The Strange And Beautiful Affair Of The Believer

Opening — Glorification of Allah and Salawat upon the Prophet

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 11133; also related in Sahih al-Bukhari, Adab al-Mufrad)

Respected audience, dear brothers and sisters and honorable esteemed guests of Allah, let us start off with the glorification of Allah himself, as any khutbah, any sermon devoid of the mention of the greatness of Allah remains incomplete.

Allah — the eyes cannot see Him, and thoughts cannot fathom Him, and anyone attempting to give an accurate description of Allah is unable to do so. He knows the weight of the weightiest mountains, and the depths of the deepest oceans. Nothing remains hidden from the sight and the vision of Allah. The rain that is falling from the sky currently at this moment — Allah is aware of the amount of raindrops that are going to fall from the sky, and where they are going to fall.

Then we send peace, blessings, and salawat upon Rasulullah ﷺ. Sayyidu wuldi Adam, wa laa fakhra — the best of the creation, and Rasulullah ﷺ is not arrogant about it. As the poet says:

The eyes have not seen anything more beautiful than the radiant face of Rasulullah ﷺ, and the women have been unable to give birth to anyone as beautiful as the personality of Rasulullah ﷺ. You have been created devoid of all defects, as if you were yourself given the choice of how you would like to be created.

The Affair of the Believer — Strange and Beautiful

Respected audience, dear brothers and sisters, the first hadith that comes to mind is the hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2999)

Strange indeed is the matter of the believer, for indeed the outcome for the believer is always good, great, and always positive. When something good happens to him, when events in life take him around a good corner, and he does the shukr of Allah, that is good for him. As Allah says:

When he engages in the shukr of Allah, that blessing may be multiplied and he will be blessed with other blessings in his life. And as is the case in the current global scene, in different multiple places in the Muslim lands — when he is patient, he is also given the reward for that sabr, and that is also good for him. And ultimately the people who become shaheed or who pass away in the path of Allah, they ultimately reach their abode, which is Jannah itself.

Preparing for Ramadan — Counting Our Blessings

Beloved audience, the hadith I recited is in context of the month of Ramadan itself. As we approach the month of Ramadan, we have been blessed by Allah to live in a land and locality where we have everything. There is a saying — limitless plenty. We have everything; any blessing that we could think of, we have been given it by Allah.

I remember at times, if you visit any of the third world countries — I studied in Pakistan myself — sometimes we would have no electricity for six hours in a day, and then the government came up with this elaborate plan where you would have load shedding three hours in the morning, three hours in the afternoon, and three hours in the night. It's nine hours — so from six hours it went to nine hours — but now it's spread across the entire day, so you don't feel it as much.

So we have every blessing that we could think of: the food that we eat, we have so much food that we waste it away; the clean air that we breathe; even the fact that we have rain, which has been given to us by Allah, and it is not flooding us and running us over. All of these blessings have been granted by Allah. The only thing that is required from us in the moment is the obedience of Allah.

And we connect that with the month of Ramadan, where people don't have roofs over their heads, they're in minus-degree temperatures, they have nothing to cover themselves, bombs are being rained down upon them, and they're also being called terrorists on top of that — and yet they're happy and willing to fast this month of Ramadan and show to Allah that they're there to obey His command. What complaint and what excuse do you and I have not to fulfill the obligations of Allah? We have every blessing that we could think of.

And so it is time that we prepare for the month of Ramadan. Allah has announced this blessed month in His Book:

And Rasulullah ﷺ said:

(Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 2106)

Indeed a month has dawned upon you, the blessed month of Ramadan. Allah is giving you Laylatul Qadr — the worship of which is better than a thousand months. So this is an opportunity from Allah.

Enhancing the Quality of Our Salah

When we look at the practice of Rasulullah ﷺ, we find that there was immense preparation from Rasulullah ﷺ himself and on the part of the companions before the arrival of the month of Ramadan, in terms of the lengthening of the time of their salah. Just think for a second right now — the way we offer our salah: if it's a four-raka'ah salah, we're usually done in two minutes. And if it's a two-raka'ah salah, we're usually done in one minute.

And if we were to make a comparison of this salah with the salah of Rasulullah ﷺ, I don't think this salah would be acceptable if it was done by the people of that time. As Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه mentioned that at times we were a people who fulfilled most of the obligations of the deen of Allah and Allah gave us success. A people will come in times afterwards who might just do one percent or two percent of that, and Allah will accept. We should not be in that mindset, but hopefully Allah will accept it from us.

A lot of times we get so hopeless with our condition. We say, we are already sinners — now that we are sinners, what's the use of trying in Ramadan? What's the use of even trying? But we forget that many a time, these are opportunities being given to us by Allah. We're being beckoned by Allah — come and take from the blessings of Allah.

So what is needed in the moment is the enhancement of salah, the betterment of the quality of our salah. When it comes to our worldly affairs and matters, we're on top of it. We're looking at the digits, we're looking at the stocks. This falls — I want to invest in this, I want to immediately pull out of it. Why has money diminished in my bank account? How many points do I have on my credit card? We're on top of these things. But sadly, when it comes to the real success and the things that will grant us the ultimate success, we're unmindful of those things.

The Du'as Within Salah

The question is: how do we enhance the quality of our salah? When we look at the salah of Rasulullah ﷺ and the Sahaba, we have multiple descriptions given of their salah. It is as if you have placed a stick in the ground — that's how still they would stand in front of Allah. When you look at the Sahaba, the stories are mentioned that birds would come and perch on their backs. We know the story of Ali رضي الله عنه. When he would be offering his salah, he would be so engrossed that there was an arrow which was stuck in his calf. It is said that if there's an injury in the calf, you feel it the most — because every time you walk, your muscles are going to flex and it's going to hurt. He said: when I engage in my salah, you can pull it out at that time. And he didn't even realize when it happened.

When it comes to our salah, for starters, we should try to memorize the extra du'as in salah which were recited by Rasulullah ﷺ. We find them in Bukhari, Muslim, and Abu Dawood. Starting from du'a al-istiftah — what is istiftah? Istiftah is when a person starts his salah. So normally we recite:

But there are other extra du'as that we can memorize. Starting from:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 744; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 598)

Such beautiful du'as! If a person were to take a moment and focus on the meanings of these du'as, it would compel them — I can guarantee you that you would memorize it today insha'Allah, provided you know the meanings of the du'a as well. There are books like Hisn al-Muslim and Salah of a Believer that actually mention all of these du'as. You can find them in the chapters mentioned. You can also approach me after the khutbah — I have an entire printout that has all the du'as of salah on one page, so they're easier to memorize.

Allah, cause a distance between my sins — like the distance of the east and west. Take them away from me. And wash them away with rainwater and hailwater. Such beautiful du'as. And then:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 771)

That I direct my face towards Allah, who created the heavens and the earth. So these are such beautiful du'as that we can recite.

What's going to happen is we will have the ability to lengthen our salah — and that's something that we're missing. Most of us memorized those last ten surahs in our childhood, and till the age of 55, those same last ten surahs finish in 30 seconds — sometimes even less than that, the way we recite. So what excuse do we have when we stand in front of Allah? We did not even attempt to memorize more.

So a person should try to lengthen the memorized portions of the Qur'an. Yes, with the recitation, we should also pledge with ourselves: I'm going to increase my memorization of the Book of Allah. So you try to memorize portions of the Qur'an, and then you add these du'as in your salah. They're not meant to be recited in the fard salah, but in your nawafil and sunan, it is permissible to recite these.

And so when you go down in ruku, there's another beautiful du'a:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 771)

I perform ruku for You, for Your sake. There's one for sajdah:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 771)

And then in the last sitting — which is known as al-qa'dah al-akhirah — there are about five or six extra du'as that one can recite. So I urge each and every one of us to memorize those du'as. It's not difficult. If a person sits down with the firm intention and need of memorizing them, and then the more you start to recite them, the firmer they become in your memory.

Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned:

(Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 3940; Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 13722)

The coolness of his eyes has been placed in salah. And when you have such beautiful du'as, and when a person has that connection with Allah, these things make more sense to us.

The Importance of Du'a — Etiquettes and Rewards

Time does not permit me to go any longer, but I want to address the issue of du'a. This is something that we want to practice before the arrival of the month of Ramadan — that we engage in lengthy du'as. Many a time, we only remember Allah in times of need: when you have a job interview coming up, or when you want to marry someone. So we only raise our hands in du'a when there's a need.

And there is a narration of which the meaning is: that when a person frequently makes du'a to Allah, he becomes known to the inhabitants of the heavens. So whenever he raises his hands and makes du'a, the angels say, "What a familiar voice! This is someone we hear constantly; we're familiar with this person — he's always making du'a to Allah." So they say ameen to his du'as, and they say that they will intercede on his behalf. But when a person who never or seldom makes du'a raises his hands in a time of need, they say, "What a strange voice — we've never heard it before." And so they also do not say ameen.

The Proper Etiquette of Du'a

When it comes to the etiquettes of du'a, it is very important for a person to not just directly delve right into his need. You raise your hand — "Ya Allah, O Mujib, here's my need" — and drop it. No. A person should start with the glorification of Allah. Just like the glorification we did at the start of the khutbah, there are many others. And if you don't know any and you find it difficult to memorize, recite Surah al-Fatihah — that is also a glorification of Allah. Recite Surah al-Ikhlas:

And there are also shorter glorifications of Allah:

Once you're done with glorifying Allah, then you move on to salawat upon Rasulullah ﷺ. Each and every single Muslim knows the basic salawat that we can send upon Rasulullah ﷺ. And then you engage in your needs.

And there is this narration — I will mention the meaning — of which a person came and started to make du'a in front of Rasulullah ﷺ without engaging in these things. And so Rasulullah ﷺ said: Asa'a hadha — he has indeed not done well. Then Rasulullah ﷺ summoned him and instructed him to make du'a properly. And then when he saw another person who was making du'a in the manner described, Rasulullah ﷺ said: Ahsana hadha — indeed, he has done well and good.

Du'a Is Always Accepted — In One of Three Ways

And on a concluding note, I would like to mention the hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ regarding du'a:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 11133)

Whenever a Muslim makes a du'a to Allah, and from that du'a he does not intend any sin, neither does he want to break the ties of kinship — he is granted one of three things by Allah:

Number one: إِمَّا أَنْ يُعَجِّلَ لَهُ دَعْوَتَهُ — his du'a is immediately accepted. And those are the people of mustajab al-du'a, whose du'as are accepted. Any common Muslim — his du'a is heard by Allah. You know, this is one of the differences between us and others. They had established such difficulty in their religion that the only way to reach Allah was through the clergy. They would say you can only communicate to Allah through us. A Muslim has direct communication with Allah — you can start now at a second's notice.

But many a time we find that the du'a is not being accepted. We shouldn't be hasty. As Allah says:

As human beings, our nature is hasty and we are quick. But we should wait patiently, because there may be some khair that Allah has in store.

Number two: إِمَّا أَنْ يَدَّخِرَهَا لَهُ فِي الْآخِرَةِ — all of that is combined for him in the hereafter, and he will be given something in recompense.

Number three: وَإِمَّا أَنْ يَصْرِفَ عَنْهُ مِنَ السُّوءِ مِثْلَهَا — at times what you are seeking may not be good for you. You are asking Allah for a specific brand of car, but maybe there is no khair in it for you. You leave the dealership lot and you get into an accident. So this type of du'a — Allah knows that there is no good in it for you, and so you will be granted a replacement, something even better, something which has khair in it for you.

And it is mentioned in the meaning of the hadith that when a person sees what he receives in recompense of the du'as that were not accepted in this world — when he sees it in the hereafter — he would wish that none of his du'as were accepted in his worldly life.

Closing Du'a

I conclude here. I ask Allah to give us the tawfiq for the month of Ramadan.

أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم ولسائر المسلمين، فاستغفروه، إنه هو الغفور الرحيم.

Second Khutbah

الحمد لله وحده، والصلاة والسلام على من لا نبي بعده. أيها الناس، إن الله تبارك وتعالى أمركم بأمر عظيم، بدأ فيه بنفسه، وثنّى بملائكته المسبّحة بقدسه، وثلّث بكم أيها المؤمنون من برية جنّه وإنسه. فقال تعالى:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1987)