Mohammed Faqih – Jummah Khutbah 05-04-2024
AI: Summary ©
The importance of shukr, a combination of belief and behavior, is emphasized, along with the need to appreciate blessings and experiences. The importance of thankfulness and gratitude is emphasized, as it is used to achieve the endurance quality of shukr. The speaker emphasizes the importance of practicing fasting and being thankful for opportunities, as well as learning the significance of actions and finding a way to be grateful for them. The importance of shukr is also discussed, along with the need to treat people with great values and receive thanks from the prophet sallama. The American Association for young men and women is also mentioned, where attendees will receive gifts and participate in a featuring event.
AI: Summary ©
As I promised at the beginning of this
month,
today's khutwa is going to be about the
second objective
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions regarding, Umrah
regarding,
fasting
the month of Ramadan.
And it's actually the objective of every other
Ibadah.
Be it Zakat,
Salat,
hajj, umrah.
You name it.
These acts of worship are supposed to teach
us many things.
And as we mentioned before
the top objective of these Ibadat is taqwa,
to achieve and attain
and exercise taqwa.
And many of these acts of worship also
teach us sabr or endurance or patience
and persistence.
Sabr and it's all manifestations.
Sabr, this very comprehensive
concept. But they're also supposed to
induce or produce or
show us
something
that will compel us
to practice and live
this beautiful quality that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
refers to as shukr.
Allah ahsawajal
tells us
that when you finish the
counts of the month or the the days
of the month of Ramadan,
when you're done with your month, when when
when you when he took me to the
aidah, when you finish your fast.
You have to arrive to this station, to
this place,
to this beautiful space
of shukr.
And you should be feeling it by now.
If you're not there, you have 5 more
days
to get yourself
there.
Very often we talk about this on the
day of Eid,
but I want you to take advantage of
the last 5 days of this month.
Perhaps the most precious of all
because there are only 5 days left.
And for those who may think it's too
late, it's not too late.
And for those who think that, okay. Tonight
is it. No. It's not.
There's a lot of catching up to do
to arrive to this place
of shukr. What other things does Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala mention in the Quran that are
worthy of shukr?
That are worthy of expressing gratitude and appreciating
and being thankful and grateful for.
These are examples.
Just to start to to help us think.
I know in the Quran we have come
upon this verse where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says,
If you try to
enumerate
or count the blessings of Allah, you won't
be able to.
You won't be able to come up with
the total.
You will not be able to enumerate them.
You will not be able to say, Oh,
I have these these many blessings.
You won't
because they're endless.
That does not mean that we should not
count the blessings of Allah.
This verse is not telling us not to
think and contemplate and count the blessings of
Allah.
It doesn't mean that we shouldn't consider the
blessings of Allah.
It doesn't mean that we shouldn't appreciate the
beautiful things Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given
us.
There are many things that teach us to
do that and be aware
and mindful.
Again as we said the month the month
of Ramadan is about developing this
quality of mindfulness so that we can pay
attention.
So by now
we should be getting there.
But today I wanted to explore some of
the things that Allah azzuljan in the Quran
said are worthy of shukr.
They're supposed
to show us, make us.
Thank Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Be thankful, be
grateful.
Appreciate them and and and experience this joy.
And before I
start talking about some of them, I wanted
to say something here, my dear community members.
And this is where,
you know,
very
very often
we have things that we take for granted
in our lives. As a matter of fact,
most of our blessings we take for granted.
But one thing
that is very interesting about
dua, if you want to do dua, authentic
dua, your own dua.
We are told that you're supposed to begin
your du'a with
with what?
With
praising Allah,
thanking Allah,
telling Allah azza wa Jal what it is
that you appreciate
about His lordship.
So that compels you to
really think of the blessings of Allah
The things that really matter.
The things that you
in an intimate
setting,
when you're alone with Allah ajuzajal, the things
that you tell Allah ajuzajal you're most grateful
for, are the things that matter the most,
or should matter the most. What are the
things that you tell Allah
you're thankful for? The Prophet teaches us this
by the way. This is part of the
art of dua. The etiquette of dua. You're
supposed to tell Allah
what you're thankful for.
Oh Allah, thank you for guiding us.
You have Thank you for inspiring us.
Thank you for this. Thank you for that.
Before you even start asking for anything, you
should actually appreciate and be thankful for and
praise Allah for what He has already given
you.
Imagine going to someone that has been giving
you everything that you need without you asking,
and then now you have this one thing
that you are desperately
wanting,
and you go to them. And before you
even
acknowledge what they have done, you start making
demands
with a sense of entitlement.
And if you don't get it right away,
you're disappointed and you're upset and you're frustrated.
SubhanAllah.
So the prophet teaches us that, no. When
you come to Allah azza wa Jal
to submit your request
or to
ask for something, you should praise Him first
for what He has already given you,
which forces you to really think about
these blessings that you haven't been really thanking
Allah
enough for. It will make you realize them.
So Allah
in the Quran tells us for instance, one
of the things that we should be grateful
for.
When Allah Azawajal tells us the story of
anyone by the way, these are lessons for
us as well. So Allah ajazah says to
bani
Israel, after they have committed all kinds of
sins against Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
and then
they received wake up calls
and
many of them repented.
Allah ajna says,
We have forgiven you.
We granted you redemption.
We told you that you're redeemed, so that
you would be thankful
and move forward in the right direction.
Afu of Allah
What we have been begging Allah for the
past 5 nights, and then what we should
be begging Allah
for for the next 5 nights as well.
It doesn't end tonight. It didn't end last
night or on 21st night or 23rd or
whichever night you thought was really Laylatul Qadr
because you never know.
And the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam recommended
this to his beloved wife Aisha, Allahum minnakafood
tohibulafwa
fafwannee.
You acknowledge Allah azza wa jal's forgiveness,
that He's forgiving. You believe in it and
you are grateful for it. And now you're
trying to count on it, and you're saying,
O Allah extend that forgiveness to me. So
Allah says, it's worthy of that. You should
be thankful.
You should be thankful like someone who
knows
that they are
worthy of receiving it.
And if they're not worthy of receiving it,
then Allah is
worthy of extending it because He's the most
kind, most generous,
most gracious.
Do it with thankfulness.
Yes, do it desperately,
but in a state of thankfulness as someone
who is grateful to
Allah What else does Allah
mention in the Quran that is worthy of
us being thankful for. Allah azza wa Jal
again says to many Israeel, tumma ba athnaqumimbaadeemawtikumla
Allahqum tashkurul
resurrection.
We resurrected you. We brought you back to
life. After you were supposed to be completely
annihilated, destroyed,
Once and for all, we gave you a
second chance.
La'ala kum teshqurun
That perhaps you may be thankful. Maybe this
is gonna make you thankful.
Surviving
or being brought back to life
and being given another chance.
And if you don't want to be like
them,
make sure that you appreciate Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala's second chances
and resurrection.
Every day you and I
experience
a form of resurrection.
Every single day.
Every single day. This morning by the grace
of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala,
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala revives us. Allah brings
us back to life. He gives us another
chance
that is worthy of
gratitude.
We should thank Allah. Alhamdulillah.
What else does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mention
that we should be thankful for? Allah Azzawaj
says,
magnify and glorify Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for
guiding you.
Guidance of Allah Azza wa Jal. Alhamdulillah.
Alalihadan
alihada.
Praise be to Allah who guided us to
this. We're very fortunate. We're very lucky.
You know I don't get out very often
to go you know, to
different places in the month of Ramadan. But
whenever I do, I'm like so thankful
that we're amongst the few that are aware
of the significance
of this time and this act of worship,
this very special practice.
Alhamdulillah,
we pass by cafeterias in different places while
people are eating and drinking and doing all
kinds of things. We're passing through in a
state of dignity, self control, aware of this
beautiful opportunity,
and we're practicing fasting. And my heart goes
to those believers,
those believing men and women who are not
capable of fasting. May Allah Azzajal grant them
shifa and aafiyah. May Allah give them wellness
and cure them.
And I know many who feel so
who who feel so,
so bad for not being able to do
it anymore.
Those who have done it in the past
and they wish they can do it.
They have this chronic
condition that does not allow them to do
that. So they they give kafarah,
which by the way is estimated
to be $10 per person or per day.
My heart goes out to them but rest
assure that because of that feeling that you
have, because of your appreciation of the past
experiences and opportunities,
Allah ajazhujal will reward you fully.
As long as you acknowledge Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala's blessing upon you for guiding you to
this,
for guiding us to this place,
for guiding us to this act of worship,
for inspiring us.
And that's why when we begin our dua,
even in Qunoot, allahu madinahafim, we ask for
guidance.
Another
beautiful blessing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
reminds us as a community.
Allah Azzawajal says, walakadayanasa
raku moolallahu bi badriwwwwa antum adillah. Remember
all believers, we are the extension of that
community by the way. This doesn't only apply
to them. Allah azza wa jal gave you
victory
at some point when you were very little
in number. You were outnumbered,
you were small,
you were insignificant in the eyes of those
He stood by you,
gave you victory.
Fataqullah,
be mindful of Allah. Fear Allah, a'laquntashqruun,
and being thankful for that.
How could you forget that? How could you
ever allow yourself to fall in a state
of despair
and helplessness,
and feel like Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has
abandoned you.
You weren't even 2,000,000,000
strong as doctor Zaman always says.
You weren't 2,000,000,000 strong.
You are few 100
outnumbered,
fatigued,
exhausted,
and everyone was conspiring against you.
And Allah 'azaza jaz send armies of angels
to come to your aid when you put
your trust and faith in Allah azzawajal,
nothing else.
And when you were thankful to Allah azzawajal
and you were humble before Him, Allah azzawajal
came to your aid. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's
divine intervention
came down
and the whole matter was settled
in a matter of hours.
So that you would be thankful. Remember that
lesson. How could you forget it? It's not
a coincidence that
that incident took place in the month of
Ramadan. So when the month of Ramadan comes,
we are reminded of it.
So that we put our passion, our faith,
our trust in the right place.
And as an ummah, we have been putting
our appreciation,
our we have been banking on the wrong
people, the wrong entities, the wrong organizations,
the wrong coalitions,
the the wrong the wrong alliances.
And when they fail us, we are disappointed,
we are hurt.
Shame on us.
We're going to the wrong place.
So Allah Azzaj says,
It was Him that gave you victory.
What else should be
should one be thankful for? Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala mentions,
being thankful for these things that sometimes we
complain about,
which is a sign of immaturity. That's why
you find,
not all. Masha'Allah.
You know I'm so impressed by the number
of young
ladies
and young
gentlemen
in our community, in our midst, whom Allah
has
has inspired and opened their hearts.
Yes. Sometimes, you know, we you know,
they may have too much energy,
But it's so beautiful.
You have no idea how much I'm loving
this.
And and I tell you,
the average
attendance,
the the average
attendee
of of these programs that we have of
of the young
the young Muslims. I don't know what to
to call to call you guys.
The average person
is is just precious and and priceless
and and much more mature than many that
I see in other places. Wallahi we have
a blessing. We have something to be thankful
for.
We they should not be treated. They should
be appreciated. They should not be treated like
like a problem to be contained
or a challenge to be contended with.
Something that but rather as an asset,
to be
as an energy, as as
this great resource that needs to be challenged
or channeled in the right direction.
You've seen
them going around campaigning, doing different things.
They have great abilities and talents.
We we just need to be able to
organize them, inspire them, lead them in the
right direction.
And if we as a community or as
an organization fail, then shame on us.
So I I want just to give a
shout out to them, those who've been coming
for the different programs saying overnight.
Those sometimes they do reckless stuff. May Allah
guide them
and protect them and keep them safe and
bless them.
But we should be thankful for for that.
So one of the blessings of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala that we should be thankful for,
Allah
mentions,
Allah azza wa Jal talks to us about
these acts of worship.
And again I will say to the young
folks, sometimes
you get frustrated. You just want the fun
part. No.
You have to do the part that teaches
you discipline, teaches you beautiful qualities.
You have to take care of your salah.
You have to take care of your wudu.
You have to take care of your tahara,
your purification
properly.
And you yourself should be inquisitive and find
out to perfect your Ibadah. Because if your
wudu is not proper, your salah is not
gonna be accepted.
So you should be the one
seeking that.
And also the responsibility falls on your parents
and your educators, on the elders in the
community
to guide you compassionately,
to perfect
your Ibadah,
and to improve your relationship with Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. So don't be frustrated.
It's not meant to be difficult. It's not
difficult. Once you master it, it's not difficult.
So Allah mentions in the Quran
how we should get up to salah, and
what we should do, and how we should
perform wudu properly,
and how we should maintain our purity,
physical and spiritual.
Then at the end Allah says, Mayuridu lahu
liajaalaalaykum
min haraj. It's not meant to make things
difficult for you. Walakin, however
you read
Allah wants to sanctify you, purify you.
There is an objective that you may not
totally understand or realize,
but one day you're gonna get there. So
do it.
And Allah Azzawajal wants to complete His favor
upon you.
So
that you would be thankful. Be thankful for
that.
It's a beautiful thing.
Many people out there, they envy us for
it.
And I will conclude with this. You have
no idea how many times I've heard from
people.
Either those who have come very close to
accepting Islam or very close to the Muslim
community and interacted with the Muslim community, they
were part of it. And I will tell
you a story from the seerah inshaAllah and
the second khutbah.
Or those who actually
made the transition, Allah subhanahu wa'ala gave them
that courage and the tawfiq
and the guidance and they actually come to
Islam.
I remember one prominent figure one time telling
me, you know you have no idea what
it was like when I first came to
the masjid and I saw a crowd. It
was Jum'ah
lined up sitting
and then getting up following the imam, sitting
following the imam, doing different things.
And when he saw people making wudu, the
ablution, he said it was amazing.
It was amazing. What is this? Who are
these people?
It doesn't make you a weirdo. It makes
you special.
Different but special.
You're the you're the one Allah azza wa
Jal has chosen to really
be
the the manifestation of these great things.
You're the one practicing it. Everyone else is
missing out. They don't know what they're missing
until they actually
come and experience it.
So don't feel weirded out by it.
Be thankful.
They're beautiful.
And perhaps maybe you should you should find
a way to learn the significance of these
beautiful acts of worship.
They're meant to make you a better person,
purer individual,
exceptional
in every way. May Allah
grant you and I,
Shukr. May Allah guide
us. May Allah
accept from us.
As many of you noticed,
people say the events or what is happening
in Gaza. It's not what is happening in
Gaza. It's how the people of Gaza are
handling,
and how they're standing,
and how they're resisting,
and how they are maintaining contentment,
how they're practicing this
beautiful quality we're talking about, shukr.
Being grateful for the little that they have
has been inspiring so many people,
including non Muslims,
to accept Islam, to advocate for them, to
to do a lot of things.
People going there,
putting their lives on the line,
getting killed, assassinated deliberately.
Non Muslims.
Aid workers.
People who wanted to just feed people. People
who had passion to feed others.
Maliciously
targeted and killed in cold blood
by an entity that has a long history
of doing these things, like the world is
waking up to it.
And then in the and and and in
the middle of all of that, you'll find
young folks, young men and women.
I'm not saying that they're you know,
people are they're,
you know, they're all happy. No. There are
many who are exhausted, fatigued, tired.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala be with them
because they are enduring something that is unimaginable.
But then you have these examples
of people standing their ground, people saying, I
lost my parents.
Young 11 year old lost my parents. They're
both gone.
But I have Allah.
Today, what you know, one of them, a
vlogger that continues, you know, continues to
to to help,
He's losing more distant member. He lost immediate
family members, but he's like, we're not gonna
give up. He maintains that smile with tears
flowing, you know, flowing from his eyes.
It's like
as long as we have another day
to live and resist and stand,
we will continue to do that.
Hadid.
And as I said, I've been I've been
saying this, you cannot fake this.
You may be able to fake it for
a few hours, for a day, for 2,
3, Maybe 2, 3 weeks. I don't know.
But for 6 months?
For 6 decades?
You cannot. You cannot.
This is authenticity.
This is what the state of
gratefulness,
state of gratitude
and thankfulness
gives you. It liberates you.
When you appreciate
everything and anything that you have,
no matter how much your enemy,
no no matter how much the wrongdoers and
the tyrants try to take from you, they
cannot take that happiness and contentment out of
your heart. They cannot
unless you give it up.
So that is inspiring everyone
to accept Islam,
or to at least appreciate
what Islam has done to them.
So in the seerah we are reminded, and
I'll quickly go through the story of a
man that used to hate Muslims,
that imposed all kinds of sanctions
and inflicted so much pain on the Muslims.
A man by the name of the Muhammad
ibn Uthal, the companions of the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam captured him one day.
Not knowing who he was, he brought they
brought him to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
recognized him, And he said, Thamama, what do
you think I'm going to do with you?
And Thamama responded. He said, if
if you punish me, then you're punishing someone
who has
great value
to his people.
You're taking a risk.
And if you forgive him pardon, you're gonna
pardon someone who will acknowledge that favor from
you. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam smiled.
You know, still there's defiance.
But still, you know, as so the prophet
told them to keep him
in the masjid. They kept Humama in the
masjid for 3 days. Each time the prophet
passes by him, some narrations say that the
prophet would
talk to him briefly. Others narration other narrations
said that prophet would look at him, smile
at him, and walk away.
And they were told to treat him as
the prophet and as Islam and as Allah
taught us
to treat everyone including
enemy combatants,
including prisoners.
I I don't want to say humanely, I
want to say Islamically.
Humanity has not known anything like that before
Islam.
Except whatever the prophets like Ibrahim
and others thought.
So they treated him. They gave him food.
They actually gave him things that they themselves
would deprive themselves from.
They took care of him because you have
to take care of your prisoner. You treat
them like almost like a guest.
They're in your custody.
This is a human being, a living being.
You have to take care of that person.
After 3 days, the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
says, Go. You leave.
Set him free. We're done with him. He
has seen us from inside, from within.
And he
developed this deep sense of appreciation
and love for this community and for this
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam when he saw what
they are made of, what they
represent, how thankful, how content, how pleasant they
are, he came back and he embraced Islam.
This is what we have to offer, Yajama.
May Allah make us an example for others.
My dear brothers and sisters, many of our,
local,
families who are needy are really suffering as
well, and we should not forget them. Remember
that Zakat
Zakat
Al Mal is really intended to enrich and
to satisfy the needs of the local
poor and needy population.
If we don't do that, and I know
that our attention has been focused on different
places and different projects. We need to not
forget this.
Zakat is actually their haqq. They are the
top priority.
They have more haqq in whatever we make
here
locally. Whatever you build, whatever wealth you build
here,
the poor and the needy of this area,
of the Muslims,
are the
the the on the top of that list
of recipients.
They're supposed to be their needs have to
be satisfied and met, and then you go
beyond that.
Same thing if you have wealth that is
being made or built somewhere else in the
world. In that locality, you're supposed
to actually distribute Zakah
there as well.
So let's make sure that we do that.
And my understanding is that we have not
reached that point, so please,
be aware of it. May Allah
allow us to deliver the Haqq of those
who have Haqq upon us.
Is that a thumbs up from
okay. We're
good? Okay.
Bear with me. There's a lot going on
in this weekend and inshallah details as well.
So Eid al Fitr is being hosted at
Muslim society of Memphis, and that's gonna be
at the Memphis sports and event center.
It'll be either this Tuesday, April 9th, or
Wednesday, April 10th inshallah.
And the prayer will start at 10 AM.
Masjid al salam is asking for everybody to
bring your own prayer rugs and bags for
shoes, Insha'Allah.
The festival
will be the following that that coming Saturday,
April 13th from 2 PM to 6 PM,
and the festival will be here at MIC
inshallah.
And lastly detail is
is $15
per person in each household.
So if you haven't paid that yet, make
sure you do so before the prayers. There's
boxes in both hallways. You can also donate
your
online. For this weekend
we have,
the Quran competition for the Quran program students
is today from 5 PM to 7 PM.
And then tonight we have the khatam of
the Quran,
going on. So after that, after we finish
with it, Insha'Allah, we're also gonna have sweets
provided in Nasim Banquet Hall. But you're also
welcome to bring and share and share a
dish as
well. And then after that, we have the
last after hours session for, young professionals and
college students with chef Fuki, and that's gonna
be in the community room.
On Saturday,
for the general public, the competition for the
Quran competition
is gonna be starting at a new time.
It was at 5 PM, but it's gonna
be at 1 PM on Saturday,
if you've registered for that. And then lastly,
on Sunday is the PBS annual fundraiser, which
is gonna be here at MIC at 6:30
PM.
And one last detail is,
starting tonight until Sunday, Insha'Allah,
because of all the different events that we're
having,
in the banquet hall, the sisters are being
asked to either pray upstairs or in the
new grand hall. The Nasim banquet hall won't
be available from now until Sunday inshallah.
So either upstairs or in the new grand
hall and then also,
do you wanna come? Yeah.
Saturday,
April 13th, for the
aid festival
in,
GMMC,
Greater Memphis, Mississippi,
Communities are,
gonna be doing
Islamic and Palestinian
knowledgeable.
So basically, you know, we cannot be celebrating,
having
fun, laughing, and partying
while people, Muslim people, kids,
Gaza kids get killed
every day. So
we are going to dedicate that festival.
This festival coming up on April 13
for the people, the Muslim people, the kids,
especially in Gaza and Palestine.
We're gonna show, that we're standing with them.
Basically, we're gonna have, for the kids, for
the adults, like a Palestinian,
Islamic, knowledgeable.
We're going to do
some questions for the kids
about Palestine,
about Islam. We're going to give them some
gifts.
So basically it's going to be dedicated for
them. On that day, we're going to wear
it differently, probably not just suits like every
Eid.
If you can, for men, wear the kufiyas,
and for women, if they could wear abaya
or the Palestinian or any thobe,
just to show it's a little bit different
dedicated
for these people of Palestine and Gaza, Insha'Allah,
because it's it's not right that we're
celebrating or having parties
while our families are getting killed in Gaza.
So please be prepared. Bring kufirs, bring, flags.
If you don't have flags, we will give
you some,
wear a
robe, whatever you can for Palestine,
and do some, research and read about Palestine
because we're gonna be asking a lot of
questions
as as part of that,
event to make it a fun day also.
Wassaalaamu Alaikum Wa'atullah.