What Does Inviting to Allah’s Path Mean
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-08T16:58:49.057817+00:00 | Topic: Allah
What Does Inviting to Allah's Path Mean - Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan
Opening Praise and Testimony
اَلْحَمْدُ للهِ، اَلْحَمْدُ للهِ خَالِقِ الْوُجُوْدِ مِنَ الْعَدَمِ وَجَاعِلِ النُّوْرِ مِنَ الظَّلَامِ وَمُخْرِجِ الصَّبْرِ مِنَ الْأَلَمِ وَمُنْقِذِ التَّوْبَةِ عَلَى النَّدَمِ فَنَشْكُرُهُ عَلَى الْمَصَائِبِ كَمَا نَشْكُرُهُ عَلَى النِّعَمِ وَنُصَلِّيْ عَلَى رَسُوْلِهِ الْأَكْرَمِ ذِيْ الشَّرَفِ الْأَشَمِّ وَالنُّوْرِ الْأَتَمِّ وَالْكِتَابِ الْمُحْكَمِ وَخَاتَمِ النَّبِيِّيْنَ وَالْكَاتِمِ سَيِّدِ وَلَدِ آدَمَ الَّذِيْ بَشَّرَ بِهِ عِيْسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ وَدَعَا لِبِعْثَتِهِ إِبْرَاهِيْمُ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ حِيْنَ كَانَ يَرْفَعُ قَوَاعِدَ بَيْتِ اللهِ الْمُحَرَّمِ فَصَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَعَلَى أَتْبَاعِهِ خَيْرِ الْأُمَمِ الَّذِيْنَ تَبَارَكَ اللهُ بِهِمْ كَافَّةَ النَّاسِ الْعَرَبِ مِنْهُمْ وَالْعَجَمِ
اَلْحَمْدُ للهِ الَّذِيْ لَمْ يَتَّخِذْ وَلَدًا وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ شَرِيْكٌ فِي الْمُلْكِ وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ وَلِيٌّ مِنَ الذُّلِّ وَكَبِّرْهُ تَكْبِيْرًا اَلْحَمْدُ للهِ الَّذِيْ أَنْزَلَ عَلَى عَبْدِهِ الْكِتَابَ وَلَمْ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ عِوَجًا
اَلْحَمْدُ للهِ الَّذِيْ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِيْنُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنُؤْمِنُ بِهِ وَنَتَوَكَّلُ عَلَيْهِ وَنَعُوْذُ بِاللهِ مِنْ شُرُوْرِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَنَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيْكَ لَهُ وَنَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُ اللهِ وَرَسُوْلُهُ أَرْسَلَهُ اللهُ تَعَالَى بِالْهُدَى وَدِيْنِ الْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّيْنِ كُلِّهِ وَكَفَى بِاللهِ شَهِيْدًا فَصَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيْمًا كَثِيْرًا كَثِيْرًا
أَمَّا بَعْدُ فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيْثِ كِتَابُ اللهِ وَخَيْرَ الْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَإِنَّ شَرَّ الْأُمُوْرِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَإِنَّ كُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ
Introduction to the Quranic Verse
: قَالَ اللهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ فِيْ كِتَابِهِ الْكَرِيْمِ بَعْدَ أَنْ أَعُوْذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيْمِ
"Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best. Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is most knowing of who is [rightly] guided."
رَبِّ اشْرَحْ لِي صَدْرِي وَيَسِّرْ لِي أَمْرِي وَاحْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِنْ لِسَانِي يَفْقَهُوا قَوْلِي اللَّهُمَّ ثَبِّتْنَا عِنْدَ الْمَوْتِ بِلَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْنَا مِنَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ آمِينَ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ
I think inshallah for the next few weeks as I share khutbah with you on Friday inshallah I'm going to try to focus on lessons that we can derive from the 125th ayah of surah an-Nahl so this is surah number 16 and ayah number 125 and what I want to do in this series of khutbahs is really talk about this really comprehensive place in the Qur'an where Allah has taken lots of lessons that are dispersed all over the Qur'an and fuse them together inside of one single ayah.
Translation of the Verse
So let me first translate this for you so you understand the overall scope of what this ayah is talking about and then inshallah we'll get into the subject matter which I think everybody can benefit from including myself:
ادْعُ إِلَىٰ سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالْحِكْمَةِ وَالْمَوْعِظَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ - call to the path of your master, call to the way of your master with wisdom and with beautiful counsel so the second word is beautiful counsel.
وَجَادِلْهُم بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ - and debate them and argue with them in a way that is better. So argue with them in the way that is better.
إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَن ضَلَّ عَن سَبِيلِهِ - no doubt your master in fact is the one who knows better who is truly misled or who is lost far away from his path.
وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِالْمُهْتَدِينَ - and he knows better who is committed to guidance.
Understanding Da'wah as Invitation
So there's lots of things that are being said here but as you can tell the subject matter of the ayah is calling people to the path of Allah. ادْعُ إِلَىٰ سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ generally Muslims call it giving da'wah right? and the idea of giving da'wah or sharing something about Allah is something we do with Muslims and non-Muslims.
It's not something limited to those who don't believe in Allah only or don't share the faith of Islam only but we give each other da'wah also so let's first start with the word da'wah. Da'wah in Arabic means to call. It also means to invite so it's a little bit different from nada or nida.
The Difference Between Calling and Inviting
Nida in Arabic also means to call. And it's one of the names given to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم:
"Our Lord, indeed we have heard a caller calling to faith, [saying], 'Believe in your Lord,' and we have believed."
We heard the call of a caller calling to iman and in that ayah the word munadi was used which is used for calling but the word da'ah which can also be used for calling has a shared meaning with invitation now that makes it a pretty significant difference because when you call someone it can be for any purpose you can call someone to do some work with them you can call someone because you're warning them you can call someone for just a very random specific task right? but when you call someone and behind that call is an invitation then there's a friendliness there's a safety there's a care that you have because obviously there's no way you're going to invite someone you don't like and if you do then you have some dubious purpose like in the story of Yusuf عليه السلام the wife of the minister invited other women to her house but she had some other alternative motive right? it's the ulterior agenda but generally if you're
going to invite somebody that actually means it's an expression of friendship, of welcoming of bringing somebody into your home making someone feel safe giving somebody your hospitality opening your doors to them all those things are embedded inside the word da'wah.
Proper Manner of Da'wah
So when you are going to you know sometimes young men and women in their university and other settings they say I want to give da'wah right? so they'll set up like a da'wah table or something in the middle of a street somewhere on campus and it's like why should you become Muslim? and people are coming and stopping by and sometimes some very staunch atheist stops by or some very hardline Christian stops by and it turns into a spitting match and everybody's raising their voice and you know argumentations going on and things are being said about the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم or about the Qur'an and things like that and they say well brother we gotta do da'wah that's not da'wah that's something else but that's not da'wah because da'wah means invitation who would look at that and say oh they're inviting each other or he's inviting them to you know it's a completely different gesture isn't it? when you say hey let's go have lunch together or you come over to my place or yeah I'd like you to sit down with me those are invitational gestures so the word itself includes a kind of mannerism to begin with and if we don't possess that mannerism there are other aspects of Islam that the ayah covers but da'wah this wouldn't be da'wah.
Da'wah vs Tabligh (Communication)
It's also important to mention that da'wah should be separated from the concept of tabligh. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم gave us the responsibility:
(Bukhari hadith 3461)
Communicate on my behalf even if it's a single ayah. بلاغ the Qur'an calls itself communicator or communication. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is told
"And your duty is only to convey [the message]."
You have no responsibility other than to just communicate in other words بلاغ means not how you're inviting but what you're saying needs to get the message across you gotta say stuff that somebody will understand and they actually get it so if you start using big words that they don't get or you start throwing in technicalities that they have no background in you're no longer doing بلاغ. Qur'an calls itself بلاغ actually the original meaning of بلاغ is to reach and from it one of the sciences of the Arabic language they call it بلاغة you may have heard of that. بَلاغة is actually the art of communication.
The Art of Effective Communication
When you're talking to somebody I want you to imagine it like this this is how I used to explain بلاغة to my Arabic students think of it as when you're talking to someone they have a protective wall literally the chest cavity around their heart so what you're saying is gonna bounce right off right? you've gotta find the kind of words that can penetrate through this cavity and go deep inside somebody's heart and impact them and that's actually called بلاغة in Arabic when you are getting through to somebody and it really hits them so that's actually the art of communication.
Combining Da'wah and Balagh
So دَعْوَة is first of all an invitation it's a friendly gesture, it's a call. بلاغ or بلاغة or even تبليغ is to communicate in ways that are the most effective which means we have to become students not just of the manners of speech but the nature of speech itself how are we gonna talk to somebody about the same thing, you can say the same thing in the most effective way and you can say the same thing in the opposite of effective what is the goal that you're trying to achieve are you trying to win a point are you trying to prove someone wrong or are you trying to win someone over because if you win an argument the person might walk away losing an argument but hating you also you didn't win anything that wasn't بلاغ and it certainly wasn't دَعْوَة but you felt good about yourself that was more a propagation of one's own ego instead of تبليغ or دَعْوَة.
Understanding the Path Metaphor
So this is why these words are actually really important to understand, these terms in the Qur'an are really important to understand so we know what is it that we're trying to do, if I'm giving and by the way this is not just about taking some Christian fellow and telling them about the oneness of Allah or something like that, you could be doing دَعْوَة to your mom, you could be doing them to your spouse, your husband or wife or your child, there's an opportunity to invite them to something, now Allah didn't say invite them to Allah, listen to the words:
ادْعُ إِلَىٰ سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ
Invite to the path of your master, invite to the path of your master, now this is imagery, because the Qur'an communicates some very comprehensive messages by way of painting a picture and this is a picture that's been painted in this ayah, and what's the picture that's been painted, a path is not something you call someone to you call someone to a destination, I can invite you to my home, I don't say I invite you to highway 183 doesn't make sense because you don't invite to a path, you invite to a destination, so it's interesting language that Allah says, call to the path of your master, you understand that now.
Different Starting Points on the Same Path
The thing about a path is if I invite 10 people just visualize this, I invite 10 different people to the same path, a road let's not use the word path, many of you don't use that word, let's use the word road, right so I call 10 of you to a road because 10 of you live in 10 different locations aren't you gonna join that same road at different points isn't that true, somebody will join this road way back 10 miles back somebody will join it 100 miles ahead of everybody else, isn't that the case and all of you have different paces some of you have a bicycle, some of you are walking some of you have an animal, some of you have a truck, a car, whatever you got and if somebody will get on that path and move quickly somebody will get on that path and move slowly, somebody will get on that path and be reluctant to even take the first step even though they're on the path somebody will get on that path and take 2 steps and then kinda wanna slip off.
You understand the imagery of a path means that you understand that people are at different points in their life and you're not calling everybody to become the same you don't want everybody to be like everybody else you don't say, well look at that one that's on the path, why can't you be more like them you know, because we have this over simplistic picture of what does it mean to call people to Allah or to call people to the path of Allah.
The Prophet's Patient Approach
And what we say is Islam means complete surrender therefore you must surrender absolutely to the will of Allah and somebody comes and says hey, so if I become Muslim, am I gonna stop eating pork, am I gonna stop drinking am I gonna do this, am I gonna do I have to divorce my wife, do I have to give up this, do I have to give up that, and they make a list that's why I can't do it, and they're like, yup you gotta do all that right away, and if you don't want it, Islam is surrender bro you better just and we compare this to what happened in the time of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.
A person came to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and said I've heard basically saying, I've heard about Islam, but he said, I'm ready to pledge myself to you I'm basically ready to accept you as Allah's messenger, but I'll pledge that I'll pray two prayers a day I'll give you two right, and it's very clear that there's no compromise on the number of prayers in a day, it's five prayers, every Sahabi knows that, it was early established in the religion, it was a heavenly gift from Allah, so there's no negotiation here, and the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم accepted his pledge and the man happily walked away a Muslim, and the Sahaba were confused, like was there a discount program we didn't know about? like what happened here? and the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم explained to them, that once he tastes the sweetness of the prayer, he'll come around he'll learn, let him take his first steps.
Aisha's Wisdom About Gradual Revelation
Look at the statement of Aisha رضي الله عنها
لَوْ نَزَلَ أَوَّلُ مَا نَزَلَ مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ لَا تَشْرَبُوا الْخَمْرَ لَقُلْنَا وَاللَّهِ لَنْ نَتْرُكَ الْخَمْرَ أَبَدًا
(Bukhari hadith 4993)
Had the first thing in the Qur'an that came down would have been don't drink alcohol, swear to God we will never abandon alcohol, ever and she went on to say, if Allah gave several other prohibitions first, we would have said no, no way give up what? no we would have fought it tooth and nail.
What does that tell you? you've heard this narration before, what does it, think about what that tells you, what it tells you is we consider these the most ready and willing the most submissive slaves of Allah in the history of the Ummah, these are the Sahaba, these are the السابقون الأولون, the first of the very first, they are the first and foremost, they're the ones and they're telling us that they needed time to grow they needed to be on an earlier step in the path and they needed to take slow steps to get somewhere, you understand.
The Growth Metaphor from Surah Al-Fath
And Allah gave the example of that how the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم nurtured them over time and allowed them to mature and grow, he gave the example of that at the end of Surah Al-Fath and he described this as:
You know it's like a little tiny blade of grass and it comes out and it starts getting reinforced and it becomes a stalk, a tall stalk, like a bamboo stick kind of thing and then it stands on its own and eventually turns into a tree yeah, or it turns into a tall crop and then it gets to a point where it's even taller than the farmer, it was a tiny little seed and it's taller than the farmer it grew so much and this is the comparison Allah made to the way the Sahaba matured how they grew.
Patience in Spiritual Growth
Now think about that, the Prophet's صلى الله عليه وسلم relationship with the best generation ever is being compared to a farmer who's being you know, who's being raised or who's raising crop, right? so if that's the case, then what we have to understand is that in our religion we don't tell someone to completely transform themselves and become someone else overnight we have to be patient with people, we have to understand that they just may be a seed right now or maybe a little bit later they might turn into a little blade of grass or maybe a little bit later they might turn into a taller stalk, it'll take time but they're not ready yet and that's still, because the seed is on the path to growth it's still on a path, isn't it? it's still on a path.
And by the way the most beautiful part of that is, when you put a seed in the ground and you water it and you nurture it and you make sure the soil is good, for a long time you don't see any progress over the ground, it's underground and nothing is happening you don't see any progress outside and you know what we do with people? Man, I gave him da'wah the other day, I told him the ayah and everything, I told him the hadith about it, I gave him all the daleel and look, no change, still the same guy after I told him, after I gave him the daleel, still the same guy unbelievable.
Learning from Prophet Nuh's Perseverance
Did the Prophets do that? did the Prophets, like Nuh عليه السلام doesn't have a different audience, he's sticking to the same audience did he speak to them once and say I already told you and you still, look at you, I'm done with this, I need a new audience because I already gave them the best speech that should be enough for them, that's not how human beings work, that's not how transformation works, so the comparison made is because a path takes time to traverse.
Individual Paces on the Path
And the other thing about that is, when you call people to a path, make sure they understand that they're being called to their own path meaning, their own speed the road is the same, but your speed, and whether you're walking alone or with three other people, or you need training wheels, or you need help or you need somebody propelling you right now you can't totally walk on your own, everybody's different, isn't it? just like if you had a thousand people walking on the same road, some will be old, some will be young, some will be strong some will be weak, some will be sick some will need more help some will get thirsty quickly, some will want to give up, there'll be different people on the road.
Avoiding Comparisons
So when you're calling people on that road, make sure they understand not to compare themselves to someone else, not just that you don't compare them to others but they might start, somebody takes shahada, becomes Muslim, comes to the masjid, or some Muslim who was raised with the Muslim name and a Muslim family, but they never really knew what their religion was, not their fault and they decide they want to figure something out about it, they want to learn about it and when they finally come to a masjid for the first time, or come to a Muslim community hear about a convention, and the guy is giving a speech, and he's dropping all these Arabic words and everybody's going, takbir, and he doesn't know what takbir means, and then everybody screams and he's like, is there an emergency in the building? he doesn't know, he has no idea and he feels so out of place.
And then finally, when somebody takes shahada, you've got to pray five times, you've got to say ... you got that? you got that, right? you got that, okay and here's eight more brochures, you've got to make sure you do this and here's how you make wudu, and yeah, it's only it's easy, let me show you and
people, information overload and then they start feeling like, man, there's a lot to learn, and I'll never learn it and all these people know so much more, I'm never going to be a good Muslim they're so much further down the road on this path than I am right? so they start comparing themselves and feeling inferior.
The Profound Wisdom of "Your Master's Path"
Allah has said such profound words when he said, call people to the path of your master the path of your master because every one of you is not being compared to the next person you're not your rank in front of Allah is not less because you haven't memorized the Quran, or you don't know Tajweed yet, or you don't speak Arabic, or you don't know you didn't memorize the the 40 hadith of Imam Nawawi or you, you know, you're none of that stuff, those are important and valuable things and rewardable deeds but that's not the only way reward works that's not the only way reward works.
The Example of Prophet Yusuf
Actually, it's a relative because I'm in the middle of studying Surah Yusuf right now it's on my mind, I'll just share a simple example with you, Yusuf عليه السلام one of the most rewarded prophets of our history right? But he wasn't given a book he wasn't given revelation, Torah came way later Torah came to Musa عليه السلامyes? So there's no recitation going on there's no scripture that he's reciting and surahs that he knows or, you know, revelation he knows the interpretation of dreams he knows Allah is one, he knows the story of his fathers he knows that, but he doesn't know much as far as scripture is concerned, we have way more access to words of Allah and laws of Allah that weren't even revealed yet, right?
But what's his contribution? His contribution is, he's making sure the agricultural community is doing its job he's making sure the money is moving in the right places he's making sure the administration is running clean, there's an anti-corruption policing in place, there's, you know the poor are getting what they need to get what you would consider secular services not even religious services but that's a contribution and does Allah value it? values it enough to make it a surah we study.
Focus on Personal Progress
So what we do is we start comparing, well, religiously I'm behind this one and that one or I know less than that one and that one therefore I'm inferior somebody else can make you feel like that and you can start feeling that way but when you invite someone to Allah this is the most important thing the most important thing is you remind them over and over again I'm not inviting you to a destination that some other people reached and you haven't reached yet, too bad for you you better catch up no I'm inviting you to a path and the fact that you're on a path is success that's the last thing I'll share with you for today.
The Journey is the Goal
We're just doing the first phrase of the ayah today it'll take us a while before we get to the whole ayah but in the first phrase of the ayah the being on that path is actually the ultimate goal because the moment you start thinking that you've reached some kind of destination that's when you failed there is no such thing as us having reached our destination in this life, this entire life just like everyday the sun takes a path the moon takes a path just like everyday our bodies are actually on a path towards maturity and then decline our bodies, our bones are on a path our eyes are on a path our brain cells are on a path dementia will come in eventually right? everything Allah created inside of us is on a path so is our religion so is our relationship with him it's on a path.
Our goal is to find ourselves on that path everyday and not to compare ourselves to someone else but to see that whatever step I took yesterday am I taking the next step today? am I still on the same path? did I make progress today? the only one you're competing with is yourself nobody else the only standard you have to hold and I have to hold is I know I could have done more and I didn't I know I could have held myself to a higher standard and I didn't.
Avoiding Destructive Comparisons
The failure of so many will be whenever they're about to take the next step instead of comparing themselves to themselves what will they do? they'll compare themselves to everybody else well this one supposedly so far ahead of me in the path is so messed up what's even the point? I don't want to be like them therefore I'm not taking any steps good luck with that in front of Allah because it's your own journey every single one of us our own journey we're supposed to help each other along but not race with each other and make someone feel like you're behind, you better catch up or I'm way ahead of you I know so many more surahs than you I'm gonna be like so many levels above you in Jannah, it's not even funny no that's not how that works.
Teaching with Proper Intent
I'll leave you with the thing I used to tell my students on the first day of the full time dream program these are students that come here with this fervor to learn the Qur'an and like they left their job some of them suspended college education, come here to study with me for nine months back in the day and they'd sit here and I'd say listen Inshallah I'll do my best to teach you Arabic and I have full confidence that if Allah wills, in a few months you'll be reading Arabic books, you will be doing that but you know what? if you're not on a path to connect with Allah's word and you're not changing yourself in here, not here, here I can help you I can try I can grow this, I can't help this that's on you if this grows and you know Arabic if someone was a terrible person before they came here then four months later they'll be a terrible person who knows Arabic that's the only difference now they're Tajweed is better and they got good vocabulary and they know a lot of grammar but they're still a terrible person because simply seeking knowledge does not mean that we're on a path.
The Purpose of Learning
We have to why are we learning? what's the purpose of us learning? why are we acquiring any knowledge at all? why are we listening to any Islamic content? any Tafsir or any Sira or anything that you're listening to, what's the purpose? are you listening? man, I gotta write that down, I gotta use that in a speech somewhere I gotta write that down I'm gonna drop this on somebody at some party you're looking for quotes to impress people? that's what you're looking for? is that what this is? because that's not inviting somebody to a path first of all I have to be on a path and because I'm walking it and struggling I can share with someone else, by the way I'm no better than you I just started sometime before you but it's a path for all of us.
The Need for Companionship on the Path
And by the way, whenever someone journeys they get tired whenever someone journeys it wears on them, yes or no whenever someone journeys they might need to be replenished they need to be rejuvenated whenever someone journeys, there may be dangers on the path so it's safer to travel in a group isn't it? so when you invite someone else to a path you must also be open about the fact that you're on a path yourself and you have slipped off here and there but you get back on and Alhamdulillah you have people in your life that help you get back on instead of what we've done in the ummah, when someone slips and falls we kick them again and say you fell? oh my god, everybody, this one fell make sure they don't get up again and boot them down how dare you fall because none of us have ever fallen so I don't understand how you could fall this is the self-righteousness that is antithetical it's the opposite of what Allah is saying in the very opening of this statement:
The Master's Ownership of the Path
I'm taking a little bit extra time, but since I want to do some justice to this phrase, I'll say one more thing about this opening phrase of the ayah again surah 16, 125:
Invite to the path of your master your master it's saying that to Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم so first of all, when Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم is going to invite, even Allah tells him didn't he find you an orphan and he gave you shelter didn't he find you seeking lost, and he guided you in other words he will tell people, I also had a starting point in my path and it's not my path I don't own this road I don't get to comment on other people and their speed on this road because I don't own it it is the path of belonging to someone who also owns me, my master so now there's two ownerships I'm, my master is Allah and the master, the owner of the path is also Allah عز وجل that means the way that I observe myself I'm not the police on this road I'm not in charge on this road I don't decide the rules on this road I don't call people
The Beauty of Allah's Ownership
Beautiful language because it's as if Allah is saying, telling us that when I remind myself and I remind you, there are lots of roads to take in life, there are lots of roads there are lots of ways you can live your life but only one of them is actually owned by Allah then you have to think, what are those other paths who owns them and if they're not owned by Allah, what do they lead to who are you gonna meet on those roads if they're not owned by the one who gave you your life who sustains your organs who gives you the air to breathe who loves you more than anyone can ever love you and if He made this road just for you, then He will put people in it that will make your life beautiful but what about those other roads that you abandon His road and you take, what kind of people will you meet on that road what kind of experiences will you meet on that road where are you gonna head what progress are you gonna make.
The Path of Elevation and Vision
As you make progress towards Allah Allah literally describes it as rising now again, visual I'm taking so long in this khutbah it doesn't matter, it's okay, it's COVID-19 you can work from home so when you're rising, imagine a road that goes upwards, yeah so as you're traveling this road, it's getting higher and higher when you get higher don't you see further aren't you able your view changes, right it's a remarkable thing that the path of Allah is actually heading upwards why because now, for everybody else they're so caught up in the moment in the day, in the weekend and you can look at your entire life ahead you can look at your children's lives you can look at the meeting with Allah you can look at the long term consequences of these steps you can see it you can see what you left behind for what it really is oh my god, that's where I was when you're inside a city that has a lot of smoke and smog you don't see it but if you travel up the road and you look down and it's covered in smog that's where I was living oh my god, I was breathing that and you came out of it you're rising above it and your horizons are changing you're in a new environment now and you can see things you didn't see before that's the invitation that Allah (عز وجل) has given us to make us people of vision, literally people of vision people that can see further out people that are not reacting to moment by moment.
Conclusion: The Wisdom of Da'wah
This is the opening of the I don't want to call it philosophy it's the wisdom of da'wah in the Quran how does Allah describe da'wah and it's just inside this one ayah there are so many just pearls of wisdom jam packed in and I wanted to kind of take a little bit of them each at a time and unpack them so that you and I can truly understand what does it mean that we have been chosen to follow the path of our Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) to invite others on the path that we ourselves are traveling on.
Closing Prayers
O Allah, send prayers upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad, as You sent prayers upon Abraham and upon the family of Abraham. Indeed, You are Praiseworthy and Glorious.
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 remember Allah; He will remember you. And thank Him for His favors; He will increase you [therein]. And the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah knows that which you do.
Recite, [O Muhammad], what has been revealed to you of the Book and establish prayer. Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing, and the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah knows that which you do. Indeed, prayer has been decreed upon the believers a decree of specified times.