Friday Khutba

Friday Khutba by Ustad Nouman Ali Khan

Opening Prayer and Declaration of Faith

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Come to prayer, come to prayer, come to success, Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah.

Introduction: The Success of the Believers

At the very beginning, Allah says:

Those of you who are familiar with Arabic, you know (قَدْ - qad) is a particle that's used to emphasize something. But it's also used to say or communicate the meanings of "already." So whatever is about to be said is already the case. It's not like it's going to be the case, it's already the case.

Then Allah uses a verb in particular for success, (أَفْلَحَ - aflaha). And before we go further, a really shallow translation would suggest true believers have already attained success or they've already succeeded. But a very particular flavor of success is what's mentioned in the ayah.

The Meaning of Success (Aflaha) - The Farmer's Victory

The word (أَفْلَحَ - aflaha) is related to the Arabic term (فلاّح - fallah) - the farmer. And the farmer in Arabic interestingly has tons of words. There are lots of words that depict the farmer. Because farming was so very important to the Arabs, because most of their region wasn't really something you could grow anything on, so the few places you can grow something on are very, very important.

And the activity that goes on there is very, very important. Incidentally, things that were really important to the ancient Arabs, they have lots of words for them. Like the sword. They have lots of words for the sword. So the farmer or farming, they have lots of terminology surrounding this process, this agriculture that sustained the entire region.

At the end of the farming season, the harvest season, when the farmer is finally done with his labor, he sees that the crop, the harvest is tall, the stocks are tall, and he's going to go and cut all of his labor down. He's going to collect it and he's going to make his yearly income.

The way we think of our income nowadays, we have jobs, most of us. Either we get paid weekly or we get paid bi-weekly or monthly. I don't think anyone here probably gets a year, one paycheck a year. I don't think anyone here has that situation. But that's what a farmer's situation is.

He puts the work in all year. He puts the seed into the ground. He waters it. He begs for the rain. He moves his animals around on the land tilling the earth. And he hopes that the insects don't come and destroy his crop or infestations don't happen or weeds don't come in. And he has to basically be on this high, strong, stressful labor majority of the year. And finally, eventually, at the end of the year, he sees the fruits of his labor.

At the end of that year, by the way, agriculture is not just something that obviously happened in the Arab world. It's what's happening all over the world. And if you look at any agricultural society, you'll find the same thing. When they get to crop season, when they get to the season where they harvest, they all have festivals. They all celebrate. They'll decorate their entire villages. They'll be singing going on. Why? Because that's not one paycheck in the entire year. All that year's labor in that one day, in that one week. That's the word (أَفْلَحَ - aflaha) from Allah.

It's not just success. It's success that comes after you put in a lot of labor. It didn't just come. It didn't just make its way to you. It's something you had to put a lot of work into, endless work into.

And by the way, when the farmer does put the seed in the ground and gets his animals to go in the hot sun and go and give water all around, he sees no progress at all. He does not know if this is going to be a good year or a bad year. There's no clue. Whether he sees results or not, he has to get up and he has to do his work. And he knows even if he skips one day, one week, if he messes up even a little bit, then it can hurt his entire labor. So he has to very strictly follow a schedule. He has to stick to a program.

The Status of True Believers (Al-Mu'minun)

Allah Azza wa Jal began this surah saying

- Those who truly believe, those who really have attained a maturity in their iman, these are the people that have already attained success, implying that they've already put a lot of work in to get there.

And that is why they don't just get the term (الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا - alladhina amanu) describing them. (الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا - alladhina amanu) those of you who read Quran, all of you inshallah, know (الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا - alladhina amanu) comes all the time in the Quran.

Allah uses here not (الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا - alladhina amanu) but (الْمُؤْمِنُونَ - al-mu'minun). He didn't say (قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا - qad aflaha alladhina amanu). (الْمُؤْمِنُونَ - al-mu'minun) is a noun. It's substantial. It's permanent. Allah is describing these people as mature in their iman by the word (مُؤْمِنُونَ - mu'minun).

When Allah uses (الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا - alladhina amanu) in the Quran, sometimes He even complains about them.

Those of you who have Iman, what's wrong with you? Why do you say that which you don't do? But here in this ayah, these are real, real Muslims.

And we beg Allah that He counts us among them. But so that we should have a checklist. How do I know for myself? And how do you know for yourself whether we qualify for this ultimate success? Where do we stand? Allah gave us a checklist.

First Quality: Khushu in Prayer

The first thing Allah Azza wa Jal mentions is

- Those who especially when it comes to their salah, especially when it comes... This is ikhtisas, it's specialization in Arabic. So I'm adding that in translation. These are the people, these true believers are the people that especially when it comes to their prayer, they have this quality called (خشوع - khushu) which most commonly is misunderstood as focus.

Like they focus in their prayer. It's not (ترکیز - turkiz), it's something else. (خُشوع - khushu) in the Arabic language is when you feel a kind of fear that numbs your muscles. That you get overwhelmed with fear. You don't just feel it emotionally, you almost start feeling it physically. It rattles you to the core. That kind of fear.

Let me give you an example of that kind of fear. There's a boy talking in the back of the classroom and the teacher calls his name - that child just felt (خشوع - khushu). That's what he felt. He felt (خشوع - khushu).

This is one of the most powerful experiences a person can have and Allah says, especially when it comes to their prayers. These people have (خشوع - khushu). Especially when it comes to their prayers. Which implies they have (خشوع - khushu) outside too. Outside too, but especially in their (صلوات - salawat).

Now the question arises, why? Why highlight this as the first characteristic? You know, describing (صلوات - salawat), Allah Azzawajal says

- No doubt, essentially the ayah is suggesting the (صلوات - salawat) is a means by which we maintain a schedule.

The believer's schedule isn't "I'll see you at 4:30, I'll see you at 2 o'clock, I'll see you at 7 o'clock" - it's "I'll see you right before maghrib, I'll see you right after isha, I'll see you between dhuhr and asr." Our clock revolves around the (صلوات - salawat).

What did I tell you about the farmer? That he has to follow a very strict schedule if he wants to be successful. Our strict schedule is the (صلوات - salawat). And the point of the (صلوات - salawat) is that we never lose sight of the fact that we are working hard for success and the moment we lose sight of that, we're really not going to be able to take our work seriously. We're not going to be able to get any of the other expectations of Allah met.

Second Quality: Avoiding Vain Talk

What's the next expectation?

- Very interesting. Allah says especially when it comes to (اللغو - al-laghw). Remarkable word in the Arabic language - (لغو - laghw). Useless conversation. Urdu speakers call it (تک تک - tik tik). Arabs call it (كلام فارغ - kalam farigh). You know back in America we say "shoot in the breeze."

(اللغو - al-laghw) - That doesn't benefit you here in this world and has no benefit for you in the akhirah either. You got nothing good out of the PlayStation 3 here or in the akhirah. You got nothing good out of Angry

Birds here or in the akhirah. But it took a lot of your time. It takes a lot of your time. This is (لغو - laghw) - Useless activity. Useless speech. That has no benefit in the world and no benefit in the next.

When people start respecting their time... By the way, how does a Muslim respect his time? With (صلاة - salah). Salah is proof that you have respect for your time. If you really have (خُشوع - khushu) in (صلاة - salah) you'd start respecting not just the time of (صلاة - salah), the time between the (صلوات - salawat) also, so you have no time to waste, so there's no (لغو - laghw) - cut it out. You get rid of useless things in your life.

You have friends. Sometimes, you know, when you're listening to a khutbah or listening to Quran you listen to it for 3 minutes you get sleepy. "Oh man, I've been listening a long time. That was really long." But when you're talking to your friends about nothing at all you can sit for hours and talk and like, "Where did the time go? Oh my god, it's 2am?" Huh. Say goodbye to Fajr now.

Right? It will happen all the time. When a believer becomes attentive or really focused and really fearful in salah, it starts impacting how a believer spends his or her time outside of (صلاة - salah) - (وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنِ اللّغو مُعْرِضُونَ - walladhina hum 'ani-laghwi mu'ridun).

The Connection Between External and Internal Purification

When you stop wasting your time it's like you start - if you stop thinking about useless things you know, every container only gives out what it contains. If you're only talking about useless things all the time that means the heart is full of useless things. That's what that means. When you stop that stuff it's no longer coming out of you. It means the inside is getting cleaned up.

And when the inside gets cleaned up I give my students the image - it's like you know you can't see yourself in a dirty mirror, you have to wipe it clean and then you can see your own reflection. It's when you stop wasting your time you can really really and I can really really think about who I really am.

We're delusional about who we ourselves are. Where we stand in front of Allah. We don't even think about it. Because we got other stuff to think about. Young folks have video game walkthroughs to read. Right? Or they have to check their Facebook status whether somebody put a thumbs up or thumb down on their comment. They have other stuff to do.

But when you cut that stuff out of your life then you start thinking about where do I stand? What have I accomplished? You start asking yourself some very hard questions. And you start realizing that you and I have some very deep flaws. We have some problems. Some things we need to work on. Maybe you never thought about it before but once you cut out a useless part of your life it makes you more reflective about yourself.

Third Quality: Active in Self-Purification (Zakat)

Allah Azzawajal says

- Those especially for the goal of cleansing themselves, purifying themselves, this is not just the zakat of giving money because that has different verbiage, different language. This is the zakat of purifying - when it comes to the goal of cleansing themselves they put themselves to work and they don't - they put themselves to work because they realize there is something dirty it needs to be cleaned.

You know when something is really dirty it takes a lot of work to clean it. When the stain is deep and it's been there for a long time - those of you that wash dishes, if you don't wash your dishes for a couple of days what happens to the stain? It gets stuck on it, you got to put a lot of work.

If you and I have personality problems like anger, greed, jealousy, you have a problem lowering your eyes nobody knows, only you know, Allah knows, nobody knows. You can be knowledgeable or not knowledgeable, it doesn't matter, you can be young man or old man, you have a problem lowering your gaze, you have that problem and you know about it, nobody else can tell you you have it. You have to be honest to yourself and if you do, if you've had that problem for a long time, it takes a lot of work to get rid of it. It's not going to happen overnight.

So these people first of all realize what's wrong with them - get angry too easily, I insult my friends too much, I talk behind people's back too much, I watch way too much shamelessness, you know I'm a little too friendly with the opposite gender in college or anywhere else, I get a little too casual too easily, I got to watch myself. When they realize that, they put themselves to work to try to cleanse themselves - (وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِلزَّكَاةِ فَاعِلُونَ - walladhina hum liz-zakati fa'ilun).

Fourth Quality: Guarding Private Parts and Modesty

And when it comes to cleaning yourself up there is one fitnah, there is one trial that is so dangerous that no matter how hard you work at it the temptation never goes away. You know you can work really hard and you can get the riba out of your life, backbiting out of your life, you can work really hard and go from being a very angry person to becoming a patient person, it can happen, you can evolve, it can happen, it's possible. You can work really hard and be a very lazy person - some people say like in America it's very common "I'm not a morning person," they say "I'm not a morning person" means I can't wake up before 11am, right? That's what that means. But some people if you work on yourself you can become a morning person, you can become diligent in time.

But there is one problem, there is one temptation that even the Prophet (peace be upon him) was most concerned about when it came to this ummah and that is temptation between men and women, shamelessness. So Allah Azza wa Jal dedicates multiple ayaat to this one problem in the ayaat of al- mu'minun.

After mentioning (الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ، وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنِ اللَّغْوِ مُعْرِضُونَ، وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِلزَّكَاةِ فَاعِلُونَ - alladhina hum fi salatihim khashi'un, walladhina hum 'ani-laghwi mu'ridun, walladhina hum liz-zakati fa'ilun), Allah mentioned (وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِفُرُوجِهِمْ حَافِظُونَ - walladhina hum li furujihim hafizun) - one ayah.