Mercy of Mankind

Opening Praise and Salutations

الحمدُ لله الذي خَلَقَنا من آدم وأَسْبَغَ علينا وافِرَ النِّعَم، الحمدُ لله الذي أَطْعَمَنا من جوع وسَقَانا من ظَمَأ وكَسَانا من عَوْرَة وآمَنَنا من فَزَع

يا ربَّنا لكَ الحمدُ حتى تَرْضَى وإذا رَضِيتَ وبعدَ الرِّضَا

وأشهدُ أن لا إلهَ إلا اللهُ وحدَه لا شريكَ له، وأشهدُ أنَّ سيِّدَنا وحبيبَنا قائدَنا ومُعلِّمَنا محمداً — صَلَواتُ ربِّي وسلامُه عليه — عبدُه ورسولُه وصَفِيُّه من خَلْقِه وخليلُه، أرسلَه اللهُ بالهُدى ودينِ الحقِّ ليُظْهِرَه على الدينِ كلِّه

اللهمَّ صلِّ وسلِّم وبارِك على هذا النبيِّ الأُمِّيِّ وعلى آلِه وصَحْبِه أجمعين

The Call to Taqwa

Respected brothers and sisters, let me start first with reminding my mistaken self and each and every one of you to be mindful of Allah, to be conscious of Allah, as Allah always repeatedly reminds us about this important concept in the Quran. As Allah says:

In meaning: O you who believe, be mindful of Allah, fear Allah as He should be feared, and die not but as a true Muslim.

And a great reminder also in Surah al-Hajj, which is the upcoming season that we are coming to. Allah says:

O mankind, O people, fear your Lord — the shaking of the Hour is a great, great, terrible thing.

And Allah repeatedly reminds us:

Allah reminds us: O people, fear your Lord — the One who created you all from one soul, and He made from that soul its soulmate, and He distributed among the earth a great many men and women. And fear Allah, that you will be asked about your relatives and relationships with the people. Allah is very monitoring and watchful over you.

May Allah make us all among the muttaqeen.

The Season of Hajj and the Nature of Life's Tests

We just emerged and celebrated a full month of rituals and ibadah to gain taqwa in Ramadan. May Allah accept from all of us. We are coming to another beautiful season that is a great, great reminder also to gain taqwa, as Allah clearly mentioned — and also wants us to get closer and closer to Allah with the hajj, with the pilgrimage, with the sacrifice, with the udhiyah, being there or not, and many, many meaningful things that we should keep in our mind.

The entire life is all full of challenges and tests. Sometimes you can see it, sometimes not. We take life for granted and by default as our life, time clock ticking. We don't see that it is a great, great and a big test. We see the test sometimes as a hardship that comes. We don't see it as an easiness or a very beautiful, greenish life. We see it sometimes when the earthquake hits or the flood hits. We don't see it that we also live another great, big test.

The lucky, the happy, the fortunate people are those who are very fully aware of it and prepared for the moment that they meet Allah — and they are passing the test. May Allah make us all among them.

The Great Test of Ibrahim and Ismail (Peace Be Upon Them)

As you all know, we are celebrating and doing this ritual of hajj and the ibadah that comes with the hajj and the qurbani and udhiyah — as a celebration of the passing of the test, very successfully, by our messenger Ibrahim (peace be upon him). He did go through that test.

If you just think for moments about that big test — it's not an easy one. It needs a huge level of iman, yaqeen, full faith and submission to the will of Allah. When the messenger dreams, he knows it is a revelation from Allah. There is no buts, there is no ifs.

And when Ibrahim (peace be upon him) dreamed that he is slaughtering his own son — a son whom he was yet to come to the full enjoyment of having Ismail going out with him and working with him and being a helpful son:

Just the beautiful time, the big time that you enjoy your son — and you want to give anything and everything in the world to protect him, and you are extremely happy with him. At that moment, Ibrahim (peace be upon him) dreams that he is slaughtering his own son, and he realized it is an order from Allah to go ahead and slaughter his own son.

And you know the story:

O my son, I see in my dream that I am slaughtering you. What do you think?

Beautifully, he raised his son on the iman, on the faith, on the submission to Allah. The young boy responded:

O my father, do what you have been ordered to do. You will find me very patient, insha'Allah.

That said, they both submitted to the will of Allah. And Ibrahim (peace be upon him) took the order, and he wanted to slaughter his son with the knife. And you know what happened — Allah interfered. He stopped the effect of the knife, and He replaced him with a great, great, big goat. And we celebrate that.

Think about it — can we do it ourselves? You will say, "Oh my God." May Allah protect us, not to put us into that test. But at the same time, while we are celebrating that ritual and full submission to Allah, whenever we get through it, we need to be thankful to Allah.

The Spirit of the Sacrifice: Taqwa, Not Blood

I will focus in my few minutes only on this concept — to be more and more thankful. SubhanAllah. It has also been mentioned that when Allah is telling us about slaughtering on the day of Eid, في سبيل الله — slaughter a goat, slaughter a cow, do something for the needy people — Allah says He doesn't need anything from the meat or the blood of the animals that we slaughter. But He will gain the taqwa. How much are you conscious and mindful of Allah? How much are you responding positively to the call of Allah? How much will you be willing to listen to Allah and adhere and fulfill and follow the guidelines from Allah — despite the whispering that comes from Shaitan sometimes, the pushing of life, the stress that comes with it sometimes?

Do this, take this, take this fatwa, or that fatwa, or find the fatwa. Sometimes you are trying to fish for a fatwa — trying to make haram into halal and the other way around. If you follow the guidance of Allah and thank Allah, Allah says:

Those who go the extra mile in doing ihsan.

The Power of Genuine Thankfulness (Shukr)

And to get to that, I will give you one advice: the more we thank Allah, the more we think about it. We just don't say it — because we do say alhamdulillah in every single salah, in every single rak'ah in the day. You say, "Oh Sheikh, you want me to say more alhamdulillah? I say it in every rak'ah." But sometimes we take it for granted, by default. We just say it and we don't even think about how important it is in our daily life to practice it.

The more you think about it deeper, fully submitted to the will of Allah — that anything and everything that is good with us, and around us, and for us, is only from Allah, by the blessings of Allah, by the mercy of Allah — the more higher level you will get to live it, understand it, and enjoy it, and really get a deeper level of practice of alhamdulillah.

Why did Allah emphasize on it so many times in the Quran? So many times — to the point that five chapters of the Quran open with alhamdulillah. As you all know, the greatest surah, al-Fatiha, starts with alhamdulillah. The surah al-An'am, the whole surah was revealed all together, carried down from the heavens by 70,000 angels bringing Surah al-An'am down. It also started with alhamdulillah:

The first one — الحمدُ للهِ ربِّ العالمين — is a connection with the Lord of the universe. The second one is a connection with the power of the creation of Allah: The One who created the heavens and the earth, and He made the darkness and the light. In the middle, the connection with alhamdulillah and the Book of Allah and the messenger of Allah — your guidance will come through the Quran and through the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad. Then Surah Saba and Surah Fatir — then the power and authority and kingship: the One who owns everything in the heavens and in the earth.

The Gratitude of the Prophets

When we understand that, and we see how Allah praised the messengers — like Nuh (peace be upon him), like Ibrahim (peace be upon him), like Suleiman and Dawud — when He said شَاكِرًا لِأَنْعُمِهِ about Ibrahim (peace be upon him): he was thankful to the blessings of Allah.

Just imagine Suleiman — how much he paid attention to thanking Allah and referring all the blessings and bounties to Allah. He was a king — and not just any king. He was a super, super powerful king. He owned the jinn and mankind, and the animals, and even the birds, and even the wind, as you all know. Allah gave him a kingdom and responded positively to his du'a and wish as he wanted. So he was so powerful. And when you see the miracles happen in front of him — and you see the throne of Bilqis in front of him, when he heard the ants talking — he referred it all to Allah. When he sees the throne — he referred it to Allah.

A Daily Commitment to Thankfulness

So my respected brothers and sisters, my reminder for you today, as we are approaching the season of the hajj: keep thanking Allah — daily in your practice, daily in your ibadah, daily in your mind. "I want to be more thankful to Allah." I want to be among those about whom Allah said in the Quran — very few, the elite, the top group of people — from My servants are the thankful people.

The more we think and see it, the more we see tests in different shapes and forms around us — we say alhamdulillah. The more you do it, Allah will protect you more, Allah will give you more — whatever it is that you want: a good job, a good position, a good spouse, good kids, good health, good iman, peace of mind, a good group around you. Allah says — and Allah declared — if you pay attention to this concept and ritual and ibadah of thanking Him:

Allah will give you more — 100% guaranteed. May Allah make us all among the thankful people, among the shakireen.

I say this and ask Allah's forgiveness for me and you and the believers. So ask His forgiveness — He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

Second Khutbah: The Season of Hajj, Udhiyah, and Giving

Respected brothers and sisters, the brief of the khutbah today is: while we are approaching the season of the hajj and the pilgrimage — may Allah enable us all to go and make the hajj. If you can physically and financially, there is no excuse — go ahead and do it. This is an obligation, at least one time in your life. This is the first time that is obligatory; after that, it is a huge reward. And if you cannot, then you need to adhere to its protocols and the adab of it and the fada'il of it — and get to the fasting, and get to the udhiyah, which is for the needy people, which we really need to do.

Muslim Aid USA and the Work Being Done

This is the reason why I am here with you — representing the charity organization Muslim Aid USA, led by your own brother, our own brother Azhar Aziz from Dallas, Texas. It is the fastest growing charity organization for Muslims in America, spreading all over, doing a great job, focusing on unique projects here and there across the world. And aligning and partnering — and this is the key signature of our success — with many other international organizations, to be able to do the work that seems to be impossible.

And I will just give you one example about a big catastrophe that is taking place continuously, unfortunately — one of the worst injustices in the world now — a living injustice and catastrophe taking place, which is in Gaza.

The Crisis in Gaza

Our own Muslim brothers — two and a half million of them — live in an open cage. Two and a half million Muslim brothers surrounded by a prison. They cannot go out, and it takes them days to get out even for a medical emergency. They drink contaminated water — 97% of them. 13% have kidney failure and kidney issues every year because of that. 7% of the children's deaths in Gaza are because of contaminated water.

What we can say is that the great reason why Muslim Aid USA is very successful is they were able to partner with international relief organizations — very vetted, nobody, no governments mess with them. They had the permissions to go, and they were able to go and install reverse osmosis water systems to reduce this contamination issue in Gaza.

I am very proud of what we are doing over there. And that's why I support this cause and stand up in front of the members and go to the masajid and encourage people to support your brothers in Gaza — at least so they can drink drinkable water. Something. It's not even thinkable to us — to think that I can drink contaminated water even if you are thirsty, you will not. Unfortunately, millions of our own brothers and sisters, daily — 97% of the Gazan brothers and sisters — will drink contaminated water.

Qurbani and How to Give

The Qurbani season — that is why I am here. The average cost in the most needed places for a small animal is $35. The average cost for a large animal like a cow in the most needed, poor areas is $147 for a share, and $413 for the whole cow in Africa and some other parts.

Do whatever you can do and be part of the khair. What we can do is — while we are thanking Allah — one of the ways is to give the sadaqah, the sacrifice. If we cannot sacrifice and go to the hajj and really remember what Ibrahim and Ismail did with that huge, huge sacrifice — our sacrifice, comparing to theirs, is nothing.

We should thank Allah that we have not been tested that heavily. We should thank Allah that He has given us the opportunity to enjoy Islam and give more and support others and be one ummah and help each other — and enable us to meet Him while He is pleased with us.

Closing Du'a

Allah and His angels send blessings upon the Prophet. O you who believe, send blessings upon him and give him your greetings of peace.