Jumuah Khutbah 22-03-2024
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Channel: AbdelRahman Murphy
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AI Generated Summary ©
The holy month ofFinancial is the last ten days of the month, and it is essential for individuals to find pleasure and achieve their goals. consistency is essential in praying and staying on the path, and the Prophet provides guidance on what to look for in oneself and how to stay consistent with deeds. Consistentity in deeds is essential for achieving success, and the importance of quality and quantity in achieving success is emphasized. Consistentity in deeds is essential for achieving success, and the need for people to stay disciplined in their deeds is emphasized.AI Generated Transcript ©
Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings be upon you.
Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest.
I bear witness that there is no god but Allah.
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
Come to prayer, come to prayer.
Come to success, come to success.
Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest.
There is no god but Allah.
There is no god but Allah.
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
In these middle ten nights of the blessed month of Ramadan, we come across an interesting challenge.
In the first ten nights, there is an energy of excitement.
Everybody is receiving the guests of Ramadan with a lot of aspirations and hopes.
And we know as years pass, the last ten nights are also filled with a similar energy to find,
and everybody is excited to finish the month strong and to celebrate the glorious day of Eid with their families and friends.
But the middle ten nights of Ramadan oftentimes get overlooked as a filler in between the two major sections of the month of Ramadan.
In fact, classical scholars have written about the phenomenon that we identify as the middle Ramadan slump.
In the middle days of this beautiful month, we tend to find our aspirations and our himmah dwindling and waning a little bit.
And we see ourselves returning back perhaps to some of the mistakes and the behaviors that we found ourselves promising ourselves,
that we would leave off at the beginning of the month.
We see ourselves maybe falling short on some of the commitments that we've made.
It seems like everybody that I've spoken to in the last few days, I've been traveling a little bit, everybody says,
I'm a little bit behind on my khatam or my Quran.
I'm a few pages behind, I'm a few just behind, etc.
So this is normal, that we find that these middle ten days are the ten days where we have this grind and this difficulty that we find in terms of our motivation.
But Subhanallah, if you read about the goal of Ramadan and what we're trying to achieve in the first place,
what you find is that Ramadan is less concerned with making us people that find that one miracle,
even though it might be the night of power.
And Ramadan, as the Prophet ﷺ told us, is more concerned with making us a people who discover the miracle of istiqama, of consistency.
Ramadan is a regiment, a program, a plan that allows every person who participates in the month to feel what it's like to be consistent with your iman
and with your worship of Allah SWT.
Because anybody can fast for one day, anybody can pray for a couple hours, one night.
But how many people will be able to do this for 29 or 30 days, over and over and over again?
You see, when we think about a miracle, we think about one big event.
But our tradition, the Islamic tradition, teaches us that what's truly miraculous is that somebody is able to do something for a very long time.
I mentioned one time the story before of the sheikh who his students were complaining that he doesn't perform any miracles.
He doesn't walk on water, he doesn't do this, he doesn't do that.
And the sheikh said, you're right.
But one thing that I do, I have been able to accomplish, is one miracle.
And the students were excited.
They were maybe hoping to hear something almost like, you know, fantasize out of this world.
And the sheikh said, for 40 years I have never missed Takbir al-Ihram for the prayer in the masjid.
And his students, upon hearing this, they started to cry because they realized that the aspirations and the goals that they had were completely misaligned.
It's not about being able to do something great or magnanimous one time, but it's about being able to be consistent.
And this is why Allah SWT in the ayah that I quoted, he says,
Remain steadfast, stay upon, do not waver upon what?
Upon what you have been commanded to do.
And Allah also includes, and this is a beautiful piece that we'll talk about later,
and those who repent with you,
and do not overstep and do not transgress,
because Allah SWT is fully aware,
can see every single thing that you do.
The Prophet, SAW, he also taught us that if a person wants to achieve paradise,
it's not about finding the one miraculous night, although we know that that night is very important.
But we'll talk about how that works, insha'Allah, with regards to consistency.
The key to paradise is about being able to repeat and do the same thing,
and find pleasure and sweetness in the routine of your faith.
The Prophet, SAW, he says,
that he says, do these three steps.
Number one, stay on the course.
Stay on the path.
Don't waver.
Don't get distracted.
All of this is referring to being a consistent person.
And I feel like, SubhanAllah, when the Prophet, SAW, gives us these simple guidelines.
Sometimes we overcomplicate how to practice and how to pray and how to follow the religion.
The Prophet, SAW, says what?
Just stay on the path.
You don't have to get concerned with this or that.
Just make sure that you're doing your deeds.
To who?
And as a result of that, he says that you will be drawn near to who?
The scholars say to Allah, because Allah loves your consistency.
And you feel it now.
Day number 12 of Ramadan, day number 13, 14.
You're going to feel in this middle 10 days, for those of us who can keep up,
may Allah Ta'ala give us that,
you're going to feel now like these are the 10 days where you're being pulled close.
And you're starting to see, and I'm not trying to make anyone feel guilty,
but the guidelines will start to decrease.
And the attendance will start to wane.
And those who stayed until eight rakah, that number will get smaller.
And as you remain steadfast, you will feel that, Alhamdulillah,
that Allah has chosen me to get close to him.
Saddidu wa qaribu wa abshiru.
And then the Prophet, SAW, said,
and then also give glad tidings.
Be that person that can remind others,
that can give people the motivation around them to stay firm on the course.
And then he says something beautiful.
He says,
فَإِنَّهُ لَنْ يُضْخِلْ الجَنَّةَ because a person will never enter paradise,
احدًا, not a single one of you,
عملُهُ because of their actions, because of their deeds.
You see, what Allah SWT wants from us is not to see that we have this resume.
You know, on Jannah, on the day of Qiyamah,
when we enter and we're seeing our status with Jannah,
may Allah SWT give it to us easily.
Many people think that they're going to be able to pull out their resume.
You know, like load up their LinkedIn.
Allah, look at all these references I have.
Look at all these, look at everything I did for you.
Yeah, Allah.
That's not how this works.
Imam al-Razali, he quotes a narration from the Bani Israel,
where he says that Allah wanted to test one of his servants.
And this person worshipped Allah for 40, 50, 60 years.
And so Allah sent an angel to that person.
Listen to the story, it's incredible.
Allah sends an angel to that individual, that worshiper,
who has been worshipping Allah for decades.
And the angel has given one task.
That task is to tell this person this exact story, basically.
You're not going to enter paradise.
Your deeds will not give you Jannah.
And this person, upon hearing this, I want you to imagine this.
I want you to imagine you just finished praying 20 rakat for 30 nights.
And then you're sitting here in the Meshut on the last night,
and you're feeling hopeful and optimistic,
and you're feeling grateful that Allah has given you the chance to pray to him.
And all of a sudden an angel comes into the Meshut and says,
you're not going to Jannah because of this.
What would your response be?
You know, some of us maybe would have the thought across our minds,
may Allah forgive us, we'd say, what did I do all this for then?
Why did I do all this?
So this man, he responds with the most beautiful response.
The angel says, your worship for those decades is not going to give you paradise.
And the man, he says, we worship Allah because that's what we were commanded to do.
And I'm going to continue worshipping him because that's what I was made for.
And the angel returns back to Allah.
Allah asked the angel, what did my servant say?
The angel says, oh Allah, you know what your servant said.
Allah is asking even though, and Allah does this by the way,
when he wants to hear because he loves that response.
Allah says, what did my servant say?
The angel said, yeah Allah, you know.
Allah says, tell me, the angel says what?
He said that he would not give up worshipping you regardless what I told him
because this is why he was created.
Allah says, let it be known that since my servant did not turn his back on me,
I will not turn my back on him and he will enter paradise.
Not because of the deeds, but because of the attitude, the consistency, the commitment.
Oh Allah, it doesn't matter how many years I've prayed or how many years I've fasted.
I'm doing this not because I'm trying to build a score.
I'm doing this because this is what I made for.
I'm doing this because this istiqama, this consistency,
is what gives me a relationship with you, yeah Allah.
And what is the purpose of life without a relationship with Allah?
And so Allah ta'ala, the Messenger of Allah gives us that beautiful hadith.
Now there are some myths about istiqama, about consistency and steadfastness
that I want to address today that are really important
because one of the ways in which shaytan gets us to not believe in ourselves
and give up early and quickly is he makes us feel like we have failed from the start,
that there's no way you can succeed if you're not doing these things.
I want to share with you some narrations from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
that build a framework to understand what it means to be a person of istiqama.
Number one is that istiqama is not about quantity, it's about quality.
Many of us read the narrations of people who finish the khatmah of Quran.
You know, I saw a fit question today that made me feel horrible about myself.
I was doing some research and I saw a fit question and the scholar was asked,
is it permissible, listen to this question, is it permissible to do a khatmah in one day?
I said, man, I already hate this person asking this question.
Is it permissible? And the sheikh, you know, he kind of jokingly answered,
he said, it's permissible if it's possible.
But the reality is that we read these stories in my mashafah,
he was able to finish a Quran in three days, so and so finishes it.
And you may have seen this even in the modern era,
you may have met scholars that can finish one whole Quran.
Meanwhile, there are some of us that it takes us three hours to finish one juz.
Do we automatically now, are we disqualified?
Are we a people now that we can't?
Because how can we keep up with Imam Shafi'i?
Can you imagine on the day of judgment, Imam Shafi'i,
how many khatmahs he did of Quran and Ramadan and then me?
Here's little old me, ya Allah, I struggle to read.
And Subhan Allah, it's an important note to keep,
that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he said,
that for the one who reads Quran with beautiful fluency and smoothly,
Allah gives them a reward.
But for the one who stutters and stumbles and makes mistakes and comes back
and has to keep going over the same line, over and over again,
they get double the reward of the first person.
And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the scholars,
when they unpack this hadith, they say, what?
A jaza'u min jins al-amal.
They say that the reward that you get is from the body of work that you put in.
Don't look at the person to your left or to your right
and compare about their quality or their quantity.
Just look at your quality.
That's it.
Focus on what you can do and where you can remain consistent.
Abu Hurairah narrated that there were two men from the tribe of Quda'a.
This hadith is one of my favorites.
It's actually super remarkable, Subhan Allah.
They embrace Islam.
These two people and some of the narrations say that they were actually related.
They were friends or they were brothers.
And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he gave them their Shahada.
They took Shahada with him.
They became Muslim.
One of them, instantly, was martyred in a battle.
And we know the reward of the shuhada.
We know the reward of the Shahid.
Instantly, before their body even touches the ground,
they are automatically appreciating and enjoying the pleasures of the Divine Heavens,
that they are with Allah, that they enter Jannah with no hesab.
May Allah Ta'ala give this reward to all of our brothers and sisters in Ghazza,
who are being continuously onslaughted by the Israeli occupation.
Ya Allah, uplift this oppression from them, Ya Allah.
But we know the reward of the Shahid.
So one of them, after accepting Islam, was martyred immediately.
The other one actually lived for another year, and then he passed away.
So, Talha, radiAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he had a dream one night.
And in his dream, he saw the two friends, the two brothers,
and he said, I saw Jannah in front of them.
And I saw the one who was a Shahid who was martyred.
And I saw the one who lived a year longer.
I saw the one who lived for that one year walk into Jannah first.
It's interesting, because you think the Shahid is automatic, right?
Allah Ta'ala says no.
He walked into Jannah first.
So even Talha, he became confused.
Because everything we know about the Shahid and the Shuhada,
is that they are in Jannah straight away.
And that, yes, this person lived for a year,
but there is no way, what could he have done in this year?
That gave him the ability to compete with the status of a Shahid on the day of judgment.
So, Talha, he goes to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
and he says, Ya Rasulullah, I had this very troubling dream.
It's confusing me.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, what was it?
He explains.
And then the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he responds with Alaysa.
Alaysa is the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam saying,
almost like, what do you mean this is confusing?
He's responding like questioning the fact that this person is confused.
He says, Alaysa Qad-Sama ba'adahu Ramadhan?
He says, when you think of the person that entered Paradise first,
of course he's going to enter Paradise first.
Did he not fast an entire month of Ramadhan?
Why?
Because that consistency of 30 days of dedication to Allah,
is something that we don't realize how beloved it is to Allah SWT.
So, even if a person is struggling to achieve these massive ranks of their deeds,
don't forget that what you are doing this month, day in and day out,
it is making you so beloved to Allah SWT.
Now, the companions, the rule that they had for consistency was this.
They would only focus on increasing if their quality stayed the same.
They would only focus on increasing their ibadah if their quality stayed the same.
If their quality did not stay the same,
they would actually consider even lowering their amount of ibadah.
There's a narration.
I don't want everyone to take this too seriously.
I'm sharing with you.
I'm trusting you.
There's a narration where there was a companion who said that we used to shorten our prayers.
We used to shorten our prayers so that it would feel light to us.
Because these companions, while there were some companions like Mu'ath,
who could lead one, two juz in two rak'ah,
there were some companions that were probably more like us.
And they struggled to stand there for a long time.
Mu'ath, R.A., he prayed with the Prophet SAW,
in two rak'ahs, he finished Rot al-Baqarah.
You know how long that takes us in Ramadan?
Two nights.
Two nights.
The Prophet SAW finished it in two rak'ahs.
Mu'ath prayed with him.
Then Mu'ath went back to his people,
and he started to pray, and he copied the methodology.
And the people praying behind him, they were like,
I'm out, and they left the prayer.
They were praying, and they were like,
Why is he praying so long?
And they just said,
Salam, Salam, and they left.
Mu'ath, he looks at them,
and he says,
You're clearly hypocrites.
Who leaves the prayer?
Who hates the Qur'an?
You know?
Are you serious?
So they went to the Prophet SAW.
And the Prophet SAW, he reported,
because they were complaining, they said,
Mu'ath, that Imam, he prays too slow.
He leads too long.
And Mu'ath was like,
Are you seriously making me feel guilty
for reading the book of Allah?
And now we can imagine,
what would the Prophet SAW say?
The Prophet, we could imagine him saying,
Salam, that you guys,
you don't like, you don't enjoy the Qiraah of Qur'an,
you don't enjoy the recitation,
and he does.
This is one of the few narrations that we have,
where the Prophet SAW actually became furious,
so upset,
to the point where his skin changed,
and the vein in his temple appeared.
And he says,
Fattanun, Fattanun, Fattanun,
to Mu'ath.
And Mu'ath, by the way, who is he?
We have another narration, he says,
Ya Mu'ath, in Yuhibbuk.
He's the only companion that we have,
where he, unprompted,
looks at Mu'ath and says,
The companion said,
when we heard that, we became jealous.
Why didn't he say it to me?
But on this narration,
because he's worried about what,
you're breaking people's istiqama,
by putting too much on them.
Fattanun, you're testing them.
Fattanun, Anta Ya Mu'ath,
are you trying to test them,
and see if they can keep up with you?
You want people to walk away from the prayer,
being like,
maybe I'm not from those who can pray?
So he's rebuking his student,
Mu'ath, for making quantity
more important than quality.
I want us all to think about our Ramadan.
What is more important?
What are we focusing on?
What are we encouraging our kids to do?
What are we encouraging each other to do?
What culture has bubbled to the surface?
Is it about quantity or quality?
May Allah Almighty give us good quality
before we focus on quantity.
The second myth about istiqama,
is that istiqama does not mean
that you won't feel temptations.
A person who is consistent
also feels temptations.
One time the Prophet,
he took his finger
and he was sitting with his companions
in the sand,
and he drew a straight line
through the sand.
And then off of that straight line,
he drew many branches
in different directions.
And he told his companions,
he says, this is
the straight path.
This is the straight path.
This is the straight path
of Allah SWT.
The straight path.
Follow it. Stay on it.
And then he pointed
on the branches that he drew
and he said, these are the paths
of the sheyatine.
And he says, upon everyone
there is a sheytan
that is calling you towards him.
That is trying to divert you.
You see, sometimes we think
that this whole istiqama thing,
it doesn't work because
if it did, I would stop having temptations.
But that's not how this works.
Shaitan, his goal
is to particularly attack
those people that do have
consistency.
He wants to see you break your
pattern, your routine, your regimen.
Shaitan loves it
when we have the cheat day
after dieting for two weeks
and lose the ability to stay disciplined.
And so if a person is
on the surat mustaqeem
and they're going, they need to
expect and prepare
that shaitan is going to place
a trap for them
every few steps along the way.
And the only thing that protects us
in that moment is our commitment
to Allah SWT.
Thirdly, istiqama does not mean
you don't make mistakes.
We make mistakes.
We say that a person
when they make a mistake
they return back to Allah SWT.
Omar was asked one time
who is more beloved to Allah?
The one who never sinned
or the one who sins
and returns back to Allah?
Who is more beloved?
The one who never sinned
or the one who sinned
and then they made tauba and came back.
Omar, he said, without a doubt
it's the one who sinned and came back.
Sure, tauba is beautiful and Allah forgives
but how can that person be better
than the one who never sinned?
Omar, he said, do you know how difficult
it is for a person
that has that desire
and falls into it
to come back to Allah?
It's way more difficult than the person
that never had that desire in the first place.
And so consistency is not about
oh, once I've made a mistake, I'm done.
No, it's about returning back
to Allah SWT
for the moment that you've made that mistake
and calling upon Him.
That's why in the ayah earlier, Allah says,
what?
Remain steadfast upon what I told you
to do and those who repent
with you, repentance is a part
of Istiqama. May Allah SWT make us those
who are repentant.
And lastly, we'll finish here
that Istiqama
is one of those
deeds, remaining
steadfast that opens
up doors to other deeds.
You know, we think to ourselves,
I have so many goals this Ramadan. I want to give this,
I want to do that, I want to pray this much.
And we think to ourselves, I have to do
all of them. And we think
I have to approach all of them at once.
But actually, what the
Hadith of the Prophet SAW tells us
is that there is a
Tartif, there is a sequence.
Aisha, or Ibn Abbas, sorry,
he narrates that the Prophet
SAW
was the most generous
of all people. This is a famous Hadith.
People know this Hadith. He was the most generous.
And he became even more generous
in Ramadan.
But what's interesting, Subhanallah,
is that later in that narration
Ibn Abbas, he says
that the Prophet SAW
would meet Jibril
every night.
And he would go over
the
Quran.
And he says
while he read the Quran with
Jibril,
then he says
He says as a result of that recitation
of Quran,
in the Arabic language means so
the Prophet SAW became more generous
in his giving.
As a result of the recitation of Quran.
You see, sometimes I saw all the brothers here
and the sisters too, I'm sure, reading the Quran.
Sometimes we separate these things
and we think, you know what, I'm going to read my Quran
and then I'm going to do this and then I'm going to do this.
Imagine, this Hadith is telling us
that your recitation of Quran
is the key that's
opening up the doors to other good deeds.
But if I only think, if I'm thinking
about it as I have to do this
and then I have to do this and then this,
we're going to get lost. There is an order,
there is a sequence. Your consistency
will allow you
to open up the next door to the next
deed, which will allow you to keep
going on that path and then you're going to
look back at the end of the month and you're going to say
I don't even recognize myself anymore
in a good way. You're going to say
I can't believe that I started
the month just making a commitment
to read one page of Quran a day
and now I'm reading a few pages a day
and I'm donating
and I'm volunteering and I'm
spending time with my family and I'm
this, this, this. Why? Because the Quran
is the Muftah. It is the
opener to all Khair. And that's
why he said, Ibn Abbas, he said
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam would read the Quran
and as a result of that, he would become
even more generous. May Allah Ta'ala open our hearts
towards generosity. May Allah Ta'ala make us
those who in this ten days we find
istiqama. May Allah Ta'ala give us
the success and the acceptance of this
beautiful month of Ramadan. Our prayers are
fasting, our charity, our recitation of his
son نبي and all of the good deeds that
we do.
Brother's and sisters, I want to share with you
one narration, it's actually the
beginning part I shared with you earlier
When the Prophet s.a.w. gave that command saddidu wa qaribu wa abshiru
and he said that none of you will enter paradise by their good deeds alone.
In the second part of that hadith he shares a very beautiful line
and he says that
أحب الأعمال إلى الله أدوامه وإنقله
He says that the most beloved of deeds to Allah s.w.t are those which are consistent
even if they are small.
Brothers and sisters, I want us to leave today's khutbah understanding something
about Allah s.w.t.
Allah is not like us.
Allah does not need the presentation and the drama and the extravagance to be impressed.
In fact, Allah s.w.t. is more impressed by his servants
from the things that they do outside of the vision of people.
The things that they do, the small deeds that they keep consistent
outside of the perspective of others
than he is impressed by the things that we do in front of others
even if they might be greater.
Allah s.w.t. loves when we do small things
to keep them as a part of our daily life
to make sure that we never neglect them
so that we can promise to stay connected to Him.
And this Ramadan is a chance for us to commit to the culture
of doing things for Allah every single day
even if they're not the most fantastic and the most magnanimous.
We ask Allah s.w.t. to give us this tawfiq.
We ask Allah s.w.t. to make us those that are the most beloved to Him.
We ask Allah s.w.t. to make us those that are most consistent in our deeds.
We ask Allah s.w.t. to forgive us of our shortcomings
and to answer our prayers
and to answer the prayers of our brothers and sisters around the world.
We ask Allah s.w.t. to keep us on the straight path
and to not let us fall prey to the temptations of the path around us.
We ask Allah s.w.t. to allow us to follow the example
of His beloved Prophet Muhammad s.w.t.
We ask Allah s.w.t. to give shifat to those who are sick
and to forgive those who have passed away.
We ask Allah s.w.t. to give justice and freedom to those who are being oppressed.
Our brothers and sisters in Palestine,
our brothers and sisters in Sudan,
our brothers and sisters in Burma,
our Uighur brothers and sisters,
our brothers and sisters all throughout the world
that are seeking your aid.
O Allah, give them your aid.
O Allah, we are unable to fix their situation on our own.
We need you.
O Allah, please fix their situation.
O Allah, allow us to be a relief for them.
O Lord of the Worlds.
I ask Allah s.w.t. to say,
O Lord of the Worlds,
Allah will forgive those who have passed away.
O Allah, please fix their situation.
O Allah, send us your aid.
O Allah, do not let us fall prey to the temptation of the path around us.
O Allah, give us your aid.
O Allah, please take us our way.
O Allah, let us be a relief for those who have passed away.
We ask Allah s.w.t. to give us your aid.
We ask Allah s.w.t. to help us.
Dhakarun, Aqeem Al-Salaah.