Eid Al-Adha 2015 Sermon At Hartford Seminary
Date:
Channel: Zaid Shakir
File Size: 38.77MB
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AI Generated Transcript ©
Lillahi Rabbil Alameen all praises due to Almighty God the Lord of all the world was blessed us to gather here to commemorate the actions of our CO religionists who are gathered in the plains and hills surrounding Mecca reenacting rituals that were first undertaken by our great forefather Abraham or Ibrahim, and A salaam peace be upon him. The Hajj is a great great institution, not only for Muslims, but for humanity. Our Prophet Ibrahim, as we mentioned, was commanded by Almighty God by Allah subhanho wa taala. Wherever then Finn, Nassif will Hajj, proclaim the Hajj, the pilgrimage, pilgrimage amongst all of humanity,
almost all of humanity. So pilgrimage, as an institution that has been proclaimed for humanity. Abraham is an iconic figure that's not only
referred to as the spiritual father of the Muslims, but also of the Christians and the Jews, those who are members of what is sometimes referred to as the Abrahamic family of religions. Our great great forefather Abraham and his struggles, his efforts, and the culminating
efforts around the Hajj has given us great great lessons that we can refer to refer to the lesson of struggle, the lesson of sacrifice, the lessons that Almighty God indeed has power over all things. And this is very important in our day and time when we're sometimes so obsessed with our pursuit of reason. And those things that are reasonable to us that we sometimes find the miraculous actions that are attributed to our to the prophets, who are forebears unreasonable and being unreasonable, unbelievable. But we must remind ourselves, and one way that we remind ourselves that we remind ourselves as Muslims is looking at the hygiene and looking at the meanings that are associated with
it and looking at the miraculous events that are associated with it. We know that Abraham when he was given the command, whatever then financier, Bill Hodge, to proclaim the Hajj amongst humanity. It is said that he responded to this commandment, oh my Lord, how can I proclaim the pilgrimage amongst all of humanity, and my voice cannot reach them. And the response was, as is mentioned, in our tradition, you make the call and I will make your voice reach them. In other words, you do what is within your human capabilities. And we leave the rest of me based on what is in my capabilities as the Almighty as the divine as the one who is described in the Quran, Allah Galicia in Kadir,
world lover and a Cooney shaitan Kadir, God has power over all things. And it is said that the mountains were made to humble themselves and to lie low, and Ibrahim, Abraham's voice carried to the far corners of the world. And not only that every human being on Earth, received that call, but everyone from their progeny who would emerge from their loins, all of their offspring also heard it, and those who are destined to respond, they're responded no matter where they are, no and time or place. This is the beginning of the Hajj, the Hajj itself, as we know,
amongst the culminating events is the sacrifice of Abraham, and another miraculous event, as he was told he must sacrifice his son.
And a very touching moment is related to us in the end, when he tells his son, and this is an example to us in terms of how we interact with our children, we should engage them at a level of maturity that involves consultation that involves conversation that involves treating them and approaching them as if there are partners in our fears, and not merely subordinates to be commanded blindly to do whatever our whims or whatever our mandates are dictates order them to do. So as we laid in in the Quran, Calleja Boonie in the are often men and
At the back of cat phones for them, they're turned off Khaleja ever took and took Morissette Hadji Rooney insha Allah whom are sobbing. He said, Oh my son I've seen in my dream, and we believe that the dreams of the prophets are forms of Revelation. So this has been revealed to him that I'm to sacrifice you. What do you think about this home during that that Torah? What is your opinion concerning this? On my son? He said, Father, do what you've commanded to do. You will find me a God of gods so wills amongst those who are patient.
And again, obedience, reverence, respect, consultation, says son didn't rebel Father, I'm too young to die. You know, don't? What about my brother? What about my cousin?
You know, how could you do this to me, and make it very weighty and painful as it already is a wavy affair. No father, do what you've been commanded to do. I'm here to help you obey God, and not to encourage you to rebel against God. I'm here to assist you in your struggles, just as you've taken the time to consult me and to seek out my opinion.
So there's a there's there should be an interact a two way, dialogue in all of our relationships, as parents, as children's, as friends, as neighbors, as CO religionists, as members of various faith communities. There should be dialogue, there should be consultation, there shouldn't just be a blind and reckless implementation of what we believe to be the divine commandment.
Father, do what you commanded to me to do, you will find me if God so wills amongst those who are patient, and patients. Again, all of us regardless, I myself personally, I've converted to Islam as an adult. But as I was growing up in a Christian home,
my mother would always remind us and I'm sure all of you heard this time and time again during your youth during your formative years. Patience is a virtue.
It was never said about anything else. It was an hour said honesty is a virtue in deeds, it is a virtue. Courage is a virtuous virtue. No doubt. Faithfulness is a virtue fidelity is a virtue, all of the great virtues. Chastity is a virtue.
Shine this modesty is a virtue.
Three years ago was declared to be a mental disorder,
according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental psychiatric disorders, and, of course, an array wide array of medicines prescribed to treat it, shyness. That is, some of you know this. But we believe it's a virtue at higher minute events. Shyness is a branch of faith, in any case, but none of these virtues will ever
advocate advocated by our parents, with the
associated words, so and so is a virtue only patience. Patience is a virtue, which emphasizes the gravity and the magnitude of patient. Patients patience is one of the ways that we come to know God. The the path of spiritual development is not a path that can be traversed with great haste.
It requires patience. It's like because it requires Trump transforming and sometimes not totally, but to a certain extent, our very nature and that's not something that happens overnight.
And it's not something that happens in an in an outburst, an outburst of the motion, we can take a ton of water,
and we can drop in on a dirty rock.
And that rock will be very, very clean for a while until the things that led to it becoming dirty, kick in, and over time, it becomes dirty again, but there is no meaningful change in that rock. But if we take the same quantity of water, and it might not be described as a ton in terms of water, I don't know.
I'm excited.
If we take that same quantity of water, and we drop it on the rock, one drop at a time, talk, talk, talk over
time it will
create an impression and imprint. And if the rock is narrow enough, it will knock a hole into the rock.
So this is the lightness of our spiritual progress, our spiritual path. Our spiritual growth is something that requires patience is something that requires time is something that requires consistency. As Muslims we said occurs one page of the Quran at a time. It occurs once Subhan Allah glorified his guy. At a time it occurs one can leave that in the hamdulillah there is no god but God at a time. It occurs one Salawat one invocation of blessings upon upon the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam at a time. It occurs one unit of prayer at a time, it occurs one tear that falls in the depths of the night, when one is standing in prayer when the people are asleep, no
one around to see and an intimate discourse with one's Lord, one minute of those precious hours at a time. And over time we grow and we elevate and we come to know our Lord. And I'm sure others can relate to this process in their various traditions. Allah subhana wa or the
prophets of Allah salAllahu Salam reminds us in this regard, listen, Diem, offline is another reference. In any case, it's a it's a slow and deliberate process. And the quote that I wanted to mention or was reminded of, is the following ad to any men or men Well, Angela, I'm gonna shave upon. That deliberateness is from the all merciful to be deliberate and consistent in our affairs, and haste is from the devil. So people become deluded by the devil, and by the imperfections in their soul to believe that they've arrived at some spiritual station without putting in the necessary work.
And then that veneer of spiritual that spirituality and spiritual maturity is easily exposed when trials and tribulations assail the person.
Patience is a way to know God.
It's a way to know God. And Allah had Masabi I mean, surely God is with those who are patient was Dialga Sabri was salah, seek the help of God, with patience and with with patience and with prayer. In Allah ma saw buting verily God is with those who patiently persevere.
So this is the way of Abraham he was patient. How long did he wait for a child?
How long? How long did he wait when he was distance from his child?
In our tradition, who was left in Mecca with his mother
to fend for themselves?
And how long did he wait before he visited them? Came back to visit?
The first time and how long did he wait before he visited them a second time? These unfold in time. So we reenact these and so that sacrifice that struggle, he's told that we're told that around was sat was substituted for his son in a miraculous fashion. Again, if we're overly overly reasonable, then the story, it doesn't make sense. It's unreasonable that this creature can just descend from Heaven or be sent down from heaven or miraculously manifest itself.
What if we believe,
then we understand the reasonableness of the story isn't the essence of the story. It is the meaning that's associated with the story. And as we reflect on Hajj and the physical actions of the Hajj, it's important for us to understand the meaning that lies beyond the physical actions. And this is very, very important for us as people of faith. Because we can see our religion are really religiosity evolved into just a a pursuit a an engagement or undertaking a physical actions. And we think I've done it, I've arrived. I did everything according to the letter. I doubt it all on my on my eyes and crossed all my T's but some people will get caught up in that and we
happening in our world, all over the world,
where people of religion are making sure that they're scrupulously dotting every i and crossing every T.
By failing to seek to understand the deeper meaning behind the words that the eyes and the T's compose.
What is the deeper meaning? One of the deeper meanings of the Hajj the pilgrimage, is that we Yes, we go to the house of God. They to walk
to the sacred precincts, what is also representative of our journey to God himself.
As we were told, yeah, you had to incent in Nick a caddy. Rugby can can hand formula P Oh, you're human. You're toiling and struggling to reach your Lord and surely, you will arrive
to your destination.
We're towbar profits on the line it was done in a humble Allah. I have Allahu Allah, whoever loves and longs to meet their Lord their Lord longs to meet them. So they were journeying towards a meeting with our maker.
And Hodges represented representation of that. And to meet our maker, we have to be in the best of shape, the best of forms we have to put on our best clothing.
And we should not be deceived into believing that our best clothing is our physical clothing.
We'll claim who the best the best of Taqwa the best of clothing is the clothing of piety.
There is a deeper meaning to all of these things. So we journey to our Lord. And we take off our clothing, our worldly clothing that indicates our social status or our economic standing, or our occupation. And we put on the clothing of Taqwa
of piety, so that we meet our Lord in the best of shape, in the best of conditions,
the clothing of piety, the Hodges said, and our spiritual tradition, that it is a journey that involves casting off our base human characteristics, and adorning ourselves with godly characteristics to the extent humanly possible.
So when we meet our Lord, at the house of the Lord, the Sacred Precinct, when we arrived for this meeting, and for this visit in this world, and as representative of the other worldly visit, we've cast off the clothing of greed, we've cried cast off the clothing of hatred, we've cast off the clothing of vengeance, we've cast off the clothing of envy, with Claire cast off the clothing of cowardice. And we've done the clothing, of truthfulness, we've done the clothing of love, we've done the clothing of courage, we've done the clothing of compassion, etc. And now we're fit to meet our Lord. Because this is the level that the meeting is possible, is possible at the level of meaning
is possible at the level of meaning. And those meanings manifest themselves in a way that allow us to better serve our fellow creatures on this planet. And by fellow creatures, not just our fellow humans, but all of the creatures that God has blessed to be our neighbors.
And the Pope's encyclical concerning the environment, reminds our Christian brothers and sisters of this, or should I say a Catholic brothers and sisters, I'm sure I can generalize, especially at the seminary.
We're all in this together.
God willing.
So, brothers and sisters, let us make this journey, in addition to the physical journey, and wherever your pilgrimage might take me, hours takes us to Mecca, maybe yours will take you to Rome, or some other place, wherever it takes you. Let us not only journey with our bodies, but let us journey with our hearts and our souls. As we're reminded again,
borrow Lord in the corner N. Yo Mala? Yes from man who whenever Moon Appala had to convince me on a day
No amount of wealth or children,
these physical manifestations in this world will be of any benefit. The only one who will be benefited by those or anything else will be the one who comes before God with a rectified heart in them and at Allah had the 170 so the Hajj should be an opportunity to remind us on the of the importance of purifying our hearts of rectifying our hearts. And some people some Muslims will say, you know that Sufi stuff
that's far fetched, where we remind them of a of a saying of our prophets, Allah was salam. A rigorously authenticated saying of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and Muslim men, Salomon, muesli, moon and Mindy Sani, who are yet the most done is the one who all of the Muslims are safe from their tongue in their hand.
A person who is not a Muslim might be getting nervous at this point, what about me,
there is a higher level of faith that demands more of us when Mobley who then sent him a NASA that boa IACA the believers want all of the people are safe from any harm from them. But to go back to the original, the first study, and Muslim SLE men must be more than men the study anywhere yet in the Muslim is one, all of the Muslims are safe from their tongue in their hand. We can use this nowadays.
When we look at the condition of some of our lands, and Muslims killing each other with impunity, go on the internet and Muslim slander.com. Where is this safety and security from the harm of the tongue in the hand? For many,
not most, most people take this seriously. But there are those who don't. And unfortunately, they garner the lion's share of the headlines. But the tradition goes on and Muslim men sentiment most men said the men must be more manly men desenio yedi when we had you who men had your own man, the Hala, who and the migrant is the one who migrates away from those things, God is forbidden.
And so the migration in this narration is not a physical movement from one place to the other. It's a movement away from that which is unacceptable, morally and ethically to that which is acceptable morally and ethically. And so there's a deeper meaning to the physical movement of the migrant. And there's a deeper movement to the physical movement of deeper meaning rather, to the physical movement of the pilgrim. So when may we be those who want the opportunity to avails itself and even before that, who make our pilgrimage with our hearts and our souls before we make it with our physical bodies, who migrate with our hearts and our souls before we might be forced to enter
circumstances and may we be blessed with safety and security that ward that off from us before we migrate with our physical bodies, may we be the people who give as much or if not more meaning
to meaning itself as we do to physical actions and physical rituals of conduct Holy hell that was stopped for Allah Lee when he said many problems
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On my early CD and Mohammed, either early last time he was testing like a theory and Hamdulillah, we have truly been blessed to attain to this day. And the days that follow these four days, or describe our pockets of Allah and it will send them or the three days following this day, which are called am atashi.
Here, a Yamo, at minimal shorter than with the,
with the gorilla, there are days of eating and drinking and remembering God. So there are days of festivity. There are days of celebration, there are days of joyousness.
And we should be joyful people, we regardless of what's happening in the world, what's happening in the world, doesn't or should not affect our relationship with Almighty God. Because that's a personal relationship.
That's a personal relationship is not a social relationship. It's not a political relationship. It's a personal relationship between us and our maker, our Creator. And so what's happening in society, what's happening politically, what's happening socially, what's happening, economically, what's happening in the world around this shouldn't affect that relationship. That relationship should put us in a position where we're able to positively positively affect what's happening socially and politically and economically, by responding to our socio political economic reality was wisdom.
And wisdom is something that's informed or should be informed by our relationship with Almighty God. And that translates into positive action in these various worldly realms, as one of our great
exemplars and great scholars mentioned and hikma to Phil,
Phil Marion buddy walked in lady young, valuable movie lady, young family. So doing the right thing at the right time, in the right way, in the right manner.
So wisdom should be a proud of of our relationship with our Creator. What is that relationship which sustains us, despite the turbulence of the time? Is there a relationship that allows us to rejoice despite the turbulence of the times and we're told in the Quran quoted, say to them Oh, Mohamed called the fourth delay he will be remedy he can be the early captain. Yuvraj Hoo, hoo. Hi, Ramona. Yes, ma'am. Say to them, oh, Muhammad, say in the Grace of Allah and in His mercy in this, let them rejoice is better than anything they can gather from this world?
Are you remember? Yes. So brothers and sisters rejoice during these days, at the very least, take time to eat, take time to drink, train, take time to share your food, those who will sacrifice the
lifestyle? What is the Sunnah? What is their tradition to share that with the poor people. I've been in Muslim countries where I've been in Syria and better times where I was blessed to study in the late 90s until 2001.
I've gone out to the villages with the meat from the sacrifice, and distributed it amongst people. In many instances, that was the only meat they were going to get all year.
And you can see the joy on the faces. I've been in Morocco, where the poor burger burgers come down from the villages in line the streets of the city, waiting for the people to share the meat with them.
And again, that might be the only meat some of these people will eat all year, the entire year.
And they're happy.
They're happy, and they're rejoicing
at this great blessing. So we these are days to eat, to drink, but to share our food, to share our drink, to call our friends and our neighbors to join us for a meal and to share our food with us. Because these are simple things that have profound implications in our world.
They have profound implications in our world. If enough of us do it. We might seem more isolated with just that one drop of rain that falls somewhere way up in the mountains or deep in the forest or the jungle, but that one drop of rain drop joins with others and they join with
Yet others and they join with the you and others. And before you know it, you have a stream. And those streams come together. And they form creeks and those creeks come together and they empty into rivers. And before you know it, you have a mighty river, you have the Nile. But where did it start? It started with the drops of rain coming together, in Uganda, and in the upper region Central the highlands of Africa. Where did the Mississippi start it started way up in Minnesota and the northern parts of this country, those drops of rain coming together. And the same for the Missouri or the Ohio, the Allegheny or the Connecticut, way up, then Vermont, and New Hampshire, the border between
the two, the drops of rain came together, and they joined others and others and they made a mighty mountain, and we should never be literal, the potential good we can do and how it might be amplified. As others join us in that good, we should never see ourselves as just isolated individuals struggling to hold on, we should see ourselves as little drops of rain, waiting to be joined by others until we can form a mighty stream, a mighty river
of healthy morality.
Never give up brothers and sisters never see yourself as small and isolated. Never see the smallest amount, amount of goods you can do as being small in reality in terms of its impact. As our profit again reminded us here on the minute my roofie che
wallow and telecom a car can be which can Polly Don't be little the smallest good you might do. Don't be mean the smallest amount of good you might do even if it's meeting your brother or your sister with a pleasant face.
So no matter what's happening, brothers and sisters maintain a strong connection to Almighty God, no matter what's happening in the world, meet your brother or sister with a pleasant face. Maintain the ability to smile, maintain the ability to rejoice. And if you find nothing in the world to rejoice in rejoice in the Grace of Allah, and the mercy of Allah, who has blessed you with the ability to know your maker to know your Creator, and to be on a path that leads to your Creator. This the greatest gift in this world, because the vicissitudes of time are beyond our control. But the journey we take to our Maker is something totally in our control. And if enough of us hold on, and
if enough of us believe that those virtues that were introduced, some of them we mentioned earlier, that were introduced by the prophets sent by Almighty God to direct us that will introduce and the scriptures that we read and recite
if we hold on to those, and we advocate for those in the world, and we join forces with those who share their belief that these virtues are worthy of maintaining and that they can indeed be the source of peace, they can be the source of cooperation, they can be the source of efforts to alleviate the poverty and suffering in our world, they can be the foundation of a more healthy relationship with our environment or a healthier environment to stewardship, then this life will be a life worth living. And if we hold on, and we advocate and we join others, when we look back over our lives, God Willing inshallah we can say that was a life wellness.
There was a life well lived. And if we don't live well, and we abandon our beliefs, and we compromise our principles, and we're cast into hopeless hopelessness, and despair, because of the circumstances or of that of the of the time.
When we look back over our life, when it's all over, I don't think any of us will be satisfied. I don't think any of us will say that was a life well lived.
So we have to hold on and we have to be inspired by those, like Abraham who struggled and worked and advocated and vouchsafed to us those precious principles that define who we are as human beings, May we'll all be blessed, to inherit to be worthy heirs of those traditions, worthy heirs of that struggle, worthy heirs of everything that we've inherited from those who preceded us in terms of spiritual in terms of prophecy, prophet hood, and the gifts that have brought into the
Word world we don't believe we'll be prophets ourselves, but we can be prophets in the allegorical sense of the word. Now God bless us May God bless you may God bless everyone assembled here and those assembled as elsewhere. During these blessing days and may the spirit of these days the spirit of unity, the spirit of sacrifice, the spirit of belief, and a power greater than ourselves and made this spirit permeate our beings and then we carry it forward throughout all of the days of our lives and that this just these days, and hamdulillah was solid Salatu was Salam or Sunni. There he saw the love it was salam. Ala Baro, Baro, Baro Learn
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