20160624- Friday Khutba - Imam

Khutbah Opening

The Last Ten Days of Ramadan

My dear brothers and sisters, by Allah's grace and by Allah's benevolence we have crossed the two-thirds of this blessed month of Ramadan and we have left only almost ten more days. The opportunity is still here — during the last ten days of Ramadan.

In his last year, sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam, during the last twenty days of Ramadan, he — the most beautiful human being, the most Allah-conscious worshipper — focused even more on Allah personally. I underline: personally. Most of our activities are not as important as personal spiritual growth, regardless of what some say. He enters the masjid, pitches a tent, and stays in ibadah. Was he ever not in ibadah? And yet during the last ten nights — and in his last year, the last twenty nights — he sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam focuses even more on that.

He was always very generous, and in Ramadan he was more generous than the wind — with beautiful gifts of rain from Allah. He sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam:

He sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam reserves his entire self and heart — more especially during those last nights and those last days — focused upon Allah. That's for us to learn. To learn to do everything we do in life — at home, at work, in whatever activity we praise and celebrate and find important, all of the lawful and beneficial activities — all of that must be done in an envelope of high spiritual consciousness, of high moral consciousness, of high ethical consciousness.

And if we don't take quality time to reorient and refocus our minds and hearts and souls internally upon that, then our lives externally will be just regular — and sometimes regular in the very negative sense. And we live our lives disconnected from that special awareness we ought to develop — awareness of Allah — about what we feel, about what we say, about what we do, and about how we solve problems, and about how we agree and about how we disagree — at home, at work, in society, at all levels.

The True Essence and Spirit of Ramadan

The month of Ramadan — as we have many times mentioned, and perhaps not to this audience — the essence of Ramadan and the spirit of Ramadan and of fasting is to enable us to bring our hearts and inner consciousness and our minds to be in a state of fasting. That our hearts fast from emotions and moods and drives and thoughts and feelings that are not beloved by Allah. That our hearts are not going to be allowed to be in realms inside of me where Allah doesn't want me to be.

My senses must fast. I learn through fasting and shortening my drives of eating and drinking to have my eyes fast, and my ears fast, and my tongue fast, and my sexual drives fast, and my eating drives fast, and my hands and my might fast, and my legs fast, and my touch fast. That's the intent. I must not forget that.

Rasulullah and Mawlana sallallahu alayhi wa sallam taught us that some of us fast and the only benefit they reap from fasting is hunger — why? Because their hearts have not fasted, because their eyes have not fasted, because their tongues have not fasted, because their ears have not fasted.

And he tells us there are those of us who perform qiyam al-layl and the only benefit they harvest from that is sleeplessness and fatigue:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 1690)

That's the spirit, my beloved brothers and sisters — that I remind myself and you all. For every heartbeat, we hope to reach that state where at every heartbeat our quloob are aware of Allah azza wa jal, and that shows in the way we behave, in the way we speak, in the way we agree, in the way we disagree, in the way we manage, in the way we administer, in the way we rule, in the way we judge, in the way we teach, in the way we learn.

The Three Greatest Treasures

In that spirit, I share a few more words with you. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam was asked — or before even he was asked, he said — in other words, the question was: what is the most treasurable thing? What is the thing that really deserves to be stored and treasured dearly, to have it is to have a treasure that should be endeared and held very dearly? What is that thing?

He says three things, sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam:

First: A Grateful Heart — قَلْبٌ شَاكِرٌ

Number one: qalbun shakir — a heart that is grateful. A heart with genuine emotions and feelings of gratefulness to Allah azza wa jal and to the creatures of Allah azza wa jal for anything and every good thing. Most of us count only the bad things, and when we have problems we only enumerate and enlist and remember the bad things, and we forget the good things done for us and given to us by others and even by Allah. A heart that is grateful — and when the heart is grateful, then the tongue is grateful and the hands are grateful and the actions are grateful. Qalbun shakir — versus a heart that is ingrate, unthankful, selfish, always thinking of him or herself only in all matters of life.

Second: A Tongue in Remembrance — لِسَانٌ ذَاكِرٌ

Secondly: lisanun dhakir — and with that heart, a tongue that is always in dhikr of Allah azza wa jal. A heart in gratefulness and a tongue in dhikr of Allah — so first of all, that's because the heart is aware, or to make the heart aware and to continue always being in dhikr of Allah azza wa jal.

If you forget something and you want to remember it — and your little child, and your mother sends you to the market and says "go and get me a kilo of this" and you don't know — she says, "go and keep walking and say, 'a kilo of apple, a kilo of apple'" until you get there and you will not forget what you were sent for. "A kilo of apple" helps it to be impressed in the mind and in the heart.

The meaning of لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ, the meaning of سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ, the meaning of الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ, the meaning of اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ, the meaning of أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ, the meaning of Allah al-Latif, al-Azim, al-Jaleel, al-Halim, al-Kareem — as you repeat that through our tongues, hopefully our intent is that it would help us to imprint it in our qulub. Lisan dhakir — and if the tongue is in dhikr, it will be too busy to backbite, it will be too busy to lie, it will be too busy speaking truth to be speaking excessively, it will be too busy to be abusing and slandering, it will be too busy to be selfish. Dhikr wallahu zawj, lisan dhakir.

Third: A Righteous Spouse — زَوْجَةٌ صَالِحَةٌ

And thirdly: wa zawjun salihun tu'inuka ala amri dunyaka wa dinik — a righteous spouse, a righteous wife or righteous husband, who helps you in your matters of this world — the legitimate, the moral, the ethical, the good, the beneficial, constructive matters of this world — and your matters of the akhira, of your deen, of your faith, of your religion, of your relationship spiritually with your Creator. This is a treasure to behold.

The spirit of Ramadan should fill us up with these things.

The Best of People: The Swept Heart — الْقَلْبُ الْمَخْمُومُ

A man came and asked Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam: "Ya Rasulullah, ayyun nasi afdhal" — and you know this question has been asked many times and on different occasions. Depending on the questioner, he gives an answer, and all of that is true — many things have merits, and for some, certain characteristics are more important than others. So he said sallallahu alayhi wasallam when answering that question:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 12495; also cited in Ibn Majah, Hadith 4216)

He said: every heart that is makhmoum and every tongue that is saduq. They said, "Ya Rasulullah — saduq al-lisan, a tongue that is saduq — we know what it is." And you probably all know what saduq is: the emphasis, the hyperbole in language of sadiq, which means a very truthful tongue, a tongue that never utters a lie even in joking, always truthful. "But what is makhmoum al-qalb, Ya Rasulullah?" they asked.

By the way, makhmoum is a derivative from خُمَامَة: خَمَمْتُ الْبَيْتَ means "I swept the room" — when I clean it from dust and from dirt, I free it from dust and dirt. Makhmoum — a swept house, a swept heart. So he said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam: a heart that is makhmoum is:

The heart that is taqi — always aware of Allah and keeps distant from that which keeps the person distant from Allah azza wa jal, or incurring the displeasure of Allah azza wa jal, or incurring the anger of Allah azza wa jal, or incurring remoteness from Allah azza wa jal — الْبُعْدُ عَنِ اللَّهِ. A person whose qalb is taqi in prosperity and in adversity, in ease and in hardship, in agreement and in disagreement, in public and in privacy. Taqi.

Naqiy — like a thawb naqiy, a cloth that is clean, naqiy. A qalb naqiy. Imagine what it is to be naqiy — clean from what? What filthies the heart? What dirties the heart? What we harbor inside of our hearts — the attachments that should not be there, that are ugly and evil and low and base — clean from that. You can count and enumerate what we should not have in our hearts.

And then he describes other characteristics of that naqa', of that cleanliness of the heart:

First: No Sin — لَا إِثْمَ فِيهِ

In which there is no ithm. Ithm is everything wrong we harbor, or hold, and say and do. Ithm — any act of injustice, of criminality, of evil, of wrongdoing — ithm. La ithma fih. And why do we say ithm? Because we harbor ithm, and then when we harbor ithm we actualize it through words and through action. That's where it starts — in the hearts. There is no ithm, first of all.

Second: No Transgression — لَا بَغْيَ فِيهِ

Second, there is no baghy. Ithm would lead to baghy. Baghy — بَغَا يَبْغِي — of the usage of the word is أَبْغِي شَيْئًا: "I want it, I desire it, I will it." Baghy is to want to hurt somebody, and therefore baghy is the act of hurting, transgressing against somebody in any matters of life — personal, physical, financial, social, family, political, you name it. La baghy — to initiate harm against someone.

Third: No Grudge — لَا غِلَّ فِيهِ

Thirdly, there is no ghil. Ghil — غَلَا يَغْلِي — something is boiling inside. مَاءٌ غَالٍ — that is water that is boiling. And that's when we in our hearts hold grudges — things that keep burning and keep boiling and keep putting pressure in any of our relationships — at family life, work life, masjid life, whatever type of activity we happen to be indulging in.

Fourth: No Envy — لَا حَسَدَ فِيهِ

And there is no hasad — that internal violent envy that we sometimes have inside of us, that someone else has something I do not have and I want it, but with internal stirrings that boil with negative energy. That happens between us regarding knowledge, regarding spirituality, regarding wealth, regarding power, regarding social status — hasad is in everything.

That is the taqi al-naqi: لَا إِثْمَ فِيهِ وَلَا بَغْيَ وَلَا غِلَّ وَلَا حَسَدَ. Hadha huwa al-qalbu al-makhmoum — this is the heart that is swept clean inside. The spirit of Ramadan reminds me and you of this. The last ten days are approaching — may we seek forgiveness for what we have missed and may we look forward to a better relationship in our hearts and in our lives with Allah.

Please seek the forgiveness of Allah azza wa jal — what an excellent abode awaits those who sincerely seek forgiveness from Allah.

Second Part of the Khutbah

Giving Generously: From the Heart Outward

That which is an actualization of a beautiful heart in the spirit of Ramadan is to act in accordance to that beauty. But as it is said — سَاقِدٌ شَيْئًا لَا يُعْطِيهِ — the one who does not possess something cannot give of it. So that's first: let's implore Allah to make us of those who have beauty inside of us, and if we do have it, then we will speak it and we will act upon it.

And of that beauty is to be generous — not to be selfish, not to be greedy, not to be stingy — but to be giving, generous, benevolent, and magnanimous. To give — yes, most importantly to give of our noble emotions. To give and to share of our noble emotions, and to withhold and to not externalize our base emotions. That's giving, that's generosity, that's most important.

But also — giving and helping the needy and the poor and the destitute and the homeless and the one who is suffering and the one who is in pain. To help them, and to help those who work — hopefully diligently and sincerely and honestly and with humility and humbleness and truthfulness and authenticity — work for the sake of Allah azza wa jal. Work tirelessly, admitting faults and mistakes and repenting to Allah azza wa jal all the time. Work to build a masjid, to build an orphanage, to build a shelter for the homeless — to do these sorts of beautiful, moral, humanitarian, Allah-beloved activities.

Anything you can do to help — in the spirit of a beautiful heart in tawheed of Allah azza wa jal — please do. Our brothers from Masjid al-Islam from Dallas are here, and I hope inshallah that they find space in your minds and in your hearts to help them and to pray for them, that their project be completed with sincerity to Allah, with truthfulness with Allah azza wa jal, and with goodness and with an orientation such as the ones we have talked about.

Du'a

Ya Allah, help us see truth as truth and give us the strength to uphold it. Ya Allah, help us see falsehood and recognize it as falsehood, and give us the energy and the strength to keep away from it. And let the most beautiful and the happiest of our moments be the moment which will ultimately come — to meet You.

Ibadallah, qumu ila salatikum wa alhamakumu Allah — Servants of Allah, rise to your prayer, and may Allah have mercy upon you.