20161104 - 2nd Khutba - Shaykh Arsalan

Opening — Khutbah al-Hajah

Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, we ask for His help, we ask for His forgiveness, and we ask for His guidance. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, no one can misguide, and whomsoever He misguides, no one can guide.

And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that our master Muhammad, peace be upon him, his servant and his messenger, his chosen one and his companion, has conveyed the message, has fulfilled the trust, has advised the Ummah, and has striven in the cause of Allah, the truth of his Jihad, until the certainty came to him. O Allah, send peace and blessings upon our master Muhammad, and upon his pure and good family, and upon his righteous companions, and upon those who followed them with goodness until the Day of Recompense.

As for what follows — the truest of speech is the Book of Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance of our master Muhammad, peace be upon him. And the worst of all things are innovations, and every innovation is a bid'ah, and every bid'ah is a misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims. O people, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul, and created from it its mate, and spread among them many men and women.

The Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ — A Model for All Time

Brothers and sisters, have you ever wondered what it would be like to visit the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ during his lifetime? If you were to travel back in time and enter into the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ, what would you see? Who would you see? What kinds of activities would you see in the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ? I think this is something that we should all reflect on.

Because Allah says to us in the Qur'an:

That indeed, in the Messenger of Allah, there is the best example for you to follow. And if he is our example to follow, then he is our example to follow in everything — including how our Masjid should be, who should come to our Masjid, and what kinds of things should be happening in our Masjid.

The Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ was a place of many different kinds of activities. Of course, it was a place of worship, of remembrance of Allah, of mention of Allah, a place of devotion. No doubt about that — that was the first and foremost role of the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ. But it was not the only thing that was done in that Masjid.

It was a place for da'wah, where non-Muslims would come and sit down and discuss with Rasulullah ﷺ. It was a place for conducting meetings — planning, strategizing, evaluating, and brainstorming meetings between the Prophet ﷺ and the companions. It was a place of providing services to the community, providing medical care to the community. It was a place for celebrations — for Eid celebrations, where after the Eid salah, the Abyssinians would perform and the people would gather and watch the performance and celebrate. It was a place for socialization, a place where companions would simply sit down and talk, share poetry, talk about the days of Jahiliyyah, and smile and joke. And the Prophet ﷺ would participate, just by watching and smiling, not necessarily indulging too much in the conversation. But it was a place of socialization as well. All of this is from the authentic texts in the collections of hadith.

The Masjid as a Center of Education

And it was also a place for education. And that's what I want to focus on in this khutbah, at least the first part of it.

Yes, the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ was a center of education. The first madrasah, the first university in Islam was the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ. And I'm not just talking about education for children, because many of us expect the masajid today to be places that provide education for our children. But we do not put enough focus on the education of elders, adults, and young professionals in the masajid. Because even though we have Sunday schools full of children, and after-school programs full of children, and new ideas every week for new programs of education for children in the masajid, we see hardly anybody attending the classes for adults. There is this perception that the masjid is not the place for Islamic education for adults, or that that is not important — that what's important is the education of children.

But that's not how the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ was. It was a place of education — for adults as well as children.

Scene One: Two Gatherings in the Masjid

Let me give you a scene, as if you were to enter into the Masjid of the Prophet ﷺ — what would you see? Look at this scene as related by Ibn Majah in his Sunan, on the authority of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 229)

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ emerged one day from his home and entered his masjid. And he found before him two gatherings taking place. One was engaged in the recitation of the Qur'an and the remembrance of Allah, making du'a to Allah. While the other gathering was engaged in ilm — in learning, in teaching and learning. So the Prophet ﷺ remarked and said: "In each of these two groups there is good. These people are reciting the Qur'an and making du'a to Allah — and if Allah wants, He will grant their request, and if He wants, He will not grant their request. And this other group is engaged in scholarly discourse, engaged in learning their deen and increasing their knowledge and their literacy of their deen, Islam."

And then he ﷺ said: وَإِنَّمَا بُعِثْتُ مُعَلِّمًا — "And I have been sent as a teacher, as an educator." فَجَلَسَ مَعَهُمْ — and then he sat with the second group of people. This is a scene that depicts a session of ilm, a class going on in the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ, and the Prophet ﷺ shows his support for that by attending that session.

Scene Two: Circles of Qur'an Recitation

Another scene from the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ: if you were to enter the Masjid of the Prophet ﷺ, you would find people gathered in circles learning the Qur'an — adults, not children. Ubadah ibn Samit, may Allah be pleased with him, says that whenever an immigrant arrived in Medina, the Prophet ﷺ would assign one of us to teach him the Qur'an — he would enroll him in a class with a senior companion. And the Prophet's ﷺ masjid, Ubadah continues, used to reverberate from the noise of the Qur'an being recited, until it got to a point that the Prophet ﷺ had to instruct the students to lower their voices so that they wouldn't make mistakes by getting confused from each other's recitation of the Qur'an.

This tradition, brothers and sisters, of teaching and learning in the masjid — by adults and young professionals — continues to this day in the grand mosques in the Islamic world: in al-Masjid al-Haram, in al-Masjid al-Nabawi, and the masjid where Allah blessed me to study, Masjid al-Azhar — Jami' al-Azhar al-Sharif in Egypt. If you go to these masajid, brothers and sisters, you will see people worshipping, but you will also see ulama sitting and teaching, and adults — people even with grey hair, sometimes older than the scholar himself — sitting on the floor with their notebooks open, taking notes and learning this deen.

And these classes that are offered in these grand masajid in the Muslim world are not only attended by ulama and by tulab al-'ilm — people who are in the colleges of shari'ah, who are on their way to becoming imams and scholars. They're there too, but they're not the only ones. When I sat in those halaqat in Jami' al-Azhar, I would find that to my right sat a pharmacist who was in his late 40s or early 50s, who had to go and open his pharmacy after the class — and we were studying an advanced book in fiqh, a book that was studied by ulama. A pharmacist was there studying that. To my left, there was another man who was an engineer doing graduate studies in the college of engineering. Other people in that halaqah included lawyers and even social activists. Their da'wah work and activism did not give them an excuse for not attending sessions of knowledge, brothers and sisters.

Scene Three: The Prophet ﷺ as the Greatest Teacher

Let me give you one more scene from the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ. This one is narrated by Muawiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami in Sahih Muslim. He says:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 5, Hadith 1199)

He says: One day, I was praying with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in his masjid, and a man sneezed. So I said, Yarhamuk Allah — while I was praying. So the people in the congregation began to look at me. And I noticed that they were looking at me, so I said, "May your mother bereave you — why are you looking at me?" So the people began to strike their hands on their thighs to indicate to me that I needed to be quiet because I was praying. When I saw them doing that, I realized they were trying to tell me to be silent, so I became quiet.

And then he said: When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ finished the prayer — bi-abi wa ummi, may my father and mother be ransomed for him — I never saw a teacher before him or after him who was better than him at teaching. He did not yell at me. He did not hit me. He did not scold me. He said to me: "This prayer of ours is not an activity in which we talk to each other. It is for the glorification of Allah, the magnification of Allah, and the recitation of the Qur'an."

Two things to learn from this scene. Number one, how Rasulullah ﷺ is looked upon as a teacher — "I never saw a teacher better than him," he said. Rasulullah ﷺ as the imam of the masjid was also the scholar of the masjid, the teacher of the masjid, the educator of the masjid. And people learned from him and benefited from his knowledge.

Who Attended the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ?

But there is another thing we learn from this, brothers and sisters, and that leads me to the second issue I want to talk about in today's khutbah — and that is that the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ was attended by every kind of person. It was not just a place attended by the most righteous of all people. It was attended by people who were ignorant about their deen — who didn't even know the basics of their prayer, that they're not supposed to talk in their prayer.

And that leads me to my next question, that I think we need to also reflect on: if we were to enter the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ while he was alive, who would we see in that masjid? Who attended the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ? And the answer, brothers and sisters, if we reflect on the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, is: everyone. Everyone attended his masjid.

People who are knowledgeable — the huffaz — the likes of Ubay ibn Ka'b, and Ka'b ibn Malik, and Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, and Zayd ibn Thabit were there. The top-notch Sahabah — Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman — were there. But also the ignorant were there, right behind the Prophet ﷺ praying and learning and improving. The righteous were there, but the sinners were there too. Those who committed theft were there. Those who drank alcohol were there. Those who committed zina were there. And we have stories from the lives of the companions, رضي الله تعالى عنهم أجمعين.

Those who were struggling with their faith were there — we call them الْمُؤَلَّفَةُ قُلُوبُهُمْ — people who have accepted Islam but have doubts in their hearts about their faith, a crisis of faith inside of them, questions, not sure — whose hearts need to be reconciled, whose hearts need to be filled with yaqeen. They were there too.

Old people were there, and young people were there. Six out of the ten companions promised Jannah by the Prophet ﷺ — six of them — were teenagers when they accepted Islam. And so they were in their thirties when the Prophet ﷺ died. Those people were there in the Masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. It was not just old people who can barely go into sujood in their prayers. Young people were there in the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ. And the word شَاب and شَبَاب in the Arabic language includes the ages up to 40. So if you're 40 years old or less, insha'Allah you're a young person — you're from the shabab.

Are Our Masajid Welcoming to the Youth?

But how are our masajid doing, brothers and sisters? That's a question that we need to ask ourselves. If Rasulullah ﷺ is our role model in everything, then his masjid needs to be the role model for our masajid. Are our masajid welcoming to the second and third generation of Muslims? Or do they feel unwelcomed at the masjid? When we go to masajid today, do we see this age group — teenagers up to 35 or 40 years old, the young professionals and the college students — is that age group there, or is it mysteriously missing from our masajid?

The truth is, brothers and sisters, that a lot of our youth feel out of place in the masjid. They feel judged — perhaps because of their lifestyle, because of the way they dress, because of their hairstyle, or whatever. And the result of this, brothers and sisters, is that many young people who are growing up in this country are becoming unmoored. They're leaving the masjid. And as a result, they're either leaving the deen altogether, or — if Allah has protected their faith — they're seeking to build other places that are sometimes called "safe places," or "safe spaces," or "third spaces," which are not masajid, but spaces where they can be themselves without worrying about violating the sanctity of the house of Allah. Because it's not a house of Allah, it's just a safe space. They can come together and discuss their doubts about their deen in a place where nobody will judge them for that, and they can develop bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood, and together grow in their conviction about their faith.

But the problem, brothers and sisters, with these third spaces or safe spaces is that they cannot replace the house of Allah. The masjid is the house of Allah. And the barakah that descends in the house of Allah does not descend in a third space or a safe space.

The Prophet ﷺ, when he spoke about the Day of Judgment, said there will be seven people on that day who will be under the shade provided by Allah, on a day when there is no shade except that shade. And among the seven people that he mentioned:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 660; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1031)

One of them will be a young person who grew up in the worship of Allah. And the second is a person whose heart is suspended in the masjid — not in a safe space or a third space. A person whose heart is suspended in the masjid. In other words, he is so attached to the masjid that when he leaves the masjid, he leaves his heart suspended in the masjid so that he can't wait to get back. The masjid is the place where the hearts of our youth need to be suspended in.

Supporting Our Youth in Times of Islamophobia

Brothers and sisters, we all know that we're going through a time in which there is an alarming rise in Islamophobia and anti-Islamic bigotry. And it's having an impact on all of us, but in particular on our youth. We find young men changing their names because they don't want to be identified publicly as Muslims. We find sisters removing their hijab. And truly, it has become like the Prophet ﷺ prophesized:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2260)

He ﷺ said that there will come a time when the one who holds on to his deen will be like somebody who is holding on to a burning piece of coal. Our young people — and again, young people is a broad category that includes young professionals, people up to 40 years of age, people who grew up in this country especially — these people need our support. We need to support each other. We need to stick together.

As Surah al-Kahf teaches us about the young people:

They were young people who stuck together in the face of the Islamophobia of their time. They stuck together and they found refuge in that cave. And Allah tells us in that same surah:

Persevere and be patient — together be patient — مَعَ الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ رَبَّهُمْ — with those who invoke their Lord in the mornings and in the evenings, seeking His countenance.

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

Second Khutbah

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. I offer the best of prayers and salutations upon our master Muhammad and all his family and companions.

O you who have believed, fear Allah and say the right words. He will correct your deeds:

Summary and Closing Remarks

Two things that I want to leave you with, brothers and sisters, in summary of this khutbah. We need to replicate the prophetic model in our lives, in all aspects of our lives including our masajid. And I highlighted two elements today.

The first one is that our masajid need to become centers of Islamic education — not just for kids, but for all ages. And we need to take out time to flock to our masajid and attend these sessions of ilm. Because now more than ever before there is a need to strengthen our iman in the face of this onslaught of anti-Islamic discourse and propaganda that we see everywhere. We need to fortify our hearts with knowledge, with conviction, and that only comes by learning, brothers and sisters. As we bring our kids to attend classes in the masajid, we need to seek opportunities also to increase our own Islamic literacy — not because we want to become scholars, but because we want to have a closer relationship with Allah. And I hope and pray, insha'Allah, that Allah helps me serve this cause in this masjid or any masjid that I go to.

And number two, our masajid need to be places that help young people also. And even though there is merit in the third spaces and safe spaces that I talked about, a better alternative is for our youth to be attached to the houses of Allah. And one way that one community is trying to do that — and insha'Allah a brother is going to talk to you more about that after salah today — is in College Station, which is the home of Texas A&M University. They are building what they're calling the Muslim Student Center. It's not a masjid — it's a student center, because it's a college town. But it is attached to the masjid. Literally attached to the masjid. The masjid already exists — it's a five-minute walk from Texas A&M, one of the biggest universities in this country. It's the only masjid in town. Everyone goes to that masjid — the young and the old, the ignorant and the knowledgeable, the righteous and the sinners, like the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ. The students as well as the non-students, they all go there.

And this Muslim Student Center will be a place where Muslim students at Texas A&M can come and relax, study, have fun, bond with each other. And then when they hear the adhan, all they have to do is open the door — literally — and they walk into the musalla, the masjid, the house of Allah, to perform their salah. This student center will be a place where young people can be themselves, but they still remain connected to the house of Allah — physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

As I said, the brother will talk to you more about that after the salah. He will present to you an opportunity for sadaqah jariah. May Allah make us the cause for someone to earn the shade of Allah on the Day of Judgment. Ameen, ya Rabb al-'Alamin.

O servants of Allah: indeed Allah commands justice, and the doing of good, and giving to kith and kin, and He forbids all indecency, and evil, and oppression. He admonishes you so that you may take heed. Rise to your prayer.