- Sermons
- /
- Friday Sermons
The first khutbah
Man is the foremost creature:
Dear believing brother, it has been said that the one who knows himself knows his Lord. Who, then, are you, O man? Do you believe that you are the foremost creature? Do you know why? Almighty Allah says:{Truly, We did offer Al-Amanah (the trust or moral responsibility or honesty and all the duties which Allah has ordained) to the heavens and the earth, and the mountains, but they declined to bear it and were afraid of it (i.e. afraid of Allah's Torment). But man bore it. Verily, he was unjust (to himself) and ignorant (of its results).}
And because man accepted to bear the Trust Almighty Allah subjected entire heaven and earth to him to honor him and to enable him to know Him through Universe.
Almighty Allah says:
{And I (Allah) created not the jinns and humans except they should worship Me (Alone).}
Worship is a voluntary obedience, mixed with heartfelt love, based on certain knowledge that leads to eternal happiness.
Man is a few days, whenever a day passes, so does something of him:
Dear believing brother, in a specific definition Al-Hasan al-Basri said that man is time. He is just a
few days, whenever a day passes, so does something of him. Thus, you are time and as mathematicians say time is the fourth dimension of things. A thing has width, length and height, and when it moves, it enters time. You are a moving creature, what makes you move? What makes you move is your need for food and drink, for preserving your body, for getting married in order to ensure the continuity of your existence and your need for self-assertion. {Truly, We did offer Al-Amanah (the trust or moral responsibility or honesty and all the duties which Allah has ordained) to the heavens and the earth, and the mountains, but they declined to bear it and were afraid of it (i.e. afraid of Allah's Torment). But man bore it. Verily, he was unjust (to himself) and ignorant (of its results).}
The time granted to man is the most important thing:
Dear brother, according to the above comprehensive definition man is a few days. The most dangerous thing in your life is the time that Allah Most High has granted you. You either spend it in obedience to Allah, and that leads you to eternal happiness, or you spend it in disobedience to Him,
and that leads you to eternal misery. That is why Almighty Allah swears by the time to man-the foremost creature. Allah Most High says: {By Al-'Asr (the time). Verily! Man is in loss.}
What is "loss"? The passage of time alone causes you loss. Man lasts a few decades, then, surprised, finds out that death has come near to him.
Every creature shall die, only the Almighty remains.
No matter how long the night is, the dawn shall certainly come.
No matter how long man lives, he must die and be buried.
Every man, no matter how long he has been safe, shall be carried to his grave.
So if you carry a deceased man to his tomb know that one day you will be so carried.
Leaving the worldly life is the most serious future event:
Dear brother, people are in the habit of living their present –I am an engineer; a lawyer, a doctor, a trader, an emigrant… Or else they are in the habit of living their past –I was so and so, I did such and such… Few people, however, live their future, and the most dangerous event in the future is your leaving the worldly life, passing from your house to the grave, leaving your wife, children, relatives and friends, your parties and meetings, your travels and expensive foods… going to the grave. He who is intelligent and rational is the one who prepares himself for this event. I haven’t found anyone more judicious and sensible than the one who gets ready for death. Thinking of death is worship because death puts an end to power and weakness, to beauty and ugliness, to health and sickness. Death puts an end to everything. Getting ready for this event denotes intelligence, courage and success.
You either consume time or invest it:
It has been said that success is when you succeed in gaining money or in choosing your wife or in raising your children. However, the biggest, the greatest success in the worldly life and in the Hereafter is when you achieve the aim of your existence. You have been created to worship Almighty Allah and that is the price of Paradise.
Dear brother, man is but a few days. You can spend time in two ways. You either consume time by eating, drinking, sleeping, or traveling, but all these occupations have no effect or impact on your future. When, however, you know Allah and know His Way, and when you obey Him, then you achieve the aim that you have been created for.
The Way of Allah is a complete system:
{And I (Allah) created not the jinns and humans except they should worship Me (Alone).}
To worship is to submit to the Way of Allah in all of its details, and this Way is very specific. It may be thought that it is all about fasting, praying, performing pilgrimage and paying zakat, and that's it. However, this is not true. Allah's Way is more than rituals. It also comprises transactional worship, which ranges from marriage to international relations; a complete, detailed system. If you seek Paradise, search for this way, quest for knowledge. In this System you find indications on how to gain money and how to spend it; who you should marry; how you should treat your children and your relatives and the people around you.
The quest for knowledge is a duty of each Muslim:
The quest for knowledge is a duty of each Muslim. When you buy an expensive and complicated 
device, you don't use it until you have read the instructions of its manufacturer. Bear in mind that you are the most complicated machine in the Universe and the One who has created you has given His instructions in the Qur'an and in the Sunna of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Why don’t you read the instruction of your Maker for your safety and happiness? Our Deen is not a flower we put into the buttonhole. Whether we put it or not, it is a fateful and decisive case. It takes you to either eternal happiness or eternal misery –the case, then, is very serious. Reciting the Grand Qur'an should be part of your life, knowing the Sunna of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, should be part of your life, reading the history of the Companions of the Prophet is part of your life. There is theoretical instruction in the Qur'an and the detailed instruction in the Sunna, as well as practical instruction in the biography of the Prophet.
You need charging exactly as the cell phone does. The weekly charge is the Friday prayer and we have the daily charge which consists of the five prayers. The annual charge is fasting in Ramadan and the life-long charge is the pilgrimage. They are all means of spiritual charge.
Safety and happiness:
Dear brother, everyone cares about the safety of one's existence, its perfection and continuity. The safety of your existence is achieved by being upright and happiness by doing good deeds.{To Him ascend (all) the goodly words and the righteous deeds exalt it (the goodly words i.e. the goodly words are not accepted by Allah unless and until they are followed by good deeds}
When you become upright, you remove all the obstacles from the Path of Allah. Every sin constitutes an obstacle, and when you repent, you remove all of them. Thus, uprightness and good deeds are a fundamental part of the believer's behavior.
After belief in Allah, righteous deeds are the reason of our existence:
Do you believe that the reason for your existence in the worldly life, after having believed in Allah, is doing good? Almighty Allah says:
{Until, when death comes to one of them (those who join partners with Allah), he says: "My Lord! Send me back, "So that I may do good in that which I have left behind!" No! It is but a word that he speaks, and behind them is Barzakh (a barrier) until the Day when they will be resurrected}
What will the deceased regret? He will regret having failed to do righteous deeds or having missed remembrance of Allah, and regret is the worst feeling of them all. It has been said: The shame in the Hereafter will be intolerable, so much so that the one suffering it will say: "O Allah, sending me to the Fire is better than enduring the plight I am in."
The definition of eternity:
You have been created for eternal happiness in the worldly life and in the Hereafter. What is eternity? The case of eternity is very grave. The worldly life with all its pleasures, desires, positions and women is not worth (as much as) a wing of a mosquito in Allah's Sight.
“If the worldly life equaled a wing of a mosquito in Allah's Sight, He wouldn't have given a mouthful of water to a disbeliever. “
Worldly life is carrion. The one who seeks it has no mind. Death ends everything –power and weakness, beauty and ugliness, health and sickness… Death puts an end to everything. The right thing to do is to live the future and to think about what comes after death.
Man is in loss because the passage of time consumes him up:
Dear brother, man is time, just a few days, whenever a day passes, so does something of him. We should do righteous deeds. In the dawn prayer we say; Oh Allah! Grant us righteous deeds that get us closer to You. Teach us how to supplicate You, how to thank You and worship You.
{By Al-'Asr (the time). Verily! Man is in loss.}
The pillars of salvation:
Almighty Allah says:
{Except those who believe (in Islamic Monotheism) and do righteous good deeds, and recommend one another to the truth (i.e. order one another to perform all kinds of good deeds (Al-Ma'ruf) which Allah has ordained, and abstain from all kinds of sins and evil deeds (Al-Munkar) which Allah has forbidden), and recommend one another to patience (for the sufferings, harms, and injuries which one may encounter in Allah's Cause during preaching His religion of Islamic Monotheism or Jihad, etc.). }
The pillars of salvation –as Imam al-Shafi called them – are four: to believe and do righteous deeds, to enjoin Truth and patience on one another.
Faith without righteous deeds is worthless:
We believe in Allah as the Creator; He is Allah, (the) One and the Self-Sufficient Master; we believe in His Attributes and His Way.
"Except those who believe…"
The above points to the fact that faith without righteous deeds is worthless. If someone is affected with dermatitis, and the treatment consists in exposure to the rays of the sun, and he sits in a dark room saying how wonderful sunshine is, those words and praise are worthless.
{Except those who believe (in Islamic Monotheism) and do righteous good deeds, and recommend one another to the truth (i.e. order one another to perform all kinds of good deeds (Al-Ma'ruf) which Allah has ordained, and abstain from all kinds of sins and evil deeds (Al-Munkar) which Allah has forbidden), and recommend one another to patience (for the sufferings, harms, and injuries which one may encounter in Allah's Cause during preaching His religion of Islamic Monotheism or Jihad, etc.). }
The Call to Allah is each Muslim's individual duty within the framework of what he knows and to whom he speaks:
Dear brother, it is a misconception to think that the Call to Allah is related only to scholars. Definitely not, it is an individual duty of each Muslim within the framework of what he knows and to 
whom he speaks. Almighty Allah says:
{ And recommend one another to the truth (i.e. order one another to perform all kinds of good deeds (Al-Ma'ruf)which Allah has ordained, and abstain from all kinds of sins and evil deeds (Al-Munkar)which Allah has forbidden)},
It is incumbent on you, as a believer, to convey to your brother, neighbor or relative the meaning of an ayah you have heard being interpreted at a Friday khutbah –and this is calling to Allah. However, the in-depth study and complete devotion to the Call to Allah are the matters binding on scholars. It is fardh kifayah, which, if performed by some, equals to all having performed it. The Call to Allah is thus an individual duty of each Muslim within the framework of what he knows and to whom he speaks.
And enjoin Truth on one another:
((Convey (my teachings) from me (to people) even if it were one ayah.))
You should know Allah, follow His Way, and call people to Him, and be patient while seeking Truth. Imam al-Shafi said that to reflect profoundly on this ayah would suffice (for people to be successful).
The Companions of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to reauthor this ayah on leaving a meeting.
Worldly life is a temporary enjoyment:
Almighty Allah says:
{The mutual rivalry for piling up of worldly things diverts you,}
What is amusement? It is diving in the sea and picking up worthless and insignificant objects instead of the precious pearls. Death puts an end to everything. Kings die, the powerful die, the wealthy and the rich die, the weak and the strong die… what is really precious in the worldly life is knowing Allah Most High.
{The life of this world is only the enjoyment of deception (a deceiving thing).}
Temporary enjoyment… fruitless amusement… Someone spends an hour in the swimming pool… will this pool turn him into a big trader or an important professor? It is temporary enjoyment, with no effect on his future. Suppose two persons are having their meal; the first one is eating expensive food and the other a cheap kind. After they have had their fill, it is all over for both of them. Things in the worldly life have no influence on the future; it is only the righteous deeds that affect your future and make you happy ever after. Have you called people to Allah? Have you helped the weak? Have you spent you money on helping the poor? Have you fed the hungry? Have you guided those who have gone astray?
{And those who believe and whose offspring follow them in Faith, to them shall We join their offspring, and We shall not decrease the reward of their deeds in anything. Every person is a pledge for that which he has earned.}
Man has been created for Paradise:
Dear brother, if man knew what Allah has prepared for those obedient to Him and what He has prepared for those who have been disobedient, he wouldn’t be able to sleep one single night. Allah Most High has created us to worship Him; He has created us for eternal happiness, for Paradise as wide as the heaven and earth, and has made the road to Paradise passable for those who travel with righteous deeds.
Dear brother, call yourselves to account before you are called to do so, and weigh your deeds before they are weighed, and you should know that the Angel of Death has been reaching sh3er and will reach us soon, so pay heed. The clever one is he who upbraids himself and works for what comes after death; and the weak one is he who follows his desires and lives on wishful thinking; and praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.
The second khutbah:
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds and may He bless and grant peace to Muhammad, the Faithful and the Honest, and may He bless his Family and Companions.
Prophetic instructions about slaughtering animals:
Dear brother, in the west they hang the slaughtered animal by its feet and then cut (off) its head. However, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ordered us not to cut its head but only its jugular veins. Such was the instruction of the Prophet. No scientific research center existed at the time to work out the wisdom behind it. At long last, however, this wisdom has been
discovered. Our heartbeat rate is about 80 beats per minute. The heart beats faster when a person is scared, it goes up to 180 beats per minute. The center controlling the heart is in the brain, the pituitary sends order to the suprarenal to raise the beats to 180, it is something so complicated… the adrenal glands produce several hormones that affect blood pressure and blood sugar levels.You believe you are this tiny body
But in you the Universe is contained
Now when we slaughter the animal, keeping its head, the heart beats rate goes up to 180 beats per minute, which makes it possible for all of the blood to drain. If, however, we cut its head, only the quarter of the blood will drain out. That is why the meat (obtained) in the Islamic way is pink, otherwise it is blue. Once, some Syrian merchants went to China to buy meat there and they wanted the animals to be slaughtered according to the rules of Islam. The price of meat was then raised by eighty dollars. Who taught the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, all that?
Invocation
O Allah! Guide us together with those You have guided, and protect us together with those You have protected, and be our Guardian as You are of those for whom You have become their Guardian, and bless us with what You have bestowed on us.
You always judge with truth while You cannot be judged; and he whom You protect shall never be humiliated, and he whom You turn into an enemy shall never be honored.
Blessed and dignified are You! And all the praise belongs to You for what You have decreed! We ask Your forgiveness and we repent to You.
O Allah! Guide us to the good deeds for no-one guides to them but You.
And guide us to the good conduct for no one guides to it but You.
O Allah! Make us do well in our deen, which protects our affairs and which is our way of life, and grant us safety on the Day of Judgment for it is our final destination.
Make our lives in this world righteous, and make our death the rest from everything that is evil.
O Allah, our Lord, the Lord of all the Worlds!
Make me prefer everything You have made lawful to everything You have made unlawful, and let Your Mercy make me independent of all sh3er;
Make me obedient to You and turn me away from disobedience.
O Allah! Grant safety to Muslims wherever they are and demonstrate Your strength to Your enemies.
O Allah! Do not make us neglect Your Remembrance, O Lord of the Worlds!
