Khutbah: Positive Change Within Ourselves

Khutbah: Positive Change Within Ourselves

Imam Khalid Latif

Opening

"I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan."

"In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful."

"All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds."

"There is no power nor might except by Allah, the Most High, the Most Great."

"May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon the noblest of the prophets and messengers, and upon his family and all of his companions."

"We bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, without partner, and we bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger."

Khutbah al-Hajah

"In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful."

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Universe, the Master of the Day of Judgment. I bear witness and testimony to the oneness of Allah. To His magnificence, His omnipotence, His might, His glory. To His being the creator and sustainer of all things. The giver of life, the guider of hearts, the master of the Day of Judgment. And I bear witness to the fact that Muhammad ibn Abdullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is His servant and final messenger. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. And upon all those who choose to tread in his path until the last day.

The Student of Fiqh and the Student of the Heart

It is said that on one occasion a sheikh sat with his students and said to them: Do you want to see the distinction between the one who is a student of fiqh, a student of law and externals, and one who is a student of the heart, a student of the internal? And the students they say that yes we want to see the distinction. And the sheikh says that when your first classmate comes into the room and gives you salam, do not return that salam to him. And so their teacher has told them what to do and they follow what he has said. And the student walks in and he gives his salam, assalamu alaikum. And nobody says anything. The second time he gives the salam and is met with silence. And then a third time again he gives it and is met with silence. And now he has

gotten agitated and frustrated. And he says in his anger to his classmates: Don't you know that it is fard upon you to return my salam? The sheikh he says then when the next student comes, do not return his salam either. And so he gives the salam as his classmate did and is also met with silence. And the second time he gives it and the third time again. And similar to the first he is all three times met with no response. But he says distinctly from his classmate who is offended: That did I do something to hurt you that you are not returning my salam?

Knowledge and Transformation

The idea that we can learn religion gets equated sometimes to a process that is just about rote memorization. Statistics, dates, mechanics and steps that play a role and a value. But slowly start to leave us or have a different ease in us leaving them behind when they're not situated in anything beyond just that rote memorization. And when we start to think about what it is that enables us to build a relationship with that knowledge in a way that it can actually be transformative. That we find undeniably within ourselves change. And not just change but positive change, beneficial change. Transformation that we can undeniably call only growth. Necessitates being able to see how it is that we fit in to our own transformative process. And when you contrast the God-centric perspectives of our religion to the ego-centric norms of this society. More often the frame through which we see is one that says where is everyone else in need of some kind of improvement. And hardly ever is it about how do I play a role in the determination of what my life will actively look like.

Preparing for Ramadan

You and I are just mere moments away from this blessing that is the month of Ramadan. May Allah make us from those who reach it and benefit from it. And many of us are in a place where we have started thinking about it weeks ago if not months ago. And some of us are in a place where if we were honest we would say it hasn't even crossed our minds. And our engagement of it is one that necessitates evolution. That if our approach to Ramadan this year is the same as last year, it's not that that's a problem but if you and I are the same each and every time we engage anything then there's not a problem with the tool or the vehicle. But we who are accessing it need to sit and reflect upon why are we not different. And how in turn what it's doing for us why is it not different.

The Purpose of Fasting

When the Quran says to us through the verse that is utilized as an evidence for the mandate of fasting:

"O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous."

That it was written for you as it was written for those who came before you. So that perhaps you might have Taqwa. This consciousness that is rooted with an understanding of divine presence that is Taqwa. This mindfulness that says that you have a voice that is going to tell you you are about to fall into something that is not good. That is Taqwa. This notion that you are aware of what is about to come from you and what is about to come at you. And where you are taking the steps that you are walking towards what it is. It has embedded within it an idea that is hard for many of us to wrestle with. Because the purpose of fasting giving us a potential increase in Taqwa isn't about us learning how to think or to be conscious in the sense that we don't know how to think already. But what its purpose is is to give you and I an opportunity to have refined reflection on the consciousness that we have. And to say to ourselves why do we think about the things that we think about so much. And why is our focus and attention on the things that it is.

The Faculty of Thought

Most of us sitting in this room are grown people at least by the standards of the Sharia. That very few of us in this room are younger than the age of discernment. And may Allah accept from us all of our deeds. But we have capacity. And in the process of understanding what it means to attain the consciousness that Ramadan can bring to us through the vehicles that we engage in within that month. And not just fasting but it's a month of Quran. And pretty much every single page on that book if not every other one has a word that tells you to think, to reflect, to contemplate, to understand. You get to a place where it's teaching you not to deny the fact that you already have a faculty of thoughts and a process of cognition. But it's saying that through this vehicle you're going to be able to now begin and yield for yourself a recognition that says why is so much of it in the areas that it is.

Seeing Through a Child's Eyes

My son Kareem and I we walk to school pretty much every day and he's three years old. His sister Medina is six and she and I and Kareem we drop her first and then go to Kareem's. And then I make my way here. And there's

times when Kareem and I are talking and he asks me what are these things. And I say to him what do you think these things are. And the kind of responses that he gives to me I can never understand how he sees it the way that he does. So we can see taxis driving and I would see taxi after taxi. And he says why are there so many taxis. And I said what do you think. And he says why do you think they're all going in the same direction. And I said what do you think. And he said maybe all of them have to go to the bathroom really badly. And I said I guess that's an option. His ability to be able to think and have perspective is rooted in his own frame of consciousness. And for me to be able to understand and yield to why he sees it in the way it necessitates me getting to a place that egocentricity and the idolization of the self has to be removed or at least acknowledged as a barrier. Because it teaches us in this world that is billion strong that we are the center of everything. That the I that is me and what I see and what surrounds me and that experience is what dictates and defines the only thing that I understand the world to be.

Lord of the Worlds

Theoretically 17 times a day we turn to Allah and we ask him and invoke him as the lord of the worlds. But we're not saying dunya as the world but we're saying alameen. And the way the Arabic language functions is that when words share root letters they usually have some type of common meaning. And so the word muslim, the word islam, the word salam, it all has the root letters salaman. You can see the commonality there. The root of the word alameen is ilm. So how does the world relate to knowledge? Because the ilm is not a negative. And dunya is one of the things we are taught that seeks to distract us from the world beyond this one. May Allah protect us from it. But when you invoke that lord as the lord of the worlds and that world that is rooted in that terminology derives itself from the same place as knowledge, it recognizes that its role is meant for you and I. Distinct from amongst the rest of creation to yield to the fact that we have consciousness. And through it we can deepen our understanding by reflecting on the world in its entirety. Every single part of it can give us an access to that ilm that can allow for us to just understand more. But where do you and I factor into it?

Shifting Our Perspective

You ever drive down the street and you see people that are doing certain things and your immediate reaction is to get frustrated with them? That you need to get on the subway and somebody else is swiping at the turnstile and you don't understand why they don't know you're in a rush. That for whatever reason you gotta wait in line

Who are you yielding to when you decide? And not even who but what are you saying is more important? And do you ever even think about it at all?

When you let go of the Fajr prayer, not even its farad but just the two sunnahs that the best of creation said are worth the entire world and everything in it. What are you thinking? And that's not meant rhetorically or sarcastically but to be reflective. What are you thinking when you don't perform it?

When you hesitate in extending hands. When you engage in whatever decision making you do. And when our text talks to us about hearts that are hardened and people that live but they're really not living. It's just like they're sleeping.

The Faculty That Makes Us Distinct

What makes you and I distinct from anything else is that we have been given that faculty of thought. That then in turn gives us the other responsibilities of decision making. Accountability, choices that come from us.

And so you allow for yourself to just see that in this month of Ramadan I want it to be a transformative experience. I don't know what the last days have been like for you. But it seems like shaytan is on a mission man. The kind of things that I've seen myself doing that I thought I wouldn't do ever again. The words that have come out of my mouth. The type of thoughts that have interjected themselves into my head. And not just of the things that I've done but the things that I've kept myself from doing that in retrospect I wonder why did I not do them?

If you are not coming for yourself, know that he is coming for you. And when he does not have the same access to us in that blessed month and the moments are just near that he has access to to come and get us. You and I are not beyond it. May Allah protect us from those whispers.

But if you don't see how it is that it's given to us as a way to return to what it was that we were meant to be.

Body and Soul

This body that you and I have. The flesh that if you just ever look at it. Firstly it's beautiful because Allah said he made it beautiful. And so when you see inside of yourself and you start by looking external to yourself. It doesn't have to be through a mode of self-deprecation. But when you start to look deeply and ponder upon it.

Do you believe that you are just these fingers that you have. These arms that you have. This bedan, this jessad that you have. Is that you?

Or do you believe the verse that says that your Lord made this being out of mud, out of dirt. Something of this earth. But after he made it he then blew into it from his own spirit. Something from an other world.

End of Khutbah