Nouman Ali Khan – The Deeper Purpose of a Masjid – Nur ul Islam London
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AI: Transcript ©
Alhamdulilahi Rabbil Alameen.
As-salatu was-salamu ala sayyidil anbiya wal
mursaleen wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een.
Amma ba'd fa a'udhu billahi minash shaytanir
rajim innama ya'muru masajidallahi man aamana billahi wal
yawmil aakhiri wa aqama as-salata wa aata
az-zaka wa lam yakhsha illa Allah fa
asaa ulaika an yakunu minal muhtadeen.
Allahumma ja'alna minal muhtadeen.
Rabbish shahli sadri wa yassilli amri wa ahlul
uqtatan min lisani yafqahu qawli.
Ameen, Ya Rabbil Alameen.
Alhamdulilah, it is good to be here and
have the opportunity to speak with you in
the United Kingdom.
Last night I was speaking at an event
and I was speaking about an ayah from
Surah At-Tawbah and there are some outstanding
things, reflections that I wanted to share with
you that inshallah are of benefit to all
of us.
Every Muslim, doesn't matter where in the world
they live, they have a relationship with the
masjid and it is a part of our
identity.
The masjid is a part of our identity
and the development of the masjid and the
building of the masjid is something that has
been a part of Muslim society and Muslim
community life.
How do you know there's a Muslim community
somewhere?
There's a masjid there.
How do you know the Muslims have a
presence somewhere?
There's a masjid there, right?
And so that's been a fundamental, one of
the most revolutionary and beautiful features of our
religion and even though we have places in
the world where we have very grand masjid,
huge buildings and you could see the minarets
and the domes from a long distance, or
if you go to places like Turkey or
Malaysia, where they build very grand kinds of
structures and buildings, the original generations, the early
Muslims, they were not building huge structures.
In fact, when Muslims moved to other civilizations,
like when we took over Roman territory and
we took Persian territory, etc., we saw that
other religions, like the Christians had huge churches,
right?
And of course, we needed a place where
Muslims can gather for Jumu'ah particularly.
But Jumu'ah was the largest gathering of
Muslims, but outside of that, the masjid was
actually supposed to become a natural part of
our life.
And so let's first understand what that was.
Allah Azza wa Jal gave us these five
prayers that we have to establish.
And in order to establish them, Allah Himself
says, وَآخَرُونَ يَضْرِبُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ يَبْطَغُونَ مِن فَضْلِ
اللَّهِ There are people that are traveling, pursuing
Allah's favor.
There are people that are traveling.
Meaning they're not in one place.
They keep moving from one place to another.
And even to them He says, وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةُ
وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةُ Establish the salah, give zakah.
So now Allah knows that you're not always
going to be nearby a standard large masjid.
You're gonna be traveling, you're gonna be at
an airport, you're gonna be at a hospital,
you're gonna be at a clinic, you're gonna
be at your business and all these other
places.
So what did the Muslims do early on?
And what was the spirit of our religion?
It was that actually any place you are,
your place of business, should at least have
some consideration where you can pray, where you
can have a prayer.
So for example the Malaysians have a really
good understanding of this and it's actually very
much in line with the spirit of our
religion.
If somebody's working at an office and the
masjid is 15 minutes away, 15 minute walk
away, right?
If they leave for 15 minutes and go
pray for 15 minutes and then come back
15 minutes, they're gone for 45 minutes for
dhuhr prayer, right?
So they didn't even take lunch, they just
went and prayed dhuhr.
And then an hour later, asr was gonna
come in.
And they're gonna go for 15 minutes, pray
asr for 15 minutes, come back 15 minutes,
now they're gone, they're gonna be out of
a job in 3 days.
Right, that's the reality of it, right?
And there are people that are commuting to
work, they're commuting to work and because they're
commuting to work, it may be possible for
them to pray fajr in the masjid and
be able to get to their workplace.
And it may not be, maybe by the
time they make it to the masjid and
get out, the bus is gone, they're not
gonna get to their job, they're out of
a job again, right?
So our religion, and some people feel like,
oh my, I feel so guilty, I'm not
able to go to the masjid because I
wasn't able to make it to the jama
'a in the masjid.
What was the solution to that?
Actually Allah did not ordain that huge structures
will be built where you have to go
5 times.
In fact, like I was referring to the
Malaysians, what they've done is, they had this
ordinance where in basically every big building, there
has to be one apartment or one space
designated as a surau, a place to pray,
the Malays call it, right?
So it's 3 o'clock, everybody knows in
the building, they just come down to that
place, they make salah and they go, and
somebody came later, they have a place to
pray.
Just like, you know, I think in London
airport, they also have a prayer area, right?
And this was supposed to be everywhere.
So if a Muslim is building a restaurant,
a halal restaurant, obviously there are gonna be
some customers that are gonna come in maybe
an hour before maghrib, and then it's gonna
be maghrib time.
And if you're building your business and you
just have a place where people can pray
comfortably, a little musalla on the side, this
is also the masjid of Allah.
The masjid is not only the grand structures,
the masjids are also these small places where
you've made it convenient for you to be
able to pray, right?
And they're also considered important parts of establishing
the salah.
So the first thing I want to make
clear is that there isn't supposed to be
some kind of a major guilt for you
that you didn't make it to the grand
masjid for every single prayer, and therefore you're
less of a Muslim.
That's not the case.
Allah Himself has acknowledged that salah happens in
different situations.
In fact, even in states of war, Allah
says, فَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ فَرِجَالًا أَوْ رُكُبَانًا If you're
in a state of fear, you can even
pray while you're walking, Allah says, أَوْ رُكُبَانًا
or you're riding on an animal, and you're
scared that if you come down from the
horse, or the animal, you're gonna get shot,
or stabbed, or an arrow is gonna be...
You can make salah while you're still riding
on the animal.
وَرُكُبَانًا And the amazing thing about that ayah
is, the animal is riding between the mountains.
Right?
Or it's riding towards a destination.
The road between the mountains is not facing
the qibla.
It's facing whatever direction you're going in.
Maybe the qibla is towards the enemy.
The people that are trying to rob you,
and you're getting away from them.
Right?
So now you're facing away, and Allah is
still accepting that salah.
Because Allah acknowledges in the Quran, human beings
can be in different situations.
But no matter what situation they're in, they
still need to establish salah.
They still need to connect with Allah.
Right?
So that's one thing that I wanted to
share as a reminder.
Because sometimes in our communities, we develop guilt
over something that Allah doesn't need us to
feel.
Allah doesn't want us to feel guilty about
something, and you're carrying that guilt for no
reason.
And you start thinking about yourself, I'm a
lesser Muslim.
Now, the other thing I wanted to bring
to your attention, is why are masjids built
anyway?
What's the purpose?
The obvious purpose is so we have a
place to pray together.
Like this beautiful Jumu'ah gathering.
But there's a deeper purpose.
And that purpose was described by Allah Himself
in surah al-Tawbah.
There's only one ayah in the Quran that
describes the purpose for which masjids are built.
Only one ayah.
And it was given in surah al-Tawbah,
which is one of the last surahs to
be revealed in the entire Quran.
So 23 years of revelation, Allah didn't talk
about building masjid.
And He talks about it at the very
end.
Very, very end.
Why?
Because there's several reasons.
One of them is, the Ka'bah is
the first masjid.
And the Ka'bah had to be purified
first.
So now that the Ka'bah has been
purified, the idols have been destroyed, the original
masjid is now restored.
The house built by Ibrahim a.s. is
the first masjid.
إِنَّ أَوَّلَ بَيْتٍ وُضِعَ لِلنَّاسِ لَلَّذِى بِبَكَّ has
now been restored.
Now that that's been restored, now it's time
to talk about all the other satellite masjids.
And how they should be built and what
should be done with them.
And the word Allah used for building is
what I wanted to highlight again, just so
you appreciate something deep about it.
And that is Allah used the word, يَعْمُرُوا۟
إِنَّمَا يَعْمُرُوا۟ مَسَاجِدَ اللَّهِ That's how the ayah
begins.
The ones who build, we translate that as
they build the masajid, the plural of masjid,
the masajid that are owned by Allah.
مَسَاجِدَ اللَّهِ In fact, before I talk about
يَعْمُرُوا۟ briefly I'll talk to you about the
word يَعْمُرُوا۟ about the word مَسَاجِدَ اللَّهِ You
see, when I say this is my house,
that means I decide the furniture.
That means I have the locks and keys.
I decide who comes in, I decide who
goes out.
And you can say things like, I don't
tolerate this in my house.
Or we don't bring that in my house.
Or we don't have these things in my
house.
Etc, etc.
I don't want a dog in my house.
I don't want this loud music in my
house.
I don't want that in my house.
You have the authority in that house.
Right?
When you say it's the house of Allah,
or the masjid that belongs to Allah, اَنَّ
الْمَسَاجِدَ لِلَّهِ And here the اضافة, مَسَاجِدَ اللَّهِ
What does that mean?
It's not just that it's Allah's house.
That the only thing that is acceptable here
is what is acceptable to Allah.
And nothing that is not acceptable to Allah
can be used, can be done inside of
Allah's house.
My preferences no longer matter.
My pride no longer matters.
The only thing that matters is this is
a place where sajdah is done only to
Allah.
The word masjid is a dhul from the
word sajdah.
And sajdah means to put your face on
the ground.
Sajdah means to humble yourself.
Right?
So Allah is saying, this is a place
where humility can only be shown to Allah.
You know, at home, you're the head of
the house, there should be some humility shown
to you.
At the office, you're the manager, there should
be some humility shown to you.
In the classroom, you're the teacher, there should
be some humility shown to you.
It's necessary.
In the military, you're the captain, your squadron
needs to show some humility to you.
If you're the general, your army needs to
show some humility to you.
It's necessary.
That's how sam'a wa ta'a, listening
and obeying, that's how it works.
That's a necessary part of life.
But when you come here, the only humility
left is the humility to Allah.
And this is an amazing way of Allah
teaching us that actually people forget.
In previous religions, people forgot that when you
come in here, it's not about anybody's personality,
it's not about anybody's qualifications, it's not about
anybody else's rank, nobody's better than anybody else.
All of us are equally humble before Allah
Azawajal.
That's the only thing that's gonna run here.
Because in the church system, when the Pope
walked in, everybody, oh, he's here.
Can I touch his feet?
Can I touch his cloth?
Can I bless myself?
Because you have to be humble to the
Pope.
When the priest walked in, when the pundit
walked in, when the monk walked in, then
you have to have humility to those people.
But when a musalli walks in, and he
makes salah, that musalli may lead the prayer,
may not lead the prayer.
That musalli may give the khutbah, may not
give the khutbah.
But you don't have that kind of, oh
my goodness, you know, there's no Popification of
personalities.
And inside this, the training we're being given
is what this religion starts with.
All of us are children of Adam, equal
before Allah.
And this is why we have rose in
our system.
We have rose.
And there is no rose for first class,
business class, that economy class, and then deluxe
economy, and you know, then the rest of
you.
It's not based on rose.
It's not based on your economic status.
There's a reason we take our shoes off.
Right?
We take our status off when we leave
the door.
So you can tell somebody's role in life
by the shoes they wear, how dirty they
are, how shiny they are, how expensive they
are, right?
They're gone.
And the next thing you know is how
high their head is.
And the head all goes on the ground
when you come in here.
All of it the same.
So He put all of us on the
same level.
This is part of the beauty of our
religion.
And the reason Allah did that is because
Allah was teaching us what goes inside here
will teach you how to live life outside.
Right?
So when you go outside, you don't start
thinking of yourself as superior to other human
beings.
You are in sajdah before Allah like others
are in sajdah before Allah.
That's one side of it.
The other side of it that I wanted
to highlight, again, on the word ya'muru.
I know many of you have to get
back to work.
And I got here late and I apologize
for that.
So I'll do this in a couple of
quick minutes inshallah.
The word ya'muru, which I translated as build,
actually has a lot more to it.
It's a deeper word.
The word imara naqidul kharab.
In Arabic they say imara is when you
keep something from going bad.
So if you're preserving a building, like a
building has a crack, and you fix the
crack, you did imara.
If a window broke and you replace the
window, you did imara.
If the side of the wall was getting
rust, or it was getting moisture, and you
remove the moisture, you fixed it up again,
you reinforced it, that's called imara.
Fixing it and maintaining it, making sure it
doesn't fall apart.
You have historical buildings in London, and many
times you'll see that they're trying to restore
the building again, so they'll put scaffolding, and
restore it, and bring it back.
And because it's old, it's gonna fall apart
again in a few years.
They're gonna do it again, they're gonna do
it again.
That's actually called imara.
Maintenance, maintenance.
Allah didn't just talk about building a masjid,
He talked about maintaining a masjid.
The word imara also, ismun li muddati imaratil
badan bil hayat.
The reason the life of a person is
called the umar of their life.
Urdu speakers, nusari umar kam kiya, right?
Umar, it's an Arabic word.
The reason it's called umar, is because so
long as you're alive, your body is not
falling apart.
But the moment you die, your body starts
decomposing.
So, so long as your body is being
maintained and rejuvenated, dead cells are being replaced
with new living cells, right?
Your blood is being replaced, your bowels are
being replaced, the organs are still functioning, and
constantly reconstruction of your body is going on,
that's why it's called umar.
That's actually why it's called umar.
We go for umra, and when we go
for umra, the idea behind umra is actually
for the restoration of our hearts in their
love of Allah.
That's actually why it's called umra.
Because the heart is deteriorating, and you go
for umra, you see Allah's house, and the
life comes back into the heart, and that's
why it's actually called i'timar and umra.
The muscles between, the gums between your teeth
are called amr in Arabic.
The gums between your teeth, why?
Because they keep your teeth in place, they
maintain your teeth.
That's why they're called amr.
SubhanAllah.
This is the word Allah used for the
masajid.
Why?
Allah is saying it's not enough to build
a building.
Allah is saying it has to be maintained.
It has to be maintained.
And Allah is not talking about maintaining the
windows, and the doors, and the carpet, and
the lights, and the wudu area, and the
shoe area.
That's not what He's talking about.
He's talking about the purpose of the masjid
has to be maintained.
Because the buildings they built back then, even
al-masjid al-nabawi for example, the buildings
that were built were basically sticks, wooden planks,
some leaves on top, one wind comes, it's
gone.
But the masjid al-nabawi is not known
for its architecture.
Now it's known for its architecture.
You see a beautiful dome, and marble floor,
and air conditioning, and all this.
None of this stuff was there.
It was dirt.
What was so amazing about this ya'muru masajid
Allah, it was unlike the churches that are
so huge back in the day.
Right, cathedrals that are still around today.
This was the time of those cathedrals.
And Allah is talking about a mud space,
where people come and join.
And Allah describes that as a model for
the imara of a masjid.
Why?
Because He's not talking about construction and maintenance.
He's talking about the purpose being maintained.
The purpose of the masjid.
And in that ayah, again I don't want
to talk to you for too long, but
I'll highlight one thing that gets ignored.
Just one thing.
On the one hand Allah says, وَأَقَامُوا صَلَاةً
The people who build this, are people who
believe in Allah.
The last day they establish the prayer.
Obviously the masjid is built to establish the
prayer.
But not only the prayer.
Allah says, وَآتَوا زَكَاتً They give zakat.
So let's focus on zakat for a minute.
Because salah is obvious.
Salah is obvious.
Let's focus on zakat.
Why is Allah mentioning zakat related to the
masjid?
Because who gives zakat, the only people who
give zakat, are people who are able to
give zakat.
If you don't make enough money, you can't
be giving zakat, you'll be receiving zakat.
Zakat is given by those who make enough
money.
The purpose of the masjid was to bring
worshippers together.
And when worshippers come together, they're supposed to
connect to each other.
And then marriages happen among them.
Business deals happen among them.
You hire a young man to work at
your mechanic shop, because you met him at
the masjid.
He fears Allah, you fear Allah.
You're gonna find honest people to work with,
to make partnerships with, to do marriages with.
All of these things are gonna happen in
the masajid.
And then you're gonna find out in that
community there are some people who need help.
And how are you gonna find that out?
Because you're connected to each other in a
deep way.
In other words, when Allah says, وَآتَوْا زَكَاةً
Allah gave us an entire lesson on how
are you supposed to meet people inside a
masjid.
You're not supposed to come, say your salam,
and then get in line for how to
get to your shoes the fastest.
The race to the shoes.
Right?
That's not the purpose of the masjid.
The purpose of the masjid, you came here,
Allah brought people here for Him.
So Allah brought people here to worship Him.
And these are the best people in the
sight of Allah for you to be connected
to.
The person sitting next to you is not
an accident.
It's not an accident.
There's a reason a person is sitting next
to you.
So after, and Allah designed this religion in
a way when the salah ends, what do
you do?
You say salam on both sides.
Yeah?
And we say salam to the angels, but
who also hears our salam?
The person next to us.
Allah has designed the salah in a way
that you connect to the person next to
you.
On your right and on your left.
And you learn something about them.
And when you learn something about them, you
generate barakah in the community.
You generate connections in the community.
You generate wealth in the community.
You generate family aspirations in the community.
There are many people here who have daughters.
They can't find someone to marry their daughter.
And we don't know anyone.
We don't know anyone.
What nonsense?
What do you mean you don't know anyone?
You don't come to Jum'ah every Friday?
A thousand people are here.
How do you know you don't know anyone?
What are you talking about?
You don't talk to anyone.
That's a different problem.
You don't make friends with anyone.
That's a different problem.
You don't say salam to anyone and ask
anything, salamu alaykum.
Can you get out of my way?
My shoes are very important.
You took your shoes off for a reason.
Forget about your shoes.
Worry about people.
Worry about people.
And when you start doing that, then you'll
actually find that we're gonna be able to
live up to itha'u zikr.
We're going to become the people that are
generating the wealth that gives the zikr.
And we're gonna find the genuine people that
deserve the zikr.
These were part of the foundational purposes of
the masajid of Allah.
And Allah mentioned in one single ayah, I'm
only highlighting one small part of that ayah.
But that ayah is the entire constitution of
masajid.
Like what is the purpose of the masjid?
Why is it built?
How should it be maintained?
What should come out of that masjid?
What should be the objectives of that masjid?
And so I'll conclude with, وَعَسَاءُ لَئِكَ أَن
يَكُونُ مِنَ الْمُخْتَدِينِ Allah just said something so
amazing.
You know the king, in the Christian world,
the king used to build the church.
And that every Friday, God bless the king,
he gave us this church.
And the Pope is already forgiven.
The king is the shadow of God on
earth, et cetera, et cetera.
Allah describes for the Muslims, when you even
build the masajid, even if you build the
biggest masjid on the planet, even if you
build that, that doesn't mean you have guidance.
Even if you build the masjid, if you
give the biggest check to build the masjid,
Allah says, وَعَسَاءُ لَئِكَ أَن يَكُونُ مِنَ الْمُخْتَدِينِ
Hopefully, those people will be among those that
have guidance.
Allah didn't say, those people have guidance.
He said, وَعَسَاءُ لَئِكَ أَن يَكُونُ مِنَ الْمُخْتَدِينِ
Why?
Because people look at their past good deeds,
and say, I have done so much, I
must be a good person.
You know why people say that?
Because people say that to them.
MashaAllah, you built the masjid.
MashaAllah, you gave the donation.
MashaAllah, without you we would be nowhere.
Allah will reward you so much.
Oh my God, oh my God.
And you hear that all the time, and
you say, yes, you're right.
MashaAllah, indeed.
I am quite impressive.
It's true.
Alhamdulillah.
You know.
Thank you for realizing.
Allah says, no.
You don't get that certificate of having guidance
just because you did an enormous good deed.
That's not enough.
You have to keep pursuing guidance.
Because the masjid is never done being built.
The construction is never done.
According to the word, يَعْمُرُوا۟ ذَا مُضَارِعَ فُورًۭ
You have to keep maintaining the purpose of
the masjid.
So we think, oh, mashaAllah, the doors are
done, the windows are done, the ceiling is
finished, the lights are finished, the chandelier even
came in, the microphone system is done, masjid
complete.
Allah says, no.
Masjid must always be continuously reconstructed, because the
purpose needs to be reconstructed all the time.
All the time.
May Allah Azza wa Jal allow us to
be the people who pour life into the
masjid, and to actually allow us to make
the masjid in the spirit of revelation that
Allah has given us, and the guidance Allah
has given us on how the masjid should
be.
I apologize for taking more than my time.
بارك الله لي ولكم في القرآن الحكيم ونفعني
وإياكم بالآيات والذكر الحكيم