Friday Khutbahs (Sermons)
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 27. January 2023
A human being, like the mystery of life itself, is an enduring puzzle. The very fact of consciousness defies definition. Whatever the mysteries of life are, and whatever mysteries are behind the remarkable, brilliant, and majestic reality of the intellect, and the even more brilliant and elusive majesty of the heart, a human being is marked by concrete stands. You are what you stand for, and what you stand for is how you meet the sum total of moments in which something needed to be said or...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 20. January 2023
In so many passages, the Qur’an addresses itself to the People of the Book generally and, quite often, to the Israelites specifically. A well-known principle of Qur'anic hermeneutics is that whatever is addressed to the Israelites or the People of the Book is a priori addressed to Muslims themselves. As we know, God often speaks to the Israelites or the People of the Book to warn Muslims about a precedent. In Surah al-Baqara, for instance, when speaking to the Israelites, God says: And do not...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 13. January 2023
We live in a world in which advances in technology and communications have enabled human beings to deliver narratives. Human beings are now able to transmit narratives without any of the screening or vetting processes that are typically used in societies, especially as societies develop and become settled and urbanized. Throughout history, societies have developed mechanisms by which narratives are vetted so that certain things are scrutinized. For example, you may try to scrutinize that the...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 06. January 2023
At a critical point when Muslims were in a period of transition from a persecuted, subjugated, and dominated life in Mecca to the start of a new chapter in Medina, where Muslims would assert their dignity, demand their autonomy, and engage the world in order to craft into it spaces wherein the light of God can shine, God tells Muslims very clearly and unequivocally: O YOU who have attained to faith! What is amiss with you that, when you are called upon, "Go forth to war in God's cause," you...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 30. December 2022
Friday arrives, and I begin thinking of the khutbah, standing in this mantle where one follows in the footsteps of a man who was sent as a gift to humanity, the Prophet Muhammad. As you wrestle with the enormity of the idea that you are following in the footsteps of this great man, standing in the mantle of the Prophet to deliver a message that, at the very least, honors the legacy of the Prophet Muhammad, there is a flood of thoughts, ideas, concerns, and worries. There is a virtual deluge of...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 23. December 2022
In Surah al-Nur (Q 24), God reminds us in the most powerful and direct way of what is core to our ethical being. O YOU who have attained to faith! Follow not Satan's footsteps: for he who follows Satan's footsteps [will find that], behold, he enjoins but deeds of abomination and all that runs counter to reason (al-fahsha wa al-munkar). And were it not for God's favour upon you and His grace, not one of you would ever have remained pure. For [thus it is:] it is God who causes whomever He wills...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 16. December 2022
There is a remarkable, miraculous, and even magical relationship between words and the beings that receive words, comprehend words, and go beyond that to act upon words. It is magical because without words, not only are we, human beings, unable to relate to one another or exchange our experiences, knowledge, and feelings, but words are even the way by which we relate to our own selves. Words are shorthand symbolism that enable us to even communicate with our very selves. God communicates with...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 09. December 2022
Five years ago, we started The Usuli Institute based on the idea of creating an institutional format in which we would go back to reclaim the foundations of our faith and the Islamic message. At the time that The Usuli Institute was founded, I did not know that I would be sharing my journey with the Qur'an, but God has arranged for this to become the crowning activity of The Usuli Institute. God has arranged for me to share my lifelong journey with God's Divine book and Divine revelation. Those...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 02. December 2022
So much of the Qur’an is like the voice of conscience placed within a text that exists in conversation with those who take that text as a companion. There are those who approach the Qur’an on the basis of an alienated relationship. This is like those who approach the Qur’an expecting it to adopt the declaratory voice of a commander in chief, as if it will bark orders to subservients who will then take these orders forth. Whoever engages the Qur’an in this fashion will invariably be...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 25. November 2022
“Alhamdullilah” ["All praise be to God"] is an expression of gratitude to God. So much of what disciplines the soul of a human being is our relationship with this simple yet demanding core value of gratitude. Gratitude is the simple recognition by a human being that they are not an independent force in nature, but that everything about a human being is contingent upon everything else in creation. In gratitude, then, a human being is always mindful of what is owed to everyone and everything...