Jumu'ah Khutbah | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | 12/6

Opening Supplications

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

O Allah, send blessings and peace upon our master Muhammad and upon the family of our master Muhammad. Blessings and peace.

O Allah, ease my heart and ease my affairs. And solve the knot of my tongue so that my speech will be understood.

Glory be to You, there is no knowledge for us except what You have taught us. Glory be to You, there is no knowledge for us except what You have taught us. You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

O Allah, teach us what will benefit us and benefit us with what You have taught us. And increase us in knowledge and practice.

O Allah, enlighten our hearts with Your knowledge. And use our bodies for Your obedience. And guide us to what You like and are pleased with. From speech, action, intention, and guidance. You are capable of everything.

O Bestower, O Bestower, O Bestower. O Opener, O Opener, O Opener. O Compeller, O Compeller, O Compeller.

The Sign of Marriage in Creation

After this, Allah Almighty said, "And of His signs is that He created for you from yourselves spouses to live with. And He made between you affection and mercy. Indeed in those signs do you reflect." Allah Almighty has spoken the truth.

Opening Greetings and Gratitude

Honorable listeners, dear brothers and sisters, dear guests of the house of Allah Almighty. السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته - Peace and blessings of Allah be upon you all.

We thank Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, who has blessed us this opportunity to be here in His house, from amongst His houses on the blessed day of Jumu'ah. And we ask Allah Almighty to grant us all acceptance, forgiveness, and allow us all to fulfill, to have our needs of this world and the next fulfilled in the most beautiful manner. We ask Allah that He allows us to leave this gathering in a state that our hearts are rejuvenated with iman. And that we have found answers to our questions, solutions to our problems. And we leave in a state far superior than when we entered His house. آمين رب العالمين - Ameen, Lord of the worlds.

The Means to Solutions

Honorable friends, our deen teaches us that no matter what the situation may be, most definitely Allah has a solution for it. And the way we find that solution from amongst the many ways, one of the most important aspects of finding a solution, while we tend to the أسباب and the means for that solution. We look for all sorts of means. Means are many types.

Types of Means

Part of the means is using material things to fulfill our means. Part of the means is calling someone for help. Part of the means is standing up from where you're sitting and trying to get your need fulfilled. Part of those means is giving sadaqah before you attempt to take care of a situation. Part of the means is use أعمال (good deeds), present good deeds in the court of Allah, be it fasting, be it sadaqah, be it two ركعات of extra nafil salah, be it kindness to a fellow person, be it Muslim, non-Muslim, neighbor, whoever it may be. A good deed that we present in Allah's court. And through the blessing of that, we ask Allah to fulfill our need. That is also one of the أسباب and means of getting our needs fulfilled.

Material and Spiritual Means

So just like material things and movement, physical movement is a means of getting our needs fulfilled. Spiritual movement is also a means of getting needs fulfilled. For example, just like going to the doctor's office or going to a hospital that is in another state, that is known in the world for treating this type of sickness. Additionally on top of that, if a person were to embark on a journey for umrah, or a journey for hajj, so that he could get his needs fulfilled. How would you not call that one of the أسباب and the means? These are also أسباب باطني. These are أسباب in terms of أعمال that we present in front of Allah.

The Power of Dua

So amongst those أسباب is a سبب of dua. Dua is one of the most powerful means of attracting Allah's mercy and answer to all of our questions and issues that a person is dealing with. And so my beloved friends, when we look at the dua of the Prophet ﷺ, we find them to be some of the most, not some of, but rather after the Qur'an, the most comprehensive dua that can be found and supplication that can be found is of course, the dua of the Prophet ﷺ.

And there are so many that a person can read and should read because our needs are endless. There's no... our needs are endless and constantly it seems like everyday we have more needs in some fashion or some aspect of our life. So what better way than supplicating to Allah in a very comprehensive beautiful manner. And this is where the جوامع الدعاء comes in. This is where the comprehensive nature of the Prophet's ﷺ supplications come in.

Appreciation for Scholars

May Allah reward our scholars and muhaddithun of the past who meticulously brought together and gathered together those various dua of the Prophet ﷺ that were made in various occasions and placed them together in booklets and books and so forth. For all of us simple people who do not have access to years and hours of searching that we can pick up a simple book and read through the dua of the Prophet ﷺ which most definitely was inspired by none besides Allah.

Divine Inspiration

That Allah who knows the past, the present, and the future. That Allah for whom the future is as obvious as the past. That Allah who controls our dunya, our qabr, and akhira. Those dua that Rasulullah ﷺ supplicated with were inspired to him by Allah.

Rasulullah ﷺ did not speak from his own desires. Instead it was only revelation which he shared.

Available Resources

My beloved friends, from amongst those collections is about 200 dua of the Prophet ﷺ as well as all the duas from the Qur'an that have been compiled and nowadays, for the past many years alhamdulillah available in English and Urdu with side by side translation and so forth.

A Beautiful Dua for Unity and Protection

Today I would like to share in this few minutes that we have one of those beautiful du'as that Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم has taught us. This is obviously a very comprehensive and detailed dua. We will not be able to do justice to it but let's go briefly through it. Although mentioned in this book but the original source of it is...

And in this dua, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, number one:

Oh Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, unite our hearts. Put love and mahabba between us and the ummah. Between myself and my children, between me and my spouse, between my parents and I. Allow us to become one. So allow us to, our hearts to be united like it's one body. Two bodies but one heart.

This is such an important dua because the very famous dua that you hear here in every salatul fajr. In qulutun nazila for the past over a year:

You've been hearing this dua for years. Oh Allah, number one, ألف بين قلوبنا - unite the hearts of the believers, unite our hearts. وأصلح ذات بيننا - rectify all of our affairs. Then وانصرنا - then assist us على من عادانا وعادى الإسلام والمسلمين - assist us against those who oppose us, who harbor grudges against us, who try to harm us or Islam or the Muslims.

The Order of This Dua

Look at the order here. If a person does not have his house in order, you can never defend yourself from an external enemy. If a person does not have his own home under one roof in order, if we cannot have Muslims under one masjid in order, if we cannot have the Muslim communities across the globe in their various localities, communities, tribes in order, it's very obvious that we cannot defend ourselves from an enemy.

Forget about any offensive measure. Forget about taking smart moves to make sure that before the enemy comes to you, you get to them, no, no. When they attack you in the house, also we won't be able to do anything because we're just sitting there fighting amongst ourselves.

Well, that is the obvious manifestation we see that today. The reason why the Muslims across the globe are getting trampled here and everywhere else, number one reason for that is the fact that the hearts are not united.

And so, yes, we talk about all the time - the ummah is not united, we need to do something about it. But it starts off from home. That if our hearts within the home are not united, then we're not going to be able to fend off the enemy that is coming towards us.

The Modern Battlefield

Today, the enemy may not be in tanks, may not be in drones, alhamdulillah. While it's happening elsewhere, subhanallah, may Allah protect all of us and bring peace and comfort to all those who are suffering. But nonetheless, we are still faced with attacks.

Those attacks are in the form of spiritual attacks, in the form of the misuse of mobile data, the misuse of internet, the misuse of all sorts of devices out there that bring in garbage and filth into our homes.

And when the family is not united, then the husband will go one side, the wife will go one side, and then children will unfortunately be harmed - I won't say benefit, rather will be harmed by this disunity that exists between the parents. Naturally, they will find the easier of the two, the one who is less informed about the harms, and they will say, look, she's siding with me or he's siding with me.

So now what has happened? Because the parents and the husband and wife are not on the same page, the hearts are not united, there is no sense of, okay, we have one ameer and the rest of us are going to follow. We will give our opinions to the ameer and the ameer will decide. But instead, there's anarchy in the home. Everyone wants to be an ameer.

Well naturally, what's going to happen? You will lose the battle before the battle begins. When the ranks of the army are broken, then you don't need an external enemy to come destroy you. You will kill yourself amongst yourselves. That's what happens.

So our homes are a small example of what is happening within the ummah. That when the hearts are not united at home between spouses, between parents and children, then it's just a matter of time before subhanallah, that entire house will be destroyed.

The Beautiful Order of the Dua

So look at the beautiful order that Rasulullah ﷺ has taught us in dua:

Oh Allah, please unite our hearts.

Rectify the affairs between us.

Assist us against our enemies and the enemies of Islam and the enemies of Muslims.

So there's so much that can be understood from the importance of تأليف القلوب - that having the hearts connected together. أصلح ذات بيننا - Oh Allah, remove malice, hatred, jealousy from within one another. Before we get to the ummah, we have to work with our inner family at home.

Seeking the Paths of Peace

Number three:

Oh Allah, guide us to those paths in which there is peace, there is protection from destructive things. Allow us to find a path in life that will lead us to the real end abode which is دار السلام of the hereafter, the house of peace.

وهدنا سبل السلام - guide us to the various paths of salam that will take us to the دار السلام. There are many paths leading to دار السلام, دار السلام of course being Jannah.

There are all these multiple paths that lead to it, but you gotta make sure that you're on one of the many correct routes that take you to دار السلام. If a person is on one of many routes but that route is going somewhere else, unfortunately then he will land somewhere else. So we're asking Allah to guide us.

There is humanitarian services, there are social services, there is education, there is the idea of trying to get people married, there's an idea of helping people who are going through a divorce, there's an idea of helping people who are going through economic hardship, there's an idea of getting people into top positions in government, there's an idea of getting people into academia, there's an idea of helping the blind - there's endless ways we can assist the ummah.

There are many paths. As long as a person, his iman, his aqaid, his a'mal are good, you choose one of these paths to take you to دار السلام of the hereafter.

From Darkness to Light

Number four:

Ya Allah, we ask you to grant us protection from the many layers of darkness إلى النور - to that one nur.

My friends, isms of the world are too many and they are all ظلمات - they are all darknesses. But the only one and single unified united path towards Jannah is that of Islam. And that is why nur is always in the singular form in the Qur'an and ظلمات always comes in a plural form.

Because as soon as a person misses the exit towards Jannah, then now you have a thousand different ways Allah forbid, to go somewhere else. Right, so a person is saying Ya Allah, save me from the many layers of darkness.

Honestly, when a person leaves the protection of this masjid, when you just get into your car, you pull out your phone, you see a billboard is pulling in one direction, an ad over there is pulling in another direction, you open your switch on your phone - subhanallah, ten different ads from ten different things. There is so many pathways that are inviting us towards themselves that lead us elsewhere.

The beauty that we're sitting here without our phones, listening to the talk of Allah, inshallah, soon to perform our sunnah and then our jum'ah - it is so peaceful. This is so amazing because we are now, alhamdulillah, surrounded by nur and we're enjoying that peace.

But when a person leaves this - and you cannot always be in the masjid naturally, you have to get out - so that's why when you're leaving the masjid and you're going out:

Ya Allah, I ask you for your grace. It's not that I need your grace in jum'ah only. Now I need your grace for the rest of the week until the next salah I show up here. I am in need of your grace more than ever when we leave the fort of the masjid.

Protection from All Lewdness

Number six:

Ya Allah, grant us protection. Keep us far away from all lewd things, from all lewd things ما ظهر منها وما بطن - from that which is apparent and that which is hidden.

We learn from here that the deen teaches us to seek protections from all sins:

Three things you hear in every jum'ah. You'll hear it in the khutbah soon inshallah. فحشاء is mentioned separately from all the rest of the sins. What is fahsha? It is any and all forms of zina. Allah mentions it in the Qur'an separately. The Prophet ﷺ teaches us to supplicate the protection in Allah from it separately because this is so destructive to society.

But fahsha is not obvious - ما ظهر منها وما بطن - that which is obvious and that which is hidden. Fahsha could simply be inside deep down in your heart. Fahsha could be in the eye. No one knows the misuse of the eye, can we? Do we not know?

The person sitting next to you - what he has done with his eyes, the person sitting next to you - how he has misused his ears, how he has misused his hands, how he has misused his heart. We don't know. No one knows about us. We don't know about them. Alhamdulillah.

But the idea is we should never forget just because others don't know about it that no one knows. Allah knows and we know, or we should know. And so we're asking Allah that ya Allah grant us protection from any and all forms of fahsha, those that are hidden and those that are obvious.

Seeking Blessing in Our Faculties

Ya Allah put barakah in our ears, in our eyes, and in our hearts. Meaning allow our ears, our eyes and our hearts to grow in goodness after you have purified it from any and all forms of sin and especially of zina.

Ya Allah put barakah in our spouses وذرياتنا - and in our children by inspiring our spouses and children to lead a life of righteousness.

Ya Allah grant us the tawfiq of repentance. إنك أنت التواب الرحيم - Indeed you are the one who accepts repentance the most. الرحيم - You are the most merciful.

Gratitude and Complete Blessings

And the dua continues:

Ya Allah make us amongst those who thank you for your blessings upon us. مثنين بها عليك - and those who are constantly praising you for the blessings that we are enjoying. من الثناء مثنين comes from ثناء.

And then the last part:

And O Allah allow these blessings to continue upon us completed. Do not allow it to be half, but rather allow these blessings to always be with us till the very end.

The Real Dwelling Place

And the very end is where? The real stuff starts when the soul comes out. That's where we need Allah's blessings. It's nice to say I live in this suburb, I live in this zip code. The real thing is what type of qabr will you and I have? What are the dimensions of our qabr? What is the qabr gonna be retrofitted with? Is it gonna be granite? Is it gonna be just plywood? Is it gonna have some hi-fi AC in there?

And obviously I'm talking about ma'nawi. I'm talking about the blessings of the akhirah that will come into our graves. When it comes to the material things, we know the grave is just a piece of mud. It's just an area of mud. Soil, 3-4 days later our body won't be there. It will be completely half disintegrated. Insects will be eating through it. And that's the reality of everyone who's died and will die besides the prophets and the shuhada.

So now the goal is: How do I build that abode in the akhirah?