Jumu’ah Khutbah at As-Siddiq Institute and Mosque (ASIM)
[Du`a of Khutbah recited.]
O Muslims, Believers! There is too much betrayal in this dunya life; people don’t give limits to anything anymore. Limits are gone and miseries are coming in front of our eyes and still we are blind, we are not seeing them. Allah (swt) says in Holy Qur’an:
اقْتَرَبَتِ السَّاعَةُ وَانشَقَّ الْقَمَرُ
The Hour (of Judgment) is nigh and the moon is cleft asunder. (Surat al-Qamar, 54:1)
“The Day of Judgement approaches and the moon split,” and that was told to us 1400 years ago. Allah (swt) is saying “Don’t think that is not coming!” Allah (swt) said, “iqtarabati 's-sa`at,” because had He said “jaati ’s-sa`at,” which means “it is there,” people wouldn’t do anything in their lives except for `ibaadah! Instead, He is saying “iqtarabat” to give us hope that there is still time, that He is giving us a last chance to improve ourselves, but instead we are going more crazy: more killings, more betrayals. You cannot trust people today, they are betraying themselves.
They asked the Prophet (s), “What is the best of jihad?” meaning, there is something that is better than everything. They asked the Prophet (s), maa huwa afdalu ‘l-jihad, “Is there anything above jihad?” With jihad you go to Paradise, and they were faced with the real one in the time of Prophet (s) and Sahaabah (r) and other centuries after it. He said, “There is something better than the jihad you are doing. A word of truth, to say the truth to yourself!”
أفضل الجهاد كلمة عدل عند سلطان جائر
The best jihad is a word of justice (or a word of truth) before a tyrannical king.
( Related by Abi Sa`eed al-Khudree)
فَلَا تُزَكُّوا أَنفُسَكُمْ
Don’t praise yourself. (Surat an-Najm, 53:32)
“Do not give an excuse for anything you do!” Allah is warning us, because people excuse themselves, “Oh, this is okay.” No, you cannot cross or allow your ego to break boundaries, it will harm you and harm him. Maa huwa afdalu ‘l-jihad? The Prophet (s) said, “To say a word of truth to yourself,” not to blame others. Always take it on you, don't blame others. This is the core meaning of the Hadith:
أدبني ربي فأحسن تأديبي
My Lord perfected my good manners and conduct. (Ibn `Asakir)
The Prophet (s) takes everything on him, he is taking the sins of the whole Ummah on him! It is not to blame others, he is blaming himself although he has no sins. Allah said to him “Yaa Muhammad! It is enough!”
أَلَمْ نَشْرَحْ لَكَ صَدْرَكَ وَوَضَعْنَا عَنكَ وِزْرَكَ الَّذِي أَنقَضَ ظَهْرَكَ وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ فَانصَبْ وَإِلَى رَبِّكَ فَارْغَبْ
Have We not expanded for you your breast? And We removed from you your burden that weighed so heavily on your back. [O Muhammad!] We have raised your remembrance. So, verily, with every difficulty, there is relief: Verily, with every difficulty there is relief. Hence, when you are freed [from distress], remain steadfast, and unto your Sustainer turn with love. (Surat ash-Sharh, 94:1-8)
“Didn’t We stretch your chest with happiness and mercy for your Ummah? And We took all your sins away!” although Prophet (s) has no sin. Wa wada`na `anka wizrak, “We took the wizr, the sins, the heavy load from you,” Alladhee anqada zhahrak, “The one that is day and night on your shoulders and makes you tired of it.” Prophet (s) didn’t blame anyone but himself for what his Ummah had done. That is “Adabanee rabbee fa’ahsana taa'deebee.” Allah is saying, “You are of great, good, honorable and the best manners!”
وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلى خُلُقٍ عَظِي
You are of the most exalted character. (Surat al-Qalam, 68:4)
Ta’qeed, that confirms, “Yaa Muhammad, you are the Best One honored.” When they ask you, “blame yourself, don’t give excuses,” I am speaking Islamically--not for dunya work. Today you are afraid to appear before a judge in a court, which is correct for all of us. It is jihad, struggle within yourself, that how would you appear and you would be worried. What do you think about Maalik al-Mulk, the King of the Universe, the Owner of this Universe, the Owner of Humanity, the Owner of Jinn and Angels, how are we going to stand and face Him, what to tell Him? Will you give an excuse for yourself or will you blame yourself?
When Sayyidina Adam (a) ate from that Holy Tree in Paradise, when Allah (swt) asked him, “How did you eat it when I ordered you not to touch it,” he blamed himself; he went into sajda, asking forgiveness and Allah forgave him. He didn’t blame Iblees, he blamed himself. However, Iblees blamed Allah:
قَالَ أَنَاْ خَيْرٌ مِّنْهُ خَلَقْتَنِي مِن نَّارٍ وَخَلَقْتَهُ مِن طِينٍ
He said, “I am better than him because You created me from fire and You created him from mud!” (Surat al-`Araaf, 7:12)
Shaytan the Rejected said, “I am better than Adam! You created me from fire and created him from mud!” He blamed it on Allah (swt), but Sayyidina Adam (a) blamed it on himself. Blame yourself, it’s not fair to blame others! This is the Signs of the Last Days. The Prophet (s) said, “The best jihad is a word of justice (or truth) before a tyrannical king.” Jihad is not killing for no reason and blowing up, but “to stand in front of a tyrant king”, which is yourself, your ego, taking you in the opposite direction.
Prophet (s) said, “Be careful from these days that are coming in front of us.”
لا تقوم الساعة حتى يتقارب الزمان وينقص العمل ويلقى الشح وتظهر الفتن ويكثر الهرج
The Hour will not arise until time contracts, knowledge decreases, fitnas appear and killing increases. (Bukhari)
Allah (swt) is saying:
وَمَا آتَاكُمُ الرَّسُولُ فَخُذُوهُ وَمَا نَهَاكُمْ عَنْهُ فَانتَهُوا
Leave what Prophet forbade and take what he ordered. (Surat al-Hashr, 59:7)
“Whatever Prophet (s) gives you, take!” Allah is giving to you (through the Hadith of the Prophet (s) narrated by Imam Ahmad), so take it!
لا تقوم الساعة حتى يتقارب الزمان فتكون السنة كالشهر والشهر كالجمعة والجمعة كاليوم ويكون اليوم كالساعة وتكون الساعة كاحتراق السعفة
The Hour will not arise until time contracts, such that a year becomes a month and a month becomes a week, and a week becomes a day, and a day becomes an hour, and an hour becomes like the burning of a small stick. (Ahmad, Tirmidhi)
“Until the time comes so near each other,” this means you reach your destination in a short time. The Sahaabah (r) were astonished, but Prophet (s) mentioned in hadith, in an indirect way, all the technology that is coming, satellites and everything through which you are able to reach all over dunya in minutes, that which makes it a short time. So that ‘long time’ becomes like one week and one year will become like one month. In previous days you needed a long time to travel and today you need to travel only for one, two or three hours; you can travel throughout the Middle East in a maximum of three hours.
“One year will become like one month, and the month will be like one week,” more shortening. The Prophet (s) is zooming in, to show the lowest it can be, “One week will become like one day's travel.” Is this not what we are seeing? Why are we blaming others? Allah is mentioning to us through the Prophet (s) and still we are blaming someone else. Sit! When you are free and make istighfaar, all of us around the world, all Muslims! Wa takoon as-sa`atu ka ihtiraq al-sa’fah, “The hour will become like the burning of a small straw or candle,” so quick. You light it and it disappears. [Rawaahu Imam Ahmad] This is what we are seeing today. Still we say, “No!” but we are betraying ourselves.
This is what Allah (swt) and His Prophet (s) are telling us will happen and it is happening, we are seeing it in front of our eyes! If you said that 100 years ago, you would say, “You are right, but we are not seeing it,” and now everyone is seeing it, so why are we denying it? Are we going to be blamed or not? I can keep going with more and more examples.
From the long Hadith narrated by Sayyidina `Umar (r), I will summarize. When Jibreel (a) came to the Prophet (s) and asked about the Signs of the Last Days, he first asked about the day of the Last Day.
The Prophet (s) said, “The one who has been asked doesn’t know more than the one asking,” which means, “Jibreel, you know better.” Then Jibreel (a) said, “Tell me what you have of Signs,” and Sayyidina `Umar (r) related this and it is a strong Hadith.
قال فأخبرني عن الساعة قال ما المسؤول عنها بأعلم من السائل قال فأخبرني عن أماراتها قال أن تلد الأمة ربتها و أن ترى الحفاة العراة العالة رعاء الشاء يتطاولون في البنيان
He (Jibreel) said, “Inform me about the Hour.” The Prophet (s) said, “About that the one questioned knows no more than the questioner.” So he said, “Inform me about the signs of its coming.” Said the Prophet (s), “They are that the slave-girl will give birth to her mistress, and that you will see the barefooted, naked, destitute herdsman of sheep arrogantly building high buildings.”
(Muslim, Bukhari and others)
The part I want to mention first of all is, Yatatawaloona fi ’l-bunyaan, “Muslims will compete in building high-rises.” He didn’t say that they will “build buildings,” he said yatatawaloona fi ’l-bunyaan, which means “they go crazy for building higher and higher.” If a fire happens they cannot save the people. “We are going to see this, yaa `Umar, in the Last Days.” Are we seeing this or not? Why are we then blaming our arrogance, our pride and our ignorance on others? Blame it on yourself, your “self” [ego] is the one that is betraying everything!
Then Prophet (s) said, Wa-an tara ‘l-hufaat al-`uraat al-`aalati ru`aa ash-shaa’i “You will see the barefooted, naked people,” those who have no slippers on their feet, explained as ahli ‘l-jahli wa’l-jafaa, “the people of ignorance and rudeness,” which we now see means those people who are competing in building high-rises as Allah gave them oil money: they are people who are ignorant and rude. It is said, “This will give them an opportunity to have money in their hands and then they can do anything, so they will build high-rises.”
Money is the biggest factor in destroying human beings. What money? It is not even gold, they don’t give you the gold, what do they give you? Paper. You can burn it the next day...if a war happens and fire came it will burn paper, but gold will burn, it would remain among the fire, but paper will burn. Since they have money now they want to dictate on everyone what they want: who holds the money is the one that can dictate!
لا تقوم الساعة حتى يبني الناس بيوتا يوشونها وشي المراحل
The Hour will not arise until people build houses decorated like embroidered fabric.
(Bukhari in al-Adab al-Mufrad)
“The Day of Judgement will not come until people”--he said “people”, not “Muslims”--“until people will build homes, yooshoonaha washiyyi ‘l-marahil - ay thiyaabin muhattatah, in the way that we decorate cloth [printing lines (stripes), blue, yellow, red] they will decorate the outside of buildings like this.” Today in many countries, I see buildings designed in colors like clothes, as Prophet (s) said. How did the Prophet (s) know? We need an answer: we must believe, finished! Those who question, “How did the Prophet (s) know that?” in the Last Days people are going to decorate their buildings with different colors, red, blue, green, especially in desert countries the buildings, that is not in the Qur’an, but he knew, it’s a hadith.
Al-Hafiz, one of the greatest scholars, says, “The barefooted Bedouins who look after flocks of goats and sheep, are the origin of ignorance (ignorance originates from them), wa hum ru’oos an-naas, and they are leaders of humanity because, wa as-shaab ath-thawrati amwaal, [they are] the people who own the money and treasures.”
O Muslims, we can go on and on! May Allah (swt) give us the power to make us ride on our ego, because Prophet (s) said that he is the only one among human beings able to ride on his Shaytan, no one else. It means there is a Shaytan and that someone can ride on it, which is the Prophet (s). Run to ride on your Shaytan! That is a problem we are all facing.
`An `Abdullah Mas`ood said that the Prophet (s) said:
إن من أشراط الساعة إذا كانت التحية على المعرفة.
From the conditions of the Last Days is to greet only those one knows. (Ahmad)
“From the conditions of the Last Days is to shake hands and say, ‘As-salaamu `alaykum’ to someone only because you know him,” through your work with him, not because he is a Muslim; you are not running after people you don’t know, you are running only after those whom you know, that is what the Prophet (s) said. “Run after the innocent, sincere, pious people, make them your qudwah, leads, your examples (role models)!” May Allah (swt) guard us.
أفضل الجهاد كلمة عدل عند سلطان جائر
The best jihad is a word of justice (or a word of truth) before a tyrannical king.
( Related by Abi Sa`eed al-Khudree)
That Hadith strikes me always: “The best of jihad is kalimatu `adl.” The best of jihad...people are killing themselves for it, yet the Prophet (s) is saying, “The best jihad is to speak the word of truth.” To whom? To these ignorant ones who are not going to listen to you? To the leadership? No, to your own ego, to your own self: begin with yourself don’t begin with others!
[Du`a.]
[End of khutbah.]
http://sufilive.com/Don-t-Blame-Others-Blame-Yourself--5999.html
© Copyright 2015 Sufilive. All rights reserved. This transcript is protected
by international copyright law. Please attribute Sufilive when sharing it. JazakAllahu khayr.