Christ Beyond Christmas
By Suhaib Webb | 2026-01-16T02:34:56.792078+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Christ Beyond Christmas
Opening Supplications
I seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him. And whosoever He leads astray, none can find for him a guardian and a guide.
And I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and his family and companions.
O you who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared, and die not except as Muslims.
O mankind! Fear your Lord, Who created you from a single soul, and created from it its mate, and spread from them many men and women. And fear Allah through Whom you demand your mutual rights, and revere the wombs. Surely Allah is Ever-Watchful over you.
O you who believe! Fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice. He will then amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great triumph.
And after this, the best speech is the Book of Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. And the worst of affairs are their innovations, and every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.
We seek Allah's peace and blessings upon our beloved Messenger Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and peace and blessings of Allah be upon his family and his companions and those who follow them until the end of time.
The Quran's Guidance and Contextual Da'wah
Allah in the Quran recognizes that:
Indeed, this Quran guides to that which is most just.
The Quran's fundamental purpose is to guide to what is exact, what is correct. And also, guidance - the believers will find glad tidings, because they will be following, as we mentioned last week:
And hold firmly to the rope of Allah.
اعْتَصَمَ means to cling to something, which is a cause of saving you from something else. So they cling to those evidences, and by the grace of Allah and the mercy of Allah, they find success in the hereafter, insha'Allah.
One of the important components of the prophetic da'wah is that the prophetic da'wah is contextually appropriate. So we find that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, sometimes people will ask him questions, and he will actually, what we call when I studied in iftaa, ziyaadah, where you actually give more than what the person asked.
Examples of Prophetic Contextualization
For example, when the man came to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and he said, "We are sailors, we don't take a lot of water with us. Is it allowed for us to make wudu with the water in the sea, in the ocean?"
And he said:
Its water is pure and its dead (animals) are lawful. (Sunan Abu Dawud 83, Sunan al-Tirmidhi 69)
Also that its meat is pure, as the dominant opinion that you can eat anything from the seas. But the point is, the man didn't ask the Prophet about meat, but the Prophet knew, peace and blessings be upon him, that they are also going to eat. So just as they need wudu for their spiritual survival, they'll need to eat for their physical survival, so he adds to the answer, peace and blessings be upon him.
Other situations, he will answer in a way that doesn't embarrass the person, because he knows also this is contextually a problem, and also this is from the adab of the mufti, that if somebody asks an embarrassing question in front of a lot of people, you phrase the answer in the third person, instead of directing the person, singling out that person for your answer, because to embarrass a Muslim is haram, or any person.
So the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, when the Sahabiyyah Umm Sulaim asked him, "Do women have an excretion like men have an excretion?" he didn't say, "O Umm Sulaim, if this happens to you..." He said, "If it happens to that woman," peace and blessings be upon him, and then he gave the answer. (Sahih al-Bukhari 130, Sahih Muslim 311)
Also sometimes the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, will not answer the question immediately, because it's not contextually appropriate, or he wants to accomplish a greater educational goal. And this is the art of the mufti, and the art of the scholar.
The Hadith of Prayer Times
So when the man came to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and he asked him about the times of prayer, at Fajr time, as narrated by Malik in the Muwatta (Muwatta Malik 1), the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, didn't answer him. Then he waited one day, so he prayed Fajr with him that day, and the next day he prayed Fajr at a different time, early and later. So we find the majority of the ulama, they pray Fajr at an early time. The Hanafis, they delay the Fajr a little bit.
Then after a day, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "Where is the person who asked?" He said, "I'm the one, O Messenger of Allah." He said, "The time is between those two things that you saw me do." The point is, look at how contextually in line the Prophet is with the needs of his community.
The Challenge of Taqlid vs. Ijtihad
And often times this is a challenge if we've been taught simply to be muqallids instead of uqala, followers instead of scholars capable of ijtihad. And this is one of the greatest problems of the Sunni community now - even they ask their scholars to be muqallids.
I was in a masjid recently with a sheikh who has a PhD in usul al-fiqh. And somebody came to him, and I'm Maliki, so I thought it was interesting. He said, "Sheikh, I want to know the opinion in the Maliki madhhab on qunoot in Fajr." He said, "You know, this is the opinion, but it's not the strongest opinion."
Then this person, who has no real formalized academic training in Islam, said to the sheikh, "You have to make taqlid." Then the sheikh said to him, "Then why did I go to school?" Would we ask our doctors to make taqlid of medicine that was 300 years ago? Would we ask our personal trainer, "I don't want to do mountain climbers, give me a boulder. I'm going to run from here to 136th street and back"?
So we have a challenge that we fail to appreciate the contextual power of our religion. And by closing, turning off the power of our religion, we fail to serve the people around us. And then the outcome of this is we just argue and fight about things that don't happen anymore.
Fighting Over the Past Instead of the Present
So the community will find power in like, "I follow Ibn Taymiyyah, I follow Ghazali." Ibn Taymiyyah died hundreds of years ago. Imam Ghazali died hundreds of years ago. So instead of fighting for climate change, we're fighting over two imams. Instead of fighting over the prison industrial complex and what our theological rhetoric is on the issue, we're fighting over Sufis and Salafis.
One of my teachers used to say, the greatest sign of punishment of a community is that it fights in the cloud. Even its problems are in the cloud. Nothing is real.
Christmas and Contextual Relevance
So what are the things that we should think about in being contextually appropriate? Of course, we know this is Christmas, and we know as Muslims we don't celebrate Christmas, as the Prophet said, we have two Eids: the Eid of Adha and the Eid of Fitr, alhamdulillah. But still, we should have some talking points, because I know as a convert, when I would go to my parents' house during Christmas, that was the greatest opportunity to do some advocacy work on behalf of Islam.
And I remember my mother would have this massive ham, and I was like, "Man, that's a big ham." It was like an intimidating Oklahoma ham. And she turned to me and she'd say, "Do you really believe Jesus didn't eat ham?" You know, that's an opportunity. That's an opportunity.
So what I would like to do is quickly, just to be contextually appropriate as we move forward insha'Allah, touch on some of the issues around Sayyidina Isa, peace be upon him, and then tonight in the Bosnian Masjid - I don't like to call it the Bosnian Masjid, but that's what it's called - the Muslims' Masjid in Queens, which happens to be built and run by a beautiful Bosnian community, we will go into greater detail in the story of Sayyidina Isa.
The Status of Prophet Isa
We know that, of course, Jesus - because there's no J in his language, so if you called him Jesus, he wouldn't know who you were talking to - Sayyidina Isa, peace be upon him, is from one of the greatest prophets, Ulul Azm (the Prophets of strong determination).
And there are certain beliefs we have about prophets. Number one, as Imam al-Marzuki in the book that we just finished this week in Aqidah on Tuesdays mentioned: Our foundational beliefs around prophets, which is very important, are:
Number one: We believe that they were honest people (al-sidq).
Number two: We believe that they were trustworthy (al-amanah).
Number three: We believe everything Allah commanded them - and this is very important for this discussion - they delivered:
Convey what has been revealed to you from your Lord.
Number four: We believe also that they did not hide anything in their information, the information that they shared to people (al-tabligh).
And that they were highly intelligent (al-fatanah).
The Birth of Prophet Isa Through the Quran
Let's walk through the story of Isa through the Quran, because really, there's nothing better in teaching us about our religion than the Quran and the sunnah of our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.
So let's just do, in this khutbah, a brief, if you will, excursion through the life of Sayyidina Isa through the perspective of the Quran and the authentic hadith of our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. And then we can have some talking points when we go back to work. Maybe people ask us, you know, maybe you're at home watching The Office, the episode with the Christmas party, and someone asks you, "Hey, what do you think about Christmas? What do you think about Jesus?" I believe the khutbah should equip you with five or six talking points that are going to make your life better, insha'Allah, and improve the life of people around you, insha'Allah.
Lesson One: The Dua of the Grandmother
The first is his birth, and we know that his birth starts with his grandmother. And we take a very important lesson here, that now, just as we think about generational wealth, we should be thinking about our offspring, especially converts who don't have the buttressing of the community. We don't have the social support to protect our children. And that's why it's very important for converts not to hate each other.
We see many agents from overseas creating this constant hatred amongst converts. I mean, we were Crips and Bloods before Islam, why do we need to stay that way in Islam? Especially when we don't have - like my wife, for example, Allah bless her, I remember when we first started talking for marriage, she said, "How many cousins do you have?" I said, "I'm white, I got five cousins." She was like, "Five?" I said, "In total, I have five cousins." She said, "I have 81 first cousins."
So then immediately I knew I gained some kind of important utility, right, through this relationship. If somebody messes with me, I'm showing up with 81 cousins. But we have to think about creating that buttressing and that support, and we do that, number one, through a very important notion of thinking about generational spirituality.
The story of Isa starts with the dua of his relatives for him before he's born:
And I seek refuge for her and her descendants with You from Satan, the expelled.
His grandmother said, "O Allah, I seek your protection for my daughter," which is Maryam, peace be upon her, "and for her offspring."
And that's why the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:
There is no child born except that Satan touches him, causing him to cry out.
(Sahih al-Bukhari 3286, Sahih Muslim 2366)
Except Isa and his mother, because of the dua of his grandmother.
So now, even if you're not married, I remember when I first went to hajj the first time, I was making dua for my grandchildren, for their grandchildren, for my offspring. I remember once one of our brothers accepted Islam and he said, "I am the dua of my great-great-great-grandparents in Africa." And I started to cry. I said, "SubhanAllah, I never thought about this before." He said, "Yeah, the dua came back to us and brought us back to the truth."
So:
And their father was righteous. (Quran 18:82)
Never underestimate the importance of being righteous. That's why Imam Ibn Ata'illah al-Iskandari said, you know, delaying good until you have free time is the greatest sign of the blindness of the soul. Like, because the good is not about a utilitarian physical relationship. We believe that our good is raised to Allah, and our good extends from this time on until the hereafter.
So good is not simply something understood through the lens of the stock market. But good is understood through a transcendent relationship. So the first is the dua, and now we can take a quick lesson from the story: We should be making dua.
As one of my teachers used to say, if you have trouble talking to people, talk to Allah. And one poet said, most people get upset when you talk too much. But Allah, He loves you the more you make dua to Him.
And your Lord says: Call upon Me, I will respond to you.
Lesson Two: The Mother - Sayyida Maryam
The second is his mother, Sayyida Maryam. And we go to the third chapter of the Quran and the 19th chapter of the Quran. And if you want to freshen up, you know these are kind of the chapters you want to be going through.
Where the angel said to her:
Indeed, Allah gives you good news of a word from Him.
Allah has given you the good news of a child who is called the Kalimah of Allah.
Why is Sayyidina Isa called Kalimat Allah?
Indeed, the example of Jesus with Allah is like that of Adam. He created him from dust; then He said to him, "Be," and he was.
Because the likeness of Isa is like Adam. Allah created him from nothing. This verse is evidence to refute atheism, because this verse is saying that matter cannot be created by human beings. Only matter can be created by Allah. كُن فَيَكُونُ . So Sayyidina Isa is Kalimat Allah.
His name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary.
Distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near to Allah.
And he will be honored in this life, and in the hereafter. And we know her response in different places. For example:
And mention in the Book, Mary.
The only woman mentioned by her name in the Quran is Sayyida Maryam, who went to be alone with her Lord.
Then We sent to her Our Angel.
And then Allah dispatched an angel to her, who came in the shape of a human being. One of our beliefs is that angels are shapeshifters. Be careful who you talk to that you don't know. You might be mean or nice to an angel, but you can't confirm it only in the hereafter. So don't come to me and say you met an angel at Trader Joe's or something.
She said: Indeed, I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, if you should be fearing of Allah.
And then she said, "I seek refuge in Allah from you." Here is the etiquette of men and women and how they should treat each other with respect and honor. And that sexualizing a gender is antithetical to taqwa. Because her response is like, if this is why you're approaching me, fear Allah. Appreciate me for who I am.
And then of course you know the story continues. And he said, "I am a messenger from your Lord to give you a pure child." And her response is:
She said: How can I have a boy while no man has touched me?
And then in two different places, it mentions that Allah has decreed this. كُن فَيَكُونُ . And of course in Surah Ali Imran, you notice the difference between Zakariya and Maryam. With Zakariya Allah says:
He does what He wills. (Quran 3:40)
And with Maryam:
He creates what He wills. (Quran 3:47)
Because of course the child of Zakariya, Yahya, was brought through the actions of people by the will of Allah. But Sayyidina Isa was created by Allah directly with no cause. كُن فَيَكُونُ
And then of course she gives birth. And here's where we'll start the story.
Lesson Three: Constant Learning and Spiritual Accomplishment
But before that, in Surah Ali Imran, Allah mentions to her that this child is going to do incredible things:
And He will teach him writing and wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel.
And here's the second lesson we can take from the story. Unfortunately, our community - we are in a dangerous place in America. We have been inadvertently conditioned by Islamophobia on the right and Islamophobia on the left. And that is why we see what we value as a community is being accepted, especially in the entertainment circles. But we don't celebrate our purely spiritual accomplishments.
So our spiritual successes are undermined by opportunities to feel popular as designated and defined by the dominant cultural ethos. And this is white supremacy at its core.
So very rarely we will find ourselves celebrating, for example in this community, an 18-year-old girl who becomes a hafidh. That won't get tweeted. But if some opportunity to be, you know, maybe a guest on SpongeBob, and there's like a Muslim, everyone will celebrate it. What does it tell you? It tells you that we've been untethered from what real success is.
But here we find something very incredible: that Sayyidina Isa, peace be upon him, is celebrating his spiritual accomplishments. And Allah says يُعَلِّمُهُ meaning that he will constantly be in a state of learning. A community that values secular success and fails to appreciate its spiritual accomplishments - one of its greatest signs is that it does not have passion for real consistent learning. It has passion for entertainment and excitement. But ilm is ilm.
And the Prophet said:
Knowledge is acquired through learning. (Musnad al-Bazzar 1/229)
Imam al-Shafi'i said: Knowledge is constant review, to constantly learn. So when Allah talks about the education of Sayyidina Isa, He uses the present continuous form of the verb, which means always learning. يُعَلِّمُهُ الْكِتَابَ - and here is that Allah taught him the secrets of the heavens and the earth, like He said about Sayyidina Ibrahim:
And thus We showed Abraham the realm of the heavens and the earth.
We unveiled for Ibrahim the secrets of the heavens. وَالْحِكْمَةَ - meaning prophethood.
Lesson Four: Public Responsibility and Da'wah
And a messenger to the Children of Israel.
And we made him a messenger to the people. And here is the third lesson. So the first is dua. The second is a passion for constantly learning religion. And the third is what? Being in the public place as a spiritual interlocutor. It's not simply fun.
There is a social responsibility to being a member of the Prophet Muhammad's community, peace and blessings be upon him. Such as Sayyidina Umar, Amir al-Mu'minin, may Allah be pleased with him, said, "I lose sleep at night worried if a donkey will trip on a hole in a street in Iraq, meaning Allah will ask me why didn't I fulfill my responsibility to a donkey." What about human beings?
So with great accomplishments comes great responsibility. وَرَسُولًا إِلَى بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ. And that's why I believe you are more important to the strategy of faith than the imams. Imams - I live on the fourth floor of the library next door. Unless I'm listening to the Wu-Tang Clan, I'm not really able to stay culturally relevant in a way that you are. Except I know what's going on with the Knicks. May Allah have mercy on them. We'll be praying janazah for them after salah.
But because Allah has placed you publicly - and this is the problem of neo-traditionalism. Neo-traditionalism tells you the sheikh knows more about your life than you. How can the sheikh know more about your life than you? He doesn't walk in your shoes. She doesn't see your life. But there is a reciprocity that happens between the sheikh and the student that they both teach each other and they both educate one another. It's not a one-way street.
Making Halal What Was Made Haram
So وَرَسُولًا إِلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ - he was sent to people, and immediately he has to call them to something that tests him.
And to make lawful for you some of what was forbidden to you.
It's important to note here that the anger of his community was not because he made things haram. The anger of his community was from a group of extreme literalists who opposed Isa because he made certain things that were haram - what? Halal.
So it was their insecurity and their irresponsible conservatism that inspired them to try to kill him. Remember this - it's very interesting. Maybe people thought, "Oh, he must have made things halal and people were upset with him. He must have made things haram and people got upset with him." No.
And to make lawful for you some of what was forbidden to you. And I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, so fear Allah and obey me.
"I have made halal things that were made haram for you. I have made permissible things that you used to think were haram."
It was because of the irresponsible, irrational conservatives - not the neoliberal left that everyone likes to talk about in a fictional way - that tried to kill him. How many times have we seen religious leadership largely opposed? Not by people who are in the middle, the vital center, or people who may be a little bit less religiously adherent. No, if you look at most imams across the country, their biggest adversaries and problems are insecure conservative people.
And that's why the hadith of the Prophet:
You will follow the ways of those who came before you, handspan by handspan, cubit by cubit. (Sahih al-Bukhari 3456, Sahih Muslim 2669)
Summary of Key Lessons
Insha'Allah in the next khutbah we're going to talk about that and the rest of the story of Sayyidina Isa. But we took three or four important lessons:
Number one is dua for the future.
Number two is that we should be constantly engaged in learning. Because if we don't learn for now, we can just fight about what we learned in the past. And this is the case, unfortunately, I can say with the Sunni community.
Number three is that with great accomplishment comes incredible responsibility.
And the fourth is that often times it was irrational, untethered conservatism that destroyed great religious leadership and scholars.
We ask Allah to keep us firm upon the truth. I say this and ask Allah's forgiveness for me and for you, so seek His forgiveness. Indeed, He is the Most Forgiving.
Second Khutbah
Alhamdulillah, and peace and blessings upon our master, the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and his companions and those who follow him.
The Da'wah of Sayyidina Isa
We praise Allah. We send peace and blessings upon our beloved Messenger Muhammad, Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and his companions and those who follow him.
The da'wah of Sayyidina Isa is scattered out through the Quran in numerous places. So if you want to find the crux of his message, you can find it in the middle of Surat al-Ma'idah, where it says:
Indeed, he who associates others with Allah - Allah has forbidden him Paradise, and his refuge is the Fire. And there are not for the wrongdoers any helpers. (Quran 5:72)
Whoever says that God had partners will be placed in Hell. This is one of the things he says, peace be upon him.
Indeed, Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him.
Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him.
And also, as I mentioned earlier in areas of shari'ah:
To make lawful for you some of what was forbidden to you.
That I have come to make halal some things that used to be made forbidden.
The Miracles of Prophet Isa
And also his miracles, peace be upon him. When he says:
I design for you from clay that which is like the form of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird by permission of Allah. And I cure the blind and the leper, and I give life to the dead by permission of Allah.
You know, he mentions that "I'm going to cause a bird to come to life from clay, I'm going to heal the leper" - all by the permission of Allah.
So we learn something there: that if a community really wants to accomplish something, it has to furnish those players with the right skills that are going to help them. The mu'jizat of the anbiya, the miracles that Allah gave to the prophets, can be best translated in institutional policy - that we make sure that people involved in certain areas are supported in a way that strengthens them. So Allah strengthens the anbiya with mu'jizat.
Support and Organization
The next is support. Even Sayyidina Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, Allah says:
And supported you with His help and with the believers.
Allah helped you and He furnished you with the believers.
We find in the end of Surat al-Saff, Isa as an organizer, as an activist, pleading for people to support him:
Who are my supporters for the cause of Allah?
Who will help me with God? The qira'ah of Qumbul from Ibn Kathir:
Be supporters of Allah. (Quran 61:14)
Be constant helpers of God. Who will help me?
The disciples said: We are supporters of Allah.
And of course his followers, they responded and said, "We'll support you."
So sometimes - and this is the beauty in this community - we have a surplus of volunteers, alhamdulillah. And not just from the students who want an excuse from not studying. Yeah, I know what's up. I used to do it. But we have, like Sister Farida, an elderly sister, who comes all the way from across the city to volunteer. We have people who come from all walks of life to help - everything from feeding the poor to making sure that the converts feel welcome to greeting people in Jumu'ah.
And we should never tell ourselves, "They have enough people."
Be those who help Allah.
Opposition and Facing Trials
And the last is opposition. And we know that the truth has to have an enemy.
Allah said, every prophet has an enemy. We cannot tie religious expectations to this kind of gospel of prosperity pushed by people like Joel Osteen. Because that's not what Islam says. Islam says the dunya may work out for you, the dunya may not work out for you, but all this doesn't matter because:
And your Lord is going to give you, and you will be satisfied.
Because real success is in the hereafter.
And we find that he was opposed in many ways by his people.
But when Jesus felt disbelief from them, he said: Who are my supporters for the cause of Allah?
And when he realized that they were ungrateful and that they disbelieved, he sought help from people.
Taking Precautions
Sometimes - I remember one time I was with my teacher, one brother, we got in the car, we put on our seatbelts, and this brother refused to wear a seatbelt. The sheikh said, "Where's your seatbelt?" "No, no, I only trust Allah." The sheikh said, "SubhanAllah, if Isa asked people to help him in the face of a serious existential threat, if Musa asked Allah to furnish him with his brother in the face of this incredible responsibility to Firaun, don't you think you should use a seatbelt?"
So the idea of taking precautions )الأخذ بالأسباب in the face of existential threats now as we move into 2020, we know that our community may become the object of irresponsible lies, and this is what happens to Isa.
And for their disbelief and their saying against Mary a great slander.
The last resort of the enemies of truth is to lie. And بُهْتَان is more than a lie. بُهْتَان is purposely meant to harm people.
Recently there was a court case against Alex Jones, and in that case it was revealed that he purposely spread things about Islam and Muslims that he admitted were untrue to destabilize civil society, to destabilize the country. In other words, in a nice way, to harm us as a community.
So we have to think about how do we structurally create edifices like CAIR and others that are going to defend us and protect us.
They Did Not Kill Him
And they thought they killed him.
And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but it was made to appear to them so.
Allah says they didn't kill him, they didn't crucify him - it was his likeness.
The strong opinion - there's a number of opinions - Imam al-Tabari said that Allah made Isa and his 17 supporters - can you imagine, only 17 supporters? How do we feel if we went home, we knew that we were a messenger of God, truly sent to all humanity, we opened up our Instagram account and we only had 17 followers? And then you get the message from Shaytan: "Buy likes, 200,000, 25 dollars."
So we learn the consistency of Isa - it's not about popularity, it's about the message and principle. And al-Tabari said that Allah made all of them look like Isa, so they didn't know which one was him. And the one they apprehended was one of their own who wanted to kill him.
His Ascension to the Heavens
Now quickly as we finish, because we don't have time to go into detail, we believe that Allah raised him to the heavens. There are three opinions about this:
Indeed, I will take you and raise you to Myself.
In Surat Ali Imran: "I have raised you." مُتَوَفِّيكَ - مُتَوَفِّيكَ has two meanings:
One is to sleep - this is the opinion of Sayyidina Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him. So Allah caused him to sleep and then raised him into the heavens.
The other is to cause him to die )مُمِيتُكَ( - this is the opinion of Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, as well as a large number of ulama.
But scholars mention something very profound, and this is the opinion of al-Tabari, who is who he is. And that is that Sayyidina Isa was raised into the heavens alive - neither was he put to sleep, nor was he killed. Because Allah can do what He wants. كُن فَيَكُونُ . But he will die when he comes back.
And that's why in Surat al-Zukhruf, we find the verse:
And indeed, he is knowledge of the Hour.
That he is a sign of the Hour. I know there is a lot of discussion about this issue, but stick to the foundational books of theology, stick to what's been there for a long time. We don't need - if we're a community under siege, now is not the time to think about tajdeed (renewal). A community under siege should think about not reviving or changing their religion, but defending themselves. Because by changing, we show that we're cracking in the face of this threat. And that's a sign of weakness.
But al-Tabari mentioned something very profound. He said that what it means is that Allah raised him, and this is the opinion of a number of the early Muslims, and he will come back.
He is a sign of the Hour, which is mentioned by Ibn Abbas in five different statements. And he will be a sign for what? For the Day of Judgment.
The Return of Prophet Isa
Sayyidina Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, said:
لَيَنْزِلَنَّ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ فَيَقْتُلُ ال��َّجَّالَ
Jesus, the son of Mary, will descend and kill the Dajjal. (Sahih al-Bukhari 2476, Sahih Muslim 155)
That at the end of time, Sayyidina Isa will come back - this is an authentic hadith - and he will kill the Dajjal. I know what's about to happen. I watch Netflix too. Insha'Allah, in February here, we're going to have a one-day seminar just on Dajjal, so we can deal with the Antichrist.
But he will come back, and he said he will live amongst the Muslims, and we'll talk about this in detail tonight. And then he will die. So Imam al-Tabari says, "I will cause you to die (مُتَوَفِّيكَ - mutawaffika) after you come back to the earth". (بعد نزولك)
There are 14 hadith - we don't have time to talk about this here. As one of my teachers wrote a small book on it, every one of these hadith are sahih or support one another - that Sayyidina Isa will come back. We ask Allah to make us be those who can be his supporters, insha'Allah.
The Day of Judgment
And then of course the story continues, and we don't have time. That after his death, and on the Day of Judgment:
And when Allah will say: O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as deities besides Allah?
"Did you tell people to worship you and your mother?" And he will say, absolutely not. This was not my message. My message was to worship Allah.
Key Talking Points Summary
So quickly, some talking points we can take as we finish:
Number one: The miraculous birth of Sayyidina Isa, peace be upon him, and the dua of his ancestors for him.
And the second lesson that we took is being constantly engaged in learning and asking questions. And if you're around someone that tells you, "You can't ask me questions, I'm a sheikh," you should leave them. That's an insecure person. An insecure person can't teach. If they don't know, they say they don't know. But if you ask a good question, you ask the questions from Allah. Alhamdulillah, we should respect that question. As the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, the remedy for any illness is to ask a question. (Sunan Abu Dawud 336)
And then the third: We talked about organizing and being responsible - with great gifts comes great responsibility.
And then the fourth is having a supporting cast. Who will support me in the cause of Allah?
And then the fifth is having to face opposition.
And then the sixth: That he will be a sign of the Hour, peace be upon him.
And then the seventh: He will absolve himself of those who claimed him to be God or the son of God.
Closing Du'a
We ask Allah to bless us and bless you, insha'Allah. We ask Allah to let us be under the company of Sayyidina Muhammad and Sayyidina Isa, peace be upon him, on the Day of Judgment. We ask Allah to keep us firm upon the truth.
We ask Allah to bless our Uighur brothers and sisters. We ask Allah to bless our brothers and sisters in India. We ask Allah to bless our brothers and sisters in Kashmir. We pray for our brothers and sisters in Africa, in the Levant. We pray for our brothers and sisters in Iran. We pray for our brothers and sisters in Central Asia and all over the world.
We ask Allah to bless the Muslims in this country, to help us be united, to help us be strong, to help us have good suspicions of one another, alhamdulillah, and have love and mercy between us. We ask Allah to make us from those people who establish the prayer.
May Allah make us from those people who establish the prayer.
Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of Might, above what they describe. And peace be upon the messengers. And praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ
And may Allah send blessings upon our master Muhammad and upon his family and companions.