Nouman Ali Khan – Celebrating The Gift of Guidance – Eid ul-Fitr Khutbah 2024
AI: Summary ©
The conflict between Islam and the current crisis, including the loss of property and the loss of family members, is affecting Muslims who have missed important events and lost their positions. The return of Islam to a new sense of normality is also discussed, with emphasis on finding something mixture between God and the world. The importance of celebrating events likeecca and responding to requests and challenges is emphasized, along with the need to address past issues and change religion.
AI: Summary ©
On behalf of the entire Bayena team, we
wish you Eid Mubarak.
Takabir Allah. May
Allah accept it from us and from you.
A special thank you to the wonderful community
here at the European Islamic Centre in Oldham,
Greater Manchester for hosting us this month and
making Eid a special one.
Alhamdulillah, we've concluded a remarkable month
and Allah has given us the opportunity
in his decree to be able to start
and finish
the most important time of the year an
opportunity to earn our forgiveness
an opportunity to start over again.
What I wanted to dedicate this, discussion with
you today, this reminder with you today on
is
2 fundamental things.
The first of them
is the conflict that we're all feeling
this month of Ramadan
and particularly at this time of Eid, which
is supposed to be a time of celebration.
But because what's going on in Gaza
and other significant places where Muslims are being
oppressed
in unthinkable ways,
like the Uyghur Muslims in China,
like what's happening in Yemen,
when you think of those atrocities, it's hard
to feel like celebrating.
And it's hard to feel like this is
a time where Muslims should be
feeling happy.
Somebody asked themselves, how can I feel happy
when all of this is going on?
But that's not the only thing. Sometimes even
if there's no tragedy going on, which there
are right now, there are genocides taking place
at the moment.
But even if they weren't taking place, sometimes
there are things happening in our own life.
There are things happening or tragedies happening in
your own life. Is it difficulty you're going
through? You don't feel like celebrating.
So nobody's life is free from difficulty.
What I wanted to start with
is a little bit of history,
something we should all appreciate about what we
are celebrating.
Ramadan,
the instruction for Ramadan, Allah gave it to
the prophet
when he moved to Madinah.
Arguably, this was just before
Badr time, actually,
that the month of Ramadan was revealed. So
it's very, very early on in the move
to Madinah that Rasul alaihi wa sallam received
the instruction,
and the revelation came about this is the
month that we should be fasting, and the
instructions were revealed in Surat Al Baqarah. I
want to
I want you to think about who was
listening to these instructions.
The Muhajirun and the Ansar. There are 2
groups of Sahaba.
There are those that left their homes and
they came with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. The migrants, we call them the Muhajirun
and those who were helping them and giving
them housing and taking care of them and
giving them new hospitality and new homes, those
were the Ansar.
Let's think about the muhajirul for a moment.
Many of them left their families behind, didn't
they?
Many of them were tortured, beat and humiliated.
And then not only all of that they
left, they lost their properties, their business,
everything and they came to Madinah.
That's not sad. That's easy to read but
if you and I had to go through
something like that the pain of that doesn't
disappear. It stays with you.
Many of them lost
family members
in Mecca that were beat to death or
tortured to death.
This also happened among them, and they still
carry that pain.
And of course, even among them is the
messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam who loves
his people.
He loves it. He loves them and
of course we love people but Rasool Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam had this special love for humanity
particularly his own people and among them of
course we have more love for our own
family, so he has extra love for it
for his own family, and within his family
are people like Abu Jahl, and people like
Abu Lahab who are causing him more pain
than anybody else.
And he carries that pain too.
There's
not just one, there are multiple tragedies that
have already happened. There's not just one. 1
after the other, after the other, after the
other. That's just from the muhajirun's
perspective.
But then there's the alsar perspective.
They're very happy that the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam has moved to Madinah. They're
singing praises, they're thanking Allah that they're being
honored to host the Messenger of Allah SallAllahu
Alaihi Wasallam. A good number of them have
accepted Islam and they're ready to make sacrifices
to welcome these Muhajiroon, but
they're not rich people.
They're not well off,
they barely have enough to get by themselves.
The Quran describes them as
They give other people preference over themselves even
though they're starving.
They themselves are starving.
So now they are in this new difficulty,
but there's another problem for them, the insar.
Not only are they economically in a difficult
situation, and they have to sponsor and support
and completely carry entire new households,
on top of all of that,
by supporting and
giving refuge to Rasulullah
and the Muhajirun,
they have made a new enemy.
The Quraysh has become their enemy because
from the Quraysh's perspective,
you're giving my enemy support, you're giving my
enemy refuge.
So now they've made the most powerful tribe
in the entire region, the most economically
powerful tribe, the most feared tribe, the most
respected tribe is the Quraysh. And now automatically
the Ansar,
who are not a military power, have now
made the most powerful enemy in the entire
region, just for helping the Muhajirun.
That's what's happened. And pretty sore soon war
is going to be at their doorstep. They
have invited
not just the sahaba, they have invited war
to their doorstep.
And there are go there's going to be
badr not too too too long later.
Then there's going to be uhad, then there's
going to be ahazaab, there's going to be
multiple
military engagements
that they didn't have to worry about war
before but all of a sudden
this new crisis has come their way. And
in fact, in the
in Badr Uhud Hazab, if you take stock
of the shuhada,
if you take stock if you take the
numbers of people that were killed in battle
from the Muslim side,
actually, the larger number is the insar. It's
more of the people of Madinah who were
killed.
So they carry the pain also of loss.
But if you fast forward a little bit
more, and, of course, Ramadan was revealed, Muslims
were fasting, and Allah revealed that we're going
to celebrate at the end of Ramadan, and
they celebrated.
With all of that pain, they celebrated.
Then Uhud
happened. And in Uhud,
unlike Badr,
70 of the leaders,
very important people of Quraysh were killed in
Badr, but 70 approximately
a very influential and important sahaba including the
Prophet's uncle
were slaughtered
in Uhud.
Not only were they killed, their bodies were
mutilated,
cut open.
That's what they did with them.
And the lusul salallahu alaihi wasalam was in
excruciating pain. In fact, he was even injured
himself.
From according to some reports, he was injured
in 3 places on his face alone.
Like there were there were spears that went
through his jaw that had to be removed.
The blood wouldn't stop coming out of his
face, and they had to cover it with
plaster. And the next week he's giving the
khutbatul jum'ah,
with that on his face.
And the people
who made the mistake of leaving their position
were sitting in the khutba too.
They were listening to that khutba also. But
that year,
Ramadan also came, and that year
they fasted,
and that
year they celebrated read.
The nakhzab and a year came where our
mother Aisha
was accused.
And for several weeks
the entire Muslim community wasn't going through a
physical war. They were going through a psychological
war.
Imagine somebody saying something about your mother and
it's spreading.
They're going through that psychological war and that
year also Ramadan came and they fasted and
at the end of Ramadan they celebrated Eid
year after year after year.
And it's not like any of those years
in the Sirah, if you study Sirah carefully,
none of those years you can qualify as
happy years.
Every one of those years came with massive
massive challenges,
massive reasons to be traumatized,
massive reasons to be devastated. And it's not
like that was a new problem, you're still
not fully recovered from previous injuries.
They're all piling up. And yet Allah told
the believers to celebrate.
So what how are they celebrating?
The question is how in the world are
they celebrating? I think that's the wrong question
is what I wanted to dedicate this discussion
to. This reminder that I wanted to give
you
is that that's the wrong question.
It's not how could they celebrate,
it's why are they celebrating
and what are they celebrating. If you understand
the answer to those questions properly,
then you will understand how.
It's the what and the why first.
Allah gave
Rasool of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam the final
message to humanity, the Quran.
And Allah gave that message
1000 of years after Ibrahim, Alayhi Salaam, made
du'a
when he was building the Kaaba, you Allah
send a messenger among them,
1000 of years ago this place was empty.
It was desert. There was nothing there. Ibrahim
Alayhi Salaam was building these foundations and he
made the dua that You Allah, a monk
because he was building it alongside Isma'il Alayhi
Salaam from our children, when we have many
many many offsprings many generations later. You Allah,
among them send 1 messenger who will read
your book to them. You read your ayat
to them. Teach them the book. Teach them
wisdom. And 1000 of years later,
Allah answered that dua
now it's time for you to recognize
that that dua has been answered.
Now it's time for you to celebrate
the answering of the dua of Ibrahim alaihi
wasallam.
Guidance has finally
come. Now you know how to live your
life.
Now you know what is right from what
is wrong. Now you know who your rabb
truly is. There are other religions in the
world who believe in God and study their
concept of God, and you will find something
twisted and turned in every every one of
them.
Study just forget about the religious rituals and
the practices just study what they think about
God.
Just what how they see God and how
we understand Allah and what Allah told us
about himself,
how he introduced himself to us, how he
purified
all of the corruptions
that were associated with him. Some religions had
gods. The only way to make those gods
happy is you have to sacrifice someone
or something.
Some gods only happy with 1 race,
not happy with any other race.
Some gods, other people,
you can't even talk to that god directly,
you have to go through somebody else to
talk to that god.
That's the systems that were in place,
and Allah cleansed all of that and connected
us to Him directly, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and
that's actually part of the meaning of tasbih
to remove all of the impurities
from who understanding who Allah is.
We're celebrating
return, the return to the religion of Ibrahim
alayhis salaam.
That's what we're just like he broke all
the idols. You know his story.
We're actually celebrating
that Allah restored
the original teachings of Ibrahim alayhis salam and
made them permanent until until judgement day.
That's what we're celebrating. We're celebrating the obedience
to Allah on his terms.
People didn't know how to make their God
happy. So they said, maybe if we kill
the first, you know, we kill a baby,
then their God some people sacrifice children to
make their Gods happy.
Other people, you know, dance naked to make
their god happy.
They tried to get creative. What does this
god want from us? Because there's some people
wanted rain, they're like, the rain's not coming,
We have to have a special ritual to
make it rain.
Or we're about to go to war. We
need a special ritual to to win this
war. What do we do for our God
to become happy? And Allah made it very
clear to us in his book. What does
he want from us?
And he in fact, first first he let
us know that his relationship with us is
not even a transaction.
You don't do something for Allah and only
then Allah does something for you. It doesn't
work that. Allah provides anyway.
I don't want them to provide
me. I don't want that they should feed
me. Allah is the one who keeps giving
over and over again.
Allah is the one who gives. So we
don't have to go to some temple and
make a sacrifice and put it in front
of the idol and wait for something good
to happen. We don't need to do that.
We could just make dua to Allah who's
our razak anyway. He was providing us before
we could even open our mouth.
He was providing for us before we could
even speak for ourselves.
He provides even the disbeliever.
This is what Allah does.
Allah introduced us to what does He it's
not that we're in a transactional relationship with
Allah but Allah introduced us to what is
it that he finds pleasing.
How do you become someone who's content with
your rab and your rab is content with
you?
The few good things he wants you to
do, the few harmful things he wants me
to stay away from.
He will make good and pure things permissible
for them, He will make filthy things
impermissible for them.
That's what Allah gave.
He made life easy. Allah said, yuridullahulhukhafifa
ankumwakuliqalinsanooda'ifah
Allah wants to make your burden lighter for
you.
Allah wants to lighten your burden. Life is
hard and when you follow Allah's word, life
becomes easier.
He wants to remove burdens from you, and
human beings were made weak.
We make
bigger problems for ourselves, and Allah has helped
us remove those problems just by obeying it,
just by obedience. And what are we celebrating
at the end? Look at the Ayah. The
the ayah of Ramadan is remarkable. It tells
tells you so many things. By the end
of the ayah, when we complete the count
of the fasting which we have, Alhamdulillah.
Allah says, litook litookmillooooda'idah.
So you can complete the count.
So you can complete the count. Walitukabirullahahaalamahadaqum.
So you can declare Allah's greatness the way
He guided you.
Listen to that carefully. So you can declare
Allah's greatness the way He guided you. On
the way here, many of you know the
sunnah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So
even on the way coming to this prayer,
you were saying, Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar
la ilaha illallahu Akbar Allahu
Akbar Wallillahilham.
We were declaring Allah's greatness, but declaring Allah's
greatness is not just words, is it?
When we weren't eating all month,
even though our body was telling us to
eat, when we weren't drinking all month, even
though our body was telling us to drink,
we were declaring Allah's greatness, because Allah was
greater than our thirst, Allah was greater than
our hunger, wasn't it?
Allah was teaching us how, He was training
us all month
to understand what it means that Allah is
greater.
What does Allahu Akbar mean? Allah is greater
than my thirst, Allah is greater than my
hunger, Allah is greater than my desire, Allah
is greater than my greed.
He's greater. Na'id, this 30 days of training,
now we should celebrate, You Allah,
You made us stronger because any exercise you
do consistently makes you stronger, doesn't it? This
is an exercise of recognizing the greatness of
Allah. You are now stronger and you're more
able to recognize Allah's greatness and to live
by Allah's greatness than you were before.
Waikus Salam
so now
yeah man come on it's okay come
on I mean everybody else went, wave to
the camera
we're celebrating that we're ready now to live
a life
where we can actually live
allahu aqbar
we can live by that
we can actually any decision I'm about to
make just like fasting
maybe sometimes you forget that you're fasting in
the beginning right and you're reaching for a
glass of water and somebody reminds me hey
you're fasting oh yeah I forgot
Immediately, Allahu Akbar, isn't it?
Immediately.
Now in the rest of my life, any
business decision,
any communication,
any message,
any conversation,
any dealing,
any reaction, right before I'm about to have
that reaction, I ask myself, oh wait, Allah
Allahu Akbar, okay. I can't do that.
I stopped myself.
I'm celebrating
the I've I've heightened my recognition
of Allah's greatness.
That's what I'm actually celebrating.
And that I can celebrate even if the
even if my entire life is on fire.
Even if there's the greatest crisis going on,
This gift of guidance,
it doesn't depend on whether life is easy
or hard.
The Sahaba understood something.
The Quran made them understand something.
You can have any challenge in your life.
Life can be easy and life can be
difficult and the entire Ummah can go through
multiple multiple multiple crises
but one thing that will never change
is that the gift of guidance
the gift of revelation. Remember the way Allah
talked about Ramadan. Shahru ramadan ladheeunzilafiil
Quran uddanlinas
This that was the beginning of the conversation.
This is the month in which the Quran
was revealed. A guidance for all people.
We're celebrating that we committed ourselves to this
guidance.
Every year we're recommemorating
that and it doesn't matter what our circumstances
are.
Even the words that many of you memorize
by heart at the end of Suratul Asar,
what
does that even mean? When do you need
sabr? You only need sabr when times are
difficult.
That's when you need it otherwise there's no
need for sabr if times are good and
you
there's no need for you to have sabr
We're actually even in the Surah, we're recognizing
that with iman, with good deeds, with speaking
out for the truth
comes difficulty.
This life is about difficulty.
We're celebrating that we're ready to meet that
difficulty and we will not disobey Allah when
that difficulty comes. That's what we're celebrating.
And because we're celebrating that,
then even for the Sahaba, no matter what
tragedy was going on, they can still celebrate
the the obedience to Allah.
Now I'm going to switch to the last
part of what I want to share with
you today.
The last part of what I want to
share with you today
is,
is difficult to talk about,
and that is the way in which we
celebrate.
The way in which we celebrate.
This is a time for families to get
together. This is a time for exchanging gifts.
This is a time for
get togethers, and
it's a joyous moment.
But we cannot experience this moment while not
being sensitive to those that are in pain.
We cannot experience this moment forgetting
that there are we were holding our I
mean, I'm holding my son when I walked
in here. My baby.
That's when I walked in here. And I'm
thinking about all those people that were hold
that were burying their babies
over the last several months.
All those people that their the joy of
their life was ripped away from them.
They're also believers
and Allah tested them in a way that
I cannot imagine.
I cannot bear the thought of it but
Allah tested them in that way.
And their pain because we are Qajasad, we're
like one body, that's our pain too.
That's our pain also. So while we celebrate
the obedience to Allah, it cannot
be completely absent from there is a crisis
in the family.
There is pain to be suffered.
And that pain, even though we're celebrating deed,
we're not gonna stop celebrating it because that
celebration doesn't have to do with people. It
has to do with Allah.
It has to do with our worship of
Allah. But at the same time, we we
can celebrate Eid and feel the pain at
the same time
and do something about that pain at the
same time.
So this last message that I wanted to
share with you is about how we celebrate
Eid.
Unfortunately,
a lot of people have bad habits.
InshaAllah, none of you are from them, so
I'm not talking about you. So don't feel
like I figured you out.
People have bad habits and they're like I'm
gonna cut back on this stuff, it's Ramadan
man, I can't, I can't, it's Ramadan.
And then when Ramadan's over,
Beb Mubarak
and the shayateen are also saying, Beb
Mubarak, they just got unchained too. It's
not Ramadan anymore
so I think I'm gonna go back to
some of the old stuff.
Maybe not immediately, I'll give it a couple
of days
And you end up going back to how
things were.
And even the way we celebrate Eid sometimes
because Eid, you know, what happened with the
Christian people, with the Jewish people, with other
faith traditions, they have celebrations. They have Christmas.
They have Hanukkah they have they have their
celebrations
you know what happened to those celebrations they
became commercialized
right so they don't even know why they're
celebrating they just know it's a time where
a lot of sale a lot of stuff
is on sale.
A lot of stuff comes goes cheap and
there are a lot of lights on on
people's houses
and people dress in
and clothes and give each other gifts that's
what they know and there's a lot of
a lot of parties there's a lot of
dinners and lunches
there's a lot of extra food, lot of
you know, that's that's what they know, that's
that's what it's become.
It's a time of great extravagance,
It's a time of going over an extra.
For us, the first thing was we're celebrating
obedience to Allah.
So the problem is
if many of us are going to be
celebrating the obedience to Allah by doing things
that disobey Allah,
like extravagance,
like showing off,
like
being immodest,
like being indecent, like clearly dis celebrate
obedience
to
Allah Mubarakaq! While you're saying, celebrate obedience to
Allah Mubaraka
while you're disobeying Allah,
and we're not seeing the irony of that.
We're not seeing the irony of that.
Now Allah told us, He alluded to read
in the ayaat, and He said,
so you can declare Allah's greatness the way
He guided you
and then at the end of all of
that
after walitaqabillwalaa'ala
kumashkurool so you can be grateful, you can
appreciate this gift of gratitude.
The very next
ayah is about
dua.
When my servant, my slave asks you about
me, tell them I am near.
Then I am near.
I respond
to the call, the prayer
of the one who calls whenever they call.
That's Allah's promise.
But Allah added something and we forget that
part.
He said, faliastajeebwuli
then they should try to respond to me
too.
Listen to that carefully.
Here I am asking Allah, You Allah, I
have a money issue. Help me solve this.
You're the razik, Solve my problem. You Allah,
I have a legal issue. You Allah, You're
the one who rescues from any karb, any
difficulty, any catastrophe.
Solve my problem. You Allah, I have a
marriage problem. You Allah, I have a child
problem. You Allah, my son is becoming disobedient.
You Allah, my health. You Allah, my mother.
You Allah, my father. You Allah, the Ummah.
You Allah, this. You Allah, that. We're asking
Allah every kind of du'a, about ourselves, about
our family, about the Ummah, about du'a, du'a,
du'a, du'a, du'a, du'a, and Allah said, said,
I will answer every one of those du'as.
However,
falyastajeebulee
Remember the other Gods I talked about? They
wanted sacrifices?
You gotta put something in front of the
altar then you get what you want?
What does Allah want?
He said, They should respond to me. They
should try to respond to me. What
do you mean? So that means I'm asking
Allah for something
but now Allah is saying, I've also asked
for something,
I've also made some demands.
That means that I have to know what
Allah is asking for.
I have to study Allah's book. I have
to let Allah speak just the way I'm
speaking to Allah. Allah is also speaking to
me.
He also wants something from me and He's
saying, I'm doing my part. I expect you
to do at least try to do your
part.
At least try to do your part.
And they should try to believe in then
they should believe in me.
Da'allahuabiya shudun so they can be set straight.
Maybe
therein lies the answer to our collective question.
I can't speak to anybody personally. Sometimes people
say, Why is it Allah answering my du'as?
But us as a people, us as an
ummah,
when we collectively
decide that we're not going to respond to
Allah,
we're not going to listen to Allah,
We're going to do things our own way.
We're going to turn this religion into something
that makes us feel good,
instead of actually this religion being something that
is designed. By its design, your support your
first priority is not your feelings, it's whether
or not you're pleasing Allah.
This religion is not serving you, you're supposed
to serve Allah.
Every other religion you'll find something. Those religions
became something that serves the people.
They should feel good.
When the church saw that not enough people
are coming to church, they started a church
band.
Not more people will come.
Right? We should change the religion to cater
to the audience.
Even though we don't do that in our
masajid, walhamdulillah,
the individual can say, Yeah, but you know
there are parts of Islam that feel pretty
good. Other parts of Islam I can purposely
ignore because I I am not really comfortable
with. I don't really like them that much.
I'm not gonna respond to this part of
Allah's book and this part of Allah's book.
I'm gonna pretend it's not there. I'm just
gonna part talk about this part and this
part and this part.
And Allah is very clearly telling us
They should try to respond to me.
We want our duas to be answered collectively.
We want Allah Azza wa Jal to give
us relief
to
in our personal lives and across the world
in the Ummah. Particularly what's on all of
our conscience right now, in all of our
minds right now, is the situation in Hazar.
And Allah Azza wa Jal give the shuhada
jannah
and may Allah bring the oppressors to justice.
But having said all of that, we have
to do our part. We need to make
our dua count.
Like our dua has to have value.
Our dua cannot just be words. Our dua
has to live up to the condition that
Allah gave us that we are celebrating, now
we're actually in a position to make real
dua to Allah. We showed Allah, Allah his
Akbar for 30 days, now we know what
Allahu Akbar means, now I'm going to live
the rest of my life living up to
Allahu Akbar and now I'm in this position
to ask Allah, You Allah I responded to
you
and so I'm asking you also.
That's actually the deal.
That's actually this
guidance that Allah has given us.
One last thing as I leave you in
the last minute that I have before we
make tareed salah
you know the very next ayah about after
Ramadan, the Ayat of Ramadan in Surat of
Dhakarrah.
Right after that
Allah azza wa Jal describes
I won't go into details about that ayah.
Read out read up on it yourselves.
But listen.
Right after Ramadan, the first thing Allah talked
about is don't do corrupt things with your
money.
That's the first thing Allah talked about.
It's as if if you've truly understood the
greatness of Allah
then you and I have truly understood the
importance of being honest and halal in all
of our financial dealings.
Don't eat somebody else's money using falsehood.
Don't lie about what you owe them.
Don't scam somebody out of a deal.
If you're a contractor,
don't con your customer.
If you're a lawyer, don't lie to the
judge to win a case,
So you can your client can win more
money. That's Allahu Akbar in real life.
It's not just Allahu Akbar when we stand
in salah. It's not just Allahu Akbar when
we're not eating while we're fasting. Now it's
Allahu Akbar in money matters.
That's actually the real test.
That's the real and there are people that
are that that owe inheritance money to their
sister,
to their to their
to their mother, you
know,
and they're not giving it.
There are people that owe inheritance money, there
are people that are not giving mahar to
their wahir. Money matters.
And yet all of Ramadan they fasted,
and Eid they're celebrating.
What celebration is this when Allah is not
aqbar in these things, When you don't respond
to these things and then you say you,
Iqbal Barak, I'm so happy, I'm so glad,
give me a hug.
We have to become honest with ourselves.
We have to ask ourselves why the ummah
ends up in the state that it is.
Maybe, just maybe it has to do with
my personal obedience to Allah, before we look
at anybody else in the Ummah. Maybe I
need to check where am I going wrong,
where am I not responding to Allah, Because
I really want Allah to hear my duas
and I don't want Allah will not hear
something that is insincere.
Allah will not respond to something insincere. And
this is the height of insincerity.
Disobey Allah on the one hand and ask
Allah on the other. May Allah have this
Eid grant us all sincerity.
May
Allah truly allow us to celebrate the worship
and the obedience to Allah. And may Allah
Azza wa Jal bring us closer and closer
to His word and put a love and
concern for each other in all of our
hearts.
Hadith, did you have a good time, Adeed?
Hey. Hey.
Hey, everybody.
This is Hadid. Hadid
and we're having a good time, Hadid. And
he's seeing this boy over there play, and
he wants to play.
Look at him.
Look at him. Look at him. Look at
I'm gonna look there too.
Hi, baby. Hey. Don't bother, everyone.