khutbah time

assalaamu alaikum

yeaaaaaa, so before it becomes too late (not that it's not super late already) to make this post and i forget all about it, i will. earlier last week my teacher calls me up and leaves me a message saying that it's important and i should call him back. so i do, and it turns out he's in buffalo and won't make it back in time for jumuah, and i gotta go to manassas, VA and lead. woohoo. lesson: never call back when things are important...sike? sike sike.

anyways, i prepared the joint on friday after fajr. it was very simple, just enough to get through. here it is:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, He who has humbled and broke the stiff necks of tyrants from before us with Death, who has reminded us by sending to the grave those who wished immortality, sending them from the greatest of palaces to the lowliest of graves, that none of us is exempt from this fate of death.

“Every soul shall taste death.”

However, today, it seems that we have no problem listening to hours upon hours of discussion on politics, or hours and hours of vain talk full of gossip and hate that show us how different we are from one another, yet we can’t bare a few minutes worth of talking about how similar we are, because every single one of us is going to experience death. And we hate it to the point that if somebody reminds us of it, we begin to complain, and tell the person to talk about something else.

Allah SWT says in the Quran: “Say: (As for) the death from which you flee, that will surely overtake you, then you shall be sent back to the Knower of the unseen and the seen, and He will inform you of that which you did.”

And the Prophet SAW encouraged us to remember death. He said, “Frequently remember the destroyer of all desires.” Why? The entire reason for this type of remembrance is NOT so that we leave everything and sit in our rooms and think about how we are going to die, but it is to take away the love and attachment of our hearts to this world so that we can make preparations for the Afterlife. We still have jobs, school, family, and lives, but we won’t allow these things to take us away from the remembrance of Allah. What is this life besides play and amusement? Someone who is heedless of death will only indulge in worldly desires, because he feels he will live forever. He knows he will die. Because statistics show that on average, people end up dying. But he doesn’t REALLY know. He has the information in his brain that he could die any second, whether it be in a car accident, sickness, or he simply drop to the ground as his heart stops beating, but he doesn’t REALLY know. And few of us do, because we do not remember death.

Among the knowledge of the Unseen, which is only with Allah, is the hour of the trumpet being blown. The day of judgement. However, know that for each and every one of us, the Akhirah, starts as soon as we die. And the topic of death and the journey through the different stages are so long and detailed that it would take days to try and relate everything that has been revealed to us by Allah and his messanger and collected by the scholars of the past. So we will talk about death itself.

Imam Ghazali talks about death in his section of Ihya Ulum-ul-Din and says, Know that there is no terror, calamity or torment except that of the pains of death alone, that would be enough to render a person’s life miserable and would it impossible for him to live in happiness.

Take for example a man who is enjoying himself at a party, with the finest luxuries and delights, but he knows and is expecting someone to come in later that night and kill him, he would not be able to enjoy his party. Yet with every breath, the Angel of Death draws nearer to us, and the pains of death come closer, but we pay this no mind.

We all know of the flimsy excuse as to why our brother is not practicing. Because I’m still young. InshaAllah when I get older, I will start praying. Or the notion that when I’m about to die, all I gotta say is the kalima, and I go straight to paradise. It’s in the hadith, right? The Prophet (SAW) said: Advise the dying person to say, (There is nothing worthy of worship except Allah) because a dying Muslim who recites this will be saved from Hell. So a person can do whatever they want in their life and then right when they are about to die, say the shahadah? That is completely false. A person will die with their life on their mind and on their tongue.

There are so many accounts of people lying ready to die, having entire conversations, singing their favorite songs, asking about loved ones, but when told to recite the kalima, their throats lock up and their voices are stopped at their throats, and they simply cannot say it. Right now, anybody can say the shahadah by their lips but not really mean it, but over there, you won’t be able to even say it with your lips unless it was constantly on your tongue.

Just a couple weeks ago, an Imam was giving a talk to some youth, and he told a story about how he was going to the masjid for Salah, and he was in his car making dhikr, and while he was driving around the curve, a drunk driver came and hit him in a head on collision. And at that second, when he could do nothing to control his thoughts, when everything was just instinct and he had no chance to prepare what he would say, he said, SubhanAllah, I think I’m about to die. And he said the shahadah, and he COULD, because it was on his lips constantly. His tongue was wet with the dhikr of Allah constantly; it was like he was training himself; you know how fighters do, they train so hard so that when it comes down to the punch, its all reflex. Its not fake. Its natural and smooth. Because they have been practicing. The same way we cannot expect to be able to have Allah on our lips upon our death if we have music in our ears all day long, or useless talking, backbiting, gossiping, slandering, all these stories playing in our minds all the time. We need to start practicing. Make dhikr. May Allah make us from those who keep their tongues wet with His remembrance.

And do not think that death can come easy, for the Prophet SAW himself used to say, “Oh Allah, Lessen for Muhammad the agonies of death!” The Prophet, upon his time of death had a vessel of water nearby him, where he would dip his hands and rub his face and say, “Oh Allah, alleviate for me the agonies of death!” An then Fatima would say, “How great is my sorrow at your sorrow, father!” But he said, “There shall be no more sorrow for your father after this day’. If the prophet SAW himself sought refuge from the pains of death, and he was the purest of the pure, imagine us who’s souls are foul with the muck and grime of sin.

Umar RA said once, “O Ka’b, Speak to us of death!’ Certainly O Commander of the Faithful, Death is as a thorny twig made to enter the stomach of a man, so that each thorn becomes attached to an artery. Then a powerful man pulls at it, and it takes what it takes, and leaves what it leaves.’

Such are the agonies of death, and we ask Allah to ease the pain of Death for us and make us from those for whom death is a gift from Allah.

Allah SWT says, Oh you who believe, Fear Allah the way he should be feared. And do not die except in the state of Islam.

And Taqwa, which is translated as fear, is more than just fear. It is a balance between both fear and hope. And the Prophet SAW warns us about the fire and the punishment of Allah, as well as gives us hope by giving us the glad tidings of Paradise. And I end with a narration of the Prophet SAW telling us of the last man to enter paradise.

Narrated Ibn Mas'ud: Verily the Messenger of Allah said: The last to enter Paradise would be a man who would walk once, stumble once and be burnt by the Fire once. Then when he passes beyond it, he will turn to it and say: Blessed is He Who has saved me from thee. Allah has given me something He has not given to any one of those in earlier or later times.

Then a tree would be raised for him and he will say: O my Lord! Bring me near this tree so that I may take shelter in its shade and drink of its water. Allah, the Exalted and Great, would say: O son of Adam, if I grant you this, you will ask Me for something else. He would say: No, my Lord. And he would promise Him that he would not ask for anything else. His Lord would excuse him because He sees what he cannot help desiring; so He would bring him bear it, and he would take shelter in its shade and drink of its water. Afterwards a tree more beautiful than the first would be raised before him and he would say: O my Lord! Bring me near this tree in order that I may drink of its water and take shelter in its shade and I shall not ask Thee for anything else. He (Allah) would say: O son of Adam, if I bring you near it you may ask me for something else. He would promise Him that he would not ask for anything else. His Lord will excuse him because He sees something he cannot help desiring. So He would bring him near it and he would enjoy its shade and drink its water.

Then a tree would be raised for him at the gate of Paradise, more beautiful than the first two. He would say: O my Lord! Bring me near this (tree) so that I may enjoy its shade and drink from its water. I shall not ask Thee for anything else. He (Allah) would say: O son of Adam! Did you not promise Me that you would not ask Me for anything else? He would say: Yes my Lord, but I shall not ask Thee for anything else. His Lord would excuse him for He sees something the temptation of which he could not resist.

He (Allah) would bring him near it, and when He brings him near it he would hear the voices of the inhabitants of the Paradise. He would say: O my Lord! Admit me to it. He (Allah) would say: O son of Adam, what will bring an end to your requests to Me? Will it please you if I give you the whole world and a similar one with it? He will say: O my Lord! Art Thou mocking at me, though Thou art the Lord of the worlds?

Ibn Mas'ud laughed and asked (the hearers): Why don't you ask me what I am laughing at. They (then) said: Why do you laugh? He said: It is in this way that the Messenger of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) laughed. They (the companions of the Holy Prophet) asked: Why do you laugh, Messenger of Allah? He said: On account of the laugh of the Lord of the universe, when he (the desirer of Paradise) said: Art Thou mocking at me though Thou art the Lord of the worlds? He would say: I am not mocking at you, but I have the power to do whatever I wish.
[Sahih Muslim, Vol. 1, #359, 361]

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and then i gave the Arabic khutbah. that was the Bayan in english.

Subhanalli wa bihamdihi, subhanallil Adheem