Notes from a Khutbah by Imam Anwar al-Awlaki (Shaheed Insha'Allah)
Praise
be to Allah, we seek His help and His forgiveness. We seek refuge with
Allah from the evil of our own souls and from our bad deeds.
Whomsoever Allah guides will never be led astray, and whomsoever Allah
leaves astray, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no god
but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
“O
you who believe! Fear Allah (by doing all that He has ordered and by
abstaining from all that He has forbidden) as He should be feared. [Obey
Him, be thankful to Him, and remember Him always], and die not except
in a state of Islam (as Muslims) with complete submission to Allah.”
(Aali Imran 3:102) “O mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you
from a single person (Adam), and from him (Adam) He created his wife
[Hawwa (Eve)], and from them both He created many men and women and fear
Allah through Whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (do not cut the
relations of) the wombs (kinship. Surely, Allah is Ever an All Watcher
over you.” (An-Nisa 4:1) “O you who believe! Keep your duty to Allah and
fear Him, and speak (always) the truth.” (Al-Ahzab 33:70)
Umar
ibn Khattab (ra) asked Ubbay ibn Ka’ab (ra), “What is the meaning of Tawqa?” Ubbay ibn
Ka’ab said, “O Amir ul Mu’minin, have you walked on a field that had a
lot of thorny plants?” Umar said, “Yes” Ubbay ibn Ka’ab said, “So what
did you do?” Umar replied, “I lifted up my clothes and I was very
careful,” Ubbay ibn Ka’ab said, “That is Taqwa.”
We
are walking on a field that is full of thorny plants. Shaytan and his
followers will try to seduce you and invite you to Evil. So having Taqwa
in Duniya is lifting up your clothes and being careful, so that you
would not touch this evil. And that is the definition of Taqwa and we
ask Allah to make us of those of al-Muttaqeen.
Dear
Brothers and Sisters, there’s a famous Story (parable) that I will go
through, you may have heard it before, but there are some very important
lessons we can learn from it. The story goes like this:
“There
were four Cows. One of them was white and the other three were black.
They used to live in a dangerous area surrounded by wolves. The way they
protected themselves was that they were always together, they would
stick together, watch out for each other, everyone was keeping an
attentive eye, and they survived, even though the area was surrounded
by wild beasts.
But
the three black cows had a meeting one day. And they said, “This white
cow is giving us away. When we try to hide at night, because we are
black no one can see us, but the enemy is able to see the white cow, so
why don’t we just let him go. The three of us will be together and let’s
just let the white cow go away because he is just too much trouble.” So
now from that day on, the three black cows would be on one side and the
poor white cow is alone. They boycotted the white cow.
Now
the wolf is very intelligent. He was able to detect the disunity that
was amongst these cows. So he made his move and he attacked the white
cow, and while he was devouring his flesh, the three black cows were
doing nothing. They were watching it, while their brother was being torn
into pieces!
But
the following night, the wolf attacked the three black cows, why?
Because now there were one cow short. So they were not as strong as they
were the day before. Because they let down their brother white cow, now
the wolf attacked them and was able to snatch away one of the black
cows. And now we only have two left.
So
the following night, it was an even easier thing for the wolf because
only two are left, so he ate one of them. And then on the final night
there was only one cow left and the cow was trying frantically to run
away from the wolf, but now the cow has no supporter and no helper. So
the wolf is pursing it with confidence and he knows this cow will get
tired and fall down, there’s nothing the cow could do. Nobody to help
him, so the wolf is walking around very happily with confidence, and he
pounced at the cow and grabbed him by the neck, and while he did that
and the cow was pronouncing his last words, he made a very important
statement, a statement that is a great lesson that we can learn from.
This black cow said, (while he was dying), “I was eaten, the day the
white cow was eaten. I had signed on my execution form, the day I
allowed the white cow to be eaten, that’s when I died. I didn’t die now,
I didn’t die today…I died when I allowed the wolf to eat the white cow”
Now
brothers and sisters I’m sure some of you have already derived some
lessons out of this story. I will now go through some of them
Insha’Allah
Lesson 1: The Ummah
This
story is a good representation of the situation of the Muslim Ummah
today. This is exactly what is happening. We are watching one Muslim
nation fall one after another, and we are watching, sitting back, doing
nothing. When Palestine was taken, we did nothing. And then one nation
after another is falling into problems; you have Kashmir, you have
Chechnya, the Muslims in the Philippines, and now we have Iraq, and the
Ummah is doing nothing. The Ummah is watching, while Iraq is being
devoured. It’s not going to end there, because it’s going to spill over
to other countries like Syria and only Allah knows who is next! So those
nations weren’t taken today, they were taken along time ago. When we
allowed a Muslim nation to fall down, we have allowed the same thing to
happen to each and every one of us.
Lesson 2: Unity
This
shows us the consequences of having disunity. When these cows didn’t
stick together, when the allowed the enemy to snatch one of them away,
this is what happened to them, they were all defeated. Dear brothers and
sisters, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had given an analogy
of the Ummah, Nu’man b. Bashir reported Allah’s Messenger (pbuh) as saying: “The similitude of believers in regard to mutual
love, affection, fellow-feeling is that of one body; when any limb of it
aches, the whole body aches, because of sleeplessness and fever.”
[Sahih Muslim, Book 032, Number 6258]
The
Prophet (peace be upon him) is saying, if your finger is injured or
your foot is injured, any part of the body is injured and you feel that
pain, you cannot sleep! And your body develops a fever because your body
is trying to fight the bacteria inside the infection. It’s trying to
fight the enemy so the whole body gets involved in that process. That is
the description the Prophet (peace be upon him) gave of the Ummah.
So
if a Muslim, in the East, or in the West, or South or North, whether if
it’s in the center of the body or the tips, where it’s on the finger or
the toes, you should feel the same pain as if it is happening to you
own family. If you are only concerned about your own safety and the
safety of your direct family, then there’s something wrong. You are not
really part of the body. The Prophet (pbuh) is saying the
Ummah is one body, it doesn’t matter if they are split into different
political states or if they are in different groups, or if they belong
to different Madhahabs, as long as this person is a Muslim; and a Muslim
is a person who has a sound belief in Allah, somebody who is not
deviant, that’s a Muslim.
The
thing is that sometimes we look at it as, “Only me and my group are
Muslim”, Why? Because he doesn’t follow my Jamaa’h, he’s not following
my way. As long as you cannot prove that that Muslim is a Kaffir, he’s a
Muslim. As long as you don’t have evidence, that such a person is a
Murtad (Apostate), he is a Muslim; whether he belongs to the same
Madhhab or the same group or the same country, it doesn’t make a
difference.
Now
we all talk about the importance of having Unity. If we talking about
having Unity in terms of having one Group and just abandoning all these
different Jamaa’ts and we get ride of all of these different Madhahabs
and we’ll all just be copies of each other, that’s an impossible thing
to have. What we mean by Unity is that even though your approach to
Islamic work might be different, the Madhhab that you follow might be
different, however, you are there to help you brother when your brother
is in need, that is Unity. You could have different approaches to work,
you could be doing different things, because we need different things,
the Ummah needs everything today. We have a short coming and deficiency
in each and every area, therefore we need Muslims to fill those posts,
and therefore our approach would be different. Some people are into
Da’wah, some people will be into seeking ‘Ilm (Islamic Knowledge), some
people will be into ‘Ibadaah (Worship), people are different. Not
everybody can be a copy of everyone else.
People
have different abilities. Some people make good scholars, some people
make good Imams, some people make good teachers and some people make a
good advisor. People are different. Some people, they are good at doing
work, they are not really into talking and theory, they are good at
doing the daily work that the Muslims need. Everybody is fulfilling a
role. And we need to appreciate that. So what is meant by Unity, it means
when your brother is in need, you jump to help him, that is Unity.
Regardless of what his ideology is as long as he is a Muslim. That is
Unity.
So
we have to fulfill the meaning of the hadith, that the Ummah is, “…one
body; when any limb of it aches, the whole body aches…” You need to feel
the pain and suffering when you see what is happening to your brothers
and sisters in other parts of the world. You need to be concerned about
what is happening in Palestine and Iraq. You need to be concerned with
what is happening in Kashmir, even though it is not you country. And
some of these Muslim countries have problems among them, they have wars,
they have political problems, but as a Muslim, it shouldn’t make a
difference to you. These governments are having problems with each
other, but that nation, the Muslims in there are my brothers (and
sisters). That’s how you should look at it. So we should have that
concern for the Muslim Ummah. The one that is not concerned about the
Muslims doesn’t belong to them.
Narrated
‘Abdullah: The Prophet (pbuh) said, “Everyone will be with those whom he
loves.” [Sahih Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 73, Number 189] You will be with
the people you love on the day of Judgement. If you have love for the
Muslims, you will be with the Muslims on the day of judgement. If you
have love for the Kuffar, you will be with the Kuffar on the day of
Judgement, that’s how it works. That’s the Justice of Allah. Somebody
who loves the Muslims, will be with the Muslims, and will follow them
wherever they will go. And that’s why on the Day of Judgement, the
Prophet (pbuh) said, “Allah will tell the people, ‘Follow
the Gods you used to worship.’” So whoever used to worship the cross
will follow the cross, and whoever used to worship an idol will follow
that idol. Allah is telling them, if you didn’t worship me, you can’t
expect me to give you the Rewards. Go to your gods and tell them to
reward you on this day. And then Allah will take all of the false gods
and throw them in Hell fire, and there people will have to follow them.
Because Allah is just, u did it for Him, He will reward you, but if you
did it for somebody else, you go and ask the reward from the other god.
And there is No god besides Allah.
Lesson 3: The consequences of betrayal. The consequences of forsaking a Muslim.
Narrated
‘Abdullah bin Umar: Allah’s Apostle said, “A Muslim is a brother of
another Muslim, so he should not oppress him, nor should he hand him
over to an oppressor. Whoever fulfilled the needs of his brother, Allah
will fulfill his needs; whoever brought his (Muslim) brother out of a
discomfort, Allah will bring him out of the discomforts of the Day of
Resurrection, and whoever screened a Muslim, Allah will screen him on
the Day of Resurrection.” [Sahih Bukhari, Volume 3, Book 43, Number
622 and Volume 9, Book 85, Number 83; Sahih Muslim, Book 032, Number
6250] The three cows in the story handed the white cow over to the
enemy.
Now
by doing this, they thought they are securing themselves. They thought
they would be safe if they handed over this white cow. This white cow
was out spoken, it was causing a lot of trouble, it was being accused of
being a terrorist, so let him go, we don’t want anything to do with
him. Let him go to jail. But the thing is they don’t realize that it
will come to you next. You will be next in line. So brothers, if you
want to protect yourselves, now we are not talking about doing anything
for your brothers that are down, if you want to protect yourself you
need to stop that. You need to stop such things from happening, because
as soon as you allow one Muslim to be taken, Allah does not help you
anymore. You loose the assistance of Allah. “…Whoever fulfilled the
needs of his brother, Allah will fulfill his needs; whoever brought his
(Muslim) brother out of a discomfort, Allah will bring him out of the
discomforts of the Day of Resurrection…”If you work to help your Muslim
brothers who are in need, Allah will help you when you are in need in
the day of judgement.
Now
all of us know that we cannot make it alone. Without the help and
assistance of Allah, we cannot go anywhere. If you want the assistance
of Allah to be on your side, Jump to the assistance of your brother.
That’s how you will protect yourself. If you let him (your Muslim
brother) down, don’t think that will please you enemy, no! It won’t!
They enemy will carry on. Take it as a rule, Shaytan will never be
satisfied, will never be happy, until he is able to destroy the entire
Ummah. Nothing will satisfy Shaytan. If you try to please him by all
means, it’s not going to work. He has been our enemy since the time of
Adam and he will carry on being our enemy until the time of the Day of
Judgement. Don’t think that you will please him and keep him quiet, by
feeding him one of your brothers. No! His hunger is never satisfied. His
thirst is never quenched.
If
we betray or forsake a Muslim who is in need today, be assured that
Allah will forsake us tomorrow. And brothers and sisters, for you who
are living in the west, you are living in a dilemma, your children are
brought up in a non-Islamic environment and you’re not going to be
around, you’re going to die…one day you are going to die and leave them
behind. And only Allah knows what their fate will be, possibly they
could grow up and become non Muslims, that’s a possibility. We ask Allah
that none of our children go astray from the Straight Path, but the
thing is that you need to invest for the future of your children. You
need to invest something for them, to ensure they will carry on, on the
straight path. You don’t want to be held accountable on the Day of
Judgement and Allah is telling you, ‘You are the ones who brought your
families to this Land, therefore you are responsible for what they do in
the future. And you will be responsible for generations after
generations that come.’ So you want to invest for your children. And the
way you do that, is by standing up for your brother who is in need of
help. Allah will be there for you and will be there for your children.
The
Prophet (pbuh) said in the hadith of Ibn Abbas, “If you
take care of the command of Allah, Allah will take care of you (and you
will find Allah with you).” And how does that happen? Ibn Rajab
al-Hanbali explains the hadith. He says:
i) If you take care of Allah, Allah will take care of you by keeping you away from vain desires and doubts in Imaan (Belief);
ii) If you take care of the commands of Allah when you are young, Allah will take care of you in you old age;
iii) If you take care of the commands of Allah, Allah will take care of your children.
And
Ibn Rajab gives an example of the Last one. He talks about the Story of
Musa and al-Khidr. Allah says in Quran, “Then they both (Musa and al-Khidr) proceeded,
till, when they came to the people of a town, they asked them for food,
but they refused to entertain them. Then they found therein a wall about
to collapse and he (Khidr) set it up straight. [Mûsa (Moses)] said: If
you had wished, surely, you could have taken wages for it!”” (Al-Kahf
18:77) Then Al-Khidr explains why he fixed the wall for free, “And as
for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the town; and there was
under it a treasure belonging to them; and their father was a righteous
man, and your Lord intended that they should attain their age of full
strength and take out their treasure as a mercy from your Lord. And I
did it not of my own accord. That is the interpretation of those
(things) over which you could not hold patience.” (Al-Kahf 18:82)
So
Allah took care of the orphans because there father were righteous.
These orphans were not old enough to be held accountable, so we could
not have known if they were going to be righteous or not, but the reason
why Allah put the treasure there was because their father was a
righteous man. And the father had already passed away, so Allah was
taking care of that mans kids. And Allah sent al-Khidr all the way just
to fix that wall, why? This was because their father was a righteous
man. So not only will take care of them when you are alive, but he will
take care of them after you pass away, what’s better then that?!
Therefore we need to be taking care of the Commands of Allah, and don’t
think by ducking down you will be safe, you will not, you will be next.
Now
dear brothers and sisters, we talked about this issue in general,
however some specific in you city, in your own neighbourhood, we are not
talking about things that are happening in Iraq or Palestine or
somewhere else. In your own city and this country, many Muslims have
been arrested. You know when you talk about Guantanamo bay and all that
stuff; there is a Guantanamo bay in this country. There were 524 Muslims
who were arrested under the new laws and only 2 of them have been
charged. You have over 520 Muslims who are locked up in Jail, and are
left to rot in there, and they haven’t committed any crime and there no
charges brought against them. They are left there in just months on end,
to rot there in the prison cells. What have you done for them? Your
North African brothers who have nobody to help them in this country, and
the Muslim community is not doing anything for them and they are left
there, years at end.
One
brother was telling me about the conditions of his family; these are
poor brothers and sisters, their families are left without any
caretakers, and they are suffering poverty, and no one is doing anything
for them. And recently there have been some British citizens who were
arrested; later on they were released because there was nothing against
them. And one of them, he was beaten up by police, when they arrested
him, and he did not resist at all, he raised up his hands and the police
came in and started beating him up. And then what did they do? After he
was bleeding and had a black eye and blood was coming from his ears and
urine, the police put him in the posture of sujood and they told him,
‘Where is you God now?’ Insult to Islam, insult to our religion, insult
to our Ummah, you need to do something; you can’t just sit there and
watch. This is an insult to our religion, it’s not just an insult to the
brother, and it’s an insult to Islam. You putting someone in sujood and
telling him where is you god? Allahu Akbar, you are trying to challenge
Allah? Allah is Just and Allah will revenge for himself. Allah does not
need us. But the thing is that we can’t allow such things to happen and
we watch.
You
just sit there watching and doing nothing. Thinking by ducking down and
being quiet, we will be safe. If you don’t stop it now, it could happen
to you, it could happen to your wife, it could happen to your own
daughter. You need to stop it in its tracks before it grows. So you need
to do whatever you are capable of doing. It’s a responsibility that’s
hanging on your neck, its something that you owe to your Muslim
brothers, you owe to the Ummah and you owe to Allah. You know you don’t
think that our religion is just you talk about theoretical things and we
stay away from what is happening to the Ummah. That is why the Muslims
in Spain, lost Spain. Al-Makari, who was a classical Muslim historian,
said (and this was while the Muslim towns were falling down), “The
Muslim towns were being invaded by the crusaders by town after another
and they were falling one after another and you can walk into the
mosques of Andalus and you can hear nothing about what’s happening to
the Muslims. Nobody talks about it in the Khuthbah, no body talks about
it in the lessons, nothing! The scholars are talking about theoretical
things and they are leaving the Ummah, and the Ummah is being betrayed.”
Ibn
Hazm al-Andalusi, the famous scholar from Andalus, was so frustrated
and fed up of the situation of the scholars and the imams of al-Andalus,
he said, “Do not be deceived by these Fusaaq (corrupt people), who
claim to be scholars while they are wearing the skins of sheep on hearts
of wolves.” He said what are they doing? They are doing nothing for the
Ummah. The Ummah is falling down, the Ummah is being fought against,
and the land of al-Andalus is being invaded and they are talking about
some other issues.
So
we need to stand up, we need to immobilize, we need to unify, we need
to stand up and make our voice heard and this is an Ibadaah; it is an
Ibadaah you are doing. You are worshipping Allah by assisting your
brothers. And Allah will save it for you, in Dunya and you will be
rewarded in Akhira (the Hereafter). And you are going to need it because
the Ummah is going through fitan (Trials and Tribulations), each and
every one of us is going through fitan. We ask Allah to protect us, to
protect our families, and to protect our descendants…Ameen.
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