a study was done and we find that the hand of Allah is moving, and we need to be a part of that plan. A study in Egypt some years back looked at the Muslim world and found that 23.3% of the earth's population are Muslims — almost 1 out of every 4 people in the world. They found that Islam is the fastest growing religion in North and South America. And I see this with my own eyes, because I just came back from South America, from Colombia — and I'll mention that in a minute.

Interesting to see that the majority of the Muslims now in the world are teenagers and children. And what's even more interesting is that children below the age of 5 represent 43% of the world's Muslim population. Allahu Akbar. The shift in demographics — there's no way anyone can stop demographics. It's something natural. It happens through birth, and in our Deen it happens also through conversion.

So the question for us is: is it about quantity or quality? MashAllah, so many Muslims in the world — is it about the quantity of Muslims, or is it about the quality of each one of us as Muslims, connecting and having that relationship with Allah? If our relationship is refined and we have that quality with Allah, not only do we benefit as human beings, but we get a chance to benefit our family. And our family lives in the context of a city — we can benefit the city. And we live in a state — we can benefit the state. And we live in a country — benefit that country.

A Recent Journey to Colombia

I just came back from a recent trip to South America — Colombia, my native country. I'm originally from Colombia, South America. I was 8 years old when I migrated here. Like many, my parents migrated. Alhamdulillah, it is a ni'mah to go back as a Muslim, because Colombia and South America is going through some interesting times. They are going through a peace process. That country has been in civil war for 60 years — it has one of the longest drawn-out conflicts that exist in the world. And the Colombian people don't want war, they want peace. And now there are so many groups coming together — from different religions, different ethnic groups, different civic groups, different agencies of the government — everyone working together, even with the opposition, to sit down and come to a peace agreement.

So the question there was: the Muslims — are they on the side of peace and building and establishing peace in that country, or violence? That country, out of 45 million people, has approximately 60,000 Muslims — very few. There are approximately 13 communities, Muslim communities, in that country. And out of those 13 communities, there is one Latino imam. 45 million people in a country — one Latino imam. And he's not from Colombia; he's from Argentina, another Latin American country. So he's not even from the people.

However, you would think that in these times — very challenging, right? How can you operate this way? How can you raise your children? Put that in context to this community and all these structures — Islamic schools and everything you have. These people could say that they are living in times of challenges.

So we, alhamdulillah, had the opportunity to go there because the people are asking: what about the Muslims? I had the opportunity to travel there with Dr. Waleed Basyouni — some of you may know him — and someone even from this community, mashAllah, Muhammad Ali Biari. And we went there and we addressed the topic. We were sponsors in the largest Islamic congress in Latin America. There is an organization we established a while back — it's Islam in Spanish. And alhamdulillah we were able to coordinate, and through the mayor's office of the capital of the country, establish a forum where everybody — from the general society, different religions, the Ministry of Interior, and all these people — came to hear: what is it that the Muslims believe?

So we had a three-day event, and it was entitled: Islam in Its Practice in the Contemporary World — Its Realities and Challenges. And you know, brothers and sisters, we could say that there may not be too much representation of Muslim masajid, but subhanAllah the curiosity of these people — the desire to know. The Ministry of Interior came. Someone came from the UN. Another person came from the leadership of the Jewish community in that country, the leadership of the Mormons, the leadership of the Catholics — to sit down and see if the Muslims are really the people that are being portrayed in the media.

So we had the opportunity, alhamdulillah. We had an open way of being able to discuss things to do with our faith. And I tell you that in short, brothers and sisters, we saw something amazing. People traveled — some of them 10 hours on a bus — to be able to get there. People came from Mexico, Latino Muslims came from Guatemala and other countries. And even though there are only 13 Islamic centers, we realized that in the last 10 years, 10 Islamic centers opened up. So out of 13, in the last 10 years, every single year one Islamic center is opening up. Every week, someone accepts Islam. And alhamdulillah, by the end of our 3-day stay, 4 people had accepted Islam.

Alhamdulillah, the Ministry of Interior came forward and said: "I am so glad I came, because I realized that your values add to the good that we want in this country." So many people think our values as Muslims are not linked to good. And alhamdulillah, with this, we see Allah, Azza wa Jal, has always put ease in every situation — there is, with surety, after every difficulty, ease.

An Inspiring Story: A Brother Awaiting a Liver Transplant

And subhanAllah — from the people who came to this event, we come back to America and their stories may inspire us. There was a brother who was waiting for a liver transplant, and he traveled 12 hours to go to this event. And when you hear the story of that brother — he became Muslim in the UK. His mother sent him to the UK because his younger brother became Muslim in the UK, and his mother from Colombia thought he had gone crazy. So she said: "Go, bring your brother back — he joined this thing of crazies." And he went over there and became Muslim. Then he came back to Colombia and told his mother. His father became Muslim. His grandfather, at the age of 72, became Muslim. Then some of the Muslims in the UK saw this and said: "Hey, let's support you and have a small place — you can start praying with your family." And within 2 years, over 200 people took shahada in that city.

Brothers and sisters, inviting to Allah, Azza wa Jal, is in a way the way that Allah, Azza wa Jal, has given us our context as a community to come together. Whenever we see the ni'mah of the Deen of Islam and we take the izzah — the honor and the respect — from this Deen, people begin to become affected for the good.

Understanding Our Strengths and Weaknesses

And even though we are different as a community, we have to understand our strengths and weaknesses in order to understand our role. Because Allah, Azza wa Jal, has always brought us to think about this future. Where are you going? Allah, Azza wa Jal, questions:

Where then are you going? Where are you going? Every single day you lose, you are getting closer to death. Every day you are healthy, you may get closer to an illness. You are leaving youth. So although you have so much knowledge, you may lose it. So what is our role, brothers and sisters?

We have to understand our strengths and weaknesses as a community. And we are so diverse as a community, and we live in possibly the most diverse country in the world — where you have so many different cultures. So I will give you a little bit of an analysis for you as a community, and for me — alhamdulillah, I am coming from Houston as well. We consider Dallas, Houston — these are growing cities, very diverse.

The Three Main Groups of Muslims in America

Brothers and sisters, here in America, if you look at it, the Muslims are made up of three main groups.

The first group are people who migrated from Muslim countries, possibly in the 60s and 70s — they migrated. Never in the history of Islam have you seen such a huge number of Muslims migrating from majority Muslim lands to lands where the majority are not Muslim, to live as a minority in those lands. Unprecedented in history.

The second group are the Muslim immigrant children — born from the people who migrated — the first generation Muslims.

And then you have the new Muslim — the convert or the revert — people such as myself who didn't know about Islam. If you are born Muslim, you have two subgroups: one was from this land — so if an African American, or white American, or Native Indian accepts Islam, they are from this land. But I migrated to this country and I am an immigrant who then found Islam in this land. So it is two different people who are embraced in Islam.

All of these groups have strengths and weaknesses. And the only way to solidify how we understand the beauty of us being so diverse and working together is by understanding our strengths and weaknesses.

First and foremost, people who migrated from Muslim countries — they came here for opportunity, right? The land of opportunity. Education, safety, to establish themselves financially. It was not a main priority or concern to come to these lands and establish Islam. They came thinking: "I'll get something, then I'll go back." But little Zainab came along, or little Bilal, and now we have this kid — okay, I'm married — just in a few years, let's do a little bit more, then I'll go back. And then little Bilal grows up, and one day the father is praying and little Bilal is asked to pray, and he says: "Why? Why do I have to pray?" And the father — back in his village he would say, you know, "You saw people do it, you do it." But now you have to explain to your child why you pray.

So they figured: we're going to have to retain these children, not lose them. So let's build these institutions of learning — schools — and then import people from back in our culture, from the Muslim world, to come and teach them. So all of a sudden the immigrant community becomes the pioneers of the structures and buildings: masajid, educational centers, organizations.

We have this group coming up who are youth — and the Muslim youth, they have Islamic values at home, but they live in a multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious reality outside of their home in America. And now they have to go through a whole experience that their parents never went through. And they're challenged, because sometimes they don't know if their father or mother can answer their question about how to be a Muslim in this society. This generation may feel estranged sometimes in their own society, where they were born — not because of the skin color or the language, because it's diverse — but because of the theology, the belief, the ethics, the moral standard that are different, and sometimes misunderstood by the society.

And then you have the new Muslim. This person came from another faith, chose Islam, or had no faith and chose Islam. Now this individual has to go back to the people who knew him — his parents, his uncle, his friends — and reinstate a totally new identity, to explain to these people who he is now. They just knew him, and now they know him differently. He may take on a name — some people in the community may say: "Now you're Muslim, you have to have a Muslim name." Somebody may say: "You're Muslim, now you have to wear this, you have to wear that." And so this individual goes back — he feels estranged from his people. And then when he comes into the Masjid, he sees that people don't speak his language, they're not from his own background and culture, and then he feels estranged at the Masjid.

And this is where you get so many new Muslims not coming back. They want the brotherhood. But they saw it in the Quran and Sunnah, and they think that after embracing Islam, everyone is a Sahaba. This is the situation — we see it every day. We ask Allah, Azza wa Jal, to give us some wisdom and some hikmah as to how we can work with one another based on all of this, and strengthen us, and strengthen the future of our community and our youth, and all of us, bi'idhnillah ta'ala.

Second Part of the Khutbah

Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillah, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala.

The blessing of being a Muslim is that we have guidance. We have a way to be able to understand how we come out of all of this that seems fragmented. It seems as if all these ethnicities — we live here, we live there — it seems like we're off balance. But alhamdulillah, two ayat of this Book give us total context and guidance.

Allah, Azza wa Jal, mentioned:

Allah, Azza wa Jal, mentions: Let there rise amongst you a people inviting to everything that is good — Allah ta'ala does what is good, we're Muslim, we have access to the guidance, we invite people to that — enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, to be successful. So Allah already determined: if you want success, that's the sort of person you have to be. You have to enjoin what is good, and forbidding evil — you have to practice your Deen. If you practice your Deen, you will do this by default, wherever you live, whoever you are.

And then He goes on to explain who not to be:

And do not be like the ones who became divided or separated, after the clear evidences were given to them — after they obtained guidance, they began bickering or fighting amongst each other and became divided. Do not be like these people. So alhamdulillah, these two ayat told us who to be and who not to be.

And as we see, calling to Allah, Azza wa Jal, enjoining what is good and forbidding what is wrong, is the thing that will keep us in check. And if the person I am speaking of — in these times of challenges and difficulties — was able to do it, beyond our scope of difficulty, why can't we? Sometimes it is so psychological. If you get yourself out of the way and just look at the ayat, you will find that the cure to all of this is right here in the heart. It is all about the heart.

Allah, Azza wa Jal, mentions in His Book:

Flee to Allah. And the way to flee to Allah, Azza wa Jal — the heart. You free yourself, and you flee. You leave loving other than Allah, to loving Allah the most, beyond anything. From fearing and hoping and relying on other than Him, to fearing and hoping and relying only on Him. From calling upon, asking, surrendering to and humbling oneself before other than Him, to calling upon, asking, surrendering to, and humbling oneself before Him alone. This is the ni'mah — that is the blessing.

You know, brothers and sisters, it is a blessing to be a Muslim and to come into this Deen — no doubt. But you can't get it only by Muslims such as yourself. The individual who told me about Islam did it with liquor in his hand — a youth that I grew up with, that wasn't even praying, but he came from a Muslim household. And in our conversation, he told me about Islam — after a club, drinking. Allah, Azza wa Jal, can guide anyone however He wishes.

He was at a bar — the Muslim told a Spanish guy at the bar about Islam. That guy went and became Muslim. 60 people in his family accepted Islam. SubhanAllah. So brothers and sisters, don't ever underestimate the impact that you can have on a person if you only implement this Deen. If you worry about pleasing Allah, Azza wa Jal, He will incline people's hearts. It is with us, in our hearts, that we have to do this first.

Loving One Another: The Key to Paradise

And brothers and sisters, amongst ourselves — if we really want to impact outside, we have to be brothers, and we have to be sisters. And I'll end with this. The Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 96)

You will not enter paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another.

In order to love Allah, Azza wa Jal, and have that connection, brothers and sisters, we have to reattach our ties of love amongst each other and amongst our family members. And we need to forgive, and we need to be able to give benefit of the doubt, and work together for the best.

Closing Du'a

May Allah, Azza wa Jal, give us strength to develop a guiding community for our younger generation. May Allah help and bring our ummah together. And may Allah, Azza wa Jal, help us benefit the communities and societies that have opened the doors for us to come in and do good.

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of Glory, and peace be upon the messengers. And praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

Taking of the Shahada: A New Sister Embraces Islam

Alhamdulillah — it was mentioned that there is a sister, someone who wants to embrace Islam. Alhamdulillah. So if the sisters can turn on, inshAllah, the microphone, we will go ahead and repeat the testimony of faith, inshAllah.

Could you please state your name?

Sia Kyle.

Excellent. Just curious — how long have you been looking into Islam?

Well, my family is Muslim, so I know a lot about it. I'm just trying to, you know, embrace it.

Excellent. So your family is Muslim — excellent. So today, after your research, I would just like to ask you two questions. Have you looked into the aspect of God — do you agree that God is one and there is nothing worthy of worship except Him?

I do.

And do you believe that the Prophet Muhammad is the final messenger and there will be no other messenger besides him?

I do.

Excellent. So if you can repeat after me, we will say it in the Arabic language, then we will say it in English:

I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the slave and final messenger.

Excellent, sister. We give you the welcome — as a community, as a global community of over a billion people. May Allah bless you and keep you firm upon that statement. That is the statement that takes you from one side of the line to another side of the line. It has the ridges like the key to be able to open the door of paradise.

We ask you, sister, to please make du'a — to supplicate to God, to Allah, Azza wa Jal — for all of us. Because today it is as if you are a newborn baby. Everything you have done in the past has been washed away. Anything that Allah is not pleased with — it is forgiven. And any good that you have has been multiplied. So you are in the best state, and your supplication is very, very strong and direct.

I recommend, sister, that you get to know the sisters here — establish your small network of people who will go on to explain to you about the prayer and establishing this relationship with Allah, which is the second pillar of Islam — the prayer five times a day. And this is the way that we can remain conscious of Allah. Congratulations, sister.

Thank you very much, brothers and sisters, for being patient. Outside there is a table and there is some Spanish material, in case you have any Spanish-speaking friends or people in society — we have some there for you. And we'll be here, inshAllah, this evening for the panel, talking about how Muslims affected us and how we became Muslim. There will be different people, alhamdulillah, from the Latino background — different imams, alhamdulillah. So we welcome you, inshAllah, to come for everything in this community.

Assalamu alaykum.