The Legacy of Ibraheem (Alayhis Salam) - Ustadh Aqeel Mahmood

Khutbah Opening

We praise Him, ask for His help, and ask for His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and from the evils of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him. And whomsoever He misguides, none can guide him. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared. And do not die except as Muslims.

O you who have believed, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul. And He created from it a wife. And He spread among them many men and women. And fear Allah, about whom you ask, and the wombs. Indeed, Allah is ever watching over you.

O you who have believed, fear Allah and say the right words. He will amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has won a great victory.

As for what follows: the best speech is the Book of Allah. And the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. And the worst of things are its innovations. And every innovation is a bid'ah. And every bid'ah is a misguidance. And every misguidance is in the Fire.

The Blessed Days of Dhul Hijjah

Allah has chosen certain times of the year which are better than other times of the year. And certain places which are more blessed and sacred than other places in the world. And from those times which are blessed in the year is the very month that we're in today — this month of Dhul Hijjah. A time when people make the pilgrimage. They go for the Hajj.

A time in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said that the best days of the year — the best days out of the whole year — are the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah. Even better than the last ten days of Ramadan. The last ten days of the blessed month of Ramadan. These ten days of Dhul Hijjah are even better than those days. The nights of the last ten days of Ramadan are better and they're the best nights of the year. But when it comes to the days, then the best days are the ten days of Dhul Hijjah.

And people go for the pilgrimage. And maybe some of us went, and we've come back now. Or we know somebody who went. And we know about the best days of the year being the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah. Yet we have to ask ourselves: why is this the case? Why is it that the best days of the year are these ten days of Dhul Hijjah? What is so significant about these days? Why do we celebrate the Eid day on that day? Why is Eid al-Adha the day that it is? Why did Allah prescribe Eid day on that specific day? What is so special about these days? What does it signify? What is its significance? What is it supposed to symbolize?

And if we look at the reasons why Allah chose these days, and why people go for the pilgrimage and they do the things that they do, it all goes back to one person and the legacy of one man. Somebody who Allah talks about in the Qur'an over 70 times. Somebody who is known as Abu al-Anbiya' — the father of the prophets. Because no prophet came after him, except that he was an offspring or a descendant of this prophet of Allah. And this man was Ibrahim ﷺ. Abu al-Anbiya' — the father of the prophets.

The Status of Ibrahim (AS) in the Qur'an

Allah talks about Ibrahim ﷺ and mentions him in the Qur'an over 70 times. And He says — Allah talks to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and tells him about Ibrahim ﷺ — He says to him: "Verily, in Ibrahim you have a great example." And so He tells the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to look up to Ibrahim ﷺ. And He never mentions any other prophet to look up to for the Prophet ﷺ, except Ibrahim ﷺ. And so this shows you the status of Ibrahim ﷺ.

And Allah also mentions in the Qur'an that Ibrahim ﷺ was a nation in and of himself. He was himself a nation.

And Allah talks about how He has taken a friend, and He says:

And Allah has taken Ibrahim as a friend of Allah. And Allah doesn't choose any other prophet or messenger to be His friend except Ibrahim ﷺ. Out of all the prophets and messengers — out of the best of creation, Muhammad ﷺ, or Adam ﷺ, or the other great messengers, Musa or Isa — Allah specifically picks Ibrahim to be His friend. وَٱتَّخَذَ ٱللَّهُ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ خَلِيلًۭا

Why did Allah choose Ibrahim out of everybody else? Because Ibrahim ﷺ was someone who was worshipping Allah at a time when other people weren't worshipping Allah. He had no companions like Muhammad ﷺ did. He had no disciples like Isa ﷺ had. And so he was on his own. And so Allah mentions that he is the friend of Allah — Khalilullah.

Ibrahim (AS) and His People

Ibrahim ﷺ grew up in a time when nobody was worshipping Allah. Nobody on the face of the earth was worshipping Allah. And so Allah guided him out of all the people on the face of this earth to worship Him alone. Even his own father was someone who was worshipping other than Allah. In fact, it is said that he would make the idols and then sell these idols to other people so that they could prostrate to them.

And so Ibrahim ﷺ at this time was inspired by Allah. He started to think about those things that were happening around him. Why are people worshipping these things which can't help them? They can't even help themselves. When they fall over, when these idols fall over, they can't make themselves get back up again. And so Allah guided Ibrahim out of everybody else on the face of this earth.

And this is something we have to think about — the fact that Ibrahim out of all the people on the face of this earth was the one who was chosen. He was the one whom Allah wanted to guide. And we learn from this that Allah guides whomsoever He wishes and whomsoever He wants:

Allah guides whoever He wishes from His slaves. And so true guidance is from Allah. And that's why every Jumu'ah khutbah you hear: مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ — whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide — وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ — and whomsoever Allah misguides, no one can guide that person.

So Ibrahim ﷺ was guided by the permission of Allah. By the permission of Allah, he started to worship Allah. And he would give da'wah to his people and to his own father. And he would speak kind words to his father. He would say: "Why do you worship these things which can't help you?"

And so his father would respond in a harsh way. And he would say:

He would say: "Are you going against my own gods, O Ibrahim? If you don't stop what you're doing, I'm going to stone you or I'm going to throw you out of the city." And so Ibrahim ﷺ, after hearing these harsh words from his own father — and knowing the iman of Ibrahim ﷺ, and the strong belief of Ibrahim ﷺ — he never faltered. He stood firmly on his ground. He stood firmly on his own beliefs.

And he replied to his father. But the way he replied was a way of gentleness. He said:

Peace be upon you. I will ask Allah to forgive you. To his own father who was forcing him and threatening to stone him — look at how softly Ibrahim ﷺ responded to his own father.

And so this was the nature of Ibrahim ﷺ. The softness of Ibrahim ﷺ. And Allah mentions in the Qur'an that he was someone who was أَوَّاهٌ حَلِيمٌ — he had a soft heart, he had a tender heart, he was someone who was soft and easy going.

And this shows us how it's very important for a person when he's giving da'wah, especially to his family members, especially to his own parents, to show respect and good manners to his own parents. Even if they're not people who are worshipping Allah. Even if they are mushrikeen — committing the worst sin that a person can commit. What is worse than committing shirk? But even in this case, a person shows kindness and respect and good manners to those people because they were the ones who brought him up, his own parents were the ones who raised him.

The Tests of Ibrahim (AS)

The Test of Circumcision

Ibrahim ﷺ left the city where he grew up. He was thrown out of the city. And he left with his wife, Sara. And he settled in Palestine. And he was around the age of 80 years old when he settled in Palestine. And when he was at this age, Allah ordered him to do something which — at the age of 80 — is something which is very difficult for anyone to do. And in fact it's something which is hard for someone who's young to do. Allah ordered Ibrahim ﷺ to circumcise himself at the age of 80 years old.

And you think about how difficult this must have been. He's not someone who's young anymore. And he's being ordered by Allah to circumcise himself at this tender age — this age where it's very difficult for someone to do anything. He doesn't have that strength anymore. Even if some young person was told to do this himself, it would be something difficult. We take the skin of our fingers off and it's painful for us. Imagine circumcising himself — there was nobody else who could do it for him. He had to do it himself. And this shows you the strength of Ibrahim ﷺ, the patience of Ibrahim ﷺ, and his obedience to Allah.

Hajar and the Well of Zamzam

Ibrahim ﷺ never had any children at this age. And he married the slave girl of his wife Sara, whose name was Hajar. And as a result, Allah blessed him with his child Ismail ﷺ. And when Sara saw this — and she saw that Hajar had given birth to Ismail ﷺ — she felt something in her heart. And she told Ibrahim to take them somewhere else, for fear of something happening. She said: "I might do something. I feel something in my heart against them. So take them somewhere else."

And Allah ordered Ibrahim ﷺ to take them to the middle of the desert. A place where there was no people, there was no water, there was no food or drink — there was nothing there. It was in the middle of the desert. And he was ordered by Allah to leave them there — his wife and his newborn son Ismail ﷺ.

And he's walking away from them. And Hajar is looking at Ibrahim and she's thinking: why are you walking away? And so she keeps asking him: where are you going? Where are you leaving us? There's nothing here for us. There's no food. There's no drink. There's nobody here.

And Ibrahim ﷺ kept walking away — this is an order from Allah. And so as he's walking away, Hajar realizes — being the smart woman that she was — she asks Ibrahim ﷺ: "Is this an order from Allah?" And Ibrahim ﷺ says, "Yes." And then Hajar says: "In this case, Allah is going to provide for us."

And so the small amount of food that Ibrahim left with them ran out. And the water ran out. And so Hajar is now looking for food. And she goes up two mountains — Mount Safa and Mount Marwa. The very same mountains that we do circuits of when we go for Hajj or when we go for Umrah. Those very same mountains. And so she goes up these two mountains looking for food, looking for water, looking for something — looking for some caravans that may be going by that may have some food or drink, looking for help. And she does this seven times.

And she goes back to Ismail ﷺ. And Allah, through His mercy — after seeing that Hajar had made all the effort that she could have made — brings about water coming out from the ground by the feet of Ismail ﷺ. And when Hajar saw this, she rushed to the water. And she tried to keep the water together to make sure that it wouldn't run out, that it wouldn't go to waste. Little did she know that this water would survive years and years — thousands of years — up till the present.

And while she was doing this, she was saying زَمِّي زَمِّي — meaning, to keep things steadfast, to keep things together. And so the water that we have now is known as Zamzam water.

The blessed water of Zamzam — the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Zamzam water is for whatever it is drunk for." (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 3062)

Meaning, when you drink the Zamzam water, you can make du'a for anything you wish. And it's one of the times that a person's supplication is answered. And so Allah blessed Hajar ﷺ with this water. And as a result of this, caravans that would come — people that would go past this area — they would stop there to drink because they would know that this water was there. And so eventually the city of Makkah was made. The blessed city of Makkah. And Ismail ﷺ got married to the Arabs and they settled there. And Ibrahim ﷺ would make trips to them now and then. This city — which is the greatest place on earth, the most sacred place on earth — all because of Ibrahim ﷺ's obedience to Allah.

The Greatest Test — The Sacrifice

Ibrahim ﷺ, after this, was ordered by Allah to do something else. He saw something in a dream. And we know that the dreams of the prophets are true. And he went to his son Ismail and talked about this with his own son. He said:

"My son, I see in my dream that I am sacrificing you." And we know that the dreams of the prophets are true. And so can you imagine your own father coming to you and saying something like this? You would think there's something wrong with him. How could you even think of doing something like this? How do you think a child would respond to his own father if he said this to him? What would be his response?

And so Ismail ﷺ replies. And he says:

"O my dear father, do whatever you have been ordered to do by Allah. You will find me, if Allah wills, from those who are patient." Look at the response of Ismail ﷺ to his father. Look at how obedient he was to his own father.

Sometimes we tell our own children to do something and they don't listen to us. We might tell them to pray, they don't pray. To read Qur'an, they don't read Qur'an. To do their homework, they won't do it. You have to tell them three or four or five times. In this example, in this story, there's a lesson for us. That when a person is obedient to Allah, then the children that he or she may have will be obedient to him. If you want your own children to be obedient to you, then you need to be obedient to Allah first and foremost. If you're not doing what Allah has ordered you to do, and you're not following the example of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, then how do you expect your own children to listen to you, when you won't even listen to Allah the Most High?

The Stoning of Shaytan and the Jamarat

And so Ibrahim ﷺ is about to sacrifice his own child. And Shaytan comes and says: "What are you doing? How could you sacrifice your own child? Why are you doing this?" And so Ibrahim ﷺ starts to stone the Shaytan to get rid of him, to make him flee. And this is the very same thing that we do to symbolize what Ibrahim ﷺ did during the days of Hajj — when we stone the Jamarat — to signify that Shaytan won't come between us and our acts of obedience to Allah. Nothing can come between us and our obedience to Allah and worshipping Him alone.

And so Ibrahim ﷺ, just as he was about to sacrifice his own child, Allah replaces it with a ram. And this was a test for Ibrahim ﷺ — some of the most difficult tests that anybody could go through.

The Building of the Ka'bah and Maqam Ibrahim

Ibrahim ﷺ was then told by Allah to build the first ever house of worship on the face of this earth — the first ever house of Allah: the Ka'bah. And he's told to build it with his son Ismail ﷺ in the city of Makkah. And so when he builds the house of Allah, he's finishing the building, and he needs to finish the top of the house. And so he stands on something in order to complete the building of the first ever house of worship. And this thing that he stands on is something which is present even up till today. And it's known as Maqam Ibrahim.

The place where a person — once he does tawaf, once he circumambulates the Ka'bah — is ordered to pray behind Maqam Ibrahim, out of respect for Ibrahim ﷺ. So you can see when a person comes to the city of Makkah — when he comes to the Ka'bah, when he comes to the Maqam Ibrahim, when he comes to As-Safa and Mount al-Marwa, when he comes to the Jamarat — all of these things are because of the acts of Ibrahim ﷺ and his duty to Allah.

The Legacy of Ibrahim (AS)

Look at the legacy that he's left behind. Look at how all of these things are left behind. So much so that even the Christians and the Jews look up to Ibrahim ﷺ. And these three religions are known as the Abrahamic religions. And this shows us, brothers and sisters, that if a person wants to leave good behind — he wants people to remember him in a good way, he wants people to remember how righteous this person was — then we have to be obedient to Allah. We have to do good deeds. And then Allah will make people remember us in a good light, remember us in a good way.

We ask Allah that He gives us a good ending to our lives and that we are remembered for good things after we pass away.

Lessons: Tawakkul and Trials

From the lessons that we can learn from the life of Ibrahim ﷺ and the legacy that he left behind is the importance of putting our trust in Allah — tawakkul. Knowing that whatever test or trial comes to us, eventually there's going to be good in it. And that there's a reason why certain things happen. And there's a reason why bad things happen to people. It may be that something bad might happen to you, or you might dislike something, but there's good in it for you. And it may be that you want something, you love something, you like something — and it's something which isn't good for you, it's something which is bad for you. And Allah knows and you don't know.

Ibrahim ﷺ was put through these trials, and yet his steadfastness and his obedience to Allah, and his patience, and his trust in Allah is what brought him through all of these tests and trials that he went through. Even though Shaytan came to him and tried to trick him and tried to deceive him, yet he was steadfast in worshipping Allah. And the Shaytan has so much experience, and he tried to misguide Ibrahim ﷺ. And Allah talks about how the Shaytan is a clear enemy — someone who is a clear enemy to you.

The Danger of Halloween — A Warning to Muslim Families

And from the ways in which the Shaytan tries to trick and deceive people is by making them do things which any sane person — any normal person, anyone who has been given insight, ulul absar, those people who Allah has blessed with insight to be able to recognize right and wrong, to distinguish right and wrong — those people will be able to tell that this is something which isn't right.

In medieval times, there was a tradition that used to happen amongst the Celtic people. And it was known as a festival called Samhain. And it happened at the end of the month of October. For these people, the new year started in November. The season of autumn was the last season of the year for them. And at the end of the year, before November, they would do certain things. And from the beliefs that they had was that on the last day of the year, spirits and the spirits of dead people would come out of the ground and they would come around the living people. It was known as the land of the dead. And this festival was known as Samhain. And it happened on October 31st.

And during this time, they would take out food and drink and offerings for those spirits so that they wouldn't be harmed. And they would leave this food and drink outside for them. And also from the things they would do is they would go out and disguise themselves — they would put on masks — so that the spirits of the dead wouldn't recognize them and wouldn't do any harm to them. And also during this time, especially the poor from amongst them, they would go to homes and they would ask for food and for drink. And once they were given something from the houses of people, they would say that they would pray for the dead people who had died, for the souls of the dead. And they would also make bonfires at this time, saying that these fires ward off the evil spirits — they would ward off the spirits of the dead.

And there was a Christian festival known as All Hallows' Eve. And the day of this festival ended up becoming the same day as the festival of Samhain. And so eventually this festival became known as Halloween. And this is the origin of Halloween that we see today, brothers and sisters.

When people send their children — even Muslim parents, Muslim families — they send their children out during the night, when the shayateen come out, as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has told us. And they will go trick-or-treating, based on what the poor people would do when they would go to different homes and ask for food. And this is where this tradition of Halloween comes from, brothers and sisters. This is the root of shirk. This is a pagan ritual.

This ritual and celebration of Halloween is nothing but paganism. It's nothing but devil worshipping. In fact, when it comes to devil worshippers and shayateen worshippers, they see October 31st as the most sacred day of the year. There is no day which is more sacred to shayateen worshippers than October 31st. SubhanAllah.

And you look at how we have just celebrated the best days of the year as Muslims — the best days of the year being Dhul Hijjah, this blessed month. And then you have people who are letting their own children — Muslim families — letting their own children do these rituals, do these traditions of Halloween, not being aware of its origin, not knowing where it comes from.

And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ talked about how dangerous it is to follow another group of people:

"Whoever imitates a people, he is one of them." (Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4031)

Because he's doing the same things that they do. He's doing the same traditions that they do. And so we have to be aware, brothers and sisters, of the dangers of letting our children do these traditions — trick-or-treating, or whatever you want to call it — because of how it has pagan origins, pagan rituals, things which are mixed up with shirk.

And we ask Allah that He protects us and our families from the evils of this world and from the tricks of the Shaytan.

Du'a and Closing

Indeed, Allah commands justice, good conduct, and giving to relatives, and He forbids immorality, bad conduct, and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded.

Remember Allah the Most Great, the Most Majestic — He will remember you. And supplicate to Him with His blessings — He will increase you. And the remembrance of Allah is the greatest of all things. And Allah knows what you do. Establish the prayer.