Strangers (Ghurabah)
By Khalid Yasin | 2026-01-16T14:14:41.301779+00:00 | Topic: Muslim Identity
The Strangers (Al-Ghurabah)
Khutbah by Khalid Yasin
Opening Takbeer and Khutbah
السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَكَفَى وَصَلَاةً وَسَلَامًا عَلَى سَيِّدِ الْمُصْطَفَى صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَأَصْحَابِهِ وَأَزْوَاجِهِ وَمَنْ وَالَا وَبَعْدُ
فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللهِ وَخَيْرُ الْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَشَرُّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلُّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلُّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ
أَيُّهَا الْإِخْوَةُ الْكِرَامُ وَالْأَخَوَاتُ السَّيِّدَاتُ السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ
Introduction
Dear respected brothers and sisters, the ayat which were read to you, they contain some specific advice and led you to some particular characteristics which Allah gave to the people who followed the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم in the very beginning of this deen. These were the pieces of advice that prepared these people, that took these people from the darkness to the light, that took these people from the jahiliyyah to Islam, they took them from evil to goodness, that took them from being criminals to being muhsineen. Over a period of time Allah gave them this advice, gave them these commandments and put in their midst the best of the human beings.
So if they wanted to know what did Allah mean by this or that, they only had to follow Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم. And whenever Allah sent an ayah, they never tried to figure it out on their own.
The Example of Mu'adh ibn Jabal
As when the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he asked one day, Mu'adh ibn Jabal was riding on the camel of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم very close to him. And the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم asked him:
"O Mu'adh, do you know what is the Haq of Allah upon His servants?"
And Mu'adh is very close to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. And he could have answered this question, because he was a man of Taqwa and Iman. But his answer to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم it was:
"Allah and His Messenger know best."
Because the companions of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم when they were asked such a question, they never thought to themselves, they could answer this question better than the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. So they always
returned it back to him to see what he would say.
He told him: "The Haq of Allah upon His servants is that they do not associate any partners with Allah."
And then the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he asked him another question. He said:
"O Mu'adh, do you know what is the Haq of the servants upon Allah?"
And Mu'adh, he answered again: "Allah and His Messenger know best."
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم again he rode a little further to let him think. And then after that he says:
"If they do this, Allah will not punish them."
(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 5967 and Sahih Muslim, Hadith 30)
The Best Generations
The Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم he said: "The best of my nation, the best of my nation, meaning the cream of my nation. Whom if you follow them, there is no doubt about what they understood. No doubt about what they practiced. No doubt about what they saw. No doubt about their commitment."
He said: "Who are they? My generation." Then he stopped. And in another riwayah he mentioned: "And after them there will come another people. A different people. Upon them there will be some doubt. They will do some things they were not ordered to do. And some things they were ordered to do, they would not do."
But about those three generations, the companions of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم the tabi'een and the atba' al-tabi'een, those men and women who were around, who surrounded, who supported, who followed, who listened, who obeyed, who loved, who sacrificed for the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم. They were the strangers.
(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2652 and Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2533)
The Hadith of the Strangers
So the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he said:
بَدَأَ الْإِسْلَامُ غَرِيبًا وَسَيَعُودُ كَمَا بَدَأَ غَرِيبًا فَطُوبَى لِلْغُرَبَاءِ
"This religion began as a stranger, and it will return again as a stranger. So glad tidings to the strangers."
(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 145)
The Strangeness of Islam
We are the strangers. The deen was strange. Even the language was strange, although it was the language of the Arabs. But they didn't know. When the Quran said:
They didn't know what that meant, even though they were Arabs. How is the Quran using, how is he saying that kind of word? They were Arabs, but they never heard it like that. They knew the word zakah, but they didn't know it like that.
They had not heard that before. He didn't know what that meant. He was asking others: "What's he saying? How is he saying that? Where is he getting that?" Because the language which Allah sent to him, it was strange.
Because this was Kalam Allah, not Kalam al-Nas, Kalam Allah.
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم Became a Stranger
And when the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, who was well known to his people, he was known as Al-Amin, Al-Sadiq Al-Masduq صلى الله عليه وسلم. They knew he was Muhammad ibn Abdullah, and they knew he was Al-Amin, and they knew that he was truthful. But when Allah sent him as a Prophet and a Messenger, and commissioned him with this Quran, and ordered them to follow him, and to listen to this word, and to give up the idols, and to obey Allah, and to worship Allah.
They thought he was saying something strange. And he said to them, by their names: "O Quraysh, you know me. If I told you there was an army behind this mountain, coming here to destroy you, would you believe me?"
They said: "Yes, we will believe you."
"Then I'm telling you that I'm the Messenger of Allah, and you have the obligation to obey me."
Their response was that, still, he's saying something strange. And so the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم who was respected, who was trusted, who was loved, who was known by his people, even his uncles, that day he became a stranger.
The Companions Became Strangers
And so those people who followed his message after him, one by one, they also, they were known. Whether they were slave, or whether they were free, whether they were rich, or they were poor, or they were black, or white, or Arab, or non-Arab, they were known. Everyone knew them. But one by one, as they chose to follow the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم they too became strangers.
No one was more respected in Mecca than Abu Bakr al-Siddiq after the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم . Everyone knew him. But he too became a stranger.
And Umar ibn al-Khattab, the patriot among the Arabs, among the Quraysh, the man who was willing to kill the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم just because of his feeling of nationalism. He was willing. But on that day, that he went to kill the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he too became a stranger. That very day.
And we go on to those strangers. These are the people that we Muslims, we strangers today, we have to connect ourselves to those strangers. We have to connect our children to those strangers. Because it is these strangers that establish this deen. They are the ones who forged the path for this deen. They are the ones who made the sacrifice for this deen.
Allah's Description of the Believers
They are the ones whom Allah is speaking about when He says:
لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا اكْتَسَبَتْ رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَا إِن نَّسِينَا أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا
And they said: "Our Lord, do not take us to account if we forget or make mistakes." Up to the end of the ayah.
These were the people Allah was speaking about.
The Best of Creation
And in Surah Al-Bayyinah, Allah says:
These are the people. Not because we are reading the newspaper, because we are educated, because we are living in the West, because we are Arab, or Pakistani, or Somali, or Sudanese, or Algerian, or Moroccan.
Because we Muslims have our own roots. We have our own families, our own love. Because we watch the television, and the cinema, and we go to school, and our neighbors, and we live in the West, Australia, or UK, or America.
We develop a love, a following, a feeling, a support for another group of people. And they're not the strangers.
They are the strangers to the deen. They are not the strangers of the deen.
The Three Characteristics of Iman
The Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
ثَلَاثُ مَنْ كُنَّ فِيهِ وَجَدَ حَلَاوَةَ الْإِيمَانِ
"There are three characteristics. Whosoever has them, has tasted the sweetness of faith."
That he loves Allah and His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم more than they love anyone else besides them.
(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 16 and Sahih Muslim, Hadith 43)
Love for the Sake of Allah
So Allah mentioned to us, after a special incident took place, He says:
"You will not find those who believe in Allah and the Last Day loving those who oppose Allah and His Messenger, even if they be their fathers, or their sons, or their nearest of kin."
So what is the asbab al-nuzul of this ayah? One day, the son of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq رضي الله عنه he came to his father after he became a Muslim, and he said to him: "O father, I saw you on the battlefield, and I could have killed you, but because of my love and my respect for you, I could not do it."
And Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه he said to his son: "O my son, by Allah I never saw you, but if I had seen you, I would have killed you very easily, for Allah, because at that time you were among the kuffar."
So Allah mentioned this ayah because of the love which Abu Bakr showed for Allah.
The State of Muslims Today
That's the difference. Today, many Muslims here, you have relatives who are selling haram, doing haram, who live in your house and don't pray, and you don't care, and you say: "As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah, kayf halik habibi." And you drink coffee with them, and smile with them, and smoke hubbly-bubbly with them, and listen to music and play dominoes with them.
And you pass by them and greet them as you greet anyone else, and you don't give them any nasiha. This is because you don't have the love in your heart for Allah and His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم as the Prophet mentioned about this first quality of iman. Because if we love Allah and His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم and someone lives in our house, and they don't pray, and they're Muslims, every single day, we will argue with them.
The Warning from Allah
So Allah said:
"O you who believe! Protect yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is men and stones."
And He said:
"And let every soul look to what it has sent forward for tomorrow, and fear Allah. Indeed, Allah is Aware of what you do."
"And be not like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves. Those are the defiantly disobedient. Not equal are the companions of the Fire and the companions of Paradise. The companions of Paradise - they are the attainers of success."
Look to what you have sent forward for yourselves for tomorrow. That's your sons. That's your daughters. You sent them. And they come back. And they forgot about Allah. And you forgot about Allah. You didn't forget His
name. And they did not forget His name. They know Allah. They will say Allah. And you will say Allah. But you forgot the Ahkam of Allah. And they forgot the Ahkam of Allah. And because they forgot the Ahkam of Allah, Allah caused them to forget their own legacy, their own identity, their own deen. And so they become trash.
And you know, you see the trash all over this city. Muslim trash. They are Muslims. Still there is a flame of Islam inside of them. But they are sleeping, eating in the trash. And they are bringing the trash back home with them. You know who they are. And if there are some of them here today, alhamdulillah, better for you to be here than anywhere else.
Following Good with Good
And the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said to one of his companions, he says:
"Fear Allah wherever you are, and follow up a bad deed with a good one and it will wipe it out. And have good behavior with the people."
(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1987)
So if you did something wrong, follow up a bad deed with a good one and it will wipe it out. And after that have good behavior. In the case of doing haram, in the case of doing major sins, you have to make tawbah. In the case of doing minor sins, then you have to do some good action like sadaqah, fasting.
The Names of the Strangers
So O Muslims, these strangers: Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Mus'ab ibn Umayr, Salman al-Farisi, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, Bilal ibn Rabah, Abdullah ibn Umar, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, Suhaib ibn Sinan, Mu'adh ibn Jabal - may Allah be pleased with them all.
These are the names we should teach our children. They should be the heroes of our children. Not Michael Jordan, not Michael Jackson, not the football players, or the basketball players, or the musicians which they are listening to everyday. Al-Miqdad ibn Amr, Sa'id ibn Amr, Hamzah ibn Abdul Muttalib, Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, Ammar ibn Yasir, Ubadah ibn al-Samit.
Subhanallah. If you and I took the time to read about just 50 of the companions of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم the Companions of the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم the tabi'in, the atba' al-tabi'in, the female companions, or the Mothers of the Believers. Just read about them. And we learned just one line or two about each one of them. And we shut the television off for two or three hours a day. And in place of that, we just play a tape about them every day. To our children, the best food.
Examples of Young Leaders
We have to make the investment in the strangers. Uthman ibn Maz'un, Zayd ibn Harithah, Ja'far ibn Abi Talib. Look at these people. Tell your sons about Usamah ibn Zayd. That 16-year-old boy who the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said there was none better than him except his father. And so he appointed him as the Amir of the Muslim army.
While Abu Bakr was living, and Umar was living, and Uthman was living, and Ali ibn Abi Talib was living, and other companions of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم that were twice and three times his age. But the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم took that young boy and made him the commander of the Muslim army. Because he said there was none other better for that job except his father.
And who was his father? Zayd ibn Harith. Who had memorized the Quran directly from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. We need to tell, who is Ja'far ibn Abi Talib? The commander of the first Muhajirun, those that went to Abyssinia. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم handpicked him and sent him with those people to be their commander, their Amir.
And it was Ja'far who spoke to the Negus and touched his heart. And later on it was Ja'far who convinced him to become a Muslim, the king of a country. And we know he became a Muslim because when he died and the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم found out that he had died, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم stood up and he made Salat al-Janazah for him.
More Examples of the Strangers
O Muslims! Khalid ibn al-Walid, Qays ibn Sa'd ibn Ubadah, Umair ibn Wahab, Abu al-Darda, Talhah ibn Ubaydullah. Tell them about Abu Dharr al-Ghifari. Abu Dharr, that man the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "Abu Dharr will walk alone and Abu Dharr will die alone and Abu Dharr will be raised up on the Day of Judgment alone."
Not because he did something wrong but because Allah distinguished him that way. Abu Dharr, who was from some of the worst of the criminals, who used to lay and wait for people on the paths in different places to rob them, who was known and his people were known. But yet when Abu Dharr became a Muslim, he was the person, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
"The minds of the believers are like mines of gold and silver. The best of them in the Jahiliyyah, they will become the best of them in the day of Islam, if they believe."
(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2638)
And look at Abu Dharr. Abu Dharr when he became a Muslim, he said: "O Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم by Allah I will go today to the Haram and I will tell them: La ilaha illallah, Muhammadur Rasulullah and I don't care."
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "Don't do that, they will beat you."
He said: "I will do it."
And Abu Dharr he went to the Haram and he faced them and he told them by their names: "I am Abu Dharr. La ilaha illallah, Muhammadur Rasulullah. Who doesn't like it?"
And they jumped on him and they beat him until they knocked him out. And when he became conscious again, he stood up and he said it again to them and they beat him and knocked him out. And he continued to do that until the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم ordered Abu Dharr to leave Mecca because he knew they would kill him. And Abu Dharr he left. And the next time that Abu Dharr came back, he came back with his entire tribe. All of them saying: La ilaha illallah, Muhammadur Rasulullah.
This is Abu Dharr. And we Muslims, some of us, we are Muslims for 20 years, we are born Muslims. And we are 50 years old today, 60 years old. And we have not given one shahadah where we live. We did not give one. Because we say: "My family is Muslim, my father is Muslim, my grandfather Muslim, my great grandfather Muslim." Mashallah. But you don't say to the kafir who you work with, and you don't say to the kafir you go to school with, and you don't say to the kafir, your non-Muslim who enters your store, you do business with, you don't say to your neighbor who is a non-Muslim, you don't say what Abu Dharr said, you don't say: La ilaha illallah, Muhammad Rasulullah.
You don't share the treasure of Islam.
The Three Qualities of Iman (Continued)
My brothers and sisters in Islam. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "The three things, whosoever have them, have tasted the sweetness of faith."
One: A person loves Allah and His Messenger more than all else.
Secondly: He loves a person only for the sake of Allah. He loves a person for the sake of Allah. Not because he is my countryman. Not because he is my family. Not because I know him very well. Not because I hang out in the street with him. Not because we watch television together or we do business together. No. You love a person only for the sake of Allah. And you hate a person for what? For the sake of Allah.
And the third characteristic is that you hate going back to kufr as you would hate being driven into a fire. So when a Muslim thinks of the act of kufr - because here, it doesn't mean to become a kafir. It means to do an act of kufr. So when the act of kufr, when you think of it, you think to yourself that the fire is next to you and someone is pushing you into it.
Then you know you have iman. But if the idea of sins comes to your mind, and nothing happens inside of you, you don't have it. If you lie to earn some money, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم never lied to earn some money.
The Trustworthiness of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم
If you're willing to steal something from a kafir, simply because he's kafir anyway, you don't have it. Because the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم never stole from the kafir. Because if it was legitimate for the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to steal from the kafir, he would have taken that money which he had in his house, that he was holding for the Quraysh.
There were people from the Quraysh who had given the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم money in trust and even they were hating him, his message. And even though they were fighting him against his message. And even though they were killing and torturing his followers. And even though they had plotted to come to his house and kill him. Not one time did they come to him and say: "Give me back my money." He was holding the money for them.
And the reason that he left Ali ibn Abi Talib in his bed, when they came, so that Ali could give them the money that he was holding which belonged to them. So if it was lawful for the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to take some money from the kafir because they were kafirs, that was a good time to take it. But he did not. Because he was Al-Amin.
Being Willing to Be a Stranger
O Muslims, we must be willing and courageous to be strangers. Being a stranger will result in change. People will change simply because you begin to practice. You begin to pronounce. You begin to establish yourself around them as a Muslim.
You see, if you go work for some kafirs, and your name is Abdur-Rab, and you tell them: "My name is Rabi." You open a store. Your name is Harith. And you say: "My name is Harry." Because you want to have good relationship with them.
Standing Firm in Your Deen
So one day Muhammad, he wakes up. So 12:30 everybody goes for lunch. They say: "Muhammad, come we're going downstairs for lunch."
Muhammad says: "No, that's okay. I'm going upstairs to pray."
They say: "What? What's going on with you, Muhammad?"
And Friday comes. And Muhammad, he leaves at 11. They say: "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to Jumu'ah."
Allah says:
"O you who believe! When the call is made for the prayer on the day of Jumu'ah, then proceed to the remembrance of Allah."
"If you want to fire me, you fire me. If you want me to, I work night shift, I work midnight shift, I work holidays, I work Saturday, I work Sunday, I work double shift, I work anytime. But Jumu'ah, Allah's time. See you."
They said: "What happened to Muhammad?"
A couple of months later, Muhammad, he got the full beard. Now Muhammad got a beard. They said: "Muhammad, what happened to you? You're looking like Osama Bin Laden. You're looking like these Qaeda guys. What's going on with you, Muhammad? You became extremist."
Muhammad said: "No, I did not become extremist and I don't belong to any group like that. This is the sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. And if you don't like it, I don't care."
Maybe they will respect Muhammad even more. But Muhammad, until he does that, he doesn't realize it. He's thinking that, if he just goes along with them, maybe they will like him. No, they won't. They will never be satisfied with you, Muhammad, Ahmad, anyone, until you leave your deen. And even if you leave your deen, they still will not be satisfied with you. They will still say to you: "Yeah, I know you changed your religion and you this and that, but you still are Muslim."
They still will not respect you. So therefore, the only respect we should look for is the respect from Allah. You will lose some money. You will lose some association. You will lose some people. And even some of your family members will start telling you: "Why are you dressing like that? Why are you getting up early in the morning disturbing us?"
Yes, I lived in Egypt and I was in a house and I got up 4:30 in the morning. I heard the adhan. I got up and I went out. I came back. They told me: "Why are you, what are you doing? Why are you getting up that early?"
I said: "The masjid, I heard the adhan."
They said: "You can pray here."
I said: "No. But I understand I should go and pray in jama'ah."
They said: "You don't have to be extreme."
I'm in Egypt. If that's the case in Egypt, then what about the Muslims here?
An Experience in Mecca
I'm praying in Mecca. In Mecca. At a very big mosque. Masjid Malik Fahd. Big mosque. Four times this size. Across the street from the people that hold the key for the Ka'bah. They're the holders of the keys for the Ka'bah. And the king, when he wants to wash the Ka'bah, he has to come to that person's house as a ceremony. Pick up the key, go to the Ka'bah, open it.
Those people who hold the key for the Ka'bah, I never saw them at Fajr prayer ever. One day I saw him. The brother introduced me to him. He's washing his car. And I said to him: "I'm very glad to meet you because I know your family has a big history. But I want to ask you a question. Yesterday, were you here for Fajr?"
He asked me: "Why you ask me that?"
"Because your house is across the street from this masjid. And if you were here for Fajr, were you praying in your house and you don't come to the masjid?"
He told me: "That's not your business."
I said: "Probably it's not my business because you're holding a very big key."
And this is what it is. When we become big people, we have big money, we got big name, we got big friends, we got big house, we got big family, we also got big pride. And we don't have to come to the masjid then, you see. We can just stay home.
No, O Muslims, we must be willing and courageous to be a stranger because those who are in the masjid for Fajr in the morning and those who pray and leave their houses for Isha at night to get the benefit of the 27 rewards, they are strangers too.
The Challenges of Being a Stranger
We must be willing to be strangers. And when we become strangers, it's going to affect our livelihood. It will cause people to misunderstand you. It will make you sometimes even doubt yourself. Why did I lose my friends? How come my wife, she wants to divorce because she's telling me I'm becoming extreme. Or in the case of the sister, she doesn't cover herself. She's wearing lipstick in the street. She's putting perfume on. She's working among the kuffar.
And her husband is like her. And one day, she wakes up and she puts on niqab. And she puts her full clothes on. No more lipstick. No more perfume. She doesn't talk to the men. She's not working anymore because she understands to keep her honor, to keep herself. She stays home and takes care of her home. And her husband says: "What's happened to you?"
She says: "Yesterday I read an ayah in the Quran. I read a hadith from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. And it made me cry to think about my religion. And I'm not doing that no more."
And so he said: "Then I don't want you. You have become extreme."
So she has now become a stranger. Alhamdulillah. If he leaves her, we ask Allah to give her another stranger. To give her someone else who is also a stranger. Because strangers belong with strangers.
It will challenge your iman. It will challenge your commitment. The issue of deen came to distinguish father from son. The issue of deen came to distinguish mother from daughter. The deen came to separate individuals from the family. To separate families from the tribe. And to separate the tribe from the nation on the basis of what? Deen.
Characteristics of the Strangers
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "Hold on to them." With what? Not your front teeth. The back teeth, your molars.
Belief, commitment, sacrifice, knowledge, obedience, fear of Allah, consistency, courage, steadfastness, loyalty, respect, love for each other, brotherhood, discipline, patience, support, cooperation. These are the characteristics
of the strangers.
If we listen to the ayat which Allah gave to them, all of these ayat were calling them to these characteristics. Iman, sacrifice, knowledge, obedience, tolerance, compassion, patience, steadfastness, loyalty.
Allah is the guardian of those who believe. He brings them out from darkness to light. And those who disbelieve, their allies are the tyrants. Love for each other. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said the strangers, they have love for each other.
So Allah says in one of the Hadith al-Qudsi: "Who are those who love each other for My sake? This day I will give them shade. On a day there will be no shade except My shade."
Reference: Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2566
Be Among the Strangers
O Muslim brothers and sisters, you and I, we should want to be strangers. We should want to be a part of the return of the strangers. And we should realize that no matter what the non-Muslims do, no matter what they try to do to blow out and extinguish the light of Allah by blowing with their mouths, meaning their television, their cinema, their newspapers, their books, their radio, whatever they do against Islam, the lies, the distortion, the misconception, whatever they do to try to wipe out Islam, they will never wipe Islam out.
Allah says:
"They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah refuses except to perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it."
Because Allah will perfect His light and He will perfect it through the strangers.
Supplication
We ask Allah that He make you and I of the strangers. We ask Allah that He give our sons and daughters love for the strangers. We ask Allah that our sons and daughters who have taken off their clothes and are out in the Jahiliyyah world who are selling drugs, who are in the clubs, who have went astray, we ask Allah they will come back to become strangers.
We ask Allah that the Muslims who are in this masjid this evening, the men who are here in this masjid, that they will come back to this masjid not tomorrow evening but in the morning for the Fajr prayer so they can pray with the strangers. Because when the Muslims in Palestine, when the Muslims in Afghanistan, when the Muslims in Somalia, when the Muslims in Chechnya, when the Muslims in Egypt, when the Muslims in
Morocco, when the Muslims in Algeria, when the Muslims wherever they are, when they come out and begin to pray in the masjid as strangers, then Allah will give their earth back to them, their honor back to them, their strength back to them, because Islam then will be back.
But you should not ask for the reward of the strangers if you are not acting like the strangers. And as long as the kuffar whom you associate with on your jobs, in your neighborhood, as long as they like you so much, you should think about it how they like you so much.
The Power of Da'wah
O Muslims, one of the most powerful things Allah gave to the strangers that made us Muslim, the most powerful thing Allah gave to those strangers is the issue of da'wah. Da'wah to Allah.
You and I, we have the power in our mouths, we have the power in our chest, we have the power in our minds, we have more power than any other bomb in the world. Yes, the kuffar, they have the neutron bomb, they have the hydrogen bomb, they have the atom bomb, they got this bomb and that bomb and they will blow up everything on the earth. But Allah has not given them a bomb that will allow the hearts to explode.
But Allah gave that bomb to us. The bomb that Allah gave to us is the D-bomb. The da'wah bomb. It is the bomb that doesn't blow up any buildings. It is the bomb that doesn't break any bones. It is the bomb that doesn't harm anyone. It is the bomb that penetrates minds and hearts and causes people to explode inside and become strangers. You and I carry the bomb with us every day. But we're talking about some other bomb.
We are reacting to some other bomb because we are fearing someone else other than Allah and Allah has told us that the honor is for Him.
Allah says:
"He gives honor to whom He wills, and He humiliates whom He wills."
It belongs to Allah.
Final Exhortation
O Muslims, make da'wah. Ask Allah, come back to the deen and your respect will come back to you. Come back to the deen and all your power will come back to you. Ask Allah and He will answer you.
Teach your children about the strangers and you yourself learn about the strangers.
Closing Du'a
"There is no deity except You; exalted are You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers."
"O Allah, You are my Lord, there is no deity except You. You created me and I am Your servant. I am keeping my covenant and promise to You as much as I can. I seek refuge with You from the evil of what I have done. I acknowledge Your favor upon me and I acknowledge my sin, so forgive me, for indeed none forgives sins except You."
(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6306)
"O Most Merciful of the merciful ones."
Document Information
Title: The Strangers (Al-Ghurabah)
Speaker: Khalid Yasin
Transcription Date: October 22, 2025
Reviewed and Corrected: Complete with Arabic text, harakat, and authentic references
May Allah make us among the strangers who uphold His deen with sincerity and steadfastness. Ameen.