Jumu`ah Khutbah at As-Siddiq Institute & Mosque (ASIM)
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh.
O Muslims, Believers! We are speaking in English because we are in a place that knows only English, but the Arabic language of the Holy Qur'an and the Holy Hadith of the Prophet (s) gives you a taste. When you read [in Arabic] you feel there is sweetness, there is something extraordinary that is within the letters, words, within the verses and surahs, and within the whole Holy Qur'an and the whole Hadith that you cannot find except in Heaven.
Allah (swt) said to the Prophet (s) in the first Revelation that we have to try as much as we can to understand, all of us, because the Holy Qur'an carries a lot of ma`anee, secrets and descriptions that differ from one to another. Allah (swt) said in the Holy Qur'an:
وَفَوْقَ كُلِّ ذِي عِلْمٍ عَلِيمٌ
Above every knower is a (higher) knower. (Surah Yusuf, 12:76)
Above every knower or every science or words there are better words, better sciences, better `aalim, knowers, and above every knower there might be thousands of greater knowers. So no one can claim that he is a knower because Allah said, wa fawqa kulli dhee `ilmin `aleem, above every knower there is a knower who already experienced his knowledge. And knowledge never ends. That is why Allah (swt) said to the Prophet (s) in the first Revelation, “Iqraa, read!” then the Revelation came, and the Prophet (s) is Ummiyy: Allah (swt) made things miraculous and showed the greatness of the Prophet (s) when He revealed Holy Qur'an on the Prophet (s), who never wrote or read anything.
اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَا قْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ ٱقۡرَأۡ وَرَبُّكَ ٱلۡأَكۡرَمُ ٱلَّذِى عَلَّمَ بِٱلۡقَلَمِ عَلَّمَ ٱلۡإِنسَـٰنَ مَا لَمۡ يَعۡلَمۡ
Read in the Name of your Lord, Who created, created Man out of a sperm-cell. Read! And your Lord is The Most Bountiful, The One Who taught Man by the Pen, taught Man what we did not know.
(Surat al-Alaq, 96:1-5)
So when Allah (swt) said, iqraa bismi rabbika alladhee khalaq, “Read in the Name of Your Lord Who Created”, what knowledge has been revealed with that ayah, what kind of information that any human being needs? When you design a computer you begin to assemble something and read instructions to see if it is working or not. What do you put in the computer for it to carry and know everything that you have put in it, to upload and download? There is some kind of knowledge, but it is limited. When anything relates to Allah it is unlimited. Today people say computers do everything. Can a computer take you to Paradise? Can computers stop you from dying? Can computers make you read and write when you enter your mother’s womb? No. Can computers know when the soul enters the mother's womb? No, because we are limited.
Everyone of us is a computer and your capacity depends how much memory you have in your brain. In the end of the brain there is a small piece like a lentil; everything goes there in that small piece of flesh. What is it made of? How do we remember, how do we speak? Sometimes parents come to me and say, “My son does not speak.” In that case, there is something wrong in that chip in the mind. So what knowledge did Allah send with Sayyidina Jibril (a) in the first Revelation to Prophet (a), when He related everything to Allah himself? He said "Read!" You read, but in the Name of Allah, Bismillaahi ‘r-Rahmaani ‘r-Raheem, read! What will be opened? What did Allah open to the Prophet (s)? That is what is important as Allah opened a lot. Go to ancient Muslim libraries and you find millions of books, ancient manuscripts narrating all they did in their life, explaining the Hadith of the Prophet (s) and explaining from Holy Qur'an. Imagine millions of books and still they are explaining and interpreting from Holy Qur’an and Holy Hadith, which means Allah sent a lot of information when He said to His Prophet (s), "Read!" Allah (sws) knows he doesn’t read, but he made Prophet read with Kun fa-yakoon, heavenly messages. But dunya messages, the Prophet (s) never touched a pen for dunya; the Pen will be for him in Akhirah.
In dunya we are touching pens, but whatever is a dunya issue, Prophet (s) pulled his hand out of it. Allah said directly to his heart, “Read! Make your heart read, connect it to the Divine Presence and you will find aja`aib, astonishing information!” And one of them is this simple Hadith, only two lines, but this is what we are looking for and the whole message is for this only. Prophet (s) said, “I have been sent to perfect you.”
انما بعثت لاتمم مكارم الاخلاق
I have been sent to perfect the best of conduct (your behavior and character). (Bazzaar)
Are we perfect? No. Are we half perfect? No. Are we zero perfect? No, we are minus zero! Prophet (s) said, “I have been sent to perfect you.” To perfect someone means to teach him and make him accept what he is taught, it is not only saying the Hadith and that’s it. No, the Prophet (s) put understanding of these Hadiths in the hearts of Sahaabah. Most of them relate to Akhirah because according to Hadith, if you do good in dunya then in Akhirah you end up in a good shape: it is not how to dress, how to wear a turban or jubbah. Even if you don’t wear anything, Sayyidina `Ali (r) and Sayyida Fatima (r) did not have except one garment that they exchanged when they wanted to pray. One of them prayed in it then gve it to the other to pray in it. Every one of us has hundreds of garments, which will not take us to Paradise, not even if you have biggest turban or the biggest jubbah or the biggest hat in the world! What takes you to Paradise is this Hadith:
عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: ألا أخبركم بأهل الجنة كل ضعيف متضاعف لو أقسم على الله لأبره, ألا أخبركم بأهل النار كل عتل جواظ مستكبر
Shall I inform you about the People of Paradise? (They will be) every weak and oppressed person. Were he to swear by Allah, Allah would fulfill his oath. Shall I inform you about the People of Hellfire? (They will be) every violent and arrogant person. (Narrated by Haritha bin Wahb. Bukhari, Muslim)
Alaa ukhbirukum bi ahli ‘l-jannah? What do we want? Is it not Paradise? And Prophet (s) is telling them, “Do you like me to tell you about the People of Paradise?” What kind of people are there? Can we be like them? The door is open so of course we can, try! Don’t walk around raising your nose or head as if you are a peacock! So what did he say to them? Kullu da`eefin mutada`afin law aqsama `ala ‘Llahi la-abarrah, “Every humble person who humbles himself, if he asks Allah for anything Allah will give it to him.” It is not necessary that he dresses well or eats well, or eats organic. If you eat all the organic foods in the world, that will not extend or shorten your life one minute. You see them jogging in the morning, for what? To make themselves in shape? Okay, is it better to be in shape for dunya or Akhirah? To be in shape for Akhirah is better. Prophet (s) is not telling you not to jog, he is telling you to be humble. When you jog to make your body nice, but don’t be proud, be humble: humbleness takes you to Prophet (s)! Humbleness is what takes you to Allah’s forgiveness!
Then he said, Alaa ukhbirukum bi ahli ‘n-naar? “Shall I tell you about the People of Hellfire?” Everyone is running from Hellfire. I was holding a pot by the wrong side and then my two fingers were burned. I was in so much pain for a little burn. Imagine in Hellfire, every moment we are burned and recreated and then burned again, do we like that? No, we like Paradise. There are lot of easy, simple, nice Hadiths about what takes you to Paradise, such as:
من قال لا اله الا الله دخل الجنة
Whoever says ‘Laa ilaaha illa ’Llah’ enters Paradise. (Mustadrak of an-Nisaburi)
But Allah wants us to change our behaviors for bad characteristics to be taken away. Of course, Allah will send the Ummat an-Nabi (s) to Paradise, it is guaranteed in many Hadiths. This is what we are asking, Paradise. So Hellfire, alaa ukhbirukum bi ahli ‘n-naar, “Would you like me to tell you about the People of Hellfire? They are kullu `utillin jawwaazh, every ignorant person who pretends he knows everything.” Do we pretend that we know everything? Yes, but in reality we know nothing, there are others that know better than us. So what are you proud of? Many people wrote hundreds of books. You make tasbeeh? Many people make much more than you. This is between you and Allah (swt). He is saying to you “Don’t be ignorant, don’t show ignorance, jaahil, don’t be jawwaazh, ghayr muhim.” People today think they are important, but in reality they are not important to Allah (swt), Who said to Prophet in a Hadith Qudsi::
لو كانت الدنيا تعدل عند الله جناح بعوضة ما سقى كافراً منها شربة ماء
If the value of this dunya weighed the wing of a mosquito, Allah would never give a cup of water for the unbelievers to drink. (Tirmidhi)
This dunya does not weigh (in value) the wing of a mosquito. Do we weigh the weight of the wing of a mosquito? There are people that weigh 300 or 500 pounds, and Allah is saying all this does not weigh the wing of a mosquito, which means that wing of mosquito is stronger than these wrestlers.
And the third, last one is don't be mustakbir, arrogant, proud, seeing yourself. These are the people of Hellfire. May Allah forgive us and protect us and keep us. There is no time because people have to work inshaa-Allah next week, but I will mention this Hadith quickly.
مر رجل على رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم فقال لرجل عنده جالس ما رأيك في هذا فقال رجل من أشراف الناس هذا والله حري إن خطب أن ينكح وإن شفع أن يشفع قال فسكت رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم ثم مر رجل آخر فقال له رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم ما رأيك في هذا فقال يا رسول الله هذا رجل من فقراء المسلمين هذا حري إن خطب أن لا ينكح وإن شفع أن لا يشفع فقال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم هذا خير من ملء الأرض مثل هذا
A man passed by Rasoolullah (s) and he (s) said to someone sitting near him, “What do you think of this one?” The person said, “He is a man from the most noble of people. By Allah, it is appropriate that if he proposes he will marry and if he intercedes it will be granted.” Rasoolullah (s) remained silent. Then another man passed by, and Rasoolullah (s) asked the person. “What do you think of this one?” He said, “O Rasoolullah, this man is from the poor ones among the Muslims. It is appropriate that if he proposes he will not marry and if he intercedes it will not be granted.” Then Rasoolullah (s) said, “This one is better than if the whole world were full of the other one.” (Bukhari)
Marra rajulun `ala ‘nabi, have you read that Hadith? Fa qaala li-rajlin `indahu jaalis maa ra’yuka fee hadha? Prophet was sitting and one person was passing and that person saw the Prophet (s) and stopped. The Prophet (s) looked at him and said, “What do you think of this person?” People can see him, i.e., “You are sitting with me and I am asking how you see this person.” That one replied, rajulun min ashraafi ‘n-naas hadha wa ‘Llahi harriyyun in khataba ankah wa in shafa`a yushaffa`, “This person is from the high levels of society. If he knocks on any door for marriage everyone likes to give his daughter to him because he is one of the best people. If he proposes, his proposal will be granted; if he wants to marry, he will be given what he wants. If someone asks him to intercede in government or court or anything, people will listen to him and accept his intercession.” The Prophet (s) kept quiet, fa-sakata rasoolullah; look, adab, not like us: if someone says one word we say ten words. You say something, we say the opposite, but Prophet (s) kept quiet.
Then another person passed by. The Prophet (s) said to the same man, “What do you say about that man?” He said, hadha rajulun min fuqaraa’i ‘l-muslimeen, “Yaa Rasoolullah, this man is from the poorest families among Muslims. If he proposes no one will accept his proposal, if he asks for marriage no one will accept. If he asks for intercession for someone to do something good, no one will listen to him.” What did Prophet (s) say? This is what is important. The first one is rich so they will give him everything, the second one is poor so they will throw him out. What did Prophet say? He looked at the poor guy and said, hadha khayrun min mil’i l-ard mithli hadha, “This one is better than if the whole world were full with the first one, this one is better than all of them.” Why? Because he is humble. Be humble!
Listen, as Sayyidina `Ali (r) said, be silent, as-sukoot, don’t talk, don't argue. Be silent and as-simaa`, listen to what they are saying and then al-mushaahada, observe them, then harakah, move. Then you have experienced what they are saying, what they are planning, what is their strategy, then Allah makes your opinion a good opinion. May Allah make us humble.
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