Jummah Prayer with Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed 5/3/2024

The Enormity of Allah's Blessings

Respected elders and brothers, Allah has given us countless blessings which we cannot even comprehend the extent and the vastness of those blessings. Each and every one of those. A person who has sight cannot imagine what it means to not have sight. A person who has hands and feet cannot imagine what it means to have those amputated or to be born without it.

I remember 15-20 years ago I was giving a Jumu'ah khutbah out in Tennessee. After Jumu'ah salah there was lunch, and myself and one brother was having lunch together. Everyone had left. And as we were eating our lunch, one brother who was still walking around the masjid came to us and he said, enjoy your lunch and be grateful for it. It was kind of like, okay. You know, it's just two of us eating. He comes in and says, be grateful for it. And I said, of course.

Then he told me something which I never expected. He said, you know, you're eating this lunch. You can taste it. You can smell it. And then there's something called the feeling of having that food go down your throat, which I never thought about. He said, it's been 20 plus years I have been deprived of that feeling. I've been fed intravenously for 20 years. I yearn to feel that amazing feeling of food simply going down the throat. Taste is something different. Texture is something different. Smell is something different. Just to be able to swallow food is a blessing.

He really caught me off guard. Never expected to even think of that sort. But this is what it is. Those of us who are blessed, we simply don't realize what we have. Those who have parents cannot realize what it means to be an orphan. You just can't.

And you understand the Prophet ﷺ, he was an orphan. He knew what it meant to be an orphan. And hence, the Prophet ﷺ mentioned so many virtues of those who take care of the orphans. Because it's something he knew. Only he knows. One who's an orphan knows what it means to go back home and not have mom and dad. SubhanAllah. Growing up, born into that.

The Greatest Blessing: Ma'rifah of Allah

My dear friends, what Allah has given you — after Allah has given us our parents, Allah has given us our spouses, Allah has given us our health, Allah has given us wealth, Allah has given us safety, security — but beyond all of that, Allah has given us ma'rifah of Him. Knowing who Allah is, knowing Allah exists. This is honestly the biggest blessing we have.

And it's very hard for us to understand the magnitude of this blessing until you speak to someone who didn't know Allah until today. We've had hundreds of people accept Islam, thousands of people accept Islam in the past months, especially since the October crisis began. And Ramadan across America has been filled with people accepting Islam. Alhamdulillah. And I'm sure all of you sat and talked to at least one or two people. And many of them are teary-eyed, simply saying they cannot imagine what life, what type of life you and I have. Because they've led 40, 50 years of their life. Professionals, well-accomplished professionals. People who've done very well for themselves. But they realized that they were leading a life completely hollow without having Allah in their life, without knowing about Allah. They feel that they were deprived.

Whoever has been deprived of Islam has been deprived of all goodness.

No doubt. Do we recognize and realize that Islam gives us that amazing ability to have foresight and to have a layer of deep understanding of the world that the one who doesn't have it will never have. Cannot have.

Be wary of the foresight of a believer, for he looks and ponders and reflects through the nur of Allah. (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3127)

For a Muslim, for a believer, when he looks at current events, when he looks at things happening in the world, his lens is very unique and very specific. It is a lens that has the nur of Allah shining on it. He is able to see deep into that issue that others cannot see. The vast majority — all people rather — are only able to see to a certain depth. At most, they see till the end of their life. That's it. But for a believer, he looks not only till the end of his life, but he thinks about every decision: how will it affect his afterlife?

And a believer is not looking from his perspective. He is looking at a global perspective. How does this affect humanity? As the Prophet ﷺ mentioned in a famous hadith — the gist of which is — if a person were to know that the Day of Judgment is around the corner, he still should not stay back from doing something beneficial, even if it means planting a tree. Planting a tree, a seed. The sapling, he will never see. The fruits of that tree, he shall never see. He's about to die. But a Muslim doesn't live for himself. A Muslim lives for the world. A Muslim lives for the deen. A Muslim lives for humanity. A Muslim lives for the animal kingdom. A Muslim lives for the earth.

The creation of Allah are the dependents of Allah, and the most beloved of creation to Allah is the one who is most beneficial to His dependents. (Musnad al-Bazzar; also referenced in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat of al-Tabarani)

Every single thing he sees, he says this. Who is a dependent? It's not just humans. Jinns are dependent. Animals are dependent. Plants are dependent. The creatures of the sea are dependent. Every single creation of Allah is dependent upon Allah. That human being who looks out for the benefit of all creation becomes the most beloved to Allah.

You have a child, you lose your child in a park, in a grocery store. Someone comes and grabs your child and says, is this your son? How do you feel? SubhanAllah, I can't believe it. I was running around, my two-year-old ran away and I was looking for him. How happy and indebted you feel to someone who brings back your son or daughter. Imagine the happiness of Allah when He sees one of us connecting the servants of Allah back to Allah.

Islam and the Standard of Justice

My beloved friends, this perception — wallahi — this viewpoint, this perspective, only Islam gives us. Islam gives us to love every single person. We hate the sin but not the sinner. We make du'a for the sinners. Even if they're the greatest of disbelievers, we pray for their guidance. We hate disbelief. We hate kufr. We hate disobedience. But we have love and affection for everyone. And as soon as that state of theirs changes — the condition of their heart — from where they become disobedient servants to Allah, they become obedient servants to Allah, then our love for them may be even more than our own blood relatives. Because faith is what brings us close together.

This perspective of Islam, my dear brothers and sisters, what does it give us? It gives us the ability to distinguish what's right and what's wrong. Allah says:

Be just even if it means you have to speak against your own relatives. Be just even if you have to pass a judgment against your own relatives. Allah says:

Do not allow your hatred for your enemy to prompt you to be oppressive towards your enemy. You're not allowed to. He's your enemy. He's done horrible things. But SubhanAllah, if there is in your hands the ability to do something, you will ensure that you do not fall into injustice.

I just mentioned regarding one companion of the Prophet ﷺ — he was a zakat collector. He used to go collect zakat on behalf of the Prophet ﷺ, or rather jizya. And he went to go collect it from a group of disbelievers. And as he went to collect, he said, "Wallahi, I do not like you at all because of your kufr and for what you are doing to the Muslims. And if I had my wish in my ways, I would do differently. But I am a believer." And so they tried to bribe him. They tried to give him rishwa. They said, please don't take jizya from us, we'll give you this money. So he got upset. He said, you think I'm for sale? I will never accept anything from you — no black money — for me not to be able to fulfill what my Rasul ﷺ asked me to do. Then he said, I have no genuine love here for you or this action of yours. But because I'm a Muslim, I have to ensure that I do not do any level of injustice towards you. So I'm not going to take any black money. And I'm not going to take one cent extra than what is due from you.

So what did they respond? They said:

It is because of this justice that the heavens and the earth are standing today.

It is the sense of truthfulness that the Muslims have. The sense of honor — that we are قَوَّامِينَ بِالْقِسْطِ — we are people who stand and establish the truth. That is who we are. That is our legacy.

My beloved brothers, Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) mentions that Allah will give the upper hand to those who establish justice — whether they are Muslim or not Muslim. That even a non-Muslim who establishes justice, Allah in this dunya will give him the upper hand. And those who do not establish justice, even if they're Muslim, Allah will make them downtrodden.

Our legacy, our heritage is that of justice — of social justice, of standing up for animal rights, human rights, rights of women, rights of children, rights of slaves when they existed, rights of the planet. When you look at the charter — the way before any human rights charter came about — was the charter of the final Hajj of the Prophet ﷺ. The farewell message that the Prophet ﷺ on the day of Arafah gave, in which he made wasiyah. He commanded his sahaba to take the message to the last person: whoever is present here should take my message to those who are not here. And from amongst those things, what did he say? He said, take care of the servants. Take care of the slaves. Take care of those who are downtrodden. Take care of the women. Take care of those who owe you money. He said, throw this riba down. No more. Whatever we have taken from people, return the capital money back. You cannot take riba anymore. That was the human rights charter that the Prophet ﷺ declared over 1400 years ago.

Bilal al-Habashi and the Rattling of the Status Quo

It was a day when Bilal al-Habashi (may Allah be pleased with him) — that same person who used to be dragged on the desert sand of Mecca — the day of Fath al-Makkah came, the 8th year of Hijrah, and Bilal al-Habashi stands on the Ka'bah — you all know — and he gave the adhan. And that's when the nobility of the Quraysh said, SubhanAllah, we wish — we thank Allah that our fathers are dead — not to see a day where an African Habashi, a previous freed slave of ours, is standing on the Ka'bah giving the adhan. What kind of day has come today?

But Allah showed that this is what Islam is. Islam has come to rattle the status quo. Islam has come to make taswiyah — to say that black and white, yellow and red, rich and poor, everyone is equal in the eyes of Allah.

Indeed the most honorable are those who have taqwa, and besides that you have no clout in front of Allah. That was the deen that came to establish.

Islam as the Last Moral Compass

My dear friends, Islam is what gives you the ability — and honestly I say this with so much conviction — gives you that ability to distinguish right from wrong in a manner which the world has forgotten today. All of the moral issues which were not present before — 60, 70, 80 or 100 years ago — the issues of LGBTQ, the issues of transgenderism, and issues beyond that. These issues, as a Muslim standing here or sitting there? Alhamdulillah, we don't have any confusion. But realize that the world is absolutely, utterly confused — to the extent of what is the definition of being human. You have people who identify themselves as half animal, half human; half cat, half human; half tree; half werewolf. Wallahi, this is happening within this United States of America. People do not understand. They have forgotten what it means to be human, what it means to be male, what it means to be female, what it means to be — SubhanAllah — a productive citizen of the world. So much confusion.

But a believer — there is no confusion. There is no confusion. When the world has lost its moral bearings and has said that truth is all 100% subjective, it is the Muslims who come and say, no, it's not like that. Truth is not subjective. Truth is objective. Morality is objective.

My dear friends, you've been watching in the past few years — and I think three months ago when I was here I spoke about it as well — different denominations within the Christian faith here began to change their laws. Until the Catholics most recently changed laws for LGBTQ matters for their churches — for what type of marriages will be allowed and solemnized in their churches, as well as priests being from the LGBTQ background. Now, you may not have heard, or I'm telling you to share, that one of the largest groups of Christians in America — the Protestants — how many are there in the country? 155 million. 155 million Americans who identify themselves as Protestants. SubhanAllah. The largest religious group in the U.S. Only 6% of the U.S. population follow all other religions combined, with Catholics and Protestants as the majority.

This past week, in Charlotte, North Carolina, they had their general conference — April 23rd, and it concluded May 3rd — 10 days — and what happened? 650 delegates sat there. A fiqh council sat there and voted. And what did they vote? They overwhelmingly voted — only 10 voted against — and the rest of the 650 or so voted that they need to eliminate any type of anti-LGBTQ language from the church's social principles and the book of discipline. They voted to change the laws of the church to allow these types of marriages to happen in their places of worship, and to allow these types of people to also take up positions of leadership. They are falling with the rest. Naturally. Every other Mormon group has already passed similar laws this year too. The Catholics changed about 6 months ago. And the Protestants — the largest group of the hardcore Christians — have changed.

You see this huge tsunami that's coming. One after the other, people are falling into this domino effect. Where there is no backbone to say — and we are not sitting there causing hate to anyone. We are not inciting violence in the least. We are the people who have the open door policy. Don't ask, don't tell — that is purely Islamic. We will never ask, what did you do last night? Who do you like? Who are you attracted to? That's none of our job. You come, pray Jumu'ah, make du'a, and you move on. No one will ever ask you. That is absolutely un-Islamic — to come and ask anyone what you're up to. This is the deen. This is how non-judgmental the deen is.

But SubhanAllah, we have certain things. We say, when a person comes to the house of Allah, we come ta'ibin — we come repenting to Allah. Not excited about what we have done last night. Instead we repent to Allah. We will never ask.

My dear brothers and sisters, who is the last man standing on the moral issues? It is Muslims. It is Islam — the last religion. The only hope is left with Islam for the whole world. Because we are running at the speed of sound — we don't know the speed of light — towards destruction. When the definition of a man and a woman, when the definition of a human, is now become subjective, what's left?

Artificial Intelligence and the Loss of Human Morality

And then we don't stop there. We have now robots, we have artificial intelligence, we have augmented reality, we have virtual reality, coming in and taking over our spaces. And we have now our social media, no longer normal. Every single thing — from the newscast to everything else — being controlled not by people. You're seeing what is happening in the war abroad, in the genocide. What's going on there? All AI-controlled. I'm sure you've read it. The 35,000 plus or minus targets — who chose those targets? AI are the ones who chose those targets in Gaza. They're speaking about it openly.

AI is cold-blooded. One of the soldiers said, it would actually create some moral strain for us, even on a computer, to direct the drone and to say, shoot. But now it's 100% AI-driven. Cold-blooded AI. There's no feeling. There's no emotion. There's a moving target. Do this. It's all 100% mapped by that. We are entering an unprecedented era, where technology takes the lead — where emotions could have brought some sense of morality — but those human emotions are not allowed to act. Where you have an emotionless, humanless loss of human touch. A technology that is coming to do the worst possible thing, which is taking the lives of innocent children and women and men. Imagine how many other aspects of our life, in the next decade or less, will be in control of something that is not a human.

Who has the ability to stop this? Who has the ability to knock sense into the world? Who has the ability to knock sense into fellow human beings? To say, what are you doing? You are Ashraful Makhluqat. You are the best of creation. You are Allah's vicegerent on earth. Why are you lowering yourself to this level?

Why do we bring ourselves to a level below that of animals?

The Awakening — Capitalizing on This Moment

My dear friends, the answer only lies back in Islam. The answer lies only back in the deen. We need to feel extremely empowered that we have Islam. But then we cannot just say Alhamdulillah 'ala ni'mat al-Islam. We have to follow through the injunctions of Islam. We have to become قَوَّامِينَ بِالْقِسْطِ. We have to become al-'adil. We have to become amongst those who are the most just. And we speak for human rights, wherever they may be — if it's in Muslim countries, non-Muslim countries — whether it's our brothers and sisters in Palestine, or our brothers and sisters in Sudan, whether it's in Yemen or Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir, or any other part of the world as well. We are the ones who honestly need to raise our voice.

What we are seeing — the protests that are happening across the world and across the country — SubhanAllah, in this past Ramadan and before — we see people accepting Islam. What do we see? We see shu'ur. We see an awakening happening within people. One of the shuyukh — Sheikh Musa — just told me he went to just say salam, to do dhikr and du'a at the encampment here at Case Western Reserve University, yesterday. And he said, I just went there, and I saw — Maghrib time I guess — a brother just standing there on his own. So he said assalamu alaikum to him, and he said hi. He was a non-Muslim. So then he looked at Sheikh Musa and said, do you know anyone who could give me the shahada? I want to become a Muslim. Allahu Akbar. And Sheikh said, yes, I'm here, Alhamdulillah. And he gave him the shahada.

How many people are accepting Islam? Allah says:

Many times we think we dislike something, but behind it is goodness. We're seeing the silver lining here. We're seeing there's an awakening. Masajid have been filled up like never before. You and I have been coming for Ramadan for how many years? Have we ever seen these crowds like this? Have we seen this many people accepting Islam? No.

My dear brothers and sisters, now we have to capitalize on that. This raw material — 20 years the guy has been disenfranchised from the masjid, now he's coming back. So many men and women who've fallen to sin are coming back to the deen. We need to ensure we're there with open arms to welcome them. All those brothers and sisters at university encampments, all those who are coming to our masajid for the first time, new Muslims — our masajid now have to open our doors to welcome them. All of us who have some deeni knowledge, we have to open our arms to welcome them. We have to give them ilm, we have to give them love, we have to give them mahabbah, and we have to teach them what Islam has taught us. That Islam is the only last man standing that is between the world and destruction.

The Prophet ﷺ said:

The Day of Judgment will not come as long as someone on the earth is saying "Allah, Allah." (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 148)

And the last person who says "Allah, Allah" — when he passes away — the Day of Judgment will come. Dear brothers and sisters, literally the world is on your shoulders and my shoulders. I encourage you now to revert back to your teachings of the deen, to connect yourself with sacred sciences, and to see how Islam can guide us in this new information age. An unprecedented future we are entering. It is only through the teachings of Islam that us and our generations will be able to find some sense, some level of morals, some ethics, some values. The world is waiting for us. We have the answers. We have the solutions. If we hide, not only have we oppressed ourselves, we've oppressed the world.

Du'a and Closing

I ask Allah to grant all of us a true awakening. I ask Allah to allow all of us to genuinely be connected to our faith, to become students of knowledge. May Allah grant us all an extreme level of happiness, pride, and shukr over Islam. May Allah keep our children happy and proud of their Islam. May Allah make us all practicing, righteous Muslims. May Allah give us death with Islam and Iman. Raise us under the banner of Rasulullah ﷺ.

Allah said:

O you who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.

And the Prophet ﷺ said:

The religion began as a stranger, and it will return as a stranger — so glad tidings to the strangers who will correct what the people have corrupted of my Sunnah after me. (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2630)

I say this, and I ask Allah to forgive me and you and the rest of the Muslims of every sin. So ask His forgiveness. Indeed, He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

All praise is due to Allah. And sufficient is the prayer and peace upon the Messenger of Allah. Allah said: Allah and His angels send blessings upon the Prophet.

Upcoming Programs

Inshallah we'll be here 6 to 8 p.m. for the youth — and fathers and mothers, whoever wants to come — and I'll be speaking about the hidden hand of artificial intelligence behind social media.

And after Salatul Maghrib will be a very unique topic: the hidden world of hasad, sihr, and 'ayn — black magic, evil eye, and jealousy — the evil effects of that, the things that people misrepresent, and the realities of that. Please join us at 8 p.m. here after Salatul Maghrib, inshallah, as we speak about these important topics.

I ask Allah to make all of these programs a means of salvation for all of us.