The Islamic Community of Prophet Muhammed in America is our Responsibility

WITH ALLAH’S NAME, THE MERCIFUL BENEFACTOR, THE MERCIFUL REDEEMER

The Islamic Community of Prophet Muhammed in America is our Responsibility

Khatīb: Jibrīl Abdul-Hafīz (جبريل عبدالحفيظ)

E-mail: NewAfrica2@aol.com or new_africa_now@yahoo.com

Friday, December 19, 2008 / Khutba-tul-Jumu’ah, Dhul-Hijjah 21, 1429

As Salaam ‘Alaykum: We thank Allah, we seek His help, we ask for His forgiveness, we believe and put our complete trust in Him, Mighty and Sublime is He. We witness that there is no G’d but Allah, He alone is without partners, and we witness that Muhammed is His Servant and Messenger, the prayers and peace be on him, on his descendants, his companions, and peace be on Allah’s Messengers (all of them), and what follows after this noble invocation.

Wishful thinking does not make one righteous as illustrated by this narrative from the sayings and actions of a traditional report that Prophet Muhammad (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ) has said,

«إِذَا تَمَنَّى أَحَدُكُمْ فَلْيَنْظُرْ مَا يَتَمَنَّى، فَإِنَّهُ لَا يَدْرِي مَا يُكْتَبُ لَهُ مِنْ أُمْنِيَّتِه»

“When one of you wishes for something, let him be careful with what he wishes for, because he does not know what part of his wish is written for him.” Do Muslims in this city have a plan to build the model Islamic community in obedience to Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى)? Do we know that we cannot to be an Islamic community, if we don’t have intentions to do the will of Allah, if we have intentions to do the will of Allah, we must know the will of Allah. Furthermore, we know that the will of Allah is expressed in the Qur’anic revelation, word for word, exactly as it was revealed to Prophet Muhammed (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ) that guided him to be the most excellent human example. This is the constitution that we follow in our quest to plan and build the model Islamic community of Prophet Muhammed (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ); if not, we are guilty of what Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) has said in The Qur’ān, 61: 9,

﴾ وَدُّواْ لَوْ تُدْهِنُ فَيُدْهِنُونَ ﴿

THEY WANT YOU TO COMPROMISE WITH THEM, THEN, THEY WILL COMPROMISE YOU.

We must get past wishful thinking, as we take into consideration what Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) has said in the Qur’ān, 53:38,

﴾ أَلاَّ تَزِرُ وَزِرَةٌ وِزْرَ أُخْرَى ﴿

NO ONE GIVEN RESPONSIBILITY CAN BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANOTHER! The imperative for developing the model Islamic Community of Prophet Muhammed (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ) is in our hands.

A narrative from the sayings and actions of traditions report that Prophet Muhammed (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ) addressed the issue of doubt that had surfaced in one of his companions (ra) saying,

«أَنْفِقْ بِلَالُ، وَلَا تَخْشَ مِنْ ذِي الْعَرْشِ إِقْلَالًا»

“Spend Bilal! And do not fear that the Owner of the Throne’s provisions will diminish.” When it comes to mobilizing Muslims to make cooperative investments for developing Islamic community life; it is easy to spot the differences amongst those who have sincerely adopted the mindset of Prophet Muhammed (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ) and his companions (ra). They left everything and started all over again accepting collective responsibility for developing the Islamic community life based on living by the word of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) as He said in the Qur’ān, 53:39 ﴾ وَأَن لَّيْسَ لِلإِنسَـنِ إِلاَّ مَا سَعَى ﴿

And 53:40,

﴾ وَأَنَّ سَعْيَهُ سَوْفَ يُرَى ﴿

Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) speaks the truth reminding us that we will only have Islamic Community life as a result of the time, effort and cooperative economics resources that we invest to transform our ideas into reality. Islamic community life will not be brought about by wishful thinking, adopting a certain style of dress, or ritualistic behavior. These revelations prepared the believers to remake their physical world in conformity with the proclamation (أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ، وَأَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللهِ ). This teaches us to trust that we can change the world while demonstrating that obedience to Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) is the greatest transformative force known to man.

Nevertheless, we have history to remind us how serious we must be in regards to developing Islamic community life. In the Qur’ān, 66:6, Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) has said in the imperative voice:

﴾ يأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ قُواْ أَنفُسَكُمْ وَأَهْلِيكُمْ نَاراً ﴿

As long as we continue going along in this undeveloped superficial state in disobedience to Allah’s mandate to establish our life, we are making ourselves fit for nothing more than fuel for hell-fire.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ لِي وَلَكُم