Suhaib Webb – Friday Sermon The Trust
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We send peace and blessings upon our beloved
Messenger,
Sayna
who, subhanAllah, in the authentic narration,
when he was informed
of the tremendous
bounties and rewards
that will be given to his community
for saying
when his name is mentioned.
According to Abu Musa Al Ashari, he made
sujudah shukr
thanking Allah
for those blessings and bounties just by saying
upon his blessed family,
and upon those
companions of the prophet
and those who followed them until the end
of time. Indeed we know that we are
as a community
held to a great responsibility,
such that in the Quran Quran, that responsibility
is referred to as a trust.
Allah who
says after
Many scholars
mentions refer to the that was given to
the heavens and the earth was the of
this da'wah, of this deen,
and the heavens and the earth refused it.
And we know that the Prophet
was commanded to spread this message of Islam
in numerous places.
Allahu says
to him, regardless of the situation,
once the order was given
to be public
and to be delivered as a spiritual agitator,
the Prophet
never, never stepped away from being someone who
calls to Allah. That's why Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala in describing him as fulfilling this trust,
He says,
That the Prophet is constant in calling
people to Allah
And by an extension, we are also, as
a community,
commanded to adhere to those principles
and to be, whether verbally
or invol verbally or silently,
callers
and reminders,
spiritual agitators
to a world which is completely caught up
in a monoculture
of consumption
and investment in the exterior.
We
are adherents of that important
message,
as well as
commanded to be carriers of the trust of
Da'wah.
That's why the Prophet
when he was sitting with his companion
and he requested his companion
to recite the Quran to him, and he
recited.
We know that
when he reached the verse,
When he came to this verse, it said,
we will bring
prophets as witnesses against their communities,
and we will bring you, Muhammad
as a witness against your community. He said
like, stop, stop, stop. And he said,
like I saw him weeping.
We know in numerous narrations we are threatened
if we fail to uphold
this important
trust. In other some places, Quran.
You'll be replaced by other people. The the
blessing of Islam could be taken from us
if we fail to adhere to that trust
and uphold that trust. As well as the
hadith of Imam
You must invite to the good and you
must forbid the evil.
Oh Allah
will allow punishment
to fall upon you and you will begin
to beg Allah to remove this punishment from
you and it will not be answered. This
dua will not be heard by Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. Because dawah is a form of
dhikr.
And we know that the remembrance of Allah
is so important, the hadith of Sahih Muslim,
that the hour will not start
until there's no one left to remember Allah
on the face of the earth.
Because the purpose of creation is
and worship.
Therefore, the true utility and agency of the
creation will be done because no one will
be remembering Allah, therefore, the end of creation
will start. SubhanAllah.
Based on the remembrance of Allah.
There are a number of things that shaitan
tries to do to keep us as a
community
from upholding
this important amana.
We're going to talk about those in the
second chutba,
that oftentimes
we're so busy fighting each other, we're so
busy amplifying
what are really minute divisions,
or so preoccupied with our own sense of
self worth
that we fail to realize that shaitan has
tricked us,
and caused us to turn against each other.
As one recent convert told me, I never
experienced a love like I experienced in the
Muslim community,
yet I've never seen a community so successful
in hating itself
than the Muslim community.
And if we look in America, we have
to wake up and realize maybe we're failing.
Because every city we go to, we find
new Masjids, new Masjids breaking off of old
Masjids, new Masjids breaking off of the new
Masjids will break off the old Masjids.
It's like a virus.
And when you ask people
like, why did you start your own masjid?
It's for the most mundane reasons or why
did you break away from this group and
start your own group? It's for the most
mundane reasons, reasons that could have easily been
worked out
if we had the language of conflict transformation,
not conflict resolution.
And a community which is invested in its
nafs
is a community that's quick to split,
but a community that understands the importance of
its unity,
and the greatness of the trust that it
upholds,
a prophetic trust,
will be very very careful of allowing itself
to split.
But first, what are some of the qualities
we should think about in the Quran
to be effective carriers of this that
the heavens and the earth, subhanAllah, refused to
take?
What are the qualities that we should be
aspiring to? Because dawah is an outcome
of a deliberate process.
Often times, we put the cart before the
horse. We think that that would just happens,
but
is nateja,
is an outcome
of a set of optics
that have been put in place
and then are topped off,
by the tawfiq of Allah
And there's a few obstacles to this also.
So sometimes I remember
early on after I had converted to Islam,
I went into a grocery store. There is
a brother, I knew him from college, and
he was selling all kind of we used
to call his grocery store haram co.
And it's kinda like
specializing in all of the haram, you know.
So, I I said to him, hey, I'm
new at this, like, I'm not the most,
you know, knowledgeable Muslim, but
I don't think you're supposed to be selling
this stuff that's like destroying communities.
And his response
was, Suhayb,
you know,
we're not responsible for that. The prophet has
passed, alayhis salatu salam.
Bukhari lived his life. Sarahuddin Ayubi came and
went.
Came and went. Like, say to Fatima, say
to Zainab, all of these great people, they
laid out the path for us. I'm just
a simple store owner. I have no responsibility
to the dawah anymore.
Like, this was legitimately his argument.
And maybe sometimes it's because we just don't
feel like we're good enough.
You know, we're not confident because of our
own mistakes.
But the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
he said, Every
single one of you are responsible for relating
on behalf of me.
And I can bear witness to this. I've
seen people become Muslim Muslim because of their
interaction with righteous people,
and I've seen quite a number of people,
except Islam,
because of their interactions with Muslims who may
not be, well, you know, the most adherent.
As one of our teachers used to say
in Egypt,
He used to say that our sinners
are the first line of,
being nearer to God for sinners who aren't
believers.
Meaning that, sinners who aren't believers may in
fact find more intersectionality
with people who are not so pious,
and through that interaction will find Masha'Allah,
a way to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala which
they will achieve insha Allah
So never underestimate your importance
and who you are.
But what are some of the qualities that
we should be thinking about?
First, is Allah says
In this verse, it was told to Yusuf,
Allah lays out the first foundations
of what we need, the ingredients to fulfill
the amenah of dawah,
of calling to Allah.
One of the concerns I have with the
Muslim community in America now is that with
its political engagement,
with its activism,
and even within its religious engagement,
it may not be trying to steer people
to God.
But we are a community that's tethered
by our faith
and constantly
commanded to be social, political, and religious
interlocuers,
to remind people,
to remind people of Allah.
So, one of the signs of my sincere
engagement
is I don't have to be explicit
but
I
remind
people
That there is a meeting with Allah, that's
why every prayer we say,
So what are those qualities mentioned in Surah
Yusuf?
Number 1 is Basira,
and Basira
has two meanings according to one of my
teachers.
The first is to have knowledge of the
people that we deal with.
Oftentimes, we want to impose
our cultural understandings on people,
or we allow our sense of cultural superiority,
and I can say this especially as a
white man in America,
to blind us from being good listeners and
understanding other people's cultures and appreciating their cultures,
and then being able to craft a message
which is culturally relevant and appealing to people.
Where is the Muslim position on environmental resilience?
Where is the Muslim position
on what's happening to
immigrants and people being separated from their children
at the border? When our beloved Messenger said,
Whoever separates between a mother and her daughter,
Allah will separate him from what he loves
in the hereafter.
This is an authentic hadith. Where's our messaging
on issues that are plaguing America? The shutdown.
But instead,
we're still talking about
Big Macs,
and if music is allowed,
and where our pants are, and whose aqidah
is sahiha. Don't get me wrong, foundational aqidah
is important. But we're seeing groups even within
the Sunni tradition
arguing over issues of Aqeeda, which traditionally they
didn't argue over till around 200 something years
ago.
So, we're not able to craft the message
that speaks
to the people that we live with.
Was the prophet
We know in the hadith of Abu Dawud,
this older man asked him, can I kiss
my wife while I'm fasting?
No problem. The same gathering.
Someone asked him, a young man, can I
kiss my spouse while I'm gathering? No.
And he's buried behind Al Azhar Sharif in
his masjid.
In his explanation of Bukhari,
he said because the Prophet understands the old
man, he doesn't have the same
energy as a young man.
So, the answer changes because the Prophet knows
people.
He's not away from the people, he's aware
of what the people need.
He's from the people.
Every messenger was able to speak the cultural
language
of the people that they were sent to.
And that's why in the hadith of Jibreel,
we miss something very important.
That sayna Jibreel alaihis salam,
when he came to Sayna Muhammad salallahu alaihi
wasalam, he wore the clothes of the Arabs.
And the angels, they obey Allah. They don't
disobey Allah.
So we learn from this,
that Sayidina Jibril as a
as a caller.
He comes to people in the halal,
in the permissible,
Right? With what they understand. That's why Imam
Ibn Taymiyyah,
he said, that in the lands of non
Muslims,
it may be wiser for the Muslim to
dress as the non Muslims
for the goal of bringing
people to Allah.
As though as long as it doesn't involve
disobedience of Allah.
The other meaning of basira is to have
knowledge
of 2 things. Number 1, the
in my individual practice, in my individual
liturgy, I know how to worship Allah. I
have a foundational text in aqeedah that I've
learned. I've learned the basic text in fiqh.
And hamdulillah, I know how to pass this
religion on to my children. I can read
the Quran al hamdulillah.
The foundational issues of knowledge I've worked on.
But also it means that when I have
a need,
for example, at work, people asking questions, maybe
your children have heard things at school,
I have access
to religious education
and religious educators.
As I told some imams recently in a
training program, you know, your job is to
be like tech support for the ummah of
the prophet salallahu alayhi salallahu alayhi salallahu alayhi
salallahu alayhi salallahu alayhi salallahu alayhi salallahu alayhi
salallahu alayhi salallahu alayhi salallahu alayhi salallahu alayhi
salallahu alayhi salallahu alayhi salallahu alayhi salallahu alayhi
salallahu al
The second,
is group work,
that I'm able to work in a group.
Subhanallah, it's really easy. I remember
we had a great brother. He was incarcerated
for almost 35 years
He accepted Islam in prison.
And if you've read the ISPU study, you
know that this notion that Muslim prisoners are
somehow more apt to extremism
is not supported empirically.
In fact, the empirical data shows that Muslim
prisoners
have a lower chance of recivity
than any other religion in America.
But I remember he came to me and
he's like, I need to talk to you.
I said, sure. He said, it's a lot
harder to practice outside of prison.
I said, of course. You know, you used
to be in a zawiyah.
Masha Allah, you used to be in a
place like the Mahabad.
You know. You don't have anybody
engaging you. You're isolated.
The food's not very good, so it's easy
to fast.
People not engaging with you,
but now the dunya comes. He said, yeah,
wallahi, the dunya is a is is a
beast.
And I said, the best thing you can
do is surround yourself with good people.
He found
beautiful wife,
great sister,
great brother, and a great community.
Why do we underestimate our need for one
another is because we're arrogant.
When I'm arrogant, I don't feel I need
you. And when I don't feel I need
you, I dismiss you.
But if I'm humble,
and I hold myself to being humble,
then I'm going to value
engagement in people.
You can't do it alone.
Sayyidina Umar used to say that Islam is
jama'a.
Right? Islam is the group.
So we need to work on 3 areas.
Number 1,
honest communication.
It's very important that we communicate,
we talk with one another.
Number 2, we askew
assumptions which are evil.
Prophet said, be careful of bad assumptions about
people. One time I gave the Khubba and
a brother came to me, I never met
this brother before in my life. And he
said, you are attacking me on the minbar.
I said, how? He said, because last night,
I got into a fight with my son,
and you said this. So how do I
know you got in a fight with your
son? I don't even know you have a
son. I don't even know you.
I said, I apologize if that's how you've
it, but I want to remind you, we've
never met before.
And the last
the last is to control anger
and not to feel personally offended.
That's why I say, not Amr used to
say,
Like people won't succeed who don't have interlockers.
People won't succeed who don't have people who
engage them.
The last 2,
and we'll finish the other 3 perhaps in
the future,
is
is working on my soul. We're gonna talk
about that in the second Khutba. And the
last
one,
is to distinguish myself morally
and ethically
from people who do not believe in the
same
faith and morals I believe in as a
Muslim.
So, when Muslims hold
those in political office
accountable
for saying things which contradict our morality and
our ethics, that's a good thing.
When we remind people
that we cannot sacrifice our commitment to Allah
for the sake of cultural or social agency,
or political mobility.
That's a good thing if it's done
with sincerity,
infidelity.
I'm different
than those people who are not
focusing on Allah and living a purpose driven
life, not in an arrogant way, but in
a benevolent way,
which reflects my foundations
in my faith.
Ask Allah
to give us His
We praise Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. We send
peace and blessings upon our beloved messenger, Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasalam, upon the family and companions
of the Prophet till the end of time.
There are a few things we can do
immediately now, as I finish this khutbah to
work on our own individual commitment. That's the
third
quality of the dahiya. We said number 1
is knowledge, number 2 is group work, and
number 3 is personal fidelity and integrity.
Save yourself from *.
And these are what our scholars called
you know, the prison of the soul,
meaning those things that discipline our soul.
And all of us,
can do these things, and I'll mention them
inshallah, then we'll make dua, and we'll finish
inshallah.
But the first,
the first is silence.
We live in an age, it's very expressive,
but we are taught to be thoughtful in
our words.
Whoever believes in Allah in the last day
should speak well or remain silent.
Communication here means in any form of of
communication, as Imam al Maqdisi mentioned
in his summary of the Ihia.
So pulling away.
One time I asked a brother, I said,
have you ever thought about, like, being silent?
And he said, what will I do if
I'm silent? I said, you'll remember Allah.
So silence is an opening to dhikr,
and dhikr is an opening to fikr,
and fikr is an opening to Marifa,
and Marifa
is a is an opening to Al Yaqaba,
and Al Yaqaba
is an opening to
The second is hunger.
Now we see, subhanAllah,
the challenges of the environment and the destruction
of the environment,
largely based on consumption.
As Muslims, we should see fasting
as an act of spiritual
resilience
and resistance.
That's why Sayidna Imam
they asked him, how are you so wise?
He said, I never ate till I was
full.
One time, Al Hassan Basri was sitting with
someone, they said, man, I'm stuffed. He said,
subhanallah,
a believer, eats till he's stuffed.
So hunger in the sense of balance, balance
being the sunnah, should be brought about through
fasting in the way of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
The third
is a Sahar,
is waking up before Fajr
and being alone with
Allah praises those people who do this. So
once or twice a week or a month
or
so, pray when people are sleeping.
It's important to wake up
and be active
in front of Allah.
And the last is,
solitude.
Giving time
to heal,
being resilient, it's hard. Especially Islamic workers, I
see this mistake
that they work 25 hours a day,
and they lose their marriage, they lose their
children, they lose themselves.
But the prophet said,
You know, everything has its appropriate time.
Not being extreme on either way,
but being balanced.
Here means taking time. There's a great book
you can read called the resilient clinician,
where you're taking care of yourself, working out,
eating right,
doing some kind of hobby,
biking somewhere,
going fishing,
spending time with your kids and your family.
Khilwa,
being alone in a way that causes us
to have
healing because broken people can heal.
Broken people
break people.
So ask Allah
We ask Allah to accept from us,
and we ask Allah to
to like soften our hearts,
and to give us a sense of rib
in our sudoor, in our chest,
and to give us inshirah.
Ask Allah
to make us brave enough to forgive others.
Ask Allah
to help us look deep into our heart
for those people that we may be holding
ill feelings to and animosity.
We ask
Allah if those reasons are petty
and not real
to help us forgive those people.
Ask a lot to unite husbands and wives
who may be going through marital discord.
Ask a lot to bring children back to
their parents.
Forgive your parents, man. You know it's not
easy raising kids. You'll learn one day. You're
not born with an instruction booklet.
It's a tough process.
So have mercy to your parents.
As they had mercy to you when you
were small. Ask Allah to forgive our parents
who've passed away.
Ask
to bless our brothers and sisters in Palestine.
Ask
to make us allies to the brothers and
sisters in Palestine.
Pray for our brothers and sisters in Syria
and Egypt, and our brothers and sisters in
the Yemen, and our brothers and sisters in
Africa,
in Malaysia, in Bosnia,
in Afghanistan,
in Myanmar, in Bangladesh. We ask Allah
to make us the awliyah of those people.
We pray for this country that Allah will
help us to be of benefit and a
blessing to this country,
to make us true servants of what's righteous
and good. Ask Allah
to be pleased with us and to forgive
us and to unite us with our beloved
messenger, Sayna Muhammad.