2015 07 17 Friday Prayer Sheikh Mokhtar Maghroui

Khutbah Opening

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ، نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَسْتَهْدِيهِ، 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

أَمَّا بَعْدُ أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ، فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْكَلَامِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ، وَخَيْرَ الْهُدَى هُدَى مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا، وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ، وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ، وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ

O you who have attained faith, be Allah conscious, have honour and reverence in your hearts for Allah in a way that is worthy of who He is — worthy not only of His bounties and favours and grace and merciful love and gifts, but worthy of who He is, of His essential beauty and majesty and perfection in that beauty and majesty.

اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ — and make sure we do not die except in a state of Islam, in a state in which our souls and hearts, our minds, our words and deeds, all are in loving surrender to Allah.

Ya Allah, please grant us life — such life as the life of those whom You love to see live — and grant us a dying, such a death of those whom You love to come to You. Ameen.

The Spirit of Ramadan: Returning to Allah

Alhamdulillah again, my dear brothers and sisters — and always and always — for the ni'mah of Siyam, and the ni'mah and the favour of completing the Siyam of this month, by His grace and by His magnanimity and benevolence. Alhamdulillah.

Ramadan taught us so many, so many things — of which the essential concept of tawbah to Allah, of returning to Allah, for during Ramadan the hearts have returned to Allah. We found energies inside of us which we did not find before, by His grace. And it taught us to always return to Allah. And some have returned to Allah every day, every hour, for 24 hours — for some even every minute — constantly returning in their hearts to Allah.

Allah's Outstretched Hand of Mercy

And Allah by His benevolence and by His merciful grace, He is as Rasulullah صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ says, in what Imam Muslim related:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 50, Hadith 22 — Sahih Muslim 2759)

Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar, ya Rabbana, ma arhamak. Ya Rabbana, ma akramak. Ya Rabbana, ma ajallak. Ya Allah.

Allah extends His hand — and may Allah be exalted from any anthropomorphic insinuation, from any tashbih or ta'til — He extends His hand by night in order that the sinner during the day comes back to Him. And then He extends His hand during the day in order that the sinner of the night returns to Him during the day. And He does that out of His merciful love until the end of days — until, as He said, the sun rises from the west.

Allah's gifts, Allah's merciful love is always present. Our hearts may or may not be ready to receive. May we be of those whose hearts are made to receive the bountiful gifts of Allah.

The Four Divine Gifts

Rasulullah صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ is related to have said — as Imam al-Tabarani in al-Mu'jam al-Saghir related:

(Al-Tabarani, al-Mu'jam al-Saghir)

Who is given four, is given four. SubhanAllah — who is given is given. Allah gives and then rewards for what He gives. Allah gives and then rewards for what He gives. And the explanation of that is in the Book of Allah, as the text says.

The First Gift: Dhikr

He said صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ:

Who is given dhikr — the gift of dhikr — that a person is in dhikr of Allah. A person who is always in dhikr of Allah, in remembrance and in awareness of Allah, and whose tongue is in dhikr of Allah and whose heart is in dhikr of Allah — especially if it were so that the person is given that and is consistent with that — that is actually a sign that it is a gift from Allah.

And then when you are in that condition and He makes you able to do that dhikr, He rewards you. He gives you the ability and the consistency to be in His dhikr, and then He rewards you for that. And what is the reward? Dhikrullah — Allah is in dhikr of that person. Allah is in dhikr of that person! This is the reward. Allah, Allah.

Be in dhikr of Me, I will be in dhikr of you. لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ، لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ.

The Second Gift: Du'a

Look how Rasulullah صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ in the course of his text is relating his prophetic wisdom to the Kitab of Allah — that every beautiful wisdom must have an origin in the divine words, either in general or specifically.

So he said: who is given du'a — supplication, invoking Allah, supplicating Allah, praying to Allah, asking from Allah — du'a. Whether we raise our hands or we don't — the sunnah is also to raise our hands in du'a. When we beg from Allah, when we implore Allah, when we plead to Allah, when we solicit from Allah with humility and humbleness and our hearts are present — know that that is a gift from Allah. Because Rasulullah صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ said:

مَنْ أُعْطِيَ — in the passive form — and the Giver here, the one who gives is Allah. The one who is given du'a: if you find yourself a person enamored with du'a, you are in love with du'a and you do that all the time — and when you feel something in you experientially, not simply at the tip of your tongue — then know that that is a gift from Allah. Number one. Number two, know that Allah wants to give you.

Who is given supplication, du'a, invocation, solicitation from Allah — is given and is rewarded with the answering of that du'a. That is why Sayyiduna Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, is related to have said:

Said he: I do not carry the burden of the answer to my du'a — I carry the burden of du'a. Because I know that if I am given that gift consistently of du'a, Allah has promised — because He said:

And your Lord said: Ask of Me, I shall give you.

That is why a spiritual poet beautifully said, may Allah have mercy upon him, addressing the Lord in a moment of solitude with Allah:

Oh my Lord, if You did not intend and You did not will to give me and grant me what I seek and desire, You would not have made me used to asking You. If You did not want to give me what I desire — and I ask from the benevolence and the generosity of the palm of Your hand — You would not have made me used to asking You.

Allahu Akbar. Du'a, du'a, du'a. The true loser among us is the one who is even unable to be in du'a — and that is not a good sign.

مَنْ حُرِمَ الدُّعَاءَ حُرِمَ الْإِجَابَةَ، وَمَنْ حُرِمَ الذِّكْرَ حُرِمَ أَنْ يُذْكَرَ — who is deprived of du'a is deprived of answer, because there is no du'a to be answered. And who is deprived of dhikr is deprived of being himself remembered.

That is why they also say: الذِّكْرُ مَنْشُورُ الْوِلَايَةِ، وَالدُّعَاءُ مَنْشُورُ الْإِجَابَةِ — a manshur is the royal decree that a king gives to a person who assigns him, let us say, as the governor of a province. He takes that decree and goes to the people and shows them the decree, sealed with the seal of the king. That is it — he is our governor.

Allah has a manshur for His awliya' — plural of wali. What is the manshur of the awliya'? ذِكْرُ اللَّهِ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ — a person who is always in dhikr, especially in his or her heart — that is an indicator, that is a decree from the Divine, that that person is or will be a wali from the awliya' of Allah. And they say: du'a is the manshur — the royal divine decree — for answering the pleas and the calls.

The Third Gift: Shukr

And who is given and gifted the favour and the grace and the gift of shukr — of gratefulness and thankfulness — that person is given and is rewarded with more. For Allah says:

And if you are grateful, I surely will give you more.

The way to preserve a ni'mah, the way to preserve a virtue in us, the way to preserve a gift — is to be thankful for that gift, that virtue — whether that gift is material, or psychological, or spiritual, or moral, or social, or any of the created gifts of Allah. If we are ungrateful, that is the means by which the ni'mah disappears, as the Quran teaches and as Rasulullah صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ teaches.

If a person is given the virtue of thankfulness and is consistent with that — that is a sign that Allah wants to give him more, or give her more, or give them more. But if you are less thankful and not thankful, then we are striving to lose what we have. And Allah gives us respite despite that, and He keeps the ni'mah — until we insist stubbornly on being ungrateful, in the way for example we use that ni'mah — and then the ni'mah goes away.

And if we are given that gift and are thankful and consistently thankful, that is a sign, my dear brother and sister, that you or I — inshallah — have been given the gift of thankfulness number one, and then He who gives us gives us the reward, and then He gives us more of that for which we are thankful to Him.

And remember: how to be thankful to Allah is to be thankful to the agencies of Allah — every human being, every creature through whom a bounty or grace or a favour or a gift comes to me of any sort. That was by Allah. I need to be thankful to that agency if I am thankful to Allah.

The Fourth Gift: Istighfar

And who is given the gift of soliciting from Allah forgiveness — and he is sincere in that and consistent in that — and every day that person is like that, and every night that person is like that, and never sleeps without tawbah and istighfar, never spends an hour without tawbah and istighfar — before committing a sin, and without even knowing if he has committed a sin, still in istighfar to Allah. For He صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ, as who he was, used to seek forgiveness from Allah every day at least a hundred times — at his level, with the quality with which he did that.

So he said: who is given the gift of soliciting forgiveness from Allah is given the reward of forgiveness. For Allah says:

Seek forgiveness from your Lord — it has always been very, very forgiving.

Closing: Allah's Mercy Until the End of Days

My dear brothers and sisters:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 50, Hadith 22 — Sahih Muslim 2759)

Allah extends His divine hand by night for the sinner by day to repent, and He continues to extend His hand by day for the sinner by night to repent and come back to Allah by day. And He does that until the end of days — until the moment when the sun rises from the west.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَاسْتَغْفِرُوا اللَّهَ الْعَظِيمَ لِي وَلَكُمْ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ، طُوبَى لِلْمُسْتَغْفِرِينَ

Second Part of the Khutbah

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَكَفَى، وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى عِبَادِهِ الَّذِينَ اصْطَفَى

May the spirit of Ramadan continue until the next Ramadan. May the spirit of tawbah continue until the sun rises from the west. May we always be of those who easily, easily repent to Allah. For:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Book 37, Hadith 4251; also reported by al-Tirmidhi)

The child of Adam is a sinner, and the best of sinners are those who repent.

اذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ يَذْكُرْكُمْ، وَقُومُوا إِلَى صَلَاتِكُمْ يَرْحَمْكُمُ اللَّهُ