Friday Khutbahs (Sermons)
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 01. November 2024
When do movements, governments, laws have the most meaning and impact? The modern mind may still appreciate a strong leader and perhaps some level of cultural trajectory to some degree, but the modern psyche does not appreciate the feeling of being dictated to. The moment the modern human being feels the pressure of what it senses is aggressive imposition, especially from laws and government, the need to resist and rebel—emphasis on rebel—swells rapidly from within. Does this rebellion mean...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 25. October 2024
A poet once said, "I stayed up late at night when people had fallen asleep, and I supplicated to my Lord, complaining about what my Lord already knows." In our day and age, it so often feels like all Muslims have fallen into a long, deep sleep, a sleep like death. I like to present pictures in my khutbahs (sermons) because pictures tend to increase our awareness, and, as I have repeatedly said, awareness is the beginning of everything. If we are not aware, there is no hope. Awareness plants the...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 11. October 2024
I have asked myself what emotion overtakes me at the first annual conference of The Usuli Institute. What emotion do I feel? In a word, it is a gratitude (shukr) to God. It is gratitude for the blessing of your presence with us. Gratitude for what God has enabled us, here at this conference, to do. Gratitude for the gift of love, the gift of care, and the gift of your presence with us here today. This is a very central point. For it is not just that I feel gratitude for this day, for The Usuli...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 27. September 2024
This is the first khutbah (sermon) given from the new headquarters of The Usuli Institute. May God bless, protect, and accept this place in God’s service. May it always be an agent of goodness. May it be a place of service for the good of all Muslims and for the well-being of Islam until the Final Day. This new place was made possible by the donations of supporters of The Usuli Institute. May God bless all those who contributed to the founding of this place. May God reward them, reward their...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 20. September 2024
Yet again, the elephant in the room that every Muslim on the face of this earth should be concerned about is what Israel is doing to our fellow Muslims, especially the recent terrorist attack that Israel has waged in Lebanon. In the midst of an ongoing genocide in Gaza that is proceeding unhampered and unrestrained, it seems like we are talking about a drop of blood in a sea of blood, which is odd in itself. Nevertheless, to my mind, a khutbah this jum'ua that does not acknowledge the obscenity...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 13. September 2024
It has been an entire year, and the constant source of trauma is unending. Since the emergence of colonialism, the dismantling of Islamic empires, the birth of the nation state, and the emergence of nationalism, Muslims have in one form or another been in a constant state of trauma. Each generation focuses on the trauma it suffers in its own historical moment, but those with a sense of history know that what is unfolding in Palestine—the genocide, the systematic uprooting of a Muslim...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 06. September 2024
Ha-mim. Dear friend, responsibility and balance. It is time to unite and help build anew or suffer a boiling hot cleanse. Ighlī nafsak! At the beginning of the sermon, I have cited a hadith attributed to the Prophet. The translation is as such, the Prophet says the following in the context of the reckoning of the day of resurrection. He says, "A servant of God who knows himself well in that he does not consider himself sinful shall be brought forth and shall be asked by God, 'Did you befriend...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 30. August 2024
Before I give any khutbah, family and friends typically help me by sending me articles that give me a survey of the issues happening around the world. As usual, to my persistent heartbreak, I find numerous stories of egregious violations and offenses that have been committed against Muslims, often by Israelis. Once again, the Israelis have attacked cars, institutions, or buildings belonging to the United Nations. We find repeated stories of atrocities committed by Israeli forces. There are so...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 23. August 2024
God, we come this Friday again to struggle in affirming the truth that You are the Truth, that You are our One and only Sustainer. You, who created the heavens and the earth, who constructed them and placed them with a careful and intricate balance that many of us still strive to uncover, constantly turning in awe to your creation. Lord of the east and the west, of the seen and the unseen. God, who is within and without. You alone we turn to for help, for guidance and strive for your furqan,...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 16. August 2024
I return to this podium after a hiatus of more than fifty days, and I want to say something about this break because what I have to say will be of relevance for others. Some 40 years ago, like so many Muslims from our part of the world, I endured a trauma that human beings should never endure. What most people from my part of the world learn about trauma is to ignore it. In fact, there is a culture that celebrates machismo and defines strength as the power to ignore and suppress trauma rather...