2015-01-16 - Friday Prayer - Sheikh Mokhtar Maghroui

The Adhan

Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah. Come to Prayer. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Come to Prayer. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Come to success. Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. There is no god but Allah.

Opening: Taqwa and Loving Surrender

O you who have attained faith, be Allah-conscious — have awe and reverence for Allah in your hearts in a way that is worthy of who He is, in a way that is worthy of what He bestows upon us of favours and of grace and of bounties. And that we should not die except in the state of Islam — in a state of loving surrender of our souls and spirits, of our hearts and minds, of our words and deeds and actions, all in loving surrender to Allah.

O Allah, all praise is due to You — for having, on account of Your merciful love, of Your rahmah, sent to us, to the world, an expression of Your divine rahmah, the most beautiful expression of Your divine rahmah — Your Prophet, Your servant, Your intimate beloved, Your chosen one, Muhammad, صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم.

The Hadith: Allah is Beautiful and Loves Beauty

And it is he who said — on account of what You inspired him to say:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 164)

He said, صلى الله عليه وسلم — verily Allah is beautiful and Allah loves beauty: إِنَّ اللَّهَ جَمِيلٌ يُحِبُّ الْجَمَالَ.

And You sent Muhammad, صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم, as the most perfect expression of Your divine beauty on earth.

Two Kinds of Beauty

Beauty is of two kinds.

The First: Physical and External Beauty

Beauty — physical and external — which is skin-deep, as it is said, and is in the eye of the beholder. About that, we do not have a choice. An animal, a human, a planet — they are created the way they are externally and physically; they have no choice about that. So that is not what Allah is talking about as He talks about what He loves.

That external beauty is beholden by physical eyes — you see with the eyes of the head. Beauty of the senses is seen with the eyes of the visible, with the eyes of the visible senses.

The Second: Beauty of the Spirit and Soul

And there is another beauty — beauty of the spirit, beauty of the soul, beauty of the heart, beauty of the attributes of the inner image of the creature of Allah. That is not to be beholden, that is not to be experienced by physical eyes. That is to be experienced by spiritual eyes. The heart has an eye; the soul has eyes. And if those eyes are clean, they will be able to discern spiritual and moral and divine beauty.

And therefore, the beauty of the most beautiful expression of Allah's beauty on earth — Muhammad, صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم — it is not the fate of an external object that I see it fail because I am myopic. It is not the fate of the external object that I see it clouded because my eyes are clouded. And so my heart sometimes could be clouded; my soul is stained, and therefore I do not discern spiritual beauty, moral beauty, ethical beauty.

Making Yourself Beautiful for Allah

The beauty that Allah most importantly means — by Rasulullah, صلى الله عليه وسلم, saying Allah is beautiful and His love is for what is beautiful — is: therefore make yourself beautiful in the way Allah loves. Make your soul beautiful, make your heart beautiful, make your mind beautiful. Follow the standards of the divine, beautiful shari'ah for what you do — for shari'ah intends to make you beautiful in your words, in your conduct, in your behaviour. That is beauty as well.

Allah is beautiful, sent us His most beautiful words, and required of us to worship Him with beauty as well — beauty of our words, beauty of our actions, beauty of our deeds, beauty of our feelings, beauty of what we are inside.

The Prophet as the Most Beautiful Khalifa

My dear brothers and sisters, Rasulullah, صلى الله عليه وسلم — that most beautiful expression of divine beauty — is therefore the most beautiful steward, khalifa, of Allah on earth, because he represents what Allah is. And Allah is beautiful.

And if I and you represent Allah on this earth with less and less beauty, we are not His khalifa. We are not His stewards — despite the fact that we are meant to be His stewards, that He created us on this earth to be His stewards.

The Ugliness That Conceals the Divine

An ugly person of heart, an ugly person of character, an ugly person of morality, a violent person of mind and of heart, an unjust person of mind and of heart and of acts — are not beautiful, despite the fact that they might have what they perceive of as high IQ. They are still very ugly internally. They do not represent Allah.

The one who does not see the beauty of the divine with his or her qalb — the one who does not...