Surah Kahf Recitation & Jumu'ah Khutbah | Mawlana Ahsan Syed | 6/13

Recitation of Surah Al-Kahf

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Who sent down the Book to His servant, and He did not make it crooked, but straight, to warn of a severe punishment from Him. And He gives good tidings to the believers who do righteous deeds, that they will have a good reward.

They will remain in it forever. And He warns those who say, Allah has taken a son. They have no knowledge of it, nor do their fathers. A great word comes out of their mouths. They say nothing but a lie. So perhaps you will humble yourself to their footsteps, if they do not believe in this hadith, alas.

Indeed, We have made that which is on the earth an adornment for them, that We may test them, which of them is best in deed. And indeed, We will make that which is on it a high mountain. Or did you think that the companions of the cave, those who remained, were of Our signs, amazed? When the young men took refuge in the cave, they said, Our Lord, give us mercy from You, and prepare for us from our security a right way.

So We struck on their ears in the cave a number of years. Then We raised them up that We might know which of the two parties was best for what they remained for. We tell you their story in truth. Indeed, they are young men who believed in their Lord, and We increased them in guidance. And We strained their hearts when they stood up, and they said, Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. We will not call upon a god other than Him. Indeed, We said, If that were the case, they would have been cut off. These are a people who have taken gods other than Him. Why do they not come to them with a clear authority? So who is more unjust than one who invents a lie about God?

And when you take refuge in them, and they worship none but Allah, then go to the cave. Your Lord will spread for you His mercy, and prepare for you from your security a right way. And you will see the sun, when it rises, move away from their cave to the right, and when it sets, you will approach them to the left, and they will be in a distance from it. That is one of the signs of Allah. Whoever Allah guides, he is the guided one. And whoever He lets go astray, you will not find for him a guardian guided.

And you think they are awake, and they are asleep. And We turn them to the right and to the left, and their dog is stiff, his arm is in the middle. If you had looked at them, you would have fled from them, and you would have been filled with terror. And thus did We send them that they might ask one another. One of them said, How long have you stayed? They said, We stayed a day or a part of a day. They said, Your Lord knows best how long you have stayed. So send one of you with your son, this one, to the city, so that he may see. And they said, O most humble of food, let him bring you some of his provision, and let him be gentle, and let him not make you aware of anyone. Verily, if they are proud of you, they will attack you, or make you return to their religion, and you will not succeed, then, ever.

And thus did We send them that they might know that the promise of Allah is true, and that the Hour is in it no doubt. When they disputed among themselves over their affair, they said, Build on them a building. Their Lord knows best them. Those who were victorious over their security said, We will surely take upon them a stronghold. They will say, Three, the fourth of them is their dog, and they will say, Five, the sixth of them is their dog, a stone in the unseen. And they will say, Seven, and the eighth of them is their dog. Say, My Lord knows best their number. Only a few know them, so do not cause them any trouble, except in a manifest way, and do not inquire of any of them.

And do not say of anything, Verily, I will do that tomorrow, except if Allah wills. And remember your Lord when you forget, and say, It may be that my Lord will guide me nearer to this direction. And they stayed in their cave for three hundred years, and increased by nine. Say, Allah knows best what they stayed in, the unseen of the heavens and the earth. See with it and hear. They have no protector besides Him, and no one associates anyone with Him in His judgment.

And enter into what has been revealed to you from the Book of your Lord. There is no alterer for His words, and you will not find besides Him a refuge. And associate yourself with those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, desiring His Face. And do not turn your eyes away from them, desiring the adornment of the life of this world. And do not obey one whose heart We have kept hidden from Our remembrance, and whose desire he has pursued, and whose affair has been in vain.

And say, The truth is from your Lord. So whoever wills, let him believe, and whoever wills, let him deny. Verily, We have prepared for the wrongdoers a Fire, which envelops them in its darkness. And if they transgress, they will be overwhelmed by water like molten copper. The faces will be scorched. Evil is the drink, and evil is the agreement.

Verily, those who believe and do righteous deeds, We do not waste the reward of one who does a good deed. Those will have the Gardens of Eden, beneath which rivers flow. They will be adorned therein with bracelets of gold. And they will wear garments of green silk and brocade, reclining therein on couches. Excellent is the reward, and good is the agreement.

And give them the parable of two men. We made for one of them two Gardens of grapes. And We surrounded them with date-palms. And We placed between them crops. Both the two Gardens provided for their food. And they did not do any wrong thereof. And We caused a river to flow through them. And he had a fruit. So he said to his companion, while he was carrying it, I am greater than you in wealth and might. And he entered a Garden. And he was unjust to himself. He said, I do not think that this will ever be lost. And I do not think that the Hour will be established. And if I return to my Lord, I will surely find better than it to return.

His companion said to him, while he was carrying it, Do you disbelieve in the One who created you from dust, then from a sperm, then made you into a man? But He is Allah, my Lord, and I associate no one with my Lord. And if you had not entered your Garden, you would have said, Allah wills, there is no power except with Allah. If you see me, I am less than you in wealth and might. So it may be that my Lord will give me something better than your Garden. And He will send upon it a rainstorm from the sky, and it will become a sliding hill. Or its water will become a pit, and you will not be able to swallow it.

And he was surrounded by his fruit. So he turned his hands over what he had spent on it while it was lying on its throne. And he said, Oh, I wish I had not associated anyone with my Lord. And he had no party to help him besides Allah, nor was he helping himself. There is true loyalty to Allah. He is the best reward and the best punishment.

And set forth for them an example of the life of the world, as if We had sent it down from the sky, and the plant of the earth mixed with it, and it became a grass that the winds could gnaw. And Allah is, over all things, All-Powerful. Wealth and children are the adornment of the life of the world. And the good things that remain are better with your Lord as a reward and a better hope.

And on the Day when We will move the mountains, and you will see the earth as a barrier, and We will gather them together, and We will not leave any of them. And turn to your Lord in ranks. You have come to Us as We created you the first time. But you claimed that We would make for you an appointment. And the Book will be placed, and you will see the criminals anxious about what is in it, and they will say, Oh, woe to us! What is this Book? It does not leave a little or a great one, and they found what they did present, and your Lord does not wrong anyone.

And when We said to the angels, prostrate to Adam, they prostrated except Iblis. He was of the jinn, so he disobeyed the commandment of his Lord. Will you then take him and his descendants as allies instead of him? And they are to you an enemy. Woe to the wrongdoers!

Khutbah: The World Is Created for You — Now Connect to Allah

Do you need the natural world to exist? No, they — the animals, the plants — would be thriving regardless. Whether it's the animal kingdom, whether it's plants, you name it. But you and I need these things. Without food, without vegetation, we cannot survive. Without water, we cannot survive.

The whole alternation between day and night is for us. The night Allah made for you so that you could get rest, sleep. The type of sleep that you get at night, you don't get that during the day. A person who's awake all night and tries to sleep in the morning — everybody knows — the type of sleep that you get at night, you can't get that same sleep in the morning.

And by daytime, subhanAllah, that's made for you to earn, to earn your living. Anything on this earth — the earth, for example, we know two thirds of it is water, which is absolutely essential. Most of us probably don't know or realize, but in order for life to exist on this planet, the amount of water that's on earth is needed to cool the earth, to keep the earth at a temperature that allows for humans to survive, for life to survive.

The rain that falls is for us:

Have you seen the water? Is it you that bring it down? Or is it us? Do you bring it down from the clouds? Or is it us? It's a water filtration system. Water comes from the oceans. Allah knows where that water, the droplets of water that evaporate, that condense into clouds, where they're coming from, which part of the globe are they coming from. And then they come down and rain on you, and you have no idea where each droplet of water falls and what seed grows from that water.

Have you seen that? The crops that grow? Have you seen what you cultivate? Is it you that cause these crops to grow? Or is it us? أَمْ نَحْنُ الزَّارِعُونَ — or is it us?

That fire — we need for warmth, we need to cook:

Do you see the fire that you kindle? Is it you that cause that fire to light and ignite? Or is it us? Everything — from the sun and moon — Allah sakhkhara, subjugated it. That's why Allah says:

The sun, the moon for you. The night, the day for you. The heavens and the earth for you. The stars are for you. Unfortunately, we become so detached from the natural world. Most of us don't even recognize. In the past, the stars used to be a way for navigation. They used to look at the stars and the different constellations. Through that, they would be able to know: okay, where are we? Where are we headed? Are we headed north? Are we headed south? That was their form of navigation.

These landmarks and these stars — these are a way for you to be guided, whether you're traveling by land or you're traveling by sea. All of that is created for you. They're in the service of you. You are created for a greater objective, and all of these things take care of the ضَرُورِيَّات and the حَاجَات of the human being.

Necessities and Needs of the Human Being

ضَرُورِيَّات are those things that a person cannot survive without — that's what we call something that's ضَرُورَة. You cannot survive without it. You as a human being would cease to exist if you had no food, no water. These are from ضَرُورِيَّات.

حَاجَات are those things that you could survive without, but it would be very difficult. Allah made that as well. For example, Nikah is considered from حَاجَات بَشَرِيَّة — they're from human need. Can a person survive without marrying? Yes, he can survive. But would life be very difficult? Yes, it would be very, very difficult. So all of these things are made for you — the community that you see, the people that you see, the interactions that are there — these are all for you, and Allah made this for man.

These ضَرُورِيَّات and حَاجَات — they're taken care of at a تَكْوِينِي level, at the level of the universe that Allah created. They're there to serve you and take care of your needs. Then there are those needs and those requirements that Allah placed on you and I — that until we don't fulfill them, they will not be carried out. Those are under تَشْرِيع, those are under the شَرِيعَة. Allah ordered that, Allah mandated that.

Responsibility Towards Family

A child when he's born — who's responsible for that child? Who is accountable for the needs of that child? It's the parents. So the شَرِيعَة demands that if you have a child, then you as a father, you as a mother, are responsible to take care of this child. And at the larger scale, at the macro scale, yes, food in general is provided for man. At the macro level, shelter is provided for man. You have to use the عَقْل that Allah gave. And at the micro level, Allah orders you now to take care of these things, and if you don't take care of them now, you're violating the law that Allah gave.

That parent who is not providing for their child despite having the ability to — he is now violating the law of Allah. You have a child, the responsibility of that child is on you. You're accountable now. You will be asked: We gave you this child. Did you feed him? Did you clothe him to the best of your ability? Did you provide shelter for him? Similarly, when the parent grows old and the children are now young and on their own feet, the responsibility of the parents is on the children.

These parents, now at old age, are under your responsibility — whether they are one or both of them are alive. You are responsible, you must provide for them, you must take care of them. Don't say "uff," do not cause any type of harm to them, don't bring their displeasure. This is the system that's created by Allah, this is part of the تَشْرِيع. In fact, make du'a for them:

And just like, for example, when it comes to kids — just like we have the responsibility and we are accountable for their food, we're accountable for their protection, their shelter — we're also accountable for how they become. The knowledge that's given to them: do they recognize the rights? In the hadith it comes:

(Referenced by scholars of hadith in discussions of kinship rights; see related narrations in Musnad Ahmad)

Learn family relationships. You should know who your father is, you should know who your mother is — it sounds simple. You should know who your grandparents are. You should know who your uncles and aunts are. Why? Because there are rights that are attached to these relationships. So you should learn those relationships, and you should know the rights that are demanded by Allah based on those relationships. You may know who your neighbor is, but do you know the rights that Allah placed on the neighbor? So without عِلْم, without knowing — how are you going to fulfill that right? How is your child supposed to fulfill your right if you didn't fulfill the responsibility of teaching him that?

Then these types of needs of the human being that Allah mandated — we have to fulfill them, whether it's at the family level, at the community level. A family is the basic unit. Fine, let's start with the individual. That individual who has knowledge, that individual who has understanding, him carrying out the أَحْكَام of Allah — then him and his spouse together, this is the basic building block unit of the community. You have children from there, all other relationships stem from this.

Adam and Hawwa — from Adam and Hawwa:

We created you from Adam and Hawwa — so these relationships that we created, now you are responsible, you are accountable for them.

Fulfilling Needs Enables Connection with Allah

The reason why I'm mentioning all this is: until the person's حَاجَات and ضَرُورِيَّات are not fulfilled, he will not be able to think about Allah and connect himself to Allah. Imagine if a person is hungry and he's starving, he doesn't have food, and you tell him, "Brother, you have to pray — salah time has come." You think he's gonna be thinking about prayer? No, his mind is: I don't have food, I can't stand up.

That person who's going through waswasa — they're a young man, young woman who at that age now their testosterone and their hormones are going all wild, they have the ability, they're responsible now — and you say, "No, no, no, you can't get married right now. You have to get married later — five years, ten years." What do you think is going to happen? That's a حَاجَة that he has, and you're not fulfilling that حَاجَة. You think he'll be able to concentrate in his salah, in his reciting of the Quran? He can't. His mind is somewhere else, her mind is somewhere else.

So where Allah made all of this, there are certain responsibilities that you and I also have to fulfill. Without fulfilling them — without these حَاجَات and ضَرُورِيَّات being fulfilled — a person is not going to connect himself to Allah. That's why in the du'a, the Prophet mentions — we seek protection:

From that type of poverty that makes a person forget about Allah, and from that type of affluence that makes a person arrogant — he's so affluent, he has so many things available, so many نِعَم of Allah, that he now forgets about Allah. These are serious.

Most of us are living in this latter category where all types of blessings are for us. I've mentioned a number of times — we have so many blessings, we literally cannot even count, as Allah says:

You have food at your fingertips. You have temperature control — you're sitting in this room. Too hot outside? No problem, open the air conditioning. Too cold outside? Turn the heating on. Tip of your fingers, it's all there. Everything connected through your phone. I need food? Go ahead, order it. It comes right to your door. You need water? You have multiple taps in your home. It's not just the kitchen tap — you have five different bathrooms in the home. You can get clean fresh water from any of those five places. You don't need to go in the wilderness to relieve yourself. You have bathrooms in your home easily, comfortably. A person relieves himself — any person who doesn't recognize that as a نِعْمَة from Allah — my goodness, that's a نِعْمَة from Allah! Allahu Akbar.

The Importance of the Connection with Allah

But once that connection to Allah is made — when a person, whether he's a child or somebody older, when he develops that connection with Allah — then what happens is: even though he goes through difficulty — because life, Allah made the nature of life such that difficulties are going to come — you cannot expect that "I'm living in life and there's gonna be no difficulty." From the time of birth, the actual birth of the child is difficult, not only on the mother but on the child himself. From that time to the last moment, this is life that Allah created:

But once the تَعَلُّق with Allah is built, once a person's relationship is built with Allah — no matter what difficulty he could be in — he could be in pain, he could be going through difficulty, he could be stressed — that's fine, that happens. But because of his connection with Allah, he will be able to now bear those difficulties.

That's the reason why I'm mentioning all this — is our connection with Allah. Do we not see the life of the Prophet ﷺ? There is difficulty from the beginning of the Prophet's ﷺ life till the end. Right at the end, it comes in the Shama'il of Imam Tirmidhi — Aisha radiallahu anha narrates that Rasulullah ﷺ kept a bowl with him of water, and he would put his hand inside the bowl and he would wipe his forehead because of the severity of the pains of death, and he made the du'a:

"Ya Allah, I seek Your protection from the difficulties and the pains of death." That's part of life. But until these حَاجَات and ضَرُورِيَّات — if we're not focusing on them — this is one of the reasons why helping another person, helping another Muslim:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 35, Hadith 6518)

Why is it that Allah is in the assistance of that servant who is in the assistance of other slaves of Allah? It's because he's taking care of those حَاجَات and ضَرُورِيَّات of other people. So the purpose of saying all this is: our connection with Allah is very important, and we must — we must — help facilitate that connection for ourselves and for those around us: our children, our parents, our siblings, our community. This is very important.

Allah grant us تَوْفِيق to be able to understand this. This is the thing that — on the Day of Judgment — the basis of what happens to a person in salvation will be his relationship to Allah. Does he believe in Allah? Does he not believe in Allah? He believes in Allah — how much connection does he have? Then based on that, رَفْعُ الدَّرَجَات in Jannah. May Allah grant us تَوْفِيق.

Second Khutbah

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the master of the prophets and messengers, and upon his family and all his companions.

O beloved ones, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims. And know that this world has been created for you, and that you have been created for the Hereafter. So leave what is left of what will perish, and be of the children of the Hereafter, and not of the children of this world.

O Allah, support Islam and the Muslims. O Allah, help Islam and the Muslims. O Allah, help those who helped the religion of Muhammad ﷺ and make us of them, and leave those who left the religion of Muhammad ﷺ and do not make us of them.

O servants of Allah, may Allah have mercy on you — Allah commands justice and good, and giving to those who are near, and forbids immorality, and evil, and transgression. He warns you, so that you may remember. Remember Allah, the Exalted, the Great — He remembers you. And call upon Him — He will answer you. And the remembrance of Allah is the greatest. And Allah knows what you do.

Announcements

Please pass the donation boxes left to right. There are kiosks in the lobby as well. The Prophet ﷺ has said — it's a well-known statement — sadaqah wards off calamities. The Prophet ﷺ said charity given during the day of Jumu'ah is greater in reward than any other day. It is narrated in Musannaf 'Abd al-Razzaq.

We have a couple of upcoming programs insha'Allah. Please join us the weekend of the 21st and 22nd of June. We have our annual graduation — the 21st we have our Hifz graduation as well as our Tanweer one-year graduation, and on the 22nd will be our 5th annual Khatam Sahih al-Bukhari. It will also include the ijazah in qira'ah for the students who have studied the qira'ah.

We have our Tarbiyah for Tots for boys and girls ages 4 to 5. You can register at mazaddias.org. We have our Quran and Islamic Studies Sports Camp for kids ages 6 to 13. The MEET program for brothers and sisters ages 14 and up. All of these programs and the information regarding them can be viewed on the website insha'Allah.

We have our weekly programs: Surah al-Fajr Tuesday Tafseer that continues, and Thursday Salawat and Urdu Seerah Dars as well — both are after Maghrib Salah. And then join us for our weekly journey through Allah's names, Asma'ullah al-Husna — that's every Saturday after the Fajr Salah.

Sisters' programs: we have our sisters' bi-weekly Seerah and Salawat Sohbah — next session will be on June 15th. Sisters' weekly Urdu Tafseer is currently on pause; more information will come when we continue and resume.

There is one announcement that the World Ijtema will be taking place June 27th, 28th, and 29th at the Rosemount Convention Center. Our brothers are requested to join.

We have du'a requests. Please make du'a for Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and the Muslim Ummah. May Allah alleviate the difficulties that they're going through.

May Allah assist them and aid them. There is one du'a request as well: Sister Rida Siddiqi — she passed away in Texas. May Allah forgive her and elevate her دَرَجَات. Insha'Allah. Jazakumullahu khair.