The Importance of the Jummah Introduction

Khutbah al-Hajah: The Opening of the Sermon

All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, we ask for His help, and we ask for His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our actions. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whomsoever He misguides, none can guide him.

And I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger.

O you who believe, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except in the state of Islam.

O mankind, be mindful of your Lord who created you from a single being, and from it He created its mate, and He spread from these two many men and women. And be mindful of Allah by whom you demand your mutual rights, and of the ties of kinship. Indeed, Allah is ever watchful over you.

O you who believe, fear Allah and speak the truth. He will direct you to do righteous good deeds and will forgive your sins. And whomever obeys Allah and His Messenger has indeed achieved a great achievement.

As for what we just said — and today we are beginning with "as for before," rather than "as for after" — because today our khutbah is explaining what is known as Khutbah al-Hajah, how we just began the khutbah.

Why Explain Khutbah al-Hajah?

We are doing this because of a number of reasons. Number one, this is the part where everyone zones out. The imam starts to say الحمد لله, and people are just zoning out because we hear this every khutbah, and no one pays attention to it. And then when he introduces the topic, then everybody sits up and pays attention.

The Prophet ﷺ often began his khutbah with what is known as Khutbah al-Hajah. It is from the sunnah to recite it before a marriage — before the marriage contract it is sunnah to do the whole thing. But otherwise it is not strictly a sunnah, and you can omit it or say it. The Prophet ﷺ often began his speeches with this, and so there must be some benefit to it, and it befits and behooves us to understand what it means.

The other thing is that when you understand this beginning, then every khutbah has benefit in it for you. You will be benefiting from this beginning as opposed to just zoning out and then coming back to focus once the imam begins the main topic.

The Meaning of الحمد — Praise

Khutbah al-Hajah begins with the Prophet ﷺ saying:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 2118; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1105; classified as Sahih)

Al-hamd means praise, and it is different from shukr. Shukr is when you thank someone — being thankful. And when you thank, it is mukabil ni'mah: someone does some good or gives you something good, and then in return you thank them for it — an action done to you directly or indirectly that you benefit from. So you thank the person who did it. But you don't thank someone for an attribute that they have if you received no benefit from it. If someone is courageous or someone is intelligent, you don't go and thank them for their own quality.

And that is one of the differences between shukr (thanking) and al-hamd (praising). Because when you are praising, you are describing the one praised with kamal — with completeness or perfection, or with a good quality — whether you receive it or not. If someone from this community donates for a person who needs a bone marrow transplant, the parents of that patient will thank that person because they received an immediate good. But you, if you are not affected by that, you don't go and thank them. But you will go and praise the quality that they had.

So with praise, you don't have to be the recipient. You praise the quality that someone may have. You can praise someone's generosity whether you are a recipient of that generosity or not — you are praising that quality. So we say al-hamd to Allah. We are praising Allah for those qualities. And that is why you praise Allah whether something good happens or something bad happens. That is why the Prophet ﷺ taught us that when something bad happens, you say:

You are praising Allah in all situations, in all conditions — whether good comes or bad comes — because it is not related to receiving good. It is related to the qualities of the one being praised.

The scholars also mention something very important: the difference between al-hamd and madh. Madh is simply when you commend or compliment someone. But al-hamd comes with internal love and glorification as well. Someone might praise a king outwardly while internally not even liking that individual. But with al-hamd, it doesn't carry that meaning. The moment you use the word al-hamd, it shows that it comes with internal agreement — not just with the tongue. So you are praising Allah outwardly, and internally you are glorifying Allah and you love Allah. That is the meaning of al-hamd.

Seeking Help and Seeking Forgiveness

So the Prophet ﷺ would begin by saying: All praise is due to Allah. نَحْمَدُهُ — we praise Him. وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ — and we seek His aid, His assistance. The scholars said this means we seek His assistance in performing our salah in a way that pleases Allah. Others said it means we seek His assistance in this khutbah or this speech that is about to be given. وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ — we seek His forgiveness.

An important point, brothers and sisters: seeking forgiveness is not only for when you commit a sin. People think that you seek forgiveness only when you actually do something wrong. But you can also seek forgiveness for shortcomings, for underachieving, for being heedless. These are not actual things that were haram that were done, but you are not giving Allah His due right — and you can seek forgiveness for that.

That is why the Prophet ﷺ taught us that after the salah, the first thing we say is أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ three times. Here it is not from a sin. It is saying: from my shortcoming, Ya Allah, this salah that I just presented is not befitting, is not worthy of Your greatness and Your majesty. So istighfar is not just for actually doing something wrong, but it is for falling short, for being heedless, and for all kinds of other things. It is important to fix that meaning so that we do not only make istighfar if we do something wrong, but we make it for our shortcomings regarding Allah.

Seeking Refuge from Evil and the Question of Guidance

Then: وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِن شُرُورِ أَنفُسِنَا وَمِن سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا — we seek refuge with Allah from the evil within ourselves and then from the evil of our deeds. This is not saying that the self, the nafs, is inherently evil. But it is saying we seek refuge with Allah from the potential evil of our souls. As we know, there are different kinds of souls — there is the good soul, and there is the evil one, or the one that commands evil. This is also mentioned in the Quran in Surah Yusuf:

And I do not declare myself guilt-free or innocent, because indeed man's self is prone to command him to do evil — except those that my Lord has mercy upon, and surely my Lord is most forgiving, most merciful.

So we know there is the evil soul and the good soul. By saying نَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِن شُرُورِ أَنفُسِنَا, we are seeking Allah's help in restraining our nafs, restraining ourselves. The nafs has the potential for evil and for evil deeds. You also notice: وَمِن سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا — the thoughts come first, and then the actions come later. The evil of the nafs and the evil thoughts and the evil planning will result in action. That is why the thoughts came first and then the actions came afterward.

Then the Prophet ﷺ says: مَن يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَن يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ — if Allah guides someone, meaning if Allah chooses to guide someone, decrees guidance or wills guidance for someone, then no one on the planet can misguide that individual after Allah has decreed that they will be guided. And whomever Allah allows to go astray — whomever chooses evil, and Allah then keeps them on the path they have chosen — we see this multiple times in the Quran.

At a certain level of wickedness where people have chosen evil, Allah allows them to remain in that evil. We see this in Surah Maryam:

Say, as for he who remains in error, then Ar-Rahman will surely prolong his length of days — until they see what they are threatened with, either the punishment or the Hour.

And we see it in Surah As-Saff:

But when they turned aside, then Allah made their hearts turn aside, and Allah does not guide the transgressing people. So these people transgressed to a level that Allah left them in their transgression, left them in their misguidance.

Likewise, we see this in Surah Al-Baqarah, where Allah described the people who chose the shayateen:

When they meet those who believe, they say "We believe," but if they are alone with their shayateen, with their devils, they say "Surely we are with you, we are only mocking." So they chose the shayateen, and so Allah left them on the path that they chose.

The Two Testimonies of Faith

Then the Prophet ﷺ says: وَأَشْهَدُ أَن لَّا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ. Notice that all the words before were in plural form: إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ. And now it shifts to singular form — وَأَشْهَدُ. Because it is more appropriate for the shahada to be in singular form, since you testify for yourself — you don't do it on behalf of others.

And in it, of course, is the important meaning of tawheed: لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ — He is alone, He has no partner. You do not associate anyone in worship with Him. And then the Prophet ﷺ asserts that مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ — that Muhammad ﷺ is His servant. If he is worshipping Allah and serving Allah, he cannot be worshipped himself — he himself is doing worship. And this closes the avenue to ghuluw and exaggeration concerning the Prophet ﷺ. And وَرَسُولُهُ — and His Messenger — so you cannot belie, deny, or ignore his Prophethood ﷺ.

The Three Verses of Khutbah al-Hajah

Sometimes an-Nabi ﷺ would recite three verses after this. These were the verses we recited at the beginning.

First Verse — Surah Al-Imran (3:102)

O you who believe, have proper taqwa of Allah. And taqwa of Allah is to put a shield or a barrier between you and the punishment or the anger of Allah by doing good and staying away from evil. Usually Allah will warn you to have taqwa of Allah, or:

Fear and stay away from the hellfire — put a shield between you and the hellfire. Or a shield between you and that Day, the Day of Judgment:

And fear a day where you will be returned to Allah. So: O you who believe, fear Allah as He should be feared in the complete sense. Some of the scholars — a minority opinion — said this verse was abrogated because no one can fear Allah as He should truly be feared. They said that in Surah At-Taghabun, Allah says:

Fear Allah as much as you can. So they are saying because the first one is impossible, this is the verse that abrogated it. But the majority of scholars said no — it is not an abrogated verse. You can combine both meanings. The verses combined would mean: fear Allah as He should be feared, as much as you can. And do not die except in the state of Islam — meaning, remain steadfast upon this deen until you meet Allah as Muslims. So that when death comes to you, you are Muslim and you meet Allah as Muslims.

Second Verse — Surah An-Nisa (4:1)

O people, be dutiful to your Lord who created you from a single being — meaning Adam, peace be upon him. وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا — and He created from it its mate. Some of the Mufassireen said مِنْهَا means from the substance that He created Adam from, He created Hawwa from. And others — the more popular view — said from the soul of Adam, from his nafs, He created the spouse, meaning Hawwa (Eve). وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالًا كَثِيرًا وَنِسَاءً — and from them Allah created many men and women after them.

وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ وَالْأَرْحَامَ — fear Allah through whom you demand your mutual rights. Just like how someone will ask someone أَسْأَلُكَ بِاللَّهِ — I ask you by Allah. So fear Allah through whom you ask and demand your rights from each other.

In some qira'at it is وَالْأَرْحَامَ — and do not break the ties of kinship. Your relatives — do not break the relationship with them, always remain in connection with them. And in some qira'at وَالْأَرْحَامِ would mean you demand your rights through Allah and also through the ties of kinship. And we have an actual example of this from the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, where Utbah ibn Rabi'ah, after the Prophet ﷺ recited ayat to him, said: نَاشَدْتُكَ اللَّهَ وَالرَّحِمَ — I ask you by Allah and by the ties of kinship. Because such ties were considered something great — people used to ask each other through them, just as you would say "I'm your cousin" or "I'm your relative" to invoke that bond.

إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا — Allah is ever watching and aware of what you do. And if you are aware that Allah is watching you, then that would be from the highest levels of iman. As the Prophet ﷺ explained in Sahih Muslim when he was asked about Ihsan: it is to worship Allah as if you can see Him. The scholars say: if you could see Allah with your eyes and you could see His greatness and His magnificence, how would you worship Allah? But if you cannot, then the second level is to remember that Allah is constantly watching you.

Third Verse — Surah Al-Ahzab (33:70–71)

O you who believe, fear Allah and speak the truth. الْقَوْلُ السَّدِيدُ — a truthful speech that is leading to the truth, or truthful in that it contains no lies. Fearing Allah is internal and concealed. Now Allah is mentioning something specific that is zahir — apparent and outward — and that is speech. And speech is a reflection of what is in the heart.

So it is not good enough for the believer to think well and then speak however they want, as long as they are good on the inside. No — be good on the inside, and speak well as well. Speak the truth as well. And as we know from the hadith, the tongue is one of the top two things that lead people into the hellfire. In another hadith, the Prophet ﷺ asked rhetorically: is there anything that causes people to be toppled onto their faces into the hellfire except the tongue?

So what is the result of having taqwa and speaking the truth? يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ — Allah will rectify your deeds, will rectify your affairs. You have awareness that Allah is watching you, no disobedience. Then what about shortcomings? وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ — and Allah then will forgive your sins.

وَمَن يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمًا — and whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger. Over 30 times in the Quran, Allah commands the believers to obey the Prophet ﷺ:

In another verse, Allah equated obeying the Prophet ﷺ to obeying Allah:

Whoever obeys the Messenger, he has indeed obeyed Allah. And that is why today we see the biggest attack is on the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, on his commands. Those who say they will follow whatever is in the Quran — but if they truly followed what is in the Quran, they would naturally, as a result, obey the Prophet ﷺ. And whoever does that, فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمًا — he will achieve a great achievement, a great victory, which usually in the Quran means he will achieve al-Jannah.

The Closing of Khutbah al-Hajah

In the second khutbah, we will explain the last part of Khutbah al-Hajah, inshallah.

Ask Allah for His forgiveness. Indeed those who ask for His forgiveness shall prosper.

Second Khutbah

So then, concluding Khutbah al-Hajah, the Prophet ﷺ would say:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 867; Sunan an-Nasa'i, Hadith 1578)

The best of speech is the Book of Allah. And the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad ﷺ. That means there can be no way of doing things better than the way shown to us by Muhammad ﷺ — in acts of worship and in connecting with Allah. Many times people give advice that goes against his advice in acts of worship and in life, but it can never be better than his guidance. And people sometimes want to add or change how we worship Allah, and it can never be better than the guidance of Muhammad ﷺ.

وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا — and the worst of all affairs are the newly invented matters. Here الْمُحْدَثَاتُ is referring to matters that were invented into the religion. It is not talking about cars and technology. It is talking about innovating and inventing something into how we worship Allah that alters or changes that worship.

وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ — every newly invented matter is an innovation, a bid'ah. The Prophet ﷺ said كُلَّ — which is all-encompassing. It means every newly invented matter in the religion is a bid'ah. وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ — and every bid'ah leads astray. And he ﷺ said كُلَّ — every single one.

Today you find people — and this is no joke — who will tell you there is a bid'ah hasanah, a good bid'ah, and even a bid'ah wajibah, an obligatory bid'ah. There is no such thing, and the Prophet ﷺ said every bid'ah. And when Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, called Taraweeh a "good bid'ah," he was not using the word bid'ah in the technical Islamic sense — he was using it linguistically, because the word bid'ah also exists in the Arabic language with a broader meaning. He would never use it religiously, because he knew that Taraweeh is not a bid'ah — he had prayed Taraweeh for three nights behind the Prophet ﷺ himself.

وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ — and everything that leads astray is in the hellfire.

So this is how the Prophet ﷺ would begin his khutab — before weddings, or sometimes before a speech. And as Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, would say: the Prophet ﷺ climbed the minbar, he praised Allah, and then he began his speech. So it is not absolutely necessary that every khatib begins with Khutbah al-Hajah. It is something that the Prophet ﷺ used sometimes, and many khateebs start that way.

And it is important for people to understand what it means — so they are benefiting as they are hearing it, receiving all the reminders, and not just zoning out and ignoring it because it is something they hear every time.

Closing Du'a

With that, I ask Allah to make us of those who recognize the truth as clear truth and follow the best of it.

We ask Allah to grant victory to Islam and to the Muslims, and to grant ease and freedom to all the Muslims who are being held and dealt with unjustly around the world. And establish your prayer.