AbdelRahman Murphy – Jumuah 20-09-2024
AI: Summary ©
The importance of the Qwhw Hasal of Islam is discussed, including personal and professional reasons to pursue it. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the stages of development and not counting deeds. The importance of acceptance and honoration in regards to one's life is also emphasized, as it can lead to rewarding and inspiring experiences.
AI: Summary ©
As-salāmu
ʿalaykum
wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
Ḥayya ʿalā ṣ-ṣalāt, Ḥayya
ʿalā ṣ-ṣalāt, Ḥayya
ʿalā l-falāt, Ḥayya
ʿalā l-falāt.
Ḥayya ʿalā ṣ-ṣalāt, Ḥayya ʿalā l-falāt,
Ḥayya ʿalā l-falāt.
As-salātu wa-s-salāmu
ʿalaykum
wa
-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
The nature of the Qur'an is that
Allah ﷻ commands us not only to read
it, but to try to think about what
Allah ﷻ is saying, so that we can
derive some of those custom-built reflections for
ourselves.
In fact, one of the conditions that Allah
ﷻ tells us is a condition for the
life of the heart of a believer is
the ability to think about the Qur'an.
Allah ﷻ says, أَفَلَا يَتَدَبَّرُونَ الْقُرْآنَ أَمْ عَلَىٰ
قُلُوبٍ أَخْفَالُهَا Allah ﷻ says, do these people
not think about the Qur'an or is
it the case that their hearts upon them
is a lock that is sealing them?
So Allah ﷻ gives us many examples to
think about, and again, unless we do the
work of thinking, we're not gonna be deriving
what the Qur'an was ultimately sent for.
Many of us have become accustomed to the
Qur'an being a book of ritual or
decoration.
We have the mus'haf here in the
masjid.
When somebody gets married, we carry the mus
'haf to their wedding.
Some cultures even have mus'haf over the
bride and the groom as they leave the
hall.
Many people hang the Qur'an in their
homes, or they decorate their houses with Qur
'anic ayat.
All of these, while might be beautiful gestures,
are not the function of the Qur'an.
In fact, a person is much better off
having a copy of the Qur'an being
much more tattered and bent and pages torn
from the frequency with which they read it,
than a person would be having a Qur
'an that is pristine and clean and never
touched.
Because the testimony of the Qur'an that
the person reads, although it's in a condition
which is very fragile and frail, will be
much greater than the one that the person
does not read.
May Allah ﷻ make us those who are
testified by the Qur'an in our akhirah.
One of the examples that Allah gives, of
the many examples that we find in the
book, is one of our own human development.
Allah ﷻ gives the example of how people
begin as a small, weak child, and then
they grow into the height of their adulthood.
They grow into a position of strength.
And then after that strength, Allah ﷻ says
that they further carry their journey on into
the position of being an elderly person, and
that comes with it a form of weakness.
And when we think about these different stages
of development, each of them have their own
distinct virtues.
When we think, for example, some of the
companions would say, that the elders amongst us,
the reason why Allah ﷻ and the Prophet
ﷺ commanded the respect for the elderly is
because they carry a lot more good and
a lot more righteous actions than those who
are younger.
When we read about those who are shaded
under the throne of Allah ﷻ, the seven
under which the throne Allah ﷻ will give
shade, we find young people that are attached
to the masjid.
Why?
Because in the position of strength, when a
person can do anything and they choose to
worship Allah ﷻ, it's a sign of the
purity of their heart.
So each stage of life, whether it be
young, whether it be adult, or whether it
be senior, has its lesson, has its virtue.
Now many of us, we skip over the
reflection about being a child.
We have many children, alhamdulillah, here with us
today.
So this khutbah hopefully will hit home.
But we skip over the reflection about what
it means to be a child, and partially
because when a person is a child, before
they reach the age of maturity, Allah ﷻ
does not count for them their deeds against
them.
And so before a child reaches the age
of bulugh, they don't have that accountability, the
angels that we learn about on their right
and on their left.
And so we tend to think of that
age as being an age that is a
preparatory age, but there's not much value beyond
that.
But subhanallah, some of the great scholars like
Ibn al-Qayyim and others, they actually wrote
and said that you can discover a lot
about the adult Muslim, the adult human being,
by reflecting and observing the actions of children.
You can learn a lot about how the
inner workings of the nafs of the adult
operates by looking at how children operate.
And you'll be able to see in the
actions, in the statements, in the behaviors of
young children, how the human being operates inside
even though adults are better at masking it.
Now we know that when it comes to
children, you don't have a one-size-fits
-all approach.
We know that children require different means, different
methods.
You don't want to give a child everything
that they want or ask for because then
they'll get spoiled.
But you also don't want to deprive a
child of everything that it needs or everything
that it wants, because if it's permissible and
you take it away for no reason, that
child might be deflated from all of their
childish joy and childish energy.
And so we see that none other than
the Prophet ﷺ, how perfectly he interacted with
children, and the lessons that we as adults
can take from that.
There's a story of a young boy, about
the age of 10 years old, and his
kunya, he was given as a child, was
Abu Mahdura.
But his name was actually Aus.
And he was known later on in his
adult years to be one of the companions
of the Prophet ﷺ.
And he was known, he had a very
specific, special job.
And that was, he was the muezzin of
Masjid al-Haram in Mecca.
So after the opening of Mecca, Abu Mahdura
was given the position of being able to
give the adhan in Mecca.
We know the famous muezzin of Medina was
Bilal radiyallahu anhu.
But the muezzin of Mecca, the one who
was assigned to give the adhan in Mecca,
was Abu Mahdura.
But his journey was not a very smooth
one.
To become the muezzin of Mecca, one would
assume that this child was probably a child
prodigy.
He was probably like Ali radiyallahu anhu, one
of the great companions that when they were
young, they were obedient to the Prophet ﷺ.
The story could actually not be more opposite
the case.
The Prophet ﷺ met Abu Mahdura in a
very precarious situation.
And that was that the Prophet ﷺ, when
he was returning from Ta'if during the
time of Ja'rana, when it was time
to pray, the Prophet ﷺ stopped his group,
his contingency, and he asked the muezzin to
give the adhan for prayer.
So the muezzin starts giving the adhan for
prayer, and off to the side there are
a group of young Quraishi boys, roughly around
the age of 10.
We all know that third grade, right?
Amazing emotional intelligence third graders.
And so Abu Mahdura is one of those
children.
And when they hear the adhan, Allahu Akbar,
Allahu Akbar, they respond to the call of
the adhan, not by repeating like we should,
but they actually begin to mock and make
fun of it.
And we know that kids are kids, right?
There's a reason why Allah is not going
to count their deeds against them, because they
haven't matured yet.
Their faculties aren't to the point yet where
they can understand right from wrong.
So they begin to mock the adhan, and
they themselves, some of them are not Muslim,
they're still kind of on the fence.
And the Prophet ﷺ, he hears this, and
he notices that from these boys it's very
clear that many of them have this distaste
for Islam, and some of them even a
distaste for the Prophet ﷺ.
The Prophet ﷺ, he calls Abu Mahdura, because
Abu Mahdura in his mocking of the adhan
had the most beautiful voice.
So he looks at these boys, and all
of them are mocking, nine of them are
off-key, but one of them sounds really
good.
So he calls that one, he says, come
here.
And obviously kids when you catch them, they
respond a lot less courageously.
When they're in a group and they're acting
foolish, they're all really brave.
But then the moment you call them out
and say, hey, you see the fear in
their eyes.
So Abu Mahdura now comes to the Prophet
ﷺ, and he says, can you call the
adhan again?
Can you say it one more time?
I really like your voice.
And Abu Mahdura, this young child, oh, this
young boy, he's looking up at the Prophet
ﷺ, and he feels this sense of distance,
because remember in his heart, he still has
this enmity against the Prophet ﷺ.
The Prophet ﷺ does the most beautiful thing.
He takes his hand ﷺ, and he puts
his hand on the head of this young
boy, and he lightly strokes his hair like
this and says, do you mind calling the
adhan again?
Your voice is so nice.
And Abu Mahdura under his breath, he says
it, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, very beautifully.
The Prophet ﷺ, he asked him again, repeat
it louder.
But he could tell that there was some
hesitation.
So he took his hand, the same hand
that he rubbed over his head, and he
placed it on his chest, and he said,
oh Allah, give this young boy hidayah.
Oh Allah, give him guidance.
Give him love of Allah and His Messenger.
And Abu Mahdura, he said, subhanAllah, that in
that moment, there was nothing I loved more
than the Prophet ﷺ.
The Prophet ﷺ gave him a few coins
as a gift, a little gift for a
child, and then he walked away.
Later on, when the Fath of Mecca happened,
or after the Fath of Mecca, later on
when they returned back to Mecca, the Prophet
ﷺ says, where is Abu Mahdura?
Where is that young boy that was so
beautiful and giving the adhan?
And then he came forward.
The Prophet ﷺ said, you are going to
be the mu'adhin of this masjid.
And he asked him to call the adhan
while he was there, while he was in
Mecca, subhanAllah.
Abu Mahdura, later on, he narrates this whole
story for us.
And he's telling us basically, the story of
his conversion as a young boy.
And he said something so beautiful.
He said, the way the Prophet ﷺ treated
me, it had its firmness.
Like he called me over, I was making
foolish noises, he called me over, so he
was firm.
But then, and then he asked me to
give the adhan, and he pushed me.
He said, keep giving it.
I want to hear you give it.
So he was firm.
But he interacted with me in a way
that was gentle and that was loving, that
gave me enough understanding to know that he
wasn't trying to break me, but he was
trying to build me.
And he said, subhanAllah, he gave me the
coins, but nothing was more beloved than when
he touched my hair.
And he said, wallahi till this day, I
have never cut that hair.
Because that is the hair that the Prophet
ﷺ touched.
That was the love that he had, the
love that he fostered.
Now, this khutbah is not about how to
convince your kids to give adhan at home.
Because I don't think we have that type
of money or that type of prophetic touch,
subhanAllah.
But what can we learn from this story?
What can we learn from how the Prophet
ﷺ engaged with this young child?
And beyond the obvious lessons of being gentle,
but being firm, of being soft, but being
principled, what are the lessons that we adults
can take when it comes to our own
nafs?
Habib Omar, Habibullahullah, a great scholar, he said
that if somebody wants to learn about themselves,
they need to look no further than to
observe how kids act.
And you will see very quickly what is
inside of you.
So, the Prophet ﷺ in this story teaches
us a few principles.
Number one, every single person in our nature,
we have things that we do and things
that we don't do.
Everybody has a little bit of ease and
some rebellion.
Doesn't matter what age you are.
There are some things that many of us
like to do, we enjoy doing, and some
things that we do not enjoy doing.
Part of taming and training the nafs is
becoming good at doing the things that you
don't want to do.
Allah ﷻ in the Qur'an, He commands
and He ordains fasting.
كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامِ It has been ordained and
prescribed to you to fast.
Nobody, when the fasting happens, nobody is looking
forward to not eating and not drinking.
The action itself is very difficult.
If I were to tell everybody, hey, tomorrow,
September 21st, nobody eat, nobody drink.
In the absence of Ramadan, many people would
not be interested.
But it's because we know the reward that
we go ahead and we shelf every hesitation
and we say, it's worth it.
Doing this hard thing is absolutely worth it.
And look at the accomplishment that we have
at the end of the month.
Look at what we achieve, what we become.
The version of ourselves that's much better than
any other version.
So when it comes to your nafs, it's
important not to simply just acquiesce and concede
to everything because it's difficult.
Oh, I can't do that, it's too hard.
I can't pray, it's too tough.
I can't give sadaqah.
To assume that everything that you should do
will come easily to you is to misunderstand
fundamentally who you are.
Allah Ta'ala gave everybody the ability to
do things, but He also gave everybody the
rebellion against wanting to do those things.
And the journey in life is figuring out
how you can conquer yourself.
Can you wake up for fajr and pray
even though you're very tired?
Can you stop your day in the middle
and pray dhuhr even though you're very busy?
Can you stop and pray asr even though
more than anything you'd like to get home?
Can you get up before you eat dinner
and have maghrib as your soul food before
you pray to Allah when the sun sets?
And as you're very tired, can you first
make sure that you worship Allah with isha'
and thank Him for the entire day?
Every single check in our day with prayer
is a chance to battle ourselves.
Giving sadaqah, how many times do we walk
by?
And this is not a plug for qara.
How many times do we walk by opportunities?
How many times do we scroll through chances
to give?
And in our heart and in our mind,
we know that it is the right thing
to do.
But there's something inside of us that stops
us.
It is that rebellion of the nafs.
The ones who are successful are the ones
who are able to conquer their nafs day
in and day out.
Just like Abu Mahdura.
He didn't want to give the adhan.
But with a little bit of pushing, and
a little bit of reminder, and a little
bit of encouragement, the Prophet ﷺ was able
to show us through him that you're able
to do much more than you think you
can.
And when you open that door, subhanAllah, Allah
gives you a status and a position that
you never thought possible.
The kid making fun of the adhan to
becoming the muezzin of the Kaaba.
Allahu Akbar.
May Allah give us this.
One of the chapters in which Allah details
this entire process for us is actually Surah
Al-Nazi'at.
Surah Al-Nazi'at, familiarly we know it
in Juz Amma.
We hear it in the 30th Juz.
And Allah describes at the end of the
passage this amazing status.
وَأَمَّا مَنْ خَافَ مَقَامَ رَبِّهِ وَنَهَى النَّفْسَ عَلِ
الْهَوَى فَإِنَّ الْجَنَّةَ هِيَ الْمَأْوَى Allah Ta'ala
says, for whoever is able to revere and
respect the position of Allah in their life
and is able to withhold their nafs back
from indulging in the things that they shouldn't
do, Allah Ta'ala says, فَإِنَّ الْجَنَّةَ هِيَ
الْمَأْوَى For that person, Jannah will be their
abode.
Now if I went across the room and
said, how many people in here want to
be in Jannah?
Everybody would raise their hand.
How many people in here, you're thinking and
reflecting deeply and the only thing that gives
you a sense of purpose in life is
pleasing Allah and attaining Jannah.
We would all agree with that statement.
But we have to understand that Jannah is
not free and Jannah is not cheap.
Jannah requires work.
Jannah requires winning.
It requires conquering yourself to be able to
display these things.
Now if you go back in the same
surah, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gives us
the story of a person that was unable
to conquer his nafs.
And in fact, his nafs conquered him.
Despite having all of the proofs in front
of him.
This shows us by the way, that conquering
yourself is not only a matter of knowledge.
Because people can know and they can have
all the proofs in front of them and
they'll still fail.
Allah tells us the story of none other
than Firaun.
Earlier in the chapter, Allah Ta'ala tells
us that Musa Alayhi Salaam, he goes to
Firaun, فَقُلْ هَلْ لَكَ إِلَىٰ أَن تَزَكَّى And
he very gently, very kindly asks him, would
it not be the case that you would
like to purify your heart?
Look, you have everything.
You have everything.
You're not in a difficult spot.
Would you like to just change your life
and come closer to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala?
وَأَهْدِيَكَ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ فَتَخْشَ And let me help
you come to know the guidance of your
Lord so that you could experience this khashiyah
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And then not only did he make the
pitch, فَأَرَاهُ الْآيَةِ الْكُبْرَى He showed him the
great sign, whether it be the splitting of
the, whether it be the staff, whether it
be the splitting.
Scholars have different interpretations, showing his hand as
being white.
But all is to say that he showed
him signs of his prophethood.
He established that proof.
But when he saw this, his mind and
his heart had already been corrupted by his
desire and his indulgence.
The nafs was not نَفْسَ اللَّوَّامَةِ or نَفْسَ
الْمُطْمَئِنَّةِ The nafs that fights battles or the
nafs that is pleased with Allah.
The nafs that he experienced, that Firaun had,
was what?
النَّفْسَ أَمَارَ بِالسُّوءِ The nafs that commands to
evil.
And the more chances and the more losses
that our soul takes against that nafs, the
more comfortable that experience becomes.
فَكَذَّبَ وَعَصَى He rejected Musa AS to his
face, and he disobeyed Allah SWT.
ثُمَّ أَدْبَرَ يَسْعَى And then he turned his
back against the message both figuratively and literally.
فَحَشَرَ فَنَادَ And then in order to reinforce
his rebellion, he gathered his friends.
What do we learn about companionship in the
battle of the nafs, subhanAllah?
فَقَالَ أَنَا رَبُّكُمُ الْأَعْلَى And he proclaimed, No,
it is I, Fir'aun, who is your
Lord, the Most High.
وَالْعَذِبِ اللَّهِ Many of us think that this
battle is very, very, you know, later I
will do this.
I'll start to pray later.
I'll start to do this later.
But you don't realize, subhanAllah, that there is
a point in which the battle is so
far gone that it's no longer a matter
of wanting to be different.
It's no longer a matter of wanting to
turn around.
It's no longer a matter of wanting to
start to pray.
But it's the fact that your soul has
become so distant from this behavior, from this
action, from discipline as a principle that it
doesn't even know what it feels like anymore.
It doesn't even know what it looks like.
Many hufadh that I've met who memorize the
Qur'an, what action requires more dedication and
more discipline than finishing the memorization of the
Qur'an?
And after years of memorizing, they may have
fallen off and they've completely forgotten everything that
they memorized.
So much so that there is a hadith
in Bukhari in which the Prophet ﷺ was
narrated to have said that one of the
greatest sins of my ummah will be the
forgetting of the Qur'an after its memorization.
Many of us memorized when we were younger
the surahs that we can't repeat now, that
we don't know now.
Why?
Not because of knowledge, but because of lack
of discipline.
The nafs won.
And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala later
in the surah, and we'll end with this
because we don't have a lot of time.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describes all of
these blessings.
He says, وَالْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ دَحَاهَا أَخْرَجَ مِنْهَا
مَاءَهَا وَمَرْعَاهَا Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala starts
describing this blessing of the earth for us,
that we made the earth soft and round
and spread out and nice.
We brought its water and its pastures.
وَالْجِبَالَ أَرْصَاهَا And we set the mountains down
as pegs for it to make it something
that was sturdy and stable for everybody.
مَتَاعًا لَكُمْ وَلِيَنْعَامِكُمْ That this entire creation, مَتَاعًا
لَكُمْ is just for your enjoyment.
وَلِيَنْعَامِكُمْ And for your animals and your livestock.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala effectively is saying
that you are allowed to take pleasure in
this entire world.
You like food, eat food.
You like to sleep, sleep.
You like to sit and relax with friends
and socialize with chai, go ahead and do
that.
All of these things, Allah has deemed as
permissible.
Not only permissible, but مَتَاعًا لَكُمْ It is
for you.
It makes Allah happy to see His servants
happy.
But not at the expense of their soul.
Not in giving up their relationship with Him.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, He then
says, and this is the beautiful part that
I wanted to highlight.
He describes the two situations.
One of those situations, فَإِذَا جَاءَتِ الطَّعَمَةُ الْقُبْرَةُ
But when the great supreme disaster happens, the
day of judgment, يَوْمَ يَتَذَكَّرُ الْإِنسَانُ مَا سَعَى
After being given this beautiful place of enjoyment
and of pleasure, but also being given the
protocol of how to live your life and
worship Allah, on that day, that's when the
report cards will be given.
يَوْمَ يَتَذَكَّرُ الْإِنسَانُ مَا سَعَى What did you
do with the health and the wealth?
What did you do with the privileges and
the resources?
What did you do?
وَبُرِضَتِ الْجَحِيمُ لِمَا يَرَى And hellfire will be
lit and displayed for all of those people
to see.
فَأَمَّا مَنْ تَغَى وَآثَرَ الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا فَإِنَّ الْجَحِيمَةَ
هِيَ الْمَأْوَى For those people that after being
given everything and being told what to do,
but they still prefer the hayat of the
dunya, then the jaheem will be their ma
'wah.
The hellfire will be their destination.
And then Allah Ta'ala finishes, وَأَمَّا مَنْ
خَافَ مَقَامَ رَبِّهِ وَنَهَى النَّفْسَ عَلِ الْهَوَى فَإِنَّ
الْجَنَّةَ هِيَ الْمَأْوَى But for those people that
were able to remind themselves of Allah and
hold themselves back, then jannah will be for
them.
Brothers and sisters, the purpose of today's khutbah
was to reorient and realign and calibrate our
hearts.
Many of us are sitting in a world
where we have more privilege than we could
ever imagine.
We have access to things that many in
this world can only dream about.
We look at pictures and videos of our
brothers and sisters in Palestine, in Gaza.
We look at pictures and videos of our
brothers and sisters all across the world.
And we see that we are in such
a mode of macro luxury, it almost doesn't
make sense.
What Allah is telling us here is that
that luxury, that privilege is not a gift
or a reward.
It's a test.
That house that Allah gave you is not
a gift or a reward.
It's a test.
That car that you have is not a
gift or a reward.
It's a test.
And if a person ignores Allah and chooses
the gift over Allah, the gift giver, chooses
the gift over the one who gave it,
then that person, Allah Ta'ala says, jaheem
will be their ma'wah.
But if a person looks at the privilege
that they have, when they sit down to
eat, and instead of saying, oh, this looks
good, they say, bismillah.
Allahumma barik lana fee ma razaqtana wa keena
adhabanna.
They make the dua for food because they
connect all of it together.
And that person, Allah Ta'ala says, fa
amma man khafa maqama rabbihi.
They remembered Allah.
wa nahan nafsa anil hawa.
And they held themselves back.
fa inna aljannata hiya alma'wah.
Then jannah will be their abode.
It's all about hard work, brothers and sisters.
It's all about doing the things you don't
want to do.
And holding yourself back from the things you
want to do.
There is no precondition that the good deeds
that we do will be easy.
But wallahi, they'll be worth it.
Wallahi, they'll be worth it.
Waking up for Fajr, it's not always easy.
But wallahi, it's worth it.
Giving donations, it's not always easy.
But wallahi, it's worth it.
Holding your tongue is not always easy.
But wallahi, it's worth it.
I feel like I'm talking to my son
when we're doing practice in the backyard.
It's not always easy.
But wallahi, it's worth it.
And just like Abu Mahdura went through a
point in time where the Prophet ﷺ forced
him to do something that wasn't easy for
him.
Do you think for a moment when he
stood in front of the Ka'bah and
was calling the Adhan, do you think for
a moment he thought that whole experience wasn't
worth it?
That was worth it.
Allah will give us an even greater realization
when we enter Paradise.
Every single struggle we have here will feel
like it was infinitely worth it.
May Allah Ta'ala grant us that happiness.
May Allah Ta'ala give us the ability
to conquer ourselves and to hold ourselves back
and to follow the message of His book.
May Allah Ta'ala give us the success
of those companions that we read about and
the ability to emulate them and replicate them.
Ar
-Rahman
Ar
-Rahim
We ask Allah Ta'ala to bless everyone
in this gathering.
We ask Allah Ta'ala to keep all
of us united.
We ask Allah Ta'ala to uplift the
oppression and the trials upon His Ummah.
We ask Allah Ta'ala to give victory
and strength to those who are being oppressed.
We ask Allah Ta'ala to uplift and
to give relief and to give strength and
to give victory and a future, an optimistic
and a hopeful future to our brothers and
sisters in Gaza.
We ask Allah Ta'ala to make all
of these moments of difficulty heavy on their
scale.
We ask Allah Ta'ala to accept all
of the martyrs.
We ask Allah Ta'ala to make all
of the lives of those who have had
their lives shattered and torn apart.
We ask Allah Ta'ala to give them
something, a sakina that no one else knows
about.
We ask Allah Ta'ala to extend all
of these du'as to all in the
Muslim Ummah who are suffering, whether it's in
Sudan, whether it's in Burma, whether it's the
Uighurs in China.
We ask Allah Ta'ala to be with
those that no one else is with.
Inna Allaha ya'mur bi al-'adli wal-ihsan wa
ita'idhi al-qurba wa yanhi al-fahsha
'i wa al-munkai wa al-baghi ya
'idhukum la'allakum tathakkaroon aqeem al-salah