WITH ALLAH’S NAME, THE MERCIFUL BENEFACTOR, THE MERCIFUL REDEEMER
A Qur’anic Odyssey: Examining the Imāms in the Islāmic Community of Prophet Muhammed and Examining Ourselves
Khatīb: Jibrīl Abdul-Hafīz (جبريل عبدالحفيظ)
E-mail: NewAfrica2@aol.com or new_africa_now@yahoo.com
Friday, February 6, 2009 / Khutba-tul-Jumu’ah, Safar 11, 1430
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 of this traditional salutation.
Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) has said in Sūrah 24:55,
وَعَدَ ﷲُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنكُمْ وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَيَسْتَخْلِفَنَّهُم فِي الْأَرْضِ كَمَا اسْتَخْلَفَ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ وَلَيُمَكِّنَنَّ لَهُمْ دِينَهُمُ الَّذِي ارْتَضَى لَهُمْ
Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) has promised those who believe and act righteously that He will definitely make them ﻴَﺳْﺗََﺧْﻠِﻔَﻦﱠ | yas-takh-li-fan-na | successors in the land like He did those before them and that ﻴُﻤَﻜﱢﻧَﻦﱠ | yu-mak-ki-nan-na | He will definitely give them authority to practice their religion of obedience in the land.
In line with this, a narrative from hadith gives us our leader’s perspective, Prophet Muhammed (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ) has said,
«إِنَّ اللهَ زَوَى لِيَ الْأَرْضَ فَرَأَيْتُ مَشَارِقَهَا وَمَغَارِبَهَا، وَسَيَبْلُغُ مُلْكُ أُمَّتِي مَا زُوِيَ لِي مِنْهَا»
Allah has shown me the earth, and I looked at it in the East and the West, and my community سَيَبْلُغُ | sa-yab-lu-ghu | will attain sovereignty everywhere I was shown.
Unless we are really blind, deaf and dumb we have to be aware of our incompetence. It is time for our Imams and you and I in our respective Islamic centers and Masājid to acknowledge the fact that we must plan and implement a strategy that supports the development of the Islamic Community life as demonstrated by the life of Prophet Muhammed (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ); and if we don’t, you and I should begin immediately to look for competent people who will demonstrate that Al-Islām is more than just sustaining traditional rituals and posturing in the profile of leadership while depending on those that are doing a better job of providing for their community and our community than we are doing for ourselves.
The news media reports reveal that countries have entered into a global economic slowdown that forces its leaders to gather together in deliberative consultation about developing an economic stimulus package to inject into their economies to prevent a global economic catastrophe that could cause a complete collapse of the world’s financial institutions. Do we think that the Islamic Community life as lived and demonstrated by Prophet Muhammed (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ) and his companions (ra) is some kind of virtual theme park to be lived in coexistence and co-dependency on those who interpret their religion as adversaries of Muslims?
Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) has said in Sūrah 49: 14,
قَالَتِ الْأَعْرَابُ آمَنَّا قُل لَّمْ تُؤْمِنُوا وَلَكِن قُولُوا أَسْلَمْنَا وَلَمَّا يَدْخُلِ الْإِيمَانُ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ وَإِن تُطِيعُوا اللهَ وَرَسُولَهُ لَا يَلِتْكُم مِّنْ أَعْمَالِكُمْ شَيْئًا
Likewise, upon critical examination of those of us who have embraced the Dīn-ul-Al-Islām, it is just as fitting that we take to heart Allah’s (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) chastisement of the Arabs for self proclaiming themselves as believers revealing: you do not believe, say, we have submitted, for the faith have not yet entered in your hearts; but if you obey Allah and His Messenger, He will not decrease any of your works. And a narrative from hadith gives us the framework for examining our self imposed interpretations that we use to isolate Muslims from one another; the Messenger of Allah (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ) has said,
«يَا مَعْشَرَ الْأَنْصَارِ أَلَمْ أَجِدْكُمْ ضُلَّالًا فَهَدَاكُمُ اللهُ بِي؟ وَكُنْتُمْ مُتَفَرِّقِينَ فَأَلَّفَكُمُ اللهُ بِي؟ وَكُنْتُمْ عَالَةً فَأَغْنَاكُمُ اللهُ بِي؟»
O Ansars: Didn’t I find you astray and Allah guided you through me? And you were divided and Allah united you through me? And you were poor and Allah gave you riches through me? To a large degree, entry level Muslims are often exploited by Muslim practitioners who seek to impose their cultural biases on those of us who lack certainty about how to apply the storied bodies of information attributed to scholars of the Dīn-ul-Islām. There is a Latin phrase, Caveat Emptor (“let the buyer beware”); Dīn-ul-Islām is not foreign in America, it is your Native Dīn where ever you come from and it is our Native Dīn where ever we may be. All too often misinterpretations of understandings from Muslim practitioners are the source of all of our problems.
أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ لِي وَلَكُم
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