Surah Kahf Recitation & Jumu'ah Khutbah | Mawlana Farhan Shariff | 9/26

Recitation of Surah Al-Kahf

The following is the recitation of Surah Al-Kahf as recited during the Jumu'ah prayer. The surah covers the stories of the People of the Cave, the two men and their gardens, the parable of this worldly life, the encounter of Musa (Moses) and Al-Khidr, and the story of Dhul-Qarnayn.

Jumu'ah Khutbah: The Importance of Salah

Opening of the First Khutbah

Today, we are going to talk about how to know that the promise of Allah is true and that the Hour is not to be doubted.

Salah: The Guardian of Faith

The one thing which is stopping a person falling into shirk, falling into disbelief, leaving the fold of Islam, is his salah. When he leaves out salah, then the rest of Islam, the rest of his deen comes crumbling down.

There are so many stories, so many people — we're living in such a time where there are hundreds that many of us have even heard about — where they have left the fold of Islam. And if you examine and you look into many of these individuals' lives, those who are so-called or refer to themselves as ex-Muslims, then you'll see one common factor amongst almost all of them is that they left their salah for a significant period before expressing their true beliefs, before sharing this devastating news with their family. Or maybe they didn't; maybe silently, and those who are close to them are aware of the fact.

And this is something which is so important. Of all the different five pillars of Islam, this is the one that perhaps is the most frequently reoccurring in our lives after our belief in the kalima, لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ. Immediately afterwards, it is how regular we are on our prayers.

And this is something which is so extremely important. It should not be taken as a trivial matter, as something light, but rather it holds a very close, a very high position in the court of Allah. This is such a thing. Amongst the various different rules of Islam, the various different injunctions, the Prophet ﷺ has explicitly mentioned:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 495)

This is something the Prophet ﷺ instructed the sahaba to do: instruct your children, order your children to perform salah starting from the age of seven. And discipline them when they reach the age of ten.

This is something that we, as parents, unfortunately take so lightly. When it comes to our children — them performing their homework, them being obedient, them arriving at school on time — we reprimand them for all of these things. But when it comes to salah, oftentimes we are not so particular. "Let the child, it's okay, he can sleep, he doesn't have to wake up for Fajr, he doesn't have to pray Isha. It's okay, when he prays, he prays. If he doesn't pray, that's fine." But if he misses his homework one day, then you can say the rest of the world comes crumbling down. He is now grounded. He is deprived from various different things. But if it comes to his salah, if it comes to his deen — something that the Prophet ﷺ explicitly mentioned, that we should be particular about — then we don't adopt the same attitude.

This is such a thing that every single one of us can, in fact, improve on. Going back to the very first hadith:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 82)

Shaytan Attacks from the Outermost Borders

The scholars mention — and this is a logical example that anyone can think of — that any enemy that you have will attack you from your outermost borders. Any enemy that is attacking a people, a nation, will attack from the outermost borders, the outermost defenses. So if a person is such that he is not performing his five daily prayers, or he is only performing a few of those five daily prayers, Shaytan — man's greatest sworn enemy — as Allah says:

Allah says that Shaytan is your enemy, so take him, treat him as an enemy. He is going to attack from the outermost borders. If a person is not particularly performing all five daily prayers, or maybe that's all that they are performing and nothing else, then Shaytan is going to come to him and say, "Man, you already did your Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha yesterday — just one day, just leave it out, it's okay." Or if a person is doing two or three regularly, Shaytan will say, "You're doing those regularly, just one day, just take a break."

But if a person goes beyond that, and they are particular about the emphasized sunan of the Prophet ﷺ — which have so much reward behind them — if a person performs those prayers, Umm Habibah radiallahu anha has mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ shared in a hadith that the individual who performs the 12 units of sunan mu'akkadah daily:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 728)

Allah will build a palace, a house for him in paradise. SubhanAllah — how many years do we have to save and struggle before securing for ourselves a house in this world? Some of us live our entire lives without even being able to purchase a house for ourselves. Here, just by performing 12 units of sunan mu'akkadah, we will receive such a wonderful reward: two rakahs before Fajr, four before Dhuhr, two after Dhuhr, two after Maghrib, two after Isha.

Such a simple thing, such a great reward. She mentions as well — as three generations of narrators after her — that after we heard this, we ensure that not a day passes except that we performed all 12 rakahs. May Allah also make us amongst those individuals.

Levels of Salah: Building Your Defenses

So each person can work on themselves. If someone is not performing any salah, then they need to start performing their salah. If someone is only performing a few of them, then this is also a time to perform all of them. If someone is performing all of them, then he can begin performing the sunan mu'akkadah as well. He can also venture beyond just performing the salahs and then performing them in jama'ah together, in the masjid if possible. The Prophet ﷺ has mentioned:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 645; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 650)

You will receive 27 times more reward. Then on top of that, if a person is performing their salah in jama'ah, he can go further beyond that and perform all of these sunan mu'akkadah. If a person is only performing the sunan mu'akkadah, then you will see Shaytan will attack the outermost walls. And he will tell you, "Well, you did all of your sunan mu'akkadah today, just leave it out for one day." He's not going to be able to attack your five daily prayers, because that's not the outermost wall of defense.

If a person is now performing their sunan mu'akkadah, and beyond that they're doing more — performing extra voluntary prayers after Maghrib, as what many refer to as Salatul Awwabin, or performing Salatul Duha, or a person is performing Salatul Ishraq, or on top of that performing Tahajjud salah — the most virtuous of extra voluntary prayers — then Shaytan is going to attack with the most outermost wall, and he's going to say, "You did your Tahajjud every single day of the week now, what's one day leaving it out?" He won't be able to touch your sunan mu'akkadah, thereby securing for yourself house upon house upon house in jannah.

So this is something that many of us can all improve on — whether we are of the first category of those who need to pray the five daily prayers, or we need to bring on the sunan mu'akkadah, or even beyond that.

Safeguarding the Prayer

Another thing that we need to keep in mind is what Allah has mentioned:

Safeguard your prayers. The ulama mention that safeguarding our prayers is not only restricted to ensuring that we pray them on time, but also ensuring that we perform them as the Prophet ﷺ taught us.

The believers are definitely the successful ones. Who are they? One of their qualities and characteristics is that they perform their salah with utmost humbleness and humility, ensuring that they are performing their salah in accordance to the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.

This is something we ought to ask ourselves: are we aware of how we need to perform our salah? Are we aware of those things that can potentially break our salah? Is this something that we have bothered to even learn about or not? Alhamdulillah, we are here in the Chicagoland area — a very mubarak area — where we have hundreds of such classes. So we ought to ask ourselves, have we benefited from those or not?

In a hadith, the Prophet ﷺ, signifying the importance of salah, mentions:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 14701)

The key to jannah, the key to paradise, is salah. In another hadith, the Prophet ﷺ has mentioned:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 425; Musnad Ahmad)

There are five prayers which Allah has obligated man to perform. That person who perfects his wudu, and he performs those prayers at their appropriate times, and he performs the salah meticulously and properly with humbleness and humility as taught to us by the Prophet ﷺ — then there is a covenant between this person and Allah that Allah will forgive him. But that individual who does not do so — there is no pact with him and Allah. If Allah wishes, He will forgive that person. But if Allah wants, through His utmost justice, then He can punish him.

Sometimes we think — may Allah forgive us — but a very flimsy, ridiculous, pathetic excuse that some of us say or come up with is: "If Allah is so great, then why do we have to pray to Him?" Rather, adopt the approach that this is our God, this is the King of all kings. We have to live our lives in a way taught to us by the Prophet ﷺ. There was a messenger, there was a message, there was a set of rules and guidelines that we have to live our lives by. How can we stand before Allah when He sent us a messenger, and He sent us prophets, and He sent us various different reminders time and again? And then we come on the Day of Judgment and say, "Ya Allah, but You are the King of all kings, why do I need to pray to You?" With what face can we stand before Allah?

The Story of the Key

The Prophet ﷺ mentioned salah is a key to paradise. Now, this is a logical example he has given. Imagine you have this wonderful, beautiful chest full of treasures and you also have a key. If the key is broken, will you be able to access the treasure? No. Similarly, if we are missing salahs, then we have to make them up. We have to ensure that our key is fully intact. If we take that key and we insert it upside down — performing our salah whichever way that we want to, not in accordance to the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ — can we expect to access that treasure? If we perform our salah with some of the teeth missing of that key, are we ever going to be able to enter and access that treasure? This is something for all of us to think about.

The Parable of the 60th Floor

On one occasion, there was a group of villagers and they decided to venture out to another village, another town. And on their way, they just happened to pass by a city. As they were passing by the city, they were so mesmerized, they were so taken aback. SubhanAllah, such huge tall buildings. "Where we come from, we don't even have people that tall who can live inside of these buildings." They were so amazed. They didn't know. They never experienced it.

As they continued spending time in the city, they thought to themselves, "You know what, it would be so nice if we spent a day or two in the city." So they made mashwarah amongst themselves. They spoke to one another, and they said, "You know what, it's a good idea. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We don't know if we're ever going to be able to come to such a city again. So let's stay here for one or two days."

Then they asked themselves, "Where are we going to stay?" So they found out that there are these places which they call hotels. They can stay in a hotel. "And they have so many different floors. Let's go to the biggest hotel and try to get one of the topmost floors." So they easily pinpointed one of the tallest buildings in the city that was known to be a hotel. They went inside and made their inquiries. And they were told, to their surprise, that yes, if they would like to, they could book out the 60th floor — the topmost floor they have. And in fact, they would get a discount — a cheaper price than if they were to book any other floor.

So they were so baffled. And the receptionist told them, "The reason is because sometimes we lose electricity. When electricity is gone, you're going to have to take the steps all the way up. You can't use an elevator." So they again made mashwarah with themselves. They spoke to one another and decided, "You know what, again, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So what if the power goes out? We'll walk." So they decided to book it. They made their necessary arrangements, got the key, and went all the way up using the elevator. They settled down, put their things in, and went to enjoy the rest of the town.

One night — let's say the second night — they came back and realized, SubhanAllah, the hotel is all dark. They tried pushing the button on the elevator. It's not working. They realized, "Oh, that receptionist told us that sometimes the power goes out. We're going to have to take the steps." So they went to the desk just to confirm. They asked, "Do we have to take the steps?" And they said, "Yes, I'm sorry. Unfortunately, you're going to have to take the steps."

So then they began going up the steps. And they realized, SubhanAllah — 60 floors of steps. How are we going to get all the way up? It's going to take such a long time. They thought, "This is such a daunting task. Let's speak about different things." You know, sometimes we're doing a very difficult task — some people, may Allah forgive those who are doing such, may Allah guide them — some people will listen to music to make it easier. Others will, inshallah, listen to a nasheed. Others would perhaps speak to one another. If you have a buddy in the gym, then it's a lot easier to perform your workout. So they decided, "Let's speak to one another about various different things."

First 20 floors, let's speak about our childhood. Second 20 floors, let's speak about our ambitions. Last 20 floors, let's speak about the difficulties.

They began. One of them said, "Man, when I was a young kid, I had so much fun, and I didn't have any responsibilities. And now it's just so difficult." Another one said, "You know what, when I would come to the masjid, I would have so much fun — I would pull out a water gun when everyone went into sujood. And that would be the best time of the day." Another one said, "When I was young, I had to go to Islamic class, and man, it was fun sometimes. I will never forget those days." And so on and so forth, they spoke about their childhood for 20 floors.

They reached the next 20 floors, they spoke about their ambitions. One of them said, "I want to become a doctor. Alhamdulillah, I became a doctor." Another said, "I want to become a businessman. Today, SubhanAllah, I have 6-7 different businesses." Another one said, "I wanted to get married to one particular girl. Alhamdulillah, I got married to that particular girl." And so on and so forth. 20 floors passed.

Finally, they reached the last 20 floors. They're speaking about the difficulties. One of them said, "Unfortunately, of my businesses, two or three of them burned down to the ground — there was arson." Another person said, "I have so many financial difficulties." And so on and so forth. Like that, they eventually reached the top.

When they reached the top, they all looked at one another. "What's going on? Where's the key? We forgot the key downstairs." SubhanAllah — they all had to go back down those 60 floors of steps and get the key, walk all the way back up.

When our time comes, and the angel of death knocks on our door — after the Prophet ﷺ has mentioned:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3550)

The average age of my ummah, of my followers, is going to be between 60 to 70 years. Some will pass away before that, some will pass away after that. And very few will go beyond. When the angel of death comes, it shouldn't be such that we have forgotten our key — that we have forgotten our salah, our iman.

May Allah grant us all the ability to ensure that we are regularly performing our salah with jama'ah in the masjid, coming early and maximizing on this, and ultimately increasing our connection with Allah.

وَآخِرُ دَعْوَانَا أَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

Second Khutbah

Remembrance of the Companions

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3790, 3791)

رِضْوَانُ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى عَلَيْهِمْ أَجْمَعِينَ

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3862; Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6429)

Du'a for the Muslims

Announcements & Reminders

Kindly pass the donation boxes from left to right. The Prophet ﷺ has mentioned that charity given during the day of Jumu'ah is greater in reward than any other day. Sadaqah also wards off calamities and draws the mercy of Allah.

Inshallah, we will be having our annual benefit dinner on Saturday, October 18th at 5:30 p.m. at Shalimar Banquets with Imam Dawood Waleed, who is the Executive Director of CARE in Michigan. All brothers and sisters are humbly requested to purchase their tickets and do mark your dates and participate and join us inshallah.

We have many different weekly programs. We have our weekly Tafsir program that is taking place on Tuesdays. We also have our Shama'il al-Muhammadiyyah program on Thursdays — all about the characteristics and the different traits of the Prophet ﷺ. We also have our weekly Saturday team Fajr where we have started a new series on the lives of the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ.

We also have many different sisters' programs. We have our sisters' part-time Riyad al-Salihin class which is online on Wednesdays. From 12 to 1, we have our part-time hifz program for sisters, with flexible timings. All of the classes are taught by experienced female scholars and many of these classes have already begun. For further information, you can go online at masjiddias.org/seminary/sisters-part-time.

We also have our sisters' Urdu Tafsir program on Wednesdays from 2 to 3 p.m., also online.

Kindly also join ICW Fest at ICW Masjid. This will be taking place tomorrow, Saturday, September 27th from 2 p.m. Inshallah, there will be tasty food trucks and many other things.

There is also a du'a request for our volunteer Brother Muhyiddin Hanifa's father, who is sick. Please make du'a for him for his complete shifa. May Allah grant him as well as all those that are suffering aafiyah and shifa.

Let us also not forget our beloved brothers and sisters in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Myanmar, and all the other Muslims and brothers that are suffering throughout the world. May Allah grant them aafiyah. May Allah grant them ease. May Allah grant them immense reward. May Allah rid them of their oppressors.

The Severity of Missing Salat al-Asr

Before closing, there was one thing that came to mind. Many of these individuals in conflict zones are unfortunately seeing their own family members being slaughtered in cold blood. The Prophet ﷺ has said — and many of us perhaps wouldn't be able to normally see such a thing, but now due to social media we can — of course we are affected. Our hearts should be affected. We should all be crying and be extremely emotional and sincere in our du'as.

The Prophet ﷺ has mentioned:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 552; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 626)

That individual who misses Salat al-Asr — who doesn't perform it on time — it's as though, the commentators of hadith mention, his own family has been slaughtered in cold blood before his very eyes. Can we imagine? What a severe warning for just missing out one of our salahs.

What excuse do we have when these individuals who are suffering are witnessing such atrocities, yet their iman is so strong — they are regularly performing their salah, they are making du'a, they are increasing in their a'mal. What can we have to say? What type of power is in our du'a, in our speech, in our statement, if we don't even have a connection and relationship with Allah because we are lax in our salah?

May Allah grant us all tawfiq.

وَآخِرُ دَعْوَانَا وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ