Friday Khutbahs (Sermons)
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 29. March 2024
The last 10 days of Ramadan are upon us. Another Ramadan has gone by very quickly, they seem to go by faster and faster. This Ramadan has been very different, but also not different. Palestine is not something new, but what is new are our reactions to it. The amount of people and the spotlight that it is occupying in public discourse, both Muslim and non-Muslim. It is different because the grief and the shame are much heavier, perhaps as heavy as they always should have been. Today I want to...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 22. March 2024
It is the second jumu‘a in Ramadan, and I dare say that except for a few obscene exceptions in the Muslim world, the entire mood and spirit of this Ramadan is deeply affected by what is happening in Gaza. If we include those who are missing, the number of those killed in Gaza has so far reached over 40,000 people, and that number is likely to be much higher when all is said and done. The United Nations continues to warn about famine in Gaza, and there are atrocities taking place in front of...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 08. March 2024
Ramadan is at our doorsteps. I believe Ramadan will begin on Monday. There is no way we can receive this Ramadan without a deep sense of sadness in our hearts as we witness the ongoing genocide in Gaza, from children dying of malnutrition to adults starving to death. Dying from starvation is one of the cruelest ways to die. It is agonizingly painful, and we are already seeing pictures of severely emaciated children, pictures of flesh hanging onto the bare bones of children in Gaza. It is very...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 01. March 2024
Ramadan is approaching. It is only days away now. We receive this coming Ramadan with a reality that puts all of us, all 2 billion plus Muslims in the world, to shame. We are all aware of this reality. Whether we express it or repress it, whether we deal with it consciously or allow it to act on our subconscious, the fact of the matter is that our existence on this earth at this time is marked by the fact that we are living through a genocide committed against a largely Muslim people. And the...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 23. February 2024
One of the primary goals of the khutbah is to witness, to stand for and to demonstrate an understanding of the truth of what is reality, and also to reorient and correct the gaze of its congregants, of Muslims, for the week to come. Another year has gone by and Ramadan is very, very close. Time seems to go by very quickly. It has been a while since I have given a khutbah. Truthfully, since October 7th, I have wondered to myself, “What do I have to offer? What is it that I can say that will be...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 16. February 2024
If a rational human being finds any physical or material indicators that there is an ailment ailing them, then this rational, reasonable human being would pause, re-think, and assess the level of deviance from what ought to be normal. He or she would then confront the reality that they may be sick. If you wake up one day and find that you cannot walk straight, that you walk with a constant limp, that you constantly have to rush to the bathroom, or that your eyesight is blurry, then we are coded...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 09. February 2024
Where do I start? Do I start with a frank assessment of our historical moment? We are living through what is, in my view, as far as Islam is concerned, a defining moment that will define the role that Islam plays on this planet for centuries to come. Do I speak about that, or do I start with the incredible insights of the Qur’an. If only we read, understood, and comprehended carefully enough, we would see how God tells us about these transformative, historical moments of crises, and what...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 02. February 2024
This podium is the podium of light. It has established itself as such over hundreds and hundreds of khutbahs given by its main occupier, Khaled Abou El Fadl. These khutbahs have been memorialized with articulate brilliance and diligence, in a way that can only come from a true, dedicated student. Our gratitude to Josef Linnhoff for all that he has done to preserve this pulpit and memorialize it in written form, and to give it the beauty and the diligence that these sermons deserve. With their...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 26. January 2024
I sincerely thank both Wietske Merison and Shayan Parsai for these angelic adhans. Gratitude should be given where it is due, and these adhans are just supernal and beautiful. An enduring image is found in Surah al-Jumu‘a, where God describes a people who inherit the word of God. They inherit the linguistic practices of a thing, but, substantively, they are entirely removed from the meanings of the words that they are supposed to have inherited. Surah al-Jumu‘a describes such people as if...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 12. January 2024
God repeatedly warns us in the Qur'an by utilizing a phrase that should mean a great deal to all of us, a phrase that should be embedded in our very consciousness. God warns us against causing “corruption on earth.” God tells us in Surah al-Rum that we will always find human beings corrupting existence on earth. [Since they have become oblivious of God,] corruption has appeared on land and in the sea as an outcome of what men's hands have wrought: and so He will let them taste [the evil of]...