Hope in Surat Ad-Duha .
By Yaser Birjas | 2026-01-13T07:34:18.717195+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Jerusalem: God's City
Khutbah by Shaykh Yasir Fahmy
Opening Dua and Khutbat al-Hajah
السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ
إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ، نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ، وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَسَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا ، مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ، وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَنْ تَجِدَ لَهُ وَلِيًّا مُرْشِدًا، وَنَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ، وَنَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَصَفِيُّهُ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ وَخَلِيلُهُ، تَرَكَنَا عَلَى الْمَحَجَّةِ الْبَيْضَاءِ لَيْلُهَا كَنَهَارِهَا، لَا يَزِيغُ عَنْهَا إِلَّا هَالِكٌ وَلَا يَنْتَظِمُ فِي سِلْكِهَا إِلَّا سالك
اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ وَأَنْعِمْ وَأَكْرِمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَى حَبِيبِنَا وَشَفِيعِنَا وَمَوْلَانَا وَقُرَّةِ أَعْيُنِنَا سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ . وصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيمًا كَثِيرًا ، اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَيْهِ فِي الْأَوَّلِينَ وَفِي الْآخِرِينَ وَفِي الْمَلَا الْأَعْلَى إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ
"O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims [in submission to Him]."
أَمَّا بَعْدُ أُوصِي نَفْسِي وَإِيَّاكُمْ بِتَقْوَى اللَّهِ وَبِلُزُومِ طَاعَتِهِ أَنَاءَ اللَّيْلِ وَأَطْرَافَ النَّهَارِ عَلَى الْوَجْهِ الَّذِي يُرْضِيهِ عَنَّا
Main Khutbah: The Holiness of Jerusalem
In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. To Him we belong and to Him we shall return. We ask Allahjalla wa ala in His infinite grace and boundless mercy to send an abundance of prayers and peace upon our beloved messenger Prophet Muhammadsallallahu alayhi wa sallam. We ask Allahsubhana wa ta'ala to be pleased with us on this blessed day of Jumu'ah, to increase us in our ranks, to shower us with His grace and His beauty and His mercy, to open up our hearts to the love of His religion and to the love of His prophets, and to make us conscious and aware and have the presence of mind to be in the constant praise of Hejalla wa ala.
May Allahsubhana wa ta'ala make us amongst the dhakireen - those who remember - and never make us amongst the ghafineen - those who are heedless or forgetful. We ask Allah to have mercy upon those across this world who are facing so much hardship and faced with endless difficulties and wrong and pain. May Allah give them relief and ease in this world, Allahumma ameen, and abundance of relief and ease in the afterlife, Allahumma ameen Ya Rabbil Alameen.
The Sacred Nature of the Holy Land
Brothers and sisters, when we think of the word holy and we think of the word sacred, we immediately think of Allahjalla wa ala - God, the most high, the most great - because the concepts, the ideas of
holiness and sacredness they are distinctly matters of Allahjalla wa ala. Because He, Allahsubhana wa ta'ala, He is the one who attributes or assigns that which is holy or sacred on this earth, and we as Muslims we try to live in a state of loving surrender to Himjalla wa ala and to find in our hearts a sense of honor and glory for that which He has designated holiness and sacredness.
"And whoever honors the symbols of Allah - indeed, it is from the taqwa of hearts."
Verily, those who glorify the rituals of Allah, those are the ones who are conscious and aware of Allahjalla wa ala. The entire life of the believer is to try to glorify the sacred and the holy, because that is what God expects from us if we are truly to follow His way.
Allah's Designation of the Holy Land
And it is in that spirit that I want to speak about the holy land, because Allahjalla wa ala He uses those words to describe that sacred blessed place where Musaalayhi salam called to his people and he says:
"O my people, enter the holy land which Allah has assigned to you."
Enter into the holy land, enter into al-ard al-muqaddasa - the holy land - the one that we have prescribed for you. That's how God speaks about Palestine. That's how God speaks about Jerusalem. That's how God speaks about the lands of al-Aqsa. He speaks about them in the language of sacredness and holiness.
So immediately the heart and the mind and the soul of the believer has to awaken and say: "Ya Allah, I am here and I hear you and I'm listening to the words and the spirit and the meanings that you want me to internalize."
When Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala spoke about saving Ibrahim and Lut, he said: "We brought him into refuge in the lands that were blessed for the entirety of the worlds." See, "lil alameen" means for all the worlds - everything that is created is called "alameen" - and that is who Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala made that land sacred for: for the entirety of the world.
The Isra and Mi'raj
"Exalted is He who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa, whose surroundings we have blessed."
This miraculous night journey from the holy sanctuary of Mecca of the Ka'bah to the holy sanctuary of Al- Aqsa - that Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala says we sent him, we took him to the lands that we have designated as sacred and holy.
It was there that the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) was ascended, he was taken to the highest of heights in that miraculous journey - a moment that is so profound in our history. The moment where the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) was taken from Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa to the highest of heights, to Sidratul Muntaha, and there Allah, in a manner that we do not know or understand, but was in communication with the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) and he gifted him the gift of prayer.
This gift of prayer that we do every single day five times a day as we try to connect to Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala - it happened at the moment of a vertical ascension from the sacred sanctuaries of Al-Aqsa, from the holy land, from Baytul Maqdis. That's where it happened.
The Prophets and the Holy Land
It is there, brothers and sisters, that the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) led in congregational prayer over 120,000 Prophets and Messengers of God. That is where all of the Prophets - Moses, Jesus, Abraham, David, Solomon - all of them, may the peace and blessings of God be upon them all, they stood there and they said to the Prophet Muhammad: "Please step forward and lead us in congregational prayer."
See, our love for Al-Aqsa, our love for the holy land is simply a reflection of our love for the Prophets and Messengers of God, which is ultimately a reflection of our love for Allahjalla wa ala. Because the entire story of Islam - the entire story of being someone, and by Islam I mean someone who is in loving surrender to Allah - the entire story of Islam is embedded in the holy land.
There is no conception of being a Muslim - someone who is in loving surrender to Allah - without loving Al-Aqsa, without loving Jerusalem, without loving Palestine, without loving the holy land. There is no conception. You can't say "I'm a Muslim" and not love those lands, because everything that it means to be a Muslim is embedded there.
Masjid Al-Aqsa was the second Masjid - and Masjid means Mawdi As-Sujood, the place where you place your forehead in prostration - the second Masjid, the second sacred sanctuary to be built on this created world was in Masjid Al-Aqsa. The first was the Kaaba, and 40 years later Masjid Al-Aqsa was built. And who was it built by? The scholars differ - was it built by Adam? was it built by his son Sheeth? was it built by the angels? But nonetheless, that is all about what it means to be a Muslim.
The first place that we directed our faces in prayer was towards Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa. Every single one of the prophets and messengers that we love and revere - their lives were intertwined in those lands.
IbrahimAlayhi Salaam - Abraham, the father of Abrahamic faiths, the father of Judaism and Christianity and Islam - he is buried in Khalil. And what does Khalil mean? It means the close friend of Allah. That land
was named after IbrahimAlayhi Salaam, because those who seek to be close friends of Allah, they have to love the one who is buried in that land.
LutAlayhi Salaam found his refuge there. It is there where Sayyidina Dawud - David - established his kingdom and his prophecy. That is where Sulayman, Sayyidina Solomon, that's where he established himself, and we know what his people did to him. That is where IsaAlayhi Salaam - Jesus - that is where he thrived, and then ultimately he was persecuted and tormented in the ways that we know.
The story is simple, brothers and sisters. As Ibn Abbas says: every single inch, every centimeter of that land was touched by either a prophet or an angel. And that's why for us, Jerusalem, the holy land is a deeply, deeply sacred reality. It is a deeply spiritual reality, and it is a deeply theological reality, and that must not and cannot ever be stripped from the heart of someone who believes in God.
And by the way, that's not our choice. We don't get to choose what is sacred. We don't get to choose what is holy. God chooses and God designates, and we revere because God reveres.
The Example of Umar ibn al-Khattab
That is point number one that I want us to truly return to, because all too often many of us have forgotten the true thought process that is needed in this moment of time. We're constantly talking about Palestine in this toxic political discourse as if it is a pawn in the hands of individuals to play around with. But what those people don't realize - whether they are Muslims, Christians or Jews or politicians, I don't care who those people are - what they don't realize is that God sees and God knows and God is present.
And if we collectively as human beings don't wake up to the desecration that is happening in those lands regardless of who's doing it, I don't care if it's a Muslim, Jew or Christian or a politician - God is the one that we will all answer to. That's God's land, it's not ours. Understand that, internalize that. Be humble when you think about Jerusalem, be humble when you think about Palestine, be humble when you think about the Holy Land. Don't be arrogant, don't be entitled, be humble.
And that is precisely what Umarradiallahu anhu taught us when he entered into Jerusalem for the first time. We know that it was the dream, it was the dream of the Prophetsallallahu alayhi wasallam, and he taught his companions the love for those lands. And when Umar, in the year 637, when he entered and he was invited by Heraclius, and Heraclius said: "I will not give the keys to this city except to your leader Umar."
And Umarradiallahu anhu came, and we know that the state that he came into Jerusalem was in a state of utter humility. He was arguably the most powerful person on earth, and he came walking with his helper. And when Abu Ubaidah - we've shared this story before - when he saw him, he felt a little bit concerned and worried: "What are the people going to think here? All the patriarchs and the leaders,
those who are in charge, are present, and our leader's coming walking and a little bit disheveled because he was walking in the desert."
And so Abu Ubaidah rode out to Sayyidina Umar and he said: "Please, just ride the camel, at least come in on a steed." He said: "I wish someone other than you would have said this. We are a people who their Izzah - their honor and their dignity - was given to them because of their Islam, because they surrendered and they bowed only to Allah. If you seek honor and dignity in other than Islam, in other than your surrender to Allah, then surely Allah will debase you. Don't ever, don't ever bow your head to anyone but Allah."
He came in, and that was the spirit that he brought. It was a spirit of dignity and honor, but it was a spirit of dignity and honor that was couched in humility. See, dignity and honor is not about arrogance, it's not about false pride. It's about living prophetically. It's about embodying the spirit of all of those wondrous and beautiful prophets - from Abraham to Moses to Jesus to David to Solomon to Muhammad - who lived in those lands, who taught us what it means to be humble and to be merciful, but to be just and to have honor and dignity.
Don't ever allow anyone to tell you you can't speak about Palestine. Don't allow anyone to ever bully you or intimidate you to tell you that if you speak or think about Palestine, then something of yours that you like may be sacrificed - whether it's your own well being or your job or what else. No! We speak about Palestine because Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala loves that land, and we love what Allah loves, and we will not bow our heads to anything or anyone other than Allah.
May Allah grant us dignity and honor with humility. May we never be an arrogant people full of false pride, because what Umarradiallahu anhu taught us was humility every step of the way. He taught us what it meant to live prophetically as he entered into Jerusalem.
Umar's Justice and Preservation
And he was being given a tour by the chief patriarch, and they were in the church of the holy sepulcher. They were there and the time for salatul asr came, and the patriarch invited Umar to pray inside the church. And Sayyiduna Umar said: "No, I will not pray inside the church, because I fear that if I were to pray here, some of my followers later on would come and say we are due claim to this piece of land, this part where the church is. So my duty is to preserve this for you. I will pray outside."
And so he walked outside, roughly 50 feet outside of where the church is, and he prayed. And you know what? Until today, Masjid Umar - where he prayed - exists, and the church of the holy sepulcher exists. Why do you think that's the case? That is a testament to what it means when prophecy is preserved, when you live prophetically, when you care about what the prophets of God say about how to live in a land.
It was Umar's spirit that he exuded that insisted upon the preservation of Christian life paralleled side by side with Muslim life, and that was the covenant that he signed off on. But it wasn't just that.
The Jews were expelled from the holy land in 317 - not by Muslims, because Muslim followers of Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) were not yet there. So clearly, other than Muslims expelled the Jews from that land in 317. But under the reign of Umar, he was the first one to assert the right of return of the Jews to the holy land. It was Umar who invited the Jews to return after over 500 years of exile. He said: "Come back to these lands and thrive and persevere, because you have a right to be here."
Not only did Umar radiallahu anhu preserve it for the Christians, he preserved it for the Jews as well as the Muslims, because that was the call of prophethood in that land. This is a sacred land that must be preserved for all, and that was the spirit.
You know that when Umar radiallahu anhu entered into Jerusalem, the area where Al Masjid Al Aqsa was had become a dump. It was a dump, it was transformed into where animals would go. Umar radiallahu anhu cleaned it, and he called for one person to make the Adhan. Who was that person? Bilal radiallahu anhu.
Bilal was the Muadhin. He was the first one to stand on top of the Kaaba after the conquest of Mecca to stand and make the call to prayer. And when it happened that Al Masjid Al Aqsa was cleaned and the holy land was preserved, Umar radiallahu anhu called upon Sayyidina Bilal and he said: "Please, you come and make this call, because you were the one who made the call when the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم was with us, and you are the most fitting person to do it."
And he said: "I can't. I will not make the call to prayer when the Prophet Muhammad is not here." And they begged and they pleaded until he did. And he stood and he made the Adhan in Al Masjid Al Aqsa:
"I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah."
And all of the companions fell into weeping and crying and tears, because they remembered the spirit that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم brought. They knew how much he loved Al Masjid Al Aqsa, and they knew that he would love to see the spirit of mercy and justice and the well being of all being preserved in these lands, because they loved Allah.
The Example of Salahuddin
Brothers and sisters, when we think about Palestine, when we think about the Holy Land, we have to think about Allah. We have to think about God. We have to think about the Creator, because that is the only
hope. Wallahi, Wallahi, Wallahi, that is the only hope we have to see wellness thrive in those lands: if God is once again cared about, if God's Prophets are once again cared about. That is our only hope.
No politician, no country, no power, no individual, no single group holds the keys to success in those lands. Wallahi, it is only Allah. And so if we want to begin to see well being, we want to see peace and security and prosperity for all people - Muslims, Christians and Jews and others - in that land, then we all have to collectively turn our hearts to Allah, because that is the example that Umar...
And you can go and read the covenant of Umar, read the Umari covenant. This is not Muslim propaganda, by the way. Some people hear all these glorious, fabulous stories about Muslims and Islam, they think: "Oh, that is just your Muslim propaganda." Wallahi, this is not our propaganda. This is our belief, this is our theology, this is our spirituality.
History has shown what Umar meant to Christians and Jews, and that was the case for hundreds of years. And we know what happened during the crusades, and that was the time when it was not under the control... and it was, the crusaders came, and we know the pillaging that happened. And look at resources - western, eastern and others - and they'll tell you what happened in those 93 plus years, the way Christians, the way everyone was being persecuted, the Jews were being butchered, the Muslims were being butchered, and the accounts are horrific.
But it was when Salahuddin came - and this is the account of western and eastern philosophers across the world who've come and said - look at what Salahuddin brought to that land. And you can read everywhere about this: that he came and he granted amnesty to all the Christians. You know that Salahuddin - the conquest happened on a Saturday, and he ensured that churches were open on Sunday for service on Sunday. This was after 93 years of crusader rule when seeing so many people being butchered and persecuted.
Salahuddin said: "That is not our spirit." He granted amnesty to those who wanted to leave, and he allowed for Christians to stay, although they were in turmoil for over almost 100 years. And it was once again a Muslim who invited the Jews to return, because they were exiled, and Salahuddin invited 70 Jewish families to once again return to the holy land.
It was Salahuddin who preserved the wailing wall and he extended it and preserved it. And it was during the time of Suleiman the Magnificent in the Ottoman Empire that the walls were even further expanded for the Jews to worship, to find their souls and their sanctity and their sacredness preserved for them. That was the case for our Jewish and Christian brothers for the entire time when Islam was present in those lands.
Our Call Today
Brothers and sisters, the message for us must be very simple and clear:
Number one: We care deeply about those lands because of what God says about those lands.
Number two: What we seek to see in those lands is prophethood. We seek to see the well being of all people in those lands to worship safely and securely, because that is what our prophets taught us to embody and to imbue in those lands.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us a people who love the holy land, who love al ard al muqaddasa. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to bring peace and security and well being to the dwellers of Palestine.
Brothers and sisters, what we are seeing in those lands is a lot of pain right now, because it's one thing that the land itself is sacred and that the land itself is holy, but there is also people - there are people who live in those lands. And to see today - and this is, these are the reports that are presented by Amnesty International, these are the accounts that are relayed by the likes of Jimmy Carter and Malcolm and Martin Luther King and what Gandhi has said - to see what is happening to people on that land: that they are being restricted by air, land and sea, to not have access to their homes, to have people who have the keys to their homes from 50 years ago but they can't even imagine of ever going back again, to not have electricity except for an hour or two a day, to have contaminated water because of sewage, children who are starving in lands, over a million children who are food deprived.
That has nothing to do with prophethood. That has nothing to do with Christianity. That has nothing to do with Judaism. And I surely can tell you that has nothing to do with Islam. There is no good Christian, there is no good Jew, there is no good Muslim who will see the type of oppression and injustice that is happening in that land and say the prophets would be okay with that.
And this - if we are going to be honest and open, then we are going to critique ourselves first, because I can't claim to be a Jew, I can't claim to be a Christian, and I can't claim to be a Muslim if I allow for innocent people to be harmed - Christian, Muslim or Jew.
Wallahi al-azim, as Muslims, we are not people who will ever validate the killing of innocent people Muslims, Christians or Jews. Get it right! Muslims, we have no problem with seeing Jews and Christians and others thrive in that land. That's a part of our spirituality. That's a part of our prophecy. Don't forget that.
So many of us, unfortunately, our knowledge of what is happening in those lands is so colored by a toxic political discourse. The starting point for a Muslim when thinking about those lands is to study your heritage, study your religion, read your scripture, understand what the prophets did in those lands and what they desired for those lands and what they called to in those lands.
Allah commands you to justice and to excellence and beauty. That's what Allah wants for Jerusalem. He doesn't want it for people to run around claiming as if we're playing a video game and jumping on TV and making all sorts of senseless proclamations that mean nothing other than just political games.
Allah is calling humanity to say: "What I want to see thriving in that land is justice and excellence and beauty. That's what I want to see there. Figure it out."
That's what's on our shoulders to figure it out. That means we have to care. That means we can't be silent. That means we can't be apathetic, because if we are, then we are silent satans. If we are silent and we are careless and we are apathetic, then we don't care about Allah and we don't care about God's prophets.
And so until the very last breath that is taken from us, we will call people to justice and mercy. We will call people to safety and security. We will call people to wellness and goodness and beauty, because that is the call of our prophets.
May Allah make us people who truly follow in the footsteps of our prophets - from Ibrahim عَلَيْهِ ٱلسَّلَامُ to Musa عَلَيْهِ ٱلسَّلَامُ to Isa عَلَيْهِ ٱلسَّلَامُ and to finally our beloved messenger Muhammad صلى الله عليه . وسلم
The Gathering Place
Brothers and sisters, the holy land is, as the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم has taught us, is Ardul Mahshar - it is the gathering place - and it is Ardul Manshar - it is the place of resurrection. And so in the beginning, the holy land meant and means everything to us, and in the end, when this world is done, the holy land means everything to us as well, because that is the gathering point.
And there is a hadith where the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم says that at the end of time, the Kaaba - the Kaaba will actually be taken from Mecca towards Al Masjid Al Aqsa. At the end of time, the Kaaba and all those who have made Umrah and Hajj will be hanging on to the Kaaba, and it will be taken all the way to Al Masjid Al Aqsa, because that's where it all began and that's where it all will end. And we must not forget that, brothers and sisters.
Closing Dua
And so we ask Allah to attach our hearts to everything that he deems as sacred. May Allah instill in our hearts a deep love for Palestine and a deep love for Al Masjid Al Aqsa, a deep love for the holy land, a deep love for all of God's prophets and all of God's creation.
May Allah guide our hearts and guide through us. May Allah elevate our ranks, rectify the conditions of our hearts, because as we know, our condition will not change until the condition of our hearts change. May Allah alter the conditions of our heart in such a beautiful manner that will produce endless beauty on this earth.
May Allah allow us to be in the highest levels of Jannah in the company of our beloved messengers. May Allah grant us wellness in this life and in the afterlife. May we see Allah.
We ask you to remove oppression from upon those who are oppressed. We ask you to bring relief to our brothers and sisters in Palestine. We ask you to bring relief to our brothers and sisters in China - and inshallah I plan to give a khutbah on the state and the plight of our Chinese brothers and sisters, especially in the Uighur region, who are facing so much abuse today. Many of us are unaware, but inshallah I plan to dedicate an entire khutbah to what is happening to our brothers and sisters in China.
We ask Allah to bring relief to our brothers and sisters in Burma. We ask Allah to bring relief to our brothers and sisters in Syria. We ask Allah to bring relief to our brothers and sisters in the subcontinent and in Africa and in Asia and in the entirety of the world.
Ya Allah, we ask you for relief : (يَا مَنْ وُسْعَتْ رَحْمَتُهُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ)
"O You whose mercy encompasses all things," your relief and your wellness is more expansive for us, Ya Allah. So we ask you to bring us relief, and we ask you this knowing full well that you are the most high and that you are the most wise, and you know the conditions of our hearts and you know the conditions of our people.
We ask you, Ya Allah, to grant us your grace and your mercy on this blessed day of Jumu'ah.
"And remember Allah; Allah will remember you. And the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah knows that which you do."
May Allah accept this khutbah and make it a means of guidance and benefit for all the believers. Ameen.