ambassadors islam

Khutbah: Ambassadors of Islam

Opening

(السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ - as-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-raḥmatu-llāhi wa-barakātuh)

(الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَكَفَى، وَسَلَامٌ عَلَى عِبَادِهِ الَّذِينَ اصْطَفَى أَمَّا بَعْدُ، فَأَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ. بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ - al-ḥamdu lillāhi wa kafā, wa salāmun ʿalā ʿibādihī allaḏīna ṣṭafā ammā baʿdu, faʾaʿūḏu billāhi mina ash-shayṭāni ar-rajīm. bismi-llāhi ar-raḥmāni ar-raḥīm)

Opening Quranic Verse

"And those who strive for Us, We will surely guide them to Our ways."

Closing of Opening Section

(سُبْحَانَ رَبِّكَ رَبِّ الْعِزَّةِ عَمَّا يَصِفُونَ، وَسَلَامٌ عَلَى الْمُرْسَلِينَ، وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ - subḥāna rabbika rabbi al-ʿizzati ʿammā yaṣifūn, wa salāmun ʿala al-mursalīn, wa-l-ḥamdu lillāhi rabbi al-ʿālamīn)

(اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَبَارِكْ وَسَلَّمْ - allāhumma ṣalli ʿalā sayyidinā muḥammadin wa ʿalā āli sayyidinā muḥammadin wa bārik wa sallim)

Main Khutbah Body

The Role of Ambassadors

If you look throughout the history of mankind and throughout the history of nations, you'll see that anytime a powerful nation has emerged among people, they always have ambassadors which represent that nation. And that exists today as well, for example, if you look at Canada. So Canada is a country, it has its own views, it has its own interests, and they have several ambassadors throughout the entire world who they place in various countries or in the UN, and that ambassador acts to represent the country and the interests of that country.

So there's actually two responsibilities for that ambassador. The first is that the ambassador has to show up to work. And the second is that the ambassador has to represent the country that sent them to the particular post.

And actually both of these reasons are causes for termination of the ambassador from his job. So for example, and this actually happens if you read the papers or if you look through the history of nations, sometimes a

nation will appoint someone as an ambassador and that person won't even show up at the job. They won't even go to their post and they won't represent the country.

And so eventually they'll terminate that ambassador and replace him with another. Or sometimes the ambassador begins to speak of his own will. So Canada sends an ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Canada tells the ambassador, you need to say A, you need to say B, you need to say C. And then the ambassador goes on and begins to put in his own opinions in various matters.

And so eventually the country warns him and then the country will terminate his position because he wasn't representing the country properly. So those are the two jobs of the ambassadors of this world. First they have to show up and second they have to represent the power which sent them to their particular post.

We Are Ambassadors of This Deen

Just as a country, because of its power and because of its interests, will send an ambassador to a post in the same way Allah has created us as ambassadors of this deen. Literally each and every one of us in this room is an ambassador to this deen. Why? Because Allah sent a series of prophets throughout the history of mankind who were to act as ambassadors of Allah.

So every power has an ambassador. Allah is the supreme power and he chooses the best of ambassadors, meaning the prophets. So every single nation was sent an ambassador by Allah.

That ambassador showed up for the job and then when it came to being challenged with the positions of the people that ambassador stood up and represented the view that Allah wanted them to represent. That's what the prophets did. So many times their people went against them.

To the nth degree their people went against them yet they would stand up and say no, I represent Allah, this is the message that he asked me to share with you and so this is exactly how their stance would be. That was the job of the prophets. And so every single time and every single nation was given an ambassador by Allah which we call prophets.

The Ummah Inherits the Responsibility

It so happens that with the coming of the final and the greatest of all ambassadors, the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), Allah cut that chain of prophethood with the final messenger. But he didn't cut the chain of representation, he cut the chain of the message but that responsibility of being the ambassador was subsequently bestowed upon the ummah of the prophet (peace be upon him). So that makes each and every one of us in this room ambassadors of this deen.

We are the ambassadors of this deen. We are the ones who stand up no matter what anyone says and stand up and say this is what the prophet (peace be upon him) told us what is right, this is what the prophet (peace be upon him) said is wrong, this is the truth. That's our responsibility.

If the ambassador doesn't do the job, then there's no one else that will do it. And in fact we know from Allah that just as a country would terminate the position of an ambassador if they don't properly represent the country, Allah clearly tells us in the Quran that if you don't do your job, that Allah will replace you with another people that will. Meaning Allah will terminate your role as an ambassador and bring in a new ambassador in your place.

So this is the responsibility that befalls each of us to be the ambassadors of Islam. And if you look at the ambassador, they basically have two responsibilities. The first is that they have to show up for the job.

First Responsibility: Showing Up for the Job

And the reality is that many of us have not even shown up for the job. Some ambassadors to certain countries, they don't even show up for the job. And that's exactly what many of us have done.

We've completely become oblivious to the responsibility of being an ambassador. We're caught up in the responsibility of getting a good degree. We're caught up in the responsibility of the cars that we want to purchase.

So every time a car drives by, we look at that car and we decide which one we like and which one we don't. And we start pitching ourselves that one day we'll sit in this car. We're caught up in driving by the houses of the neighborhood and picking which one we want to live in.

So we become ambassadors of the dunya instead of ambassadors of the deen. Meaning we haven't even shown up for the job. That's the very first step.

If somebody calls you up, if the government calls you up and says, I'd like to appoint you ambassador to Spain and you don't show up for the job, you're going to lose the job. Or that country will terminate your position. In the same way, Allah can easily terminate our connection with him and choose someone else to become the ambassador if we don't show up for the job.

Second Responsibility: Representing Properly

And the second aspect of the job, for those of us that have decided that we're going to show up, is to truly represent the country. So when Canada sends an ambassador to Saudi Arabia, they expect that that ambassador, no matter what he thinks, no matter what pressure he comes under, will represent the views of Canada. In the same way, for those of us that have shown up for the job of being ambassadors, we have not stood up to the responsibility of representing the deen the way it should be represented.

We put our own opinions in. We don't simply take the message, which is what Allah wants us to do. Take the message from the Prophet (peace be upon him) and hand it over to the people.

We start interpreting it the way we want to interpret it. We say, see, this really means this, and that really means that. Or we hide certain aspects of the deen because we don't want to show it to people.

That is the fundamental responsibility of an ambassador, that they represent exactly what they've been told to say. No matter what people say and no matter what challenges they face, that's exactly what we have to do when we become the ambassadors of this deen. Now Allah, by choosing us to be ambassadors, really we're ambassadors of the Prophet (peace be upon him).

The Blessing of Being Chosen

And by choosing us, he's bestowed upon us an infinite blessing. You can't earn this job. This is not something that you earn.

Like if you go to work, you know you'll earn $40,000, $50,000, $100,000 a year. You know that if you put in a certain number of hours, you'll get a certain degree out. But for being the ambassador of Allah on this planet, that's not something that you can earn.

There are people who have trillions of dollars and they have no connection with Allah. And there are people who have nothing in their bank accounts, and they are the best of all ambassadors in this day and age. It has nothing to do with earning, it has to do with Allah's mercy upon us.

So when Allah has chosen us to represent this deen in this day and age, imagine, 1400 years after the Prophet (peace be upon him), Allah has given us the banner of the sunnah and given us the responsibility of raising it in this day and age. That's a huge blessing. That is such an enormous blessing, we cannot begin to thank Allah for that blessing.

Because on the day of judgment, when there is nobody else who stood up and said anything, inshallah, we'll be the ones who say, no, we carried this banner through this day and this age. Now look at the environment around us. It causes people to fold immediately.

Imagine, it causes people to fold immediately, and in this environment, Allah gave us the tawfiq to understand the necessity of enacting the sunnah and teaching people the shariah. That's a great, great blessing. And Allah knew that it would be a difficult responsibility, but He decided to bestow it upon us out of His infinite mercy.

Signs of Disconnection

And so now we have two responsibilities. One is to show up for the job. If we don't show up for the job, Allah will cut our ambassadorship.

Guarantee. Some of us, we already experienced that. The emptiness of salah.

The lack of desire to read the Quran. The painful moments of being in salah. It hurts us.

We hate it. We don't even want to do it. That's signs of being disconnected from the ambassadorship of Allah.

And that's because we haven't shown up for the job. We put our time into our dunya. Put time into the dunya, you'll become an ambassador of dunya.

I can stand up everybody in this room and make them models of the dunya. I can say, look, mashallah, this brother, he earned this degree. He has this car.

He has this house. Look at all the great things he did. And I can stand up everybody one by one in the room and we can highlight the great things that we've done in the dunya.

Yet how many of us can stand up and claim anything for the sake of Allah. That's the responsibility that befalls us. Look, if today each and every one of us in this room became the best doctors in the world or the best computer scientists in the world or the best engineers in the world, we will die in 40 or 50 years and subsequently another group of people will come who will be better than us in that field.

The Irreplaceable Value of Deen

If you become the best doctor or the best engineer, eventually that can be replaced by another person. But in this day and age when there are so few people following the deen, if you become someone who is truly an ambassador of the deen, there will be no way to replace you. Now look at the scholars before us.

All the scientists that came before us, they were replaced. And their theories were advanced. And medicine has become advanced.

Science has become advanced. Engineering has become advanced. But look at the deen.

We look at the people from 500 years ago and we consider them better than us. Because the deen slowly is going down. That's how Allah created the environment of the deen.

That eventually it would reach a low point until Allah renews it. So when we become ambassadors, we become extremely valuable to the rest of mankind. There is no one who can replace us then.

And that's when Allah bestows a very special connection upon us. If you want to be close to Allah, you've got to take up this responsibility of representing Allah. That's the only reason why we're here.

That's why we were created. There's no other purpose for us in this world. It makes no difference what we do if we left the fold of the deen.

Learning What to Represent

Second aspect is that you've got to represent Allah. That means you've got to learn what Allah wants you to share with others. So you've got to learn the sharia.

You've got to learn the sunnah. You've got to spend time developing your knowledge of the deen. Now in this day and age, so many of us are hired by our employers as representatives of the sciences.

So somebody comes and hires me. They say, I know you have a certain ability in the medical field. So I'd like you to represent me and to treat me.

Or somebody hires a computer engineer. They're hiring you as an ambassador of that field. They know that you've put the time and the effort and the desire and the sweat into becoming a master in that field.

And so that's why people come to you seeking that field. In the same way, you have to master the deen. There's no way you can represent Allah and his messenger unless you know what Allah and his messenger want you to say.

If you just make it up from your own mind, then how will it be a true representation of what Allah wants you to say? How will you be able to stand up when the challenges befall you? There's no way. You have to have a base of knowledge. So these are the two important things to realize.

The True Criterion

First is that Allah gave us this beautiful position of being ambassadors of Allah. So why sacrifice it? Why put our efforts into something else and risk the chance that Allah will distance himself from us? And the second is that we have to truly represent what Allah wants us to represent. We can't make up the deen.

We can't alter the deen. We can't decide that we want to show people some things and hide other things from the people. We have a responsibility to stand up for what's right and to prohibit what's wrong.

And what's right and what's wrong is defined by Allah. Not by a constitution. Not by a group of people.

Not by a society. It's defined by Allah and his messenger. That's what defines what's right.

And that's what defines what's wrong. That's why the Quran is called al-furqan. The thing that differentiates between what's right and what's wrong.

The faraq. Furqan. Faraq.

To differentiate what's right and what's wrong. So in this day and age we've used our minds as the furqan. We see things and we say, oh, I think this.

Or, oh, I think that. Or based on my experiences as an American growing up in this society, I think that. That's not the furqan.

That's our minds. The true furqan is in the Quran. And most of us have not even read the Quran.

Probably in the last week we may not have even touched the Quran one time. Probably forget about the last week. In the last month many of us may not have even touched the Quran one time.

So how are we going to be able to share the message if we don't touch the message? We can't just make up the message from our minds and just decide that that's what we want to share.

Inherited Identity is Not Enough

We inherited this skin color and some Islamic name. And so now we've become the representatives of Islam based on what we think.

You have to know what the Quran is saying in order to share it with others. And you have to enact the Quran in your own life in order to represent it to others. There's no way around it.

We're fooling ourselves if we think that we're going to make our minds the furqan. We have to go back to the sources of this deen. You have to pick up the Quran and read the Quran.

You have to spend time learning the meanings of the Quran from proper scholars. You have to spend time learning the sunnah through the example of our Masha'ikh. And through the example of those people who learn from their teachers.

The Path Forward

That's the way that you can represent this deen. And believe me this is an enormous responsibility. But with it is an enormous blessing.

So if we begin to take this responsibility seriously, not only will Allah bestow a special favor upon us, but He will draw us very very near to Him such that most people are not able to attain that state. And that's because Allah chose us to be representatives of the Prophet (peace be upon him). What better profession could you have? What better profession can you choose in the world than to be a representative or an ambassador of Allah and His Messenger.

It's such an enormous blessing. So we should not lose this opportunity. If we lose this opportunity it will be a source of regret in this world and it will be a source of regret in the hereafter.

So this is a time that we have to develop ourselves. To learn what this job entails. And to learn who we're actually representing.

If you don't know Allah, how will you represent Allah? It's impossible. It's impossible. So this is a time to develop ourselves.

Just as we spend time developing ourselves in college in order to represent a field. And just as we spend time developing our hobbies in order to become representatives in that hobby. In the same way we have to become representatives of this Deen.

And the only way is through spending time in the company of those people who have learned from scholars or from learning from scholars directly.

Closing Dua

So may Allah give us the tawfiq to understand our role as ambassadors. To represent Allah as true ambassadors.

And to earn the rewards that the ambassadors of this Deen earn in both this world and in the hereafter.