Friday Khutbahs (Sermons)
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 06. May 2022
The challenge in any act of public discourse or public communications is that one must tap within and seek to connect with people on what is presumptively shared common grounds, on what is presumptively something that the speaker shares with the listener; centered around the idea, in the case of jumu’a khutbahs, that the remembrance of God in this public, collective devotional act must be the foundation for the communicative act. For the speaker and the congregation in the listening role, the...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 29. April 2022
It is the last Friday of Ramadan of the year 1443. Although we do not register it as such, it is a year in our life that will never return, a year in the life of our Ummah that will never return, and a year in the life of this planet that will never return. It is remarkable that our relationship with time itself is a reflection of our relationship to our Ummah and our relationship to God. Time is not just the way that the earth revolves and interacts with its two partners, the sun and the moon,...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 22. April 2022
We are already in the third jumu’a of Ramadan, and already in the last 10 days of Ramadan. This month of contemplation and reflection, the rare passing opportunity at rebirth, is already coming to a close. I wish that we could speak about the last 10 days of Ramadan without having to confront the reality of what is happening in the Aqsa Mosque, but before I delve into this, the entire plight of the Aqsa Mosque, which has become habitual - but not predictable in a mundane and unimportant...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 15. April 2022
I do not know how anyone can take the podium this Friday and dare talk about anything other than what is transpiring in our beloved Jerusalem and our beloved Aqsa Mosque. As I say this, I am certain that there will be plenty of khutbahs and plenty of mosques that will not even mention the Aqsa Mosque. But what is new, right? This is the sign of the ailment and disease of our Ummah. First, it would be immoral to not mention the fact that throughout the West Bank, Israeli forces have been killing...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 08. April 2022
The month of Ramadan invites a revisiting of one's relationship with God. It is in the way that God decrees fasting and informs us about Ramadan. The purpose and the dynamics of fasting and Ramadan is in Surah Al-Baqarah itself. Surah Al-Baqarah was revealed shortly after the hijra of the Prophet, which anchored the basic principles of how Muslims are going to interact, the type of relationships that Muslims will have with society at large, their place in society, and indeed, the very purpose...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 01. April 2022
Another Ramadan is upon us, and as I have said on previous occasions, it is not coincidental that you can measure your life by the Ramadans that you have lived and the Ramadans that remain. How many Ramadans do you have left in your life? By the time that next Ramadan rolls around, where will you be from one Ramadan to another? What will your relationship to your Maker look like? How will the distance between you and your Maker shift? Equally as important, what is the distance between you and...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 25. March 2022
God speaks to us human beings, repeatedly warning us about blatantly obvious threats and flaws. God's speech flags what is innately known to us. Without innateness, without tapping into what is already coded into our being, the dynamic between divine speech and the created beings would not work, does not work. When we hear God's words in Surah Al-Nisa’, God speaks to human beings in a clear, transparent, resounding voice, as if putting dots on words. God reminds our Prophet, and God reminds...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 18. March 2022
God says in his book, in Surah Al Hadid, “We have sent our messengers with the evidence, with the path, with the roadmap, with the real guide to enlightenment, to awareness. And we sent with our messengers the Book.” It is amazing that God parallels “the Book” with al-mizan: the balance, the scale. “We have sent our messengers with the guidance to enlightenment and we have sent the Book, and what we sent with the Book is the scale of justice.” As Muslims, we pass over these verses...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 11. March 2022
It is not an exaggeration to say iman (faith) - that most basic, core thing - is the seed for everything that has to do with our Islam; within everything that has to do with our relationship with God, with the Prophet, with the history of Islam, with the tradition of Islam. At the very heart and core of iman is a very important concept, that being to trust. Someone may claim, "I believe" but at the same time, they do not trust that God knows what is good for them or for others. They do not...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 04. March 2022
There are those who understand that their relationship with their Lord, with God, is the most personal thing in their universe. It is the most central thing, valuable and valued thing. It cannot be replicated, compared or reproduced. The relationship of a believer with their Maker is extremely personal and individual, as individual as one’s genetic code, or even more. It is the most truthful, real, honest and sincere thing in existence. Yet at the same time, it is the thing that we most...