Khutba on Defences against Extremism

الحمد لله، الحمد لله الذي حفِظ دينَه بالخلفاء والأمراء والسلاطين، وجعل مبايعتَهم وطاعتَهم الطريق إلى وحدة الأمة والنصر المبين، 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 وأدٌى 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.

We have talked in recent weeks about the currents of extremism that have affected our communities worldwide, whether it be through going to excess or falling short in our appreciation of and adherence to the Commands of our Lord. The presence of these currents to such a degree is evidence of the absence of a number of things, many of which we have touched upon in previous khutbas. The first of these is lack of knowledge of the outward rulings of the deen. The deen has been packaged and confined in such a way as to make it solely about ibadat, and not even all the ibadat but just prayer, fasting and hajj. This is Islam for the majority with a few marriage classes and a few halal meals thrown in. As for the rest of the deen, the major part of it in reality, the majority of Muslims, indeed the majority of scholars remain ignorant of it, as evidenced by the open letter we quoted last week. This knowledge must be recovered . It is our best protection and shield against going astray and leaving the middle way. Sayyidina Ali famously said, 

العلم يحفظ صاحبه

“Knowledge protects the one who has it.” Knowledge does not mean book-learning, for the same books continue to be taught now as in the past, but means what is put into practice. There is no substitute for experience. Abu ad-Darda’ famously said,

لا يكون الرجل عالما حتى يكون عاملا

“No one can be a person of knowledge until he is a person of action.” Unacted-upon knowledge is simply a mass of information, weighting you down and of no benefit.

The second is lack of knowledge of the heart, or maybe I should say lack of activation of the heart. The heart is the central, the core, organ of the human body, and a person’s health and well-being is entirely dependent on it, and not just at the physiological level. The Prophet said,

‫ألا إن في الجسد مضغة إذا صلحت صلح الجسد كله وإذا فسدت فسد الجسد كله, ألا وهي القلب‬

“In the body, there is a lump of flesh which, if it is healthy, the whole body is healthy, and if it is corrupted, the whole body is corrupted. That lump of flesh is the heart.” The heart is not just a pump for your blood, it is an organ of perception, Allah often refers to it in conjunction with sam’ and basr, sight and hearing. Allah says,

إِنَّ السَّمْعَ وَالْبَصَرَ وَالْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُوْلَئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْئُولًا

the translation of which is, “Hearing, sight and hearts will all be questioned.” It must be open and alive, activated, for a person to have any hope of having success in this life. There is a whole science to this and knowledge that has been past down, but sadly has come to be seen as irrelevant by an increasing number of Muslims, and their hearts have hardened and blackened as a result. The truth of the matter is that ihsan is not some optional extra, it is the very essence of the affair. Its pillars are dhikr – the fuel that keeps the hearts nourished, and futuwwa – company, and the refinement and embodiment of the noble qualities of character that make that possible. And like all knowledge it must be taken from those who possess it. As, the saying goes, the one who has no shaykh has Shaytan for a shaykh. 

These two types of knowledge, inward and outward, are what keep the human being safe and in balance. And while they may appear separate, they are not to be separated, for the body is a whole. You cannot be said to be engaging in dhikr of Allah, remembrance of Him not just with your tongue but with every fibre of your being, if your limbs are engaged in disobedience of Him or if your intellect is blithely unaware of what He requires of you. That is not dhikr, it is ignorance and forgetfulness, and so the hearts fade and die. The people of dhikr are not those who sit in circles and have duas for every occasion, they are those who  are jealously protective of Allah’s deen in all its facets and rush to establish what is lost. They are not those who isolate themselves in zawiyas when there is work to be done, but rather those who lead the way in completing that work. They are sabiqin. That is why we see, throughout history, that it has the people of tariqa who have been at the forefront of fighting for the re-establishment the deen, from the Murabitin in the Maghreb, to the Sanusiya in Libya and the people of Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio in West Africa. 

Inward without outward, esoteric deviation, is disaster and has been the current that has led to the creation of some of the weirdest sects and groupings, the Batiniya such as the Druze, Ismailis and Nusayris. Ultimately, it leads to the acceptance of the unacceptable and complete lack of discrimination.

Outward without inward, exoteric deviation, is disaster and leads to harshness and unrestrained violence. It leads to rigidity and close-mindedness. It is not for nothing that the ulama say that study of fiqh can lead to hard-heartedness. It can lead to viewing things in black and white, in absolutes, but life is rarely black-and-white, it is all shades of grey. The deen is broad, the deen is ease. As the Prophet is reported as having said,

اختلاف أمتي رحمة

“Differences between my umma is a mercy.” Ultimately, focusing on the outward at the expense of the inward leads to non-acceptance of the acceptable and narrowing the parameters of the deen to such an extent that the majority of Muslims fall outside of them. It is this tendency that creates takfiris and the environment for groups such as ISIS to arise and thrive. And our madrasas and schools would do well to understand this. When educating our future scholars, we must take care to inculcate in them the qualities of good character as much as the understanding of the books of knowledge. The famous English educator, Thomas Arnold, understood this, and said, “If, when they leave school, my boys have four things, I consider that I have done my duty by them. Those things are: piety, loyalty, courage and generosity.” In other words, futuwwa.

This comprehensive form of education, this recovery of holistic knowledge, is what we need to be safe. In it lies our protection. We ask Allah to grant us such knowledge and place us in the company of the people of such knowledge. We ask that He protect our shuyukh and ulama and grant them the  capacity and opportunity to pass on their knowledge, and us the capacity to learn it and put it into practice. 

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. قال الله تعالى في كتلبه الكريم: لَّقَدْ رَضِيَ ٱللَّهُ عَنِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ يُبَايِعُونَكَ تَحْتَ ٱلشَّجَرَةِ فَعَلِمَ مَا فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ فَأنزَلَ ٱلسَّكِينَةَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَأَثَابَهُمْ فَتْحاً قَرِيباً

We mentioned in the first khutba that there were a number of things lacking that have led to the extremist tendencies we are witnessing more and more in the present day, and the abandonment of the middle way. Aside from knowledge, the most important thing that is missing is leadership. Because our communities often have no sense of direction beyond the running of their local mosques and even that often leads to division rather than togetherness, our young men and women are left rudderless and adrift and in search for guidance and greater meaning. And thus, too many become easy targets for those who prey on the lost. They are picked up and led in directions they would not have gone if their communities had been cohesive and coherent.

Leadership among the Muslims has been misunderstood today, and that is largely because Islam has been relegated to a religion rather than a comprehensive deen, a way of life. And so, like other religions, a priesthood has been created and religious affairs and decisions left in their hands. That is not leadership, for their scope of authority is decidedly limited. Mosque committees and imams do not provide direction for a community, nor do groupings of scholars such as the MJC, for they all too often they get bogged down and caught up in minor individual issues and forget the wider picture. They cannot see the wood for the trees and the leadership of such groupings ghettoises Islam and limits it to outward expressions of religiosity. It pushes the youth away rather than bringing them in, and they lose respect for the institutions of Islam they find in their community, and so they turn elsewhere for empowerment. 

What is needed is amirate, true leadership that is worthy of fear and respect. Leadership, the flouting of which leads to consequences. Leaders to whom you make bay’a and who take your zakat from you, willingly or unwillingly. Leaders who provide guidance and regulation for your commercial affairs as well as your religious ones and who protect you and make you feel safe in your land. You may say that all of these are provided by the states in which we live, but until we have communities that do them in a way that is pleasing to Allah, our youth will continue to go astray and gravitate towards one extreme or another. And no such community can exist without leadership. Sayyidina Umar famously said,

لا إسلام بلا جماعة، ولا جماعة بلا أمير، ولا أمير بلا طاعة

“There can be no Islam without jama’a, no jama’a without an amir, and no amir without obedience to him.” Such leadership only means anything when we give bay’a, pledge allegience, and undertake to obey. We must accept the authority of our amirs – that is the duty that we owe to Allah as well as to them. Allah says,

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا الرَّسُولَ وَأُولِي الْأَمْرِ مِنْكُمْ

the translation of which is, “O you who believe! Obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in command among you.” We are not truly obeying Allah, we are not truly practicing the deen that He has bequeathed us, until we obey those in authority among us. It is no joke – it is not a club, it is the form of leadership that is truly important if we want success from our short time on this planet.

If you want to be part of a community and part of this umma, then take a leader in the real sense of the word and accept his authority. And do not let any disagreements or personal dislike stand in your way. The Prophet said,

من كره من أميره شيئاً فليصبر، فإنه من خرج من السلطان شبراً مات مِيتة جاهلية

“If you see anything in your amir which you dislike, then endure it with patience. For whoever splits away from the Sultan by even so much as an inch will die a death of Jahiliyyah.” This applies even to your local amir, for while amirate in its larger sense may not be established, that does not negate the necessity and indeed obligation of every group of Muslims, no matter how small, uniting under a single man. No body can hope to survive or get anywhere meaningful without a head. That is why the Messenger of Allah said,

إذا خرج ثلاثة في سفر فليؤمروا أحدهم

“When three people go out on a journey, they must appoint one of their number as their amir.” In reviving the institution of true leadership lies our protection and future and present success. We ask Allah to provide us with leaders who work tirelessly to obey Him and His Messenger, and make us obedient to them. In the words of Shayth Nasir,

يا رب وافتح فتحك المبين لمن تولى وأعز الدين، وانصره يا ذا الطول و انصر حزبه واملأ بما يرضيك عنه قلبه، يا رب وانصر ديننا المحمدي واجعل ختام عزه كما بدي

O Lord, grant Your clear victory to the one who takes charge and empowers the deen. And help him, O You who are forbearing, and help his party and fill his heart with what will make him pleasing to You. O Lord, help our Muhammadan deen, and make its end mighty just as its beginning was.

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.