Jumu'ah Khutbah | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | 9/29/23

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon the Messenger of Allah.

O Allah, send peace and blessings upon our Master Muhammad and upon the family of our Master Muhammad and bless them.

O Allah, open my heart and ease my affairs and solve the knot of my tongue so that I may understand what I say. Glory be to You. There is no knowledge of us except what You have taught us. Glory be to You. There is no knowledge of us except what You have taught us. Glory be to You. There is no knowledge of us except what You have taught us.

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

Allah Almighty said, "Say, If you love Allah, then follow me. Allah loves you. Allah forgives you your sins. Allah is Forgiving and Merciful." Allah is Great.

The Importance of Love in Following the Prophet ﷺ

Beloved friends, brothers and sisters, dear students and listeners, Peace be upon you. In the blessed month of Rabi'ul Awwal, when we speak about the life of Rasulullah, his birth as well as his death in this month and we reflect on his whole seerah and we try to be inspired by some aspect of the seerah and we try to increase our love for our Nabi ﷺ, the source Allah has made for our guidance and in whose hand lies the keys of paradise and behind whom we must walk in order to gain salvation.

A person begins to reflect and ask himself where do I begin in terms of following my beloved Prophet ﷺ and the answer can be in many ways possibly be given but one thing that I wanted to share today is that it has to be a very important element - that has to be محبة and love. That Nabi ﷺ - loving him should be a cornerstone of our faith and obedience inshallah will come with that but if love is not present then obedience is not going to be there either.

Our Deen is Not a Dry Religion

Our deen is not a dry religion that encourages us and asks us to only follow and go through without emotions but rather emotionally being connected with Allah and his Rasul ﷺ is a huge part of it because in essence a person cannot do true اتباع without true love. اتباع - following the sunnah of Rasul ﷺ will require us to love him because once a person wants to follow someone he'll realize there will be a lot of obstacles especially when you want to follow the Prophet ﷺ.

Shaytan from amongst the jinn, shayateen from the humans will try to place obstacles in our journey towards Rasulullah ﷺ's life and the thing that will push us forward and not look here and there and not get affected by those who are trying to stop us will be the unwavering unshakable strong love that you and I hopefully one day attain of our Prophet ﷺ and then when that comes in then a person will not be perturbed by the mockery that he has to hear, the comments that people will pass and so forth because they're in love.

The Power of Love

You see someone who falls in love with someone and the family and everyone says this person is not an appropriate person for you to be hanging around with or for you to get married to - you can bring whatever proof, a hundred and one logical proofs - they're not going to listen because what do they say? "I'm in love" right? And there's a saying that your love for something will make you blind and deaf to any criticism about that person. When you love something you will become blind and deaf to any type of criticism or to any type of ulterior opinion or secondary opinion about an individual. You will only see the good and you will not be able to see any mistakes.

But imagine you love someone who has no average flaws of a human being who is as perfect as a human being can ever be created. As Hassan ibn Thabit's poem says that you have been created free from all flaws and faults as though you have been created the way you wanted to be created, as though you were to choose how you want to be created. So imagine when a person falls in love with that type of individual then how easy it will become our second nature to follow every aspect of Rasulullah ﷺ's life.

Our Focus Beyond Rabi'ul Awwal

And my beloved friends this is something what we need to focus on - not just in Rabi'ul Awwal but throughout the months - is speaking about and inculcating those tools, those methods whereby we can become عاشق and lover of Rasulullah ﷺ.

The Foundation of Love in Following the Prophet

If you were to know him, you would fall in love with him. And if you were to fall in love with him, you would have obeyed him. This is applicable to both Allah and His Rasul. If we were to know Allah, we will also love Him. If you were to love Him, it'll be easy for us to obey Him. And the same thing can be said for our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.

The Missing Emotional Connection

So when I get this question many times, sometimes fathers will ask me: "Now alhamdulillah we're doing what we're supposed to be doing. Even our sons mashallah and our daughters, they'll pray the salah on time, they will dress modestly, they're respectful to us, they've memorized the Quran, they do their dua, they do their revision. And those who haven't memorized still recite Quran daily. Alhamdulillah we've got a good environment at home. However, I don't sense the love in their hearts the way we love Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم. I don't sense in their hearts the love for Allah the way we have it. It seems that they're going through the motions. And why is it that I can't seem to see that emotional experience, that emotional connection with Allah the way we have it?"

It's a very deep question and it's something many of you may also recognize within your own families, friends, etc. - that emotional connection with Allah and His Rasul seems to become less and less. It's more obedience happening, it's about just checking it off: done this, done this, done this, done this.

When you talk about emotional love for Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم, it's not like "I have to follow the Sunnah" - it's rather "I want to follow the Sunnah." It's not about "Oh this is another Sunnah, great." It's just a Sunnah? It will never be "it's just a Sunnah." Rather, "it is the Sunnah, that's why I'm gonna do it."

The Difference Between Us and the Companions

I remember one of our teachers, he would say that the Sahaba would do what they did because it is a Sunnah, and we leave out what we leave out because "it's just a Sunnah." That's the difference between us and the companions - that they followed every Sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم as much as they could because of their immense love for him.

And on the other hand, how often do we see the Sunnah of Jummah? What large section of the community prays the Sunnah of Jummah? Sunnah of Fard Salah - "whether that's good enough." It's not about good enough. Where's the love? And Nabi عليه الصلاة والسلام would pray his Fard Salah and pray Sunnah - it's Sunnah Muakkadah, it's Sunnah he never left out. Why are we leaving it out?

Modern Discourse and Distance from the Sunnah

The discussions today about all sorts of things - whether it's Miswak, whether it's a Kufi - you'll have discussions happening on social media, on WhatsApp and Twitter and so forth. And people, all this so-called advancement in Islamic sciences is resulting in people becoming more distant from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم's life. Because why? "We found some new hadith" or "we found some new commentary" or "we find some new approach to explain that you know what, that was a Sunnah only of that time and it doesn't apply today." For example, covering our head is something that was maybe relevant at that time, not relevant now, or any other thing.

So you notice that every so-called advancement in Islamic sciences is resulting in people not getting closer to the original teachings of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم, but changing it up and becoming further. And then on top of that, becoming further, legitimizing it and saying that this is the proper, correct interpretation of the deen.

The Example of Abdullah ibn Umar

When you see that within the Sahaba it wasn't like that. It wasn't about application or not. Abdullah bin Umar رضي الله عنه, there have been many instances of him - son of Umar رضي الله عنه - he's walking, he is riding on his animal, and on a road where there's nothing there, and he's ducking his head. So those around him are asking, "Why are you ducking your head? There's nothing here."

And he said, "I was with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم going right through the same road, and there happened to be a branch. And when the branch came, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم had ducked. Although the branch is not there anymore, I still remember that, so I want to follow."

Did he instruct him to follow? No, he didn't. But listen man, Abdullah bin Umar رضي الله عنه is our guiding star. And what did our guiding star do? What did all the guiding stars do? All the Sahaba - they didn't get into this nitty-gritty, technical technicalities what we are seeing today. The technicalities: "Is everything technically mustahab? Is this technically Sunnah Muakkadah? Is this technically Sunnah Ghayr Muakkadah? Is it technically mubah? Is it technically preferred?"

And the purpose of all this technical discussion and study of maqasid and going and studying Islamic studies is so that we can legitimize our distance from the original Sunnah of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم.

The Problem with Modern Islamic Education

Our ustad used to say when people from the general community, before they come to madrasa - average elder sitting here mashallah - and they will be praying 17 rakats of Isha, 17 rakats for Jummah. They'll come and they'll pray their 4 rakats Sunnah, and then they'll pray their 2 rakat Jummah, and then they'll pray at least minimum 8 rakat Sunnah afterwards, and maybe 2 rakat Nafl.

And then when they come to madrasa, our ustad would say, "This is not what madrasa is supposed to be." Then they start reading the books of fiqh and they start seeing the classification: "Oh, this is fard and this is wajib and this is Sunnah Muakkadah and this is Sunnah Ghayr Muakkadah and this is mustahab." That young man who changed his life and outside was praying 17 rakats or 21 rakats, he comes to madrasa and after reading the footnotes, he's like, "Oh, I only need to do six now. I only need to do eight."

How did this knowledge become beneficial for him? How did this knowledge become beneficial if your actions go weaker and further away from Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم's lifestyle? We cannot call that knowledge beneficial. It actually could have been greatly beneficial, but you've used it in a harmful manner.

The Problem with Modern Islamic Discourse

That pretty much sums up what we're happening in Islamic discourse today on the social media world - is that people are gaining knowledge, unfortunately, but not necessarily for the right reasons. The lectures, the talks, the workshops, instead of encouraging people to make amends and change, what's happening? It's a stamp of approval to the life that they're leading. It is saying you don't need to change the status quo, continue doing what you're doing, and you don't need to feel guilty about it. You don't need to even make an attempt to change - just be happy, smile, and walk out without your Sunnah and don't feel bad about it because now we found out that Sunnah is not important.

Honestly, it's sad to see some of the most widely watched videos and lectures and talks of speakers that instead of bringing people closer to the Sunnah, they'll always be finding some new loophole or some new holes they poke into 1400-1500 years worth of Islamic tradition to say, "This is not as important as it was made out to be. So now you can leave it out and spend more time on your phone. Leave it out and spend more time playing games - that's okay. But you don't need to do this anymore."

The Purpose of Fiqh Classifications

When the companions, they didn't sit there and make these classifications. You will not find these classifications. It was something that was done for the codification of fiqh afterwards. Yes, there's a difference. Like this: what the ulema said - someone who denies a fard, someone who denies a wajib, there's got to be a difference in his level of Iman. Are you gonna call him a disbeliever or not? Someone who constantly leaves out a Sunnah Muakkadah as opposed to Ghayr Muakkadah - what type of sin is he gonna get? That's why we have these classifications.

The purpose of these classifications is not to say "I'm not gonna do any of that stuff." That's not the purpose of these classifications. So it's being misused.

You have the companions who are following the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم's every action, and when they emulate that, they were the most intelligent according to our belief, the most rightly guided people. And they did not sit there asking this and that. Instead, if the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم did it, "we're gonna do that."

The Story of Umar and the Gutter

And I shared a story earlier on of a powerful story of Umar al-Khattab where he's coming for Salatul Jummah on a day just like this. Imagine coming for Salatul Jummah prepared for Jummah, wearing his clothes for Jummah. And as he is coming for Jummah, he passes by a gutter that belonged to Abbas رضي الله عنه. And Abbas رضي الله عنه had just slaughtered two chickens, so from this gutter, water and blood of those chickens came out and it soiled Umar al-Khattab, Amirul Mu'mineen's clothes. And he was on his way for Jummah.

He had to go back home and he had to change his clothes, and then he went back to lead Jummah. And he asked someone to remove the gutter that was right in the middle of the road that Umar رضي الله عنه used and others probably used as well.

So after he went and performed Salatul Jummah, Abbas رضي الله عنه came to him and he said to him that, "Listen, this gutter that you asked someone to remove - I want to let you know, I swear by Allah, the spot of the gutter is exactly where the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم had placed it when he was here, when he was alive. That gutter that you asked to be removed was placed by Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم - just letting you know that." Umar رضي الله عنه didn't know this, Amirul Mu'mineen.

So he told Abbas, the uncle of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم, he says, "I firmly order you, O Abbas, that you are going to climb on my back - not on a ladder, not on a chair, not on a servant - but on my back. And I want you to go place that gutter back where it was, because this was the gutter that Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم had placed. How dare Amirul Mu'mineen Umar comes in afterwards and changes its spot? Nothing's changing - it's gonna stay as is."

Blind Following Out of Love

None of us would ever think of claiming Umar رضي الله عنه was a man of less wisdom or less foresight. The non-Muslims till today, historians know who he was - a man of such great knowledge and foresight and leadership. But when it comes to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم's Sunnah, it is what we call in Urdu "lakeer ki faqeer" - you just follow without asking anything. A blind follower - you became a blind follower of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم.

And the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said there's got to be some khair in it. Did he order it for it to be there? Did he tell Abbas رضي الله عنه "don't move it"? No. But it's the fact that "I want to ensure that every single action of mine is in line with what Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم was doing, because more than likely there's a higher chance of me gaining Allah's happiness and pleasure if I do that."

That happens with love. If you don't have love, then you'll have all of these crazy workshops, seminars, talks on seerah which will make people follow the Sunnah even less - honestly speaking, that's what's happening today. You have a talk on seerah, you have a talk in this month on seerah or Sunnah, and the people walk away thinking, "Great man, I'm not that bad after all. I really don't need to make any changes." The whole talk - what has it done? It's made us feel good, feel happy, and made us think that there's no need for change.

The Need for Change in Our Homes

This is what needs to change within our own homes. We can't control the discourse across the globe - we need to change the discourse in our homes. Dear boys, dear girls, talk to our kids and talk to ourselves: if there's no love, there's no deen. We have to bring love of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم in the deen. Then the do's and the don'ts are number two.

When people come say about the beard, they come say about the kufi, they come say about the miswak, they come say about XYZ...

Brother, what is the classification? Don't ask that. If you love the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, follow him. If you're not there yet, ask Allah to fill your heart with the love of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم that you don't have to ask questions. Is it... how did he eat? I want to do that. How did he sit? I want to do that. How did he sleep? I want to do that. It's not about is it fard? Is the whole deen based on this? No, don't ask those type of questions. Say if Nabi صلى الله عليه وسلم did it, I've got to do it.

Who says it's fard to dress in a certain jersey to play basketball in a certain way? To spit as a baseball player in a certain way? To chew gum in a certain way? Why does... why is the fads, the haircuts, the juice, all of this stuff? Why the juices, then the various drinks that a certain celebrity and influencer promotes and now every kid wants it? We know what we're talking about - all the different things. It's because you love. So it's about love. Stop asking all the other secondary questions. Do we love our Nabi? Okay, then we got to do it. And if we don't love our Nabi, let's work on that. Let's work on that.

And one of the greatest ways to work on loving our Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم is to send abundant salutations upon the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم - tons and tons of it, as much as we can. And we will see, inshallah, as we study the virtues of it and study the benefits of it, our love for Rasulullah will increase.

In the blessed month of Rabi'ul Awwal, for the past few years - or many years rather - we have been making goals in our madrasa, and then past few years we've extended these goals to the entire community. Let's make the month of Rabi'ul Awwal a chance to spring off on this - you know, get charged up on our commitment to salawat that will in turn commit to loving Rasulullah, that will in turn commit us to following him.

So we've made a community goal of 25 million salawat in this next two weeks that we have, where Rabi'ul Awwal will be ending and our Sira conference October 13th will be starting. I implore every one of you, inshallah, to please make this commitment. On your way out, pick up the salawat cards. Please pick up the salawat cards and fill them up every single day - do a hundred or a thousand, as much as you can. Get your sons and daughters, your spouses to do so. There's a dhikr donation box in the lobby - you can come place it back, or online just go to masjid.org forward slash salawat.

And make an attempt this year that this year, this Rabi'ul Awwal, I'm gonna do more salawat than I ever have done, and my sons and daughters will do the same. And we will appreciate them at home with gifts and whatever you need to get. And the goal is to make us all our 'ushshaq and lovers of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم, and hopefully will make us amongst those who will be raised up with him on the Day of Judgment.

I ask all of you to make this commitment now, inshallah, to increase tenfold of whatever salawat we do. I ask you to make du'a for me and my children. I will make du'a for you and your children and your spouses and my spouse and our parents and our siblings, that we all as an ummah once again become true lovers of Allah, His Rasul, the family of Rasulullah, the Sahaba, and the Sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.

And may Allah make every one of us amongst those who revived the Sunnah wherever we are. And in lieu of that revival of the Sunnah, may Allah make us from amongst those who get the reward of a hundred shuhada, a hundred martyrs on the Day of Judgment.

Ameen. InshaAllah let us move forward and perform our Sunnah salah. السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

Announcements

A few announcements - kindly please pass the donation boxes from your left to the right and donate generously as Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم said in the hadith that charity given on the day of Jumu'ah is greater in reward than any other day. No amount is small - give whatever you can. InshaAllah we have different payment options: you can give via QuickPay Zelle, you can visit the kiosks on your way out, or you can give in the donation box. May Allah make this as a means of barakah for you and your family. Ameen, ya rabbal alameen.

Annual Seerah Conference

As Mufti Azi mentioned in the khutbah, inshaAllah our annual Seerah conference will be taking place in two weeks - October 13 and 14. This year will be unique and special where we will have a separate sisters Seerah conference where we will be covering about Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم and how he himself was a mercy and the Shariah that he came with is an eternal mercy - so that will be the theme for the sisters Seerah conference.

For the brothers, we have a separate theme where we'll be covering the miracles of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم, covering the mu'ajiz of the Quran, the Sahaba رضي الله عنهم - how he nurtured them and how they made a global impact - along with the different miracles of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم.

This is an event for the entire family. This is something that we do not want to miss, so kindly please save the date for October 13 and 14 and please invite your family and friends.

Special Program with Visiting Scholar

InshaAllah this weekend we have a special program with a visiting senior scholar from South Africa - Maulana Ibrahim Pandor, who is a khalifa of Maulana Zakariya Kanlawi رحمه الله. That will be this Sunday, October 1, after Salatul Maghrib. InshaAllah he will be with us and blessing our community, so this is another event that we do not want to miss.

Weekly Programs

Going on to our weekly programs - inshaAllah Team Fajr will be continuing tomorrow with Salatul Fajr at 6 a.m., followed by our weekly Dars and Tazkiyah with Mufti Azeemuddin, followed by our community breakfast. InshaAllah we will have Halwa Puri tomorrow, so we encourage and invite all the brothers and sisters to join us.

Our weekly Tafsir will be after Salatul Isha from now onwards, which takes place every single Tuesday with Mufti Azeemuddin. And then inshaAllah our weekly Salawat which takes place on Thursday.

Registration for our different programs is still open - Sunday school for boys and girls. You can visit our website for more information.

Sports Programs

As for the different sporting events that take place at Darul Salam for brothers and sisters:

• Tuesdays we have women's basketball
• Wednesdays we have volleyball for brothers
• Thursday we have basketball

All this information you can find on our website. As you're going out of the masjid you will see the signage boards with the different flyers - please you can take a picture, you can visit our website and share it with your family and friends.

Neighboring Masjid Fundraiser

Lastly, we have our neighboring Masjid and Madrasa IIE located in Elgin - they are here selling tickets for their upcoming fundraising dinner on Saturday November 4th, so kindly please stop by and support them in any way you can and inshaAllah purchase a ticket for their benefit dinner.

InshaAllah. السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته