01: Eid al-Fitr 2024 | Prayer & Khutbah - Shaykh Ahsan Hanif

Eid al-Fitr Prayer — Recitation

The prayer began with the recitation of Surah al-Fatihah:

Followed by the recitation of Surah al-A'lā:

Khutbah — First Part

The Day of Eid: Celebration and Gratitude

This day, the day of Eid, is a day of celebration. It is a day in which we thank Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, praise Him and glorify Him for the many blessings that He bestowed upon us — not least of which is being able to fast these 30 days of Ramadan. That you may complete the appointed days of the month of fasting, that you may glorify your Lord and praise Him, and that you may show gratitude to Him subhanahu wa ta'ala.

And from that which we show gratitude for, from the greatest of Allah's blessings on this day, are the blessings that Allah azza wa jal places upon the Quraysh — that they should have shown gratitude for — the two that Allah azza wa jal mentions in Surah Quraysh.

I've picked this topic and want to speak about these two blessings because today is a day of celebration and happiness and Eid, but at the same time it is a day that is tinged with sadness. Because we know that many of our brothers and sisters across the Muslim world — and especially in Palestine and in Gaza — today is a difficult day for them, just as the past six months have been extremely difficult for them. And this religion tells us to take benefit from the signs of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and it tells us to take benefit from the lessons that others are going through.

The Two Great Blessings in Surah Quraysh

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in Surah Quraysh, when He speaks to the people of the Prophet ﷺ — his tribe, his clan's people, his kin and kith — He says to them:

Worship the Lord of the house — meaning the Ka'bah — the One who gave you food and saved you from hunger, and the One who gave you safety and saved you from fear.

Those two blessings of Allah — the fact that we, for the last 30 days, by Allah's blessings, by His mercy, by His grace and His bounty subhanahu wa ta'ala, we were able to wake up, we knew where our meals were coming from, we had relative safety within our homes, within our families, within our property — so we could go and worship Allah azza wa jal. We fasted those 30 days in relative ease and comfort. We came to the masjid to offer prayers and worship Allah azza wa jal. We did that which we did in terms of the good deeds that we put forth. May Allah azza wa jal accept them from us.

Those are signs from the signs of Allah, from the greatest blessings of Allah azza wa jal. Because you can't truly enjoy the worship of Allah, you can't truly come closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, if you don't have those two blessings to their maximum. Because even if you're trying to worship Allah azza wa jal but you're on a hungry stomach, you don't know where your meal is coming from, you fear for your life, for the life of your children, or your property or your wealth — it's difficult for you to focus on the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It is difficult for you to have a level of khushu' and attentiveness and submission to Allah when you fear for yourself and your family, when you don't know where your food is going to come from, when you have no money with which to feed your children and your wife and your kids.

So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says to the people of Quraysh that Allah gave to you these two blessings when many people around you didn't have them. Many of the Arabs at the time of the Prophet ﷺ were poor and destitute, so they didn't have the guarantee of food and provision. And many of them lived in fear because of the civil strife and wars that used to take place between the Arabs, so they had no safety.

If you have safety though, and you have that blessing of Allah azza wa jal that Allah has given to you — your provision — then:

Then worship the Lord of this house. Me and you, we have very little excuse to stop worshipping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala even though the month of Ramadan has finished and ended. We have very little excuse in terms of turning away now from Allah azza wa jal, not going back and worshipping Allah azza wa jal, emptying our masajid, not reading the Quran, not praying during the night. What excuse do we have when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given to us so much?

The Hadith on Contentment and Gratitude

As the Prophet ﷺ said in the hadith recorded in Sunan al-Tirmidhi:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2346)

Whosoever from amongst you wakes up in safety — they wake up under the blanket of safety — and they have good health in their body, and they have enough food for that day such that they don't have to worry where the meal is coming from, then it is as if they have all of the dunya before them. Meaning: show gratitude to Allah azza wa jal, praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, thank Allah azza wa jal for the many blessings that you have that many others around us at this moment in time don't particularly have.

We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that He accepts our deeds, that Allah azza wa jal relieves the distress of our brothers and sisters.

Khutbah — Second Part

The Balance of This Religion

From the issues of our religion that are important to remember is that this religion is also a religion of balance. And from the balance of this religion is that when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bestows upon you a day of occasion, a day of celebration, you celebrate that day. And no doubt we are feeling the pain of our brothers and sisters and their suffering, but that doesn't mean that this day cannot be enjoyed.

You should remember them. Today should be a day of ibadah — just as we started this day with the worship of Allah, the prayer, the takbirat. It should be a day in which you still make du'a for your brothers and sisters. You should give sadaqah if you can. You should continue to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, because that is one of the greatest means of attaining the help of Allah azza wa jal — by turning to Him in servitude and submission.

This day though is also a day of celebration. So those people that are saying that this day is a day of sadness and sorrow because of what's going on — that's not from the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. During his time, many of the Muslims were being persecuted in Mecca whilst he was in Medina, many of the Muslims were suffering hardship, but the Prophet ﷺ never said to them: don't celebrate the day of Eid, don't show that happiness with yourselves and your families.

This is a religion that Allah azza wa jal has given to us — everything in its due measure and its due balance.

Closing Du'a

So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on this day — just as we ask Allah azza wa jal that He accepts our deeds from Ramadan, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes us better Muslims after Ramadan than we were before Ramadan and during Ramadan — we also ask Allah azza wa jal that He makes this day a day of ease and comfort for our brothers and sisters, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala relieves from them their distress, that Allah azza wa jal protects them, their lives, their family and their property. We ask Allah azza wa jal that He blesses us and keeps us safe, grants us steadfastness upon this religion.