20160923- 2nd Khutba - Ustad Ibrahim Ali

Opening — Khutbah

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنُؤْمِنُ بِهِ وَنَتَوَكَّلُ عَلَيْهِ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْهُ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّداً عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ

After this, Allah said in His noble book — after I say I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan, in the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate:

صَدَقَ اللَّهُ الْعَظِيم

Introduction to Surah Al-Asr

Respected brothers and sisters in Islam, I recited these verses from Surah Al-Asr. That is one of the smallest surahs of the Qur'an — still longer than Surah Al-Kawthar, yet amongst the shortest surahs of the Qur'an. The shortest of all the surahs comprise at least three ayahs, three verses, and so is Surah Al-Asr.

If you look at the way it is arranged in the entire Qur'an, it is preceded by Surah Al-Takathur — which begins with أَلْهَاكُمُ التَّكَاثُرُ — and it is followed by Surah Al-Humazah — which begins with وَيْلٌ لِّكُلِّ هُمَزَةٍ لُّمَزَةٍ. Both these surahs, both these chapters, represent losses, represent failures, represent misfortunes. Surah Al-Takathur is about mutual competition in accumulating worldly things, and similarly Surah Al-Humazah is about the one who uses symbols and slanders. So the point that I want to make when I mention these two surahs surrounding Surah Al-Asr in the middle is this: this is the surah where Allah is swearing — is making witness — one of His greatest, grandest creations, and that is al-asr, the passing time.

Al-asr is that dahr — the passing time — that is passing with every second. We are getting closer and closer and closer to death, as He says Himself in the Qur'an:

Each soul, each individual being is going to taste death. So with each passing moment, each passing second, with each successive heartbeat, we are drawing nearer to our final destination — that is our graves.

The Oath of Allah — Swearing by Time

We as human beings, whenever we swear by anything, it's for a reason — and so is Allah when He is swearing. He is swearing by something for a reason. Whatever you swear upon is muqsam bihi in Arabic, and whatever you swear for is muqsam alayhi. So Allah is making time — the passing time — a witness: the time that started from the birth of Adam alayhi salam and that will go on until the last human being dies on the face of this earth on the Day of Judgment. Allah is swearing by this time because this time has witnessed everything.

He is saying إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَفِي خُسْرٍ. He is using three emphases: emphasis number one — إِنَّ; emphasis number two — لَ, right before the word فِي خُسْرٍ; and the greatest of all the emphases is by the qasam — He is swearing, and He is swearing by وَالْعَصْرِ.

So this point, this surah, wants to convey — Allah wants to talk to you and me about it — it is so amazing, it is so sacred, it is so precious, it is so valuable, that Allah is using the most epic ways of emphasizing things: first by swearing, and then mentioning why He is swearing — by what He is swearing — that certainly man is in definite loss. Certainly man is in definite loss.

The Parable of the Melting Ice

Now what is this loss that Allah is mentioning here? We can relate this to an example presented by the aslaf — of a person who is selling ice, back in the days when there weren't any refrigerators nor freezers. That ice is melting away, and instead of that person worrying to get rid of this ice, to sell this melting ice, he is busy enjoying the cold and shine of that ice of his. He is so busy in that — not realizing that the ice is melting — and that ice would eventually melt away. In the end he would certainly be in loss, and that loss will not only be in the end; it is taking place each and every moment he is not selling the ice.

Or, as another example, through Imam al-Razi rahimahullah — he says a similar example but slightly different: he was passing by a market and he found somebody who was selling ice. Back in the day when there weren't refrigerators or freezers, that man who was selling his ice was crying out to people, "Help me! Buy some ice from me, or else I'll be in loss because this ice is melting!" So the seller is shouting, crying out loud for the people to help him get rid of this ice — that is his profit, that is his livelihood. Imam al-Razi says: when I saw this, it is only then I understood the true concept behind Surah Al-Asr — that this life is that melting ice.

So Allah is mentioning in generality, in universality: الْإِنسَانَ لَفِي خُسْرٍ — indeed man is in certain, certain, certain loss. And Allah is not going to leave me and you just to stay tense and depressed — "Oh my God, we are in the loss, what do we do?" Allah is telling us who is exempted from this khasarah, who is exempted from this khusran, who is exempted from this khusr. He is Arham al-Rahimeen — the Most Merciful — the one who is closer to us than our jugular veins. He is talking to you and me and telling us who is exempted.

The Four Conditions for Exemption from Loss

He says:

He is saying: except those who believe — إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا — and they do, they work righteous deeds — وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ — and they advise one another with truth, with haqq — وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ — and they advise one another with patience — وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ.

You and I grew up reading, hearing, memorizing — perhaps — the translation of this surah. But this surah, according to Imam al-Shafi'i rahimahullah, he said that if somebody is to ponder and reflect upon this small surah, لَوَسِعَتْهُم — this would suffice for them in this life. The basic crux, in a nutshell, the message of Islam revolves around this surah. For time — they say time is money — we knew this 1400 years ago. And time is certainly money, and this surah is emphasizing the fact that it is this time, this limited time from my birth to my death, that would eventually determine my success in the Hereafter. No other time will I ever get.

So be they my career choices, be they my occupational choices, be they my engagements in life, be they what I do to make myself or be they what I do to break myself — they will eventually land me in the final abode in the Hereafter, just because of this time from our birth to our death.

And somebody explained very beautifully the length of this life. How long is the length of this life? The length of this life is the gap — you heard the adhan before the khutbah, right? And then we will offer the salah inshallah after this khutbah. This is the length of this life. The adhan is said into our ears when we are born — the right one and the left one — and when we die, Salat al-Janazah is offered. This is the length of this life, my brothers and sisters. Literally, this is the length of this life.

The Parable of the Drowning Man — Iman as the First Step

Now I proceed with the explanation of khusran or khusr — who is exempt from it. Allah mentions iman before any other thing, for nowhere in the Qur'an is the word أَعْمَالٌ صَالِحَاتٌ or anything to do with عَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ ever mentioned without the mention of iman. For iman is the key.

So I can, in a nutshell, sum this up in a story, in a metaphor: a man is unconscious, and that unconscious man is drowning in the sea. He is having those dreams where he is doing something wonderful, where he is soaring the heights of successes, where he is imagining himself owning luxuries of this world, imagining that he is enjoying the worldly benefits — the material wealth, health, happiness, whatever there is in this world.

What choices does he have? There is only one option for his survival — because he is drowning and he is unconscious and he is in that dream. The first step is: he wakes up. No way will he be able to — or will she be able to — realize the danger that surrounds him or her, unless he or she wakes up. And once they wake up, they would know the reality they are surrounded with — that they are drowning in the middle of an ocean. And as a result, if they don't do anything, they will go down. Eventually they will move their hands and feet to the best of their capacity, despite them not knowing how to float, not knowing how to swim. They will do their level best, even though they may drown, but they will do their level best with their hands and limbs to push themselves towards the surface of the water.

And if he decides — "The reality is bitter, let me sleep, let me dream that again, oh my God I was having those amazing dreams" — that will not benefit at all. In fact, that would reduce his chances of survival. So the moment he wakes up, he starts moving his limbs. He doesn't know how to swim. She doesn't know how to swim. They are still on the surface of the ocean, struggling to float.

However, something is pulling them from beneath. Something is pulling them from beneath. And they see that their feet are chained to a cousin of theirs, to a sibling of theirs, to a parent of theirs, to a neighbor of theirs, to an uncle of theirs, to an aunt of theirs — who are pulling them into the water. Not consciously — they are also unconscious, and they are also drowning, and they are also in slumber, and they are also in a dream. And he has only two choices: either to say "I am going to drown anyway," or to do something to wake his near and dear ones — or anybody around him who is tied to him in chain, and because of whose weight he is also drowning — to wake them up, to shake their faces, to shake them awake.

"Wake up, brother! Wake up, sister! Wake up, mother! Wake up, father! Wake up, uncle! Wake up, aunt! Wake up, my neighbor! Wake up, my community! Wake up!" And what is the basic motivation? His own survival — he who is drowning in the first place — is dependent on the other person's survival. Otherwise he or she is going to pull the person on top down into the water and all of them would drown. And when he is trying to wake that person up, how hard would he try? Would he try five times? Or would he try ten times? Or will he keep trying until that person wakes up?

And that person, when he wakes up, has other people tied to his chain, who have other people tied to their chains — and that chain is never ending. Eventually everybody will have to wake everybody up. And not only that — they have to be steadfast in that, they have to be patient in that, they have to be consistent in that. Otherwise they can still go back into that dream. But eventually that dream would be gone.

So the first work that that unconscious person has to do is to wake up. Wake up now. And that is Iman. When he wakes up, he is aware that Allah exists. He is aware that not only does Allah exist, only One exists. So he believes in the existence of Allah, he believes in Him being one and only — Tawheed. And he believes that since He is the Originator, He is the Sustainer, He is the Beginner, and He is the One who will end everything. He is the Law-Giver. He is everything. Will he take necessary action? If he is certain — he'd be willing to do a'mal al-salihat.

What is Iman?

When I'm translating this surah, none of these words are doing complete justice to the beautiful verses of Surah Al-Asr. But to convey its message in a nutshell, in the best of all possibilities, the true essence of it is appreciable in Arabic.

There are two views of the mufassireen when they speak about the belief of those who are exempt from the khusr — exempt from that loss that is certainly surrounding them, that is certainly eating away their wealth of time. For time is money, time is wealth, and it is being eaten away by every passing second.

Iman: firstly in the Oneness of Allah, and upon His messenger, Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And iman is not just testimony of faith — iman is witnessed by the heart, and its authentication is done by action. All the books of Allah, all the prophets, all the anbiya, all the messengers, all the rasul, all the mala'ika, iman bil qadar wal qadha, iman in destiny, iman in everything — that is what iman covers.

The other opinion of the mufassireen is that this word iman — إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا — except for those who believe — means that they believe that they are in loss otherwise, they believe that they are going to perish, they are going to lose if they don't take action. This is what iman is connoting in this specific place. And if we can combine both of them together, this surah is a shaker. Like a mouse — when a screensaver comes, you jerk the mouse, you shake the mouse, and the screensaver vanishes. And this is what this beginning is about.

Righteous Deeds — 'Amal al-Salihat

إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ — as I had mentioned, righteous deeds have been mentioned in the Qur'an at many places, and amongst those many places Allah is always preceding the mention of salihat by iman as a precondition. Because only when righteous deeds are done with iman and intention do they get considered as righteous deeds in the eyes of Allah. Allah requires us to do righteous deeds exclusively for Him.

An ayah from Surah Al-Insan and many other places — those people who would help people, who would feed people, they would say: "We are only feeding you for the face of Allah, for the pleasure of Allah — we do not want any jaza, any gain, any benefit, any return from you all in exchange for that."

The word salihat — salih is the kind of opposite of fasid. Fasid is anything that corrupts, and salih is anything that repairs, anything that has a tendency to repair. So in this cosmos of Allah — imagine if the dunya, the way it is orbiting around the sun, were to tilt slightly in a way it is not meant to tilt — there will be a disbalance. Or the changing of seasons that we experience every year, the four seasons — they are a direct result of the earth's distance from the sun, sometimes being more in some times of the year and sometimes relatively less. And if the earth doesn't come back to its orbit, it spins off into the universe — that's also fasad. No organism would be living then. However, Allah with the perfection of this system has made an equilibrium. And the equilibrium for insan is that he surrenders to the will of Allah.

So the system, the cosmos, works in perfection in Allah's hands. And again — if I don't listen to Allah, if I don't obey Him, still He is not losing anything. If I obey Him, still He is not losing anything. But I am the loser or gainer as a result of my choices in life. And so, those who do righteous deeds — those righteous deeds intended for the sake of Allah — because iman and righteous deeds are like complements. Righteous deeds without iman are not considered righteous deeds by Allah, and iman without righteous deeds is just lip service.

The word عَمَل here is a conscious action. He is not saying فَعَلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ — He said عَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ — a conscious action. Those who do righteous deeds consciously.

Individual and Community Components

So this surah has two components. إِيمَان and عَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ — these are the individual components. They are my life jacket, they are your life vest. They are there to perfect and complete my needs as an individual — ruh, as an individual nafs, as an individual person of this body.

The second two components — وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ — they are the components for the community, they are the components for the society. What I owe, what you owe, to one another, to the cosmos.

Mutual Counsel in Truth — Tawasi bil-Haqq

وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ — haqq is truth, any truth, anything that is considered right — however, precisely here, that which is considered right in the eyes of Allah. They advise one another with haqq, with truth. Who advises one another with haqq with truth is actually also exempted from that loss — only if he or she has believed in the first place and done righteous deeds. And as a result of doing those righteous deeds, he or she does not consider the benefits of righteous deeds only for himself or herself. That's 'ujb, that's takabbur. And no person will ever enter Jannah if he or she has an atom's weight of takabbur — pride, arrogance. You know, this is the explanation of the gist of the hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 265)

وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ — they advise one another with truth, they stand up in the face of truth, they do not hesitate, they do not have double faces.

A Reflection on Hypocrisy — Nifaq

I used to think when I was growing up that hypocrites are those who know that they are hypocrites. Only when I started reading the beginning part of Surah Al-Baqarah did I get goosebumps as I reflected on its meanings. And I got to know that nifaq and hypocrisy — forget about the kuffar, forget about those who don't even believe in Allah — there are people out there, perhaps me, perhaps people out there, who consider themselves as Muslims, who think they are believers, perhaps due to their appearance, however they are hypocrites. I may be one of them.

Sayyiduna Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyallahu anhu used to think — he used to be worried — that he might be one of them. Once Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam shared a list of hypocrites that he was informed of by Allah. He shared that list with Sayyiduna Hudhayfah radiyallahu anhu. And with that list — when he shared it, everybody around knew that Hudhayfah had that list. However, Rasulullah confided in him, and he was supposed to keep that secret, and he did keep it secret. So Umar ibn al-Khattab didn't have the guts to go to Rasulullah and ask if his name was on that list. Umar ibn al-Khattab — somebody who thought that he might be a hypocrite — somebody about whom Rasulullah said that if there was a Nabi after me it would be Umar, somebody whom Shaytan used to fear — he was so worried. He goes and begs Hudhayfah: "I don't want you to tell me the list — just tell me if my name is there. Tell me if my name is there." He was so worried for his Akhirah.

However — لَا تَقْنَطُوا — do not worry, don't despair.

Allah is making us hopeful in the Qur'an. However, we need to strive, we need to struggle. We need to believe in Him, وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ. When we stand in the face of truth, when we encourage one another, advise one another to do truth, to act on truth, to act on Qur'an, to act on the teachings of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, to do what's right and not cause corruption — there will be resistance. There will be people out there who will spread wrong messages about Islam. There will be people out there who will be tarnishing the image of Islam in the face of this life.

Mutual Counsel in Patience — Tawasi bil-Sabr

وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ — patience. Patience is not staying calm and not taking action. Patience is in the face of action. Convey the message, do what's right, convey the truth — and be patient. For Allah has not made you and me responsible as a guardian to bring the change. It's Him, it's His job. Results are in His hands. For you and me are here only to convey whatever we know. And this is the message.

وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ — patience from pain, patience from hardships, patience in times of distress, patience in this life, in illnesses, patience in the face of health, patience in the face of temptations, patience until we meet our Lord happily.

Closing — First Part of Khutbah

Second Part — Community, Consistency, and the Lesson of the Drum

وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ — they advise one another. We are all tied by chain, my brothers and sisters. Even if we, like an ostrich — as they narrate to people, whether it's a reality or not I'm not sure — perhaps like an ostrich who covers her head in the sand. That does not change the loss. You and I are facing the loss.

If you think of a royal funeral — the funeral of a king, the funeral of a military general, or somebody important — and you know when they are taking the coffin close to the burial place, those drummers are drumming. And with each beat of the drum, the coffin is getting closer and closer and closer to the grave. Consider your hearts those drums, and with each successive drumbeat, our end is coming nearer. However, for you and me, Allah is asking us not to fear death — just worry about it — for the real world lies ahead after death, after the screensaver is over.

The Companions' Practice with Surah Al-Asr

So recite this surah, reflect upon it. And just to narrate — the companions of Rasulullah would never part ways, would never depart a gathering, until they recited to one another this beautiful surah.

Two Takeaways — Individual and Collective Responsibility

Two components, two giveaways, two takeaways, two lessons:

One is for the individual side of my life — that is iman and doing the righteous deeds that correct the system, like this cosmos. Because if I do the righteous deeds, automatically things would start correcting.

And the second component is the society. We have to establish society, we have to work for our community. We are not on our own. The way we relied on our parents, on our community, on our families when we were growing up — in our education, in our financial wellbeing, in our food, in our diet, in our medical expenses — is the way we are dependent and connected to them. Ideally, in the eyes of Allah, we must be connected to them in terms of spreading the right and spreading the patience. Not just spreading it — doing it mutually. I do it to my brother; he does it to me.

With this, I ask Allah to make us those people who are the epitome of the character as described in this surah — Surah Al-Asr — and the rest of the Qur'an.

How will this happen? This will only happen when we make the Qur'an our day and night, when we spend our days and nights in the Qur'an. How is that possible despite our working? There is no concept of "this is my personal time and this is my religious time" for a Muslim. 24/7 he is there, she is there, for Allah. If this surah is to be acted upon — when this is the case — I work for the sake of Allah even if I am working in a restaurant, or I am working in a factory, or calculating other people's money, or whatsoever. I am working for Allah's sake. And not committing any sin. My worry, my grief — that if I don't act on it, I lose that time.

So may Allah make us of those who act upon this, who remember Him always, and who do not waste a moment of this precious, melting time that He has given us.