Friday Khutbahs (Sermons)
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 05. May 2023
Today, for me personally and for The Usuli Institute generally, is a rather special jumu‘a. It is the jumu’a that follows the completion of Project Illumine, the project in which we have journeyed through the entire Qur'an and shared a commentary, a learning, and an education about the Qur'an. Personally, this was not just a journey of the past three years. It has been the journey of a lifetime. In this Qur’anic journey, it has become clear that no one can truly be touched by the Qur'an...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 21. April 2023
We pray and supplicate for a blessed ‘Eid upon this blighted Ummah. We pray and supplicate for a blessed ‘Eid, despite the fact that so many of the scholars and sages of Islam are locked up in prisons from Saudi Arabia, to the Emirates, to Egypt. A blessed ‘Eid, despite the fact that just recently, one of the most prominent scholars of Islam, Rachid al-Ghannouchi, has been arrested, thanks to the authoritarian forces in the Muslim world. A blessed ‘Eid, despite the fact that so much of...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 14. April 2023
It is already the last jumu'a in Ramadan. Subhanallah, the next jumu'a will likely be the first day of ‘Eid al-Fitr and Ramadan this year is already nearly over. Only a fool would not pause to contemplate how Ramadan comes as a marker in one's life. Personally, for my family, this Ramadan has been marked by the illness of family members and by the signs of changing conditions so that one can fairly say that we do not know what circumstance next Ramadan will bring or what circumstance next...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 07. April 2023
As we approach the last 10 days of Ramadan, one cannot help but be overwhelmed by the events at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the heart of Jerusalem. If you have a pulse as a Muslim, you would have been deeply affected by the image of Israeli soldiers beating Palestinian worshipers. The footage of this injustice raises many issues that deserve pondering and deep reflection. There are plenty of images that show Israeli soldiers beating, grabbing, and dragging Palestinian women. In the pictures, it is...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 31. March 2023
There was recently an article, written by journalist David Kirkpatrick and published in The New Yorker, that deserves to be read carefully, reflected upon, and studied. In fact, the article itself, in my opinion, is essential reading for any course about Islamophobia, race, or Islamic law in the West. The article previously appeared under a slightly different title, but when it was first published, it got practically no attention. As we talk about this article, it will become clear why it...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 24. March 2023
In the first khutbah of this Ramadan, I must bring attention to a recent publication that deserves a considerable amount of reflection and thought, titled, “The European Islamophobia Report,” edited by Farid Hafez and Enes Bayrakli. Farid Hafez is a well-known academic whom we have mentioned in at least two previous khutbahs because of his plight with his own country’s government, the Austrian government, that targeted him specifically because of the fact that he edits the European...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 17. March 2023
We are now in the countdown to Ramadan. By next jumu'a, we will have already begun the month of Ramadan. As I have noted for a number of years now, every Ramadan is an occasion for the Ummah to pause and reflect upon the past year, how that year compares to the years before it, and to think of the coming year, the challenges ahead, what must be achieved, and what must be accomplished. As we approach the month of Ramadan, the United Nations, acting through the offices of its Human Rights...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 10. March 2023
I normally start with a Qur’anic passage or verse, before dissecting a set of events and applying the Qur’anic revelation to the events analyzed. Recently, however, an event took place in Saudi Arabia that is profoundly telling on its own. It hardly needs any commentary for it to combust with all types of meanings and connotations. It is a very telling event that, in and of itself, calls upon us to engage in deep reflection about the state of Muslims and the moral situation in which we find...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 03. March 2023
Once we take seriously the duty of testifying in the path of God for the sake of justice, or testifying in the path of justice for the sake of God (Q 4:135; 5:8); once we understand that the two are interchangeable and indistinguishable; once we understand that God is not about communal activities that affirm a sense of identity; God is not about Muslim camps in which people come together to indulge in gossip and chitter-chatter, endlessly talking about mindless topics; once we understand that...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 24. February 2023
In recent days, a number of events have taken place that warrant attention and deserve consideration. It is often somewhat of a challenge to think about what deserves mention first and what deserves mention second, but I always think in terms of the long-term impact on Muslims worldwide, on the identity struggles within Islam itself, and on the projected courses of Islamic thought, Islamic ideals, and Islamic normativities. What currently deserves prominence, mention, and discussion is...