Joe Bradford delivering khutbah on 12-26-13

Allah is whom we praise. We praise Him and we thank Him. We thank Him and we seek refuge in Him from the evil of our own souls and the evil of our actions. Whomsoever He guides, none can misguide Him. Whomsoever He leaves astray, none can guide Him to the truth. And I bear witness that there is no one worthy of worship but God alone. And that Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم is His slave and messenger.

O mankind, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims. O mankind, fear your Lord who created you from one soul and from that soul its mate. And from those two spread many men and many women. Be mindful of Allah concerning your relationships, those whom you ask for your rights from, and concerning the wombs that bore you, your families. For He is ever watchful over you.

O you who believe, fear Allah and speak the truth. He will guide you to righteous deeds and forgive you of your sins. Whomsoever obeys Allah and His messenger has achieved the greatest achievement.

The best of speech is the speech of Allah and the best of guidance is the guidance of our beloved صلى الله عليه وسلم. And the worst of affairs are those which are newly introduced. Everything newly introduced is an innovation and every innovation goes astray and everything astray leads to the hellfire. And that which you have been promised will come to pass and there is nothing you can do to prevent it.

The Prophet's Call to Tawheed

When the Prophet عليه الصلاة والسلام first stood in Mecca, he stood for a very clear call. He consistently told the people of Quraish:

O people say there is no one worthy of worship but Allah alone and you will be successful.

And he stood by this call for a decade or more, teaching the people about the oneness of Allah, teaching them to leave off the worship of false idols, the worship of false desires, the worship of their whims and their customs. Teaching them to go back to the way of their father Abraham مِلَّةَ أَبِيكُمْ إِبْرَاهِيمِ - the path of your father Abraham.

Teaching them to be Muslimoon - those who submit themselves and their wills to the will of Allah. To be Mu'minoon - those who believe and follow what he has sent down. Muhsinoon - those that practice beauty, those that make everything that they do an act of beauty, whether that act be something that they do directly or something that they abstain from.

And this was his call. And for the entire period of his stay in Mecca, there were no acts which were made obligatory upon him or upon his companions until the very end of the Meccan period, right before the Hijrah, when the Salah was made obligatory.

The Call Continues in Medina

When the Prophet ﷺ was ordered to go to Al Medina, he continued this call. And in fact it was this very purpose or this very thing that made the people of Medina want to believe in him. Some of the Ansar, some of the Aus and the Khazraj, they came to Mecca during the Hajj and they saw him preaching in Mina. And they said this man seems to be truthful and he seems to be saying those things that we hear the Jews say in Medina - the things that they read from their own scriptures. He seems to be the final Prophet. What if we believe in him before they do and then we'll be successful along with him?

And so they took Bay'ah to the Prophet ﷺ Al-'Aqaba, the first time and the second time. And then after this is when the Prophet ﷺ met with them and with his uncle Al-'Abbas Ibn Abdul Muttalib. And they promised that they would support the Prophet ﷺ and give him victory and protect him and follow him and believe in him and hold him truthful in everything that he said and follow him in all of the guidance that he brought.

And so when the Prophet ﷺ came to Al Medina, his da'wah did not stop. It was the da'wah of Tawheed, the da'wah of the oneness of Allah, the call to the oneness of Allah.

Social Justice and the Prophetic Mission

But there is another part that goes part and parcel with the call to the oneness of Allah, and that is the idea of social justice. If you look at every single story of every single Prophet that's mentioned in the Qur'an, you'll find that not only did they say to their people قولوا لا إله إلا الله - say لا إله إلا الله, اجتنبوا الطاغوت - stay away from taghoot, everything which takes you beyond the boundaries that God has placed. But they also corrected the social ills that they had:

As Allah revealed about Salih: Do not cheat people in their weights and their measures and be just like the scales of justice.

The Prophet's Correction of Market Fraud

When the Prophet ﷺ came to Medina, he continued this sunnah of the Prophets that came before him. And as he went through the market, he found a man who was selling some goods. He was selling grain. And as we know in the traditional markets in the world - maybe not here, maybe if you go to some place like a specialty market - you'll find the grains and the spices and the things open air where you take them and you scoop them. That scoop in Arabic, the makil. You take that scoop and then you measure out what you're going to buy and then it's weighed and then you pay.

He found a man who had grain and as the Prophet ﷺ inspected the grain, he pushed his finger into the grain and he found that it was wet underneath. And so he pulled it up to the top and he said, what is this? The man said, oh message of Allah, the rain fell on it. He said: He who deceives is not from me.

And as we've mentioned before, that anytime the Prophet ﷺ negates an attribution to him, negates a connection to him, it means that there is a deficiency in our Iman. Those who deceive are not from me. Deception is something which is unacceptable in our dealings in society, in our communities, in our families.

It's said that at the very beginning of the Prophet ﷺ's residency in Medina, again, he went to the market. And as we've mentioned, when you go to the open air markets and you find the spices and the grains and everything open, there's a scoop, the makil, and that's how you measure what you're going to get.

And so he found one man who had one scoop for buying and one scoop for selling. When he would sell someone something, he would use one scoop - it was a little bit smaller. And when he would buy something, it was a little bit bigger. But the price was the same.

And so Allah, because of this having been found in the Souq of Medina, in the markets of Medina, Allah sent down the verses:

Woe to those that cheat in weight and measure. Al-Tatfeef - من الطف طف الشيء هو صغره وحافته وجانبه - Mutaffif in Arabic is a word that means a person that cuts a little bit off of the edge. So he wasn't taking much - you would never notice if the scoops were that much different - but he knew that they were slightly different and so by small steps he was getting over on the people that he was buying and selling with.

وَيْلٌ لِّلْمُطَفِّفِينَ - Woe to those that cut away at what they weigh and they measure for the people. الَّذِينَ إِذَا اكْتَالُوا عَلَى النَّاسِ يَسْتَوْفُونَ - When they take from others, they take fully what's theirs. وَإِذَا كَالُوهُمْ أَوْ وَّزَنُوهُمْ يُخْسِرُونَ - And when they give them their measure or give them their weight, they give less. أَلَا يَظُنُّ أُولَٰئِكَ أَنَّهُم مَّبْعُوثُونَ - Do these people not realize that they will be resurrected? They will be brought back to life when? لِيَوْمٍ عَظِيمٍ - For a mighty day. يَوْمَ يَقُومُ النَّاسُ لِرَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ - A mighty day in which all mankind will be resurrected in front of the Lord of the worlds.

When we deceive others in sincerity, we are not deceiving anyone but ourselves:

They try to cheat Allah and those that believe but in fact they are cheating none but themselves and they don't even realize it, as Allah says in Surah Al-Baqarah.

Modern Forms of Deception

There are many manifestations of cheating, of deception that are found in societies and in our communities and in ourselves. When we think about what was happening during that time, we can see that the Prophet ﷺ guided us to the fundamentals that we need to be able to rid ourselves of all forms of deception.

Firstly, as in this first example, deception during buying and selling. Not only is it wrong to try and get over on someone, but it's wrong to try and take advantage of them. The Prophet ﷺ has narrated in Hadith Qudsi that Allah said:

Don't try to take advantage of one another. Don't try to outbid each other and cheat each other out of their goods, but be brothers, believers, brothers.

The Example of Jarir ibn Abdullah

During the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ he would many times take covenants and promises from his companions that they would not cheat others and that they would always be truthful. His companion Jarir ibn Abdullah al-Bajari رضي الله تعالى عنه - it's narrated in the Mu'ajam of al-Tabarani and others that he once was told by a man, "I have a camel to sell you."

Imagine, you go on Craigslist, camel section, you find a good camel on Craigslist. You find a car that car is being sold for 300 dollars. This man was selling his camel for 300 dirham. When Jarir went there, he had the 300 with him. And as he inspected the camel, he said to the man, "This camel is worth much more than 300. How about I give you 400?" The man said, "I accept. Let's finish the trade."

Jarir said, "Let me inspect it another time." He inspected it again and he said, "In actuality, it's worth 500. I'll give you 500, final offer." He said, "I accept, 500." He said, "Let me take another look." He walked around the other side, took another look, looked at its teeth. He said, "In actuality, it's worth 600, maybe more. How about this, I give you 700 and we'll call it equal." "I accept, let's do it. Here's the camel, just give me the money."

He said, "In reality, when I think about it again and I look at it and how nice it looks from the outside as well, how healthy it is, it's worth 800. Will you take 800?" He said, "Is something wrong? I asked only 300, why are you trying to give me 800? More than twice the cost?"

He said, "The Prophet took a covenant from me that I am sincere in my advice to every Muslim. I saw that you underpriced yourself and I did not want to cheat you and be asked about that on a great day, a mighty day when I'm resurrected in front of Allah."

Workplace Integrity

So even when we see things which are deceiving, it's important for us not to deceive ourselves and think that we're getting over, and this happens a lot in business, it happens a lot in the corporate world. We think that we can cut a little bit back on time. We think that if we claim to do some work that we haven't, we're going to get a reward or a bonus. It happens with people that are employees and it happens with management as well.

When you're a manager, you feel entitled. You may not work as many hours as other people. You might feel that you don't need to come in and that others are there to serve you. Now we all know the dynamic nature of business doesn't necessitate that everyone be there from 8 to 5 or from 9 to 5, but we also have to understand that when we sign a contract, we're signing a contract to follow the policies and procedures of that company and so we have to have transparency and openness whether we're employees or management.

The employees should not be trying to get over on the business and the management should not be trying to get over on the employees, but there should be openness about what is due, what are the rights and what are the responsibilities of everyone in the organization.

The Prophet ﷺ said about doing business:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2079)

Two people who are transacting on something - whether you're buying and selling a trinket between you or you have an agreement with a company, business to business, business to customer, doesn't matter - anytime you're in a binary transaction, البيعان بالخيار ما لم يتفرقا - as long as they're transacting they have the ability to stipulate whatever they want as long as they don't separate. Once they agree and they separate, then the conditions are as have been agreed to. فإن صدقا وبينا - if they tell the truth and are transparent and clear with each other, then their transaction will be blessed. And if they hide things and they lie, then their transactions will be wiped away of any blessings.

May Allah protect us from being deceitful and make us people of Sidq and people of Barakah.

Leadership and Service

Other forms of deception that happen whether in their organizations or in families or even in our personal interactions. Let's talk about organizations. The Prophet ﷺ had said:

(Sunan Abu Dawood, Hadith 2948)

Whoever takes control of something of the affairs of the Muslims and then hides himself away from their needs and their wants and their poverty, then Allah will do the same to him on the Day of Judgment. You on the Day of Judgment, you'll be in need of Allah. Allah will not be there for you. Why? Because you weren't there for the people in this life, those who you were expressly tasked with being responsible for.

We have a problem in many organizations, especially Muslim organizations. We want the best of the corporate world. We want the best of the non-profit world. We want to create a mini-democracy but we still want to act like dictators. We have to get rid of the idea that we're here to give permission and we have to inculcate in ourselves the idea of service.

We have to set thresholds and meet those thresholds of service. As little as those thresholds may be, it's important for us to maintain them to be people of khidmah, people of service. Not people that are looking to come over or to take over or to control others, but people that are looking to serve.

And I want to point something out to you today. InshaAllah when you go home today or you go back to the office today or you go back to your home tonight and you read Surah Al-Kahf as is the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ on Juma, I want you to consider the stories of Surah Al-Kahf. And if you'll notice that every single story in Surah Al-Kahf is a story of service. Either the ability to serve and not wanting to, or the ability to serve and doing so diligently from the beginning of the surah until the end. One of the main themes of Surah Al-Kahf.

Allah said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 142)

In the sunnah the Prophet ﷺ says: Never does Allah place a person in charge of a group of people and then on the day that he dies, he is deceitful to them, except that Allah will forbid paradise for him.

So taking positions of importance in our Muslim community is nothing to be taken lightly. It's not a right, it's a privilege. We have to live up to those privileges of service.

Responsibility Towards Our Families

We have to think about these ahadith not just applying to our organizations but to applying to our families as well. How many of us have children and we don't give our children their due? Ibn Al-Qayyim said: What greater disservice does a person do to his child but to prevent them from a good education, to prevent them from learning their deen, to prevent them from mixing with their family and learning good character?

We as parents, we can't always project the problems beyond ourselves. Oh, it's our organization's fault. It's our masajid's fault. It's the imam's fault. It's the board's fault. It's society's fault. What are we doing as parents to inculcate good character and good faith in our children? We have to ask ourselves that first. If we're not doing that, we're deceiving ourselves and we're deceiving our children by not raising them up and letting them understand what the principles of their faith are.

And I'll say this: As a parent, learn how to say no. Don't fall into the trap of trying to serve your family so much that you then deceive them. You give them everything that they want, everything that they desire, everything is allowed. And then you wonder when they're 16, 17, 18, you call someone up at the da'wah center or at some other Islamic center and you say, "Help me, my child is lost."

When you never place boundaries for them, they'll never know the meaning of the word no. They need to know that there are boundaries - حدود الله - the boundaries that Allah has set for us for interacting with each other.

Deception About Religious Beliefs

Another issue that we have is deception of others in broader society about our beliefs, and expressly at this time of year. And it can be a topic that many people feel is very touchy and many people feel that anytime you say something which is slightly critical that you're somehow being rude, that you're somehow not a good person, that you're somehow defacing Islam.

There's a rash of Muslims now who celebrate Christmas. They also have no problem in saying "Merry Christmas." They have no problem in participating in things which are antithetical to Islam. And I don't mean an interfaith session or something like that. But if we think about some of the phrases - words have meaning. And when we use those words - and I can tell you from my experience in society - many Christian co-workers and co-workers of other faith will tell me: "You know when I hear Muslims say certain things to me, I feel like they're cheating me because I know that they don't believe that. I'd rather them say something else than to try and act like they're part and parcel of our faith tradition. I'd rather them stand tall for their faith tradition and let me know about their festivals and their holidays."

You might say to yourself, "What's the harm in saying 'Merry Christmas'?" Merry Christmas - Merry Christ's Mass - the religious ceremony for celebrating the birth of Christ. And this becomes a problem:

Allah says that people have claimed that our Rahman, the merciful, has a son. That the skies fall asunder, the mountains crack, and the earth splits open that someone would claim that God has a son. That God Almighty, the creator of the heavens and the earth would somehow be in need of any of His creation.

When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and he called out, who did he call out to? He called out to God and he asked Him to save him. So we as creation are in need of Him and He is not in need of us.

Finding the Middle Path

And this doesn't mean - and I need to qualify this - this doesn't mean as Muslims that we are rude. Unfortunately we have two extremes: Everything's allowed. Everything's mean and rude. Somebody says - you go to the grocery store - they say "Merry Christmas." "Well actually I'm a Muslim" and you give them a khutbah half an hour at TJ Max. Somebody behind you: "I have to pay for these gifts, can we go?" You don't need to do that.

You can smile and say "God bless" with the intention that God bless them with guidance, that God bless them with what is good. But it is against our principles as Muslims to agree to or concur with anything which is haram. You would not tell a person "Merry Zina" - "Happy time drinking alcohol." Would you? Well we wouldn't because those are things that we see that are tangible. So why would we do that in attributing others to Allah?

And I know what some of you are saying: "You're being harsh. You don't understand." I understand. I grew up celebrating Christmas. And I see a lot of young Muslims nowadays, and especially unmarried young people between the ages of 20 and 30 on the internet: "Oh my God, Christmas is awesome. Eid, sorry. Why can't our Eid be better?"

Yes, we have to make our Eid better. We should have festivals and happy times during Eid. But guess what? Christmas isn't all that it's cracked up to be. It's not the time of merriment. Don't fall for the deception of Shaitan and the trickery that you get from all of the consumerism around you, from all of the manifestations of merriment which in fact, once they go away, another consumer cycle will come and new advertisements will come.

In fact now, you find that Christmas not only starts in December, it starts from November with all of the advertisements, with all of the gifts, and with all of the commercials. Why? Because in the end it comes down to money. Doesn't come down to what people want you to do. It doesn't come down to worship of Allah.

And this is the key distinction between our holidays as Muslims and the holidays of people of other faiths. Our holidays as Muslims are centered upon the greatness and the glorification and the thankfulness and the gratitude to God alone, the one who created us, the one who ordered us to be fair and just, to be happy and nice, but to be worshipful of Him and Him alone.

Allahumma forgive us our sins and our excesses in our affairs and make us firm in our feet, O Lord of the worlds. Allahumma make us from those who are truthful in your religion and follow it, O Lord of the worlds. O Allah make us from those that affirm your faith and follow it, O Lord of the worlds. O Allah we have harmed ourselves and we have wronged ourselves and if you do not forgive us and have mercy upon us then indeed we will be from amongst those at loss.