We Have Been Chosen

We Have Been Chosen

Khutba by Br. Nouman Ali Khan

Introduction: The Weight of These Verses

In today's khutbah inshaAllah ta'ala, I'd like to share with you some very powerful ayat. And I'm already, before I even share this message with you, for myself and for all of you, I'm already nervous because the weight of these ayat and the amount of time that I have, they don't go with each other. And I hope that I'm able to do at least some justice to the message of this very powerful khutbah, this speech that Allah Himself revealed to our Messenger and through the Messenger (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) to all of us.

The Context: A Makki Surah for Non-Muslims

It occurs at the end of surah al-Hajj. Surah al-Hajj is a Makki surah, which means it happened before the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) migrated. And his primary audience, the most people that were listening to him at that time weren't Muslims.

So as these ayat are coming, nowadays when we hear the ayat, we hear them as Muslims. Most of the time non-Muslims don't listen to the Qur'an. But you have to imagine a different time.

At this time when the Prophet is speaking (alayhi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), the khutbah is happening not to a Muslim audience, but mostly to a non-Muslim audience. It's a completely different situation. And one thing in the beginning that you need to appreciate, is that when Muslims listen to a khutbah, they come voluntarily to the masjid.

Most of them come in early. And they sit and turn their cellphones off, and they don't talk to each other, and they want to listen to something that will remind them of Allah. But a non-Muslim is not the same way.

The Contrast in Listening

So when the Messenger (alayhi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) is reciting these ayat for the Muslim:

"When the Qur'an is being recited, listen to it and keep quiet so that you may be shown mercy."

Keep your mouth shut. Just quietly listen. (أَنصِتُوا) in Arabic doesn't just mean be quiet. Don't talk and listen. Just listen to what's being said. And listen to it quietly and attentively. So that you can be shown mercy. (لَعَلَّكُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ).

But the non-Muslims, I mean, they said:

"Don't listen to this Qur'an."

Look at the contrast. When it's recited, make a lot of noise. We don't want to hear this message. And it's very different also, because now if you are listening to Qur'an recitation in your car, and you go to the gas station, and it's kind of loud, and you open the door, the guy pumping gas next to you can also hear the Qur'an, right? From your car.

But he has no idea what's being recited. Because that's not his language. This is another big difference.

Even back then when the Prophet was reciting Qur'an, (صلى الله عليه وسلم) the non-Muslims that were listening would immediately understand what Allah is saying.

It's not like our time now. They would immediately understand that this is talking to them about them, even though they hated that message.

The Human Tendency to Tune Out

So now what happens over time, and this happens to many people. You know, it's a human phenomenon that we don't listen to certain people. We just don't like listening to certain people.

Like for a lot of Muslims, if they see a certain Republican candidate, or a certain Tea Party member or whatever, or certain known Muslim hater on TV, and he's about to give a speech, most of us would just change the channel, this guy is going to bark his bark again. Why waste our time? And we change our channel. Why we look at his face? We kind of assume, we know what this guy has to say.

There's no reason to waste our time. You understand what I'm saying? The same way even in your family and other things, within your family, it could be the elders, when young, you know, your son, or your nephew or somebody comes, they're about to tell you something, before they even open their mouth, you go, here we go again. This kid is going to waste my time again.

I don't have to listen to this. It happens the other way too. Children walk in, the parents, father says, come here, I have to talk to you.

Oh my God, he's going to give his khutbah again. He's going to sit me down before dinner, and give me a whole advice of how big a loser I am. So even before the father opens his mouth, the son has turned his ears off.

He's not even listening. He's sitting there, but he's not sitting there. You know (زيت زوځ) His soul is traveling somewhere else.

You know, he's not paying attention. Especially when you're agitated with someone, annoyed with someone, when you have something against someone, you tend to tune them out. You don't even listen.

The Reaction to Hearing About Allah

So when the people would see the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and they would hear the name of Allah, Allah says this (فَهُذَا كَلَامُ اللهِ) This is the speech of Allah. The moment they would hear, Oh my God, another few ayahs from God, your God, more talk from Allah. I don't need to hear this.

I don't need to hear this. You know, just, because this is a religiously ceremonial weekend for the Christians, in my mother's apartment, her downstairs neighbor, she came upstairs with a gift of a candle, and she gave her a Bible. And my mom said, wait, I want to give you a copy of Quran too.

And she goes, no, no, I don't need that. I don't need to hear what that is. It's okay.

It's alright. I already, I can assume what your Allah has to say. I don't need to know.

You need this message though, because my preacher this Sunday told me, I need to go talk to my neighbor, and bring them to Christ, right? But you don't have to listen. This is the audience the messenger is dealing with, an audience that's not interested in listening. So the style is very powerful in the beginning of this surah, or in the beginning of this passage rather.

The Example is Given

"O people, an example is given."

People. An example is about to be given. I'm translating this carefully.

An example has been given. It's about to be given. Now when you say an example is about to be given, you did not mention who's giving the example.

Other places in the Quran, Allah Azza wa Jalla says, (ضَرَبَ اللَّهُ مَثَلًا) Allah gave an example. Allah gave an example. He mentioned himself.

The moment he mentioned himself, the non-Muslims, they don't want to hear it. So in this Makkan surah, Allah says, okay, don't stop listening just because you think it's from Allah. Just listen at least.

(ضرِبَ مَثَلُ) Pay attention to what is being said. You know Ali(radiyallahu anhu) said one time, we listen to the speech before we listen to the speaker. In other words, you don't judge somebody based on their appearance, based on their gender, based on their age, based on who they are to you, based on your previous experience.

You give them an opportunity to say something and listen to it fairly. This is very difficult for most of us to do. It's very difficult.

You know, even in a situation like a khutbah, if one of the young kids from our community, the 16, 17 year old kid, he's wearing one of those loose t-shirts, and he's got no beard, and he's got a baseball hat on backwards, and you're sitting here for Jumu'ah, and he walks up here after the Adhan, and says, As- salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. And he sits down, most of you will think, maybe I have to make up this Salat, I don't know what's gonna go on. You know, I can't listen to this kid.

Who put him up there? Who's in the khutbah selection committee? Why is he up there? He doesn't belong to be up there. We would pass judgment before he even opens his mouth, actually just because of his appearance. So Allah says, put the appearance aside, just listen to a message.

The Weakness of False Gods

And He gives them this almost final example. Understand also these are a group of people that worship idols. They worship idols.

So Allah Azzawajal says:

"Indeed, those you invoke besides Allah will never create [as much as] a fly, even if they gathered together for that purpose."

All of those that you're calling on other than Allah, they can't even create a fly. They can't even create a fly. Even if all of them got together for one project, to create a single fly. The question arises, Allah didn't say they can't create mountains, they can't create the sun.

Ibrahim(alaihi salam) says:

"Indeed, Allah brings up the sun from the east, so bring it from the west."

He gives something big that Allah does.

But in this ayah, Allah Himself says, you people, you can't even do as much as creating a single fly. He calls on something very small, very insignificant. And later on in the Qur'an, we even learn, people when they hear small examples from Allah, they say:

"What did Allah intend by this as an example?"

What's the point of Allah giving this example? I don't get it. Doesn't make any sense. Seems kind of silly.

Allah already talked about that in His book. You know, that's coming in madani Qur'an. But here in particular, we have to pay attention to the fly.

The Fly and the Food Offerings

And let's see how it's connected. He says:

"And if the fly should steal away from them a thing, they could not retrieve it from him."

Now you understand that in idol worshiping cultures, like the Arabs used to have idols and statues all around the Kaaba, and they used to worship them.

Now in many parts of Southeast Asia, and those communities that are even here, there are many temples, like that, with their idol worshiping religions. Or even if they don't worship the idol, they have the idol there, so they can concentrate or do some kind of rituals and ceremonies.

You'll notice one thing in common. They all have some kind of ceremonial food that they put in front of the idol for blessings. Either they'll put milk there, I don't know, ice cream or something else.

But they'll put something there. Right? And then they'll do their whole rituals, and this is blessed food. So if a tourist walks into the place, some guy who's not a Buddhist, he's not a Hindu, he's not one of those things.

He walks into the temple, and he says, oh look, Snickers bar. And he picks it up and tries to eat it, what are they gonna do? This is special food. You can't touch that.

For that guy over there, the giant statue that's staring at you, it's for him. But you know what happens all the time when you leave food open? Flies show up. Isn't that the case? So temple is open, food is sitting there, the idol is in front, and flies show up.

And these guys are worshipping this god, and they're begging him for rain to come, or they're begging him for the flood to stop, or they're begging this false god for a child, or whatever else. And in the middle of it all, the tourist is not allowed to eat that food, but the fly comes, and it sits down on that chocolate milk, and takes a few sips, and flies off. And can that god do anything? No.

That god can't do anything. The foundations of their belief are crushed in front of their eyes by flies. By flies.

And if the idea is that they created the flies, then at least the flies should worship them. If they are the creator of the fly, why should the fly come and disrespect them in this way? You can't even create a fly.

And even if the fly violated your religion, took something from your god's food, those gods can't get it back.

They can't retrieve it. And this happens in front of your eyes all the time. Don't you ever think:

"Weak are the pursuer and the pursued."

The one seeking, the one in pursuit, and the one being pursued, are both weak.

The seeker and the sought. I know it's difficult English, I'll try to simplify it as much as I can. The one after something, and the one who they are asking from.

They're both weak, Allah says. In other words, the idol worshipper, the mushrik is weak, and his idol is weak. They're both weak.

Three Groups of People

In this passage, there are three groups of people mentioned. There are three groups of people mentioned. And from all three groups of people, Allah has put a responsibility on them.

Allah put a responsibility on all three groups of people. The first group of people is all of humanity, the biggest group. And Allah says, so many people are doing shirk, and it's not just with idols.

It's with other things too. People worship their careers, don't they? People worship money. People worship, you know, their company.

They spend all their time thinking about it. They spend all their time making it bigger and bigger, and praising it. If that's not ibadah, I don't know what is.

That's all they do. Their life is just amounting to one thing. Their, you know, business investments, or their career, or whatever else.

This is a form of, you know, this is a psychological form of shirk going on inside a person. That's their biggest goal in life. But Allahazzawajal here talks about three groups of people.

This was the first group of people. And this group of people failed, because they didn't appreciate Allah. I wanna explain this phrase to you before I move on, and I wanna do this rather quickly.

We Are All Seekers - And We Are Weak

The seeker and the sought are weak. Allah talked to all of humanity, which means all of us are seeking something. We're all after something.

All of you that are in college, and looking to graduate. Those of you that are looking for a job, or looking to secure a job. Those of you that are, you know, paying off a house, you are looking to pay off and finish the house.

Some of you are in the business, you are hoping they expand the business. Some of you have made an investment. You are waiting for the investment money to come back.

Some of you have, you know, you know, sent some money away, or lent some money. You have been hoping it for it to be returned. All of you are looking to do something.

Some of you young men are looking to get married, you know, waiting for the family to come and say yes, So you can move on, you know. Some of you are looking to get your kids put into the school. Everybody is looking to do something.

Big things or small things. And Allah says, everybody who needs to get something done, which is all of us, and the proof of that is the speed with which you will leave the masjid after Jummah is done. The speed with which this masjid will empty out, you know why that is? Because you all need to do something, right? You gotta get back to work, you gotta get back to home, you're hungry, whatever it is.

But you get out of here. We're all qudda, we're all seeking something. Allah says, because you're always in need of something, you are weak.

Allah needs nothing. You need things. And then you go and seek those things from anything other than Allah, and all of those things are also weak.

They're also weak in and of themselves. We are learning a very deep wisdom of Islam here. We are weak because the people we ask from and the things we ask from and the sources we expect from, they are also weak.

When we learn to ask from Allah, really ask from Allah, who is strong, we will become strong. We are weak because where we ask is weak.

Examples of Human Weakness

When I used to study abnormal psychology back in New York a long time ago, we did a few case studies.

And there was this remarkable case study of a very intelligent student. Really smart guy. He did his PhD in 1982 or something from NYU in clinical psychology.

Top of his class, PhD student. And instead of saving his thesis on a computer, which you can imagine is tougher back then, he typed the whole thing up.

He has a 500 page thesis that he's typed, and he hands it to the department.

This is like 4 years of work, right? And the guy didn't even have a second copy. He only had that one 500 page thesis copy. 5 years of work of his life.

And they lost that paper. So when he submitted his thesis paper, if somebody asked him, what do you do? I'm a PhD student. I'm a PhD student at NYU.

It's no joke, you know. And I'm doing a thesis on this. All he talks about is this thing, right? And overnight that entire effort disappears.

It's gone. They can't find it. Somebody misplaced it.

Somebody stole it. Whatever happened. That guy, it's been almost 20 years or more.

Actually 30 years almost. They still find him on NYU campus walking around, telling people, don't go to school here. They'll steal your work.

And every few weeks they have to take him into Bellevue. The psych ward in Bellevue. And keep him there for a few days.

And they let him go. He shows back on NYU campus and starts walking around again. Old guy now.

Why? Because the only thing he sought was that thesis. And when that was taken away, he collapsed. He was too weak to sustain his own mental health.

He couldn't sustain it. And this is a very intelligent person. Back when I used to live in the east coast, I even heard a sad story.

A young Muslim boy wants to marry this girl. The family said no. And he's obsessed with this girl, right? He killed himself.

Jumped off the Queensborough Bridge. Committed suicide. Why? Why does these things happen? When people seek something that's from creation, and they don't get it, then their own weakness comes out.

That's why many of you are so unhappy. That's all you seek is in this world. You just want your son to be this way or that way.

You want to pay off the house. You want to get out of debt. You want to save this much money.

You want this, you want this, you want this. You're seeking, seeking, seeking, seeking, seeking. And you're thinking to yourself, the moment I get these things, I'll be happy.

You will never be happy unless you turn to Allah.

"Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured."

The First Group: Humanity Failed to Appreciate Allah

So what does AllahAzzawajal say in the next ayah? He says:

"They have not appraised Allah with true appraisal."

They didn't appreciate Allah like He deserves to be appreciated. What a beautiful conclusion.

Because we're so busy appreciating everything else, we didn't have time to appreciate why we're really on this earth. And I want to give you some negative examples. I want to give you a positive example.

A family I really admire. They were in one of the states in this country and they were afflicted by a flood. Family lost everything.

They used to make at least 100 to 200 thousand dollars in car sales. Luxury car sales a month. Just sheer profit.

And all the cars they used to buy were imported and all of them were paid in cash. I mean they were doing well for themselves. Good wealthy family, Muslim family.

And when the flood waters came, the entire dealership was underwater. So their entire business disappeared overnight. Just overnight the whole business disappeared.

When I went to visit them sometime later, the brother still had a really nice car. He had a Lexus LS 450. You know, the elite class Lexus.

And he used to deliver pizzas in that Lexus. But you know what? Anybody else who would lose a business like that, worth millions, they would commit suicide. They'd go to CVS, buy a whole bottle of Tylenol, pop the whole thing and be done with it.

This guy's got a smile on his face. He goes home after delivering pizza with his family and they're all sitting there looking so happy and content. And I just couldn't help myself.

I was like, how come? How come you guys aren't going crazy? How come you're not depressed? I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. All you see on their faces is smiles. It's very powerful thing to see that.

You know, a whole thesis can be written on just why these people are happy. How come they're not suicidal and deeply depressed? And you know what he said? Allah still give us a roof over our head, there's still food on our table. And back then I used to be worried about invoices and deliveries and taxes and this and that.

Now I get more time to go to the masjid. What can I complain about? Subhanallah. When somebody seeks Allah, then these things they understand.

Allah gives and Allah takes. But the one thing nobody can take from you, but the only one who can lose it is you yourself, is your love and your relationship with Allah. That's the only thing we can't afford to lose.

What can the enemies of Islam take from us? People that hate us. They can take our homes. They can take lives.

They can humiliate. They can take away anything they can. But the one thing they cannot take away is our relationship with Allah.

Because that's inside the heart. That will be with us. We have to be the people that appreciate Allah.

Allah complains. He complains about the rest of humanity. .ما قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ They didn't appreciate Allah like He deserves to be appreciated.

The Second Group: The Messengers

I told you in the middle of this khutbah, there are three groups, right? This was the first group. The second group. AllahAzzawajal says:

"Allah chooses from the angels messengers and from the people."

His special selection certain messengers from among the angels.

Like Jibreel Alayhi Salaam, He chose him. Such an army of angels and He chose one to deliver the message. وَمِنَ النَّاسِ And He selects messengers from people also.

Musa Alayhi Salaam is chosen. Isa Alayhi Salaam is chosen. Of course finally and as a climax, Muhammadur Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is chosen.

Why does Allah mention this right after that conversation? Right in the previous conversation, Allah Azzawajal is complaining about how we didn't appreciate Him. The next conversation is, here's who you should learn from. These are the people I chose.

These are the creatures of Allah I chose that truly appreciate Allah. And they came to teach you how to appreciate Allah. That's why they came, so you can learn.

And they didn't just come to one group or another. All together now, AllahAzzawajal:

"And We did not send any messenger except [speaking] in the language of his people."

We didn't send any messenger except in the language of their people. So Allah sent messengers in all people's languages.

And then finally He sent the messenger for all of humanity. So now He has a right to complain to all of humanity. Because the messenger for all of humanity is here.

He's here. So why didn't you take advantage of the messengers? Now very few people took advantage of the messengers. Very few people benefited from that message.

And that's the third group of people. So the first group was humanity. The second group was the messengers.

The Third Group: The Believers - Our Responsibilities

And the third group is the Muslims. Those who believe. Those who accepted the call of messengers.

Now Allah turns His attention to them at the end of this surah. I'm skipping a little bit, I'm taking you to the end.

"O you who have believed, bow and prostrate and worship your Lord and do good - that you may succeed."

This is the address.

ارْكَعُوا Make ruku'. وَاسْجُدُوا Make sajdah. Where did we learn to make ruku' and sujood? That didn't come to us on our own. We could only have learned that from the messengers.

وَاعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمْ صلى الله عليه وسلم Enslave yourselves and worship your master. All the acts of worship.

What dua to make when you walk into the masjid, the house of Allah? What dua to make when you leave the house of Allah? What dua to make when you enter your home, when you leave your home, when you put your clothes on? What to say when you start eating? What kind of foods you should eat? What kind of foods you cannot eat? What can you look at? What can you not look at? How can you dress? How can you not dress? Where did all of that come from? The messengers that already came to teach.

Now it's time for you to apply. وَافْعَلُوا الْخَيْرَ وَاعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمْ And do good things. Do good things.

Find opportunities to do good things. Look at the beautiful general ending. You know وَاعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمْ is for Allah.

We worship Allah. We remember Allah. We make adhkar.

We recite Quran. All of these things are for Allah (عز وجل) But he adds to that, you people, because you are following the legacies of prophets, they were people that just looked for opportunities to do good.

Do good to your neighbor. Do good to your co-worker. Do good to somebody you see stranded on the street, they got a flat tire, nobody is pulling over to help them.

Do good to them. You are the people that are supposed to do good at every opportunity you find. Every opportunity you find.

You are hunting for good deeds. وَافْعَلُوا الْخَيْرَ To serving others. لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ So that you can be successful.

May Allah (عز وجل) make us from the successful. So that's the first appeal from Allah (عز وجل) Make ruku, make sajda, meaning? Make salat, pray.

Then he says ارْكَعُوا وَاسْجُدُوا وَاعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمْ And then worship Allah and everything else too. Salat is just a starting point to worship Allah beyond that. And then be good to people around you.

So that you can be successful. But then he added, separated from all of these things, the final instruction. And I hope I can, inshallah wa ta'ala, wrap this up in the next five minutes, though it seems impossible.

It's very heavy thing that Allah (عز وجل) said for us to do. Hopefully I can finish it tonight in our youth conversation. But at least I wanna share some snippets of it with you.

An Impossible Job Description

You know those of you that have jobs, of course you went in for an interview before you got your job. And when you went to the interview, probably the case is the interview went really really well. Unless your uncle was doing the interview and he hooked you up.

But other than that if you went, you probably did really well on your interview, they saw your resume, it looked like you have good experience, you look like a good fit for the job, and you got the job. Okay? But you know sometimes you go to an interview, and then the guy interviewing you, the human resource manager, he starts describing what he expects. And his expectations are so high, that you're listening to him saying, why did he even call me for an interview? He knows I'm not nearly qualified for this job.

This is embarrassing. The more he lists his requirements, the more incapable and incompetent and unqualified I feel. Why was I even called in for an interview? Just to be told how worthless I am? Is that why I was called? And so he goes through all of these descriptions, and at the end of it all he says, congratulations, you're hired.

Aren't you shocked? You're like, I'm not qualified, how did I get chosen? I don't think I have any of these qualifications. But I've been chosen. Allah (عز وجل) gives us a really impossible job description.

I want to remind you. He said (مَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ) The rest of humanity did not appreciate Allah, like He deserves to be appreciated. Then He turned to you and me, and He said:

"And strive for Allah with the striving due to Him."

Struggle with no goal in front of you.

Make every effort you can for Allah and Allah alone. I don't like the word struggle anymore, because we translate jihad, we say, we struggle so many times, most of you don't even know what that means. You don't even know what that means.

It's just an abstract idea in your head now. What does it mean to struggle for Allah? To try the very best you can in everything you and I do. To put everything in, you know.

Some of you have, for example, you apply for immigration. You know how early you show up to your lawyer's meeting? How early you show up for the citizenship interview? Three hours ahead of time. You get dressed the night before and don't sleep.

You put in some struggle, because you know your success depends on it. You put in some struggle. When something is important, you're not late.

You show up on time. When you have a business and a big client gives you a call, you get ready. You call home and say, I won't be home tonight, I gotta get ready for this client.

It's a big deal. Allah wants that kind of enthusiasm from you and me, real struggle. To exert yourself as much as you and I can for His sake.

And then He adds, this is hard enough. He says (حَقَّ جِهَادِهِ) As opposed to saying (مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْ) He didn't say struggle as much as you can. He said, struggle as is worthy of Allah.

If humanity can't even appreciate Allah as He deserves to be, how are you and I going to struggle for Allah as He deserves to be? How is that even possible? How many of us are gonna pray to Allah like He deserves to be prayed to? We can do our best, but that's still not what He deserves. He deserves so much better. Even when we thank Allah, He deserves to be thanked so much more.

When we remember Allah, He deserves to be remembered so much more. So Allah gave us, like the example I was giving you, Allah gave us a really hard job description. And when He gave us a job description, it feels like, how am I gonna do this? This is impossible for me.

We Have Been Chosen

And He adds:

"He has chosen you."

Such powerful words. He said this to all people on this planet. That say (لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُ)

That say (مُحَمَّدٌ رَّسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم). All people who say that, Allah says to them (هُوَ اجْتَبَاكُمْ) He is the one that has selected you. And the word used in the Arabic language, used when someone is chosen for a quality that they have.

Allah is saying, He sees something in you, so He decided to gift you with Islam. He sees something in you that qualifies you for struggling for Him. So you get to be honored with (لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُ)

You get the gift of (مُحَمَّدٌ رَّسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم). Congratulations, you got the job. That's what Allah says.

You and I are not Muslim, because we're born in a Muslim family. You and I are not Muslim, because we read a book about Islam, or saw a YouTube video and decided to become Muslim. We are Muslim because Allah chose us.

Allah chose us. And He didn't just say He chose us. He says He chose us because He thinks we're talented.

We've got something to offer Him. He sees something in us, we don't even see it in ourselves. We don't even see it in ourselves.

You know, Musa (عليه السلام) when he came up to Allah (عزوجل) he had a guilt inside him, because he had killed a person. And Allah says to him:

"Indeed, I have chosen you."

I have chosen you, because there's khair in you, there's good in you. (اصطفی) comes from (خير)

There's something good in you. He doesn't even know that about himself. Allah knows that about him.

Allah knows that about us. He sees in us something that makes us worthy of becoming members of this ummah. We should all, everybody who calls himself a Muslim, should feel a sense of appreciation.

Ya Allah, You honored me with this award. You gave me this title of Muslim (وَاجْتَبَاكُمْ) And then you know, I've been chosen, and I know I'm out of my time, but I wanna end with this.

I'm not gonna get to complete the ayah, maybe tonight inshaAllah. But just this part, when you get an impossible job description, and then you're told you got the job. Your first reaction is, this is too hard for me.

I don't know if I can do this. I don't think I can do this. What does Allah say?

"And He has not placed upon you in the religion any difficulty."

Immediately after that He says, He didn't put any difficulty, any constriction, any discomfort in this religion for you at all.

Relax. My job is to make it easy for you. I know you think it's hard, I'll make it easy.

You just accept the job. You accept your responsibility. And I'll end with this, the next words of the ayah, even though it's not the completion of the ayah:

"[It is] the religion of your father, Ibrahim."

You just got the job.

The Legacy of Ibrahim

It's not gonna be hard for you. And by the way, you are the continuation of the legacy of your father, Ibrahim alayhis salaam. You are going to have the same kind of job that who had one long time ago? Ibrahim alayhis salaam.

And the moment you and I hear Ibrahim alayhis salaam, we say, wait, come again? What? Ibrahim alayhis salaam? You just said it's gonna be easy. Allah just said, he's not gonna put any difficulty. And now all of a sudden, who did he mention? Ibrahim alayhis salaam.

Even the kids that just know Islam from Sunday school here know. What kind of things did Ibrahim alayhis salaam have to do? Jumping into a fire, leaving your family in the middle of a desert, not at the airport, in the middle of the desert. First of all, getting them there in the first place, without an SUV.

And then leaving them there without food or shelter. Nothing. Taking on a tyrant king.

Having to slaughter your young son. Having to attempt to slaughter your... Any of these things sound easy? Allah azawajal said, you will have no difficulty.

And by the way, you're on the same line as Ibrahim.

What an irony. Allah azawajal told us that because Allah made all of those incredibly difficult things easy for Ibrahim. Those things we read about them, we cannot imagine we will ever be able to do.

But Allah made those things easy for Ibrahim alayhis salaam. So Allah is telling us, what are you gonna complain about? I've done this for Ibrahim, what are you gonna say that, ya Allah, it's too hard for me. Have you ever compared yourself to the difficulties of Ibrahim, which is harder? You're not gonna have any problems, your life is gonna be easy.

This is Allah putting things in perspective for the Muslims. So we understand that coming into this deen means making struggle, means that Allah will make those struggles easy for us when we turn back to Him. For Him, making no struggle, difficult struggle easy is not hard.

He can take fire and make it cold. He can tell a knife not to cut. He can tell the desert to bring out water.

He can make your and my problems easy. We're not gonna have any problems. We just have to sincerely commit to struggling for the sake of Allah azawajal.

Hopefully tonight in the khutbah, I can define what that means. What is it that it means that we struggle for the sake of Allah azawajal.

Closing

"Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded."

"And establish salah. Indeed, salah has been decreed upon the believers a decree of specified times."

"And the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah knows that which you do."

"O servants of Allah, may Allah have mercy on you, fear Allah."