The Jama'ah - Shaykh Mustafa Abu Rayyan

Khutbah al-Jumu'ah — The Jama'ah

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَصَفِيُّهُ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ وَخَلِيلُهُ أَرْسَلَهُ اللَّهُ إِلَى النَّاسِ كَافَّةً بَشِيرًا وَنَذِيرًا فَبَلَّغَ الرِّسَالَةَ وَأَدَّى الْأَمَانَةَ وَنَصَحَ الْأُمَّةَ وَتَرَكَنَا عَلَى الْمَحَجَّةِ الْبَيْضَاءِ لَيْلُهَا كَنَهَارِهَا لَا يَزِيغُ عَنْهَا إِلَّا هَالِكٌ فَصَلَوَاتُ اللَّهِ وَسَلَامُهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَأَصْحَابِهِ وَمَنِ اهْتَدَى بِهَدْيِهِ وَاسْتَنَّ بِسُنَّتِهِ وَدَعَا بِدَعْوَتِهِ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ

My beloved brothers and sisters, I start by praising Allah and sending blessings and salutations upon our beloved messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Before I start, if we can try and make as much space for each other as possible — there are a lot of people standing — so if we can move forward and give some space, please try and do so and be considerate of your brothers and sisters.

The Emphasis on Unity in the Qur'an and Sunnah

Ikhwan fi Allah, what you'll find as you read the Qur'an and read the sunnah of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is that there is a great emphasis on unity. We are told to stay united, and we are warned against disunity and division. You'll find this in the Qur'an numerous times where Allah tells us over and over again:

Do not be like the ones who differed among themselves and became disunited. We are being told the opposite of that:

Hold on to the rope of Allah all of you together, and do not have division between you and be disunited. You'll find Allah telling us that the consequence of being people that are not united is:

That you will differ among each other and then your strength will go away. The strength of the ummah lies in its unity. And this concept of being united, of being together, of seeing each other as brothers, of seeing each other as one — being one body — like the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, the believers are like:

The parable of the believers in their mutual love, mercy, and compassion is that of one body — if one part of it falls ill, the rest of the body responds with sleeplessness and fever. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6011; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2586)

They are one body. If one part of your body is in pain, then the whole body is up in fever and in pain and you can't sleep. This is how we should feel about each other. This is how we should view each other. This concept is heavily emphasized.

What Does "Al-Jama'ah" Mean?

Now, what does that mean? You will also find the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in numerous narrations telling us that we need to be with the jama'ah — that we need to be with the jama'ah. Now, what does that mean? The jama'ah — the community, the group of Muslims. What does jama'ah mean? It has several meanings. The ulema say, and depending on the narration or the context, we will understand what it means.

Among the meanings of the word الجماعة — when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said:

The hand of Allah — meaning Allah's support and aid — is with the jama'ah. (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2166)

And when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned:

"Upon you is the jama'ah." (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2165)

What does that mean? It means, number one, that you are upon that which the Prophet and his companions were upon — in action and in belief. It's talking about your belief, your actions, and your understanding of Islam. There is only one group that we all have to follow. When Allah says:

Whoever goes against or deviates from the way of the Prophet after the truth has come to them and the guidance, and follows not the way of the believers — so you have the way of the believers. Similarly, when the Prophet ﷺ said:

"Upon you is [to follow] my companions, then those who come after them, then those who come after them." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3651; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2533)

So there is an understanding of Islam that we all have to follow, and that is the group that we need to be a part of — meaning the group that acts according to that which was revealed, the group that believes that which they are meant to believe as Muslims, as true Muslims. So that's one responsibility that we must have — meaning we have to recognize the truth and follow it.

This is why when Allah says وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِحَبْلِ اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا — all of you hold to the rope of Allah, the Qur'an, as some of the ulema said — you have to hold on to something and then unite upon that. So our first priority, your first priority, and everyone's first priority should be to be upon the truth. And you cannot be upon the truth if you do not learn the truth.

So in the history of Islam, you always had those that preserved the deen and followed it according to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his companions, and then you had some sub-sects and some groups that would deviate. Your responsibility is to be upon that large mass of believers and Muslims that have existed for centuries and centuries, that take their understanding and their way from the salaf al-salih — the righteous predecessors. That is one understanding of the jama'ah — being united upon truth.

The Second Meaning: Physical and Social Unity

Then there is another understanding of jama'ah that is also heavily emphasized in Islam, and that is that we are united physically — that the Muslims stay together, live together, love each other, take care of each other, understand that they need each other. This is another concept of jama'ah that we have to uphold. Both have to be present within us, and we have to understand and strive towards both. We must unite, and unite upon the truth.

You will find that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and how he taught the companions — you will see that he focused on both. For example, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam — when the sahaba said to him that when they eat food they don't find a lot of barakah in it — he said: "Perhaps you're eating separately. Come together." Something as simple as having a meal — it is better if we come together.

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, during the salah when they get up, he would say: "Straighten the rows. Close the gaps. For if you differ in this, Allah will put difference in your hearts." The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would discourage his companions, when they would camp or travel and had to sleep, from sleeping separately. He would say: "All of you come together. The closer you are to each other, the better."

And then you have numerous narrations of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam encouraging the visiting of the sick, the helping of the needy and the orphan, smiling towards each other — all of these are mechanisms to preserve the unity among the Muslims, that you continue seeing yourselves as people that are close to each other.

What Does Shaytan Want?

Both of these concepts must be ones that we work on and strive towards. So we must work and strive towards having the right understanding of Islam, and the moment we see some people that have the wrong understanding and that are innovating within the religion, or they are calling towards that which the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was not upon, we have to tell them that they are wrong. We have to give them nasiha. We have to bring them back into the fold with adab and good akhlaq and nasiha and wanting good for them.

And similarly, we must strive towards keeping the ummah together, because our strength is in our unity. And this is why the Shaytan — what is the most beloved act of Shaytan? To separate between a couple. This disunity and separating is what he wants. That's what the Shaytan wants. So whenever within your family there is dispute, Shaytan is happy. This is not what Allah wants from you. Whenever you will find within a community — disunity, disregard of each other, hatred and anger — this is what Shaytan wants.

So every time when a business — people have problems with each other inside of it, or they are struggling over it — or property disputes, or any familial disputes, or sometimes now it extends into the mosque and so you see one mosque, another mosque and they are disunited — all of this is what makes the Shaytan happy. We must strive to get rid of that.

We Need Both: Truth and Love

That's why you will find sometimes some Muslims that will say: "Well, there is only one way to get rid of that — we have to unite upon the haq, so I'm going to call towards the truth and call out evil." And to that we say: ihsan, very good. But that's not all you're meant to be doing. You're meant to also be instilling love within the community, care within the community, spreading love and khair and support and wanting good for each other — coming together, eating together, living together, taking care of each other. We need both.

If we just unite without principles and beliefs, without calling out evil, without telling what is haq — if we just focus on uniting — we will be like the ones that Allah spoke about in the Qur'an:

You think they are together but their hearts are divided. We want our hearts to be united. This is why we must strive and work towards both.

Practical Steps Towards Unity

So these are very large concepts — how can you apply these in your daily life? How can you work towards having more unity within the ummah, which is what we want? We want it in the largest scale possible. We want our countries to be united, our governments to be united, the Muslim world to be united. But we also want our homes to be united — brother and sister not fighting and arguing and not speaking to each other. No matter how small you go or how large you go, we must work towards this maqsad shar'i, because the Prophet ﷺ said in the narration:

"Disunity is a punishment, and being united is a mercy." (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 17123)

Disunity is a punishment — we don't want that. Being united is a mercy — strive towards it in your daily life. So if you have problems with someone, you are encouraged to rectify those problems. You are encouraged to forgive that person. If there are people that you haven't spoken to for a long time, or you have decided that you're going to cut them off, or you treat them as "the others" — then strive towards rectifying that.

In your general behavior with people — sometimes there are people that you disagree with, either for dunya reasons or even religious reasons — observe the rights of all Muslims. Observe. Come together. If you are in a workplace and you see that the Muslims — or at home or anywhere — that everyone is taking their plate and eating separately: come, let's come and eat together. If you are within a neighborhood or an apartment complex and you have not been visiting each other or talking to each other — remedy that. These are all small steps that we can take towards unity.

Right now in this masjid there are so many people that have been seeing each other for a very long time — but do we strive towards unity? Towards getting to know each other? Feeling truly like we are brothers and a real community? Is that present? Or now it's everyone busy with their phone and it's just you — me, myself, and I — maybe your family, and that's it. This is not the way of Muslims. This is not the way of Muslims.

The Wisdom of Salat al-Jama'ah

Why do you think — what are some of the wisdoms of salat al-jama'ah? Salat al-jama'ah is an act of worship first and foremost, but one of its wisdoms is that we come together — we come together and we see each other. And this is why we always talk about the Muslims being divided, and we sometimes blame people that are very far away. Wallahi, we are divided — because of this country and that country, we are divided because of these enemies and those enemies — but what have we done to strive towards unity? Something that Allah asked us to do in the Qur'an:

These are commands from the Almighty. Ask Allah to unite our hearts, to unite our bodies, to unite all of us, and to be among those that enter into the best place of Jannah. And there is a hadith that the Prophet ﷺ said:

"Whoever wants to be in the best place of Jannah — in the middle of Jannah — upon him is the jama'ah." (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2165)

Whoever wants to be in the best place of Jannah, in the middle of Jannah — upon you is the jama'ah — the Muslims, the jama'ah — meaning the right path, and being united upon the right path, and striving towards that. May Allah make us among those.

بَارَكَ اللَّهُ لِي وَلَكُمْ فِي الْقُرْآنِ الْعَظِيمِ وَنَفَعَنِي وَإِيَّاكُمْ بِمَا فِيهِ مِنَ الْآيَاتِ وَالذِّكْرِ الْحَكِيمِ أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ مِنْ كُلِّ ذَنْبٍ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

Second Khutbah — Taking Action

الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله.

My beloved brothers and sisters, as we mentioned earlier — often we speak about these concepts and then it's: "Yeah, the imam spoke about unity today" and that is the end of it. It's important that when you come to the jama'ah and you hear the remembrance of Allah, you hear the ayat, you hear the narrations, that you leave with some sort of an action plan — that you leave with some sort of a change. Because the dhikr, the ayat, the ahadith that you're hearing, the statements of the salaf — these are meant to have an impact on you.

And that's why the jumu'ah is so important. How many jumu'ahs have we been attending? If every jumu'ah that you attend you took something away, it would transform your life. In a year — 52 jumu'ahs that you attend and 52 reminders that you listen to in a year — that could have a huge impact on you. Someone who has lived for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years — that can have a huge impact on you. But you have to be among those who, when they hear, are trying to take something away — trying to gain something from that which is being said to them.

A Summary of Today's Reminder

To summarize: the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam encouraged us to follow the way of the companions — their way is the best way. He said it on numerous occasions. So the best understanding of our religion is their understanding. The best practice of religion is their practice. And the best way is their way. So invest time in learning and acting and behaving like them, believing what they believed.

Then we hear the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam working on unity and discouraging disunity and all that causes it. I believe it was last week in the khutbah that we spoke about some of the things that cause disunity — which includes insulting each other, backbiting each other, being discriminatory towards each other. If we get rid of all of those, and then we act upon the sunnah of being people that are like one body, and on top of that we strive towards uniting upon the truth and the right understanding of Islam — there is a lot of khair that is going to come to us and a lot of barakah that is going to come to us.

And this is what we want — we want Allah's mercy to descend upon us, and we want Allah to forgive our shortcomings. And we are the first that are going to benefit from more unity, and we will lose out — and our strength will be gone — at a time and a place where we are desperate for each other's help. We are a minority here as Muslims. We need each other.

And that's why it's important that we understand that each one of us here has something to contribute, something to add. So remember — you are part of one body. And once you rectify that thinking within yourself, you see yourself caring more, being more empathetic, giving more charity, ensuring there are more communal events happening, involving those that perhaps are not being involved, and instilling this within our community — which is what we want.

Du'a

I ask Allah to forgive our shortcomings and our sins and to make us among those that are united in heart. I ask Allah to bless this gathering.

وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ