Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 22. October 2021
Every week when I stand on this podium, there is the often weighty decision of what topics to address. This podium is the podium of the Prophet Muhammad. Anyone that stands before the congregation on Friday, anyone that chooses to go through the process of delivering a khutbah is assuming that podium and the responsibility that goes with it. It is the responsibility to be the voice of truth and goodness in the Muslim Ummah and to speak against what is wrong in the Muslim Ummah. So, what stands...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 15. October 2021
God reminds us in Surah Hijr, in the miracle words of the Qur'an, that this earth was spread before us, unfolded like a meticulously organized plan created by God, in order to create for us a habitat and a living space. God created on this earth everything in a meticulously balanced fashion. The way that the earth has been calibrated for our lives, as well as the lives of all living things on this earth, is an absolute miracle because, given to its natural processes, it is an earth that...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 08. October 2021
How often has God reminded us repeatedly of the straightforward, uncomplicated demand to spend in the way of God? In fact, God in Surah al-Baqarah says, "Spend in the way of God, and do not cast yourself into ruin," reminding all of us that failure to commit to spending in the way of God is, in fact, casting ourselves into ruin, and is dooming ourselves. But this is not what I want to focus on; I do not want to focus simply on the act of spending in the way of God, but on what we spend on, and...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 01. October 2021
A people have an energy. However one defines a unit of people, every unit of people has a prevailing energy. The energy is characteristic of a people, however defined, like a magnetic field generated in a locality and, like magnetic fields, are formed by numerous small particles within certain characteristics of the land. The energy that characterizes a people is the sum-total of the numerous individuals that define the collectivity. We Muslims have a number of cross-cutting identities. We are...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 24. September 2021
This khutbah will deal with a difficult and touchy subject. It is a subject that not only must be addressed but addressed frankly and honestly. Part of this khutbah will be technical, but it is not technical for the sake of technicality. When moral and ethical perspectives are obstructed because of the technicalities, it is the job of the moral scholar and the moral jurist to address these technicalities in order to make space for morality and decency. Recently, a well-known Muslim figure...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 17. September 2021
God reminds us in Surah Al-Ra’d of a basic principle that is affirmed in different forms repeatedly throughout the Qur'an. After reminding us that nothing escapes God's knowledge and that nothing is beyond God's will, we find a very simple statement that holds the potential to have a truly transformative impact upon a human being: “Truly God alters not what is in a people until they alter what is in themselves” (Q13:11). In other words, God does not change a people until the people...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 10. September 2021
Suddenly, the news is full of talk about Afghanistan, the fate of Afghanistan and the Taliban, and I cannot help but think about how the world responds to the way that news is weaponized to focus our attention on issues and, at other times, to distract our attention from other issues. For years, ex-military have been writing books warning about defeat that actually transpired in Afghanistan. My library is full of books published all the way back in 2005, published during the Obama...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 03. September 2021
Time and again, I return to the Qur’an, the most marvelous book, both in concept and practicality. God is in everything, in all creation, and we seek God in all creation through our imperfect senses. But the living word of God - the will and testament from the divine to human beings - is contained in the single book that, because it was the last message to humanity, remained uncorrupted and incorruptible. Earlier revelations contain the kernel of truth from divinity, but as I have alluded to...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 20. August 2021
We begin in the name of God, always acknowledging that God is the Ultimate, the One and Only; and that Muhammad was the final Prophet, sent as a mercy and a liberation unto humankind. Everything that takes human beings to the direction of the merciful; to the direction of the compassionate; a step further towards enlightenment; towards liberation and self-determination, IS Islam and IS the Islamic project. Islam did not come to teach human beings a set of rituals among the many ritualistic...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 13. August 2021
We begin another khutbah with the clarity that comes from illness. God grants human beings a sense of clarity when they are plagued by pain and forced to face the limitations and humility of their condition. Part of reflecting upon challenges is to go beyond yourself and think of how insignificant you are in relation to the universe that God created. If you are truthful with yourself, your own pains remind you of the pains of other human beings, and especially the pains of your ummah. Our ummah...