Morad Awad – Don’t Give Up
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
We thank
Allah for his mercy, for bringing us back,
into this masjid as we open up the
masjid fully upstairs and downstairs.
Really,
I don't have words to express, what we
have gone through for a whole year.
And,
through all of this sorrow and grief, we
just, thank Allah that we're back. And, really,
at the end of the day, we thank
you,
our community, for being patient
and just staying with us, helping us, supporting
us through all of these endeavors that we
went through in the last year a month.
So may Allah bless you, and may Allah
bless you bless your families.
Even though we are back,
but, still, as you know, we are not
out of the woods. We still
the cases
are not fully gone down. We're still going
up and down. There is this cycle that
goes up and down. So from EPIC perspective,
from day 1,
our policy has been safety, number 1. Safety
and security of our community,
it was the number one priority for for
us here in the management, and that's what
we're gonna continue.
As we move forward, we're gonna have the
same policies as you have seen here, 6
feet distance,
masks,
you know, having your own bag, prayer mat,
and we will continue.
And even the same policies and guidelines will
continue during the month of Ramadan for Tarabi.
And, really,
we we request you that support us through
this as we go through this this effort
and to support us. And,
this is a as you know, at this
opening of the Masjid, this is our new
experience. So there could be some shortcomings, and
please forgive us if, we have some shortcomings.
Help us. Give us your feedback. How can
we improve as we, inshaAllah, go into the
month of Ramadan?
The month of Ramadan.
Inshallah, as you know, this year, we will
have our Taraweeb prayer on Monday night, and
Tuesday will be the start of Ramadan.
Our goal is to have this a service
to max to 1 hour, so that we
can keep to CDC guidelines. So that's where,
inshallah, we will have the isha prayer, and
we will have a from
for all all 30 days,
and also 8 rakas of and the. Inshallah,
that will be the program that will be
Inshallah, our goal is to keep it to
1 hour maximum.
Besides that, as you know, in the month
of Ramadan,
we,
we support,
the the families, the local families in the
area,
through the food drive. So, again, this year
is no different. This year, again, we are
requesting $100. If you can donate $100, insha
Allah, we want to support families, local families
in the area for the month of Ramadan,
for the whole month, inshaAllah.
So just come to our website or just
zealous, ramadan food drive at epicmasjid
dot org. Now as far as the exit,
for the main hall, you exit from these
two right doors. There are 2 doors on
your if you can see on your left.
There's a door on the front, and then
there's a door in the middle. The first
four rows, they will leave from this exit
door right here. And then the last four
rows, they will leave from this door on
your left.
As far as the 2 middle rooms or
the back rooms, they will leave from the
main exit,
from the main entrance that you come in.
So you will leave from the main, entrance
or the exit.
The multipurpose hall, you will, inshallah, leave from
the same entrance that you came in. So
the same entrance that you came in, you
will leave from that. And then gymnasium,
all of you, inshallah, you will leave from
the back doors. We have 3 doors in
the back, and anybody in the gymnasium, you
will leave from the back. This way, inshallah,
we can maintain our guidelines, and inshallah, it
will not cause any overcrowding.
Again, jazakumullah khair. Thank you so much for
your support. Please keep donating.
As you know, as we open up the
masjid, we do have our expenses,
and, the expenses will go up in the
month of Ramadan.
So please,
support us generously.
Oh, the entrance? The entrance is the same.
It's the same entrance that you we've been
using for a year, for last year. When
you came in, you came in from the
from the side door. Right? The so this
is the same entrance. For sisters, the entrance
is from the main from the front,
Because it used to be in the back,
now the entrance will be from the front,
inshaAllah.
And again for sisters, same guidelines and policies
apply. They are upstairs right now.
Have you all
We praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
We seek His assistance and we ask His
forgiveness.
We seek refuge in Allah from the evil
and the mischief of our own souls and
actions. Whomsoever Allah guides,
clearly they are the ones that are guided.
And whomsoever
Allah
His guides, clearly no one
or nothing can guide them. I bear witness
that there's no deity worthy of worship in
truth except Allah alone,
and he has no partners. And I bear
witness that Muhammad
is His servant and final Messenger.
My dear beloved brothers and sisters, I remind
myself and yourselves on this blessed day of
yamuljum'ah,
in this blessed month of shaban,
to fear Allah
As Allah
reminds us of this in many ayats in
the Quran.
One of them
where Allah
said, O you who believe,
fear Allah the way He should be feared
and do not die except in the state
of submission to Him. We ask Allah
that we die in the state. We ask
Allah
to bless us with offsprings that die in
the state of submission to Him, in the
state of iman, in the state of La
ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasulullah.
Brothers and sisters in Islam,
on this blessed and joyous occasion,
the aid for all of Muslimeen.
Every jum'ah is a Eid for Muslimeen.
But this jum'ah specifically is a special jum'ah
because it is the last
of jum'ah in the month of shaban.
And it is the jum'ah
days before the holy month of Ramadan. We
ask Allah
to allow us to enter upon
the month of Ramadan with iman
and with taqwa
and with a plan to obey Allah
and to make lifetime
changes during this holy month.
My dear beloved
brothers and sisters,
on this occasion,
walhamdulillahrubilalameen,
and after more than a year,
we open
the doors
of the main
Allah
says in Surat Yunus,
Say to them, O Muhammad,
with the mercy of Allah and the bounty
of Allah, let them be happy with that.
That is something worthy of being happy and
joyous for
because it is better than everything
you can gather.
So we thank Allah for the bounty
that He bestowed upon us, and we thank
Allah
for the mercy
that He bestowed upon us by making us
muslimeen,
making us from the people of the kalimah,
making us people
who are comfortable with their iman and their
faith.
People who sit here on this blessed day
of Yawmul Jum'ah
yearning to enter the month of Ramadan, so
they can seek Allah's
forgiveness.
Sitting here in the holy Masjid of Allah
after the doors were open and we're back
in the Musalla, we ask Allah
to never let the masajid close again.
We ask Allah
to completely uplift this pandemic from us. We
ask Allah to continue to unite our souls
and our hearts the way our bodies are
united in this blessed place.
Although before the month of Ramadan,
we're accustomed to hear in kuttab, especially the
last jum'ah before Ramadan, as to how to
prepare for this holy month.
It only makes sense
to talk about Ramadan and its preparation.
It only makes sense to talk about the
Quran.
It only makes sense to talk about the
forgiveness of Allah in Ramadan.
It only makes sense to mention the stories
of the the prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam
and the sahaba during the month of Ramadan
so we can look forward to it coming.
But unfortunately, Ikhwan brothers and sisters,
the past several days
have been very sad days for our community.
After the tragic incidents that we heard of
and another tragic incident that happened yesterday.
We cannot leave these matters unaddressed
And I will not talk about
the actual incidents as that is irrelevant at
this point.
But what matters now is how we're going
to cope with it, and how we're going
to change, and how we're going to deal
with it.
This is what Allah
wants us to learn from. A believer
learns from every incident they're in.
Everything they encounter in life is a lifetime
lesson for a believer.
Something that draws them closer to Allah, something
that makes them change their ways and approach
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in a more effective
manner.
There's There are few lessons, there are many
lessons we can learn but I will elaborate
on only a few
And I will not reiterate what these incidents
are because we all know what they are.
But what we need to learn brothers and
sisters
is that the ummah.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
created the ummah as one united entity
And he made
us the best ummah when we are united,
when he said,
We are here for each other
when we need each other.
Starting with that,
one thing we learn,
and one thing we need to address, and
one thing that is crucial
at this time,
this time of healing,
this time when we see incidents
happening around us in our communities,
and the local communities around us. Things
that
are preventable.
Things
that are preventable.
They're not out of the reach of us.
We can prevent these things, like suicide.
Unfortunately,
we live in a time
where the rates of suicide have gone up
to astronomical
numbers as compared to what they were before.
And especially amongst millennials,
for those of us who are millennials here
or those of us who have children
that are born
as millennials,
I. E. After the year 2000.
These
children
are exposed
to God knows what that is making them
contemplate
these things that we are seeing today,
things that are unheard of.
One thing we need to remind our brothers
and sisters of today is the importance
of life, human life. Allah
says in the Quran,
Until the end of the ayah. Allah said,
We dignify the sons of Adam.
We dignify them. Allah
gave
each soul its dignity when he created it.
The soul of Bani Adam,
the sons of Adam is not just anything.
It's not something light in the heavens and
the earth.
Allah
wants us to preserve this life.
And as a matter of fact, the Prophet
he told us
that
the soul
of a human being
is more precious to Allah, especially the soul
of a Muslim is more precious to Allah
than what? Than the Kaaba.
The Kaaba itself. And it was said,
if it were if the Kaaba were to
be demolished 1 brick at a time,
I would choose that
over shedding the blood of an innocent Muslim.
This is the importance of life
in Islam Life
of a human being is something that Allah
dignified.
And for it to be taken
or for it to be seen
as light
as for a person
to kill themselves
or to kill others
or to overdose on drugs or to do
something to inflict harm on themselves that can
potentially cause them death.
This is only a cause of them not
knowing the value
that Allah endowed the human being with. Allah
gave mankind something
that He didn't give people in the heavens
and the earth. Let us not forget
that the one who entered Jannah, sidratilmuntaha.
Sidratilmuntaha,
a place where not even Jibreel alaihis salam,
the closest angel to Allah,
the closest angel Jibreel
when he entered
Jannah
with the Prophet
on the night of al Israe wal Miraj,
Jibreel said, I stop here O Muhammad, you
can continue.
The Prophet
told him, Why can't you continue? He said,
If I continue past this I will burn.
This is not where I belong. I have
no jurisdiction past this.
But who did? A human being.
This is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave
mankind.
And for life
to be so simple,
for life
to be
so implicit, so
impartial, so like
Yeah, I mean something that is not
cared for
to the point where a person can take
their own or take someone else's life innocently.
It's just something that
is beyond comprehension
for someone who has knowledge.
And one thing I always talk about
is how important it is to provide emotional
support, and this is one of the main
items of the khutbah today.
To give moral and emotional support to those
around us.
The Prophet
emphasized on this.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said first,
Say to the people that which is good.
The Prophet
said, If you believe in Allah and the
hereafter,
then say good.
Say a word that is good or stay
quiet.
Do not contribute towards the grief of others,
towards the depression of others, towards the anxiety
of others.
These illnesses are real
and they're all around us whether we recognize
and acknowledge or we
do not, whether we decide to sweep them
under the carpet or not.
These are real.
Drug addiction is real.
Suicide
is real. Everything we hear of in the
news is real, and it is in the
Muslim community
just as much as it is outside.
You know why?
Because
us Muslims are not sticking together the way
we were taught to.
We are not providing the support
we should to others.
It's unfortunate to see
it come out to this in such a
beautiful community.
One of the most
beautiful communities I've ever visited and lived in,
is this community here. And to see these
things happening
should be
a warning
and a wake up call to every single
one of us to take proactive measures to
try to mitigate, to try to prevent, to
try to stop these things from happening.
We need to recognize these illnesses.
We need to recognize
the people that are prone to these types
of behaviors
so we can stop these incidents, we can
prevent them before they happen, and they are
preventable.
They are preventable.
Some people think they're not, no they are
but it needs a communal
effort.
We all have to be there.
When I take one of my youth after
one of the halakat a few weeks ago,
and I talk to them about the importance
of talking to your children,
One of them tells me,
Oh 1 of the youth tells me,
You know
people from my ethnic background, and I do
not want to mention what ethnic background this
is.
They
he was telling me, they the parents do
not talk to their kids.
And I told him,
regardless of ethnicity,
you cannot dismiss it as an ethnic thing.
This is a human thing. Humans
were meant to communicate,
we're meant to talk, we're meant to express
emotions to each other. This is how Allah
dignified us.
When a father, a mother
sit down in a house and do not
communicate with their children, they're going through all
types of grief, and then they wake up
one day and they said, Oh, I never
thought my children
would possibly ever be thinking of this
or would ever do something like this.
It is only because of the lack of
communication.
It is only because
the children did not find
the support there in their houses
that they go and find it with girlfriends
and boyfriends.
They go and find it with drug dealers.
They go and find their relief with people
who don't deserve to be spoken to.
They go to disbelievers,
people who have hidden agendas,
people who sway them away from Allah. They
go to their philosophy teachers who God knows
what they believe in. In college, they open
up to them. And the only reason
they trust and believe in them is not
because they're convincing.
It's not. For Islam has the strongest hujjah.
Islam has the strongest proof and evidence.
The only reason
they go to them is because they lack
emotional support at home.
They don't have friends,
they don't have community members, imams, sheikhs, directors,
people around them, good friends who call them
to Allah, take them away from evil. Hey,
by the way man, get away from drugs
zakih. You know that's that's not good.
Ma, you know, you wanna be like You
wanna be like that? Man, chill. I got
you. Instead of chilling, how about you come
with us? We go out. We play soccer.
We play basketball every Monday Wednesday.
Oh yeah yeah. We go out to a
restaurant every Saturday. Oh, we're about to take
a field trip, go camping next week. How
about you come with us? They don't have
that, so they resort to these evil people
and treacherous people who give them these evil
ideas.
And that
emotional support is something we need to start
providing
today. We need to recognize
people that are in emotional distress,
and we need to give them attention. We
need to give them support.
We need to give them the attention they
need starting with our own kids.
When a child when many youth come up
to me and tell me my parents never
talk to me.
How is that healthy?
How is that possibly healthy?
Okay. You may not be talkative
to your children
but subhanallah,
maybe you don't talk that much but you
need to do
it Maybe your back hurts, you have back
pain. But you come to the masjid, you
make ruku and sujood and you push through
it because it pleases Allah.
You speaking to your children and providing them
with support
is just as much of an act of
worship
as you praying.
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, and I'm
sorry for taking long but this is a
very important matter. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
he said,
He said, Your Lord has a right upon
you.
And your body has a right upon you.
So you can't just eat anything.
You can't harm yourself, your body has a
right
on you. You
cannot harm it. Allah gave it to you
as a precious
He entrusted you with your body. And then
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
Your nafs has a right upon you.
You have a right upon yourself. Imagine,
you have a right upon yourself.
Meaning,
relieve yourself of this this emotional distress.
When your nifs, when you have a lot
of things in your mind, a lot of
things on your chest, a lot of things
that are heavy,
do not leave them there
because it is fulfilling the right of you
upon yourself to go and seek help where
it's needed
and when it's needed.
And come to us wallahi, we are here
to help.
We're not professionals, we're not counselors but we
have a huge network. And we know people
that can help you inshallah, that can help
anyone that you refer
This is our job.
We're here for each other and all it
takes
is
like
murad,
I can help, doctor Yasir can help, Ustad
can help, iman can help. But we don't
have eyes, we don't see everyone.
Who are the eyes for us? You are
the eyes, my dear beloved brothers and sisters.
You are the ones that pick up the
phone and call. Fulan is in trouble.
My friend,
my nephew, my niece, my son, my daughter,
whoever it is,
they're in trouble, they need help. And then
it's upon us InshaAllah and we will try
to do our due diligence.
3 days ago,
I call
a brother
from our community.
I call him
and he doesn't pick up,
and then he calls me back,
this is 3 days ago,
And he tells me, you know I'm living
alone, I'm in trouble,
and I need some help.
I told him, I got you.
I'm there for you insha Allah. What whatever
you need I'm here. Just let me know
what you need and where you are. Send
me your location and I'm going to come
insha Allah and help you out.
He tells me,
Okay, insha Allah jazakalakir,
man I'm so happy that there's someone
there that wants to help.
And repeat, this is what he said, that
there's someone there
to help.
Yesterday night
at 11 pm, I get a phone call
that this brother died in his room
by himself.
God knows what it is.
He's foaming out of his mouth.
Well, I don't I don't know what to
say.
This is someone that we could've had.
We could've stopped this. These are
But you know what?
There are more people
waiting
like this.
They're waiting for us. They're waiting for you.
And if we're not there,
wallahi, we're all gonna fail.
Because now it's them, tomorrow it's our kids,
our grandkids,
our friends, our nieces, our nephews.
Do we wanna wait till then?
Just a short message,
small message
to those people
who are distressed,
those people who are getting these negative thoughts.
These people, there are some people amongst us
and outside listening to us, or perhaps people
that you know
that feel like they lost hope, they fell
into despair, there's no one out there for
them. Know that we're here for you. That's
number 1.
And do not ever think for a moment
that because Allah is testing you that Allah
hates you.
Allah does not hate the people
that he tests. On the contrary,
if you're tested with illness, whether it be
physical
or mental, that means Allah loves you. Because
Allah tested with even more
severe tests than this, the people who He
loves most, the Messengers and Prophets.
Nuh
gave dawah for 950 years but failed
and had to leave with a handful of
believers.
Ibrahim
was thrown into the fire.
Was put in a tree trunk and sewn
in half.
Zakariyah alaihis salam wasn't given a child for
decades of his life.
They attempted to crucify him.
The Prophet
walked in a puddle of his own blood.
His children,
most of them died in his life. His
wife died in his life. His parents died
in his life.
He was kicked out of the city that
he was born in His uncle, his grandfather,
everyone that supported him died during his life.
Did the grief break
him? Did he fall into despair?
Did he give up and lose hope in
Allah? Absolutely not. Did he say Allah hates
me? No.
He saw this and all of the prophets
saw this as a sign that Allah only
tests those who are resilient,
those who are strong, those who can overcome.
And
know, if you're out there, if you feel
this distress,
know that Allah knows how strong you are
and that is why He's testing you.
Because
if He didn't test you with something
that you are capable of bearing, that means
Allah is unjust.
Why is Allah testing him and not me?
Why is Allah testing me and not him
or me and not her?
But Allah is not just. Allah is just
and the only reason He is giving you
this
to carry is because you are capable insha'Allah.
You can persevere,
you can overcome, you can get better.
And insha'allah
we are here to help.
I ask Allah
to forgive us and have mercy on us.
I ask Allah
to show us to the straight path. I
ask Allah
to forgive our shortcomings.
I ask Allah
to have mercy on the family that was
killed, and the brother that died, and everyone
that died, and the sister that we prayed
Janazah on today. Ask Allah to forgive all
of them, and to forgive all of the
Muslimeen that passed away.
Still
We make dua for
our beloved brother Ali
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has mercy on
him and forgives him for his sins.
We make dua that Allah
gives his family patience.
We ask Allah
to prevent anything like this from happening in
our community again.
Tomorrow
the janaza will be at 2 PM, Duhur
time.
And it will go to Denton
We ask everyone in the community
to try and make it out for the
janaza
tomorrow and support the family of the deceased.
But on a different note,
Alhamdulillah
with
the organization maps,
we
we came up with this
warm line
for people that need emotional support in the
community.
And we have a session
today from 5 to 7 pm
on Zoom.
The link inshallah ta'ala will be under the
the YouTube,
the YouTube video of this of this khutbah
inshallah.
So on the bottom,
we're going to have the zoom link and
the session will be from 5 to 7
pm.
Please do, if you know anyone
that needs any type of support, we're going
to have
counselors, professionals.
They are waiting to support anyone who needs
support insha Allah
from 5 to 7 pm.
And inshallah if we have a good outcome,
this will be consistent, we'll always have it.
We're trying to make it something, a service
that is always available in epic. But please
do
share the link and share,
like I said the YouTube link
because the thing is going to be the
link is going to be on the bottom.