AbdelRahman Murphy – Eid Al-Adhaa 2024
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Walaaduriati
sayyidina
Muhammad
wasalamataslimankathiro
Muhammad.
Wa'ala Ali Sayyidina
Muhammad.
Wa'ala Ashabi
Sayyidina
Muhammad.
Muhammad.
Muhammad.
Muhammad.
Muhammad.
Muhammad.
We're gonna be inshallah performing the prayer first,
of course.
The way that we'll be performing the prayer
is that we will be offering,
the,
takbir to open the salah, and then 3
takbiraat.
Then we'll be reciting the Surahs, going to
ruku, doing the sajda, coming back.
Once we are back for the second rakah,
we'll recite the Surahs, and then we'll have
an additional 3 before the ruku, and then
we'll finish the prayer.
And then per usual, the will be after
the salah. I promise to eat
the 4 minutes,
and everyone wants their coffee.
Okay? So.
Allahu Akbar.
This 'id is a beautiful reminder
and a powerful
a powerful narrative about choice.
Every person in this room has a choice.
For example,
we chose the 738
salah.
Everybody chose what they were going to wear
today. People choose what they're planning to do
today.
Everything in life, whether or not you have
complete control
or
most control
or partial control or in your eyes, no
control,
Ibrahim alaihis salam throughout his entire life
was tested by Allah with the test of
choice, just like all of us are tested.
And every single time that he was given
the test of choice,
Ibrahim had a remarkable response.
He would choose Allah.
Every single time a scenario was put in
front of Sayid Ibrahim alaihis salam,
he would think about
which of the options ahead of him
would bring him closer to Allah, would give
him a proximity to his creator,
and which of the two choices in front
of him would take him further away.
It starts with his early days when Ibrahim
alayhis salaam was the only person
in a community of people
that worshiped idols. He was the only individual
that when looking at this scenario made the
choice
to choose Allah over everybody else. This choice
was not easy. It was a difficult one
because he didn't have the numbers. He didn't
have the popularity.
In fact, it was the unpopular thing to
do. To choose to worship Allah alone in
a world where everybody around you was going
in a different direction
was a very difficult choice.
And as a result of that choice, Ibrahim
alaihis salam
chose
to break the idols
when he had the opportunity,
when it became too much, when the community
became aggressive and egregious in their worship of
those idols,
Ibrahim decided to make a statement and chose
to break those idols. As a result of
that, his choice caused him to be expelled
by his family.
Ibrahim alaihis salaam, after
standing his ground and worshiping Allah
and choosing the right way, was then punished
and was given the consequence of the leader
at the time by being thrown into the
fire.
And even in that moment, subhanAllah,
when you look at the narrations,
when Ibrahim was given a moment, a miraculous
moment by Sayyidina Jibril alaihis salam, when he
was given a moment
of a question. Do you need any assistance
from
Allah? Do you need help? Do you want
God to remove you from this trial?
Ibrahim's response was, I choose whatever Allah chooses
for me.
I will be aligned with whatever Allah chooses
for me. If Allah wants to send me
into the fire, then that's what I choose.
And when it comes to help, I need
no other help. And as a result of
that choice,
Allah produced the miracle that he mentioned in
the Quran
where he told the fire, be cool and
peaceful upon Ibrahim.
After that, Ibrahim alaihis salam made the choice
to leave his homeland.
You know, sometimes when we think about moving
and living and where we want to be,
we have to think about what is best
for ourselves and our families.
And even though
staying in the area that we're in or
remaining in the region that we've grown up
in might be more comfortable,
might have more of a personal connection.
When we think about preserving the faith of
our family, ourselves, and our friends, the choice
to move and the choice to leave is
necessary. Many people here have probably made a
decision like that. It was what's best for
you and your family. Ibrahim had the same
decision.
Do I stay here in the place that
I call home with the people that I
know as my family, my friends, my community,
or do I make the choice to leave?
And he chose to leave just like many
prophets did.
Ibrahim chose to listen to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala
and to obey the dream, the command that
he was given to sacrifice his son. And
Ibrahim alaihis salam chose
to obey the command of raising the foundations
of the Kaaba with that very same son.
Ibrahim's life, brothers and sisters, was a life
of choices.
And as a result of every single choice
he made,
when he was in the situation and chose
Allah,
Allah
gave him a beautiful distinction.
The ayah in the Quran that I quoted
from Surat Nisa, Allah says,
He says,
who has
a more beautiful religion? Who has a more
beautiful expression of their faith
than the one
who,
when given a choice, chooses to direct themselves
to Allah.
They direct and they submit their face to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And in that moment of choosing Allah,
they don't choose it begrudgingly.
They don't choose it angrily. They don't choose
it pouting and throwing tantrums. Oh, I have
to do this. I have to be because
I'm Muslim, I can't do this. No.
And in that choice, they choose Allah beautifully.
I get to pray.
I get to give sadaqa. I get to
fast. I get to go to the masjid.
That person
will have done the decision and made the
path in their life the same path as
Sayed Ibrahim. Now what's the result of all
of these choices?
You know, when a person, for example, gets
interviewed later on in life,
Forbes, you know, what made you a successful
CEO?
Oftentimes,
they give a frustratingly simple answer.
What earned you the 100,000,000? What got you
to this point? They'll just say something like,
good choices.
And you become frustrated because you say, surely,
there's something more
to it. You became so successful. Surely, it's
more than just making good choices. But we
learn in the Quran
that in order for a person to be
successful spiritually,
it really does just come down to that.
When you make good choices for the sake
of Allah, Allah ta'ala gives you a very
special gift,
Allah, as a result of all of those
choices that he made,
Allah said, you know what, Ibrahim? You're my
close friend now. You're the one that I
want to be near and dear to me.
You're the one that I will honor with
this title
All of us, our dream, our aspiration
is to be given the closeness to Allah
That's all we want.
At the end of it all, why do
we do what we do?
Why do we pray? Why do we fast?
Why do we give charity? Why?
It's not for some material gain, it's so
that we can be close to Allah.
So that on the day of judgment, that
in the afterlife we'll be near to Allah
We wanna be His friend. We wanna be
close to Allah like best friends are close.
He tells us in this ayah that there
is no secret recipe.
The recipe is very clear.
If you want to be close to Allah
when it matters most, you have to choose
to be close to Allah in this life.
May Allah give us that closeness. May Allah
give us the ability to choose. May Allah
give us the strength to make the right
choices when they come across us.
Brothers and sisters, we have, insha'Allah, a beautiful
day ahead of us, and I want to
remind everybody
of one thing about the virtue of Eid,
and that is that Eid is a day
of celebration. Alhamdulillah,
this Eid for us fell on a Sunday,
which mirrors and reflects a day which most
people are not working. And that's great because
usually when we work, it's difficult to celebrate
fully.
But I really want us to understand the
value of celebrating the day today with our
family, with our friends.
Celebration on the day of Eid is not
simply just a luxury. It's not simply just
a choice even though it is. It is
something that will inculcate the identity
of love of this day and love of
deen within the family and within the children
that we have in our community. In we
have after the prayer, the second prayer, we
have our Eid festivities here from 10 to
12. I wanna really encourage everybody to come
and bring their family and friends and enjoy
the day. If you had anything scheduled for
today, if you had any errands, anything at
all, I promise you they can wait till
tomorrow.
The errands, the drop offs, the returns, the
pickups,
unless it's critical to celebrating today,
leave everything off to the side and make
sure that you prioritize today as a day
of celebration,
as a day of takbiraat,
as a day of choosing Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala in your celebration more than choosing anything
else on the day of Eid. We ask
Allah to give us the best. We ask
Allah to accept from us. We ask Allah
to accept the 10 days of Dhul Hijjah
that we have done as days of service
and sacrifice. We ask
Allah to allow us to follow the path
of Ibrahim.