Khutba on Rank of Prophet

الحمد لله، الحمد لله الذي جعل النجاحَ والتوفيقَ في طاعةِ الصادقِ الأمين، وجعل سنتَه وحياتَه تفسيرا وتوضيحا لكتابه الكريم، 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. قال الله عز وجل في كتابه العزيز: وما أرسلنا من رسول إلا ليطاع بإذن الله

            Allah says in his noble Quran, the translation of which is, “We did not send any Messenger but for him to be obeyed by the permission of Allah.” And the Prophet said,

من اقتدى بي فهو مني، ومن رغب عن سنتي فليس مني

            “Whoever follows me is of me and whoever wants to abandon my sunna is not of me.” It is clear to every Muslim that one of the bases of the deen, something that is absolutely essential to it and without which a person could not possibly be ranked among the Muslims is that he follow the Sunna of the Messenger of Allah. But what is this Sunna about which we speak and how do we know of it. The Sunna is everything we have learnt of or from the Messenger of Allah. Allah says,
وما آتاكم الرسول فخذوه وما نهاكم عنه فانتهوا

            the translation of which is, “Whatever the Messenger gives you you should accept and whatever He forbids you you should forgo.” And the details of that have been passed down to us through the ulama of every generation, particularly those of the four madhahib that Allah caused to remain for future generations. The Sunna is the deen of Allah in its entirety, its ibadat, its muaamalat, its akhlaaq, its outward form and inward reality. But, unfortunately today, all too many people have decided, at the expense of the rest of it, to place undue emphasis on matters of outward appearance, judging a person’s deen or lack of it on the degree to which he conforms to those conventions. Is his beard long enough? Does his or her clothing match up to their notions of the Sunna? And their relationship and perception of other Muslims comes to revolve exclusively around these points, to the extent that a long-bearded ignorant man becomes more respected in their eyes than a short-bearded man of knowledge. This is well exemplified by what took place in this very mosque earlier in the week. The imam arrived before the customary time of the iqama to find the congregation already having completed the prayer. And when the imam went to question the person who had led them how this had come to pass, a man who happened to have a long beard and be wearing a thawb, the man replied that he had received permission from one of the attendees, and anyway the imam was not fit to be imam because his beard was not long enough. Then, he turned to one of the congregation and said, “Who looks more like an imam? Me or him?” and continued to shout at the imam for some time, disturbing those praying their nafila prayers.
            This is very revealing of this mindset about which I have been talking, for this man disobeyed two injunctions of the Messenger of Allah, two sunnas, in order to criticise another for not conforming to what he viewed as the Sunna, to say nothing of the degree of fitna his actions were causing. The first was that he led the prayer in the mosque without permission of the Imam. The Prophet said,
وَلا يَؤُمَّنَّ الرَّجُلُ الَّرجُلَ فِي سُلْطَانِهِ

            “No man should lead another man in his sultan, in the place where he has authority.” Imam an-Nawawi explained,

مَعْنَاهُ أَنَّ صَاحِب الْبَيْت وَالْمَجْلِس وَإِمَام الْمَسْجِد أَحَقّ مِنْ غَيْره، وَإِنْ كَانَ ذَلِكَ الْغَيْر أَفْقَه وَأَقْرَأ وَأَوْرَع وَأَفْضَل مِنْهُ

            “This means that the owner of a house, the master of an assembly and the imam of the mosque are all more entitled to lead the prayer than any other person, even if that other person is more knowledgeable, more scrupulous and better than him.”
            And secondly, he raised his voice, one of the things expressly forbidden in the House of Allah. The Prophet said,

جنبوا مساجدكم صبيانكم ومجانينكم وبيعكم وخصوماتكم ورفع أصواتكم وسل سيوفكم
 
            “Keep your young children, your mad, your buying and selling, your disputes, your raised voices and your unsheathed swords away from your mosques.”
            And all of that to criticise the length of a person’s beard, a matter about which there is considerable disagreement amongst the men of knowledge, and which varies according to the urf of a particular land.
            The command in the sunna to let the beard grow and trim the moustache was firstly to differentiate Muslim men from women and secondly to differentiate them from non-Arab kuffar who had the custom of letting their moustaches grow long and shaving their beards. When the Prophet encountered some of the Magians and questioned them about this, they told him it was part of their deen and they were commanded to wear their moustaches in that way by their Chosroes, so the Messenger of Allah said,

جزوا الشوارب وأرخوا اللحى وخالفوا المجوس

            “Trim your moustache and let your beard grow – be different to the Magians.” And, in a narration from Ibn Abbas, the Messenger of Allah said,

لعن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم المتشبهين من الرجال بالنساء، والمتشبهات من النساء بالرجال‏

            “The Messenger of Allah cursed men who make themselves look like women and women who make themselves look like men.” So, so long as these two principles are met, the sunna has been followed. The actual length of beard is not the issue. And, indeed, wearing it so long that it becomes wild and ugly is frowned upon. While the Prophet was sitting in the mosque, a man came in with a wildly disheveled hair and beard, so the Prophet command that man to leave to tidy it up. And when he came back looking well-groomed, the Prophet said,

a-laysa hadha khayran min an ya’tiya ahadukum tha’ira-r-ra’si ka-annahu shaytan

            “Is this not better than one of you coming with his hair disheveled, looking like Shaytan?” From this, the ulama have said that a person should keep his beard at the length at which it looks best and what is customary among the people of knowledge of the region, as is explained by the commentators on Abu Zayd al-Qayrawani’s Risala. And that is why you find so many ulama, the inheritors of the Prophet’s knowledge, with shorter, well-trimmed beards. So the length of beard is not a big issue and certainly not one that should cause a Muslim to abandon his good opinion of his brother, for whom he should be looking for seventy excuses even when he knows him to be doing wrong action. We must remember the scope of the sunna of the Messenger of Allah and who he is and what he brought, and stop using it as a stick to beat other Muslims and think badly of them. We need to stop placing all our focus on matters of disagreement and instead concentrate on the matters about which we all agree, the essential matters of the deen that are missing and must be put back in place. We ask Allah to join our hearts together and increase in good opinion of one another. And make us people who focus not on outward appearance but on real action. As the Prophet said,

ان الله لاينظر الى أجسامكم ولا الى صوركم ولكن ينظر الى قلوبكم وأعمالكم

            “Allah does not look at your bodies nor your forms but rather at your hearts and your actions.”

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.
           
            As I mentioned in the first khutba, the Sunna of the Messenger of Allah is comprehensive in its scope – it provides the full blueprint for how mankind should live and conduct his affairs. And it is complete, there is nothing missing from it. There is no set of circumstances that we can come upon in our lives except that guidance for it exists in the Sunna. His way is the only way, and if we neglect to follow it, we will end up lost and astray in the darkness. There is no way to Allah except through his gate.The deen, the life-transaction that he brought, is the only acceptable way of living with Allah. Allah says,

وَمَنْ يَبْتَغِ غَيْرَ الْإِسْلَامِ دِينًا فَلَنْ يُقْبَلَ مِنْهُ وَهُوَ فِي الْآَخِرَةِ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ

            the translation of which is, “If someones desires other than Islam as a deen, Allah will not accept it from him and he will be one of the losers in the Hereafter.” To his example, salla-llahu alayhi wa sallam, we must turn for our dealings with Allah, for our dealings with the men of Allah, for our dealings with creation. For our interactions with our families and our conduct when we do business. For our approach to life. Those people are those who truly have an understanding and appreciation for the Sunna. The true lovers of the Messenger of Allah, the true defenders of his sunna are those who strive to recover what has been lost of the deen, those who do not rest and do not stop until it has been established in all its glory. The true lovers of the Messenger of Allah are those who come to a place that is in darkness and leave it in light, those who come to a place without deen and leave it a Madinah, for that was the way of our noble Prophet.
            We ask Allah to give us a true and sincere appreciation of the Sunna of the Messenger of Allah, and place us at the forefront of those who put into practice in their daily lives and transform the societies about them. And keep us away from what creates fitna and discord amongst us.

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، 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 (3) 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.