Salaamu alaikum

heh, can't say its been uneventful lately. weddings, halaqas, tests, cars gettin broken into, etc. but right now, this is about the Khutbah i gave at Dar ul Taqwa. First of all, it was for the kids of the summer camp, so it wasn't like anything big. yea it was the first khutbah i've given, and i started losing my voice throughout the middle of it like a retard. but I did actually get through the whole thing and finish it off. Alhamdulillah.

i started writing it the night before and finished it in the morning of Friday. it was all a jumble of stuff, but alhamdulillah most of the stuff was just things on my mind that i wanted to say, so I didn't have to look at the paper at all until the very end. so now that ive gone and fixed it up so that its readable to the human eye, im gonna post it here. note: it LOOKS long, but it really didn't take that long when delivering. also, I didn't include the usual Duaa that you say during the Khutbah, and I didn't include the Duaas at the end. so here it is:

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Assalaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu

Allah SWT says in the Quran:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ اتَّقُواْ اللّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلاَ تَمُوتُنَّ إِلاَّ وَأَنتُم مُّسْلِمُونَ

“O you who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared. And die not except in a state of Islam with complete submission to Allah.”

Today, I wanted to talk about a topic that is discussed many times and constantly. And although, Masha’Allah I don’t think that any of you over here will learn anything new from what I am going to say, it will serve as a reminder. And this reminder is first and foremost to myself, because this is something that I need to be reminded about constantly. This topic is Taqwa.

Now what is Taqwa? I’m sure that all of the brothers and sisters here already know what Taqwa is: fear of Allah. Or that is the basic definition used by most people. And then if we go deeper into the meaning of Taqwa, we all know that it is not just fear of Allah, but it is a state between fear and hope. Fear of Allah’s displeasure, and hope for His pleasure and His Mercy. To lean too far on either side, for us to simply fear, and leave out the hope part, or for us to become so hopeful that we leave out the fear part, is incorrect and can be very dangerous.

So now for one to say that Allah is Al-Ghafoor and Al-Raheem. At least 17 times a day, I would hope more, but at the least, 17 times a day, we read Surah Fatiha. And in the second Ayah of Surah Fatiha, we say Al-Rahmanir Raheem. The Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. Now some people, Subhan Allah, they take this to such a level that they say Allah is the Most Merciful, so why would he ever punish me. I am not like most of the people out there, going out, drinking, partying. I’m just a regular Muslim doing my part, so why would Allah punish me? They feel content with their deeds and Akhirah. This is incorrect. Of course, Allah says he is Al-Ghafoor and Al-Raheem, but then do we forget the verse where Allah SWT says:

وَلَكِنَّ عَذَابَ اللَّهِ شَدِيدٌ

“But Surely, the Punishment of Allah is severe!”

How can we be so bold to say that Allah will never punish us? We have to go back and look at the attitude that the Companions had. The Companions of the Prophet SAW were the very people who were given a status unequaled by others in the Quran. Allah says about them:

رَّضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْوَرَضُوا عَنْهُ

“Allah is pleased with them, and they are pleased with him.”

For Allah to say in his Book, Al-Quran, the absolute Truth, that he is pleased with a group of people is nothing to shrug off. It is a very big deal. During the second generation of Muslims, when the Sahabah started dying off, they were considered gems in the Ummah. If a group of people had the Sahabah on their side, it gave their position so much more weight. The Sahabah had a level of their own. And then even within themselves, there were ranks amongst them. The likes of Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq, Umar bin Khattab, Uthman bin Affan, and Ali ibn Abi Talib, (RA) along with the rest of the ten that were given the glad tidings of paradise in one sitting, had their own status. Imagine that, the Prophet (SAW) listing ten Companions, one by one by one, saying they will be in Jannah. And everything the Prophet (SAW) said, came from Allah, so they are getting a guarantee that they will be in the highest place in Jannah along with the Prophet SAW. And yet these same people, who knew that when they died, they were going to heaven, used to spend their entire nights in Tahajjud prayer, crying until their beards would drip with tears. These same people gave all of their wealth in the path of Allah. These same people use to fear that they were hypocrites.

Uthman bin Affan (RA), who was the third Khalifa of the Muslims, was murdered by the hypocrites of his time. The night before he was killed, he had a dream where he saw the Prophet SAW, sitting with Abu Bakr and Umar (RA), and he told him that tomorrow, you will break your fast with us. So that morning when he went out of the house, he was fasting. He has just received confirmation from the Prophet that he is going to be with him in Jannah. And this is the same person for whom the Prophet SAW said that “after today, Uthman can do no wrong.” And this is the same person for whom one day, when the Prophet SAW was reclining with his companions, just chilling, and some of his clothing had slipped and uncovered part of his leg, and Uthman walked into the gathering. The Prophet SAW immediately got up and fixed his clothing. The Companions asked why he did that. And he said, “Should I not be shy in front of the person whom even the Angels are shy of?” Even the Angels were shy to be in the presence of Uthman (RA). And this same person, when he was dying, what did he say?

“Laa ilaaha illa ant, Subhanaka, inni kuntu minath Thalimeen.”

“There is no god but You (Allah), Glory be to You, Surely I am from the wrongdoers.”

If Uthman (RA) considered himself, after all this, to be a Dhaalim, an oppressor, due to his fear and Taqwa, how can we, people who sin day in and day out and don’t even acknowledge our deeds, say that on the Day of Judgment, Allah will pardon our mistakes?

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Allah SWT says in the Quran:

قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَى أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

Say: "O My servants who have transgressed against themselves! Despair not of the mercy of Allah, verily, Allah forgives all sins, Truly, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”

This verse gives us tremendous hope. Allah is saying that those who have transgressed against themselves! And in another place he says,

[وَمَن يَعْمَلْ سُوءاً أَوْ يَظْلِمْ نَفْسَهُ ثُمَّ يَسْتَغْفِرِ اللَّهَ يَجِدِ اللَّهَ غَفُوراً رَّحِيماً ]

“And whoever does evil or wrongs himself but afterwards seeks Allah's forgiveness, he will find Allah Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful”

Allah is describing someone disobeying Him as doing Dhulm (Oppression) upon themselves, because that is the actuality of it. We are oppressing ourselves when we choose to disobey Allah, because no one else will feel the ramifications of our deeds on the Day of Judgment but ourselves. And yet Allah is saying that those who have transgressed against their own souls, or wrong their souls and commit evils, to the point where they think they have mountains of sins on their scales, “but afterwards seek Allah’s forgiveness, he will find Allah Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful.” And in the first Ayah, Allah says, “Do NOT despair in the mercy of Allah, Verily Allah is will forgive ALL sins, and he is Al-Ghafoor and Al-Raheem.” To despair in the hope of Allah’s forgiveness is only weakness of faith. And it is wrong to do so. Why? Because think about it. Allah is describing himself with His attributes as the Most Merciful of all, and the Most Forgiving of all. So when we say that Allah can never forgive me, we are actually limiting the mercy and attributes of Allah SWT! He is saying he will do something, and we are saying he cannot. That’s a very big deal! InshaAllah I will end with a Hadith of the Prophet SAW:

Imam Ahmad recorded that Anas bin Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah , say:

«وَالَّذِي نَفْسِي بِيَدِهِ لَوْ أَخْطَأْتُمْ حَتْى تَمْلَأَ خَطَايَاكُمْ مَا بَيْنَ السَّمَاءِ وَالْأَرْضِ، ثُمَّ اسْتَغْفَرْتُمُ اللهَ تَعَالَى لَغَفَرَ لَكُمْ، وَالَّذِي نَفْسُ مُحَمَّدٍبِيَدِهِ لَوْ لَمْ تُخْطِئُوا لَجَاءَ اللهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ بِقَوْمٍ يُخْطِئُونَ، ثُمَّ يَسْتَغْفِرُونَ اللهَ فَيَغْفِرُ لَهُم»

(By the One in Whose Hand is my soul, if you were to commit sin until your sins filled the space between heaven and earth, then you were to ask Allah for forgiveness, He would forgive you. By the One in Whose Hand is the soul of Muhammad, if you did not commit sin, Allah would bring other people who would commit sins and then ask Allah for forgiveness so that He could forgive them.)