ISCN Friday Khutbah By Mufti. Azeemuddin Ahmed Aug 12 2021

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Jumu'ah Mubarak to everybody. I guess I am the bearer of bad news, and the news is not good out there with COVID.

There are 140,000 people who have been diagnosed as positive. 10 to 15 percent of them are vaccinated. So if you are vaccinated, it doesn't mean you are safe.

And so we had a planning committee with doctors in it and healthcare workers. We decided that we need to go to three-foot distancing for now. We don't know where it's going next and let's pray insha'Allah that it doesn't go any worse.

We have a lot of people in the hospital and if you remember last year we were closed for almost two months and that's not where we want to be, especially for Jumu'ah and all that. And I have some people who are asking for du'a and these are all COVID positive — here and in Pakistan. We have Muhammad Iqbal, Yaqub Amiwala, Maqsood Amiwala, Mumtaz Amiwala, Aziz Niazi.

Please pray for them and be safe out there. And if you're not vaccinated, all I can tell you is — what are you waiting for? Get vaccinated. And if you are one of those people who have immune deficiency, wait for the third shot and just take care of yourself and the public. So today we are not making a big deal about the musalla because this is the first Jumu'ah, but starting next Jumu'ah and during the whole week, please bring a musalla and janamaz. The cost of paper is really expensive.

We just want everybody to be safe and that's all. We want our masjid to be open insha'Allah. Jazakallah khair.

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Before we start the khutbah, we have a guest scholar visiting. Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed serves as director of Masjid Darus Salaam. He was born and raised in Chicago, memorized Qur'an at an early age, traveled to South Africa, and studied an eight-year 'Alimiyyah and Iftaa' course. He was blessed with the opportunity to spend extensive time with elite jurist scholars, and after graduating with top honors in South Africa, he went on to earn a BA in Psychology from Elmhurst College. He served as the director of a masjid in Frankfort, Illinois from 2006 to 2012. Masha'Allah, Mufti Sahib is coming from a very well-known seminary in the Chicago area. Many students from across America go to study with him, alhamdulillah, and it is an honor for us to have Mufti Azeemuddin here today for the khutbah. He will insha'Allah be delivering both khutbahs, and there will be a night program in the evening right after Maghrib Salah, which is titled: The Status of Youth in the Light of Surah Al-Kahf. This is for the entire community, especially our young brothers and sisters, and we are hoping you can all come with your families.

Again, we are trying to make our Friday nights special — we are trying to populate the masjid. We want to have scholars and educators come so we can benefit from them if we participate in these programs insha'Allah. So I am highly encouraging everyone to please come for the program and bring family and friends with you insha'Allah. There will be dinner as well.

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Khutbah: Sinners, Mercy, and the Crisis of Our Community

Respected elders and brothers, my mothers and sisters, dear youngsters and friends — As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

We thank Allah first and foremost — most gracious, most merciful, most loving and most caring — who has given you and I the great opportunity on this blessed Eid of the week to perform Salatul Jumu'ah, the weekly Eid of Salatul Jumu'ah. Yawmul Jumu'ah — Allah has blessed you and I to be in each other's company, in His house. And this is a gift that we see more now than ever before, that has not been given to everyone — the chance and the ability to come for Salatul Jumu'ah. Something we probably took for granted prior to this pandemic, but now it has become quite apparent that this is something that Allah has made very specific to people who are desiring of it, who are looking for this mercy of Allah. And this is the tawfiq that Allah gives to whomsoever He wishes. And we ask Allah that He continues to grant you and I this ability to worship Him in a manner that is pleasing to Him, and to attend His house on a regular basis.

We send salutations upon the Prophet ﷺ, the source of goodness — the one whom Allah has made the source of goodness for this world, the one who introduced us to Him, and upon whose heart Allah revealed the beautiful words, the Qur'an, and in whose footsteps lies our salvation.

Sin is Part of the Human Condition

My beloved listeners, intrinsic to our existence in this world is sin. That's part of who we are. And forgetfulness is part of the definition of Insan. Forgetfulness, making mistakes, being sinful, falling to our temptations — these are not things found only in one specific group of people or one type of individual. Rather, it is just part and parcel of who we are as human beings.

Hence the Prophets stand in a completely different arena from the rest, because Allah has made them ma'soom — protected them from sin. As Allah says about Prophet Yusuf:

Allah protected His Prophets from falling to the temptations of a normal human. And the average person ends up committing sins — knowingly, unknowingly, major or minor. The sins of the heart, sins of the mind, sins of the eyes and the feet, sins of the tongue, sins of the ears, sins of the hands, sins of the private parts — all sorts of mistakes and sins happen.

But the best from amongst those who commit these sins are the ones who stand up, repent, and turn back to Allah with the conviction that none besides Him can forgive them, and that their forgiveness does not lie in anyone's hands besides His.

That faith that Islam gives us is so beautiful. That teaching that Islam gives us is so beautiful. No matter how lowly a person may have fallen, this belief in Allah being Rahman and Rahim, Ghaffar and Sattar, Tawwab — this belief in Allah's beautiful attributes of forgiveness, forbearance, mercy and love — Al-Wadud and Al-Lateef bi'ibadih — is something which keeps all of us motivated to keep on trying, even though we are failing.

And we know that this is how our journey is. We may make one step forward, we may make some progress, and then we may end up losing two or three steps the next day. But we don't give up. The next day we stand up and we still make an effort. Every day we're hoping that today will be better than yesterday. And we end the day asking Allah forgiveness for whatever happened.

Allah Awaits the Repentance of the Sinner

The Prophet ﷺ speaks about how Allah waits every evening for the one who has sinned all day to turn to Him. Allah waits for Musi'ul Nahar — the one who sinned all day — to repent in the night. And Allah waits every morning for Musi'ul Layl — the one who sinned all night — that maybe with the break of dawn, with the morning sun, a sense of dread will come over him or her. They feel guilty over what they have done and will turn to Allah in repentance.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 50, Hadith 9 — reported by Abu Musa al-Ash'ari)

And in order for repentance to begin, there is no long application — none of that. Instead, the hadith says that simply feeling remorseful in itself is repentance. Feeling remorseful in itself is repentance.

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Book 37, Hadith 4252 — reported by Abdullah ibn Mas'ud)

Feeling guilty in our hearts. When you feel happy about your good deeds, and when you grieve over your sins — then you are a believer. That is a sign of faith within us. That we feel uncomfortable and sad over what we have done.

So that is the beauty of this deen, my beloved friends. It taught us acceptance. It taught us love for everyone, for all sinners. Why? Because we are the biggest ones. Treat everyone the way you want to be treated. Just like every one of us must acknowledge that we are sinful and we expect the mercy of Allah — that is the same way we must treat each other.

The Trap of Shaytan: Arrogance and Ingratitude

Let it never cross our minds that we hold the mantle of being judge over anyone. We are not judges. We are not God Almighty. We are simple, humble, sinful human beings who stand in line with the rest — afraid that we may not be forgiven, yet hopeful for His mercy.

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Book 43, Hadith 4941 — reported by Abdullah ibn 'Amr)

We look forward towards the mercy of Allah and the love of the angels by showing mercy upon the dwellers of this earth.

Shaytan — the worst of the worst, the biggest sinner, and the one who is doomed forever — Allah said to him:

"You are exiled from paradise, exiled from My mercy. You must lead a life of being cursed, and you will suffer My curse until the coming of the Hour." And when the Day of Judgment comes, don't even ask what will happen to this Iblis.

So misery loves company. He tries his full effort to take as many of us with him. And he has boldly laid out his plan in front of Allah, as mentioned in the Qur'an:

"Most definitely I am going to mislead all of them."

"I will come to them from the front, and from behind, from the right, and from the left — and you will find that the majority of them will be ungrateful to You."

Just as Allah afforded Iblis so many great blessings, yet asked of him one simple sujood in front of Adam — for His sake. And Iblis was perplexed and fixated over his honor and his God-given gifts. He was so full of himself, he said: "How can I ever humble myself in front of a creation made from soil and mud, while I was created from fire?"

Instead of focusing on the One who issued the command, he was fixated on the command itself — which was a very foolish mistake. Don't look at the command. Who cares what the command is, whether it makes sense to you or not. Look at who is issuing it. He — the One who is giving you everything you enjoy — is asking you to do this, O Iblis.

And so Shaytan knows that his downfall came from kufran ni'mah — ingratitude to Allah's blessings. And so he finds this same weakness within all of us. That is why after saying, "I'm going to attack from the right, from the left, from the front and the back," he says: "You will find the majority of them ungrateful." Because this is how he dug his pit in hell — and this is how he will try to dig the pit in hell for the rest of us. He makes them ungrateful for the blessings they enjoy. He involves them in the very same sin that he fell into: ostentation, self-righteousness, self-conceit, arrogance, and the like.

And so he is always putting these thoughts into all of us: "I am superior to the one next to me. I am superior to so-and-so. Look at how he slipped. Look at how she slipped. Did you hear about that divorce? Did you hear about so-and-so's son — what they're involved in? Did you hear about so-and-so's daughter — what they're involved in? How sad."

And the whole reality is — this is nothing but 'ujub. Nothing but self-conceit. Nothing but arrogance. Nothing but self-righteousness. And ungratefulness to Allah for the fact that He saved you and I from those sins. The fact that He saved your children and my children from falling into what you're speaking about right now — that is not your greatness and my greatness. That is not the amazing way you and I raise our children. But instead, the true murabbī — the only one who truly gives tarbiyah to our children — is Allah. The only one who protects them, al-Kafeel, from sin is Allah.

No ability to stay away from sin. No strength to do any good deed. Except that strength and power that comes directly from Allah.

How to Treat Fellow Sinners

My dear friends, we are continuously being attacked by Shaytan with these thoughts. And this is the crux of my point: we must learn how to deal with people like me and people like you. Who are we? We are sinners. We have to learn how to deal with ourselves. I'm not going to say we have to learn how to deal with "sinners" as if we are someone different.

Shaytan always makes us blind to our own sins and highlights the sins of others. Shaytan will give us a thousand excuses for why what we ourselves are doing is justifiable — because of XYZ. But that same Shaytan will not allow us even one reasoning, one excuse for our Muslim brother. Instead we come up with the worst-case scenario for why he or she is doing something.

My dear friends, treat others the way we want ourselves to be treated. We are sinners. And if our sins were to be exposed — nay, even upon our own spouse, upon our own children — people would spit on our face. We would not enjoy the homes that we have today. We would not be allowed a ride back home if Allah were to expose our faults. But He is Ghaffar and Sattar. He not only forgives, but He also covers up and conceals our sins. And it is due to that covering that we are able to meet one another.

So if someone's sins happen to be uncovered, and someone's faults you happen to know — then remind yourself that if Allah had wanted to, He could have exposed me as well. And I wouldn't be able to be here today at Jumu'ah. Just because someone is being tested such that their mistakes are being exposed, I need to be careful from attacking their honor. I need to be careful from backbiting against them. I need to be careful from giving them a cold shoulder.

The Crisis in Our Homes

My beloved friends, there are all sorts of sins that we hear about in our community. There are all sorts of scandals that are ravaging our homes. There are all sorts of issues that the youth of our community are facing. And moms and dads are quietly spending the nights crying in bed, wetting their pillows with their tears. And you know who you are. And we may know who we are. But my friends, it does not give us the right to attack anyone's parenting, to attack any children. And more importantly — the biggest point of my khutbah — it does not give us the right to attack the sinner himself.

If you want to push this person fully into hellfire, then go ahead and ostracize those who commit sins accidentally, unintentionally — those who have slipped and fallen. I don't care what type of sin it is. And we say, "No, we're going to collectively backbite you, collectively attack you." Many times these things, someone simply needs to go and reason with them, talk to them, and understand where they're coming from. And if they are adamant about their sins — they don't want to repent, and they have an "I don't care" attitude — then that's a different story. Especially if they're harming other people. Then with the consultation of the learned individuals and the 'ulama of our community, steps can be taken. But beyond that, if it's a personal sin or mistake, it does not give us the right to mistreat them.

A Message to Parents

Especially as moms and dads, grandparents, and siblings listening here — we may have mistakes committed by our own children and siblings. My beloved friends, it's too late to say don't cry over spilled milk. Now, if a child chooses to run away from the home, if the child chooses to indulge in major sins, if the child chooses to do something other than what you wished — wants to get married to someone you don't like, not from your culture, not from your ethnicity — what are you going to do? You have two options. You say, "Get out of my house. I don't want to talk to you." Or you say, "Okay, let me coolly think — how did we reach here? This didn't happen overnight. What mistakes did I make in raising and rearing this child that this is what's happening today in my home?" Calmly, collectively, review the past 20 to 30 years and highlight the mistakes you made — intentionally or unintentionally.

And then it's not all over yet. We can still rectify it. No matter how advanced you think it is, no matter how outlandish it is — you can sit back and think: what can I do now to bring them back?

My beloved friends, there is nothing like love. There is nothing like receiving someone with open arms. There is nothing like unconditional love — to say, "You're going through a crisis and I'm here to help you get through this." If even the beloved parents and the siblings push someone out, then the shayateen al-insi wal-jinn — the devils from humans and the jinn — are just waiting for this youngster to come out of the home angry. And they are waiting to embrace them with open arms. And at whatever level they came out, they are ready to take it to the next level.

So yes — he or she has committed a major sin. Yes, they have possibly ruined your honor in society. But wait: if you push them out, what's going to happen? At the end of the day, that is your blood. Do you want to see your blood burning in fire forever — for eternity? Is that what you want to see? Put your foot down on your ego. Put your foot down on your worry about your name and your status in society. And say, "I have to live with this. This is what has happened. Let me try to fix this issue." And you are not going to fix it by closing doors upon people. We have to fix it by opening doors, sitting down, and talking to people.

The Gap Between Generations

My beloved friends, we are at such a perplexing crossroads right now. Probably — and Allah knows best — there has never been a wider gap between parents and children than now.

There was always a gap of 15 to 30 years between parents and children in society. People used to get married earlier — yes, the gap would be maybe 15 years. But still, dad is dad and son is son. However, the information age — it's not only about the generation gap of years. Looking out at this congregation, the majority of what I see are immigrants. So if you were born in a different country, speak a different language, were exposed to a different culture from your children — that's already a massive divide. But the information age has created multiple layers of divide, even between a 20-year-old and a 15-year-old. Even between siblings.

I realized — even though I was born and raised here, went to school here, studied abroad but went to school here, and am very in tune with my own kids, alhamdulillah — that I am also getting older. The idea is that this generation puts up a barrier every 3 to 5 years or even less than that. It's a different stratum, a different group. A 15-year-old may not be well-suited to speak to a 10-year-old because the issues are different. The social media apps have changed. The norms have changed. There is a disconnect between a 15 and a 10, between a 20 and a 15.

So if that's true — and I know it's true — then imagine someone who has a 20-year age difference, grew up speaking a different language, was raised in a different culture in a different country. Do you think that's easy, raising those children? It's not. And that's why what I'm saying hits you in your heart — because you know exactly what I'm speaking about.

My dear friends, closing doors on our kids is not going to help. We have to acknowledge that mistakes may have been made — by them, by us, by our wives, by our husbands, or by whoever. But we must now deal with them. Don't throw it under the rug. Address it. Say, "This is the issue. Tell me." I'm going to cry at night. I'm not going to cry in front of you. I'm not going to break down in front of you. I'll be a strong father, a strong mother. I'll cry in front of Allah in the night. But in the day, I'm going to help you get through this drug abuse. I'm going to get you through this addiction to zina. Get you through this addiction to drinking.

There is no sin within the non-Muslim community that has not already ravaged our Muslim homes. Every single major sin out there is happening within our Muslim homes. The most unthinkable things — that is what's happening in our Muslim communities. No wonder — subhanAllah — we're losing our minds. Because we're hearing the most disgusting things coming from within our community. All the mashayikh and the 'ulama and the community leaders know what I'm talking about. And we all know — we're all part of it. But my dear friends, what are we going to do about it? We have to address it. We cannot close doors.

The Example of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab

'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) heard about a person and asked, "Where is so-and-so?" Someone replied, "O Ameer al-Mu'mineen, he has gone after drinking now. He's a drunkard." And people began to curse him. Ameer al-Mu'mineen said, "No — bring me a letter." And he wrote a letter, praising Allah, and then he wrote:

He reminded the man in the letter: "Allah is the Forgiver of sins, the Acceptor of repentance, and at the same time, He is severe in punishment, and He is the One who bestows the greatest blessings. Come back to the deen." He sent this letter to him. And then he asked everyone to pray for this individual.

When that letter was received, the man was touched by the fact that Ameer al-Mu'mineen had remembered him and had written to invite him back. They made du'a for him. And the effect of the du'a of the people — their ameen — brought that individual back to the gathering of 'Umar al-Khattab, clean and pure from sins.

And 'Umar said, "This is how we're supposed to treat sinners." That's what the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2444 — reported by Anas ibn Malik)

"Help your brother, be he an oppressor or an oppressed." They said, "We understand helping him as the oppressed — but how do you help him as an oppressor?" He said, "You help him as an oppressor by holding him back when he commits sins."

The Spiritual Crisis of the Pandemic

My beloved fathers and mothers — tonight at Maghrib, insha'Allah, I'll be here addressing the topic specifically about youth as leaders. Where our youth need to be, must be, and what are the issues that do not allow them to be where they're supposed to be. I request all of those who are here today to please join us for Maghrib and Isha as we discuss some of the more specific challenges that our youth are facing.

Alhamdulillah, Allah has blessed me to be serving the youth for the past 15 to 18 years, and alhamdulillah, I teach about 300 students back at Darul Uloom Darus Salaam. So I can share with you — I have my own four children, may Allah preserve and protect your children and mine — but I deal with 400 to 500 on a regular basis. So I have a lot of data to share with you and my analysis on that for the past decade and a half.

I'm not here to paint you just a gloom and doom picture. I'm here to give solutions. And the number one solution I'm sharing today is: show love. Open arms. Understand. Deal with your children. Bring them to the 'ulama and imams. Establish those relationships. Tonight, bring them here. Tell them you'll go out to eat after the talk. Entice them. Make a deal: "If you get bored, we'll walk out." But bring your children here. Bring your sons and daughters here.

What the Pandemic Has Cost Our Communities

This pandemic has thinned out our crowds for Jumu'ah. Every community I visit, I ask: pre-pandemic, what were your numbers? Post-pandemic, what are you seeing? And kid you not — even the numbers that were shared with me today — we are at either one-third or half of capacity. That means 50% to 60% we have lost in Jumu'ah attendees. We're not talking about daily Salah here. We're talking about Jumu'ah — once a week. People say, "I'm not that great a Muslim, but I show up for Jumu'ah." If you lose 50% to 60% of that, what a massive loss our community has suffered.

Then we have Eid. Eid is, subhanAllah, a cultural day for many. They might not even be practicing Muslims — they may not have prayed a single Jumu'ah in 52 weeks of the year. But they'll show up for Eid because that's how they recognize that they're a Muslim. What have these past four Eids shown us? Three of them were completely gone — nothing. The fourth one too — where were our numbers?

I went to a community recently for Jumu'ah, and the president was so happy, he announced: "Masha'Allah, Tabarakat Allah, we had a great Eid attendance — 7,000 to 8,000 people." So I met him in the office right after. I said, "Wow, 7,000 to 8,000 — that's amazing." And I asked, "May I ask — what were you pre-pandemic?" He said, "Oh, Masha'Allah, we were 10,000 to 12,000 — or more." And I just focused on that. Where are 4,000 people — minimum — of your community? Minimum 4,000 that are not here.

And the place where I led Jumu'ah — they were so happy. It was the largest Eid of our area. And I said on the way out, "How many are here today?" The volunteer said, "Masha'Allah, we're packed — 1,000 for this one, and the previous two all put together, around 2,500." When that same Eid I've been leading for years, that one Eid itself would have between 2,500 to 3,000. So I can't walk away, give you a hug, and say "Eid Mubarak" without thinking about this. This haunts me. Where is 50% of my crowd — your crowd — on the day of Eid?

And if we're naive and think, "Oh, give it a couple more years, everyone will just miraculously show up" — that's just not how human psychology works. If you have a habit of going to the gym, you'll work out every day. If you haven't been to the gym for three to six years, the chance of you and a whole bunch of people suddenly showing up together — it doesn't happen like that. If you have a habit of something, you'll keep doing it. But if you leave it off completely, it's hard to start again. Unless a specific effort is made directed at you as an individual. Unless you recognize that this is your weakness and you need to restart.

I don't think there could be a bigger crisis that the ummah is facing now than the emptiness and the loss of numbers in Jumu'ah, in Eid, and in daily Salah in our masajid. Because now when people are in their homes and not coming here, they have spiritually gotten very weak. And spirituality is like your immune system.

Allah says: "We will most definitely test you with a little bit of everything — decrease in wealth, decrease in the fruits of your labor, decrease in life. And give glad tidings to those who remain patient."

"You are going to be toiling and making effort until you reach Allah."

"Indeed We have created this human being in the midst of difficulty." Our coming into this world was a very difficult process — ask our mothers, may Allah reward them immensely, may Allah elevate their status, may Allah be pleased with our mothers, may Allah grant them aafiyah in this world and the next, may He make every one of us a sadaqah jariyah for our moms. That pain she went through to give us birth was the most painful thing a human being goes through.

And then death, on the other hand, is absolutely no easy ordeal either. As Imam al-Qurtubi mentions in his Tadhkirah — all the detailed descriptions of death, what a person goes through. After seeing the Prophet ﷺ passing away — the difficulty, the pain, the fever, the headache he had. When he put his hand into a bowl of water trying to wipe his head from the intensity of the heat, and the intensity of the headache and the weakness — he couldn't speak, he couldn't move his lips. That's how he was at the end.

And 'A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: "After seeing my husband pass away like this, I don't envy anyone's easy death. Because that doesn't mean if you have an easy death, you are set. My Nabi was the most set person. He is the most noble person. But after seeing the way he passed away, we recognize that death is not a tell-all."

It could be that a person has an easy death simply because Allah wants to pay off all his good deeds in the dunya — as it was mentioned regarding the disbeliever. When he does good deeds, Allah rewards him for it in the dunya. And then Allah will make his death easy, so that on the Day of Judgment he comes without a single good deed in his book. And when a righteous person has Allah wanting to elevate his status or clean off any remaining mistakes, Allah will make the death difficult for him. And through the difficulty of death, either the remaining sins are forgiven or the status is elevated.

My point is: our coming into this world and leaving this world were both, and will be, very painful processes — unless Allah chooses otherwise, and that is the norm. So now this human being going through such difficult ups and downs and turmoil in life — what gives you the strength to remain firm and handle it?

The Role of Spirituality as an Immune System

One of my teachers, Qari Saleh, on the day of Eid was traveling with his wife and his three kids to visit his in-laws. On the way back, on the day of Eid, just a mile away from our institution — our madrasah back in South Africa — he was involved in a head-on collision. And on the day of Eid, he lost his wife and his two kids. I saw him — how he handled himself in the days and hours after that. And you wonder: what gives you the strength to handle something like that and not go through a mental breakdown?

What gives a person who loses millions of dollars in a bad investment the ability to handle himself and not take his life? What gives a person the ability to hear that his son or daughter has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and not fall apart? That is faith. That is spirituality. The dunya will always be throwing the most difficult things at us. That's how the world is meant to be. It's not meant to be a paradise. It's meant to be a challenging, difficult obstacle course. Spirituality is what grants you the ability to withstand that.

When a person distances himself from the house of Allah, from the masjid, from gatherings of knowledge and dhikr, he loses that immune system. He loses that internal strength. And when he loses that internal strength, the smallest of curve balls the dunya throws at him will literally throw him off the path. He won't be able to handle it.

And that is why — you might have read the article that NPR published a couple of days ago. That Muslims are now having, subhanAllah, some of the highest levels of reported mental illness in the entire country. Those who are dealing with mental illness in our community are telling us they are getting hundreds of percent more phone calls. American Muslims are two times more likely to have attempted suicide than other groups. My dear friends, growing up I never knew anyone who attempted suicide. Now every week I get calls. 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds, 15-year-olds trying to commit suicide — multiple times. Some of them are successful. You don't always know why the janazahs are happening, but we hear about it afterward.

Is mental illness a part of it? Yes, mental illness is definitely part of it. But what happened? Did everyone all of a sudden become chemically imbalanced within one and a half years? You know how many fathers and mothers are suffering because their kids have been locked up in their room since the pandemic happened — too many. All day, lights off, on their Zoom, on their social media, addicted to their laptops day and night. They come out to eat their bowl of cereal and then go back and lock themselves up. This is happening in so many homes. People have been dropping out of college, dropping out of high school. And even if they're doing it, they've become like living zombies.

Why is all of this happening — to everyone, including people who have memorized Qur'an, people who are very connected to the deen, people whose parents are connected to the deen? My friends, it's because there's a lack of fresh air. Ruhani — spirituality — is gone. When you don't come to the masjid, you don't have the immune system to handle this. There were always problems and troubles our kids went through. But they weren't thinking of committing suicide. Now the smallest of things — they want to take their lives.

And the worst part is some of our elders don't understand that. When I talk to parents and share what their daughter attempted, what she posted online — "Ah man, come on. I know her." No. You don't know her. That is a foolish thing to say. And I have to raise my voice and shake some sense into them: stop saying this. You don't want to be attending the janazah and sitting there crying. If you don't make amends, if you don't get them treated, if you don't acknowledge that there is something called mental illness, something called depression, something called chemical imbalance — and behind all of that, something called lack of spirituality — we have compounded problems right now due to the pandemic and the lockdown. And it starts with distance from the house of Allah. And the problems will continue to rise.

I was speaking to one prominent leader of the Muslim American community some months ago — almost 9 to 10 months ago — and subhanAllah, he said something so profound that it really resonated with me. He said, "Listen — you and I, we're going to be working on the community. We'll spend the rest of our lives. But more than likely, we'll never be able to clean up the mess that the pandemic has left behind. It has destroyed the community to a level that even decades of work may never bring us back to where we were." And that's from assessors on the ground.

When a natural disaster happens, the disaster itself may last for a few seconds — like an earthquake. But the damage takes you weeks to even figure out. Infrastructure loss, loss of jobs, loss of life, loss of health. It takes weeks, maybe months, to come up with an official damage report. And then how many decades it takes to rebuild. And those who lost their lives — done. Those who lost their homes, their businesses — I know many brothers from New Orleans who lost everything and were never able to get back up.

So it will take us years to actually figure out the full loss we have incurred as a Muslim community worldwide due to this pandemic. But you cannot even start addressing the problem until you acknowledge that we have a massive problem. And that we have to work to address these issues.

A Call to Recalibrate

It starts from home. What was the pre-pandemic condition of spirituality in your home? What is it now? How many members of your family are regular in their five daily Salah? How many members of your family have normal social interactions with one another? How many members of your family can say we have dinner or lunch together — once a week, a couple of times a week? Now that we're at home more often, that should be happening. How many of us can have a meaningful conversation with our children without it ending in argumentation and fights? How many of our children have a normal sense of being respectful and loving toward their parents, their uncles and aunts, their grandparents?

These are the ways we measure our homes. How many of our children can open the Mus'haf and fluently recite the Qur'an — Surah Al-Kahf, recited in half an hour or 25 minutes? We have to ask ourselves these questions. How many of them who are of marriageable age have the ability to be a successful husband or wife, to lead a meaningful married life, to be a good father and a good mother? Those things don't come just from breathing — they need to be taught, they need to be learned. No matter what degree we graduate with, character, akhlaq, and spirituality don't come from a university. Ethics and morals don't come from a university. They come from our tradition, which starts from the house of Allah, and then you take it to your home and give it in bites and pieces to your kids — so they grow up with this character, this spirituality, these values and ethics.

My beloved friends, Allah has always given solutions to people of every era. There will always be people who have their eyes open, who can see through the fog, who can see through the smog. Our Prophet ﷺ gave us all of these instructions and foretold the times of difficulty and the times of fitan before the ultimate Day of Reckoning. And we are seeing the fulfillment of many of those prophecies. The world has faced so many fitan, so many challenges. But I don't know if the world has ever faced such an all-encompassing fitna as this — there isn't a spot left, not a country in the Middle East, not a single Muslim country, not an island with a Muslim population in which the pandemic has not ravaged and created havoc. And in turn, forced the masajid to close, Islamic institutions to close, madaris to close, seminaries to close, hifz schools to close, Qur'an schools to close.

I was just speaking to an imam from Sharjah just a couple of days ago and he said, "Since this past year and a half — no Qur'an class, no Islamic lecture, no bayan, no dars, nothing — even though that was part of my responsibilities. I just lead Salah, and then the doors close. Done." The masahif — the copies of Qur'an — were pulled out from the masajid for over a year. If this is not a fitna, what is?

So do you really think we can get everything back to normal with the press of a button? The governor announces, let's have 2,000 people back to Jumu'ah. And let's have 200 students in our maktab evening classes. No, my friends. We will have to make a hundred times more effort to bring one student back to the masjid, to bring one family back to the house of Allah. It will require so much more effort. But we will not make this effort unless we acknowledge and understand that we have an issue.

The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Al-Muwatta, Imam Malik, Book 46, Hadith 3)

"I have left two things with you. As long as you hold on to those two things, you will not go astray: the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ." And that is again imparted from here — this is the spiritual hub.

My humble appeal to all of us is to recalibrate our compasses. Start discussing this at home — with our spouses, with our children, with our siblings, with our parents, with our neighbors. And start ensuring that we get people back to the house of Allah. Let's not look at how quickly things fill up because of social distancing. We should have the numbers that we had before — even if it means renting another property. Fine. But we need to ensure that we get our people back. Because there is a certain period of time when there is still hope. Once that period expires — you want to give CPR after two days to someone? There's a certain frame of time after a heart attack in which you can assist someone. That time is quickly coming to an end. We must work on our families, our neighbors, and bring this awakening to them.

A Personal Story: The Power of the Masjid

I started feeling this acutely during the last Ramadan — not this one, but the first Ramadan of the pandemic, when the masajid were closed. A student who had studied with me for a good amount of time came and messaged me. He said, "Sheikh, I want to meet you." I said, "The masjid is closed, but I'll open it up." I sat with him and he broke down crying in front of me. Even though he comes from a very religious family — beautiful kid, practicing, masha'Allah, mom and dad and siblings all religious. He told me: "It's the 13th day of Ramadan. I have not fasted a single day. I have not prayed a single Salah. And I'm here to share with you that I'm lost."

"Every year I would go through difficulty because of high school and college. But the first night of Ramadan would give me that boost. I would come back to life. But with the masajid closed, I have nowhere to come back. I have nowhere to get myself back to where I was before. And I need help."

And I said subhanAllah — this is exactly what I was thinking about when the masajid were closing. You are the representation of the ummah. You are actually way better than the average Muslim — your father, grandfather are scholars, you come from a scholarly family, you've studied the deen. But the people out there — they have no exposure that you have. And if you are suffering like this, imagine how many thousands of youth are suffering. Mental, emotional, spiritual loss. Simply because they don't have the exposure, they don't have the opportunity to come back.

So this responsibility lies on the fathers and mothers who are listening to me today. Please go round up your sons and daughters. Bring them, entice them to coming back to the house of Allah — with character, with kindness, with akhlaq, with love. Entice them with a dinner. Entice them with a trip. And say, "Come, sit in the house of Allah. Listen to a program as long as you wish." Ask them to come for a few minutes. And if they absolutely cannot stand it, then you tried. But don't write them off. Don't say it's done, it's over. It's not over. It's not over until the ruh leaves the body. We must continue to try — with love, with compassion, with empathy. And bring them to the house of Allah. They are our flesh and blood.

Even if they have left the deen, if they've gone far away — what can we do? We can't just leave them. And if they're suffering from mental illness or depression, please do not ostracize them further. Do not hate on them. Do not make fun of them. Acknowledge that these are true sicknesses. Although our community stigmatizes these things, we cannot do that.

If a person has gotten caught up in wrong company, involved in major sins — my dear friends, our deen teaches us to accept everyone. To hug them, wallahi. You know how many youth have come to me — huffadh of the Qur'an — after my dars and tafsir at Darus Salaam in Chicago, and told me: "This is the first Ramadan I'm spending as a Muslim. I'm a hafidh. I didn't believe it when I was memorizing it. I didn't believe in it after I memorized it. And I want to open up to you." And one of the things he told me: "Because I met you and I see that you can look into my eyes and speak to me. While the rest — they look at how I dress, they look at how I wear, and they say, 'Look at what you're doing.' That's what they say." He said, "The love I felt when you looked into my eyes and spoke with me — I felt I could open up to you about my problems." Why are we depriving our own sons and daughters of that love? Why are we being judgmental?

Yes, they have fallen. But wallahi — we have to treat sinners like we treat people with physical disabilities. You don't push them down. You give them your hand and pull them up. Our sons and daughters — and ourselves, who are sinners, including myself — major sinners. We need to help one another through compassion and love.

Closing: An Invitation

Lastly, alhamdulillah, I am visiting from Chicago, as Mawlana Ubaid mentioned, from Darus Salaam. Alhamdulillah, we are blessed to have a number of programs that you can benefit from. I'm going to be here the entire week until Sunday visiting the various masajid. But more importantly, please do stop at the booth there at the Al-Hayyat Al-Falah side and pick up some of the flyers. I invite you all to attend our winter conference, December 25th to December 28th. It's held on-site in Chicago — a beautiful program for our college students, for our adults, as well as families. Our new 85,000 square-foot facility, alhamdulillah, has lots of things your whole family can benefit from during the winter break.

We also have our one-year flagship program beginning this Monday. You can learn about it — there are some students who've come from Chicago. Speak to them about it. All of this is on our website, masjiddarussalam.org and our YouTube channel, Masjid Darus Salaam.

I am available to help. If you are suffering from any type of difficulty — your sons or daughters — my job is to be of service to you and your family and to this community. Whatever I can, on top of du'a, I want to give you tools and ways to assist you and your family. Insha'Allah, I offer my services to you and to this community.

And I want to tell you — there is hope. There is always hope. I've seen so many seemingly impossible situations, but Allah brings people back. We can't give up on any situation. But we need to start working on it. I expect and hope that all of you will come here tonight, bring your family and friends, and insha'Allah between Maghrib and Isha, we will have a beautiful gathering.

We ask Allah to preserve our youth and our children. May He grant us the hikmah and wisdom to make the right decisions in raising them properly. May He protect our youth and our generation from falling into major sins, and especially from having doubts in Islam and from leaving the fold of Islam. May Allah accept our du'as and accept our Jumu'ah.

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

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Salatul Janazah Announcement

A quick announcement: right after the salam of the Salah, we have two janazahs — for Khalid Siddiq and brother Naeem Abu Laban. May Allah grant mercy upon them. Please stay. We are going to try to have the Salah right after the Jumu'ah Salah, insha'Allah.

Brothers and sisters, for Salatul Janazah — there is no adhan and iqamah, and there is no ruku' and sujood. This is four takbeerat. When the Imam says Allahu Akbar the first time, we'll read our thana'. Some of the brothers may be reading Surah Al-Fatihah. The second takbeer — we'll recite salawat upon the Prophet ﷺ. The third — we'll make du'a for the deceased.

This is a reminder: I'm going to be there one day. You're going to be there one day. You want to make sure the people praying behind you know the du'a. So if you don't know the du'a, please make the intention today that you will memorize it. Because you don't want to be led in front of hundreds of people and no one knows the du'a. Please make a note of memorizing this du'a and teaching it to your kids as well. And if you don't know the full du'a, simply say:

"O Allah, forgive him." And then after the fourth takbeer, insha'Allah, we'll say salam.

According to the Sunnah, we try to do this as quickly as possible and take the janazah to the graveyard, insha'Allah. Please straighten the rows, and please still maintain the three-foot distancing. We have more than enough space.