20160715 - First Khutba

Khutbah: Sound Judgment, Justice, and Understanding Islam Correctly

Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, we seek His help, we seek His guidance, and we seek His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our actions. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him. And whosoever He misguides, you will not find for him a rightful guardian. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that our Master, our Prophet, our Beloved, and our Leader is Muhammad, the servant of Allah and His Messenger.

Pure is He besides His creation and His Prophet. He delivered the message and fulfilled the trust. And He advised the Ummah and left it on the white carpet — its night is like its day; nothing escapes it but destruction. So blessings be upon His Lord and His submission to Him, and upon His family and His companions, who were truly messengers of mercy.

Brothers and sisters in Islam, I advise myself and you to be conscious of Allah as He orders us in the Qur'an, when He said: O you who believe, be conscious of Allah and don't die but on the status of Islam, on the status of submission to Allah. O you who believe, be conscious of Allah and tell the truth — tell the truth — and be on the right path. Allah will fix your affairs and He will forgive your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and the Prophet, he will be among those who are successful in the hereafter. I ask Allah to give us success in this life and the hereafter. Allahumma ameen.

The Gift of Taqwa and the Closeness of Allah

Brothers and sisters, not long ago I was standing here reminding ourselves about the end of Ramadan. Not long ago we were talking about taqwa — about the fear of Allah and being conscious of Him. Not long ago we were talking about the benefit of being close to Allah in Ramadan. Not long ago, we learned the benefit and were thankful to Allah that He has given us the gift of Islam, the gift of iman, the gift of taqwa, the gift of being righteous — gifts we did not even ask for. Allah has given them to us as hidayah and as guidance.

But then Allah told us something: that with the taqwa and the knowledge and being thankful, you have to be rightly guided. When He said, in the same ayah of the siyam, of the fasting:

"If My servant asks you about Me, I am close. I will answer the call of the one who calls upon Me when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me and believe in Me, that they may be rightly guided."

He didn't say da'wah — He said, even if you call Me once. If you are depressed, if you are lonely, if you feel that the whole world is turning against you, if you feel that your life is useless, if you feel that you are helpless, if you feel that you are hopeless, if you feel that everybody is conspiring against you — if you feel all these negative feelings in your heart — you raise your hand and you say:

O Allah, I am in pain. O Allah, I am sick. O Allah, I lost my mom. I lost my dad. I lost my family. O Allah, I am divorced. O Allah, the kids have run away from me. O Allah, I have lost my money. O Allah, I have lost my social life. O Allah — raise your hand.

Allah is telling you: even if you never prayed to Me, never stood up in the mihrab and prayed two rak'ah to Me, you did not give any zakah or siyam or salah or hajj, you never turned your face to My qiblah — but if you raise your hand and ask Me, I will answer you. How merciful. How merciful is Allah. How good Allah is for those who think that they have closed doors. Allah is opening the door for you.

فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي — "Answer My call." All what I want you to do is raise your hand and say, Ya Allah. And sometimes, Allah will give us without us even raising our hands. Isn't that true? Allah has given us sometimes without even saying alhamdulillah. Sometimes we neglect that; sometimes we complain — "Ya Allah, why am I not getting this? Ya Allah, why are people happy and I am sad?" We complain, and even with that, Allah has given us. He has given us every single breath. Every single breath.

Today, wallahi, I wouldn't be here. I was in the emergency room yesterday — for the whole night until 6 o'clock in the morning — thinking that I would not be standing here today to deliver the khutbah. I had this very short pain in my back, and I said, maybe I will cancel everything, I might go for a surgery. But I said: if I am sick, He is the one who will give me shifa'. Not the doctor, not the hospital, not the medicine — He is the one. If I am misguided, He is the one who guides me.

Then Allah is telling us, telling humanity: all I want them to do is believe that I am the one making the difference in their life. Nobody else will make a difference in your life. Not your mom, your dad — they are all trying to make a difference in your life. But how are we without Allah?

What Is Ar-Rashad — Sound Judgment and Right Guidance

Then He said, "So that they might be rightly guided." And I want to talk about yarshudoon — ar-rashad — to be guided. What is ar-rashad? What is being murshid or murshad?

Allah had told us in Surah an-Nisa, the second surah that mentions the word ar-rashad. He spoke about the yatama — the orphans — that you take care of, those who have money and property held for them. He told us to take care of the orphans until they reach the level of marriage, and if you feel that they have reached the level of sound judgment — He didn't say they reached righteousness. He said: they know how to deal with themselves and with society. They know how to deal with their properties and their money. They know how to deal with business. They have sound judgment. Then give them their properties.

And again, Allah mentioned ar-rashad three times in Surah al-Kahf.

First Mention: The People of the Cave

He mentioned it when talking about the people of the cave — young ones, youth, who believed in Allah. They were running away from the army, from the torture, from the killing, from the king and his soldiers. What did they ask Allah for? Look at what they asked for. They said: "O Allah, give us mercy." They didn't say, "Give us an army. Give us a truck. Give us a gun." They said: "Give us mercy. Because without Your mercy, nothing will happen. We will destroy humanity." And they are not there to destroy humanity.

And then He said — again, the word rashad: "And give us from our affairs right guidance." What we are missing nowadays is not guidance, but right guidance. The right sound judgment. When we judge things — between me and my wife, between me and my husband, between me and my children, between me and my community, the masjid, the imam, the people, the businesses. If you don't have that sound judgment, people take things literally and just run with them. And that is why there is so much destruction.

Second Mention: The Prophet and Saying "Inshallah"

And then, in the same surah, Allah is telling the Prophet ﷺ — when he promised Quraysh to come back with answers. They asked him about the people of the cave, about Dhul-Qarnayn, about the Ruh. He told them, "Come tomorrow," without saying inshallah. So Allah did not send him revelation for fifteen days. The people of Quraysh said, "Look at this man — he is lying to us." The Messenger of Allah ﷺ could not answer because he had not received wahy. And after fifteen days, Allah gave him the answers to all the questions. And then He told him:

"Do not say of anything, 'I will do that tomorrow,' except [with the saying], 'If Allah wills.' And remember your Lord when you forget, and say: 'Perhaps my Lord will guide me to what is nearer than this in right conduct.'"

Don't promise people something without saying inshallah — it is in the hands of Allah, not in your hands or anyone else's. And remember Allah when you forget. And then He says — again, the word is what? Rashada. "Guide me for the best of right conduct." Who is saying that? Who is Allah teaching? The Prophet ﷺ. That guidance is not only good in itself, but you have to have right guidance, the right formula. Rather than just taking the deen — and that is why we have so many problems. Not only in Islam; in any belief. When you separate deen from righteousness, from thinking, from reasoning, from making a sound judgment — this is the kind of destruction we get.

Third Mention: Musa and Seeking Knowledge

Musa alaihi wa sallam — he was the Kaleemullah. He had so much knowledge after so many years with Banu Israel. Allah asked him: "Ya Musa,

(Derived from the account in Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 122)

'Who is the most knowledgeable person on earth?' Musa said, 'Me. I am the Prophet, I am the Rasul, I am the one who dealt with Banu Israel.' He said, 'No, you are not. There is someone else who will teach you something. Ya Musa, go and find him. Find your teacher.'"

"I am the Prophet. I am the Muslim. That's why people say, 'I'm a Muslim, I'm a believer, I am on the right path.' Well — look again. Search for the guidance. Search for the truth. Even if you are a Prophet of Allah."

And at that time, Musa was the Prophet. There was nobody after him yet. Even with all of that, he went seeking knowledge. When he found that righteous man — al-Khidr — look at what he told him. Look at the adab. The manners of the student who was a Prophet, who was from the resolute messengers. He said:

"May I follow you on the condition that you teach me from what you have been taught of sound judgment?" Not any knowledge. He didn't say, "Knowledge." He said, rushda. "I don't want any kind of knowledge. I want the right knowledge that I can reason with people." Because nowadays people think about reasoning — rightly guided, sound judgment, right guidance, right conduct.

That is why the Prophet ﷺ told us: hold to my Sunnah. But if you don't have the reasoning — you know, Umar radiallahu anhu used to say: "We are in disaster if Abu al-Hasan" — which is Ali ibn Abi Talib radiallahu anhu — "is not with us." Because he was the qadi — the judge — with the sound mind. With the right thinking to make the right judgment in the right time, in the right place. Not just to go and say, "Oh, Allah said this," and take the ayah and the hadith and walk with it without understanding it. And that is exactly what is happening to our Ummah.

Righteousness Without Reasoning Leads to Destruction

Sometimes righteousness without manners, without reasoning, without understanding, without sound judgment, will take us to disaster. I want to give you an example — a painful example — but one that happened in our history.

Who killed Uthman ibn Affan radiallahu anhu? Muslims. Muslims who believed that Uthman had become a kafir and that they had to kill him. Who is Uthman? Uthman, about whom the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2401)

"Should I not be shy from a man from whom the angels are shy?" He married Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum, the daughters of the Prophet ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ told him:

"If we had other daughters, I would have given them to you as well." And he was telling people that nothing will harm Uthman after today. Uthman was in his eighties when people came into his house. They hit him so hard on his head, to the ground. And one of them stood on his chest with a sword — this man called himself a Muslim — and stabbed him nine times in his heart. Radiallahu anhu. And Uthman was pointing with his finger at the ayah:

"Allah will take care of them." Those 600 people were all killed later, because they were the killers of Uthman — one of the ten promised Paradise, the Khalifa of the Prophet ﷺ. They were Muslims.

Who killed Ali radiallahu anhu? Al-Khawarij. They killed him and called him a kafir. They said to him, "You have to say the shahada." He said, "Why?" They said, "Because you are a kafir." The one killing him called himself a Muslim — like what we see today from Da'esh, from ISIS, from whatever you call them. All these people claim to be Muslims, and they are killing more Muslims than anyone else.

When there is no rashad, no way of reasoning with people, no placing the Qur'an and the hadith in the right context, it will be a disaster. And that is exactly what is happening. You now see how these people have become so unhinged as to cause an explosion near al-Haram al-Madani — near the Prophet ﷺ, near the Qabr Rasool al-Sharif — near the one we would love to see at least once in our lives. They detonated explosives there. There is no sanctity, no sacredness anymore for these people. They think their way to Jannah is to do that.

Brothers and sisters, look at the harm that comes when the mind is gone — the man who carried out the attack in Orlando was a club-goer for three years, recently divorced, engaging in domestic violence, disturbed, depressed — as Omar Suleiman described him: a loner. Or this man in France with his truck. But because his name is a Muslim name, Muslims are bearing the pain. That's why we need to stand up and speak about this. They are all criminals. It doesn't matter what religion. If a person is committing atrocity and killing innocent people — whether in Syria, or Palestine, or Iraq, or Afghanistan, or here in America, or France, or anywhere else — they are criminals, and must be treated as such.

People have trusted us. We trust them. We live here together. And then someone goes and acts like that. Subhanallah. This is what happens when you have a deen without understanding. When you have a Qur'an without understanding. When you have a hadith without understanding.

May Allah guide us for the best of this deen, Ya Rabbal Alameen. And alleviate the suffering of our brothers and sisters and all those who are suffering around the world, Ya Rabbal Alameen. And I say: all lives matter. All lives matter. Not only Muslim lives, or Black lives, or police officers. All lives matter in front of Allah.

Standing Firmly for Justice

Brothers and sisters, if I want to finalize my khutbah today, I want to speak about an ayah that Allah talked about, and unfortunately nowadays people are heedless about it. He said:

"O you who believe, be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves or parents and relatives."

He said: qawwameen — continuously standing for justice. And be a fair witness for Allah. وَلَوْ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِكُمْ — even if it is against yourself. How many times are we wrong, yet we stick to our position and say, "There is no way I can tell my wife I'm wrong," or "I'm going to tell my husband I'm wrong," or "My child is right and I'm wrong." Sometimes our children correct us. A child says, "Daddy, this is wrong," and instead of listening, the parent slaps or pushes them away: "What are you saying? I'm always right." But He said: even if you are wrong, come back and say, "I am wrong, my son. You are absolutely right." What are you teaching your son? That when he grows up he will be righteous and just — not stubborn like us.

He said, أَوِ الْوَالِدَيْنِ — even your parents. If it is wrong, it is wrong. And most of the divorces we have in our community happen because of the parents — because a mother tells her son, "If you don't do it my way, Allah will be upset with you till the Day of Judgment and will not enter you to Paradise." So you go against your wife or husband to satisfy your mother-in-law. And what do you cause? Injustice to the family. And that is why we see so many divorces — because people don't apply the Qur'an accordingly; they go with the culture.

Or you see two people fighting, and you say, "Oh, he is from my tribe. He is from my country. He is from my town — I have to stand up with him." And that is why the Prophet ﷺ told us: don't stick to your ethnicity. Your ethnicity is under my feet. What goes up is Islam and Qur'an and deen.

In the time of conflict, we need reasoning. In the time of hardship, we need people with wisdom and mindset. Allah told us: do not let the fact that someone is rich or poor influence your judgment — Allah will take care of that. He is the one who judges people. When people came to seek intercession for the woman who had stolen, the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6787; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1688)

"O Usama, you are coming to intercede concerning one of the legal punishments of Allah? I swear by Allah, if Fatima were the one who stole, I would cut her hand." There is no difference. You have to be just with people.

Allah also told us: do not let the hatred of others cause you to be unjust. That is not the way. Al-'adl means you give justice even if the other party is not giving you justice. I know, brothers and sisters, it is hard. It is tough to set aside your ego, to deny yourself. It is very tough. But Allah is telling you: if you do that, He will elevate you. He will bring the truth forward.

I am not saying not to fight for your rights. But be just as Allah told us. Don't follow your desires. Don't follow your ethnicity, your background, your buddy network. In the time of justice, you are saving people because of it. If you turn away from that, Allah knows the truth. And that is why Allah said:

"And in qisas — legal retribution — there is life for you, O people of understanding." Yes, criminals need to be charged. They need to go through due process and be prosecuted accordingly. It doesn't matter who they are. Don't label them "jihadist" or "Islamist" — these people are criminals, regardless of where they are from.

The Answer Is: Understand Islam

We need to understand Islam. The answer is: understand Islam. Come to the sheikhs and ask. Come to the ulema and ask. Learn Islam, rather than just reading the Qur'an without understanding.

Someone came to me the other day with a hadith. He said, "Look at this hadith." I said, "Do you know who narrated it?" He said, "No." I said, "Do you know when it was narrated?" He said, "No." I said, "Do you know the occasion of the hadith?" He said, "No." I said, "Do you know there is a hadith that came after it to nullify this hadith?" He said, "No." I said, "Go away! Don't talk to me!" That is how people just take a hadith and run with it — "I have a hadith! I have an ayah!" Do you know?

"Say: Are those who know equal to those who do not know?"

Du'a and Closing

I ask Allah to give us light and nur in our hearts, Ya Rabbal Alameen. I ask Allah to guide us for the best of this deen. I ask Allah to give us the best in this life and the hereafter, Ya Rabbal Alameen. I ask Allah to give tranquility and peace to our brothers and sisters everywhere in the world. I ask Allah to give peace in the world, Ya Rabbal Alameen, and to bring justice for those who are victims, and to expose those who are zalimeen and oppressors. Ya Allah, bring the truth forward for the people to know the truth, Ya Rabbal Alameen.

O servants of Allah: Indeed, Allah commands justice, excellence, and giving to relatives, and forbids immorality, wrongdoing, and oppression. He admonishes you so that you may be reminded. So remember Allah the Almighty and He will remember you. Be grateful to Him for His blessings and He will increase you. And the remembrance of Allah is the greatest thing. And Allah knows what you do. And establish the prayer.