Your 10 Days of Dhul Hijjah

Your 10 Days of Dhul Hijjah | Imam Khalid Latif | Jummah Khutbah

Opening: Seeking Refuge and Praising Allah

I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan.

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

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

Opening Khutbah

I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan. In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

There is none worthy of worship except Allah, the Most High, the Most Great. 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, peace and blessings be upon him, 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 Story of Ibrahim, Hajar, and Ismail

It is said that Ibrahim (peace be upon him) was commanded to take his son Ismail and his wife Hajar into the deserts. That the Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him), a man who epitomized for us the concept of tawakkul upon Allah. A man who embodied this idea that all he needed was God alone in his life.

This individual was told that you have to take your wife and your infant child into the deserts and leave them therein with nothing but some dates and water. And along the way he is being questioned over and over: What is the purpose behind this? Why are you doing this to us? What is the reason for this action?

Until Hajar (peace be upon her) says to her husband:

Hal amarakallāhu bi-hādhā?

"Has Allah commanded you with this?"

And when he says yes, that is sufficient for her. And she is left there now under the blazing heat of the Arabian sun with nothing but some dates and water.

The Search for Water

And soon these provisions they leave as well. And this child Ismail, he cries out just like any infant would cry out when they are in need of some sustenance. And this woman being a mother like any mother who would respond to the cries of her child, she begins to run everywhere she can to find something to give to her baby.

She ascends to the summits of the hills of Safa and Marwah looking as far as she can to see if there is something there in that barren land that perhaps could help silence the tears of this child.

And while she is doing so, it is said that at the blessed feet of Ismail (peace be upon him) where he is kicking, the angel Jibreel (peace be upon him) comes and he strikes the ground. And from where his feet are kicking from there, the wells of Zamzam, they spring forth and the water it begins to come about.

And the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, he says:

"May Allah have mercy upon this woman Hajar. Had she not sought to contain that water when it was coming forth, the entire land would have been covered by it."

And the water now it begins to attract life to it.

The Establishment of Mecca

That birds they begin to come into the middle of the deserts and there is a tribe that is known as the Jurhum tribe that sees these birds flying into the deserts and they are astonished as to why they are going where there is nothing. And so they send their own emissaries to see what is the purpose behind these birds going into the middle of this barren land.

And to their astonishment they find this large body of water, this infant child and this woman. And they say to her, "Will we be allowed to sit? Will we be allowed to situate ourselves around this water? Will you let us live here?"

And she says, "Yes you can but I am in possession of this water, I am the owner of it."

And these Jurhum they sit now, they settle around this water. The water is attracting life to it, the people they begin to come and settle on that land and this is where we see the establishment of the city of Mecca.

That from that one day you see that people start to come to it and over the centuries now millions and millions of individuals have gone to that blessed place.

Hajj and the Month of Dhul Hijjah

Even now there is people getting ready from all over the world who are going to make a pilgrimage to that land to embody the actions and the rites of those people on those days, to embody the fact that truly they want to develop a relationship with their Creator.

And we see that habitually around this time of the year as we enter into the month of Dhul Hijjah, the month of Hajj, the khatibs they begin to speak about this journey. They speak about how truly majestic it is, they speak about truly how awesome it is, they speak about what an amazing experience it is and why we should do it.

But in reality we are not individuals who just days away from this blessed days of Hajj that we can say now I will make a determination for myself that I will go. That in reality it's a discussion that we needed to have months ago, it was a discussion that we needed to have many many days ago so that we could then have that zeal and that enthusiasm and that encouragement that would allow for us to make a decision that would say I will leave everything behind so that I can go and do this thing.

Because I know there is good in it for me and there is good in it for the people around me. That I will go on this journey and I will go and see this place where people are not held down based off of any socially constructed differences that we seek to adhere and abide by, but we see a commonality that transcends any of those differences in that most beautiful gathering where people from all races and all ethnicities and all cultures come together on a commonality that says that they most assuredly should be there as one.

The First 10 Days of Dhul Hijjah

But we waited for it, and so perhaps inshallah maybe next year Allah will give us the Tawfiq to go because we did not decide that this was a time for us to be there. But it doesn't mean that still we cannot take advantage of the days perhaps not in the same way as the Hujjaj, but there is still benefit for us if we decide to take advantage of it.

That this thing of the Hujjaj takes place in a specific time in the calendar year in the month of Dhul Hijjah, and the 10 days that are in the initial days of this month of Dhul Hijjah, there is something that all of us can benefit from regardless of whether we are sitting in Makkah al-Mukarramah, Madinah al-Munawwarah, or we are sitting in New York City.

We don't have to be people who have done the Ihram and people who have gone to that place to say that we will take advantage of this month.

Quranic Verse:

"By the dawn, and [by] the ten nights."

Allah in Surah Al-Fajr, He takes oath by the days, the first 10 days of this blessed month when He says, "By the dawn and by those 10 nights." And He is elevating them and sanctifying them as He does when He takes oath by any of His creation in that most beautiful text. And we have to recognize this worth because even if we are not there, we are here and we can still capitalize upon the days that are in front of us.

The Virtue of These Days

Hadith:

That the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, he says that actions that are taking place in these days, meaning the days, the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah, they are more beloved to Allah than actions on any other days.

And the Sahabi say, "Ya Rasulullah, even struggling in the path of Allah, even doing that?"

And the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, he says, "Yes, even doing that. Except if you are an individual who struggled in such a way that you took your entire being and you took all of your possessions and you went out with them and you returned with none of it. That you understood that your life wasn't one that was egocentric, but it was one that functioned off of a principle that took into consideration the peoples who were around you and you had to focus on God in such a way that it was never about you, but it was always about everyone."

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 969)

A single exception, but many of us are not there and so the days are better than anything else for all of us.

That they are even put into comparison of the last 10 nights of the month of Ramadan, where some of our scholars say that these 10 days are even better than those 10 days. And it's within our hand to take advantage of them.

The deeds that we can undertake, actions that we can undertake, the performance of doing good on those days are things that we have to think about on an individual basis and it is there for our own benefit.

Finding Your Starting Point

That many of us get into a realm, into a frame of mind where we don't know how to proceed. We want to do something with ourselves, we want to act upon certain things, we want to be able to say that I will connect with my religious identity, but I don't have a starting point.

And it becomes so relative because my strengths and my weaknesses become unique in comparison to your strengths and your weaknesses, so your ability to engage on certain activity perhaps is not going to resonate within me the same way. Maybe you get something different out of praying the prayers that you pray. Maybe you get something different out of reading from the mushaf. Maybe you get something different out of fasting on certain days.

But here there is no relativity to the idea of whether or not there is goodness on performing something in this time because it is not you or me who subjectively is saying that this is something that is good. But the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, is saying that these days are better than other days and Allah is being the individual, He is being the entity that sets the precedent for us by taking oath by them and showcasing and highlighting to us their worth.

And any of us can take advantage of them.

I don't have to be the person who is delivering the khutbah. I don't have to be the one who is teaching the class. I don't have to be the one who stands in front of thousands and thousands, who looks a certain way, who dresses a certain way, who speaks or acts a certain way.

It's made tangible for me regardless of where I'm coming from. The only thing that keeps it from me is whether or not I will take advantage of it. And so what keeps me from doing so is me myself.

Fasting in These Days

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, he would fast in these days of Dhul Hijjah. That the only day out of those first 10 days where it would be told to us that we shouldn't be fasting is on the 10th day itself which is the day of Eid for us. And we are taught that it is prohibited for us to fast on that day.

But in those first nine days the Beloved of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, most assuredly he was one who was going without food or drink during the course of the day. He was somebody who abandoned from these things so that he could get more connected to everything that was given to him and in turn see where he could be of a benefit to the people around him.

The Day of Arafah

Hadith:

The fast that we do in the month of Ramadan that is meant to give us a consciousness not only of our own experiences but give us a certain relation to the experience of those who are around us who perhaps don't have the same benefit and blessing as we do. The same sense of entitlement that we can now relate to them not only in the month of Ramadan but we can connect to them by fasting outside of it.

And one of the times in which he fasted was in these days of Dhul Hijjah. And especially if it wasn't on those first nine days, most assuredly on the ninth day of Dhul Hijjah, the day that we know is the day of Arafah, explicitly it is mentioned to us in our tradition that that is the day that we should be fasting.

The Day of Arafah

Hadith:

The fasting on that day becomes an expiation for the year that came before it and the year that comes after it.

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, most assuredly told us that we should fast on that day.

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1162)

And the day itself is a day that is so sanctified. It is a day that is so dignified.

Hadith:

It is a day that in another hadith the beloved of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, says that supplication on that day they are from amongst the best of supplications. That it is something that we are encouraged to do.

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3585)

It is something that we should strive to do. We shouldn't leave it behind.

But the day of Arafah it is a day that is about you understanding your individual strengths and weaknesses so that on that day you are not only asking for yourself, you are asking for everyone else around you. You are asking for those who are in need. You are asking for those who have a deep desire for you to be something for their sake that perhaps your utterance of some sincere prayer would alleviate the hardship and the strife that they face on a daily basis.

The Gathering at Arafah

When the hujjaj go and stand on the day of Arafah it is truly an amazing experience. Millions of people donning white garb from all over the world standing on an open plain in the plain of Arafah most definitely is probably the most analogous situation for us to that day of judgment, that day of accountment.

Everybody just standing making their stance finding their place to stand and beseeching Allah of their most innermost desires and their innermost secret wishes because there are no secrets from Him. And they stand and they pray and they ask and they hope that it is something that they are given.

And you and I, we might not be there but it doesn't mean we just sit around here and do nothing. Because the day of Arafah is for us as much as it is for those who are there. And you have the opportunity to take advantage of the night that precedes it as well as the night that comes immediately after that day.

Standing in the Nights

That the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, he would stand in nights consistently but especially in these nights of Dhul Hijjah, those first ten nights, he would make a point to stand as well. Asking of Allah in that portion of the night when everyone else is gone to be with those who they love, the beloved of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, he went to stand with his most beloved, standing where his feet were swelling in such ways and tears were dropping from his eyes not asking of Allah for his own sake but for the sake of the people around him.

Our understanding is that this man was somebody who was ma'sum, he was somebody who was innocent, he was someone who was forgiven. He does not need to ask of himself, why is he doing this to himself?

And so his engagement in certain ritualistic worship is not meant for his own self benefit but he knows that he has the ability to alleviate the hardship of those who are around him by just standing and asking of Allah to make things easier for their sake.

And we also have this opportunity to do this.

That we can spend these days of Dhul Hijjah going out and engaging the society and being a resource and something of benefit to them, not thinking about what we will lose in the process of acting in a certain way but thinking about what someone else might gain if we were to give up a little of ourselves.

And most assuredly we can spend those nights reinforcing all of the actions that we had undertaken in the daylight hours by asking of Allah to accept from us and accept from all of us.

When we stand in the nights it doesn't have to be just about ourselves. We can stand and ask for those people who perhaps we have never had the fortune of meeting, we have never had the blessing of meeting, but we understand and we sympathize with their experiences and we know that we would show that we have appreciation for everything that we have been given so that we won't be belittling what they don't have.

Remembering Those in Need

Right now in this world we have people who have been submerged by water for months of their lives. There are still people who are coming from lands that you and I come from where we trace our histories to, and even if we don't come from those lands there are people who are in need of our help, of our support, and we have become completely indifferent to their experiences.

How is it that a third of an entire country has been submerged by floods and water and all of us are not rushing day in and day out to help them in their situation? How is it that we live in a city where people are not privileged in the way that most of us are privileged but we are not in tune with their experiences? We are not spending a portion of our week, of our hours dedicating in service to alleviate their pains and their trials.

What hesitates our hand from giving when it is most apparent in our tradition that the man whose legacy that we claim to follow was one who not gave only of his possessions but he gave of himself to the best of his ability?

And in these ten days of Dhul Hijjah think about it. Think about what it is that you actually do.

Think about what it is that you do for somebody else. Think about how you have engaged the people who are around you. What it is that you give of everything that you have been given so that perhaps somebody who was not given that thing could benefit from you and what you have.

Increasing in Worship

And stand in those nights and ask of Allah to make things easy for all of us. You might not see the young girl who is sitting in her home trying to understand why it has crumbled to the ground. You might not understand that young child who is dying of an illness that you and I wouldn't even ever have to worry about because when we are kids these are medicines that are just given to us without us really having any issue in obtaining them.

We can't begin to fathom or imagine what it must feel like for us to be individuals who have to walk miles to a well from which we would have to struggle to pour water out of a bucket and when we were taking it into our bodies the actual consumption of it was doing more damage than any good.

We don't have to think about these things. And then many of us also don't get motivated to go for Hajj. But there are people who have these experiences. There are people who go through these things. There are people who have not been given as much as you and I had been given.

And we have to remember them in those times and in those days.

The Prophet's Example

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, he was a unique individual who gave of himself whenever he had the opportunity to do so. In these days of Dhul Hijjah he made it a point to engage in individual ibadah, in individual worship, ritualistic practice where he was remembering Allah, where he was reciting from the Qur'an, where he was praying his prayers not just what was obligatory upon him but standing in that which was supererogatory, that which he was just doing because he wanted to do it extra.

He gave a lot in charity. He fasted on those days. He engaged in these kind of things because there were days that were auspicious.

And even if we don't do it in the rest of the year, don't let these days pass without you doing it. Take advantage of the fact that if this is the first time that you're gonna do it, make it with the intention that you make it something that you keep doing beyond that first time that you have done it. And even if you do it only this one time and you struggle doing it beyond it, do it to the best of your ability but don't waste the opportunity, don't waste the time.

Don't say that I'm gonna wait for Ramadan to come, that is the point in which I will be someone who is rejuvenated emotionally, physically and spiritually. Because there's other times of the year that Allah has given to us by which we could be better than we can even imagine if we sought to take advantage of them.

And these 10 days are the days that have been told to us are the best of days.

The Importance of Hajj

And within them we find that day that is most sanctified in our tradition, that day of Arafah. It doesn't take place at any other time. Logically the best form of worship to do in these 10 days is the Hajj itself. Because you can't do it at any other point of the year.

And if we are in this place where we are not going right now, we should make a firm commitment that if we have the means to go and we have the ability, the physical health to go, then we should go. Because it's really not like any other experience you can imagine.

Think about your gatherings. Think about what it's like when people come to your home. Think about who the people are that you let in to your most immediate proximity. There are conditions, there are qualifications that you won't just let anyone come and sit at your table. You won't let anyone come and sit at your house.

But our paradigm is in sharp contrast to the paradigm of the Divine. Because Allah He lets the best of creation into that house but He also lets the most wretched and the worst of creation into that house and it takes nothing away from His Majesty. And nobody ever questions it.

And if you don't see it and if you don't experience it and the only reason that you're not letting yourself do so is because you feel you don't have to or you'll just wait till later on, then you are kidding yourself. Because you don't know if you're going to make it to the next time. You don't know if you're going to have when you're 40 or 50 or you're 60 and that's it.

A Personal Story from Hajj

I went for the Hajj in 2005 and when we were making the Tawaf around the Kaaba usually the situation is that it is very packed and everyone is very close to one another. And as I was walking I saw that there were gaps in the places where people were making their circles and when I got closer to the gaps I saw what was actually happening.

That there were women who were adult grown women who they were coming from places in Africa and they had come not only strapped to them where all of their possessions and their belongings. They were people who they were such in physical state that they couldn't walk. They were crawling as they were making the circumambulation around the Kaaba.

And as they were crawling not only was it them who was making that Tawaf but they had strapped to their backs their children as well as they were going around.

If anyone would have an excuse to not go and make that journey would it not be this woman? But what is the excuse that we make for ourselves?

What is really the excuse that we say that I can't go and be there? And even if we justifiably have an excuse that says that I won't go there, what is the excuse that we have that would say that me being here and still having access to the things that I do I won't observe the things that I can really easily do?

Rhetorical Questions

Why won't you fast on the day of Arafah? What's going to keep you from doing it? What real reason would you have not to?

Why would you not stand in some of those nights to ask of Allah? What real reason would you have not to?

Really when it comes down to it and I know the things that I'm able to do that will not only bring me direct benefit but will bring benefit to the people around me, what is the thing that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, he recommends to us that most assuredly we should increase our actions and our deeds on those days?

Do things for yourself in the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah. Most assuredly do things for others in the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah.

And don't let those 10 days pass thinking that perhaps you might come upon them again because you don't know if it's something that will happen.

A Final Story: The Young Boy and the Elderly Man

There's a story that we have told before of an elderly man who he sees a young boy who looks as if he is going on a journey. And this elderly man as he comes upon this young boy he says to him, "Where is it that you are going? What is it that you are doing?"

And the young boy he says, "Ya Sheikh, I'm going to Allah's house, I'm going to the Kaaba, I'm going to make that pilgrimage."

And he says, "You seem to be saying something, what is this that is on your lips?"

And the young boy he says, "Ya Sheikh I am most assuredly reciting Qur'an, what else would it be that I would be saying?"

And he says, "Where are your provisions? Where are your resources? You are walking with nothing."

And he says, "Ya Sheikh if I was to go and visit anybody in their house would I bring my own provision? Then why when I am going to be with Allah why would I then bring my own provision?"

And the elderly man he says, "You are so young it must not be incumbent upon you to make this journey right now, why are you doing it?"

And he says, "Ya Sheikh I have seen many who are of a younger age than me pass away before they had the opportunity to make this journey. Why then when I have the means to do so now would I wait for a time that perhaps I would never even reach?"

Final Message

Don't wait. Take advantage of what you have the opportunity to do when it's in front of you. Because you don't know if that opportunity will come again.

May Allah guide us and protect us. May He bless us with knowledge that benefits us. May He bless us with the Tawfiq to understand and implement that knowledge into our daily lives. And may He guide and bless us all.

وَاللَّهُ تَعَالَىٰ أَعْلَمُ

Wallāhu ta'ālā a'lam

And Allah knows best.

Closing

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ تَعَالَىٰ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

Assalāmu 'alaykum wa rahmatullāhi ta'ālā wa barakātuh

Note: This khutbah emphasizes the immense virtue of the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah and encourages Muslims to take full advantage of them through fasting (especially on the Day of Arafah), prayer, charity, and remembrance of Allah. It reminds us that while Hajj is the ultimate act of worship during these days, those who cannot perform it still have countless opportunities to earn tremendous rewards. The message is clear: don't wait for tomorrow or next year—seize the opportunity while it's in front of you, for we are not guaranteed another chance.