03: Eid al-Adha 2025 | Prayer & Khutbah - Shaykh Aqeel Mahmood

Eid al-Adha Khutbah 2025

Brothers and sisters, I don't mean to keep you for too long. I want to mention three points in this khutbah.

The First Point: Gratitude and Thankfulness to Allah

The first point, my dear brothers and sisters, is for us to show thankfulness and gratitude to Allah. Alhamdulillah, Allah has blessed us with yet another Eid. And even more importantly, Allah gave us the ability to be able to do good deeds on the greatest day of the year, which was the 9th of Dhul Hijjah, yesterday.

This is a blessing from Allah, especially when we understand the greatest of blessings and favors which Allah gave us, which is Islam. To submit to Allah, to believe in Allah, and to worship Allah. The greatest blessing that any one of us could have is the blessing of Islam.

More importantly than our families, our wealth, our health, and everything else that Allah has blessed us with. And this is because we are recognizing our purpose on earth. We're recognizing our reasons for why we are alive and why we were created, which is to worship Allah.

"I never created the jinn or humankind except to worship Me." Our sole purpose of why we are here is to worship Allah. And this day is no different to any other day.

There are no exceptions with regards to the salah. We don't get a day off praying our five regular prayers just because it's Eid day. It's not an opportunity for a person to go and do haram things. It's not a day where we can do anything we want. It's not a free for all. This day is in fact a day in which we should increase in our remembrance and our thankfulness of Allah.

And takbir is something which we should regularly be doing in these next few days, as per the sunnah of the Messenger of Allah. And this shows us the importance of remembering Allah and doing dhikr. And of course all of this, brothers and sisters, is a sign of our gratitude.

When we show gratitude and thanks to Allah, we show our gratitude and thanks through our worship, through increasing our ibadah in whatever means and ways that can be. This is how as Muslims we show thankfulness to Allah. This is how we show our gratitude to Allah.

The Second Point: The Legacy of Prophet Ibrahim

Secondly, brothers and sisters, I wanted to mention that these days are days which are intrinsically connected to a very important aspect of our religion — in fact, a pillar from the pillars of Islam, which is of course the hajj. And the hajj is something in and of itself that is a legacy of a man who lived many, many years ago — over 4,000 years ago — our blessed prophet Ibrahim. Many of the actions that the people of hajj are performing are out of remembrance of who he is. And this is a sign of the righteousness of this legendary figure, prophet, and messenger of Allah, this prophet Ibrahim.

Although he lived so long ago, we retrace the footsteps. Animals are slaughtered — as a reminder, first of all as a means of worshipping Allah and obedience to Allah and His messenger — but also as a reminder of the sacrifices Ibrahim made. And Ibrahim's efforts and his building of the Ka'bah and the other aspects of hajj that we remember — Ibrahim and his wife Hajar and the first people to live in Mecca, Hajar and Ismail. There should be no misunderstanding with regards to the importance of these days as it relates to the days of hajj and the rites of hajj and this very important pillar of Islam.

And Ibrahim is connected to the hajj, as we all know. But what also is important is understanding the legacy he left behind. And it's by Allah's permission and Allah's blessing that when Ibrahim was alive, he never had many, many followers. In fact, it was just him and his family. But 4,000 years later, people are still sending salawat upon the Prophet Muhammad and the Prophet Ibrahim in our salawat, in our prayers. Every single day, numerous times a day, we are remembering this man.

And this is a reminder to all of us, brothers and sisters, that if Allah wants to have you remembered in the future, many years after you pass away, that's something which Allah will be able to do. But it depends on our actions. It depends on our behavior. It depends on our intentions.

If we do good deeds and we leave a legacy of righteousness after we pass away, then that legacy will continue by the permission of Allah. If we're having a legacy of evil, a legacy of sins, if we're committing sins and neglectful of our akhira, then our name won't be remembered in the future years to come through our family members, through our friends, our relatives, our neighbors, and in our communities.

So it's very important for all of us to try to have a legacy where once we pass away, inshallah, those who knew us — our loved ones, our family members and friends — will continue the good things that we did. And as a result of this, we'll be rewarded because we were the ones who initiated or started those good deeds in our families and in our communities.

The Third Point: Remembering Those Who Are Less Fortunate

Finally, brothers and sisters, as we mentioned, this is a day of gratitude and blessing and being thankful to Allah. And we also have to remember those who aren't as blessed. It's very important for us to be thankful to Allah, enjoy the time that we have with our families today and with our friends and relatives — but this is also a means by which we can understand Allah's blessings that He gave us that He never gave others.

And they don't have that safety and that security and that happiness that we are having today. And it's very important for us to remember those who are not as fortunate or not as blessed by Allah. Make du'a for them just as you have been making du'a for them. Supplicate for them.

We ask Allah that He protects them. That Allah gives the Muslims in Gaza and all parts of the world success and victory and safety and happiness and security. And that Allah gives them the ability to be able to worship Allah and do good deeds just as we have been able to and we have been blessed with.

We ask Allah that He blesses our days and that Allah accepts all of our good deeds.

May Allah accept from us and from you our righteous deeds.

عِيدُكُمْ مُبَارَكٌ — Eid Mubarak. وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ