Sadullah Khan – Jumuah 17 Rajab 1446-17 January 2025

AI: Summary ©
The Islamia College representative thanks new students for their contributions and highlights the importance of reading in learning, personal growth, and achieving social prosperity. The Hifz academy and Hifz class are emphasized, along with the use of the "her author" in society and the importance of organizing oneself. The success of American University of America and the Hifz academy is also discussed, along with student goals and recognition of accomplishments.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
Respected teachers, learners and musallis.
On behalf of Islamia College, Masjid al-Furqan
and the extended family, we would like to
wish everyone present a Jumu'ah mubarak and
a blessed week ahead, insha'Allah.
We would also like to welcome back our
learners of Islamia College to the very first
Jumu'ah of the academic year, alhamdulillah.
Our esteemed speaker for today is none other
than the CEO of Islamia College, someone who
always gives me great pleasure in introducing Sheikh
Sadul Akan.
So without further ado, I call on Sheikh
Sadul Akan.
In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent,
the Most Merciful.
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to our Creator, our
Cherisher, our Nourisher and our Sustainer.
We bear witness there is none worthy of
worship but Allah.
We bear witness we believe in all the
Prophets and we bear witness that Prophet Muhammad
is the final of all the emissaries of
Allah.
Respected Imams, Hufadh, Quraish, Ulema, Elders, Respected Youth,
Learners, Educators, I greet you with the Islamic
universal greeting of peace at this auspicious hour
of Jumu'ah.
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi ta'ala wa
barakatuhu.
The new academic year has just commenced and
by the grace of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, Islamia College has attained outstanding academic results
across the entire school for the academic year
of 2024.
As for the matrics, they have attained 185
subject distinctions with 14 aggregate among the matric
students, alhamdulillah.
So we applaud the students for the achievements,
express our appreciation to the educators and the
teachers, we salute the governing council, we thank
the administration, and we acknowledge of course the
Board of Trust in facilitating this achievement, alhamdulillah.
At the same time we laud the success
of all the schools who have done their
best and we pray for the continued success
of all learners and for those who have
matriculated wherever they may be.
We are here based at an institution of
ilm, an institution of learning.
And Rasulullah ﷺ is reported to have said,
إِنَّمَا بُعِثْتُ مُعَلِّمًا إِنَّمَا بُعِثْتُ لِأُتَمِّمَ مَكَارِمَ
الْأَخْلَاقِ I have been sent as a teacher
and I have been commissioned to advance the
pattern of human behaviour.
And these prophetic traditions emphasise the significance of
education on the one hand, but also of
ethical values and moral conduct.
It was this very Prophet ﷺ who advised
us, مَا نَحَلَ وَالِدٌ وَلَدِهِ مِنْ نَحْلٍ أَفْضَلُ
مِنْ أَدَبٍ حَسَنٍ No person gives his or
her child a better gift and inheritance than
knowledge and good moral training.
Knowledge is the key to human progress and
its acquisition is absolutely essential in enabling the
human being to fulfil his or her role
and mission and function as the خَلِفَةُ اللهِ
فِي الْأَرْضِ as the besiegerent of Allah on
earth.
And hence the Prophet ﷺ said, طَالَبُوا لِعِلْمٍ
فَرِيضَةٍ عَلَى كُلِّ مُسْلِمٍ A hadith documented in
the Sahih of Imam Muslim, seeking knowledge is
obligatory upon every Muslim.
And that of course implies that there is
no gender barrier to learning.
Wise ones have said, أُطْلُبُوا الْعِلْمِ مِنَ الْمَهْدِ
إلى اللَّحدِ أُطْلُبُوا الْعِلْمَ لَوْ فِي الصِّينِ These
are words of wise ones.
حُكَمًا Seek knowledge from the cradle to the
grave, implying that there is no age barrier
to learning.
And scholars have said, seek knowledge even if
it be in China, means there is no
geographical barrier to learning.
And therefore, since there are no barriers to
learning and to the pursuit of what Iqra
intimates, we are told, رَسُولُ الله ﷺ مِنْ
حَدِيثٍ مَنْ سَلَكَ طَرِيقًا يَلْتَمِسُ فِيهِ عِلْمًا سَهَلَ
اللَّهُ لَهُ بِهِ طَرِيقًا إِلَى الْجَنَّةِ Whoever goes
out in search of knowledge, in the pursuit
of knowledge, Allah eases the way for such
a person to paradise.
In other words, the student in the path
of Allah, in another hadith, is in the
path of Allah until he returns, he or
she returns.
And if he or she dies in the
process, in the pursuit of knowledge, they die
as if they died as a martyr.
Clearly, indicating the sanctity of learning and the
pursuit of knowledge.
The final divine revelation, the final scripture, began
with a particular word, iqra.
And iqra means to read, literally it means
to read.
And reading is one of the chief ways
in which we acquire knowledge.
The more you read, the more you know.
And when we have a strong base of
knowledge, it's easier to acquire more understanding and
more knowledge and apply that knowledge and understanding
to dealing with the world that we are
engaged in.
The better equipped you are, the more knowledge
you have, the better equipped you are in
dealing with the realities and challenges of life.
Iqra enhances cognitive development, language development, communication
skills, vocabularies developed, expansion of knowledge, a means
of personal development.
It is empowering.
Reading is empowering.
And of course, being empowered by itself is
motivational and motivation inspires hope.
Iqra or read, Allah says, but the reading
can be of the different ayats.
On the one hand, iqra, bismi rabbik, we
read and we refer to the ayat of
the Quran.
Iqra, read the ayat of Allah.
And the ayat of Allah are manifested in
two different ways for us at the basic
level.
One is the ayat which means literally signs
but also implying verses of the Quran.
These ayat of the Quran, in other words,
we read the signs of Allah through the
book of Allah.
But at the same time, we also read
the creation of Allah through his ayat.
إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلَافِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّارِ
لَآيَاتٍ لِّعُلِي الْأَلْبَابِ Surely in the creation of
the heavens and the earth and the alternation
of the day, there are ayat for people.
So we are constantly engaged with the ayat
of Allah.
And all engagement was sincerely with intention of
leading to understanding that is reading the ayat
of Allah.
Whether it be in the physical reading of
the verses of the Quran or the signs
of Allah, both are ayat.
And same time in the verse, in the
first verse, first five verses revealed, اِقْرَأْ بِسْمِ
رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ And again, اِقْرَأْ وَرَبُّكَ الْأَكْرَمُ
Read, for your Lord is most honorable.
The word akram is only used twice in
the Quran.
The word akram itself is used twice in
the Quran.
One is to refer to in the first
verse read and you're reading the words and
the verses of the one who is al
-akram, who is most honorable.
And then Allah when describes the pinnacle of
human development, He said, اِنَّ اَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ
يَتْقَاكُمْ The most noble of you are those
who are most akram, who have the most
taqwa.
You are most akram if you have the
most righteousness within you and you manifest signs
of piety.
And therefore, that manifestation of the highest form
and pinnacle of human development, of taqwa, leads
us and motivates us to be righteous people
and righteous people are always beneficial people.
خَيْرُ النَّاسِ And formerly, نَاسِ As the Rasul
said.
So learning in the Islamic legacy has always
been a holistic enterprise.
An enterprise that focuses on all dimensions of
human development, of human advancement.
Whether it be physical, whether it be intellectual,
whether it be spiritual.
And that is why we would find in
the classes of Imam Muhammad Baqir or Imam
Jafar al-Sadiq, we find students such as
the great Imam Abu Hanifa who became one
of the greatest jurists in Islam.
In that same class was Jabir ibn Hayyan
who became the father of modern chemistry.
The same class.
Such were the foundations of Islamic education which
was lost in the colonial era.
When there was a deliberate disconnection, a deliberate
imposed disconnection between what is termed as religious
knowledge and secular knowledge.
Because this concept is alien to the early
Muslim community in a sense because iqra community
was a community that saw everything from a
tawheedi perspective.
They saw ayat.
They studied science not as a non-Islamic
subject.
They studied it because it's part of the
ayat of Allah.
And that is why we could build University
of Qayrawin and Al-Azhar.
Qayrawin University as you know in Fez in
Morocco.
Oldest university in the world.
Founded in 859 by Lady Fatima al-Fihri.
Developed into one of the leading universities of
natural sciences and other sciences.
And many famous scientists from the Islamic world
and from the rest of the world came
from there.
We had person like Ibn Khaldun the father
of sociology emanating from there.
Some European scientists emanated from there.
And the most famous people whom we know
in religious circle Pope Sylvester II was a
student at Qayrawin University in Fez in Morocco.
And so was the most prominent Jewish scholar
Maimonides.
So if we see Iqra in context we'll
find it refers to the metaphysical sciences or
spiritual dimensions as well as the physical sciences.
And with the revelation of Iqra came the
enlightenment of these physical and metaphysical sciences and
the pursuit thereof and also sciences and language
and poetry and therefore from that stem the
flow of study of sciences and astronomy and
physics and medicine and so on and so
forth.
All this was part of that renaissance that
was ignited by Iqra.
And it began to flourish when it was
the dark ages of Europe but it was
the golden era of Islam.
The Qanun Fit-Tib written by Ibn Sina
at that time was used as a textbook
worldwide at that time for 500 years.
The primary textbook.
And we find the optics that lead to
the glasses that we are wearing and so
on and so forth.
Ibn al-Haytham was the first one to
come with that.
The very subject of algebra comes from Muhammad
al-Khawarizmi's book Hisab al-Jabr wal-Muqabila
even the name comes from the title of
his book.
We look at Imam al-Nawawi we read
his 40 hadith every mosque has 40 hadith,
40 hadith the most famous 40 hadith, Imam
al-Nawawi.
Imam al-Nawawi as we know was a
theological scholar, scholar of hadith and so on
but he was also a physician.
He was also an astronomer.
He was also a physicist.
And he was also a master of hadith.
That was Ulama.
As Muslims today, alhamdulillah many achieve great heights
but there's a lesson for all of us.
For young ones and for those of us
who may have studied a little bit and
those who intend to study.
Reset your iqra compass.
Don't separate your reading of the Qur'an
from your analysis of the reality of the
world.
Don't let your iqra make you make salah
properly and learn how to with halafi, shafi
and all that and how you say ameen
loudly or softly and learn all the fiqh
which you should do by the way.
But keep that as separate and then you
think of the other sciences as something else.
This is an antithesis of the Islamic idea
of knowledge of iqra.
It's an indictment for those who are people
of faith to consider that as part of
iqra.
That dichotomy.
As Muslims we have degrees we have discussions,
we have debates we have all the outer
paraphernalia but that spirit of compassionate Islam that
revolutionized the world that all-embracing Islam that
brought about a renaissance and a revolution it's
not anymore.
As the poet says وَعِذْ قَوْمْ كِوَ بُخْتْخَيَالِينَ
رَهِي بَرْقَ طَبِيعِينَ رَهِي شُعْلَ مَقَالِينَ رَهِي رَهِقَيَا
رَسْمِ أَزَانِ رُوحِ بِلَالِينَ رَهِي فَلْصِفَى رَهِقَيَا تَلْقِينِ
غَزَالِينَ رَهِي The elevated loving wisdom of our
preachers are no more The flaming, inspiring, soul
-searching messages are gone We have discussions on
the texts of philosophies but the persuasive genius
of Ghazali is no more We hear the
wording of the Adhan rendered from every mosque
in the world melodiously but the spirit of
Bilal is no more We seem to have
lost our sense of sophistication and with that
the etiquette of dealing with differing perspectives and
the etiquette of engaging with contending views Just
one answer, one word What do you see
here?
What number is this?
Six?
No, no, no, I'm asking what you see,
don't lie I'm asking what do you see?
I'm not asking you to be wise, I'm
asking you to be honest What do you
see?
It depends from which perspective you see it
This is six and this is nine From
my side it appears as nine from your
side it may appear as six Same thing,
neither you are lying nor am I lying
but you're not saying the same thing Neither
you are lying nor am I lying but
it can't be both, it can be it
could be We have lost that touch that
capacity to be able to understand differing perspectives
and once you are unable to do that
you are unable to embrace a variety of
understandings and if you cannot see a variety
of understandings then you limit yourself to what
you know and you never progress You see
there was in the golden age of Islam
what we called one institution among others Bayt
al-Hikmah the house of wisdom and the
golden age of Islam was between the 18th
and 13th century Bayt al-Hikmah was during
the Abbasid period At that time the most
prominent Muslim Christian, Jewish Zoroastrian scholars came together
and shared their experience in various fields of
sciences and thereby brought about a level of
knowledge that still impacts on every scientific field
we study today on every scientific field we
study today You see a sign of intellectual
maturity is the ability to see something from
a particular perspective without being blinded by it
listening to differing perspectives without preventing it from
being expressed Realizing the truth is better appreciated
and greater valued when viewed from all angles
while a limited perspective diminishes appreciation of various
dimensions of the truth various dimensions of the
truth So ikra is to read to read
is to know to know is to grow
to grow is to improve and to improve
is to enhance Allah will elevate Allah will
elevate and enhance those among your faith and
those of you who are pursuers and owners
and seekers and possessors of knowledge So ikra
is to read, to know, to grow to
grow, to improve, to enhance ilm as Imam
al-Shafi'i teaches, Imam Waqi' said to
him al ilmu nurun knowledge is light and
light of knowledge is enlightenment ilm is power
and power is empowering Have we upheld ikra?
We were the leaders of civilization We lost
that dimensions of ikra and therefore we become
subjugated and we are enslaved We as an
ummah I'm talking about Alhamdulillah individuals have attained
great We motivate, we're proud, we celebrate but
I'm talking about ummah and creating the facility
for our geniuses among us to be able
to go So a top student becomes a
top example of Islam He doesn't have to
shy away from I'm a top physician but
I also happen to be Mashallah a Muslim
Imam Nawawi was not a top physicist but
Mashallah also Muslim.
Mashallah he was a physician and a Muslim
and a muhaddith.
So we as an ummah are currently not
masters of our own fate because we are
not independent enough to think for ourselves as
a community, as a large to organize, to
cooperate, to coordinate to act in synergy in
the good will of the ummah.
You can't even get all the ulama together
on a single thing not even on the
moon or the stars Why?
What are the barriers?
How are you going to solve the problems
of the world?
You can't solve the moon issue.
I'm not saying who's wrong and right and
all that, I'm just saying to you How
are you going to solve mathematical problems of
people have gone to the moon they don't
even go to the moon anymore We are
debating should you read the moon, you see
the moon, you read the salawat, is it
bid'ah to read salawat or not?
We're busy with that This is how far
we've gone from iqra while doing iqra So
there's something wrong with our iqra Not iqra
in itself with our perspective of the iqra
or our approach to iqra I believe, I
mean do you think that we will be
the dilemma we are in in Palestine with
2 billion Muslims, 1.8 billion Muslims to
be more conservative, 1.8 billion Muslims 1
.8 billion Muslims If we take away the
Catholics as a denomination then we are the
largest religious community in the world Sometimes people
take the Catholics as separate from the rest
of Christians But if we take Muslims we
are the largest faith community in the world,
1.8 billion with all the resources in
the world, except for a few countries like
Yemen and Bangladesh which may be poor, the
richest countries in the world best located geographically
We could not defend our own brothers and
sisters Something is wrong here Seriously wrong So,
do you think we will be the dilemma
we are in if we had leaders who
could think for themselves and act genuinely in
the larger interest of the ummah and humanity
rather than party political and party religious argumentation
and debates, it's a question I ask I
believe that all of us should organize ourselves
once again to reclaim that civilizational heritage a
heritage that inspired the renaissance a heritage that
has so much to offer and if the
institutions of learning can nurture that Ikra philosophy
so much more can be offered and done,
because we have the potential and we have
the means and we could harness the most
enhanced social responsiveness leading to meaningful contribution in
the path of societal justice in the path
of communal well-being in the path of
social cohesion, so we can truly be the
best of communities not best for your group
or your madrasa or your madhab or your
section, for all of humanity for all of
humanity and thereby manifesting that goodness through nafa'
to be the most beneficial of people so
inshallah, all that for the sake of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala we ask Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to grant us that we
are able to live as my sheikh brother
reminded me, we not only Ikra, not only
muallim, mudardis it's also muaddib, to culture this
degree of moral character development, but our thinking
also needs to be right, our thinking our
behavior, let us become moral in every way
we do, moral citizens stand up for what
is right do what is right, do what
is best and may Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala grant to all the students, may Allah
grant you a successful year learn from your
last year and show them you can even
do better, I don't know how but try
your best inshallah shukran wa salamu alaykum wa
rahmatullahi ta'ala wa barakatuh wa
salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh it's that
time of the year that on behalf of
masjid al Furqan all our musallis we take
the opportunity of celebrating and congratulating members of
our family who were here for 13 years
or more, or less namely the matriculants of
Islamiyah College during 2024 you know when
we started Islamiyah College that time Habibiyah College
four of us were involved late Mufti Yusuf
Karan rahmatullahi, Sulaiman Bayat *, rahmatullahi Mawlana Adan
and myself and see what it has developed
today we had a vision our vision I
can proudly and confidently say today has come
of age it has come of age and
why has it come of age because Islamiyah
College has reached the stage of excellent academic
results 100% matriculation results and more important
100% total school results every student of
Islamiyah College passed their exams and has moved
to the next one then we also had
a vision of Islamic excellence where our teachers
and our students inculcate within themselves this Islamic
values and the spirit and ethos which Sheikh
beautifully rendered to us now you know 2024
was the first time I cried in this
mosque when the students performed the complete Jumwayah
from the time from giving the Adans the
master of ceremonies being our learned Sheikh Muhammad
Murad's son right in front there as well
as performing the Khutbah and performing the Salah,
first time in the history also we have
a Hifz academy here and that Hifz academy
has excelled to such an extent that they
have students who come to our Taraweeh on
the 28th 29th and 30th days of Ramadan
and perform the Taraweeh I had a call
from the chairman of the college Nazir Osman
and told me that they have a big
problem the big problem is that there has
been such a demand for place within the
Hifz academy and they cannot accommodate those students
I said that's no problem this masjid has
been built for the students, use the masjid
for your Hifz classes and I'm glad to
announce today that the masjid is being used
and will be used for the Hifz class
and for the overflow so that's what I
and Alhamdulillah the matric class attained as I
said 100% pass with 185 subject distinction,
82 of the matriculants obtained bachelors pass, 82
% with 14 Islamia matriculants attaining
8 aggregates a aggregates 7 matriculants attained 3
a's 6 attained 4 a's 4 attained 5
a's 5 attained 6 a's and 5 attained
7 a's the Islamia head girl Saira Syed
obtained 8 a's the top matriculant student at
Islamia college for 2024 is Ilyas Jacobs I
would be failing in my duty if I
don't mention a regular musalli of our masjid
I hope he is here Mohammed Patel can
you please stand up Mohammed Patel is
was from Rustenburg boys he received 9 distinctions
he received 95.3% aggregate and he
has made the electronic and paper news for
this particular week and he has on the
day he received his results on that very
day he received communication from number of universities
including the university of Cape Town where they
have accepted him for medicine the next day
he received news that he got full vice
chancellors scholarship for his studies congratulations Mohammed we
congratulate the group of students on achieving these
wonderful results and also salute all of those
who achieved their personal goals this is indeed
a tribute to the tenacity and determination as
well as their commitment and outstanding work ethics
students of this caliber are recognized for their
unique qualities and we know that they will
go out to make a positive difference to
the world we salute this remarkable group of
students who have journeyed through the college, Islamia
college and made the most of our rich
and diverse offerings while still upholding our Islamic
values and academic excellence we are so proud
of them and their achievements and are confident
that they will embark on their journey into
adulthood with compassionate confident and courageous young leaders
we also congratulate the people behind the scene
namely the CEO of the college Sheikh Sadula
Khan my very good friend, the educators wherever
you are the board of trustees under the
guidance of people who are sitting here more
particularly the chairman Mr. Nazir Osman well done
keep up Islamia college make us proud and
all of you who are sitting here today
and those who are not here you've got
a big task to continue what has been
laid and achieved, we came of age Islamia
has come of age Jazakallah Khair we would
like to say shukran jazeelan to Sheikh Sadula
Khan and Ahmad Bayat for the inspirational words
Ahmad Jumah may Allah grant Sheikh a long
Umar filled with Khair and Barakah filled with
the remembrance of Allah Alhamdulillah, Islamia college has
the honor of officiating the Jumah proceedings the
first Adhan will be rendered by Adam and
the second Adhan will be rendered by Amir
Parker the Salah will also be led by
myself from the head boy of Islamia college
Alhamdulillah, we would like to say shukran jazeelan
to all the for attending and for all
the to please stand so there's no delay
between the Adhan and Iqamah shukran, wassalamu alaikum
wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh wassalamu
alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh ...
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