Surah Kahf Recitation & Jumu'ah Khutbah | Mawlana Ahsan Syed | 10/10

Jumu'ah Khutbah — Mawlana Ahsan Syed

Knowledge Is Passed from Person to Person

From the beginning of time, from the time Allah created Adam alayhis salam and his progeny afterwards, the method of imparting knowledge and understanding has always been from one person to another person. The method of imparting knowledge and skill has always been that it's been from one person to the other person. And even to our time and in our age today, it still, for the most part, remains the same.

You have traditions and civilizations of the past where they would develop one particular skill under their mentor for decades. So for example, the Japanese are known for this — that whatever skill that you're developing, you're going to be under your teacher, your mentor, and they'll develop that skill, whatever it is, for decades and decades. Until finally, either their mentor says, "I think you're ready," or the mentor in the process passes away, and then they take the seat of their mentor.

And even in our tradition, that was one of the most famous statements that a scholar, if he's in a position of leadership, would say:

"I didn't compete with anyone to get into this position. Rather, I studied and kept on studying with my sheikh. The death of my elders made me now an elder." Why? Because I studied under them for so many years, so many years, and now that they've passed away, now I'm forced to be in this position.

The Example of Imam Malik and His Students

That's what it used to be. Many of the muhaddithun would be surprised — you know, sometimes we tell our students this and they don't realize — that a student would continue to study under their mashayikh for years. Some of the narrators spent 10 years, a whole decade; some 20 years.

Imam Malik, rahimahullah, has a very famous student of his by the name of Abdullah ibn Maslamah al-Qarnabi, rahimahullah. 35 years he spent with Imam Malik, rahimahullah, in Medina Munawwara.

And Imam Malik — what's known about him — is that he was in such love with Medina Munawwara, he never left it. The only time he left Medina was to go to Mecca for Hajj and Umrah. Otherwise he never visited any other city of the Muslim world. He said, "How can I leave Medina Munawwara? Which other city am I going to go to?"

And it comes about Imam Malik, rahimahullah, in the adab that he had for the city of Medina — he would never ride any animal in Medina Munawwara, saying, "This is the land in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is buried. How can I ride any animal?"

And when it came to narrating hadith, if somebody were to come and ask him to narrate hadith, he would first go, take ghusl, come back, wear nice clothes, and then he would sit in the majlis, and then he would narrate hadith.

One student of Imam Malik, rahimahullah, says that while he was narrating hadith to us, they started seeing the color of his face change:

The color on his face started to change. They wondered what was happening. After he finished narrating the hadith, he continued to sit — with adab, with etiquette. After his dars completed, when the students asked, he said there was a scorpion that came on him and stung him about 16 or 17 times. But he didn't want to move —

"Out of respect for the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, I didn't want to move." And that's why he just remained as is. But of course a person cannot prevent the involuntary reaction of the body — the pain is coming, the scorpion is stinging — and here Imam Malik, rahimahullah's face is changing.

These are not like fairy tales that I'm mentioning to glorify certain individuals. These are actual individuals who, out of their love for Rasulullah ﷺ and the hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ, went and endured all kinds of hardship for the preservation of the hadith — so that it reaches us today.

Our True Forefathers in Faith

Most of us don't even know these names. Most of us don't even care to learn about the heritage that our forefathers left for us. And when I say forefathers — for us as Muslims, our forefathers are not based on just blood, based on lineage. They are those pioneers, those individuals who accepted Iman, who accepted Islam, and held the banner of Islam and continued to take it so that we have it today. That's why I refer to them as our forefathers.

Because what makes us brothers is not the fact that we are related by blood. What makes you and I brothers is the fact that you say لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا اللهُ and I say لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا اللهُ. You say مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللهِ and I say مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللهِ. You face the Qibla, I face the Qibla. That's what makes you and I Muslim brothers. It's not lineage — although it could be, in which case the right and the haq becomes even more stronger.

The Brotherhood of the Muhajirun and Ansar

When the Prophet ﷺ migrated to Medina Munawwara, among the very first things that he did was he paired each Muhajir sahabi with an Ansari sahabi — for this very reason, that you develop such bonds between each other that you actually now begin to feel and consider one another as brothers.

In fact, early on, the ruling was that if one of the two passed away, the other would inherit — even though there's no familial bond. But to enforce this brotherhood to that degree, the ruling was that if one of them — so for example, a Muhajir sahabi passed away — the Ansari sahabi would inherit as well. And if the Ansari sahabi passed away, the Muhajir sahabi would inherit as well. Until later on, Allah sent down the ayah:

That those who have familial bonds are now going to inherit from one another.

The Danger of Technology Replacing Human Connection

This tradition of ours was passed down how? From one individual to another individual. The reason why I mention this is that we are living in an age where our go-to has become these technological devices — whether it's the phone, the laptop, whatever the case is. There's no mufti who is going to stand here and say, "Look, we prohibit all of this stuff." We all are using it. But we have to be able to recognize the function of these things and be able to recognize the parameters of these things. Because if we don't recognize them, this will be the doom for humanity, this will be the cause for destruction.

I would not be surprised — and many of our scholars are now saying — that we would not be surprised if this is the very thing that leads us to the age of Dajjal. With all the stuff that's coming up with AI and whatnot, it is not surprising anymore if this is what's going to lead us into the age of Dajjal. It's no longer surprising.

So the issue is not, "Okay, let's pack up everything and put it away." The issue is: how is it that I can save myself and my family from the effects of these things?

Who We Are Is Shaped by Our Interactions

We know this is something very commonly understood by all of us — that the nature that we have and the akhlaq that each one of us possesses, who we are today is made up of the various different interactions we've had with the people in our life. I am who I am. I stand here before you today why? Because there were hundreds of people that worked in order for me to be here — my parents, my teachers, my friends. And each one of us can say the same.

As you get older, you start to realize it even more. "Oh, you know what? This habit of mine — my dad used to have this habit." You realize it. "This — my mom used to do this." "Why are you so particular about this?" "Oh, I got it from my mom." "Why do you behave this way?" "Because my brother or my sister — they were like this — I developed it from them." "How are you the way you are?" "My friends are like this."

Now what's happening is all those relationships are being replaced. And I kid you not — and you may know very well — we have our own kids who are on these devices for 6, 7, 8 hours in a day. That is their sohbah. That is the interaction that they have. It's not a human interaction. So what do you think the sohbah of that will bring within the person? The nature of that thing will come within the person.

And that's one of the reasons why — we're in the business of education, we deal with kids all the time — one of the things that we notice is that with every year that goes on, these kids that are coming in barely have the ability to even communicate with one another. They don't know how to communicate. These things are devoid of any spirit. These things are devoid of any emotion. These things are devoid of a heart. These things are devoid of any ruh. So how do you expect that love, that care, that concern that passes from one individual to another — that that also be artificially made through that? It cannot.

The Barakah of Human Advice and Du'a

You can go to your parents for advice. You can ask the AI chatbox for advice too — and I'm sure you've probably seen that the advice that AI can give you is probably more thorough than the advice that other people can give you sometimes. But I tell you one thing: you ask your father, you ask your mother for advice, you ask your friends for advice — and you ask these things. Though the AI's answer may be thorough, they do not have the same heart, they do not have the same barakah that the person has.

I ask my mother for advice, I ask my father for advice — their advice comes with du'a. This thing is going to make du'a for you? I ask my mother something, and afterwards she says, "Beta, Allah ta'ala make it easy for you." It comes with du'a. You think these things are going to replace that du'a? You think they're going to replace that muhabba? You think they're going to replace that connection, that bond that we have between two people?

And when our kids come to us — don't be stingy with your du'as. If you are a parent, for Allah's sake, don't be stingy with your du'as. They do something good — make du'a: "Allah ta'ala give you more. Allah ta'ala give you barakah. Allah ta'ala make you righteous. Allah ta'ala make you His beloved." Don't be stingy with your du'as when it comes to your kids.

We're losing this. This part of humanity we're losing today. We're losing it. Our kids cannot communicate with us, we cannot communicate with our kids. There's no such thing as dinner time. Where's your son? He's sitting in the corner of the room on his laptop. Where's the daughter? She's in her room on her phone. Where's the wife? She's on her device. Where are you? I'm also on my device. And if we have to communicate, we're communicating via text message.

The Meaning of Insan — The Social Being

The very thing that made us human — we're losing it. Some scholars say the word in Arabic that's used for human being, insan — some scholars say that the word insan comes from uns, and uns is that sociability that a person has, the fact that he's with other people. That's where it comes from. So the very thing that makes up our core, that makes us human — we're losing it. Why? Because the hours that we should be spending with one another are spent on these devices.

And that's just one aspect of it. I'm not even talking about the other harmful aspects. We have in our communities — not even just children — grownups who are now addicted to things that should not even be watched. We're consuming all of that. We're watching that stuff. We're listening to things we're not supposed to. And that's where most of our time is going by — scrolling.

And most people will think, "Oh, this is an issue that youth have." Definitely they have it. But grownups, those of us who are older — we also have this issue. One brother I spoke to said, "Yeah, you know, I heard what you had to say — you're right. I'm over 60 years old, but you know, every day I definitely end up spending 4 to 5 hours on my phone just scrolling through YouTube, watching this video and that video." You're over 60 years old and 4 to 5 hours of your day is going by on that — not work-related, just scrolling.

So where do we think we're headed? It doesn't require us to use complicated mathematical equations to figure out what's going to end up happening.

Preparing for the Trials of the End of Times

It's ajeeb — if we sit down and read the books of hadith, there are whole chapters dedicated to the trials and the fitnas that are going to come in the future. The Prophet ﷺ told the Sahabah, ridwanullahi alayhim ajma'in, and the Sahabah, ridwanullahi alayhim ajma'in, then passed those ahadith from generation to generation. Imam Bukhari has a chapter on it. Abu Dawood has a chapter on it. Pages of ahadith dedicated to what is going to happen towards the end of time.

Why? It's not there — I've said this before — it's not there to pique our interest and say, "Oh wow, this is very interesting." Nor is it there for us to say, "Oh see, see, see — look, it's showing us that the Prophet ﷺ was true." We already know as Muslims that the Prophet ﷺ is true. He's al-sadiq al-ameen. We don't need to use these things to confirm that he's truthful. We know he's truthful. He's the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. We already know that.

These things are told to us so that we can prepare. We don't watch the weather forecast just to be intrigued — "Oh wow, subhanAllah, it's going to rain today? That's interesting. Let me tell everybody it's going to rain today." No, you do it so you're prepared. If it's raining tomorrow, you may need to leave early from home. If it's going to snow, you know you have to wake up early, wake up the kids early, clean the car, clean the driveway — so that you don't go late to school, you don't go late to work.

The Rasul of Allah ﷺ is not mentioning these things so that we could be intrigued with them and have discussions at a coffee shop over them — "What do you think this means? What do you think that means? How do you think this is going to be?" It's for you and I to be prepared. When these days do come — and most of those things are already being witnessed today — whether it's the prevalence of death, whether it's the zina, whatever it is — most of those things are around us. We're probably just looking for the major signs now.

They're not there for us to make a checkmark: "Okay, this is there, okay, now we're just waiting for Dajjal — let's see how Dajjal looks." No, we don't want to live during that time. We want to be protected during that time. So we have to be able to recognize these things.

May Allah grant us the tawfiq to understand these things. These are very serious things. These are really serious things. Because they jeopardize not only our life in this world, but they have the potential to jeopardize our life in the hereafter — which is the most important. May Allah grant us tawfiq to understand.

Announcements

Please pass the donation boxes from left to right. There are kiosks also in the lobby. We know the rewards of sadaqah — there are numerous rewards. Giving sadaqah, among them, is that it draws the mercy of Allah and wards off calamities.

This weekend the student body in the alimiyah program — those studying in the seven-year program — are all out on a da'wah trip to different masajid. That's why the crowd may seem a little less today, and you may not see as many wearing turbans as you normally do. We have over a hundred students in the alimiyah program alone, and they are from all over the states. I was in the morning with a group of 10–12 students: one from Florida, another from Houston, another from California. We are so blessed by Allah to have a place like this, where scholars and students come from around the nation to study, then go back to their communities and start working.

We don't fully realize the spiritual, ruhani benefit of a place like this — where you have young students memorizing the Qur'an, preserving the Qur'an in their hearts; students studying the Arabic language, learning the meanings of the Qur'an; students learning the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, memorizing hadith, and learning and preserving the deen of Allah. Our view on this should be: how can I be a part of this? For your contributions, your khidmah, your help — there may be some student who graduated who is doing some work, and you have ajar going into your account that you have no idea about. You'll find out on the Day of Judgment: these students I helped — look at what they did, they produced communities themselves.

We have our annual fundraising dinner coming up. If we can all purchase our tickets — and for whatever reason if we're not able to attend, we can still purchase a ticket and tell other people about it. We have inshallah Imam Dawood Waleed, who is the executive director of CARE in Michigan, as a guest. That will be Saturday, October 18th, 5:30pm at Shalimar Banquets.

We have our regular programs: a Tuesday tafsir, a Thursday shama'il program, and tomorrow our normal Saturday schedule with Team Fajr inshallah. We also have a number of sisters' programs — you can visit the website for more information.

Du'a Requests

One of our local brother volunteers, Anwar bhai, recently had heart surgery — make du'a that Allah grant him complete shifa.

Shah Jahan Begum is sick — may Allah ta'ala grant her shifa kamilah as well.

Du'a also for Sister Razia, the wife of Dr. Amanullah — she is in stage 4 cancer. May Allah ta'ala grant her shifa kamilah and aafiyah.

We have another sister who was diagnosed with a serious heart condition linked to a genetic disorder. We again ask Allah ta'ala to grant her aafiyah and shifa.

And Brother Sajid Hassan's mother is having open heart surgery today — we make du'a that Allah ta'ala allows that procedure to go smoothly and grants her complete recovery.

May Allah grant all of those in our community who are ill and sick — shifa kamilah and aafiyah. And those who have passed away from our communities, may Allah grant them maghfirah and rahmah. Ameen.