Eid Al Adha 2025 Khutbah | Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan | EPIC Masjid

The story of Ibrahim (peace be upon him) is something that echoes every year, every time Eid comes around, and every time the Hajj season comes around. And we've heard it since childhood, many of us.

But it's often very easy to underestimate what the story has to offer. And you might think, and I might think, we've heard it all before. So I want to begin by giving you an analogy.

The Ocean Analogy

When someone goes to the beach, and they look at the ocean, and they look at the sun rays falling on the waves, and on the gleaming ocean surface, and they tell themselves, now I know what the ocean is. I know everything the ocean has to offer. Then you can't think of a bigger fool.

Because that's just the surface of the ocean, and that's just limited to your view from where you're standing on the beach. If you stood on top of a mountain, your view would completely change. If you went a little bit deeper in the water, your view would completely change.

If you were diving inside, your view would change again. If you were a fisherman, the treasures you would get out of the ocean would be completely different. You'd get entire sustenance out of it.

If you got a submarine, or you were doing an excavation, the kind of treasures and unknown pearls that you would discover at the bottom of the ocean, it would be endless. And no one dives into the ocean and comes out with a pearl, and then says, aha, now I know everything this ocean has, because I got it right here. No, you just got one pearl.

There's a lot more going on in the ocean. The stories of the Prophets (peace be upon them), each one of them that Allah mentions in the Qur'an, each one of them is like an ocean. Each one of them is like an ocean.

So you might get one pearl one time, another pearl another time, another pearl another time. And because Allah expects the entire ummah and every believer to contemplate the ayat of the Qur'an, and contemplate the stories of the Qur'an, you find an amazing history. You find our ulama, our mufassirun, will be looking at the same story, and they will have a different contemplation.

They'll have a different lesson than somebody else who wrote a tafsir. Why? Because everyone who dives in finds their own pearl too. They can find something the same, and they can find something unique also.

And that's the beauty of these stories, that we can never actually end up underestimating them. I tell my kids stories all the time, the same story over and over again, just as a way of teaching them language. So I teach this guy, I tell him the story of a lion and a mouse, and when I say, once upon a time there was a, he already knows I'm gonna say lion.

He can already predict what it's gonna be, and eventually when he gets old enough, he's gonna say, stop it Baba, I know this one already. Right? But you know what? Sometimes Muslims develop that kind of mindset. Yeah, I know.

Sometimes Muslims develop that kind of mindset. I already know this. I've already heard this before.

Right? And that's what I want to change for all of us, every time these celebrations come around, every single time. Every time they come around, there's an opportunity for us.

First Lesson: Different Types of Idols

So the first lesson I want to share with you, and this is gonna be very brief khutbah, is that Ibrahim (peace be upon him) broke idols when he was a child.

And he's very old. And now he's built the Ka'bah. And he's asking Allah:

Keep me and my children from worshipping idols.

Strange thing to say. I would think he would say, keep my children from worshipping idols. I'm already safe.

I already broke the idols when I was young. Why is he including himself in this du'a? واجْنُبْنِي وَبَنِيَّ أَن نَّعْبُدَ الْأَصْنَامَ Because there are different kinds of idols. There are idols that are physical in nature.

You can look at them and you can destroy them. There are idols you can look at them and you can break them. And there are other idols that are in your mind. There are other idols that are in your heart.

When Ibrahim (peace be upon him) was told to sacrifice his son, when he was asked to do that, at that time there's a competition between what Allah wants and what his heart wants. And that desire of his could become an idol. That could become an idol.

It's not a statue that you have to break. It's inside, but it still has to be broken. Right? So this is the same way that Ibrahim (peace be upon him) is concerned that there are idols on the outside and there are idols on the inside and both of them have to be broken.

Second Lesson: Allah's Perfect Timing

Then, the next thing I briefly want to share with you, just two lessons that I want to share with you today, is that Ibrahim (peace be upon him) wanted a child for a long time, he and his wife. But Allah did not give him a child until he was very, very old. So this is someone who's been making du'a all this time and Allah did not answer it for years and years and years and years and years.

And finally when he's very old, Allah answers that du'a. And He gives him not one, but He gives him two children. Ismail (peace be upon him) and Ishaq (peace be upon him). And here are the words of that acknowledgement.

Praise and thanks belongs to Allah who gave me, even though I have an old age now, even then Allah gave me Ismail and Ishaq. Allah absolutely listens to the du'a. What is Allah teaching us here? Instead of Him saying, Ya Allah, I asked You all these years and now when I'm about to die, now You give me kids? There was a time when I could have raised these kids and I could have enjoyed them growing up and they could have been my support.

And now at the end of my life, now You finally answer my du'a. Right? Because we have a schedule for when the du'a should be answered and Allah has His own schedule, right? And when du'a does not get answered on our schedule and on our terms, then we say Allah didn't answer my prayer. Look at his attitude at the end of his life.

He knows he's very old and he knows that he has these children. And by the way, if you're very old, فَأَصَابَهُ الْكِبَرُ وَلَهُ ذُرِّيَّةٌ ضُعَفَاءُ The Qur'an says, when someone becomes old and their children are still young and weak, they have a lot of anxiety. I'm gonna die, what's gonna happen to these kids? I'm not strong enough, I'm not young enough to stay around long enough to make sure they become young men and they become independent.

I might die well before that happens. So there's an anxiety that he might die before his children are strong enough. But even then, he makes this du'a about himself and his children, and then he just asks Allah, first thing he tells Allah is, I thank Allah that He gave me this.

Why? Because every situation Allah creates for you and me, Allah knew that is the best situation to create. The timing of Allah's answer is the best timing. My timing is not the best timing.

Allah's timing is the best timing. So he says to Allah, الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي وَهَبَ لِي عَلَى الْكِبَرِ إِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ إِنَّ رَبِّي لَسَمِيعُ الدُّعَاءِ And he's confirming for himself that Allah hears the prayer, but Allah hears the prayer and gives the answer in a way that is better than even the slave can understand. Sometimes I'm asking Allah for something, but His answer is not something I can understand on my terms.

I just know one thing, Allah doesn't just answer my prayer, He answers them in the most perfect way. There's an act of trust in Allah.

I pray that Allah accepts all of our worship. I pray that Allah accepts the hajj of the hujjaj. Where families can come together and forgive each other.

And we all find forgiveness with Allah. And restore our relationship to our father Ibrahim (peace be upon him).

بَرَكَ اللَّهُ لِوَلَكُمْ

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

Eid Mubarak to all of you.