Jumu'ah Khutbah by Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | 4/21/23

In the name of Allah, the most merciful, the most compassionate. O Allah, send blessings and peace upon our Master Muhammad and upon the family of our Master Muhammad. And bless and send peace. O Allah, open my heart and ease my affairs. And remove the knot from my tongue, so that my words remain. Glory be to You, we have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Glory be to You, we have no knowledge except what You have taught us. O Allah, enlighten our hearts with knowledge. And use us for Your obedience. And grant us what You love and are pleased with. From speech, action, intention, and guidance. You are capable of everything.

Allah Almighty said, after I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan:

Those who say, Our Lord is Allah. Then stand straight. The angels will descend on you. Do not fear, do not grieve, and rejoice in the Paradise that you were promised. We are your guardians in this life and in the Hereafter. And in it you will have what you desire. And in it you will have what you ask for. A descent from the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.

And Allah Almighty said, stand straight as you have been commanded and those who have repented with you. And do not transgress. Indeed, He is Seeing of what you do. صَدَقَ اللَّهُ الْعَظِيمُ

The Two Eids and Two Moments of Happiness

Beloved elders and brothers, mothers and sisters, dear listeners. We thank Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala who has blessed us two Eids today. The Eid of Jumu'ah and the Eid of Fitr. And we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that He allows us to also enjoy Eids in this dunya. And most importantly, allow our first night in the grave to be a night of Eid for all of us. Ameen.

Beloved friends, for a believer, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has mentioned that there are two types of happiness. There are two moments of happiness for a believer. One is فرحة, a happiness in the فطر when he breaks his fast. And then the other فرحة and the other happiness, عند لقاء ربه, when he will go meet his Lord. When he will meet Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

Preparing for the Ultimate Day

This is something that all of us should be striving for. That our last moments in this world should be the happiest moments, it should be the Eid. As the poet says that when you came into this world, you were crying while everyone was laughing around you. And make sure you lead such a beautiful life that when you leave this world, you will be smiling while everyone around you is crying.

So this is, the small few years that you and I have been given is to work in such a manner that the last day of our life we leave with a smile on our face. And everyone is lamenting our loss. Lamenting the fact that they didn't maybe value what we had to give as much as we were alive. That will happen if we start from day one, focusing on preparation for that يوم العرض الأكبر. The ultimate day of presentation in front of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

The Angels' Promise to the Believers

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions in the Quran in the 24th Juz, Indeed those people who say, ربنا الله, our Lord is Allah. Then they have steadfastness. That the angels will then descend upon them at the time of death. And they will be speaking to them, You have nothing to be afraid about for the future. You have nothing to grieve over the past. Take the glad tidings of paradise. Which you had been promised all along. You were promised paradise and you worked hard for it and now you get what you deserve. What you were expecting.

نحن أولياءكم في الحياة الدنيا. We have been with you as your friend, as your caretaker, as your assistance. With you. Who is saying this? The angels. في الحياة الدنيا. In this worldly life. نحن أولياءكم في الحياة الدنيا وفي الآخرة. Just like we supported you, we were there with you. In this world, we shall be with you in the hereafter.

وَلَكُمْ فِيهَا مَا تَشْتَهِي أَنفُسَكُمْ And you shall get over there whatever your heart desires. Whatever your nafs desires. وَلَكُمْ فِيهَا مَا تَدَّعُونَ And you will get there whatever you demand. Whatever you call for, you'll get it. Why? نُزُلًا This is the way a guest is honored. نُزُلًا is the way a guest is honored. The food that is given to a guest. مِنْ غَفُورٍ رَحِيمٍ From the Most Forgiving, Most Merciful Lord.

The Divine Feast

The Forgiving, Merciful Lord when He decides to throw a feast. You know, if someone is invited to a feast today for Eid. Alhamdulillah, nice feast. But imagine if you are invited to a feast at the palace of a king of this world. You can imagine, well imagine what type of arrangements must be made. What type of food must be prepared. Subhanallah, right? Those who worked in palaces, I've met a few people who worked in palaces in the Middle East. They were explaining to me, you know, just what type of arrangements would be made for the meals. And so this is dunya. Imagine when Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, The Most Forgiving, Most Merciful Lord Almighty, He is preparing the feast. Imagine how big and wide and expansive that spread must be. Whatever your nafs desires you're gonna get, whatever your demand you're gonna get, whatever you ask for you're gonna get.

The Company of Angels

And then what else, you have angels telling you, Don't worry, you have no reason to cry. Everyone around you is crying. Don't cry over what you left in this dunya. What awaits you is something far better. And are you afraid about what's waiting for you in the future? No, nothing to be afraid. We're there. We were with you in this world. We'll be with you later on. Because truly those who are people of faith, they really enjoy the company of the angels. The angels also like to stay with them.

These are the people who, when you recite Quran, angels descend. When you're in the masjid, angels are obviously present. When you're in the company of the pious, angels are there. When you are doing dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, angels are present. So you and I, we choose our company. When a person chooses good things to do, chooses the right place to be, then he naturally or she naturally finds themselves to be surrounded by angels.

Seeking Angelic Company in the Masjid

That's why the ulema say, One of the intentions you and I should have when we come to the house of Allah, which we should make right now, is besides praying juma, besides praying a fath salah, besides listening to a khutbah or talk or lecture, etc. One of the things we should say is that we're coming here to spend time with the angels. And to allow their beautiful traits to rub off onto us.

Because whoever we spend time with, their qualities and characteristics rub onto us. So when we sit with angels who are servants, who do not disobey Allah even for a moment, and who are constantly engaged in proclaiming Allah's greatness. Imagine those makhluk that's made out of nur. How many blessings they must be carrying with them. They're obviously sinless, they can't sin. They're very special nurani creation. So spending time with them, the malakuti sifat, angelic attributes start moving into us. And when a person doesn't have that company, instead he stays in the company of, Allah forbid, such actions that will bring shayateen. Then those attributes and characteristics of shayateen, be it from the humans or the jinn, start rubbing off into a person.

The Conditions for Divine Promise

So this fact that the angels are saying, we're with you in the dunya, we're with you in the akhirah. Allah is waiting for you, Allah is gonna be preparing a huge feast for you. You'll get whatever you want, you'll get whatever you desire. Who gets this? These are not just any person. Those are the people who are firm in their tawheed. ربنا الله. Our Lord is Allah. Number 2, then استقاموا, they have steadfastness.

True Declaration of Faith

Beloved friends, قالوا ربنا الله is important. Saying Allah, ربنا الله, our Lord is Allah, is not lip service. It actually means, you're supposed to be believing in لا إله إلا الله. This is, today earlier on in Eid, we said the takbirat softly, الله أكبر، الله أكبر، لا إله إلا الله، والله أكبر، الله أكبر، ولله الحمد. These takbirat that we're doing, what is it? I just said it so quickly. What is it? It's تملأ الميزان. When you say الله أكبر, you're actually filling up the scale of good deeds. تملأ ما بين السماء والأرض. It fills up the area between the heavens and the earth.

The Weight of Allah's Name

You ever heard on the day of judgment a person will come, and he will have 99 registers of sin. 99 registers, how long? How big? How wide? How deep? Till the eye can see. Till the eye can see only sin, 99 registers, all super heavy. And on the other hand, he'll have in a scale of good deeds, one small piece of paper. Allah Azza wa Jalla will order for these scales to be weighed.

The sinner will say, Ya Allah, what's the point? It's very obvious. I know I've done too much. What is the point of weighing these registers when it's quite obvious that I am doomed to hell. Because I have done so many sins and I've got really nothing, not one hasana to show on my scale of good deeds. Not one hasana.

But Allah Azza wa Jalla will say, no one shall be oppressed today. I see there's one thing there. There's one thing there. It's one piece of paper. There's one piece of paper, there's something written on it. So we have to make sure every single thing gets weighed. And so hence, it will be brought on the scales, and it will be weighed. 99 registers on one side, and that piece of paper, in which what's written on there? The name of Allah. لا إله إلا الله is written on there. It will be placed on one scale. طاشت السجلات. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, that when that piece of paper will be placed on one side of the scale, that 99 till the eye can see registers of sin will literally fly up. Those registers will fly off because of the weight of that simple small piece of paper in which the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was written.

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi)

And the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam then said in hadith, The Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam mentioned that, لا يثقل مع اسم الله شيء. Nothing can be weighty in front of the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Nothing can be weighty in front of the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Nothing can compete in terms of the weight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's name.

The Ultimate Authority

Nothing can compete, meaning with Allah's, think about it, Allah's name is everything else. Imagine, simple example I'll give you, a person is, you know, a president of a country. And he's got behind that palace of his, layers and layers and layers of security. One mile radius, two mile radius, no fly zone on top. We imagine, just to get inside the presidential office inside the palace, inside that, you know, government building. How many layers of security there is? Average person cannot get, there's no such thing as getting an appointment. You can't just simply jaywalk, walking right through. It doesn't work like that. Layers and layers of security.

But subhanAllah, if a person were to come in, and the president himself were to come, he is undercover, whatever the case may be, in some very extreme circumstance. If he comes and he simply uses his own passcode, password, passcode, what will happen? All those layers of security in one instance will fall apart, will fall away. Because the man himself is asking, requesting to get in. Every single thing, protocol will be removed. Everything will be removed, the doors will be opened, and he will be granted access. Why? No security can match that passcode. No security can match that code, that password, or the name of that president himself, who has come to enter his own presidential office.

Think about that. And now think of an example, which is, لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَلِلَّهِ الْمَثَلُ الْأَعْلَىٰ Nothing can be compared to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Nothing, there's no comparison between president and Allah azza wa jalla. Just to give you an example, I said that. So here you have Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, who is saying, that this is my name, everything else is the creation. Everything is my creation. How dare someone can ever compare my name with my creation. There is no comparison.

The Weight of Allah's Name

All the sins over here are also creation. All sins are creation. But here on this piece of paper is my name. And the name of Allah is more worthy and more weighty than everything else. Beloved friends, understand that if one name of Allah said with sincerity can outweigh 99 registers of sin, then imagine a person says, سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ، الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ، وَاللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ، وَلَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ الْعَلِيِّ الْعَظِيمِ. Imagine what type of hasanat, what type of strength, what type of weight this has.

Do not undermine the dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so if it's said properly, naturally if someone says it without ikhlas, without sincerity, then it will have no meaning, no benefit. But said with ikhlas, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said:

Whosoever says لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ, whose last words is لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ should enter paradise. That's when it's said with ikhlas and sincerity. That's when it's said with ikhlas and sincerity. And if a person doesn't say with ikhlas and sincerity, then it doesn't get to us anywhere.

True Declaration of Faith

So let's go back to this ayah of 24th Juz Surah Hameem Sajdah that we're speaking about:

Indeed, those people who say our Lord is Allah, and then remain steadfast. So saying our Lord of Allah is not just lip service. It means to truly lead a life that shows that you believe Allah is your Lord.

Beloved friends, the great example of that is what happens after Eid. We keep on doing takbirat, we keep on doing ibadah throughout the night, standing up here. But now we see that our business is not in accordance to the sharia. Our children are not following the deen. Our spouse is not following the deen. Our daily routine of Allah forbid after Ramadan, of maybe skipping fajr or skipping isha, or not paying attention to our spouse, or our children, or our parents. If these things contradict the deen of Allah, then that رَبُّنَا اللَّهُ، رَبُّنَا اللَّهُ, my Lord is Allah, اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ، لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ، وَاللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ، سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ، الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ. What does that mean? That's just lip service. The reality of that gets tested when a person has a daily life, you see where are the actions.

The Parable of the Shaykh's Parrot

And this is why there's a story of a shaykh who had a parrot. It's a story. Shaykh had a parrot. And one day, his parrot died. And he was performing salah, and a cat came, and the cage was open, and pounced on the parrot and killed the parrot. So, after the shaykh finished his, completed his prayer, when he saw his dead parrot, he cried. He cried uncontrollably for so long.

So someone said, Shaykh, it is not befitting that you are crying here like this, in this manner, over the death of your parrot. When you are a scholar, you are a very pious person, how does it make sense for you to cry so much at the death of a pet? We'll get you many many better parrots than this.

So he said, that I am not crying over the passing away of my parrot, but rather I am crying over the way he passed away. Over the way he passed away. Because my parrot, he would listen to me, as a shaykh would say, he would do dhikr out loud, you know, like many of us do dhikr. He would get up before fajr, do dhikr at tahajjud time, loud, لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ.

And but, subhanAllah, he says, when the time of my death came, I'm sorry, when the time of this death of this parrot came, even though he knew how to repeat لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ because he would hear me saying it all the time, when the cat attacked, the parrot did not say لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ. Instead, the cat began to make squeaking sounds the way a bird in distress does. The way a bird says in distress, similarly, this is how this parrot ended up dying when the cat attacked.

He said, I'm reflecting about my own self. That today I'm saying لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ all day, dhikr لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ, أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ. What will happen to me when my death comes? Will I also be doing the dhikr of Allah? Or will I then unfortunately, what's in my heart will be coming out? If dunya is in the heart, then that's what will happen. If Allah is not in the heart, you can say all you want dhikr with the tongue. If Allah is not in the heart, that's not what's gonna come out at the time of death.

A Real-Life Test

And it's a reality. I remember one friend of mine, he was in a car, and there was almost a head-on collision happening with an 18-wheeler. So he was in a bus. Later on, alhamdulillah he survived. He told me at that time, he said, you know what, to say لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ at the time of death is not easy. Because he said, there were Muslims with me on the bus. And when that truck was coming at us, people were swearing. Imagine the last word is an F word. The last word is a B word. As you're dying. AstagfirAllah. He said, everyone is swearing. Because they thought, you know, they were gonna die. And that's how their last words on this earth was gonna be a swear word. And he's like, that's when I realized to say لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ at the time of death, this is no small feat. This is not an easy thing. Only those who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala truly accepts and blesses, will be the one who will be able to say that.

Those are the people who don't just fake it, they actually mean it. When they say, I love Allah, today is Eid, today is Jummah, I'm happy, Ramadan was awesome. Well, it's not cultural business. It really truly means that they got Iman in their heart. And those are the people that the Qur'an is referring to.

Indeed, those people who said, our Lord is Allah, they didn't just say it, they meant it, they practiced it.

Then they remain steadfast on it.

The Importance of Steadfastness

So steadfastness is the name of the game. This is just a warm up. Warm up what we had for 29 days. Now the rest of this 11 months, we have to remain steadfast. And steadfastness comes through environment. Steadfastness comes through willpower. Steadfastness comes through intention. Steadfastness comes through staying in good company.

Jafar ibn Muhammad, he mentions:

Whenever I would get tired, and lazy in my ibadah, or not feel like doing ibadah, I would come and look at the face of Muhammad ibn Wasi, rahmatullah alayh. That would keep me motivated for another whole week.

Inspiration from Righteous Company

I know in madrasah, there are students, mashaAllah, I'm blessed to have colleagues as teachers here at Darussalam, who their juniors tell us that when we would be in exam week or other tough weeks in the madrasah, and we would start losing strength because it's so much material to cover. 12 hours a day of studying doesn't seem to get you anywhere. Literally, I've heard this from their juniors, that we would go to a classroom where so and so would be sitting, and literally just go look at them. Go look at them to gain strength. To say, if he's doing it, I can do this. If he's on 4 and a half hours of sleep, 4 hours of sleep for the past two weeks, guess what, I can do this as well. And go right back to studying. That's how it is. These type of things are contagious. When you see people who are steadfast, when you see people who are righteous, it gives you himmah.

I was blessed to have classmates like that as well. Literally, their sajdah, their sajdah would be 45 minutes long. One sajdah, not in Ramadan, throughout the entire year, throughout the entire year. After studying till 11.30 at night, they would come to the madrasah's masjid and would sit and pray such a long salah. I kid you not, just their sajdah itself would be between 20 to 40 minutes long. SubhanAllah. And we would look at them, look at my own classmates. I would look at them and say, O my God, who am I? These are the real people. And they would give us encouragement. Those are the people you look at, that you sit there and say, you know what, if he's doing it, I can do it as well. It's all about here, inside. You have to have the willpower.

How do people run a marathon? How do people climb to the top of Mount Everest? Human beings do it. We're like a rubber band. The more you stretch, you get stretched out. We have to tell ourselves we can do it. We will have istiqamah. We will spend time with the people of istiqamah. We will spend time in the house of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

The Power of Du'a

We will ask:

O the turner of our hearts, keep our hearts firm on the deen. Du'a is very important.

O Allah, I ask you for consistency on your ibadah.

Practical Steps for Steadfastness

So this is something insha'Allah, if we make niyyah right now to begin our six shawwal fast soon, either from tomorrow or Monday. Number two, make sure we're here for one salah per day. One salah per day, isha or fajr. Beloved friends, all of you say insha'Allah, one salah per day, go to your masjid, whatever local masjid you have, one salah per day, isha or fajr, insha'Allah. Start off with one, and then hopefully add up to another one. And bring your children too, with you. Bring your 15-year-olds, bring your 18-year-olds, come together, carpool. Bring those people to the house of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That's why when you go back, you'll have an environment in home of people who just come back from the masjid.

So fasting, and then staying connected with the masjid, and then choose one program a week, anywhere in the city, that you're gonna go attend with your family. A dars of tafsir, a dars of hadith, whatever it may be. One program that you say insha'Allah, that once a week we will attend in person. These things will hopefully grant us the ability to remain steadfast.

Final Du'a

I ask Allah azza wa jal, to grant you and I this beautiful gift of steadfastness. May He make us among those people, who when we pass away, we pass away with the kalimah in our tongues. May He make us among those people, when we pass away, that we be smiling, as we look at the angels coming to receive our soul. And people will be sad around us, because of the beautiful benefits we have given them. But we ourselves will be so looking forward to meeting Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Announcements

Let us insha'Allah all stand up and fill up the rows. Let us all stand up and fill up the rows. Do not begin your sunnah until you fill up every single row. Insha'Allah a couple of announcements. We have tomorrow morning, insha'Allah we'll resume our team pleasure. Insha'Allah tomorrow morning at 5.30 Fajr Salah, followed by the weekly Saturday morning talk. Insha'Allah we'll be starting that from tomorrow.

Additionally, insha'Allah the rest of our weekly programs will begin from this coming week. Our Dars al-Sahih al-Bukhari on Monday nights, Dars al-Tafsir on Tuesday nights, and then Salawat program on Thursday nights. So please benefit from these weekly programs.

You have your donation boxes if they're there, insha'Allah please pass them down the row. Donate generously through Zelle, donate at masjiddeas.org, or cash as well insha'Allah. And Nabi alayhi salatu wasalam has mentioned rewards of donating on the day of Juma, far superior to any other day of the week. So we ask Allah azza wa jal to make this sadaqa a means of warding off problems from our lives, and make it a means of shifa for all of us from any and all types of difficulties that we may be going through. Ameen.

Ibadallah, rahmakumullah. إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَآئِ ذِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَيَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَحْشَآءِ وَالْمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ

اُذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ الْعَلِيَّ الْعَظِيمَ يَذْكُرْكُمْ وَادْعُوهُ يَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ وَلَذِكْرُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ

Please fill up all the rows in front of you, all the brothers insha'Allah, make sure every single spot in front of you is taken. If there's any spots inside the masjid, the brothers in the lobby, please take care of those spots as well. قَدْ قَامَتِ الصَّلَاةُ قَدْ قَامَتِ الصَّلَاةُ اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ

Allah is the Greatest. Allah hears those who praise Him.

Allah is the Greatest. Allah hears those who praise Him.

Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah. Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.

Allah is the Greatest.