2015-03-20 - 1st Friday Prayer - Sheikh Khalil Abdul Rashid

Entering with Adab, Exiting with Lutf

As for the scholars, they have a saying: Enter with adab, exit with lutf.

What is today? What is today? Jumu'ah. It is the day of Allah. Where are we today? We are in the masjid. We are in the house of Allah. Who are we striving to be? Ibadullah — servants of Allah. And who are we trying to serve? The khalq of Allah, for the sake of Allah, so that we may be near to Allah and gain the pleasure of Allah.

Why are we here? Because this is the place of rida — of the pleasure of Allah. This is why we are here. Why do we want to go to Jannah? Not necessarily so that we can eat the fruit of Jannah — although the fruit of Jannah is wonderful. Not so that we can necessarily listen to the beautiful rivers of Jannah — although the rivers of Jannah are wonderful. What is it about Jannah that makes it such a beautiful place to be? Because Jannah is the place of the full rida of Allah. That is where all of the pleasure of Allah is manifest. So we want to be there — not because Jannah is Jannah, but because Jannah is where Allah declared his rida is. That's why we want to be there.

And everything we do in our lives is to motivate us and get us in the mood of searching for the places of the pleasure of Allah. That's what we are doing. And so when we go to some place, we have to go into it and enter it with a certain adab — with certain manners, with certain decorum, with certain respect. And when we go into that place seeking the pleasure of Allah, we go in with adab — with manners, with respect, with decorum, with gentleness. The ulema say we exit with goodness.

The Story of Prophet Yusuf and the Meaning of Lutf

Prophet Yusuf, peace be upon him — he said, after all of his troubles, after all of his difficulties, after everything Allah put him through, after the imprisonment and the solitary confinement — whether it was solitary confinement in the ground or solitary confinement in the dungeon — after that difficult state of isolation and exile from his parents, Allah elevated him and raised him. And when Yusuf, peace be upon him, met his parents, he brought them into the city and showed them how Allah resurrected and raised him — how he entered out of those things, the prisons and everything, through adab.

And even in those dark places, those difficult places — when you enter with adab, you earn the reward, the pleasure of Allah. So you enter with adab, and because of that adab, because of those manners, because of your actions, because of your gestures in that place — whether that place is a masjid or that place is a dungeon — you have adab with it. You earn a certain divine blessing. And that is called lutf. That is gifts from Allah.

And so he took his parents and put them both on the throne. Again, adab. Took his father and his mother and put them on the throne — "This is your place." But they got off the throne and they made sajda. Adab. We have to think of adab in every single place. Why? Because everything we do — when we do it with adab — we live with lutf.

And lutf, brothers and sisters, is what we want to live here with today. Lutf is when Allah grants you the gift of your life being transformed — and he transforms your life and my life through hidden ways, unsuspected ways, and even through opposite forces. Such that Yusuf, peace be upon him, was elevated to a sovereign state on account of a torn shirt. That through darkness, through difficulty, our lives are transformed. That is lutf.

Lutf is when Allah devotes himself to you and to me on account of our first choosing to devote ourselves to him and his pleasure — no matter where we are. Devoting ourselves to him through serving his creation, through respecting his places, through all his rida, his pleasure. And so that is done first through our adab — our manners.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, said that you do everything with your manners — with gentleness, with ease and tenderness and love. Do those gestures first. Enter with etiquette, with decorum, with adab. And when you leave, you gain Allah's lutf. And lutf is the one whom you and I call — that gives us the blessings of a new life and a transformed life.

How many of you and I want to change certain aspects in our lives? We want certain tribulations to pass. We want certain obstacles to be removed. We want certain darknesses to be enlightened. And we don't know on the way out — we don't know how to change things. We don't know where the end of the tunnel will be. And so maybe we call him: Ya Latif.

That is what Yusuf, peace be upon him, said when he put his parents on the throne. After all that difficulty, they got off the throne and they bowed down out of adab. They didn't sit on the throne. They had adab. "We are not built, we are not created to sit on thrones — we are made for sajdah." And then he said:

"Indeed, my Lord is Latif — subtle and kind — to whomever He wills. Indeed, it is He who is the Knowing, the Wise."

Inna Rabbi Latif — our Rabb is Latif. Look how He does things. You have bad news, but from that bad news, because you reacted with adab — you have difficult information, but because you reacted with adab, you found somebody who is in need of du'a or assistance. And you reacted with adab. Allah redirected and devoted himself to you. And caused you to be elevated. Caused your life to be redirected. And caused those difficulties to be transformed into ease. That is Latif. And He did it in a way you would never have expected. He allowed you to grow and to blossom, and your family to grow and blossom, through your difficulty and through your crisis. That is Latif.

How did that come? Because you entered a situation — when a situation was presented to you, when you encountered something — you treated it with adab, with etiquette. And what is etiquette? What does it mean to treat it with etiquette? It means to remember that when a situation, or a circumstance, or a crisis, or a problem comes before you — you remember Allah first. You remember Him first. And that you are trying to reach His rida. And that circumstance, opportunity, difficulty, travesty, success — whatever it is that came to your plate — that is your opportunity to turn that dungeon into a garden, to turn that difficult situation into a place of rida.

So you remember that Allah is the one that gave it to you. And you remember that you must have etiquette with Allah — for when He gives you something, you must not say no. You must not say no to anything that Allah gives you. You must accept it. And you must smile towards it. And you must endure. And you must go through it. You must enter with adab into that circumstance, into that meeting, into that relationship — that human relationship, that khalq relationship, that contractual relationship, that worship relationship, that marital relationship — into whatever relationship it is — with adab, remembering Allah. And remembering that the reason you are in that relationship, the reason Allah puts you there, is so that you can turn that opportunity into a chance to earn His rida. And when you enter with adab, you exit with lutf — you exit with Allah's devotion to you, because you rearranged your relationship. That was what happened with Yusuf, peace be upon him.

The Story of Abu Dahdah

That's one example. The other example you know of very well. You know the beautiful story — all of you know this beautiful story — of Abu Dahdah, may Allah be pleased with him. You know that story. You remember the story of the orphan who was trying to accomplish a task, and his neighbor — a blessed sahabi, Abu Lubaba — didn't want to sell him the tree that was there.

And you know the story of the intervention of Abu Dahdah — when the orphan complained to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and the Prophet tried to encourage Abu Lubaba: "This is an opportunity — sell him the tree." And Abu Lubaba said, "No, it's my haqq, I don't want to do it." And the Prophet, peace be upon him, said, "Just give him a branch." He said, "Don't allow this chance to pass you. You'll get something. Give him a branch." The Prophet, peace be upon him, said, "Don't even sell him the tree — he's trying to construct something. Okay, it's your haqq, you don't have to sell it — but give him a branch." He couldn't even give a branch to him. He couldn't even sell him a branch.

How many of us in here — if the Prophet, peace be upon him, gives us an opportunity to sell somebody a branch — how many of us would jump at the opportunity? We would not refuse. We would go in with adab so that we could get some lutf. He said, "Give him a branch." He said, "Ya Rasulullah, it's my haqq." "No, give him a branch." "No."

And we know what Abu Dahdah did. He saw that opportunity to go in with adab, to seek that place of rida. He saw an opportunity: "Aha, I can earn this rida of Allah. And maybe if I do that — because I'm here in the masjid and this situation was presented before me — the Prophet didn't ask me to intervene, he didn't ask me to help out, but I'm here. And Allah wants me to be here. And if I wasn't here, then I wouldn't have this chance. Maybe this is my chance." So let me enter. Let me intervene. Let me enter with adab.

"Ya Rasulullah, what if I were to buy that branch? What if I were to buy the whole tree and give it to him? Would I get some lutf? Would I get something?" Not only would you get something — he mentioned to him — you would get more than that. So he not only bought the tree, he gave him his entire orchard.

Look at how he entered the situation — not only with adab but with ihsan. Not only an equal transaction — an unequal transaction. He went to Abu Lubaba and said, "I'll give you my entire orchard of 600 date palms. I'll give you all of that for that one tree." Abu Lubaba said, "Are you mad? Have you lost your mind?" "Yes, I've lost my rational mind. But I'm in keeping with my spiritual mind. My rational mind — actually, I'm not listening to it. I'm going in with adab. Not material profit — I'm going in with adab and I'm seeking lutf." And the transaction was made. And the history is written.

Entering Every Situation with Adab

Brothers and sisters, we must learn to look at whatever situation comes to us — that that is a place wherever Allah put us. He could have put us anywhere else, but He put us here, in this blessed place of His rida, of His contentment, at this blessed time, this moment of His rida.

How many of us entered these doors with preoccupations, with stress, with worries, with difficulties, with trauma? How many relatives we have are sick, are lost, have passed away, are overseas in trouble, or in a different state or city in crisis? How many of us have worries — our children, our grandchildren, our parents — all sorts of stress and pain — entered this door?

Did you know you can exit with the absence of that stress? Did you know that? Did you know you can exit with a certain type of lutf that will put an ease to that and make that problem completely go away — in a way you could have never imagined, in a manner that is completely hidden from your eyes and my eyes? That is lutf. And that is why:

Indeed, our Rabb is Latif. And all of us must know that name and know that attribute. But it realises and materialises in our lives when we change the way that we walk into situations. When we approach situations with adab. And adab means — when you're here, when you're there, when you're everywhere — you remember that your job and my job is to cultivate a relationship with Allah in relation to whatever situation is placed in front of us. Whatever is given to us — whatever plant we are given — that is from Allah, and that's an opportunity.

When we approach it with gentleness and adab, and we get up and we leave that circle, we leave that building, we leave the masjid, we leave our gathering — we should exit with a smile on our face. If we've entered with adab, then we know that we have exited, insha'Allah, with lutf.

An Appeal for the Masjid

My brothers and sisters, my khutba will cut it a bit short today because, insha'Allah, we will end the salat a little early. Because there is a need to upgrade this masjid. There are needs here. And I want to see which of you will stand up with me, side by side, as we seek to earn the pleasure of Allah and seek to serve Allah by upgrading and enhancing His house — in this blessed place, in this blessed time — so that we may all exit together with the lutf of Allah.

"And as for the blessing of your Lord — speak of it." And when it comes to all the blessings that Allah has given, fahadith — talk about them. Fahadith also means: upgrade them, renovate them, keep them new, keep them serviced. Don't just do things for Allah and then walk away and consider it done. Do things for Allah and keep doing for Allah. And keep serving for Allah. And keep striving for Allah. And keep giving to Allah. And keep standing for Allah — until you meet Allah.

Never give up. Never pass away, never look past an opportunity. But enter everything and do everything with adab — with beauty, with elegance, with remembrance. And then you enter and exit with lutf. And our lives, insha'Allah, will be much easier when we leave these doors.

Second Khutbah

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen, wa salatu wa salamu ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een. I advise you and myself with the taqwa of Allah.

Ibadullah, ittaqullah.

"Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded." Aqimus salat.

Appeal for Masjid Upgrades

Brothers and sisters, just quickly before you leave — this week, starting today, we wanted to solicit your assistance and support for the upgrades that are needed for our masjid. There are several upgrades that are needed. They include the grounds, upgrades to the air conditioning system — especially in preparation for Ramadan — upgrades in security, and upgrades to the lights around here as well. Those upgrades, insha'Allah.