2014-10-24 - Friday Prayer - Imam Zafar Anjum

No Compulsion in Religion: The True Message of Islam

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, Ayatul Kursi is one of the most prominent and famous ayat of the Quran and I believe that all of you here — young and old — almost everyone of you knows Ayatul Kursi. Apparently this is just one ayah, but it includes 10 of the most important attributes of Allah.

I invite you that whenever you have the time, study all those 10 magnificent qualities and attributes of Allah that strengthen our aqeedah — our basic creed of Islam, of the tawheed of Allah — and give us complete confidence that there is no power, there is no dominion, there is no kingdom, there is no control fully exercised except by Allah. And upholding the heaven and the earth never makes Him tired, as some other religions, traditions, and cultures have suggested. Right after Ayatul Kursi, next to it, is this ayah that I have recited, in which Allah made it very clear that there shall be no compulsion, there shall be no coercion in the matter of religion.

Why? Because the guidance has become distinct. The right path has become clear. The truth stands out clear from the wrong, from the error.

So those — all those people — whoever will reject evil and believe in Allah, they are the ones who are holding strongly, grasping strongly a handhold that is reliable, a strong handhold. Like sometimes you are holding something and relying on it to save you from falling down — that is called a handhold that is reliable, that is strong. This is the promise of Allah that it never breaks. There will be no break in that. And Allah is All-Hearing and All-Knowing.

This ayah is very important to understand, especially in the context of the modern day. At this time when Islam has been attacked, and Muslim people have been charged with false allegations of forcible conversion of other people to Islam and all that — we have to study this ayah deeply. We have to know the meaning of this ayah, the message of Allah, the teachings of this ayah, so that we should follow our religion as Allah wants from us.

The practical example — sometimes not any explanation, not the literature, not the books, not the speeches, but the practical life — and subhanAllah, our beautiful Islam is unique in that all the accounts of the life of the Prophet Sayyidina Muhammad, صلى الله عليه وسلم, and the lives of the Sahabah, رضوان الله تعالى عليهم أجمعين, are completely obvious, completely clear, and transparent in every respect.

If you put it on the standard of authenticity, alhamdulillah we have so many authentic narrations, so many authentic riwayaat in the seerah of Rasulullah, صلى الله عليه وسلم. So we have to look to our model, our role model, our beloved Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, and his Sahabah, رضوان الله تعالى عليهم أجمعين, to see how they interpreted this ayah and how practically they applied it in their blessed lives.

The Hadith of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari: Give Glad Tidings, Do Not Drive People Away

Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, رضي الله تعالى عنه, one of the famous companions of Rasulullah, صلى الله عليه وسلم, says in a very authentic hadith — and let me tell you the source and grade of this hadith. The source is Sunan Abi Dawud, which is one of the six authentic collections of hadith known as the Sihah Sittah, Hadith number 4835. The grade of this hadith is almost sahih (authentic), as authenticated by Allama Suyuti, رحمه الله عليه.

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4835; authenticated by Allama Suyuti)

Abu Musa al-Ash'ari says: Whenever the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, would send one of his companions or some of his companions on a mission, he would always advise them: "You are going to people who are not aware of Islam. They don't know the teachings of Islam. They would like to know what Islam is all about. So whenever you go to stranger peoples, to those people to whom you are presenting Islam for the first time — give them the glad tidings. Give them the good news. Do not scare people away from Islam. Do not create nafrah. Do not create hate in their hearts, in their minds, in their thoughts against Islam."

I swear by Allah, these are the words of the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم. Nafrah — we all know this word; even Urdu and Farsi speaking people know it across many languages. Do not scare people away from your beautiful deen, from your beautiful religion Islam. Make their affairs easy on them. Do not make it difficult on them.

Beautiful — four principles from the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم. The beautiful, basic components of the true Islamic picture, the real Islam — or the positive Islam, whatever name you want to give it. But this is the real and true picture of Islam. That was the advice of Rasulullah, صلى الله عليه وسلم, to his ambassadors — those who were the ambassadors of Islam to other peoples.

The Prophet's Treatment of Foreign Diplomats and Ambassadors

Now I will briefly also cover, inshallah, one area: what was the dealing, what was the attitude, what was the behavior of the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, towards other ambassadors — most of them non-Muslims — who visited him in Madinatul Munawwarah. As you know, the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, was also the head of the Islamic state. And how did he deal with those diplomats?

In modern day we call them diplomats or ambassadors — those people working in an embassy, consulate, those traveling to other countries as journalists, press reporters. All of these fall under the definition of diplomats. What was the attitude of Rasulullah, صلى الله عليه وسلم, towards these people?

There is a scholar who wrote an entire article on that — Adab al-Sifarah fil Islam (The Etiquettes of Diplomacy in the Teachings of Islam) — and he quoted several examples from the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, showing how much he was respectful to all those people who were visiting his country.

One time — and it was in the context of an ambassador visiting from the Roman Empire, the safir (ambassador) from the King of Rome — the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, at that time had nothing to offer him. So he asked around his companions: "Who is the one who will show hospitality, who will give the ziyafah to my guest?" That envoy said, "Ya Muhammad, there is no need, I am okay." He said, "No, you have a right upon us. At this time you are our guest and you have a right upon us. We have to fulfill our duties towards you as an ambassador." That was the attitude of Rasulullah, صلى الله عليه وسلم, and one Sahabi stood up and said, "Ya Rasulullah, I will take the responsibility, I will take care of you — don't worry about it."

In other narrations, as quoted by that scholar, it is mentioned that sometimes the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, would not only exchange gifts with them — exchanging gifts is still customary in practice between countries when ambassadors visit — but on top of that, the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, would give them cash. The amount is recorded in the books: 500 dirhams of the currency of that time. I do not have any currency converter here, but you can imagine — roughly like 5,000 US dollars at minimum — that was an additional gift from Rasulullah, صلى الله عليه وسلم, to all those sufara (diplomats) who were visiting him.

Hafiz Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, رحمه الله عليه, also said in his explanation of one hadith that the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, always said to his companions: "Ajeeru al-wufood, ajeeru al-wufood" — all delegations coming to a Muslim country, show them your hospitality, give them the best you can. Complete protection, the safety of their lives, the security of their lives — this is displayed throughout all the practices and sunnah of Rasulullah, صلى الله عليه وسلم.

The Warning Against Extremism

My brothers and sisters in Islam, I do not have the time, so for the sake of time I will conclude my khutbah here. But we are learning a lot from the beautiful sunnah of the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, and his Sahabah, رضوان الله تعالى عليهم أجمعين.

I had thought inshallah I would also speak on the topic of extremism — religious extremism. Inshallah, if Allah gives me another chance, I will come back and speak on that topic, because this is also an area that we all need to understand. Yesterday there was a good program and I commend the efforts of CAIR — the Council on American-Islamic Relations — who took the initiative and held a program yesterday at the SMU campus on the topic of religious extremism and the politics of fear.

We have to educate ourselves as Muslims and then give a clear, very positive image and picture of Islam, because there are people waiting for any weakness, ready to grasp it and promote hate against Islam and Muslim people. All these stories you have been listening to — some of our girls from Colorado running away from their homes — alhamdulillah they were caught in time and brought back. It is also a very alarming situation as Muslim parents.

I would like to make an appeal to all the scholars of Islam, especially here — alhamdulillah in our area we are blessed, we have so many scholars of Islam in many Islamic centers, masajid, and independently teaching courses and very good programs — but they should include this topic as well, because it is a need of the time. We should teach our children and young ones what the right teaching of Islam is, so that they do not have extremist points and extremism in their minds.

The Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, very clearly said — and this is an authentic hadith from Sahih Muslim:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 47, Hadith 7)

"Ruined are the extremists" — the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, repeated it three times. The word mutanatti'oon — I invite you to look it up and study its meaning. Imam al-Nawawi, رحمه الله, explained this word in detail in his Sharh of Sahih Muslim, the famous commentary he wrote as an explanation of Sahih Muslim. He said: all those people who go beyond the limits in their speeches or in their actions all come under the definition of mutanatti'oon, and the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, already declared that all those people who are extremist are ruined.

May Allah give me the tawfeeq, give me the ability, give me the guidance and hidayah, and to all of you inshallah, to better understand our beautiful deen and our beautiful religion Islam, to follow the right teachings of Islam, and to present the true, pure, and real image of Islam to others as well.

The Khulafa' Rashidun Were Themselves Victims of Extremism

My brothers and sisters of Islam, almost every Friday we listen to the khatib. In the second khutbah especially we send salutations upon the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, and then upon his family, his companions, and especially the four rightly guided Khulafa Rashidun — Hazrat Abu Bakr, Hazrat Umar, Hazrat Uthman, and Hazrat Ali, رضي الله عنهم.

You know that two of them were assassinated. And if you go back in the history of Islam — who carried out the assassination of Uthman and Ali? They were not non-Muslim people. They were Muslim people — but religious extremists. Extremist people are the ones who killed Hazrat Uthman and also Hazrat Ali. Because of their religious belief and ideology they thought that anyone who commits any sin is outside the fold of Islam and becomes an infidel, and that it is permissible to kill an infidel. So they took Uthman as an infidel and kafir, and later on Hazrat Ali as well.

This is the reality — that even the mainstream of Muslims, even our own Khulafa Rashidun, were victims of this religious extremism. And if you look nowadays also, who are the most victims of this extremism? Our own Muslim brothers and sisters in every country. It is a very unfortunate thing that we are so many in numbers yet also the most victimized — because of the political situations in Iraq, in Syria, millions of Muslims have sacrificed their lives.

May Allah accept them as shuhada. May Allah grant them the degree of shahadah. May Allah bless them with Jannatul Firdaus. But the unfortunate part is that when something little happens, all Muslims become labeled as oppressors, as violent people, as people with no courtesy — because of the mistakes of some people, all the sacrifices of millions of Muslims are going to waste.

So we have to be very smart, we have to be very careful, we have to be very intelligent. The Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, has said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3127)

"Beware of the firasat — the intelligence and sharpness — of the mu'min, for he sees by the light of Allah." We have to make our own strategies, we have to realize that we are living in this world and figure out how to combat all these things going on against Muslim people.

Yesterday I was listening to a news piece and alhamdulillah it made me happy — there was a loss of 3 million dollars for Coca-Cola company. This is the modern day: you can protest in this way. Muslims have boycotted and they have seen the consequences — a loss of 3 million dollars. So we are living in this modern time and there are many ways of protesting and showing our frustration, but it should be done in an appropriate way. And we have to teach our children the same guidelines.

Appeal for Frisco Masjid Fundraiser

I am coming to another most important point of my khutbah, and an appeal. As you know, Frisco Masjid is under construction. Frisco is an extension of Plano Masjid — alhamdulillah, Plano and Frisco have always been together. Most of the families in Frisco were here first; some of them are the pioneers of Plano Masjid, but later they moved to Frisco. Now, because the community is growing over there, it is an extension of Plano. There is now a dire need — because hundreds of families have already moved to Frisco — for a masjid. The project is under construction.

Alhamdulillah, we started this journey 4 years ago and so far we have achieved several milestones:

The first milestone: the entire land — more than 8 acres, worth 1.3 million dollars today — has been completely paid off. Alhamdulillah, summa alhamdulillah. There is no loan on the land whatsoever. It is 100% ownership of the Islamic Center of Frisco. MashAllah.

The second milestone: the site development of the land has been completed — another almost 1 million dollars in expenses, alhamdulillah.

Now the third phase: we need to raise the structure of the masjid — the walls and the roof — because people are not seeing it yet. They ask, "Where is the masjid? When is the masjid?" Inshallah, this is the time. You will see very soon, inshallah, by the will of Allah. Our target is that the next Ramadan of 2015 will inshallah be performed in the new Frisco Masjid. Alhamdulillah.

We have complete trust in Allah and His help and support, and that help and support comes to us in the form of your generous donations and the support of the community. So today is the day of our fundraiser. We did not do one last year, so it is a past-due fundraiser, I should say. I would like to invite every one of you — all the families — to please come and attend tomorrow's fundraiser. It will be at the Courtyard by Marriott in Allen — a very prominent hotel on US-75 and Stacy Road — where we have held several Eid prayers and other fundraisers before. Inshallah, you are all invited tomorrow at 6:30 PM. Your beloved Imam Yasir is coming as the guest speaker inshallah, so you have another chance to listen to him and meet with him.

Two appeals I would like to make: First, please buy your tickets today. Buying the tickets is also a big means of your help. Our brothers and sisters are here; you can meet them right after prayer. Second, when you come tomorrow, whatever Allah has given you the tawfeeq to contribute — you will be among the pioneers, the founders of the house of Allah. I don't need to tell you the reward of that. As the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, said: whoever builds a house for Allah, Allah will build a beautiful house for him in Jannah. So you are all invited, and I appeal to you to please support this project generously. This fundraiser is very crucial because of the current state of the project — we need your support more than ever. Please take my words seriously.

Du'a

Ibadallah, rahimakumullah:

Remember Allah the Most High and He will remember you. Call upon Him and He will answer you. And the remembrance of Allah is the greatest thing. And Allah knows all that you do.