Post Holidays Reflections on Shirk and Tawheed | Jumu'ah Khutbah | Ustadh Omar Malik

Post-Holiday Reflections on Shirk and Tawheed

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, all praise and gratitude is for the sake of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful. We seek His help and forgiveness from the evil of our souls and from the sins that we have committed. We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings on our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, his family, his companions and all of his righteous followers till the Day of Judgment and may Allah make us of those righteous followers. Ameen.

I bear witness that there is no one worthy of worship except for Allah and that He has no partners in His worship and may Allah protect us from what is called shirk, to associate partners with Allah and we disassociate ourselves from anything that is another idol connected to Allah. May Allah protect us from shirk. Ameen. And I bear witness that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is his final messenger and his slave. May Allah make us of his true slaves. Ameen.

O you who believe, fear Allah, have taqwa, consciousness of Allah, only the true love belongs to Allah, the creator of the heavens and the earth and do not die except in a state of submission. May Allah make us of those who submit to Allah and leave this world in a way that is most pleasing to Him. Ameen.

The Reality of Shirk During Holiday Season

Dear brothers and sisters, today's khutbah is titled Post-Holiday Reflections on Shirk and Tawheed. سبحان الله, the inspiration for this khutbah was an overwhelming amount of holiday season, myself including, a lot of vacationing and just being with our youth as the youth coordinator here alhamdulillah, talking to the youth of their travels and realizing that something really big happened, a huge thing, a huge sin that Allah calls the greatest of oppression apart from what we're seeing in Gaza and all across the world, the oppressive type of world that we're living in, there's a bigger aggression and a bigger oppression that was happening but because of the festivities of the holiday we don't pay attention to that and that is shirk my brothers and sisters.

So today we're going to focus on the ugliness of shirk and try to do justice in an intellectual way without being condescending or without putting down anyone else's faith but at the same time we need to be truthful and this includes our brothers and sisters who were born as Muslims and also our brothers and sisters who accepted Islam because you accepted Islam because you wanted the truth and the truth comes with hardship because people don't like the truth and at the same time it has to be said without hurting people's feelings that's not what we're here for.

We are a ummah who wants everyone to benefit from the concept of tawheed, from the shackles that the world has put on us and to become the slaves of Allah rather than the slaves of the creation of Allah and this is the biggest freedom that we can offer so this is what we want to offer people but in the meantime yes some feelings might be hurt but the truth has to be said but the intention is not to hurt anyone and that is why we go to the ayah in surah Luqman which is something that I've been focusing on with our youth.

The Wisdom of Luqman: Warning Against Shirk

This is a man that is known as a wise man, not a prophet of Allah but his wisdom to understand the difference between shirk and tawheed and a wise man because of the way he took care of educating his own son and his amazing wisdom in the advice that he gives him starting by recognizing the ugliness of shirk. No apologeticness, the truth the way it needs to be said.

Oh my dear son, while he was instructing him as Allah tells us to not associate anything with Allah. Indeed, shirk is the greatest of injustice. It is the greatest of oppression on earth. And سبحان الله we witnessed 2 billion and more people in the world taking a great man, a prophet of Allah, an amazing individual that we love so much and they venerated him as a son of God. They committed the biggest shirk, the biggest idol today is a human being that we believe in as the greatest man among the prophets, a great person of da'wah, a great person of submission to Allah, yet 2 billion people and more and many of them are our own neighbors, our co-workers, our schoolmates, people that we're friends with believed in this ideology that he came to die for our sin and that he's the son of God. May Allah protect us from shirk.

Why Shirk is the Greatest Injustice

So brothers and sisters, why is shirk so ugly? And why is Allah recognizing this as the greatest of injustice, greater than the things that you're seeing in the world, the oppression that we know of because every sin that you see around the world, the roots of it comes from shirk. To say something about Allah without knowledge or to associate and give rights to other people, to creation of Allah rather than the creator himself, the creator of the heavens and the earth.

And tawheed is the crux, is the seed of all the good that you see in this earth. Every good deed that comes is a manifestation of tawheed, of the right ideology of Allah and that is why shirk has to be addressed, especially with the festivities and everything that we've seen around us, where it is packaged in a beautiful way with gifts, with celebrities, with music, with all kinds of festivities, it is packaged up together in a beautiful way and presented to the humanity by shaitan whose number one goal is not murder. His number one goal is not to make you not pray your salah. His number one goal is not fornication. His number one goal is not to spread alcohol but his number one goal is to take people to the hellfire through shirk, through associating partners with Allah.

So brothers and sisters, Allah tells us that shirk is not just an idle worship but it is you giving any right, anything that only belongs to Allah and giving it to one of his creations. Whether it is his divinity, the concept of him being alone in his worship, whether it is his reliance on Allah, where many Muslim countries still suffer through this unfortunately because of lack of knowledge, shirk, the biggest threat against shirk is ilm because that is why Allah tells us to not just believe in tawheed but to have ilm of tawheed, to know what tawheed is, to know what shirk is, to have knowledge of it but when you don't have that then you see Muslims going to graveyards and asking dead people for dua, hoping that they would put a better proposition to Allah on their behalf just like the Quraish were doing.

They never rejected Allah, they weren't atheists like the way we find atheists today but they believed in Allah's rububiyah, they believed in Allah as the one that created everything, that he provides and nourishes and takes care of everything but they had a problem with worshipping Allah without any partners, may Allah protect us from shirk, ameen.

How Shirk Began: The Story of Prophet Nuh

So shirk is not a harmless belief, it is a spiritual corruption, it is the seed that then leads to all the oppression that you're seeing in the world, that is the most ugly seed that you can put in the minds and the hearts of our youth, of our generations that then leads to oppression that you see around the world. In the story of Nuh (peace be upon him), how shirk began shortly and very softly after Adam (peace be upon him), it didn't begin with statues, it didn't begin with physical idols and worshipping them but how did it begin is through emotions and exaggeration, this is exactly what the holidays do, exaggerating Isa (peace be upon him) above and adding so many other paganistic rituals to package it up in a way that is more family friendly for people to enter into and we'll go through a case scenario just so you know how shirk seeps in into the youth today.

Who are these people, what do all these things mean, what is Suwa, what is Yaghuth, what is Ya'uq, what is Nasr? Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) mentioned these are not idols that people just started building and started worshipping them, these are righteous people that people had at the time of Nuh (may Allah be pleased with him), when they died shaitan told the people to remember them, you need to venerate them so make statues and then he waited long after generations after generations, you can imagine their own festivities, the gifts, the packaging up of the shirk in a beautiful way and then he came back later, generations later who didn't remember what the statues were for and he said you should worship these people, you need to remember these people, these were good people and these people used to be worshipped before so you need to do the same and what have we done in our times today, what is the biggest idol as I talked about, a righteous man, once again, a righteous man, a person of faith, a person of submission to Allah, Isa (peace be upon him), the son of Mary who was then venerated to then be the son of God, سبحان الله may Allah protect us from shirk, ameen.

The Core Beliefs of Christmas Versus Tawheed

So what is the core beliefs of Christmas, once again, not to offend but to speak the truth, the core beliefs of Christmas and now understand that this was all happening while we were enjoying our holidays is that Jesus is the son of God, that he is an incarnated person as a human who was incarnated as God, that he was born, that he suffered and he died and he depended on, that this is God and that God depended on a woman, his mother and that God was killed for the sins of humanity because of how sinful we are that a sacrifice has to take place which is the death of God himself, Jesus the son of God who had to die for our sins, this is the belief of Christmas.

But what is the belief of Tawheed, what does Islam promote and want people to come out of those shackles is Allah is eternal, he never dies, he is al-Hayy and al-Qayyum, the one we depend upon, he is independent, he is not begotten and does not beget, that is a human attribute to want to have sons, I have a son and I would love to see my legacy continue through my son but Allah سبحان الله doesn't depend on any creation, he is independent and he is not like anything else.

And he is as-Samad, completely independent of his creation, the exact opposite of what Christmas and the ideology of Christmas proposed.

The Clear Verdict from the Quran

And is this something that we shouldn't talk about because we don't want to hurt people's feelings or is this something in the Quran itself, let's go to Surah Maidah verse number 72, Allah سبحان الله says:

They have certainly disbelieved, Allah is saying this, not me, not any apologetic Muslim, it is Allah's statement that they have disbelieved and the ones who said that Allah is the Messiah himself or the son of Mary who is the Messiah himself and what did the Messiah, Isa himself say to Bani Israel, he said, O children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.

Indeed, then Allah سبحان الله makes his judgment:

And Allah has forbidden him paradise, the one who said this and his refuge is in the hellfire.

Our Responsibility Towards Others

Now let's use the emotional side of ourselves. I asked the youth, do you not have friends in school that you really like as your friends? Wouldn't you want them to go to Jannah? Then should we be apologetic and should we be shy to let them know, my brother, my sister, you're not on the right path, let me show you a better path. Tawheed, it will unshackle you from the shackles of this world of what humans try to shackle you into and that is Tawheed. It will free you, it will give you a new perspective, it will give you ability to worship God with knowledge, with certainty, without any doubt. But if they don't do that, they're on the path.

We don't claim anybody's going to hellfire because that's Allah's judgment, but they are on that path because they have committed to the ideology that Maseeha, Isa is the son of God. May Allah protect us, ameen.

And then Allah says:

It is not befitting of Allah to have a son. Exalted is Allah from all of this. When He decrees an affair, if He wants a person to be born without a father, He can do that just like He did with Adam without a father or a mother because all He has to say is كُنْ فَيَكُونَ - Be and it is. Allah doesn't conform to the scientific laws of this creation. He's above that. He can create anything without having to actually make it go through the creation process. كُنْ فَيَكُونَ - He can say and it is. And that doesn't make Isa divine and how far from the truth they are who call him the son of God.

And the most powerful scene in the Quran is Isa himself. He will disown himself from anything that two billion people are claiming of him. He himself will be asked, did you tell your people to say all of this? Did you tell them that you are the son of God and to worship you? And he would completely disassociate himself from any such things.

Where do we find that? When Allah says in Surah Maidah, He asked Isa did you say to the people take me and my mother as gods beside Allah? What did Isa himself say?

Isa himself would say, Jesus, exalted are you, سُبْحَانَكَ, ya Allah, you're exalted from any of these imperfections. It is not for me to say anything that I have no right to say. This is what giving the right of Allah to his creation. He said, I have no right to say something like this. You would have known it, ya Allah, if this is what I was supposed to say. You know what is within myself and I have no idea of what you know, ya Allah. Your knowledge is above my knowledge. Indeed, it is you who is the knower of the unseen.

Our Responsibility to Our Neighbors

So brothers and sisters, now think about it. For majority of us living in the West, we are the ones that are going to be asked about this, that your neighbors, not the people in Pakistan, not people in Sudan or Gaza, we are the ones that our neighbors are people with this ideology. Your schoolmates, your workmates, your people that you hang around with, they are the ones that believe in this. What did you do to let them know about the reality of shirk?

Imagine on the day of judgment when Isa himself would tell millions of people, billions, that you were celebrating my birth out of no knowledge and he will disassociate himself from billions of people who are praying to him and he rejects all of this. What would be our responsibility and what would be our response in that day that what did you do to spread the message of tawheed to your people that you are rightfully should be not hating, these are our neighbors, but you want the best for them and that is tawheed.

Why Shirk is So Dangerous

And lastly my brothers and sisters, why is shirk so dangerous is because it is normalized. It is packaged in a way that we go with the flow. It corrupts the soul, it removes accountability to Allah, it turns prophets into gods, it makes creation equal to the creator and it cancels good deeds if it's not repented from.

Whereas small shirk, even smaller shirk is dangerous where you show off your worship, you swear by other than Allah and you put ultimate trust in wealth, status, people, celebrities rather than Allah.

A Scenario: How Shirk Seeps Into Young Hearts

In the second part of the khutbah I will go through a scenario to just show you how shirk seeps in into a youth living in the west and this is not a particular person's story but it is something maybe you can relate to.

So dear brothers and sisters, I am a son of three children and alhamdulillah they've been in Islamic schools but eventually they would be seeing the world where people celebrate these things more openly and all of us are part of this society and we're going to be impacted with it. So this is a - just listen to it from your heart and understand could our child also run into this even if they're in Islamic school, even if they're going to the masajid but is it possible they could be impacted and it is very much possible.

So there's a Muslim teen, he's growing up in the west, the parents are loving but they avoid the hard conversations, it's the hard conversation we try to avoid it. We tell them yes you need to be a Muslim, you need to make sure that you eat halal food, make sure that you pray namaz and you come to the masjid. This is Islam, the message of Islam to them but we never talked to them about shirk, we never talked to them about the names of Allah, what is tawheed, what is the ugliness of shirk, why is it that your heart should be feeling that uneasiness when in a holiday people are worshiping other than Allah.

So step by step when these conversations are not happening their aqeedah is simply the other things that I mentioned, then they attend a Christmas party at school or a Christmas party at work, parents say it's fine just don't believe in it, then they sing carols for fun, they decorate just to fit in, then they learn that Jesus is the son of God at school, no one clearly explains what that belief really means and how false that is.

Eventually they say I mean they're good people, it's probably the same God that they're worshiping like us and faith has many ways to enter it, faith has many routes, we should be just nice to everybody and just let everybody do their thing, it's probably the same God that they're worshiping.

What is the outcome? Tawheed becomes explained away, it is something put on the backdrop, Islam becomes one of the options among many other options to choose from and now this person is living and he starts to call himself I am a spiritual person but not necessarily a Muslim and that feels good to this person, this individual, that this is the ugliness of shirk.

Action Items for Protection

I've already run out of time inshallah next time we'll go in depth with the advice of who taught his son tawheed and shirk from the beginning, before he talked about salah and prayer he talked about shirk and the foundation of Islam in the heart and alhamdulillah he was called a wise man and captured in the Quran as a wise man so let's inshallah leave by a few action items.

Number one: learn about tawheed brothers and sisters, talk about it, talk about things that are uneasy to talk about, put a shield against shirk by constantly making dua towards Allah from it.

Replace the culture of "I am manifesting these things", "it is because of my effort", "it is because the universe will has my back", this type of mentality that universe will make things work out for me, instead of that replace it with Allah is al-hakim, he's the one who decrees everything for me and he is the best of planners, instead of saying I am the one who deserves this, say Allah honored me with these blessings, this is the way we change our language and seep the shirk out of our hearts.

May Allah protect us from shirk and make us a people of tawheed.