2015 06 26 Friday Prayer Sheikh Mokhtar Maghroui

Friday Khutbah — Ramadan

Praise be to Allah, we praise Him, we ask His forgiveness, we ask His guidance. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and from the evils of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whom He misguides, none can guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah.

Maintain faith, be Allah conscious, have reverence and awe in your hearts for Allah — always, always, always — in a way that is worthy of who He is. Worthy of His essence, worthy of His attributes, worthy of His generosity, worthy of His grace, subhanahu wa ta'ala. And make sure we do not die except in a state of voluntary loving surrender to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

This life is a field of preparedness for the moment — the ultimate moment — when we shall all leave this dunya, everyone. Every day we hear about somebody passing away and somebody ill. That is meant for us, to help us — those who are not ill and those who have not passed away — to know that our return will come. And that we live this life, and we should live this life, and behave in words and in deeds in a way that should be consistent with this ultimate reality. We must not learn to forget it.

The Generosity of Ramadan

And therefore, during this blessed month of Ramadan, my dear brothers and sisters — this month of grace from Allah and of benevolence and of generosity — He calls upon us in ways direct and indirect, indeed, to arduously and sincerely take the path back home to Jannah.

One of the calls that He makes for us — and I am going to be very brief on this point — is that He subhanahu wa ta'ala made Rasool Allah the example in front of us. And Rasool Allah was very, very generous. And during Ramadan, he was even much more generous — ajwadu l-rihi mursala — more generous than the most generous wind, that brings beautiful rain and beautiful gifts to those who are in need of it. And thus I admonish myself and my brothers and sisters to be generous in the spirit of Ramadan, especially for those of our brothers and sisters who come to this, alhamdulillah, blessed masjid, also to seek help, to help others.

The Four Divine Calls in Surat Al-A'raf

On the calls He makes subhanahu wa ta'ala — I am elected to be here to remind myself and you — calls He makes subhanahu wa ta'ala in Surat Al-A'raf, one after the other, in very powerful ways. He makes four calls to all the children of Adam.

The First Call: Two Garments — External and Internal

After Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told us, by the early genesis of humankind, the story of Adam and Iblis, He begins a call to all mankind:

O children of Adam, We have created for you garments — clothing — to protect that which you feel uncomfortable showing, your 'awrah, your negative aspect in general, which means also garments for zina, for beauty. And then He says: the second garment, the garment of taqwa, of God-consciousness, of Allah's awareness inside of ourselves.

So He tells us there are two garments I have for you, and they are both a must — an external garment and an internal garment; external clothing and internal clothing. Both of them are meant for you to behold and to enjoy. That is good for you, and that is a sign from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. For there are others without this sign who live and behave in ways inconsistent with their own safety, external and internal.

Allah wants to protect us — that we are covered externally and internally. Externally, specifically about clothing; internally, specifically about our qulub, our hearts — to be protected, to wear the garment of Allah-consciousness.

The Second Call: Do Not Let Shaitan Remove Your Garments

Then after that, He makes another call subhanahu wa ta'ala, shortly after, as if He is saying: and therefore — all children of Adam, all children of Adam — do not allow Shaitan to dissuade you, to lead you into fitna, and to cause you trouble, to cause you to deviate from the way of your own balance and the way of your own pursuit of true happiness. Don't let Shaitan dissuade you, cause you to be in a state of fitna by making the wrong choices and the wrong decisions.

Just like Shaitan did to both your parents — when he removed from them their own garments — don't let him do that to you. Don't let him remove your garment — your physical garment, your external garment. Dress the way a civilized servant of the Divine should dress. I underline these words: civilized servant of the Divine should dress. Because not dressing used to be the primitive practice of those who did not know how to read and write.

Don't allow Shaitan to do that to you. Wear your garments properly. And that means also your garment of taqwa — don't allow Shaitan to remove our external garments and our internal garments. Because before that, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala spent time — He revealed to us, He created for us, that He subhanahu wa ta'ala — to appreciate and enjoy civility, to be civilized by being dressed properly, and by dressing our hearts most importantly with taqwa. And Shaitan wants to remove both of those.

Removing the garment of taqwa will lead to removing the external garment, and removing the external garment will lead to giving up the internal garment. One is the buffer zone for the other. The external garment is a buffer zone for the internal garment, and the internal garment is a buffer zone for the external garment. Don't let Shaitan do that to you.

We must — as civilized human beings, as intelligent human beings, as human beings — not allow Shaitan to remove the spiritual garment of taqwa, nor the physical garment as a consequence of losing our taqwa. Don't let Shaitan do that to you.

And subhanAllah — this is the call of the da'i. After He tells us about the early genesis of the human being, the story between the ruh and Shaitan, He says: don't allow him to do that to you. If you want to come back home — and I want you to come back home — and your home is Jannah. This dunya is a race to going back home. If we allow Shaitan to do what he did to our parents, we will not get home. We will get somewhere else where we do not want to be.

Allah's magnanimity, Allah's benevolence subhanahu wa ta'ala and merciful love is that, yes, you can come back home — but don't allow Shaitan to do to you what he did to both your parents. That's a call to all humanity.

The Third Call: Adorn Yourselves at Every Masjid

And then a third call after that — a call to all humanity, but more specifically to those who declare the oneness of the Divine and those who declare themselves to be obedient to the Divine, by subjecting themselves to the will of the Divine and by prostrating, laying prostrate, to the Divine. He says:

O children of Adam, embellish yourselves, adorn yourselves at every masjid — whether a big masjid or a small masjid, whether a gathering in a house or in the Ka'bah, or wherever it is. خُذُوا زِينَتَكُمْ — at every masjid where we intend to be in sujud to Allah azza wa jal, in 'ibadah to Allah azza wa jal. In general, masjid is a space in which we lay ourselves prostrate.

And therefore a masjid, built as a house of Allah azza wa jal, requires — by this divine will — to teach us proper adab. And if not obligatory even, according to some 'ulama, we do not enter the house of Allah azza wa jal except in zina. And which zina is this? Remember before that His words subhanahu wa ta'ala were to the children of Adam — that He revealed and created for us garments, internal and external, and they are zina. And therefore, خُذُوا زِينَتَكُمْ — when I enter a masjid, I should be clean. I should not smell stench. I should not allow odors to emanate from my body that are hurtful, that are bad.

Allah azza wa jal is worth more than anybody, deserves more than anybody, that we present ourselves to Him in our zina — number one. But zina is the external garment of zina and the internal garment. So when I come into the masjid, I come with zina — my external zina and my internal zina.

As I must not come into a masjid smelling physically improperly — like onion, oil, bad odors — out of neglect and not knowing this adab that Allah azza wa jal desires for me, I must not also enter into a masjid with a stench in my spirit, with filth in my heart, with dirt in my soul — with any intentions, with any meanings in my heart: with sin, with arrogance, with delusion, with believing in others than Allah, with hatred, with rage, with ostentation, with greed, with selfishness, with heart-taintedness. That's all ugly. That's all not zina of the qalb.

So Allah said He revealed for us two garments — external and internal. So when you come to the masjid, wear your best. And wearing my best is both external and internal. The house of Allah is to be clean physically — I emphasize this for myself. When you see dirt and trash, this is the house of Allah. It should be in zina. Remove it — outside or inside, inside of course.

He invites you to the house of Allah and He says keep it clean — externally and internally. You must not be comfortable seeing trash in the masjid, or leaving trash in the masjid. This is not right. But most importantly, it's in my heart and yours. There must be no trash inside the masjid — in my heart.

Eat and Drink, But Do Not Be Wasteful

And then, since it is Ramadan, it is good to say: eat and drink, but do not be wasteful. Do not be spendthrift. Do not throw away. Do not eat excessively. Do not drink excessively. Do not throw food. This is terrible to hear for a truly sincere believer. When Allah azza wa jal says Allah does not have love — that special love — for those who are wasteful, and you come to the masjid, and when you look at what you've wasted, Allah is telling you: I don't have that love for you, if you are wasteful.

And perhaps because there is trash inside of me, that is why I allow trash outside of me. He says: no trash. But zina — beauty — external and internal.

The Fourth Call: Messengers Shall Come to You

And finally, the fourth call. He says subhanahu wa ta'ala — Allah is saying: messengers shall come to you from Me. Allah azza wa jal is saying: I will send you messengers to teach you, to help you, to show you, to guide you, to have the best potential in you come out, to show you right from wrong. You should not be offended — zina is not intended by that; it is intended to accelerate and accentuate and improve your distinction between wrong and right.

I am going to send you messengers; I am going to teach you; I am going to show you — like He said — to teach us what He was saying before, from the first call to the second call to the third call that He showed us. He is saying: in other words, this is from my messengers to you too. So abide by that.

The person, alhamdulillah, who embraces the internal guidance of taqwa, and mends things up, and rectifies things wrong, and does things in constructive, beautiful ways — they shall not grieve when that moment comes when I and you will have to leave this dunya. There will be no grief, inshAllah, and there will be no sorrow and no pain, if we do that.

Otherwise, those who deny these signs of ours and elevated themselves above those teachings and those signs — their abode is the Fire, eternally therein. May Allah azza wa jal protect us.

Ya Allah, please help us be of those who listen to the words of admonition and follow the best of them.

Announcement — Sheikh Abdul Rauf

Dear brothers and sisters, just a humble request — please remain seated. All the sisters, please remain seated. I want to invite Sheikh Abdul Rauf. He has a very important message for everybody here. We previously finished the khutbah five minutes earlier, so please sit and listen.

Bismillah, wa salat wa salamu 'ala Rasulillah, wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim, wa antasimu kathiran ya rabbal 'alamin. Amma ba'd.

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. I ask Allah to bless you, bless your organization, bless your community, bless this gathering, ya Rabbal 'Alamin.