Sh.Ammar Alshukry

The Adhan

اللهُ أَكْبَر، اللهُ أَكْبَر، اللهُ أَكْبَر، اللهُ أَكْبَر
Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest.

أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ، أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ
I bear witness that there is no god but Allah. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah.

أَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللهِ، أَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللهِ
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

حَيَّ عَلَى الصَّلَاةِ، حَيَّ عَلَى الصَّلَاةِ
Come to Prayer. Come to Prayer.

حَيَّ عَلَى الْفَلَاحِ، حَيَّ عَلَى الْفَلَاحِ
Come to success. Come to success.

اللهُ أَكْبَر، اللهُ أَكْبَر، لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ
Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. There is no god but Allah.

Opening — The Khutbah of Need

All praise is due to Allah. We seek His guidance and His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of ourselves and the whispering of our desires. Whom Allah guides, no one can misguide, and whom He allows to be misled, no one can guide.

And I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah alone, having no partners, and that Muhammad ﷺ is His slave and His Messenger and His perfect worshipper.

Allah says in the Qur'an:

O you who believe, fear Allah as He deserves to be feared, and do not die except in a state of Islam.

O mankind, fear your Lord who created you from a single soul and produced from that soul its mate and made from their combination many men and women. So fear your Lord whom you ask each other by, and by the ties of kinship. Verily, Allah is ever watchful over you.

O you who believe, fear Allah and say that which is correct. He will correct for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger, then they are indeed victorious.

The Battle of Badr and the Prophet's Consultation

Rasulullah ﷺ had gone to capture and seize the caravan of Abu Sufyan. And so he and 300-some-odd companions had gone for what they thought would be an easy military campaign. But Allah maneuvered the believers and maneuvered the mushrikeen for it to turn into what would become the Battle of Badr.

And so Rasulullah ﷺ, after going with his companions to seize a caravan, now sees that he is going to be up against 1,000 of the mushrikeen. And so he summons his companions, all of them, and he says:

O people, advise me.

And so Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه speaks, and he speaks well. And Umar رضي الله عنه speaks, and he speaks well. And the Prophet ﷺ continues to say, "Ashiru alayya" — give me shura, O people.

And so al-Miqdad رضي الله عنه says, it is as if you intend us, O Messenger of Allah — meaning the Ansar, not the Muhajireen, not the people of Quraysh, but al-Aws and al-Khazraj. Because they took a pledge of allegiance from the Prophet ﷺ to defend him in Medina, and they're outside of Medina right now. This is beyond the jurisdiction of the agreement.

And so the Prophet ﷺ wants to know: what are al-Aws and al-Khazraj going to say now? And al-Miqdad said to him: O Messenger of Allah, we are not going to say, like Bani Israel said to Musa:

"You go, you and your Lord, and fight. We are going to be sitting here." We're not going to say that. Rather, we're going to say: you go fight, and we will be to the right of you and to the left of you and in front of you and behind you.

And the Prophet ﷺ also heard from Sa'd ibn Mu'adh رضي الله عنه. And Sa'd ibn Mu'adh said: O Messenger of Allah, if we have believed in you, and if you were to tell us to go and wade through a sea —

Not a single one of us would stay behind. And you will find that we are patient in battle. You will find us to be truthful at the moment of meeting the enemy.

Shura — The Attribute of the Believers

The Prophet ﷺ consulted his companions, and you will see that Rasulullah ﷺ would not leave them without their consultation. And so in this brief khutbah, I want to talk about this attribute of Rasulullah ﷺ that is actually an attribute of the believers — and that is the attribute of shura, the attribute of consultation.

Allah says, describing the believers in Surah Ash-Shura:

Those who avoid major sins and indecency. And when they become upset, they forgive. And those who responded to their Lord and established the prayer — and their affair, their characteristic, is shura amongst each other. And they give from what We have provided them.

And so you see Allah placing this attribute of consultation in between salah and zakah. And we know the importance of salah and zakah. Allah placing it in between these two attributes with their consistency indicates to us that consultation is a consistent attribute of the believer.

Surah Ash-Shura being a Meccan surah tells us that consultation is not merely an attribute of the politics of the Muslim state — but it is an attribute of the social fabric of Muslim communities.

The Battle of Uhud: Consulting and Then Moving Forward

Allah commands the Prophet ﷺ in Surah Ali 'Imran after the Battle of Uhud. And the Battle of Uhud also had shura. Rasulullah ﷺ consulted the companions with regards to where to fight the Battle of Uhud. And Rasulullah ﷺ's suggestion — his thought — was that it should be fought in the city itself: that you bring the mushrikeen in and you fight a guerrilla war in the city from the rooftops and from the windows.

But imagine if you're a young man who missed out on the Battle of Badr — because you thought it was going to be an easy caravan raid. And when everyone is coming back days later, they're talking about the great Battle of Badr. If you talk about missing out on an event — that is the greatest event that people missed out on. That a person be a young, able-bodied man in Medina and everybody is coming back talking about Jibreel having been there, and the angels having been there, and the heads of the mushrikeen being killed, and it is the greatest battle in history — and you missed it.

So the next year, when Uhud came, the young Sahaba especially were like: no, Ya Rasulullah, we're not fighting in the city. We have to meet them out in the open. We have to meet them like warriors in open combat.

And so Rasulullah ﷺ goes back into his house. They've overwhelmed him with their opinions, he goes back inside. And so the people then say to themselves: it is as if we've overwhelmed Rasulullah ﷺ. So when he comes back out, they say to him: O Messenger of Allah, it's whatever you want to do.

And the Prophet ﷺ then says: it is not befitting for a prophet, after he has put on his armor, that he take it off until Allah has judged between him and his enemies.

The Prophet ﷺ is teaching us that when you've consulted and made a decision — now we move forward. Even though it was not his opinion. And undoubtedly Rasulullah ﷺ has the most sound judgment. He is the person who has the greatest integrity. He has the most sincerity. The Prophet ﷺ submits his opinion to the opinion of the community around him.

The Battle of Uhud happens, and you know what happened. After the Muslims were initially victorious, it turned into a temporary loss — but it was a victory with Allah. And major, major lessons were learned. But after the Battle of Uhud, what does Allah say to Rasulullah ﷺ?

Allah tells the Prophet ﷺ — still — to consult them. Still consult them. After something like this, a person might say: you know what, I consulted you and this is what happened. I'm not consulting anymore. From now on it's my way or the highway. But Allah tells Rasulullah ﷺ: shāwirhum fil-amr — consult them in the matter. And then once the decision has been made, faidhā 'azamta fatawakkal 'alallāh — rely upon Allah. Allah loves those who rely on Him.

Don't be people who consult, make a decision, and then after the decision is made, someone's making private phone calls to everybody saying: hold on, I think we made the wrong decision. Let's go back. Let's do a re-election. Let's do a recount. Because that paralyzes a community.

And I've seen — and I'm sure many of us have seen — communities where a decision was made 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, a property was purchased for a particular purpose, and that property was never developed by the community. After they made that initial decision, after they raised funds for it and all of that, the infighting.

Allah says: فَإِذَا عَزَمْتَ فَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ — if you've made the decision, move forward. It's a beautiful etiquette to teach people as well — in your family, in your work groups — that when we've made a consultation in the meeting, we've decided, let's move forward.

Shura in Battle: The Battle of Khandaq

The Prophet ﷺ consulted in all of his campaigns. So you find the Battle of Khandaq — if Uhud was 1,000 people, Khandaq was 10,000 people coming to wipe Islam out. And the Muslims are in the city of Medina. And so Rasulullah ﷺ is seeking counsel from his companions, and one of them is coming from a far-off place, and he is foreign. And so he's going to suggest something that none of them have ever experienced before.

Salman al-Farisi رضي الله عنه says: something that we do in Persia is that we dig trenches. And so based on Salman al-Farisi's suggestion, the Muslims began to dig a trench. The Muhajireen, Aws, Khazraj — all of them are building a trench, based on the suggestion of a former slave who was not even Arab. Everyone had a voice in the community of the Prophet ﷺ. And everyone's voice — if it was the best suggestion — was actioned.

Imagine what that does for a community — when Salman al-Farisi sees everybody building a trench based on his suggestion.

Shura in Personal Affairs: The Slander of Aisha

Shura is something that the Prophet ﷺ did not restrict to battles. Even in the most intimate affairs of his family, Rasulullah ﷺ would consult.

And so you see during the slander of Aisha رضي الله عنها, Rasulullah ﷺ summons Usama ibn Zayd and Ali ibn Abi Talib, and Bareera, the servant girl of Aisha. And he asks all three of them: what do you all think? What should I do?

The scholars mention that the Prophet ﷺ specifically summoned the young Sahaba — he summoned Ali who was young, and Usama who was young — because sometimes young people don't have the diplomacy of elders. So they'll give it to you raw. They'll give it to you real. They'll give you what they really think.

And so Usama رضي الله عنه says: O Messenger of Allah, I have never seen anything wrong from Aisha. Nothing. And Ali ibn Abi Talib رضي الله عنه says: O Messenger of Allah, Allah has created many women. If Aisha is the issue, then you can divorce her and Allah will give you somebody else.

Then he asks Bareera: what have you seen of Aisha? Bareera is female. She is in the constant company of Aisha. So she will tell him what the men don't see. And Bareera says to Rasulullah ﷺ: I have never seen anything wrong with Aisha. I have never seen anything that is problematic about Aisha — ever. Other than the fact that sometimes, when she's making dough, she's a young girl and she falls asleep with the dough in her hand and the goat comes and eats the dough. That's it. That's all I've got.

But imagine that Rasulullah ﷺ in such a vulnerable moment is consulting people. And there are many of us who go through the most rocky family situations and don't consult anybody. Difficulty with our kids — don't consult anybody. Difficulty with our spouse, our marital relationship — don't consult anybody. Don't talk to anybody. Not a counselor. Not a therapist. Not our best friends. And so even those closest to a person may not know what is going on in their life. They don't consult, they don't ask, they don't seek benefit from anybody else's experiences. And then all of a sudden you hear about a separation and everybody is surprised.

Shura Teaches Humility

One of the beautiful things that consultation teaches us is humility. And one of the things that consulting does is that it suffocates a person's ego.

There is no one of us more intelligent than Rasulullah ﷺ. There is no one of us who has better judgment than the Prophet ﷺ. And yet Abu Huraira رضي الله عنه says: I never saw anyone who consulted more than Rasulullah ﷺ. I never saw anyone who consulted more than the Prophet ﷺ.

So much so — even with regards to the way that he dressed. And so Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه and Umar رضي الله عنه said: O Messenger of Allah, some people are really impressed by the way that people dress. So if you wore a particular garment, people when they see you would immediately recognize who you are. And so the Prophet ﷺ said to Abu Bakr and Umar: if you two ever agree on one thing, I would never differ with you. If you two both come and you agree, I'm never going to differ with you. And so the Prophet ﷺ took on a garment when he was meeting delegations and in other circumstances.

The Treaty of Hudaybiyah and Umm Salama's Counsel

One of the most awkward moments in the Seerah of the Prophet ﷺ was the Treaty of Hudaybiyah. I don't know of another moment in the Seerah where the Prophet ﷺ gave the companions a point-blank command and they didn't do it. They didn't rush to do it.

The Treaty of Hudaybiyah — the Muslims are very frustrated. They feel like the terms of the treaty are humiliating. And yet Allah would later call this treaty a Fathun Mubeen — a manifest victory. But the terms were very difficult for the Muslims to bear. It was beneath their dignity that if a mushrik accepts Islam he must be sent back to Mecca. But if a Muslim apostates and goes to Mecca, that's fine — unequal terms. And many other conditions that they found humiliating.

And so Rasulullah ﷺ, after the treaty is over — and the Muslims are not allowed to go to Mecca and perform the pilgrimage, even though they've come as pilgrims — he commands the Sahaba to shave their heads and offer their sacrifices and go home. Nobody moves. Nobody moves. The Prophet ﷺ doesn't know what to do. When has this ever happened in the Seerah? He says, "do this," and the Sahaba don't rush to do it.

He goes into his tent and tells his wife Umm Salama رضي الله عنها. And Umm Salama says: O Messenger of Allah, is that what you want? You want them to shave their heads and offer their sacrifice? He says, yes. She says: then this is what you do — you go out and call your barber, and in front of everybody, shave your head. Don't talk to anybody. Just shave your head and sacrifice your animal. And then they'll do it.

And the Prophet ﷺ then goes and does exactly what Umm Salama suggested. And as soon as he did it, the rest of the Sahaba all shaved their heads. That most awkward moment in the Seerah was resolved through a consultation that he did with his family.

The Benefits of Shura

Of the things that consultation teaches us — and I want to briefly summarize these:

Number one — it gives everyone a voice. It makes everyone feel that they have a share in the decision. And when everyone feels like they had a share in the decision, even if their specific suggestion was not taken, you've created something called buy-in. Everyone has collectively come to this agreement. Now everyone has bought into this decision.

Number two — it is obedience to Allah. Allah says: وَشَاوِرْهُمْ فِى ٱلْأَمْرِ — and commands denote obligation. So if Allah is commanding the Prophet ﷺ to consult, then what about us?

Number three — it removes enmity and hostility. When I am consulted by someone, my natural inclination is to give them good advice. And so even if there is tension between you and someone, even if you feel like that person doesn't like you, if you're working with someone in a team and you feel friction — consult with them. And that, insha'Allah ta'ala, will help remove enmity and hostility from that person.

Number four — it gives a person exposure to other people's expertise and other people's experiences. Like the example of Salman al-Farisi, he was able to suggest to them a tactic that the Arabs did not know — an experience that came to them from Persia.

And Allah knows best.

Second Khutbah

All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and upon his family and companions.

Consulting the Elderly

The last category of people that I would encourage consulting — we've talked about consulting family, parents consulting their children — but also the young consulting the old.

You know something interesting and unfortunate about American society is that there is a disregard for the elderly. And when I as a young person am able to consult with those who are elder than me — especially those who have a trove of life experience — that adds experience to my experience, it adds perspective to my life, it adds years to my lifetime if I'm able to learn things without having to actually go through all the difficulties myself.

Consulting in any affair with people who are experts in any particular matter, or people who have experience in any particular matter — let me reach out to people, let me ask people, let me seek out mentors. All of this, insha'Allah ta'ala, will make a person's judgment more sound, will make their steps more sharp, and insha'Allah ta'ala their actions more successful.

We ask Allah azza wa jal to allow us to hear the speech and follow the best of it. We ask Allah azza wa jal to enter us into paradise and grant us what will bring us closer to it in actions and speech, and to protect us from the hellfire.

وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ