Jumu'ah Khutbah | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | 4/14/23

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته، بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم، اللهم صل وسلم على سيدنا محمد وعلى آل سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وسلم، رب اشرح لي صدري ويسر لي أمري واحلل عقدة من لساني يفقهوا قولي، سبحانك لا علم لنا إلا ما علمتنا، سبحانك لا علم لنا إلا ما علمتنا، سبحانك لا علم لنا إلا ما علمتنا، اللهم نور قلوبنا بالعلم واستعمل عبدانا لطاعتك ووفقنا لما تحب وترضى من القول والعمل والنيات والهدى، إنك على كل شيء قدير، يا وهاب يا وهاب يا وهاب، يا فتاح يا فتاح يا فتاح

Beloved brothers and sisters, dear listeners and guests of the house of Allah, as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Alhamdulillah, as we are witnessing now the last week of this blessed month and possibly the last Jumu'ah of Ramadan, a person naturally should be doing some introspection to see how these past three weeks of fasting and Qiyamul Layl has helped us become a better person. And this is naturally the main thing that a person through these difficult actions of fasting and Qiyamul Layl should definitely become an individual, different than what they were when they entered this blessed month.

The Two Greatest Enemies

And so, beloved friends, in a very basic nutshell, the biggest enemy, two biggest enemies that you and I have are our nafs and shaytan, our base self, our ego, our desires, and of course shaytan, Iblis and his armies. And this is how we're supposed to, these are the two enemies that we're supposed to be focused on in combating and pushing back against. The stronger our pushback, the weaker they will become, and the stronger you and I will become, and the better human beings we will become. Better Muslims we will become, better sons and daughters, better husbands and wives, better parents we will become.

(Hadith)

The Prophet ﷺ said, indeed your biggest enemy, from all the enemies, the enemy that has the greatest enmity for you is yourself. What an amazing deen we have, subhanallah, that teaches us this. Imagine if we didn't have this deen, if we didn't have teachings like this, we would be so lost. We would never realize that we are our own biggest enemy. Who thinks of that? Everyone thinks it's me, myself, and I. We got it together. This is our group. We're gonna look out for each other. And the Prophet ﷺ said the opposite. He said, you are your biggest enemy. The one, the biggest backstabber to you, the one who's gonna hurt you the most is your own nafs.

So it's a big problem because someone who you think is your confidant, someone you're gonna keep very close to, someone who you feel is always with you through the thick and thin of life. And our Prophet ﷺ is saying, that is gonna be your biggest enemy. If you conquer that, you've conquered the world. If you haven't conquered that, you haven't conquered anything. You could be at the top of the world but still be a slave. And you won't have any control to yourself. It's called like the backseat driving. The nafs will be sitting there, people will say, mashallah, so and so, you're so nice, and will give you positions, will give you gifts, they'll give you honorary rewards, certificates, plaques, all of that. But in reality, you have no control. Everything is happening behind the scenes. Backseat driver, Mr. Nafs.

The Reality of the Nafs

And so, it's very humbling to think you have no control. But you know what, how many people realize, how many people realize there's a distinction between my own self, my own desires, my wish, my ambitions, and then something called the nafs, that is inseparable from me, that is something I cannot distinguish, that is something that's not tangible, something that I cannot touch, feel, sense, but is very real. And that it is so real, that it's like a parasite that just, you know, slowly comes in and takes over a person. Where now a person doesn't live for what is actually beneficial for him, instead lives for his nafs. He doesn't do what is more beneficial for his spouse or for his children or for his parents, instead does what is beneficial for the nafs. So that is a horrible life, where a person becomes a slave to his desires.

As Allah azza wa jal mentions in the Qur'an, Have you seen the one who has made his desires into his God? And Allah has allowed him to be misled, even though he has knowledge. Even though he has knowledge, Allah allowed him to be misled.

Brothers, if you see a spot, please take it in. Please take up any spot you see, move in. Don't stand there, come in, move in and see where the spot comes, sit there, inshallah. And the brothers in the back, if you see a spot in front of you, just take it. Let's fill it up completely, inshallah.

Allah azza wa jal has allowed him to be misled even though he has got knowledge. So our deen teaches us this, that you have to be real with yourself. You have to be honest with yourself and understand that we have certain huge powerful elements. You know when they say a friend, someone is very close to you, when they turn against you, that becomes the most harmful thing. You have a close business confidant, you have a super close family friend, you have your own spouse, Allah forbid, and something happens and they turn against you and enmity begins. They are the ones who cause the most harm because they know what? They know all your secrets. They know where to hit, they know what hurts most, they know where it hurts most, they know our weaknesses and they get us there. And so this nafs knows us in and out because it's part of us. So it knows exactly where our weaknesses are, that oh this one, let's go buy over there because he's got a weakness for that, or she's got a weakness for that, and it will create a desire within her.

And then you've got the guide of this nafs, maybe if you want to call it that in one way, or a friend of it, there are different ways of studying it, the shaytan that may be tied up, but then creates this type of actions and teaches his nafs to do its work while it's gone. Some say that no, shaytan himself became shaytan due to the nafs itself, because shaytan when Allah azza wa jal asked him to prostrate to Adam, it is the nafs of shaytan that said no. Logically he may have wanted to bow down to Adam, but the nafs came and said, the ego said no, this is not fair, you've been around much longer than Adam, you've worshipped Allah much longer than Adam because he's just born yesterday, or created yesterday, and you've been here for years, why should you be showing any respect to him, it should be the other way around.

Ramadan: The Training Ground

Beloved friends, Ramadan is a time through fasting and through qiyam that we're supposed to be pushing back against these two. One is that the larger shayateen, the stronger devils, are tied up, so that alhamdulillah gives us a little bit easier wiggle room to fight. Additionally, fasting, hunger, the Prophet ﷺ said in one hadith, how shaytan flows through your veins. And he said the way to stop shaytan in his tracks is through hunger. Hunger is the way to stop. The more hungry we are, not just if we are fasting or not just if we are adjusting our times of eating, but genuinely if we feel the pangs of hunger, that's so good for our shaytan. That is actually pushing the shaytan out of our veins, pushing it out of our system. So hunger is extremely beneficial.

Additionally, hunger is also of course very beneficial for the nafs, because throughout the day you have a desire to eat something. Something tasty, something sweet on a hot summer day outside, a person wants to drink something cold, and the nafs desires it, and a person says, no, let's start going the other way. The nafs says, let's look at that juice shop, let's look at that ice cream shop, and how we whip that nafs and say, don't even think about it. Don't even think about it. We're not going there. We're going home. We're going to the masjid. That type of training for 30 days begins to weaken the power of the nafs, and the spirit starts becoming stronger and stronger.

Achieving Harmony

And so we have our Islam to work on the beauty of our body. We have iman to work on the beauty of our spirit, and we have our ihsan and perfection to work on the beauty of our intellect. So we have our body, we have our spirit, we have our nafs, we have our intellect, all of these, when they are synchronized, and when they are working together beautifully in harmony, then this person becomes, reaches a state that what we would say, can even possibly go supersede the status of angels. But when a person does not have harmony between these, and rather when a person becomes a slave to, for example, the nafs, or a person becomes a slave to shaytan, then no doubt a person will become more lowly and despicable than the most lowly of creation. Beyond animals, beyond livestock, a person will lose anything and everything.

So Ramadan is a time where we, as we increase our worship, and in these last week where we put ourselves through a lot of qiyamul layl, and staying awake at night while going to work, staying awake at night, and then going to college and school. Mashallah, these are beautiful things. But beloved friends, we have to ask ourselves, to what degree are we pushing back against our nafs and shaytan. That is the key thing. Because these are the two enemies. If we have learned how to overcome them, inshallah, our 11 months, nay, the rest of the whole life, remaining life inshallah, will be beautiful.

Allah Jalla Jalaluhu mentions that in surah shams, indeed the one who has purified this nafs, most definitely is successful. He has crossed the finish line, and he is a winner, if he has been able to purify. Purification is either the meaning of purification, or it has another meaning also of increase, that the one who has washed his nafs from all of the evil traits and characteristics that a human soul, a human nafs can have, Allah Azzawajal guarantees for that person success.

The Prophet's Guidance on the Nafs

The Prophet ﷺ, he used to seek refuge in Allah abundantly from the evils of the nafs. And one of the du'as we learn:

Oh Allah I seek refuge in you from the evil of myself. Seek refuge in Allah from the evil of ourselves.

Oh Allah I seek refuge in you from the evil of that which I have done, and that which I have not done. From the evil of what I know, and the evil of what I don't know. Because it's true, sometimes naturally we do things which we suffer the consequence of. But sometimes we do, we suffer things, we suffer the consequences of things that we haven't done, someone else did it. But because we are in the wrong place at the wrong time, in the dunya we see that too right, a person is getting arrested, I mean he's innocent because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Similarly, sometimes a person is in the company of not so great people. So their own nafs, or their own selves, they didn't do that many bad things, maybe. But because of the company we chose to keep, what happens, that rubs off on us. We're seeking refuge in Allah from the evil of what we did, and what we didn't do. From the evil of what we are aware of, and from the evil of what we are not aware of.

The Prophet ﷺ in another du'a said, O Allah, give my nafs, give my nafs its taqwa. Create within us, create within my nafs that level of fear that will keep it away from any sin. And O Allah, purify it, wash it, cleanse it.

Seeking Protection from Our Inner Enemy

O Allah, You are the best of those who could purify it. There's no one who can clean my nafs better than You can.

You are its caretaker, You are its owner, You are its ultimate deity who it has to worship. Another du'a of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,

O Allah, inspire me, أَلْهِمْنِي O Allah, inspire me with that which is best for me in my affairs, in decisions at work, at home, in my deen and dunya. Inspire me with what is correct and what is beneficial.

And O Allah, save me, protect me from the evil of my own nafs. In another beautiful narration,

O Allah, do not allow me to be at the mercy of my own self. Don't let me go in the lion's den. Don't let me be at the mercy of who? Of my own self. Because we're the worst enemy. لا تَكِنِّي إِلَى نَفْسِي Do not hand me over, literally, do not hand me over to my own self. لا تَكِنِّي إِلَى نَفْسِي طَرْفَةَ عَيْنٍ For a blink of an eye. A blink of an eye. فَإِنَّكَ إِن تَكِنِّي إِلَى نَفْسِي Because if you were to hand me over to myself, تَكِنِّي إِلَى نَفْسِي فَإِنَّكَ إِن تَكِنِّي إِلَى نَفْسِي تَكِنِّي إِلَى ضَعْفٍ وَعَوْرَةٍ Then indeed, O Allah, you will be handing myself, you will be handing yourself, you will be handing me to myself, to what? ضَعْفٍ وَعَوْرَةٍ To weakness and to exposure to sin, major and minor. If my nafs sits in the pilot seat, if my nafs gets into the cockpit, it's all over. So do not hand me over to myself, طَرْفَةَ عَيْنٍ For a blink of an eye. And some narrate and some say in their du'a, وَلَا أَقَلَّ مِن ذَٰلِكَ And not even less than a blink of an eye.

The Real Enemy Within

Look at these beautiful prophetic narrations that we're learning of how we're supposed to seek refuge from our own selves. How often, we always think the problem is with him or her. How often are we sitting there and saying the problem with me is myself. If I conquer my nafs, no one can stop me from achieving what I need to achieve. No one can stop me from becoming the person I want to become. It's easy to sit back and claim to be a victim of our circumstances, both in deen and in dunya. How often a person says, it's the neighborhood I live in, it's the city I live in, it's the cousins I have, it is the friends I have, and the list goes on. But none of these things are gonna be really gonna fly with us on the Day of Judgment. None of these things are gonna help. As Allah Azawajal says,

Indeed, those people who had oppressed themselves by sinning, when the angels of death will come to take their soul, and they will realize that they're in bad shape. قَالُوا فِي مَا كُنْتُمْ The angels will say, what's wrong? Look at your Book of Deeds, stinky, right? What's wrong with your soul? Why are you in such a horrible, pitiful state? قَالُوا كُنَّا مُسْتَضْعَفِينَ فِي الْأَرْضِ They will say, we were oppressed on earth. We weren't allowed to practice our faith. We were oppressed. The Qur'an is telling us, Allah is telling us, that the oppressed card is not gonna fly. قَالُوا أَلَمْ تَكُنْ أَرْضُ اللَّهِ وَاسِعَةً The angels will say, wasn't Allah's earth wide and expansive? فَتُهَاجِرُوا فِيهَا You could have migrated and traveled anywhere you wanted. فَأُولَئِكَ مَأْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ وَسَاءَتْ مَصِيرًا These are the people whose abode shall be hellfire, and what a horrible place to be going back to.

So the idea of blaming our environment, blaming our friends, blaming the country that we live in, etc., etc., doesn't work. It is the nafs that is a problem. A person needs to conquer that, and a person needs to ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to give us freedom from this enemy, and allow us to use the nafs for our benefit and not to our harm, as the nafsul mutma'inna is the goal we want to reach at. A nafs that is content with whatever Allah has prepared for it in akhira. A nafs that is content with whatever commands Allah sends towards it.

Understanding the Different Levels of Nafs

And where we start off with is nafs al-amara bi-su. That nafs pushes us and pulls us towards sin, open sin, and constantly, amara, constantly sinning. That's why in Ramadan we're seeing, I know all the time people say, brother, why is the shayateen tied up? We're still sinning, the world is sinning. Yeah, because the nafs is the enemy. The nafs doesn't get tied up. Because why? It's inside the house, you can lock all the doors, you can put up multiple burglar alarm systems. But if you have an enemy within the home, that's not going to help.

And so, come to this realization that the burglar is within, within the body. That is that nafs. And until we don't turn against our own selves, and start saying, this is what has created avarice within me, greed within me, gluttony within me, desire for fame and name within me, this is narcissism, this is arrogance, this is jealousy. These are the horrible traits that the nafs has, that creates within us. And we will be chasing around Ramadan after Ramadan. But if the enemy is within us, unfortunately, we're not going to, our benefit is going to be very limited.

A Call for Self-Reflection

These remaining days and nights that we have, let us individually and collectively start focusing on our inner core. Sit down and reflect. You've done your dhikr, you've done your dua, you've done your qiyam, you've fasted. Now sit in a corner away from the family, and just sit there and speak to yourself. Close your eyes and reflect, who am I? I'm 60, I'm 50, I'm 40, I'm 70. Who am I? Am I proud of myself? Have I really, as an individual, let's leave out all the noise outside and what people say, shabash, you're great, you did this, this accomplishment, that accomplishment. No one knows you better than yourself. Ask yourselves, are you really proud about your relationship with Allah? Are you really happy about the way you deal with other people? Are you really happy about how your heart has feelings, good or bad about other people? What are you inside? No one knows this besides Allah and ourselves.

And that type of real honest, heart to heart talk with our nafs, put them in front of you, make them stand up and say, let's talk. That is the communication that we need to be doing in these last final days and nights of Ramadan. And then we have to be seeking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's assistance and help. We can't take this nafs on ourselves, nor can we take shaitan on ourselves. That's why, اللهم إنا نعوذ بك من إبليس وجنوده. Oh Allah, I seek refuge in you from Iblis and his army. أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم. And all of these other beautiful تعوذات are all about seeking Allah's protection against the shaitan.

So both of these massive enemies, we cannot take them on ourselves. We need Allah's help for it. Let us definitely use this last week of Ramadan in begging, beseeching Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to grant us victory over these two enemies. And then may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to remain so strong in our soul, in our spirituality, that well after Ramadan, the rest of the year, alhamdulillah, we are leading a life not based on what shaitan and nafs wants us to do, but what Allah and his Prophet have taught us to do and asked us to do.

Announcements

Let us stand up, fill up the row in front of you completely and perform our sunnah. Please pass the donation boxes from left to right and donate generously as sadaqah, wards off calamities and brings about the mercy of Allah. And in a hadith, the Prophet said, charity given on the day of Jumu'ah is greater in reward than any other day. And this being possibly the last Jumu'ah in Ramadan, insha'Allah, whatever rewards we're going to get now are multiplied many more times than outside Ramadan. So please donate generously. If you would like to give on Zelle, it's donate at masjidds.org, donate at masjidds.org.

I'tikaf Programs

Please join us for our i'tikaf programs that have begun insha'Allah, alhamdulillah for the past few days. Daily we have a talk after salatul asr with dua and dhikr all the way to maghrib. After taraweeh, we have a tafsir. And then nightly at 12:30, we have candlelight reflections or discussions on various topics, especially for young adults. Tonight, insha'Allah, we'll be on marriage. And this is for brothers on site and everyone else online. And so alhamdulillah, we've got mental health and spirituality, social media and addictions, education and career. It was last night. Today is going to be marriage. We have gender identity and roles, Muslim identity at university, gender interactions, importance of a healthy lifestyle, post Ramadan lifestyle. So these are hosted by different brothers of our community, along with myself here at candlelight conversations at 12:30.

Similarly, we have a rise and reflect every single day after salatul fajr, including tomorrow with Mufti bin Hajj. And we have different brothers from our community who are discussing important topics for young working professionals and seeing how to balance work life and home, how to get out of any type of addictions, practical parenting, contemporary fiqh questions, challenges at the workplace and things of that sort. So these are amazing programs are live streamed. If you can't make it in person, rise and reflect after salatul fajr. Similarly, after salatul dhuhr every single day, we have a dhikr session. So you can join us after first Jumu'ah. We'll be doing it tonight downstairs. Insha'Allah, you can join us and all brothers also, all of the brothers after your salatul Jumu'ah is finished, please head downstairs because the second Jumu'ah insha'Allah, brothers will be coming in here and we will have our dhikr session downstairs.

Insha'Allah, our khatmal Quran night will be on 29th, which will be Wednesday, 29th of Ramadan, Wednesday night. The 27th night of Ramadan will be insha'Allah, Monday night. And obviously the 25th will be tomorrow, Saturday. If any of the brothers would like to join for the weekend, you're welcome to do so, but just make sure you register at the office and get your wristband, etc.

Programs for Sisters and Youth

And today insha'Allah will be the final program for sisters at five o'clock. The final spirituality program for sisters is going to be today insha'Allah after 5 p.m. all the way till taraweeh. We have a separate program for girls, for women, and then for younger children. Please benefit from these programs that are taking place. Please send our sisters, our mothers insha'Allah, to benefit tremendously from the program that has been planned out, embracing the mercy of Allah in the last few nights. That's what the topic is today. That's at 5 p.m. onwards.

And then we have our final youth halaqa or youth qiyam tonight, starting from 12:30 on the topic of marriage, and then at 1:30 with Sheikh Saad Qadri insha'Allah on the topic of understanding of masculinity in the light of shariah, in light of Islam. So that's going to go on all the way till insha'Allah till fajr. So please do benefit from both of these programs that are taking place insha'Allah.

Du'a Requests

We ask Allah to accept our sadaqah, our participation, and put immense barakah in the last few nights and days that we have over here. There are also some dua requests from the community. We ask Allah to grant shifa to all of those who are sick. There was some brothers who reached out whose parents are sick. One of them, the brother, subhanAllah, his son passed away. We ask Allah to grant him jannatul firdaws and forgiveness. One of the leading ulama of the world, Sheikh Rabi' Hassani and Nadawi from India passed away yesterday. We ask Allah to fill his qabar with nur and become pleased with him and grant sabr to all those who left behind. Ameen.

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. The Merciful, the Compassionate. Master of the Day of Judgment. It is You we worship and You we ask for help. Guide us to the straight path. The path of those You have blessed, not of those who have incurred Your wrath, nor of those who have gone astray.

Verily, He knows what is open and what is hidden. And We make easy for you the easy way. So remind, if the reminding benefits. He who fears will be reminded. And the most wretched will avoid it. Who will enter the great Fire. Then he will neither die therein nor live. He who purifies himself will be successful. And he will remember the Name of his Lord and will pray. Nay, but you prefer the life of this world. And the Hereafter is better and more lasting. Verily, this is in the first scriptures. The scriptures of Abraham and Moses.