Fear and Responsibility, Words vs Deeds

Fear and Responsibility: Words vs Deeds

Opening Praise and Testimony

Alhamdulillahi ta'ala nahmaduhu wa nasta'inuhu wa nastaghfiruhu wa na'udhu billahi min shururi anfusina wa min sayi'ati a'malina man yahdihi allahu fala mudhilla lah wa man yudhlilhu falan tajida lahu waliyan murshida wa ash'hadu an la ilaha illa allahu wahdahu la sharika lah wa ash'hadu anna muhammadan abduhu wa rasuluhu sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim tasliman kathira.

"O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims."

"O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer."

"O you who have believed, 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 attainment."

Amma ba'd fa inna asdaqa al-hadithi kitaab allahi ta'ala wa khayrul hady hady muhammadin sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa sharrul umuri muhdathatuha wa kulla muhdathin bid'ah wa kulla bid'atin dhalalah wa kulla dhalalatin fin naar.

Introduction: Praise and Blessings

We praise Allah and send peace and blessings upon Sayyidina wa habibina Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم), who said that every Friday, whoever sends salawat upon him, he responds to their salawat. In an authentic hadith he said there is an angel who delivers a book to me with the names of the people who send salawat upon me, and I answer their salawat and I mention their name. Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, upon his companions and his family, and those who follow them until the end of time.

The People of the Quran

Once the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was sitting with his companions and he said:

إِنَّ لِلَّهِ أَهْلِينَ

Inna lillahi ahleen - "Indeed Allah has very close friends."

And the sahaba, they became very excited and they asked him, "Who are those people that are close to Allah?"

And he said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam:

أَهْلُ اللَّهِ أَهْلُ الْقُرْآنِ وَخَاصَّتُهُ

Ahlullahi ahlul quran wa khasatuh - "The people of Allah are the people of the Quran and His special ones."

(Sunan Ibn Majah 215)

Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

The Quran: Foundational Principles, Not Just Details

The Quran is a book which we should appreciate. It often teaches us foundational principles and very seldomly goes into details, as mentioned by Imam Ash-Shatibi. And what I'd like to do in the first khutbah, in light of the current political crisis in this country, the rebirth of white privilege on steroids, a president who seems to be unhinged, and in the face of this irresponsible rhetoric towards the most vulnerable in society, is to focus on two of those foundational principles. And then in the second khutbah we'll talk about our position vis-a-vis the current attempt to keep people busy and stoke fears around immigration in this country.

First Foundational Principle: Understanding Before Seeking Blessings

The first foundational principle was mentioned by a great scholar. It was mentioned throughout history, but around a hundred years ago in Syria—may Allah free Syria and bless our brothers and sisters in Sham, Ahlul Sham. My teacher used to say to me, "The people of Sham are the best people."

Sheikh Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi said that the decline of the Muslim community really starts to take shape—and I want you to pay attention to this-when they turn everything into barakah. Everything is about at-tabarruk. "I seek barakah in everything. So I seek barakah with the Quran, I seek barakah with Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, I seek barakah with awliya, I seek the barakah of the Ummah, I seek barakah of the Sheikh."

Where barakah, as one of our teachers used to say, "Latafakku barakah." He used to say, you know, the tail of understanding and learning is barakah. Meaning barakah is the atf and the knowledge is the ma'tuf. Meaning that the barakah is not the imam. The imam is al-ilmu, at-tafakku fid-deen, wal-amru as-salihat. That the foundational principle that we should allow to push us to undertake anything is to understand and practice, and the outcome is barakah.

Why Is This a Problem?

The Sheikh says, "Because, you know, people will read the Quran for barakah, but they won't read the Quran for understanding." Whereas the first and I said this in Arabic-understanding is the head and the blessings are

the tail. Meaning the blessings follow the understanding.

So when everything becomes barakah, that allows me to dismiss the greater responsibility of developing individual, institutional, and communal policy around the foundational principles of Islam. "No, I'm just looking for barakah." That's why one of our sheikhs said, "Ananiyatul barakah fitnah"—that the selfishness behind always trying to get barakah is a fitnah for people, because "I'm just looking for barakah."

The Example of Surat Al-Kahf

Let me explain this a little. We all read Surat Al-Kahf today. You ask people why? "Barakah." No! How is it that we can be reading Surat Al-Kahf in America now, with the economic stratification that we see in this country, the tremendous racial affirmative action now being attacked this week? How could we be reading Surat Al-Kahf and not extracting powerful lessons about the material versus the spiritual, equality versus injustice?

"And why did you not, when you entered your garden, say, 'This is what Allah has willed; there is no power except in Allah'?"

The challenge of opulence! All those lessons in Surat Al-Kahf. But if I dismiss all that just because I seek barakah, this is why the sheikh said it's a problem.

Asking the Wrong Questions

I'll give you an example. A brother actually today, he sent me a question on Snapchat about Surat Al-Kahf. Out of all of the lessons to be found in Surat Al-Kahf—and that's why the outcome of simply seeking barakah without seeking understanding and responsibility is that we ask questions that are successfully irrelevant—what was the question this person asked me? "What kind of dog was it?"

Like subhanallah, out of everything that you read in the chapter! Why? You think you're going to go find barakah with this dog? Like when you read Surat Yusuf and one person asked me, "Where was the shirt? Like Nordstrom Rack?" You know, like really?

The Same Problem with Hadith and Scholars

The same thing also with the Prophet. We don't read hadith for barakah. We read hadith to understand and live, and the barakah is an outcome. And the same thing with our ulama and our awliya.

This becomes even more of a problem: that we outsource our religious responsibility through seeking the blessings of righteous people. First of all, only Allah knows who's righteous. But I'll give you an example of this. When we're only looking for barakah, we fail to maximize resources. Like someone who drinks protein doesn't want to work out.

The Imam Who Wasn't Utilized

I was in a city recently. I was sitting with some people and they were telling me, "MashaAllah man, our imam is so awesome, such a righteous person, so pious, so much barakah." Of this imam—I knew this imam, he went to Azhar, and it wasn't Imam Atif—and I said to them, "Really, what classes does he teach during the week?" And they said to me they have no idea. "Well, he has so much barakah, but you don't attend his classes. So much barakah, but you don't take benefit from him."

This is what the sheikh mentioned when he's saying the danger of using barakah as an alibi to excuse myself from learning and practicing.

Second Foundational Principle: Words Must Match Deeds

The second foundational principle—and this is very important—that we find in our sacred texts is the danger of the contradiction between words and deeds.

Allah said:

أَتَأْمُرُونَ النَّاسَ بِالْبِرِّ وَتَنسَوْنَ أَنفُسَكُمْ

Ata'muroona an-naasa bil-birri wa tansawna anfusakum (Quran 2:44) - "You ask people to do good and you forget yourselves?"

And Allah says in Surat As-Saff:

"O you who have believed, why do you say what you do not do? Great is hatred in the sight of Allah that you say what you do not do."

One of our teachers used to say, "Ikhlas, sincerity, is the concept of limiting the gulf between your words and your deeds."

Why These Principles Matter Now

Why do I mention this now? Because we are in a state in this country. The future of America is incredibly diversified, inshallah. It's going to be ethnically diversified, and the challenges that this country faces are going to be diversified. But if we're only looking to the barakah of the Quran and the barakah of the teachings of the Prophet, we will not be able to calibrate a message that speaks to America. And this is extremely important now.

The state of religion in America is such that people need answers. But if we're simply looking at it for barakah and not for application and not for policy and guidance, then we'll fail to serve this country and fail to serve our own communities.

The Suffering of the Muslim World

I mean, how long are we going to sit and watch Syria suffer, man? The people of Iraq, Yemen—which no one is talking about—is being bombed by Muslim countries with weapons bought from here. Where is the Martin Luther King Jr.? Where is the Malcolm X?

No, we have Ali Juma. We have people who openly encourage the killing of citizens. We have people—I lived in Egypt during the revolution—who came on television, whether Sufi or Salafi, whatever "e" you can imagine, all these easy "E's," saying, "Do not participate. Stay at home. Eat your food and falafel."

The divorce of theology and religion from social crises and economic injustices is a well which American Muslims cannot afford to take their theology from anymore.

The Lesson of Imam Hasan al-Basri

Imam Hasan al-Basri—why is he loved? Not because of barakah. Barakah is the outcome. But Imam Hasan al-Basri is someone who understands that he has to synthesize his religion to serve the most vulnerable and to be just.

That's why Imam al-Bukhari—I want you to remember one hadith, just remember this hadith—the Prophet said, as recorded by al-Bukhari:

(Sahih al-Bukhari 2896)

The Prophet takes social stratification and turns it on its head.

Imam Hasan al-Basri's Stand Against Hypocrisy

Imam Hasan al-Basri understood the danger of the contradiction between the limbs and the words. Some slaves came to him and they asked him, "Give a khutbah about freeing slaves." He said, "Inshallah, next week I'm gonna do it."

They came the next week and he didn't give the khutbah about freeing slaves. And they did what everybody does nowadays—except then they didn't have Facebook and Snapchat and IG stories. They went and slandered Imam Hasan al-Basri. "Imam is a sellout. Sold his religion for nothing, his scholarship for dollars," you know, whatever they could say about him.

And a year later, one of them came to his masjid, and he gave the khutbah about freeing slaves, and all the slaves were emancipated that day in the city. And he came to Imam Hasan al-Basri and he said, "Man, why did you wait a year? Why did you wait a year to give this khutbah?"

Our Responsibility Today

If we're going to vilify the Trump administration, but we have actions in our lives which run parallel to the ethos of the Trump administration, we stand as hypocrites in front of Allah.

So we ask Allah, by all His names and His highest attributes, to guide us to what pleases Him. And we ask Him to gather us with His beloved, as we believed in him but did not see him, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

Aqoolu qawli hadha wa astaghfirullaha li wa lakum fastaghfiruh. Innahu huwa al-ghafoor ar-raheem.

Second Khutbah

Bismillah. Alhamdulillah. Wassalatu wassalamu ala sayyidina rasulillah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala.

Summary of the Two Foundational Principles

We mentioned these two important principles: Quranic principles, principles from the sunnah of Sayyidina Muhammad, alayhi salatu wa salam.

First: Education and action before seeking blessings. You know, that's why the Prophet, when he would take, for example, a new convert, he would say:

Allahumma faqihu fid-deen - "Oh Allah, give him understanding, give her understanding of religion." (Sahih al-Bukhari 143, Sahih Muslim 2477)

Right? And:

Wa qul rabbi zidni ilma (Quran 20:114) - "Increase me in knowledge."

Second foundational principle that we talked about: sincerity.

(Sahih al-Bukhari 1, Sahih Muslim 1907)

Niyatul mu'min khayrun min amalihi - Some of the scholars used to say, "The intention of a believer is better than his or her actions," because the foundation is the niyyah.

The Catastrophic Results of Dismissing Responsibility

With all that in mind, we mentioned the danger of seeking barakah and dismissing responsibility and interpretation and providing answers for people has two catastrophic results.

First Result: Irrelevance to Society

The first is we become irrelevant to the society that we live in. Where is our message now on immigration?

We are a community whose calendar is based on migration. It's called the migration calendar: Hijrah. We are a community who, in our spiritual DNA, is a dedication to immigrants and refugees, because almost every prophet was a person of color and almost every prophet was an immigrant or a refugee.

Sayyidina Adam—he and his wife were refugees to this dunya. Sayyidina Ibrahim is a refugee. Sayyidina Nuh is a refugee. Sayyidina Yusuf is a refugee. Sayyidina Isa is a refugee. Sayyidina Musa and his people are immigrants and refugees. Sayyidina Muhammad is forced to leave his land and go to a new place.

Where is the op-ed by that young brilliant Muslim in the LA Times? Don't wait for the sheikh. The sheikh has barakah. Barakah is not an excuse to be lazy, and barakah is not an excuse not to follow your passion. One of my teachers used to say, "If everybody waits on barakah, there'll be no barakah."

The Community of Al-Muhajireen

We are a community who have a group of people called al-muhajireen—the refugees, those who migrated. We are a community who, just like in America, read the history of the people in Yathrib, which became Medina, who were a minority like white America is becoming, who were fearful of their economic future like white America and the Rust Belt, who were exploited politically like white America and the Rust Belt, who were fearful that they would give up their political power like white America and the Rust Belt.

But there is a difference—and not all white America and the Rust Belt is the same. Instead of reacting with fear and falling for a toxic populism, these people in Medina opened up their hearts, opened up their pocketbooks, sacrificed their homes, sacrificed their wealth, sacrificed their institutions and their power for immigrants.

"They prefer others to themselves, even though they were in need."

The Blessings of Immigration

And as is historically proven, except through catastrophes like war and the bubonic plague and other things, immigration usually improves society. And that's what happened in Medina. The diversified challenges that the people of Medina faced found diversified answers when the culture of Yathrib and Medina married with the culture of Hijaz. The lughah of Banu Tamim and others in Yathrib combined with the lughah of Ahlul Hijaz.

You have, in the next ten years—because migration lasts around ten years in Medina until the Prophet said, as he said in the hadith, "There's no more migration"—you have an improvement in the health of the people of Medina, you have an improvement in their economic situation, you have political stability, you have stability brought to their families.

So we are a community tied to a prophet whose community is invested in welcoming immigrants, in opening up their hearts to people who are most vulnerable. And we believe through this comes barakah.

Our Talking Points on Immigration

So now when you go back to work or you're sitting with a coworker—I believe a good khutbah is the khutbah that lasts after the khutbah—you can go back to high school and talk to your friends about what your preacher talked about, or you can go back to work and someone can ask you, "Hey, you know, what was your sermon about today?"

You have some talking points, and those talking points are:

Number one: That we as Muslims believe that the weakest amongst us bring the help of God.

Number two: That we believe that we are spiritually indebted and obligated to support and help the most vulnerable who migrate and choose America as their home as American Muslims.

And thirdly: My wife, you know, her family migrated to America probably 80 years ago. I live now in Brooklyn, New York. From our house you can see the Statue of Liberty, and she told me that my great-great-grandfather, when he came from Lebanon, landed at the Statue of Liberty. I think his name was Farooq. You know, they gave him Frank.

But every single one of us in this room knows someone or has a relative who came to this country. So the third piece is to give back as we have received khayr, to support those who want to come to this country.

Supplication for Guidance and Understanding

We ask Allah to open up our hearts. We ask Allah to help us provide true solutions for the challenges that face America. We ask Allah to make us a blessed community that brings light and barakah and justice and responsibility to this country.

We ask Allah to help us realize our greatest responsibility is to find solutions and understandings from our sacred texts through our actions that lead to barakah. Because if we don't—I said two things and I only mentioned one—we'll fail to be relevant to America, and we'll fail to be relevant to our own youth.

Second Result: Irrelevance to Our Youth

That's the outcome of seeking barakah without seeking understanding. It's catastrophic: a failure to have social agency within this country and a failure to have religious agency and context with our young Americans.

The Example of Colin Kaepernick

Hasan al-Basri—watch what young people do right now. He understood something: if he took a certain position, it would bring about a challenge.

Now we have Colin Kaepernick. Everyone here should not watch the NFL, support the NFL. You didn't get a team anyways. They went to Las Vegas. Yeah, you did get a team. You got the San Diego Chargers. God help you.

But not to get played: if we're really gonna stand with Colin Kaepernick, then we shouldn't participate in fantasy football this year. We shouldn't participate in the NFL this year until he's signed by somebody, because he's not being signed not because he's not the best quarterback—I mean, he's got some issues—but we know why he's not being signed.

Just like Hasan al-Basri, now see the young people paying attention. This is what I meant by cultural relevancy and agency. If we fail to find the relationship and intersectionality between our theology and the problems of this country, we'll be irrelevant to the people of this country and our young people.

Prayers for the Ummah and the Oppressed

We ask Allah to bless the people of Palestine. We ask Allah to give them justice, to give them peace, to give them freedom, to give them dignity, to give them humanity. We ask Allah to give them al-Aqsa as a place where they are free to worship Allah in justice and liberty.

We pray for our brothers and sisters in Syria, in Iraq, in Pakistan, who just in the last week has experienced tremendous political challenges. We pray for our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. The history of Afghanistan is rich with great contributions to Islam. The greatest scholar in Sahih al-Bukhari was a woman, Fatima, from Herat in the tenth century. We ask Allah to bless them, to bring them peace, to bring them liberty, and to bring them integrity.

We pray for our brothers and sisters in Bangladesh. We pray for our brothers and sisters in Central Africa, where there is a silent genocide happening towards the Muslim community through famine, which is challenging their existence, but also a very aggressive form of evangelical Christianity. We ask Allah to make us supporters and allies.

Prayers for Justice and Equality

We pray for the women in this country who still face tremendous patriarchy, and within our own community, to make us as allies to our sisters.

We pray for Black America. This masjid should have a sign in front of it that says "Black Lives Matter." So alhamdulillah, all lives matter, but all lives can't matter if black lives don't matter, especially within the framework and the history and trajectory of America.

We pray for our convert brothers and sisters. May Allah bless you, bless your parents, bless the relationships that you're struggling to organize and hold on to.

We pray for our youth. We pray for our newly married couples and those who are going through marital challenges.

We pray for our elderly brothers and sisters who feel lonely, who may be battling sickness and disease and are scared what that means in their life. May Allah make every pain you feel, every suffering you experience, a means of your hasanat with Allah.

We pray for our Imam Atif and our Sheikh Mohammed. May Allah bless him and bless their families. We pray for this wonderful community.