Allah Perfected Islam And Gave Ummah Its Mission | Message in a Passage | EP 05 | Shaykh Yusha Evans
By Yusha Evans | 2026-05-26T12:23:50.397406+00:00 | Topic: Khutbah
All praise belongs to Allah and we send peace and blessings upon our master Muhammad, his family, his companions, and all of those who follow them up until the day of judgment.
Now, sticking with the theme of message in a passage, about the Asbab al-Nuzul of certain ayat from the Qur'an. Before I tell you the ayat that I'm going to talk about tonight, I want to set a scene for you. I want to try to set a scene. If you guys know me long enough, you know I'm a storyteller. I like to try to put you in that framework of when Allah is speaking or anything from the seerah of the Prophet.
The Setting: The 10th Year of Hijrah
Now, the year is the 10th year of the Hijrah of the Prophet, which is the last year of the life of the Prophet. A year prior to this, during the ninth year of the Hijrah, the Prophet marched with many companions to perform hajj in Mecca, but they were stopped. They were stopped by the Quraysh and it almost came to war. And then there was some negotiations between the Prophet and Suhail ibn Amr, who was representing the Quraysh's interests. And they came to an agreement of peace, of a peace treaty, known as the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah.
And this treaty allowed them, said you cannot make hajj this year, but you can come back next year and we will vacate the city of Mecca and you can allow to perform your activities of hajj. And the Prophet, then he did his udhiyyah, he did his sacrifice, he shaved his head and considered that a completed hajj, completed hajj for the sake of Allah. But they went back to Medina.
The Return with 120,000 Companions
Then the next year, he went to Mecca with over 120,000, according to the strongest narrations, 120,000. You have to understand at that time, that is a massive amount of people. You have to imagine the sight of the Quraysh, seeing this man whom they used to make fun of, seeing this man whom they laughed at, they mocked, they called him a magician, they called him a madman, they threw camel guts on his back, so many things they had done to him, wars and wars they had fought against him. Now here he is.
This is when in reality it started to click in, especially for people like Abu Sufyan, that we might have a problem, that he is bringing, and this is not just 120,000 of anybody, this is some of the best of the best, even from their own tribes, the best of them are now marching upon Mecca and performing the sacred rites of hajj, reviving the hajj of Ibrahim, the one whom the Quraysh say they trace their lineage back to. Now the Prophet is coming and purifying the rituals of Ibrahim, doing the tawaf around the Ka'bah, doing the sa'i between Safa and Marwa, going to stone the Jamarat.
The Day of Arafah
And then comes the Friday of the 9th of Dhul Hijjah. That 9th of Dhul Hijjah in the 10th year of the Hijrah happened to land on the Friday. Yawm al-Arafah. All the Muslims, those 120,000 of them, gathered on the plain of Arafah. And the day of Arafah is also known as Yawm al-Hajj. It's known as the day of Hajj. Everything else that you're doing is leading up to that day. Because that day is the day for those of you who have made hajj, those of us who have made hajj, we know what Yawm al-Arafah is. That's the day we're constantly thinking about.
Because that is the day we stand on that level field, and that just dust, and it's hot. But you don't care. And you spend all day from after Fajr till after Asr doing what? Making du'a. Asking Allah to free you from Jahannam. The reason for this is that the Prophet said that on the 9th of Dhul-Hijjah, Allah descends to the lowest heavens in a manner that befits His Majesty and Honor. And that is when He forgives the sins of the hujjaj. He lets them go. He frees them from the hellfire. And this is why we fast. If you haven't made hajj, you fast on that day. Hoping that that mercy will extend to you. As the Prophet said, whoever fasts on the 9th of Dhul-Hijjah, Allah will forgive him of his sins.
The Farewell Sermon
Towards the end of this day, when it started to become in the afternoon, the Prophet stood up on the Mount of Arafah. Back then it was a lot bigger than it is today. Just we know that from geology speaking, that how many people have walked on it over the past 1400 years. It's probably about half the size of what it once was. So he was standing on top of that. And this hadith which is known as Khutbat al-Wida, known as his farewell sermon. The sermon that he gave at the end of his life.
This is narrated in almost all of the major books of hadith. All of them. Bukhari, Muslim, Nasa'i, Tirmidhi, Musnad of Imam Ahmad. They all relate this hadith. It is one of the most mutawatir hadith that we have from the Prophet. What the scholars have done, is every narration is a different piece of his sermon. Because it was heard by different people because he was passing it on. They compiled all of them, and made it into one long sermon. But the most comprehensive version of it is in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad. If you want to read the longest version, it's in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad.
The Prophet's Opening Words
The Prophet understood the importance of what he was about to say. And this ayat I'm going to talk about, I believe is one of the most powerful ayat of the Qur'an. It's one of the most powerful things that Allah says in any of his revelations. And I'm going to explain to you why.
He started off, and I'm not going to go through the entire farewell sermon, you should know most of it by heart. If not, go and read it in its entirety. But he began it by stating its importance. This is how we know how important it is, because he began by saying, those of you who are here today, listen closely to me. Pay attention, lend me an ear to what I have to tell you. Because I do not know, or I do not believe, that I will be here on this day next year. Basically saying, I don't think I have another year. I don't think I will get to do hajj with you again, and give you a talk like this ever again.
He thought his life was coming to an end. Because of the revelations that he was receiving and what they were saying, because of the fact that Jibril was coming to him very frequently, and making sure that, not the revelation, but the compilation of where certain ayat should go, were being all like, he's realizing, okay, Jibril is getting to the end now, like he's almost finished. So he understood that time was of the essence. So he said, listen to me, I need to tell you something.
Key Points of the Sermon
He first began off by reminding us about the worship of Allah that we are all slaves of Allah. He warned us about shaitan, beware of shaitan, literally watch out for his traps. There's a very good book if you want to read about this, it's called Talbis Iblis by Imam Ibn al-Jawzi, about the deceptions of shaitan, and how he tricks you.
He also spoke about women. He said, and I charge you to be mindful of women. Yes, they have been given to you, and you have rights over them, but they have rights over you as well. They've been given to you as a gift, but Allah beware of that, beware of that.
He also abolished usury, riba entirely, the system upon which the rich get richer off the back of the poor. That is the system that we live in today, where you can look in, I saw an ad yesterday, it was some net credit, something or other, and the small print at the bottom, I paused just to look, it was 99.4% interest rate. This is slavery. This is slavery. You take a $6,000 loan, you owe $26,000 by the end, you're done with it. He abolished it completely.
Then he talked about the unity of humanity. He said that there is no significance in your color, there's no significance in your lineage. He said that the white person is not better, this is the first person ever in recorded history, there is no recorded document of any other prophet or any human being blatantly abolishing racism to this extent, where he said, a white person is not better than a black person, and a black person is not better than a white person, an Arab is not better than a non-Arab, and a non-Arab is not better than an Arab. He said, but the best of you are those who have the most taqwa in front of Allah.
The Unprecedented Command
So there are many things he laid out, it's like a synopsis of this religion. But at the end, he said something unprecedented. And I've talked about this before many years ago when I used to first come here in 2018. He said something unprecedented. He said, those of you who are here and are listening to my words, convey this message. What you're hearing from me, tell it to someone else. He was giving the order for anyone who heard him that day to go and tell it to someone else. He said, for it may be that the person you tell it to may understand it better than you. May understand it better than you.
You have to understand, number one, this is unprecedented. No other prophet told his nation to go out and spread the religion. Allah says in surah al-Bayyinah, they were not commanded about what? To worship Allah, pray salah, make the religion pure for him, pay zakah, وَذَٰلِكُ الْدِينُ الْقَيِّمَةُ That was the right religion for them. Why? Because another messenger is coming. And that particular message might not have been meant for anyone but them. Like the messages for Bani Israel were meant for Bani Israel. And that was it.
Allah sent over 120,000 prophets and every one of them had a message particular for their people. But the Prophet was the messenger for humanity. So he became the first messenger to give his ummah a job to do after he was gone. And that was to continue to convey the message. Because at the end of the sermon right before he says this, he says, there will be no prophet after me. I am the seal of prophethood. There will be no prophet after me. Therefore, where does the job of relaying the message of tawhid now fall? To you. It falls to you. So convey this message.
And then at the very end he said, O Allah, bear witness. Three times he repeated it. O Allah, bear witness. I have conveyed your message. He was saying that, Allah, 23 years ago you gave me a job. قُمْ فَأَنذِرْ Get up and go warn them. After iqra, the next revelation was get up and go warn. And he did it for 23 years impeccably. There was no one who did it any better. No one that can do it any better. And then he knew his life would end.
The Mission Continues
But he knew that after him would be many many generations. He himself said about the day of judgment, the hours, the signs. He said, I'm the first. I'm only the first sign of the last hour. There will be many more signs to come. So he knew that there would be generation after generation after generation. He said that Islam would enter into every household. How is that going to happen when he's not there? Allah is not going to speak to human beings. Allah is not going to sing from the clouds. He's not going to write in the clouds. He's not going to make the trees and the rocks speak to you.
But the Prophet prophesied that Islam would enter into every home. That's because he knew that the ummah after him would have a job to do. And Allah had assured him that they would do it. Allah had given him that assurity that there would always be, and he said this, there will always be a group of my ummah. That is taken to be some kind of accolade that some groups like to claim.
The Ummah of Da'wah
But he said, there will always be a group of my ummah upon the haqq, upon the truth, until the day of judgment there will be a group of my ummah. These are the ummah of da'wah. This is the ummah of da'wah whether you believe it or not because this is the key characteristic of the seerah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. If you've read the seerah, then you would understand that da'wah was his core identity trait. And Allah says it about him in the Qur'an that he was da'yan illa Allah bi-ithnihi wa salajil munira.
And he said, قُلْ هَٰذِهِ سَبِيلِي. He told him, he said, say this is my way. We say we follow the sunnah, right? We say we follow the sunnah. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was commanded to say, this is my way. أَدْعُو إِلَى اللَّهِ عَلَىٰ بَصِيرَةٍ - I call to Allah upon sure knowledge. وَمَنِ اتَّبَعَنِي وَسُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَمَا أَنَا مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ - Me and those who will come after me and follow me will do exactly what I do. And glory be to Allah, we are not of those who associate a partner with Him.
The Perfection of Religion
After the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said this, and I want you to grasp the weight of what is happening here. After he said this and said, oh Allah bear witness three times, Allah spoke. Allah spoke in surah Ma'idah verse 3. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said:
This day, I have perfected, I have made your religion kamal, perfection. He sealed the perfection of this religion on that day. And I have completed my favor upon you. And I have chosen for you until the day of judgment, Islam as your way of life.
I think a lot of us fail to understand the honor, that we don't deserve by the way. The honor that Allah gave this ummah, that He completed, He sealed His perfection upon His religion on the backs of this ummah. He sealed it, He completed His whole entire ni'mah to humanity on our backs. This is what made those people:
They were the best of nations because they were the one to be worthy of that seal, that perfection.
Umar's Insight
When Umar ibn al-Khattab heard this verse be recited, he was standing right next to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he began crying profusely. And we're talking about Umar, you know what I mean, Umar was not a weeping man, he wasn't a soft man by far. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, and we're also talking about Umar, whom the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam praised and said, there is not going to be a prophet after me, but if there would have been, it would have been Umar ibn al-Khattab. And he said about him something that was not said about anybody else as well, that Allah had given him farasa. Allah had given him an intellect to see what other people don't see. He was able to see certain realities that was a gift from Allah that no one else had.
Umar began to cry profusely and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Ya Umar, why are you crying? This is a joyous occasion. Allah has perfected his religion. And Umar said, Yes, Ya Rasulullah, our religion has been completed for us. That means there's nothing left but destruction after it. There's nothing left. After perfection, once you've reached the pinnacle, the only way from there is down. We've reached the highest echelon of Allah's religion. The only thing that will happen after this is that which is going to be a destruction to that perfection. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Sadaqah. You've spoken the truth. You have spoken the truth.
The Honor of This Ummah
But I want you to think for yourself that this verse was revealed to you. To you. Yes, it was revealed to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam but it's still right there in the Qur'an and when you hear it recited, it's being spoken to you. You have the blessed opportunity to be a person who says, I have heard the words of my Lord say that his religion is perfect and has been perfected. You don't understand the honor that gives you. For you to be in the ummah of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam makes you better. And I will say it with a full chest, makes you better than any other nation Allah created. Any other group of people, it gives you a leg up on them.
Because had Allah wished, how many of you in here born and raised Muslim? Your parents are Muslim, your family is Muslim, raise your hand. I can't raise my hand unfortunately. How many of you are converts to Islam, reverts, whatever you want to call it? One, two, it's me and your brother, that's it, we toe-toe.
I don't care how long your family has been Muslim. I don't care if your father was a Muslim, your grandfather was a Muslim, your great-grandfather, great-great-great, I don't care. If you go back far enough, every one of you, unless you are direct descendant of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, unless you can trace your lineage directly to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, every one of you, if you go back far enough, you'll find that first Muslim. You'll find that first Muslim, either man or woman. You'll find the first convert in your family. And they are the product of the work that the companions did after the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Following in his order, following in his footsteps, doing what he did, is the reason why there is someone in your family that began the lineage of Muslims.
For me, it's me. And inshaAllah ta'ala I make dua that beyond me, every person that comes from my lineage, as Ibrahim alayhi as-salam said, is a Muslim, worships Allah. And if a thousand years from now they have to trace the history back, I'll be the first one. And it was because someone did the job of giving me da'wah.
Chosen for the Greatest Ummah
This is what you don't understand. You could have been created. Allah could have said He wanted you to be a Muslim regardless, right? And He could have placed you in the ummah of Nuh. You could have been one of the few followers of Nuh alayhi as-salam. You would be blessed. You'd be a Muslim. You'd go to Jannah. You could have been in the ummah of Musa. You'd be blessed. You're a Muslim. One of the greatest ummahs after our ummah. You could have been in the ummah of Ibrahim. You could have been in the ummah of Isa. Allah could have put you in any other ummah. Time does not matter to Him. He could have stuck you in any place in it.
But for some reason, which none of us know, and this is a question I have prepared if I get to meet Allah with good favor. One of the questions I want to know is why did you choose to put me in the ummah of Muhammad? What did I do to deserve such an honor? Because that was chosen for you before you existed. It was chosen before your parents existed. It was chosen before the first Muslim in your family existed. That you would exist in the ummah of Muhammad alayhi as-salam. The greatest ummah. The most honored ummah. The most favored ummah. An ummah that on the day of judgment will be the largest ummah. And not only will be the largest ummah, we will be the ummah that will be pushed out front in front of everyone with dignity and honor. An ummah that will become an intercessor for the other nations that came before us. Look at the honor Allah gave us.
Witnesses for the Previous Nations
When Nuh is brought forward before Allah, which every prophet will be questioned. Did you do your job? Did you go to your people? And they will say, of course, you know, my rabbi did what I was told to do. Allah will ask the people of Nuh, did anyone come to you? What will they say? What are you talking about? Who? Came to you? Did someone come to you? No one came to me. They try to get away from this argument. So Allah asks, do you have any witness? Do you have anyone who bear witness for you? He will say, go to Muhammad and his followers. Go to Muhammad and his ummah, because we bear witness for all of them. We make no distinction between any prophet. If they were a prophet, they did their job. We know this. Allah says this in Surah Baqarah, we don't make distinction between them. This is the honor we have.
The Basin of the Prophet
Another honor that is given to this ummah and this ummah alone is the howd of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The fountain, the basin of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam upon which once you take one sip, you will never be thirsty again. And guess who gives you that sip? The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam will give each and every single one of us. With his own blessed hands, he will offer us the drink from the howd. And it's only for him. It's a blessing that Allah gave specifically to him. And his ummah. And we will know it. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said on the day of judgment, I will know each and every single one of you. I will know all of you. I will see the marks of wudu on your face. I will see the marks of wudu on your forearms. It will be shining so bright. His ummah will be known. And he will know each and every one of us.
But there will be some on the day of judgment when they are going towards the howd. There is an angel that will be keeping order, right? He's the bouncer of the howd on the day of judgment, so to speak. And he will be pushing some people back telling them, go away, go away, go away. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam will go to him and say, what are you doing? Why are you kicking these people out? These are my followers. And the angel will say to him, yes, but you don't know what they did after you. You don't know what they did after you. They did exactly what you told them not to do. And they did not do the things that you had commanded them to do. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam will tell them, get away from me. لَيْسَ مِنِّي You're not from me, go. Be gone and they will be outcast.
And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said this. He said that his whole ummah will go to Jannah إِلَّا مَنْ أَبَى - Except for those who refuse. All of my ummah will go to Jannah. Everybody is like, alhamdulillah. Then he says, except for those who refuse. The companions, they are confused. Who would refuse to go to Jannah? He said, مَنْ أَطَاعَنِي دَخَلَ الْجَنَّةَ - Those who obey me, those who listen to me, those who follow me, those who did what I did, they'll go to Jannah, they'll enter into Jannah. وَمَنْ عَصَانِي فَقَدْ أَبَى - But those who disobey me, they have refused.
The Command to Da'wah
And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was very specific with us on this day. And he was very specific, I could sit here with you until Fajr over all of the different narrations and Quranic ayats that command us to this work of da'wah. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said:
(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3461)
Convey from me even if it's a single verse. Allah commanded us:
Convey to the way of your Lord with wisdom. Call into the way of Allah. This verse connected to this da'wah because it is after the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam passed the baton of da'wah to this ummah that Allah said, my religion is perfected and completed. That is the honor he bestowed upon this nation. And we can never forget it.
Never Forget Who We Are
With everything that's going on in the world right now, we can never forget who we are. We can never forget who we are. I know that there are so many things against us. I know that it's not easy being a Muslim in Texas, in Plano, in 2026. Believe me. But for those of you who have been around long enough, you know that this has been happening in a circular fashion for a long time now. Right? Pre 9-11, nobody wanted to listen to anything we had to say. I became Muslim pre 9-11. And I remember Imam Siraj telling me one day, he said, you know, Brother Yusha, before 9-11, we would have da'wah stalls. Nobody pays any attention, right? They're just walking right by. Nobody's paying attention. He said, then 9-11 happens. And everybody's paying attention, right? Like everybody's watching you now. Everybody wants to hear what you got to say. They got bugs in your masjid. They got bugs in your home, in your car. They know everything about you. And he said, that was a ni'mah that we fumbled.
The Opportunity Before Us
That was an honor Allah bestowed on us. We fumbled it. The whole world was watching. We had the opportunity to show them everything about Islam. He said, but so many people entered Islam post 9-11, not because of the Muslims, but in spite of them. Not because of them, but in spite of them. He said, and that opportunity keeps coming back. He says, look how much Allah has favored this ummah, that every five, six years, Islamophobia just ramps itself right back up. It's literally once they run out of other things, they're like, I'll just throw it back at the Muslims. Because they sell fear. That is their job, they sell fear. And they tell you to be afraid of this, be afraid of that. And then they're like, oh, we got nothing else to be afraid of. Okay, just be afraid of the Muslims again till we figure out the next thing to be afraid of. And then they'll move on and then they'll come back to us.
But every time it happens, we have an opportunity. We have an opportunity. Look what you guys have the opportunity here with at Epic. You have the opportunity to show the world is looking at Epic right now. The whole world is looking at Epic. I have some brothers from the UK that we're doing a tour with Amir Khan. They're over at Serene Event Center right now. I don't know if they said they were going to come here after or not. But the first thing they said was, we want to go visit Epic. Unfortunately, the event ran over too long and I had to leave. But they're like, I want to visit. Everybody knows about Epic. You have the opportunity here to be a beacon of light and hope.
The Role of the Masjid in the Community
I have always said this about the Masajid. I've been saying it for over 20 years. That the Masajid, and I used to say it, for those of you who were here when I was here before, I used to say that this masjid needs to be a beacon of light and hope for the surrounding area that it's in. If it is not making this city a better place, then it is not fulfilling its role and responsibility.
And I used to say that about the people over there in the trailer park. If they don't know what goes on in this place, they don't know that they can come over here at any time and ask us for anything. A single mother might be living over there right now and she cannot pay her rent. She's got two children. She might be single or divorced or widowed and she can't put food on the table. If she does not know that she has every right to walk in that front door and we have to take care of her, that is our responsibility, then we are failing as a community. We are absolutely failing as a community.
Because if you look at the Prophet ﷺ, his first order of business when he went to Medina, his first order of business was not food, was not drink, was not let me find some place to sleep. What was his first order of business? The masjid, the house of Allah. And then from there, everything else became secondary, that was primary. And from that place that was once known as Yathrib, a place of disease, a place of fighting and war, became known as Munawwar, a place of light, a beacon of hope for the world. And from that very spot on the earth, Islam spread to the whole globe. Islam spread to the whole globe. It reached you and me and our families.
Our Shared Mission
So this verse, while it is on a monumental day, the 9th of Dhul-Hijjah, in a monumental time, the last year of the life of the Prophet ﷺ, if you don't connect it to its higher purpose that Allah gave us a job to do that elevates us and honors us and dignifies us, then you're missing the whole point. You're missing the entire point, point blank and simple.
So dear brothers, dear sisters, whoever might be watching at home, we as Muslims have a unique position in that every one of us has the same job. I don't care if you're a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer, an accountant, whatever your job might be, we all share one particular job together, and that is to share this religion. It does not belong to us. It is not something that we get to hide from people. It is not something we get to lock away. It is a treasure that belongs to the world. It belongs to the world. It was sent for the world, but there will be no more Prophets. So that job and responsibility is falling upon you and I. Nothing else is coming. No more revelations are coming. No more Prophets are coming. We have a job to do.
The Final Revelation
And I'll give you one small little tidbit because I don't know when I'll be back again, inshaAllah. About eight months after this was revealed, the Prophet ﷺ was ill. He was ill. At the beginning, he was at the beginning of his illness because you know his illness lasted for some time, his final illness. He was in the beginning of his illness and Allah spoke to him and it would be the last thing that Allah would reveal to humanity until the Day of Judgment. And that verse is extremely important to understand.
Where we started, اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ and where we ended. What is the very last verse revealed?
Allah reminded the Prophet ﷺ, have taqwa. That means prepare yourself. Taqwa means preparation. It means to protect yourself. Taqwa is anything that you do to shield yourself, to protect yourself from what? يَوْمًا تُرْجَعُونَ فِيهِ إِلَى اللَّهِ The day that you will go back to Allah.
That was the very last thing that Allah revealed to humanity. He will never reveal anything else. The next time you hear from Allah directly will be the day you stand in front of Him. Will be the day you stand in front of Him.
Moving Forward with the Quran as Our Guide
So we take the Quran as our guide, our role model. You saw it during the lecture with our beautiful speakers this past weekend. Take that Quran as a mean and a guidebook and context is important. Context is important, inshaAllah.
I love all of you for the sake of Allah. I look forward to being able to be here with you guys again, inshaAllah. I am a permanent Texas resident, bidniAllah. I've made it three years, so that's it. I'm official. I've survived three summers. I'm good. I'm here, alhamdulillah. So I look forward to seeing you again in the future. May Allah bless all of you.
وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ