Jumu'ah Khutbah
2010 Africa Tour Series
Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah, nasta`eenuhu wa nastaghfirahu wa nastahdee wa natawakallu `alayh wa na`oodhu billah min shuroori anfusina wa min sayyiaati `amaalina. Man yahdillah fa laa mudilla lah wa man yudlil fa laa haadiya lah. Yaa ayyuha 'l-ladheena mu'minoon al-haadiroon it-taqul-Lah wa ati`ooh. Wa 'n-ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa nashadu anna Muhammadan `abduhu wa habeebuhu wa Rasooluh. Ayyuhal mu'minoon al-haadiroon itaqoollah wa atee`ooh. Innallaha ma` alladheena ataqaw wa 'l-ladheena hum muhsinoon.
O Muslims! O Believers! O people of Ghana! Prophet (s) has mentioned many ahadith of the Last Days and I recommend every one of you to go and think about these ahadith of the Prophet (s). He mentioned that there would be coming a time when too much ignorance would be coming down and knowledge would be lifted up and too much killing. If you look today, you see too much ignorance around the world and there is no place where there is not ignorance. People are now running away from Islam and the teachings of Islam and running towards the dunya world. Prophet (s) said, "This is a sign of the Last Days."
Today, no one is after `ilm, knowledge. People are after televisions, people are after their dunya. Prophet (s) said, "There will be too much fitna," and today you see too much confusions around the world.
`Amr Ibn al-Aas (r) reported that the Prophet (s) said, "Allah (swt) will not take knowledge from the hearts of people, but in these days there will be too much ignorance because `ulama will pass away," and no one comes in their place; when an `alim goes another `alim does not come back. These pious `ulama, we must ask that Allah (swt) gives them long life, such as the `ulama of this country, especially the national chief imam who is representing all the Muslims in this country. We have to pray to Allah (swt) to give him long life in order that he can continue, because we are lacking such `ulama. There are `ulama who are studying Islam in non-Muslim schools and universities, but real `ulama are those who took their religion from their parents or from their teachers up to Sayyidina Imam Abu Malik (r) or Sayyidina Imam Abu Hanifa (r), Sayyidina Imam Shafi`ee (r), Sayyidina Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (r), and from them to Prophet (s).
The reality of ijazah is the best `ilm. There can't be ijazah of doctorship. They say, doctor in this, doctor in that. No! The best is from whom you took your knowledge, from which imam you took your knowledge, and then from whom that imam took his knowledge, who was his teacher up to Prophet (s)? Still, mashaa-Allah in this country, you have that. I am so surprised that I am seeing the chief imam is taking the `ilm from his parents up to Prophet (s). Today when there is lack of knowledge, lack of `ulama, what do they do? You begin to find the new teachers, new `ulamas are giving fatwas without permission and the Prophet (s) predicted this 1400 years ago! People are going to have a lot of scholars and `alims who will give normal people wrong information.
Explaining the hadith, Ibn Masood (r) said, "Run towards`ilm (knowledge), run towards the pious people whom you cannot find in the ( inaudible...) they are buried in their house. Try to do long worshiping to Allah (swt) as you don't know when you are going to die."
One moment in your life you are going to die, and you don't know if it is this moment, or after one year, or after one-hundred years. Allah knows, no one knows.
إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ
Inna lil-Llaahi wa inna ilayhi raaji`oon
From Allah we come and to Him is out return. (2:156)
You are going to leave this dunya. Then those rich people around you are not going to take their cars with them, they are not going to take their bank accounts, they are not going to take anything from this dunya, they are leaving it behind and they are going to go empty-handed except for their worshipness; that is what will be for them, nothing else!
O Muslims! Run after worshipness. Sayyidina Muhammad (s) was worshipping Allah (swt) until his feet were swollen from too much worshipness and Sayyidah `Ayesha (r) said, "Yaa Rasoolullah, Allah (swt) has forgiven you and you are ma`soom (innocent). Why are you doing so much?"
And he said, alaa akoonu `abdan shakooran, "You don't want me to be a thankful servant of my Lord?"
O Muslims!
لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ
Wa la in shakartum la-azeedanakum
If you thank Me, I will give you more. (14:7)
Say, "Shukran yaa Rabbee, yaa Allah, shukran yaa Allah, shukran yaa Allah."
And then he said, "Don't be stubborn," in the inspiration of the hadith, don't be only accepting one opinion and not accepting the other. Keep always your friendship with the people who were your friends for a long time; it means keep respect to your elders. Who is the elder here in this masjid? Who is the elder of this whole country? The elder is the one that you can see the sign of sincerity on him, as Allah said in Holy Qur'an:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ اتَّقُواْ اللّهَ وَكُونُواْ مَعَ الصَّادِقِينَ
Ya ayyuha'l-ladheena amanu kunu ma’a s-sadiqeen
O believers, fear Allah and be with the trustworthy people. (9:119)
I will say to him, O chief imam, may Allah (swt) give you long life and give your people long life and support this country!
I will end with this, Prophet (s) said, "One of the signs of the Last Days is that the time will become so close to each other, what used to take years will take months, what used to take weeks will take a day, what used to take a day is like putting a light on a candle, quickly."
Today everything is indicating this hadith. Today, you can leave America and come to Ghana in seven hours, and before it took years. Today you can go from America to Indonesia, from Far West to the Far East, in less than 21 hours. Before you needed years and years and you might die on the road. Today you can speak by telephones from north to east in one second. As Prophet (s) said, "What used to take years is taking seconds now." How did Prophet (s) know that 1400 years ago?
O Muslims! Don't think Prophet (s) doesn't know science! Science is under the feet of the Prophet (s)! Allah did not prevent anything, not science, nothing from Prophet (s)!
O Muslims! May Allah (swt) accept this from us, and may Allah bless us and bless this country and bless you all.
Aqoolu qawlee haadha wa astaghfirullahi 'l-adheem lee wa lakum wa li-saa'iri 'l-mustaghfireen fa yaa fawzan li 'l- mustaghfireen, astaghfirullah.
(Salawaat and du`a)
(End of khutbah)