Jumu`ah Khutbah at International Institute of Tolerance
Salaam `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. I don’t know from where he brought all this (introduction). Alhamdulillahi Rabbi ‘l-`Alameen wa ‘s-salaat wa ‘s-salaam `alaa ashraf al-mursaleen Sayyidina Muhammad (s) wa `alaa aalihi wa sahbihi wa sallam.
When we used to come here, there were around fifty masajid and I don’t know how many there are now, but alhamdulillah, we put the first Unity Conference here in Los Angeles (1996) and it was very successful, attended by ten-thousand people.
قَالَ رَبِّ أَرِنِي أَنظُرْ إِلَيْكَ قَالَ لَن تَرَانِي وَلَـكِنِ انظُرْ إِلَى الْجَبَلِ فَإِنِ اسْتَقَرَّ مَكَانَهُ فَسَوْفَ تَرَانِي فَلَمَّا تَجَلَّى رَبُّهُ لِلْجَبَلِ جَعَلَهُ دَكًّا وَخَرَّ موسَى صَعِقًا فَلَمَّا أَفَاقَ قَالَ سُبْحَانَكَ تُبْتُ إِلَيْكَ وَأَنَاْ أَوَّلُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
He (Musa) said, "O my Lord! Show Yourself to me, that I may look upon You." Allah said, "By no means can you see Me (directly), but look upon the mountain; if it abides in its place, then you shall see Me." When his Lord manifested His glory on the mount, He made it as dust and Moses fell down in a swoon. When he recovered his senses, he said, "Glory be to You! To You I return in repentance, and I am the first to believe." (Surat al-`Araaf, 7:143)
Allah (swt) said, “You cannot see Me, but look at the mountain; if it will stay by itself when I manifest My Beautiful Names on it, then you can see Me.” When Allah manifested one Light, an-Noor, not all Ninety-nine Lights, (...) will not leave dunya without seeing the Prophet (s), because it is said in hadith of the Prophet (s):
من رآنى فى الرؤية فسيرانى حقا
Man raa’nee fi ’l-manaam fa sa-yaranee haqqan.
Who saw me in the dream will see me in reality.
That dream will become reality. One great scholar, Imam Suyuti (r), said when the Prophet (s) said, “He will see me in reality,” haqqan, certainly “he will see me.” That is not in Akhirah, because in Akhirah everyone will see the Prophet (s). So what is the benefit to see the Prophet (s) only in Akhirah? The benefit is to see him in dunya.
رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
Rabbanaa atinaa fi 'd-dunya hasanatan wa fi ’l-akhirati hasanatan wa qinaa `adhaab an-naar.
O our Lord! Give us goodness in this life and goodness in the Next Life, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire. (Surat al-Baqara, 2:201)
What is the meaning of hasanah here? What is the best hasanah that Allah (swt) will give to His servant? What is the best? To see the Prophet (s), meaning, that ayah is mentioning, “Yaa Rabbee! Give us to see Prophet (s)! So our duty is to always seek how to reach the Prophet (s). There is one way, but only if we can take it, if we can do it. A man came to the Prophet (s), because people today speak about tatarruf, extremism, so it is good you mentioned extremism in the introduction; to be extreme, al-ghuloow fi ‘d-deen, extremism in religion. Prophet (s) prohibited that. Allah (swt) said:
إياكم والغلو في الدين، فإنما أهلك من كان قبلكم الغلو في الدين
Don’t be extreme in religion.
And he (s) said:
لاَ إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ
Laa ikraaha fi ’d-deen.
Let there be no compulsion in religion. (Surat al-Baqarah 2:256)
We use this verse for non-Muslims, but no, we have to use it on ourselves. So don’t make someone to say something bad by cornering them and giving them a hard time (with rigid doctrine). They do this on TV, debating, which is not nice as they are being taught how to fight. What kind of example we are giving of Islam?
That man came to the Prophet (s) so as to teach us what to do and he said, “What do I have to do, ansahnee?" Many people come to you asking what they have to do and if you are giving an advice, you have to fulfill that advice. Extreme ideas...you might make for yourself an idea of extremism. From Sahih Muslim, I like to mention this hadith of the Prophet (s). On the Day of Judgment, Allah said in Holy Qur'an, He praised all martyrs, shuhadaa. Those who are seated on the other side are getting more benefit as opposed to those seated in front, as they made a sacrifice to sit there. The Prophet (s) said, in the Day of Judgment, I will mention that hadith and it is now 1:35 p.m. and I have to obey Shaykh Ashraf's orders, so I will finish. I will mention this hadith, about how without thinking, tatarruf, going to the extreme, works.
(In the story of Qaabeel and Haabeel, Cain and Abel…) Qaabeel didn’t say to himself, “Why did the fire not come down and take my sacrifice?” Rather, he made a story in his mind that his brother is trying to defeat him. “I am better than my brother; why did Allah accept my brother's sacrifice but not mine?” So he went to kill his brother. What did Habeel say?
وَاتْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ نَبَأَ ابْنَيْ آدَمَ بِالْحَقِّ إِذْ قَرَّبَا قُرْبَانًا فَتُقُبِّلَ مِن أَحَدِهِمَا وَلَمْ يُتَقَبَّلْ مِنَ الآخَرِ قَالَ لَأَقْتُلَنَّكَ قَالَ إِنَّمَا يَتَقَبَّلُ اللّهُ مِنَ الْمُتَّقِينَ لَئِن بَسَطتَ إِلَيَّ يَدَكَ لِتَقْتُلَنِي مَا أَنَاْ بِبَاسِطٍ يَدِيَ إِلَيْكَ لَأَقْتُلَكَ إِنِّي أَخَافُ اللّهَ رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ
And convey to them, setting forth the truth, the story of the two sons of Adam, how each offered a sacrifice and it was accepted from one of them, whereas it was not accepted from the other. [And Cain] said, “I will surely slay you!” [Abel] replied, “Behold, God accepts only from those who are conscious of Him. Even if you lay your hand on me to slay me, I shall not lay my hand on you to slay you. Behold, I fear God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds.” (Surat al-Maida, 5:27-28)
He said, “You want to kill me, alright. I am going to Allah (swt), I am surrendering. Don’t try to fight for it, I am giving up myself and my animal that I sacrificed to Allah. Do what you want! I am not going to extend my hand to kill you.” Habeel was able to extend his hand, but he didn’t; he did not even carry a weapon. Whatever weapon they had in that time, they say it was the ‘Stone Age’ but I don't believe in that. It has many meanings. So he controlled his anger and Qaabeel did not control his anger. What came out of it? A fight.
So the Prophet (s) said, “Don’t be angry,” because out of it comes seventeen different bad characteristics: besides anger there is jealousy, malice and other bad characteristics, and most of them are are within me, within you and everyone. The Prophet (s) said don't try to cut each one of these seventeen branches, but cut from the trunk, cut the anger. And I will give an example that will perhaps be strange and whenever I read it, I say subhaanAllah, how illiterate we are in understanding hadith and Holy Qur'an, not illiterate that we cannot read, but illiterate that we cannot find all these deep secrets in hadith and Holy Qur'an.
إن أول الناس يقضى يوم القيامة عليه رجل اسُتشهد، فأتي به، فعرفه نعمته، فعرفها، قال: فما عملت فيها؟ قال: قاتلت فيك حتى اسُتشهدت، قال: كذبت، ولكنك قاتلت لأن يقال: جريء، فقد قيل، ثم أمر به، فسحب على وجهه حتى ألقي في النار.
The first to be judged on the Day of Resurrection will be a man who had died as a martyr. He will be brought forward. Allah will remind him of the favours He had bestowed upon him and the man will acknowledge them. Then He will ask him: 'What did you do to express gratitude for it?' The man will reply: 'I fought for Your Cause till I was martyred.' Allah will say: 'You have lied. You fought so that people might call you courageous; and they have done so.' Command will then be issued about him and he will be dragged on his face and thrown into Hell. (Abu Hurayrah, Muslim)
It is narrated in Sahih Muslim that on Judgment Day, Allah (swt) will call people of three different groups and I will mention only one of these groups. Allah will call the shaheeds, the martyrs, and He will tell them, kadibhta, “You lied. You did that for people to say you are a shaheed and you did not do it for Me."
How many go today and say, “I did this” and “I put that masjid and I gave to those people.” No, when you do something you must do it for Allah, not to tell people, “I did this!” He said, “I died for You. I gave myself for You," and Allah says, kadibhta, “You lied! You did it so that people can call you shaheed and carry your name and display it on a poster,” as we see today in many countries back home, such as in Pakistan or other countries they write, ‘ash-shaheed’ so and so. You are not a shaheed! And we see that today: they say, “We killed ourselves for this ‘jihad’,” and they even make videos advertising before that, to say, “I went to become shaheed,” where he was implying to people to put their pictures everywhere in order to raise their and their family’s status! And Allah orders the angels, “O My angels, take him to the Hellfire!” Allahu Akbar!
I read that hadith every time, that is why they poisoned that person's mind through anger and hate, hate of anything. And Allah (swt) says fasbir, “Be patient.” Don't go and do a foolish thing. Qaabeel killed Haabeel because he got angry. Check yourself to see if either you are angry and want to kill or if you are arrogant and want your name mentioned on TV and the cable network.
O Muslims! Allah (swt) gave us a way when Prophet (s) said, laa taghdab, “Don't be angry,” so we have to say, n`am, “Yes, yaa Rasoolullah, sadaqata, you told the truth. Our nature is molded with anger.” That is why the Prophet (s) knew the secret of the human nature that it is molded by good and bad characteristics.
And Allah (swt) said:
فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا
Fa-alhamahaa fujoorahaa wa taqwaahaa.
And (the self’s) enlightenment as to its wrong and its right. (Surat ash-Shams, 91:8)
And Allah (swt) said:
قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
Qul in kuntum tuhibboona 'Llaaha fattabi`oonee yuhbibkumullaahu wa yaghfir lakum dhunoobakum w 'Allaahu Ghafooru 'r-Raheem.
Say (O Muhammad), "If you (really) love Allah, then follow me! Allah will love you and forgive your sins, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:31)
Allah loves the Prophet (s), so where did He take him? To the Station of Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa (Two Bows' Length or Nearer). According to the ayah, if we love the Prophet (s), where will he take us? Allah loved the Prophet (s), He took him to Mi`raaj, if we love the Prophet (s) and follow him, he will take us to where he is going, so we will be in Mi`raaj and Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa! That is because our Messenger is there. Do you think he will leave his ummah and say, “Alright, you go there, goodbye. I am here alone.” Is the Prophet (s) going to go alone to that station, to sit there alone by himself? No! He wants his ummah, so the whole ummah will be with the Prophet (s), we will be accompanying him in that Mi`raaj!
May Allah (swt) forgive us and bless us.
Bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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