Jummah Khutbah 02-17-2017

The Rila

Monastery you know who want to still feel and want to study? When are we to be like me Sheree and fusina women say Dr. Medina. He loves the letter woman usually Fernando de la jolla. murshida shadow Allah Illa Illa la vida hula Sheree, Cara. Shadow no Mohammed Abu sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa seldom at the Sleeman kathira

Yeah, you're Latina aminata por la haka to party. Hirata Mouton. Illa. To Muslim on yohanna su tipo Bakula de hora coming up soon Matata come in Hello Jehovah Beth I mean who Mary Jane Catherine manisa en la Henrietta sir I don't have any he will or ham in the law How can it come Lottie but yeah, you have livina M and o de la whoa opodo Colin said Ed, la Kumara como si lukou back home woman nuclear Illa hola Sula, who fools and alima

We begin by thanking and praising Allah subhanahu wa Tada, our Lord and Master and creator, the Most High, the Most Merciful, the most perfect. We bear witness that there is absolutely no one and nothing worthy of worship except Allah exclusively alone. And we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is his last and final messenger, sent as a Peace and mercy and a messenger to all of mankind until the end of time. May Allah shower him with Peace and mercy and blessings and his family and his companions, and all of those who follow his tradition. Until the day of judgment. We must remind ourselves to renew our taqwa of Allah subhana wa Tada. Let us ask

ourselves, are we fully aware

that Allahu subhana wa tada is aware of our thoughts, statements and actions at all times. Let us heed this reminder of taqwa as Allah subhanaw taala commanded us to do so. And make sure that the Angel of Death does not come upon you except that you are in a state of submitting to Allah, doing what is pleasing to Him and staying away from what is displeasing.

In our weekly Wednesday night class this past week, we shared a beautiful story. By the way, if you did not know we have a wonderful class on Wednesday nights, you're all welcome to join the prophets of aloha it was similar and received a guest

A man came to him and he was in a situation of need, he was hungry. And he said, will you please host me?

And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam sent a message to the members of his household. Can we get anything for this gentleman. And they responded that we don't have anything in our house except water.

So he said, Go to the next household, prophesies, lm had several

households. And each time the response came exactly the same. We have nothing to eat in this house under this roof, we just have some water.

These are the households of who have the messenger Muhammad Sallallahu Isley he was in them

when we enter our kitchens in our homes, and we notice how much there is how much goodness there is, do we stop and reflect and think about our messenger, who is far better than any other creation who walked this earth did not have one 10th of this. Or perhaps were just so caught in the motions, we never stopped to think about that. In any case, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam did not have anything to serve and honor this guest with.

And so he called upon the companions. I have a guest who can take care of the needs of this guest. And one of the men from the unsought one of the residents of Medina said, I will handle it. I will take care of it, oh messenger of Allah. And so he took the hand of this guest of this traveler, and he took him to his house. And he entered his house and he told his wife, what do we have?

I've brought the guests of rasulillah, that guest of the Messenger of Allah, can we put something together and give it to him, please.

And she responded, and she said,

All I have left is what we were keeping aside to feed our children, our babies before putting them to bed. Even you and me, oh, my husband, we don't even have anything to eat. Tonight, we are going to sacrifice our dinner so that our children can have something to eat. That's all that remains. If that food was her chair, she probably wouldn't have even mentioned that. She would have said here we got a little bit of food ticket. But this is the care and the concern that a parent and a mother especially has for their children. So the man said no problem.

And they came up with a plot.

It came up with a plot

that they would dim their lights and that they would put their children to sleep, put them to sleep, coax them and do whatever needs to be done to put them to sleep. No dinner tonight.

And we will dim the lights on our side of the house and we will brighten the light on the side of the guest. And we will give him whatever remaining food we have. And we will pretend to eat

so that he doesn't feel awkward. So he doesn't feel left out so that he doesn't feel that he has burdened us. We want him to be completely comfortable. And we'll pretend to eat, there's nothing for us to eat, we'll pretend.

And we will carry on like that and we'll go to sleep hungry. And that is exactly what they did. They went to sleep that night hungry.

And the next day they came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the Messenger of Allah welcomed them with a big smile, and with amazement and with wonder, and when happiness and he said, Allah

your Lord and Master and creator from above seven heavens has seen what you did last night and a lot left by HCA. The prophets I send them said or another narration I Jeeva. Allah was amazed by what you did last night with your guests.

Meaning you made a lot of very happy with your action.

What is it that they did?

Some may say they were generous.

And we talked about generosity a lot. And kindness and soda and charity and giving. But generosity is on levels. My law tip, there are different levels. And our conversation today is of the highest level of generosity. They call it an E.

ether. You see if a person has a lot to give, and they give some of it. That's not ether. They're generous, thank you, they will be rewarded. But when a person prefers someone else, at their own expense, that is ethos, that is taking generosity to a whole nother level. And Allahu subhana wa tada revealed verses in solitude pertaining to this event. And Allah described these believers, while you feel one iota for seeing him Oh, can I be him kasasa they prefer others over themselves, even though they have a need. Even though they are in a situation of need, they needed that food, their kids needed that food, but they preferred someone else over themselves. That's taking kindness

that's taking generosity, it's taking Sahar, well come on, well, Jude to a whole nother level.

This topic of ethos, the scholars commented on it extensively.

The scholar known as Liam, he categorized it into two categories.

He said, The first type of ethos is that you prefer

what is pleasing to Allah, over what is pleasing to yourself at the expense of your desires. That's the first level. Meaning I have now found myself at a crossroad.

I am commanded by Allah and His messenger to do X.

But my desires and my wishes and my whims and my feelings at the moment, are pushing me in the direction of why.

So to prefer and to put first and to make a priority what is pleasing to Allah over what is, for my own seeming,

seemingly benefit. Most of the Muto Hema it's a steaming ban, it seems to me now that it's a benefit, but that which is with a lot is far greater and far better. That is the first type of ethos.

So for example,

when we are called to help in some way, and let us not think of generosity and ethos and help, always in financial means or always in material means that's one type. But there's also other forms as well that are not tangible. For example, time,

time, it's the most valuable thing that any one of us have.

And it's always diminishing. It's a commodity that you have that is constantly diminishing, it's never going up. It's only going to get less and less the amount of time that we have

if we want to use a portion of time or amount of time for something that is fulfilling our desires, something that is entertaining, or fun or relaxing. But we are being called we are being encouraged, we are being asked

to devote some of this time to something which is far greater, pleasing to Allah subhanaw taala. For example, someone that you know that is ill, you just go and spend some time with them. Someone that is lonely, you go and keep them company for some time. It might be boring to you, but it's preferring

Someone else, and something greater and the reward was a lot over what I have.

And the second type of ethos, the second category of ethos of preference, is dealing with individuals,

relationships and dealings between people. When you prefer the needs of someone else over your own.

And you take, you take an expense, you take a hit. Because of that, there is some amount of sacrifice that has to take place.

Emmanuel bizarrely says that ethos is the highest level of support, it's the highest level of the highest level of generosity.

generosity is upon levels and the highest level is ether, you are willing to have some kind of loss, you're willing to have an expense.

A lot of our problems that happen between people, they are a result of selfishness. And

being very self centered, and narcissism, being so consumed with me, and I, and mine, and my accomplishments, a lot of times there is friction between people. And we end up with big problems, because of this

demeanor, or this attitude. And the cure for this is he thought, that it's not about me,

we can sacrifice me I can sacrifice my needs and my wants for you.

I can do that. And that exercise, the more we practice it, the more that there will be an actual sense of community.

We like to throw this word around community. But what sacrifice have we done for someone else on an individual basis, and it doesn't need to be public. Not every good deed we do has to be known. On the contrary, the deeds that are kept between you and Allah, they will have a very high and special reward on the Day of Judgment.

Not everything that is out in the open is all that we should be spending our time with. But as a scholar, Liam said, have a secret between you and Allah,

have some sacrifice that you are doing for the benefit of others, that is just between you and Allah, I am reminded of a story of one of our teachers

in Medina, who informed us of a man, one of his teachers, who is a great scholar, someone of high status, who's famous and known.

But what he would do is at nights, when most people are sleeping, and most lights are dimmed, and most streets are empty. It was at that time when he would go out and cover his face.

So as not to be identified actually making an effort to be hidden.

Nowadays, we do the opposite, we make an effort to be seen,

especially with social media, we want to share everything with everyone with the whole world. But scholars, they're doing good deeds, and they're making an effort to hide themselves. Big difference between the two, he would cover his face and take food and provisions and needs and put them in front of the doorstep of households of families that were poor, and needy. So they wake up in the morning, and they find what they need. They're

perhaps they went to sleep the previous night, not knowing Are we going to have anything to eat tomorrow or not.

But they wake up in the morning and I found this they don't know who put it there. They don't know where it came from.

They think Allah subhanaw taala but they have no individual or person after that to think

they don't know.

And the only way that it was identified the only way we are able to talk about this story now and we know who it was, was because all of that stopped when he died.

When this individual passed away, all the poor people in the neighborhood woke up and they didn't find anything in front of their doors.

That's ethos, making a sacrifice and doing it with concealment, covering and keeping it a secret with Allah subhanho wa Taala May Allah subhanahu wa tada bless us to manifest the highest levels of character and the highest virtues. The characters of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his companions barakallahu li walakum phylloquinone whenever anyone here can be Murphy he made it with he could have hekima Kodama dismount. I still feel like it would occur when you say it even Muslim in me calling them infest of Pharaoh in the who who will follow him. repent to Allah for he is the most forgiving, Most Merciful

hamdu Lillah wa Salatu was Salam Ala Moana via parada.

Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad in arboricola Sorry, can you hear me wherever early he was actually he was a limited Sleeman kathira.

He thought, the highest level and form of generosity is something that we practice with regards to the affairs of this dunya of this life.

But when it comes to acts of worship,

when it comes to acts of worship, fulfilling commandments of Allah subhana wa tada that is not something that we prefer others over. That is something that we race for. And this is an interesting distinction that the scholars make, that when it comes to my time, or my wealth, or my wants or my desires, I can sacrifice that and prefer someone else over me. But when it comes to fulfilling the commandments of Allah subhana wa tada I do not prefer anyone else, or even myself over the commandments of Allah subhana wa Tada. And we need to be very careful about that. Because a lot of times we are practicing ethos the other way around, we are preferring what people think of us, and

we would rather hold to high esteem, the opinion that people have of us and our status over doing what is pleasing to Allah subhana wa Tada. So perhaps, we may have some shortcomings in the practice of our perfect Deen so that we can make others happy. And that is not a form of ethos that is acceptable when it comes to our commandments. And when it comes to fulfilling what Allah subhana wa tada has obligated us to do. We don't prefer anyone or anything over that. But when it comes to our resources and our time and our abilities, we should be willing to sacrifice from time to time and come before Allah who somehow no one was expecting reward from him. How do we train ourselves to

have this characteristic of ethos, this level of generosity that is so high, and so virtuous? There are a few steps. First of all, we need to get into the habit. And we need to make more common the discussion of a club amongst us of manners, and virtues. Let us not be satisfied with having a manifestation of Islam. Let us not be satisfied with practicing our religion on the outside only on the surface that's very shallow.

We do things that others can see on the outside. But what about our manners? And our character in our dealings? Is this not a huge aspect of our religion? It is definitely. And it is one that's been neglected. It's been neglected. I'll give you a humorous example. One of our teachers when speaking about he thought, he said, he thought, this is something perhaps some of you as well as I really need to work on. He said you want to see he thought you really can practice it on the road. When you're driving. It's the cure in a road rage. When somebody cuts you off, and you got that burning feeling I got to get in front, or when the light turns green, and I gotta go right away? or Why

should I let someone else turn before me? No, I gotta go first. The cure for that that's silly. You might smile or laugh at that and say, yeah, that just happens on the road, you Honk your horn. And the day passes, no big deal, no harm, no foul.

But it's a microcosm of a bigger disease that we need to cure and treat in our hearts, that we're not willing to prefer someone else over us. And so the macom the station when it comes to driving is etha prefer others over yourself. And that's something that perhaps a few of us here need to work on in shallow data.

So we need to make, we need to hold too high level these up and these manners and these characters. They're important, and they matter. But we've forgotten about them, let us discuss them amongst us more often. And let us try and push one another to have higher virtues and higher characteristics and higher manners. Secondly, always be concerned and thinking about the rights of others. And do not be consumed with always your rights. But when you think of the whole book, when you think of what you are owed to what others what you owe to others, you will always think about others before yourself. And you will begin to treat this bug and this disease of selfishness. And last and

certainly not least, let us remain close to Allah subhana wa tada always making the app to him and let us study the seal of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and that is why begin with the story that we shared in our Wednesday night class. When we talk about the dealings of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam with others. It is by way of studying these stories and these

narrations that we will have practical examples to follow and implement in our lives. Before we conclude we have a special program tonight for the ffm program the Friday family night program, which begins after a shot we perish at 730. And tonight's program is going to be an interesting discussion the title of it is his high school a waste of time.

Interesting question, that there will be different responses to many students now and many families are encouraging their children to take examinations and leave high school early. Is this an academically wise decision? Many of you here have children or you may have in the future may Allah bless you. Oh my goodness. So this will be an important discussion for you to listen and hear and make the best decision for your children for for your family. Also, IOC along with minaret Academy will be having a spring break Ramallah trip with Sheikh Mohammed filthy and Dr. Eggman sober and that will be from April 1 to April 8. And lastly selector also will be changing in terms of the

timing starting from this Sunday. It will be at 3:45pm inshallah, tada May Allah subhanaw taala bless us to follow the Sunnah of our beloved messenger Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam May Allah bless us and allow us to listen and hear and understand these characteristics and virtues and morals. And may Allah give us the trophy and the success to implement them into our lives. Well Benedictine, Jr has an appeal it hasn't been our either but no, we begged a lot to give us the best of this life and the best of the Hereafter, and to protect us from the torment and punishment of the Hellfire by the law in the law. Anyway either way, you will monkey well, buddy, you will come Lala, come to the

Quran. Was Kuru la hora de mujeres Coco, make mention of Allah, He will make a mention of you, which could override any I mean, he is it can be grateful to Allah He will increase you, but it could Allahu Akbar. the remembrance of Allah is the Greatest Allahu Allah momento scenario and Allah is fully aware of what you do.