Khutba on Seasonal Greetings
الحمد لله، الحمد لله الذي حفظ دينه بالكتاب والسنة، وجعلهما ميزان صلاح الإنسان والصحة، نحمده تعالى ونستعينه، ونشكره تعالى ونستغفره ونستغيثه، نعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعمالنا، من يهد الله فهو المهتد ومن يضلل فلن تجد له وليا مرشدا، ونشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له، له الملك و له الحمد، يحيي ويميت، بيده الخير، وهو على كل شيء قدير، ونشهد أن سيدنا و مولانا محمداً عبده ورسوله، وحبيبه وصفيه، بلغ الرسالة وأدى الأمانة ونصح الأمة، النبي الأمي الذي أرسله الله بالهدى والدين الحق، بشيرا ونذيرا بين يدي الساعة، صلى الله عليه وسلم وعلى آله وأصحابه ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.
أما بعد! فيا عباد الله اتقوا الله حق تقاته ولا تموتن إلا وأنتم مسلمون. يأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله وقولوا قولا سديدا يصلح لكم أعمالكم ويغفر لكم ذنوبكم. ومن يطع
الله ورسوله فقد فاز فوزا عظيما. اتقوا الله فيما أمر وانتهوا عما نها عنه وزجر.
I recently read an editorial in a widely disseminated Muslim newspaper entitled “A Christmas wish to our Christian community” whose content I found very troubling indeed. Aside from the very premise of confirming and lending support to non-Muslims in practices, celebrations and festivities that are repugnant in the eyes of Allah, something that is itself not permitted, the most worrying thing about the article was the decree to which it promoted the interfaith doctrine, the notion that there are shared values between us and Christians that supercede any religious differences, the notion that they are our brothers in religion. The article starts off by saying,
“We wish our Christian brothers and sisters peace, joy and love, and pray that Allah protects them…” So the first thing it does is to suggest a bond of brotherhood between Muslims and Christians, brotherhood being one of the closest links that ties human beings together. This in turn suggests some degree of affirmation of their practices and beliefs, but that contradicts one of the most essential beliefs of the deen. This deen is based on the shahadatayn, the two shahadas, the affirmation that there is no god but Allah and the affirmation that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. To accept someone as your brother who rejects the second part is tanatamount to considering it immaterial and unimportant, and therefore to put the entire body of law of the deen into question. And then what are we left with? No, we cannot befriend, let alone take as brothers, those who deny the Messenger of Allah. Allah says,
لا تَجِدُ قَوْمًا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ يُوَادُّونَ مَنْ حَادَّ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ وَلَوْ كَانُوا آبَاءَهُمْ أَوْ أَبْنَاءَهُمْ أَوْ إِخْوَانَهُمْ أَوْ عَشِيرَتَهُمْ
the translation of which is, “You will not find a people who believe in Allah and the Last Day having love for those who oppose Allah and His Messenger, even if they are from their parents, children, brethren or clans.” There is little doubt that the Christians oppose the Messenger of Allah and reject him, otherwise they would be Muslims. They reject him and reject the truth that he brought, and that places them in direct opposition to us, so how can we offer them our love. Allah says,
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لا تَتَّخِذُوا عَدُوِّي وَعَدُوَّكُمْ أَوْلِيَاءَ تُلْقُونَ إِلَيْهِمْ بِالْمَوَدَّةِ وَقَدْ كَفَرُوا بِمَا جَاءَكُمْ مِنَ الْحَقِّ
the translation of which is, “You who believe, do not take My enemies and your enemies as friends and protectors, showing love for them when they have rejected the truth that has come to you.” Furthermore, how can we make dua on their behalf and ask Allah to give them joy and success through practices that contravene the Commands of Allah. In effect, we are encouraging them to continue to disobey Allah and therefore doing them a grave disservice. The only dua we should be making for them is for Allah to guide them to the Straight Path. Even asking Allah to forgive them and have mercy on them is going too far. Allah says,
مَا كَانَ لِلنَّبِيِّ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَن يَسْتَغْفِرُوا لِلْمُشْرِكِينَ وَلَوْ كَانُوا أُولِي قُرْبَىٰ مِن بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُمْ أَنَّهُمْ أَصْحَابُ الْجَحِيمِ
the translation of which is, “It is not for the Prophet and those who believe to ask forgiveness for the idolators, even if there are close family members, after it has become clear to them that they are inhabitants of the Blazing Fire.” It is true that the deen has always given a special status to the people of the Book, namely the Jews and Christians, but only when they were living under our protection, only when the deen of Allah was uppermost in the land, and the laws of Allah were being followed and obeyed. Otherwise, they remained our enemies, as is clearly shown by the fact that the Muslims continued to fight against the Christian Byzantine Empire throughout the lifetimes of the Rightly-guided Khalifa until it was eventually fully conquered. It was only when they were conquered and paying the jizya that they were protected and allowed to keep their churches and practice their religion. Allah says,
قَاتِلُوا الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَلَا بِالْيَوْمِ الْآَخِرِ وَلَا يُحَرِّمُونَ مَا حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَلَا يَدِينُونَ دِينَ الْحَقِّ مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ حَتَّى يُعْطُوا الْجِزْيَةَ عَنْ يَدٍ وَهُمْ صَاغِرُونَ
the translation of which is, “Fight those of the people who were given the Book who do not have iman in Allah and the Last Day and do not make haram what Allah and His Messenger have made haram and do not take as their deen the deen of Truth, until they pay the jizya with their own hands in a state of complete abasement.” Now, we are not saying that we should take up arms against them as that can only be done under valid Muslim leadership, but we cannot take them as brothers or honour, love and respect them as we would our fellow Muslims. But, say some, “does not Allah say that those who say they are Christians are the ones with the greatest love for us. He says,
وَلَتَجِدَنَّ أَقْرَبَهُمْ مَوَدَّةً لِلَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا الَّذِينَ قَالُوا إِنَّا نَصَارَى
the translation of which is, “You will find those of them who love you the most to be those who say, ‘We are Christians.’” If they have that love for us, then should we not reciprocate that love? The Christians who are referred to in this aya are a group of twenty Ethiopians who came to visit the Prophet in Makka when they heard tell of his Message. They spoke with him and listened to the Quran, and as soon as they heard it recited their eyes filled with tears and they believed in him. In other words, they became Muslim. Allah says,
وَإِذَا سَمِعُوا مَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَى الرَّسُولِ تَرَى أَعْيُنَهُمْ تَفِيضُ مِنَ الدَّمْعِ مِمَّا عَرَفُوا مِنَ الْحَقِّ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا آَمَنَّا
the translation of which is, “When they hear what has been sent down to the Messenger, you will see their eyes overflowing with tears because of what they know of the truth, and they will say, ‘Our Lord, we believe.’” So these Christians mentioned here are those whose hearts are open to Islam, not those who have rejected it. They are the ones whom we may consider our brothers, because the only brotherhood aside from family that is considered in the deen is that based on imaan. Allah says,
إِنَّمَا الْمُومِنُونَ إِخْوَةٌ
the translation of which is, “The believers are brothers.” It is only the believers who are brothers to one another. There is no other basis for brotherhood, for it is the only connection that is based on what is permanent and not transitory, and so is the only connection that holds under even the most severe of circumstances and lasts, even beyond the grave. Allah says,
الْأَخِلَّاءُ يَوْمَئِذٍ بَعْضُهُمْ لِبَعْضٍ عَدُوٌّ إِلَّا الْمُتَّقِينَ
the translation of which is, “Close friends on that day will be enemies to one another except for those who have taqwa.” There is no deen with Allah except Islam and no one who accepts a deen other than it will be accepted by Him. So why should we accept them and go even further and declare them our brothers. Beware! The Muslim, the one who truly submits, is the one who loves what Allah loves and hates what He hates, and jealously guards His deen against any view or opinion that weakens it. May Allah place us among them.
أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم ولسائر المسلمين من كل ذنب فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرَّحيم.
الحمد لله الحمد لله رب العالمين، وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له وأشهد أن محمداً عبده ورسوله، صلى الله وسلم وبارك عليه وعلى آله وصحبه، والتابعين وتابعي التابعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.
أما بعد! فيأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله ما استطعتم واسمعوا وأطيعوا وأنفقوا خيرا لأنفسكم. يا عباد الله أوصيكم وإياي بتقوى الله وطاعته وأحذركم وإياي عن معصيته ومخالفته.
Further on in the same article, the author, a spokesperson of a well-respected and influential Muslim body here in Cape Town, goes on to talk about the shared aims and goals of the Muslims, Christians and other groups during apartheid and their collective spirit, love and struggle, saying,
“It was a time when love for one another drove the spirit towards a struggle for the liberation of all oppressed people, irrespective of their religious, cultural and national origins. It is these values that transcend our religious boundaries…” In other words, the common values we have are more important than any religious law, for what are boundaries if not the limits and laws of a deen. So, according to this view, there are a set of ‘core universal values’ outside of religion which take precedence over any religious law, and so if there is any law in Islam that appears to contradict these values, it must be interpreted in such a way as to conform to them.
Who determines these values, or rights as they have come to call them? People do, considering that they themselves are better able to determine what is best for them than the One who created them and knows everything about them. And that is the very essence of kufr, of going beyond the bounds, thinking that we can rely on ourselves and need no guidance. Allah says,
كَلَّا إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَيَطْغَى أَن رَأَهُ اسْتَغْنَى إِنَّ إِلَى رَبِّكَ الرُّجْعَى
the translation of which is, “No, indeed! Man goes beyond the limits, seeing himself as being independent. It is to your Lord that he will return.” So for a Muslim to ascribe those values to Islam, or declare Islam to be in line with them is dangerous in the extreme, for that makes them the yardstick against which all human endeavour must be measured, not the Commands of Allah and practices of His Messenger. Indeed, so dangerous and insidious is this approach that many modern so-called Islamic thinkers have rejected certain practices of the Messenger of Allah on the basis that they are no longer culturally acceptable. Thus, the Sunna in their eyes only applied to those who lived in the time of the Messenger of Allah. Such people totally disregard the Quranic command to follow and obey the Messenger and take what he gives us. Allah says,
لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولُ اللهِ إِسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ لِمَنْ كَانَ يَرْجُو اللهَ وَاليَوْمَ الآخِرَ
the translation of which is, “You have an excellent model in the Messenger of Allah, for all who put their hope in Allah and the Last Day.” The life of the Messenger of Allah has been described in great detail. His words, actions and states have been meticulously recorded, analysed and discussed by the men of knowledge of each generation, giving us comprehensive guidance for every aspect of our lives. There are rulings for every conceivable situation we might ourselves in – our Lord has not left us to our own devices, and it is they that are the true yardstick for determining the correctness or otherwise of any particular course of action, not man-made values. Those values can never ‘transcend religious boundaries’ and as soon as you think they can, you have compromised your deen by considered what you think should be right over what Allah has declared to be right, for to follow the human rights definitions of what freedom and equality means is to declare unlawful much of what Allah has declared lawful such as slavery, and declare lawful much of what Allah has declared unlawful, such as slander, homosexuality and marrying non-Muslim men.
These values have not been dreamt up to liberate the human being but rather to control and enslave him to a particular ideology and world view. They are a tool to ultimately subjugate the world. One commentator wrote, ‘The fundamentalism of the Rights of Man is truly a weapon of subversion designed to discredit all patriotic sentiment and beyond, to destroy the legitimacy of nation-states.”
To accept them, or even worse to espouse them and call to them, is to marginalise the deen and remove from the public sphere, turning into a private deen that impacts on no part of one’s life other than one’s individual and personal relationship with one’s Creator. That is not Islam, which in reality means total submission to Allah. Let us remember who we are and honour the great deen to which we have been guided. We ask Allah to make the word of Islam uppermost in the land and the word of kufr undermost. We ask Allah to give us discrimination and save us from the trap of accepting the values of modern secular society as some ultimate truth. They are not. The truth is with Allah, and in the face of that real truth all falsehood will dissolve and fade away. Allah says,
جَاءَ الْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ الْبَاطِل إِنَّ الْبَاطِلَ كَانَ زَهُوقًا
the translation of which is, “The truth has come and falsehood vanished. False is always bound to vanish.”
إِنَّ اللهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ، يَا أَيُهَا الذِينَ آمَنُواْ صَلُّواْ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُواْ تَسْلِيماً.
اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ. وَارْضَ اللَّهُمَّ عَنِ الْخُلَفَاءِ الرَّاشِدِينَ أَبِي بَكْرٍ وَعُمَرَ وَعُثْمَانَ وَعَلِيٍّ، وعن أم المومنين عائشة التي أمرنا الله في سورة النور أن ندافع عنها، وَعَنْ سَائِرِ الصَّحَابَةِ أَجْمَعِينَ، خُصُوصاً اِلأَنْصَارَ مِنْهُمْ وَالمُهَاجِرِينَ، وَعَنِ التَّابِعِينَ وَتَابِعِي التَّابِعِينَ وَمَنْ تَبِعَهُمْ بِإِحْسَانٍ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ.
اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِ وُلَاةَ أُمُورِ المُسْلِمِينَ لِمَا يُرْضِيكَ وَلِاتِّبَاعِ سُنَّةِ نَبِيِّكَ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَهُمْ عَلَى الصِّرَاطِ المُسْتَقِيمِ، وَأَصْلِحْهُمْ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى شَيْخِنَا، وَعَلَى أَمِيرِنَا، وَعَلَى جَمِيعِ أُمَرَاءِ وَزُعَمَاءِ المُسْلِمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى المُسْلِمِينَ فِي هَذِهِ المَدِينَةِ، وَوَفِّقْهُمْ لِمَا تُحِبُّهُ وَتَرْضَاهُ يَا أَكْرَمَ الأَكْرَمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ أَعِزَّ الإِسْلَامَ وَالمُسِْلمِينَ، وَاخْذُلِ الْكُفْرَ وَالْكَافِرِينَ، وَانْصُرِ المُجَاهِدِينَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللهِ. وَاجْعَلْ كَلِمََتَكَ هِيَ العُلْيَا وَكَلِمَةَ الْكُفْرِ هِيَ السُّفْلَى.
رَبَّنَا ءَاتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقَِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ.
إِنَّ اللهَ يَامُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَى، وَيَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ، يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَّكَّرُونَ، وَلَذِكْرُ اللهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ. وَقُومُواْ إِلَى صَلاتِكُمْ يَرْحَمُكُمُ اللهُ.