What Matters - Khutba
By Abdul Nasir Jangda | 2026-01-19T07:12:15.464634+00:00 | Topic: General
What Matters
Khutba by Sh. Abdul Nasir Jangda (ICNA-MAS Convention)
Opening
In the name of Allah, and praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and companions. May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you.
The Call to Believers
Allah Almighty said in His Glorious Book, after I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan:
"O you who have believed, be upright in justice, witnesses to Allah, whether against yourselves or against your parents and relatives." (Quran 4:135)
Allah Almighty in the Qur'an, He calls upon us by a particular title. Repeatedly throughout the Qur'an. Allah says (يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا - Ya ayyuha alladhina amanu). We often have translated this as, "O you who believe."
However, to understand it a little bit more precisely (يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا) says anyone who has ever proclaimed, anyone who has ever professed faith, belief in Allah, this is Allah calling upon them. One of the great scholars of our deen and religion, Allama Khattabi, may Allah have mercy on him, he actually comments on this, he says, every single time you hear the phrase, you hear the wording (يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا) within the Qur'an, this is Allah giving us an opportunity to prove what we have said. Allah is asking us to back up our claim.
He is saying, you say that you believe. So here's an opportunity for you to prove whether you do actually believe or not. And that's why every single time Allah says (يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا) after that, either He commands us to do something: (اعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمْ) - "Worship your Lord, your Master, your Creator."
Or He tells us not to do something. Don't be like those people who tormented, who harassed the Prophet Moses, for example.
So whenever Allah says (يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا), that's gonna be followed by a command or a prohibition.
Standing for Justice
The verse that I quoted very specifically, Allah says: (كُونُوا قَوَّامِينَ بِالْقِسْطِ) - "Stand for justice. Stand for truth. Stand for what's right." (شُهَدَاءَ لِلَّهِ) - "Witnesses before God."
And the Prophet (peace be upon him) exemplified this. I wanna tell you a little story from the life of the Prophet (peace be upon him).
The Life of the Prophet: Periods and Eras
The Prophet (peace be upon him), when you study his life, there's a few segments of his life, a few different eras of his life that we study.
The first 40 years of the life of the Prophet (peace be upon him) are what's called pre-revelation, pre-prophethood. Then you have the next 23 years. The 23 years are divided between the first 13 years, which is the Meccan period, and then the last 10 years, which is the Medinan period.
Now something very interesting, you know people talk about, you know, what have you done for me lately, remembering the most recent currents. There's an element of that here, and also there's of course a lot more documentation about the end of the life of the Prophet (peace be upon him) versus the earlier part of his life. But the bulk of the information, the bulk of the conversation, the discussion, about the life of the Prophet (peace be upon him) will focus towards the end of his life.
The Medinan period, and even that more so, the end of the Medinan period. You will find more detail about the last couple of years of the life of the Prophet (peace be upon him) than the rest of his entire life. And then the Medinan period is very detailed.
Then when you get to the Meccan period, even though it was longer than the Medinan period, there'll be a lot less discussion about the Meccan period. And then there is close to none, there's little to no discussion about the life of Muhammad (peace be upon him) before revelation, the first 40 years of his life.
The Pact of Social Justice (Hilf al-Fudul)
Well, one of the very fascinating things that occurred in his life before revelation. He was 20 years old at that time. And Mecca had been suffering through a lot of chaos and disarray during that time. And they had just come out of a very brutal war that many, many people had died within.
And they were just tired of all this. They said, we need to end all of this. So what happened was that they decided to put together an alliance, to have a pact, to take an oath.
And it was known as (حِلْفٌ الْفُصُولِ - Hilf al-Fudul), the honorable, the virtuous, the noble pact of social justice. And they sat together and they talked about the fact that we will grant safety and security to immigrants to Mecca, that we will look after the minorities, that the poor will not sleep hungry anymore, and so on and so forth. There were only 20 people who attended the signing of that pact, attended the final meeting.
And the Prophet (peace be upon him) was one of those 20 people. He was only 20 years old. Why is that so significant and relevant? Because in Arabian culture, in Arabian society at that time, age and seniority was a very big deal.
And a 20 year old would normally not be allowed within a meeting of this magnitude. The Prophet (peace be upon him), he campaigned. And he pleaded and begged his uncle, I need to come with you to this meeting.
And his uncle ended up taking him. And that's why the Prophet (peace be upon him) when he would talk about that meeting later on, he would say that I would not trade anything in the world for my place within that meeting. That is till today.
He said this after he became a prophet. He said, till today, it is one of the things that I'm most proud of in my entire life. And the Prophet (peace be upon him) later on in the Medinan period, he would actually comment and say:
"If today the non-Muslims of Mecca came to me with the idea, with the suggestion of this pact for the sake of social justice, I would agree. And I would once again be a party to it. And I would sign on to it."
He said, even though now Islam is here, Medina has been founded. But even today, if the non-Muslims of Mecca came to me with the idea, with the suggestion of this pact for the sake of social justice, he said, I would agree. And I would once again be a party to it. And I would sign on to it.
And I would be a part of this. This is a very important and profound lesson from the life of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Validated by the Prophet (peace be upon him). That these concerns and these causes that we see going on right now, that are happening right now around us, that are starting to, a consciousness has awoken within our communities and our societies. And now there is some movement, there is some work, there is some concern, there is some effort that is going on.
This is very, very important for us to understand and realize that this is a concern for us. This is something we need to be invested into. This is something our faith mandates that we be a part of.
And that we fully participate in. And that we understand and we learn what's going on, if we don't already know. And we cannot afford to sit by on the sidelines to be casual spectators and we dare not ever be any part of an opposition to any of this work that is going on.
It is antithetical to our faith, to our belief, to the book of Allah, to the sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him). To ever dismiss, or to ever oppose, or to have reservations about, or to have concerns in regards to this work that's going on.
Three Key Points
There are three things that I want to touch on very, very quickly here, in close succession. I don't want to take up too much time here. But three points I want to touch on very specifically.
1. Empathy
Number one is empathy.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) teaches us to empathize. The Qur'an commands us to empathize. We need to have empathy.
People who are struggling, people who are starving, people who are dying. They're reaching out to us. They're talking about their plight and their situation.
We need to empathize. Empathy means you feel someone else's pain. And empathy does not mean you agree with somebody else's pain if, or you are willing to acknowledge someone's pain if you agree with it.
Empathy is to feel someone's pain. And it does not have the prerequisite, the prequalifier, of whether you understand it or not. Whether you think it's valid or not.
Our opinions are irrelevant. Our opinions are irrelevant. When Syrians cry about what's going on in Syria, when black folks here in this country talk about what's going on here in this country, my opinion becomes irrelevant.
What I think is going on, what I think they should do, what I think they should... None of that is relevant. If I have some expertise, I can try to contribute however I can. But outside of that, my opinion is irrelevant.
I must empathize. Empathy does not... Stop rationalizing people's pain and start feeling it. Stop rationalizing and start feeling it.
Empathy is number one. That's the first point I wanted to touch upon. Empathize. Feel people's pain.
2. The Prophet's Approach to Racism
The second thing I wanted to talk about is how did, particularly when it comes to race relations, particularly when it comes to the issue of race, how did the Prophet (peace be upon him) handle correcting race relations and racism within a society? How did he handle that?
We know how the Prophet (peace be upon him) handled spiritual apathy. Spiritual apathy. The Prophet (peace be upon him) handled it very gradually. We know how the Prophet (peace be upon him), the Qur'an, handled social, habitual evils, social evils, like drinking, and fornicating, and gambling. It had a method of gradualism.
It slowly brought people up and through the different stages of recovery. But how did the Prophet (peace be upon him) handle racism? That's a question. How did the Prophet (peace be upon him) handle racism? Allow me to demonstrate.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) did not use gradualism in that regard. Rather, the Prophet (peace be upon him) disrupted the system within society. Many people, I've already said, our analysis, our opinions, are irrelevant when we think about Black Lives Matter.
We just need to love and we need to support. And we need to fully support. Oh, but brother, do they have to do things like this or like that? Number one, that's irrelevant.
Everything you're saying after that point is irrelevant. And you need to have the humility to accept that. No, why, why? Why can't I say something about it? Because you don't get to.
It's straightforward. Allah جل جلاله told us in the Qur'an:
"Go and ask somebody who knows." (Quran 16:43)
You don't know. So you don't just get to, you have the right to your opinion, but you don't have the right to state your opinion, and share your opinion. And I definitely have the right to not listen to your opinion. We need some humility.
That's number one. But what I was saying was, in fact, if somebody does want to argue methodology with me, how did the Prophet (peace be upon him) deal with the issue of racism? How did he correct race relations? He disrupted the system. He shocked the system.
He did not take a very nice and gradual and respectable approach. He said, this issue, we can't afford it. This issue, it's intolerable. We can't gradually work through it.
The Example of Bilal and the Adhan
So when the adhan was instituted, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said about Bilal:
"He has, his voice reaches further."
And he did not just say (أَعْلَى صَوْتًا - higher voice), he said (أَنْدَى صَوْتًا)
Which means he wasn't just saying that physically his voice reaches further, he was saying spiritually his voice reaches further.
Because the Prophet (peace be upon him) when he went on the journey of Al-Isra and Al-Mi'raj, when he toured the heavens, he heard footsteps. While touring the heavens, he heard footsteps.
And he asked Jibreel, what are these footsteps that I hear? And Jibreel said, this is Bilal. When he walks on the earth, his footsteps they echo in the heavens. So the Prophet (peace be upon him) made him call the adhan.
When they conquered Mecca, the conquest of Mecca (فَتْحْ مَكَة - fath makkah), when they went back in there, he told Bilal, go call the adhan. Even Bilal was hesitant. He said, these are the same streets that I was dragged through.
Are you sure? Go call the adhan. And when Bilal stood next to the Kaaba and was about to call the adhan, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, stop. He said, climb on top of the Kaaba.
Stand on top of the Kaaba and call the adhan. And the people of Mecca said, Ya Muhammad, you won. You won.
We get it. Do you have to rub our faces in it? And he says, you don't get it. I'm not rubbing your face in my victory, in your loss.
What I'm telling you is that your ways of old are gone. The Prophet (peace be upon him) didn't take some respectability, political, all this very diplomatic, whatever other word we want to give it, approach to this issue. He just, he rubbed it in their face, quite literally.
He put it right there, front and center, in their face. This is from the sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him). How do you argue with that methodology? Any opinion you have now is not only irrelevant, it's also incorrect. So this is very important for us to understand.
3. Understanding Sensitivity and Humility
And the third point that I wanted to make, the third point that I wanted to make in this regard, was, and again, I am very much a student in this capacity. So please forgive me. I'm a student in all capacities.
We're all students in all capacities. But particularly when it comes to this, I'm very much a student. I have students that I learned from in this regard.
So I'm sharing with you what I've learned from many, many wise people and experienced people in this regard. But I sincerely fear, and not just worry, but I call it a fear. Because it's scary if that's how close- minded and ignorant and uneducated and unsophisticated we still are.
I feel that a large segment of our community, the Muslim community, and speaking about my own background, my parents were immigrants to this country. So particularly within the immigrant section of our community, the Muslim community here in America, I feel like there is still, I fear that there is still a significant portion of that population that still does not understand matters, extremely sensitive issues, like why it is so disrespectful when people say things like all lives matter. And I know that this is quite sensitive and controversial for a lot of people.
But I wanted to bring it up here today because I was really giving it some thought and talking to people and feeling things out in the community. And I came to the very scary realization that a lot of people still don't understand what the big deal is.
Because they're still too caught up in, again, their own analysis of the issue, which is irrelevant and also incorrect as we've already established.
But it is extremely disrespectful and very dismissive and very contradictory to the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him). When the Prophet (peace be upon him) put Bilal on top of the Kaaba to call the Adhan, somebody didn't say, everybody has a right to call the Adhan. And the Prophet (peace be upon him) was there with his authority. So nobody questioned.
But today we have to understand this, that any extra commentary that we add, any of this commentary that exists out there, this is extremely disrespectful and very dismissive and very detrimental and extremely harmful. And this is something we all have to understand. And we have to understand that emphasizing the plight or one particular issue or problem.
Understanding Specialization and Focus
I full-time am a teacher. I was just talking to somebody. Very honestly speaking, I do not do relief work full-time. I do not run a masjid full-time. Are those not important things? Absolutely they're important. I'm an educator.
And within education, I don't teach children. I'm not a specialist of childhood education. I conduct adult education. I teach adults. Does that mean childhood education is important? It's extremely important. I have three children.
I very much value childhood education. But it's just a matter of understanding the work that's going on, what one's capacity is and specializing within your work and really understanding and doing ihsan. But at the same time, it does not mean that if I only conduct classes for adults, if somebody came to me and said, so you don't think teaching children is important? That'd be silly, wouldn't it? Of course, I think teaching children is important.
But that's not what I do. That doesn't mean it's not important. These are very logical constructs.
And most of us have the common sense to grasp this. But this is why it's very, very important. I reiterate, I re-emphasize, understanding the place, the significance, the importance from the Quranic and the prophetic perspective, the significance of social justice within our religious framework, number one.
Number two, empathize without any type of preconditions, any type of qualifiers, empathize, unconditionally empathize. And number three, learn to be humble and to listen to other people and to support without always having to have an opinion.
Closing
May Allah give us the ability to be humble and to empathize and to be able to help people wherever and whenever people might need our help and our assistance.
May Allah reward you well.