Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 28. October 2022
The truth of the matter is that human ideas, concepts, understandings, and conceptualizations undergo the same phases and stages of progression as life itself. An original idea is born. Like any young life, it is full of potential and possibilities, and its impact reflects the fact that it triggers a set of unfulfilled potentialities. As ideas age, however, the potentialities are often exhausted and worn out. What sets in is habit and familiarity, and the same idea that what was once full of...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 29. January 2021
How often does the Qur'an alert us to the fact that it is intended to be a paradigm shift? The very opening of Surah Al-Baqarah directs our attention to the momentous reality of the revelation. This book, which prevails over doubt, serves as a guide to those who want to embrace and follow the path of guidance. To follow this path, you have to believe in ghaib (the world of the unseen). You must be one who internalizes in their heart the world of the unseen, the non-material world. You must...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 08. May 2020
Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl tells another fascinating story of the time of the Prophet Muhammad, which demonstrates the strength and social justice orientation of the early Muslims despite horrific persecution. It is a yardstick by which to measure our own spirit and personality. He answers the question of why Islam was revealed to the Arabs as opposed to another group of people. Detailed summary description forthcoming.
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 24. April 2020
Dr. Abou El Fadl begins by supplicating God, who is like no other: God, the Creator of everything who is outside the logic of the created; the Creator of the physical laws who is not bounded by the physical laws. Our rational senses are premised on the ideas of causation and laws that shape and determine physical reality. The only exception to these laws is God’s self, which is why we say “SubhanAllah,” meaning there is no comparable to Allah. Especially at the beginning of the month of...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 10. April 2020
SUMMARY DESCRIPTION: We are in the month of Sha'ban, preparing for the coming month of Ramadan, the marker by which we count our lives. Ramadan is the month in which you review what you have done and think about the trajectory of your life and where you are going. A Muslim must undergo an internal review about their own beliefs, convictions and actions. They must also conduct an external review, looking at the state of the Islamic world, the ummah, starting with the community closest to them...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 08. November 2019
Dr. Abou El Fadl begins with a reminder that the quintessential truth of being a Muslim is to walk in the path of light in order to attain light, live in light, die in light, and be resurrected in light. So much of the Quran warns us about the darkness within us and that human beings are capable of creating. Darkness is not a philosophical category, but often an intuitive category with physical manifestations, such as poverty, cruelty or a lack of empathy, mercy or compassion. It is...