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The Importance of Sayyidina al-Husayn (r) in Our Lives

Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

23 October 2015 Feltham, London, UK

Jumu`ah Khutbah at Centre for Spiritual & Cultural Advancement, CSCA

As-salaamu `alaykum. [Opening du`a of khutbah.]

O Believers, Muslims! Alhamdulillah that Allah (swt) has put in our hearts noor al-imaan, the light of imaan, and He put in our hearts noor al-Islam, the light of Islam, and raised us as mu’min and Muslim, saying, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah `alayhaa nahyaa wa `alayhaa namoot wa `alayhaa nalqa 'Llah, inshaa-Allah.” Allah ta`ala is looking at His servants and He sees they need His help, as without Allah’s help there is no way to enter Paradise! Allah has arranged by Kun fa yakoon for His mu’min and Muslim servants, the Lovers of Sayyidina Muhammad (s), maa laa `aynun ra’at wa laa udhunun sami`at wa laa khatar `alaa qalbi bashar, “What an eye cannot see, an ear cannot hear and you can never imagine what Allah has prepared for you.”

Everyone is running for their destiny, which differs from one to another: it might be someone's destiny is to go to China and someone else's is to go to Madinat al-Munawarrah, there is a big difference. It might be your destiny is to be Muslim, you run for that; it might be that your destiny is to be mu'min, a higher level from Muslim, because imaan is the core of Islam:

إِنَّ الدِّينَ عِندَ اللّهِ الإِسْلاَمُُ

The religion in Allah’s view is Islam (submission to His Will). (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:19)

On Google Sky, you zoom in to go deeper and deeper to see the galaxies and constellations, and open more things you never thought about. Islam is also like that and more! Islam is bigger than the universe, Islam is bigger than Creation!

إِنَّ الدِّينَ عِندَ اللّهِ الإِسْلاَمُُ

The religion in Allah’s view is Islam (submission to His Will). (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:19)

“For Allah, the religion is Islam,” the religion He gave to His servants through Sayyidina Muhammad (s) is the best: Islam. As much as you zoom in, that much as you can get [in rewards], which depends on your capacity:

لاَ يُكَلِّفُ اللّهُ نَفْسًا إِلاَّ وُسْعَهَا لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا اكْتَسَبَتْ

On no soul does Allah place a burden greater than it can bear. It gets every good that it earns and it suffers every ill that it earns. (Surat al-Baqarah, 2:286)

Allah doesn't give you more than you can carry, so what would be the benefit of throwing diamonds to children when they don’t know the value: if you give them candy they like it more than a diamond. However, we are throwing away the diamonds Allah gave us as we are after the shell. Go to the core, which is Maqaam al-Ihsaan, Moral Excellence!

أن تعبد الله كأنك تراه، فإن لم تكن تراه فإنه يراك

That you worship Allah as if you see Him, for, if you don't see Him, truly He sees you. (Bukhari)

Allah gave that to Muslims: zoom in to get more, free-of-charge! Today they say, “Buy 1, get 1 free [BOGO],” but there is no bargain in Islam, take all, but come! Allah will give you a shelter, a shade: on hot days how much people suffer when the temperature is 40 or 50 degrees Centigrade, 100/120 Fahrenheit, and where do they have to run? They will find a place that has a shade and sit under it. Allah is giving you a shade! Allah gave shade to mu'mins, to Muslims. The Message of Islam that Prophet (s) brought is a shade for us on the Day of Judgement! That's why Sayyidina al-Husayn (a) and Ahl al-Bayt, the Family of the Prophet (a) were after the shade: they didn't want to lose the shade Allah will give them as martyrs, so they went for it, to take what needed to be taken in their hands and give to the Ummah! They are the ones who can give to the Ummah, not the opponents of Sayyidina al-Husayn (a), but we leave that for Allah's Judgement; we cannot discuss this because we don’t want to make a mistake, Allah knows best.

On this holy day, `Ashooraa, Allah forgave Sayyidina Adam (a) from his sin, He sent him to the Earth to repent, He saved him from the hand of Iblees by forgiving him. Iblees challenged Allah (swt) and for that Allah cursed him and forgave Sayyidina Adam (a). If you are a Muslim, it means you have been forgiven, that forgiveness runs after you! Wherever you go forgiveness is behind you: if you made a mistake and you say, “Astaghfirullah,” that mistake is erased, it doesn’t stay.

Allah gave us a shade and Sayyidina al-Husayn (a) knew that! They were 72 people facing 10,000 soldiers of Yazeed. What are 72 going to do in the face of 10,000? Nothing, but they went for it because they saw the future horizon [filled with Muslims], that everyone will mention their names, their bravery, their piety, their sincerity! It is enough to mention, “Yaa Rabbee! I love my prophet, Sayyidina Muhammad (s) and I love his Family (a)!” You fulfill your obligations, but this will take you to Paradise with no account:

يحشر المرء مع من أحب

Each person will be resurrected with the one he loves. (Tabarani)

If you love Prophet (s), you will be with him; if you love dunya and kings and emperors you will be with them; if you love the kings and sultans of Akhirah, you will be with Prophet (s), so you chose! Sayyidina al-Husayn (a) did not want to hear anything when the people came to him and said, “Go back to Madinah, they want to kill you (in Iraq)!”

He said, “Welcome! If they want to kill me I will go to see my Lord earlier and I'm ready for it!”

They cut him into pieces! Every drop of his blood was saying, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadan Rasoolullah.” If his blood wasn’t shed, who is going to say, “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadan Rasoolullah” better than Sayyidina al-Husayn (a) and Sayyidina al-Hasan (a) and Ahl al-Bayt (a)? We have to learn the meaning of their sacrifice! They didn't just sacrifice their wealth, they didn't give their jewelry and camels and homes, they left dunya because they didn't care for it, saying to their oppressors, “You came for dunya to sit on the chair? I’ve no need for it, I am going to sit on some other chair in Heavens, Allah will prepare a throne in Heavens for me beside my beloved grandfather, Sayyidina Muhammad (s)!”

Before Sayyidina al-Husayn (a), the Best of Youth, the Best of Shuhaadah was killed, his children were killed in front of his eyes, not by shooting or stabbing with the sword, no. When you cut a piece of meat with a knife or saw, you move the blade back and forth, like when you cut a tree; imagine a saw cutting someone’s neck to separate it from the body, going back and forth until the neck is severed! Can you imagine how much pain Sayyidina Husayn (a) felt? But with every movement of the saw, Allah (swt) was dressing him in paradise after paradise and he was raised with his Family! There is no pain in Allah’s love, there is only the pain of yearning for it. SayyidinaHusayn (a) saw his way to Heaven was short, so he didn't want to lose that opportunity! He said, “You want to kill me? Come!” He was killed, in our eyes in a brutal way, but in his eyes he was so happy, asking forgiveness for the Ummah of Prophet (s) on every drop of his blood that was shed! If Sayyidina Husayn (a) says, “Yaa Rabbee!” Allah says, “Yaa `Abdee!” Allah (swt) said in a Holy Hadith:

عبدي اطعني أجعلك ربانيا تقول لشيئ كن فيكون

My slave! Obey Me and I will make you Rabbaani, Lordly, so you say to something “Be!” and it will be (exist). (Hadith Qudsi)

“If you accept Me, I will dress you with heavenly power so that when you say to something “Be!” it will be (exist)!” Sayyidina Husayn (a) is not a normal person: he is the grandson of Sayyidina Muhammad (s), the son of Sayyidina `Ali, karamAllahu wajhahu, the son of the Sayyidat an-Nisaa Ahli ‘l-Jannah, the Master of Ladies in Paradise, Sayyida Fatima az-Zahra (a)! He enjoyed being cut more and more, and asking forgiveness for the Ummah more and more, not finishing in only five minutes: he wanted more! Allah gave him what we asked for.

[In Karbala] in the boiling heat, he asked for water for his thirsty sons under the desert Sun with no shade except Allah's Shade; they were thirsty, but they oppressors did not give them water. One very young child, `Ali al-Asghar (a), and `Ali al-Akbar (a), nine or seven years old, were not given any water, although when someone is dying it is Sunnah to gently give them water in their mouth by spoon or your finger, but they didn’t for that Sunnah and allow him to give to water his children. He was not really there; his heart and love is to Prophet (s) and Allah (swt), so he said, “Kill me now so I may reach my destination there (in Akhirah)!” O Ummat al-Nabi (s) of Ahl al-Sunnah! Run to your destination!

فَفِرُّوا إِلَى اللَّهِ

Run to Allah (from all that is false and evil)! (Surat adh-Dhaariyaat, 51:50)

There is no shade except Allah's Shade: run for that shade and Allah will give it to you! What did Prophet (s) say ‘shade’ means? Allah will give shade to seven groups of people, just as He gave many Shuhadaa in the time of Prophet (s) and after, the genuine martyrs who fight for a valid reason, not those who kill innocent people like what’s happening today, but who gave their lives for the love of Sayyidina Muhammad (s), such as Sayyidina Abu Bakr (r), who was older than Prophet (s): he gave everything for love of Sayyidina Muhammad (s), and also Sayyidina `Umar (r), `Uthman (r), `Ali (r)! The Prophet (s) said:

If there was a prophet after me, it would be `Umar. (Tabarani. Al-Hakim in al-Mustadrak]

Sayyidina `Uthman (r) married two of Prophet's daughters; when the first one died he married the second one; therefore, he had the ‘two lights of Prophet’ (s), two shades, andthey are shades of the Ummah! Sayyidina Khadija, Sayyidina Fatimah, Sayyidina `Ali, Sayyidina al-Hasan, Sayyidina al-Husayn (`alayhimu ‘s-salaam), who touches their robes or mentions their names will be with them in Akhirah! Anyone whose name is Muhammad, I’m happy that part of my name is Muhammad, anyone whose parents put his name from the Afda ‘l-`Asmaa, the Best of Names such as ‘`Abd’, ‘`Abdullah’, ‘`Abdu ‘l-Hafeezh’ and the like and any of the names of Prophet (s), that is a shade for us! So call yourselves ‘`Ali' or 'Muhammad' or 'Abu Bakr' or '`Umar' or 'Uthman' or 'Hasan' or 'Husayn' then Allah will give you shade under that name. Don't give names like 'Peter' or 'George', give names that have good meanings.

O Muslims! Ashura is the Day of Pain, when angels cried for the blood Sayyidina Husayn (a) and the Family of Prophet (s) shed on Earth. Imagine all Ahl al-Sunnah glorifying and praising the Family of Prophet (a): how can you dare come with your saw and cut the neck and separate the blessed head from the body? Not only did they cut the head, but they kicked it with their feet! Can you imagine that? O ignorant ones, what can you say? We leave it to Allah (swt).

Ashura is a day of forgiveness, when Allah (swt) forgave Sayyidina Adam, Sayyidina Nuh, Sayyidina Ibrahim , Sayyidina `Isa (`alayhimu ‘s-salaam). Prophet (s) entered Madinah on that day and saw the Jews fasting, and they told him it is the day Allah saved Sayyidina Musa (a). Prophet (s) said, “We have more right to Sayyidina Musa (a) than them,” so he fasted that day. When you fast that day, it will take all the sins of all the past year because it is the Day of the Pain, suffering. You remember the pain of Ahl al-Bayt, who are not ordinary people but rather the royalty of Earth, the sultans, emperors and shahs, being killed in that criminal way.

But what are they doing today? Whatever (forbiddens) ISIS is doing today, 1400 years ago they did more than that! ISIS loves bloodshed, they are the Draculas of the Ummah, they like to suck blood from the people’s hearts! For the sake of Sayyidina al-Husayn (a), may Allah (swt) take revenge from everyone that brings a bad name to Islam, who gives imaan a bad name! Sayyidina al-Husayn (a) is our symbol, our ramz, the one we have to focus on and remember how much he suffered to bring back the power of Ahl al-Bayt! They put him down for a reason: the chair (authority). Don't ask for the chair, ask for the floor. A chair won't give you anything but pride and arrogance, which leads to Iblees, but the floor will give you happiness, contentment and humbleness, which takes you to Heaven.

May Allah (swt) take our souls to Heavens when He calls us, and forgive us with the barakah of Sayyidina Muhammad (s), Sayyidina al-Husayn, Sayyidina al-Hasan, Sayyidina `Ali (`alayhimu ‘s-salaam) and Sayyidina Abu Bakr, Sayyidina `Umar, Sayyidina `Uthman and all the Sahaabah (r) as they were in the company of Prophet (s), ashaab an-Nabi (s). None of us can be Sahaabah, but we ask to be dressed from the mercy Allah dressed on them, and to follow in their footsteps in dunya and Akhirah.

Before I end, from this shade that Allah gives to the Ummah, the first shade is given to whom? Prophet (s) described it and inshaa-Allah later tonight we will explain it. The first one to have shade on the Day of Judgement, he didn't simply say ‘an imam’, but he put a condition, ‘imamun `aadil’, “an imam that rules with justice.” The condition is justice: you can be an imam, but if you cannot be just then your imamiyyah is nothing as you will harm others by taking money from the government to make fatawa according to the wishes of the governor, which is not accepted! You need to give fatawa according to Allah (swt)’s wishes, not the governor’s wishes, which are for dunya, whereas Allah’s wish is for Akhirah. Chose the one you want to uphold and go forward!

[Du`a.]

[Enf of khutbah.]

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