The relationship
between the celebration of the anniversary of the birth of the Messenger of
Allah, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, and the reality of the Ummah[1]
All praise is due to Allah, praise that complies
with His blessings and compensates His abundance. Our Lord, for You is all
praise as befits the majesty of Your countenance and the might of Your
authority. O Allah, I cannot sufficiently enumerate praises upon You; You are
as You have praised Yourself. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah
alone and He has no partner, and I bear witness that Muḥammad is His slave and
Messenger and His sincere and intimate friend, the best prophet that Allah sent
to the entire world as a herald of glad tidings and admonition. O Allah, pray
upon, give peace and give blessings upon our Sayyid Muḥammad and upon
the family of our Sayyid[2] Muḥammad, prayers
and peace that last inseparably until the Day of Judgement. I advise you and my
sinning self to have fearful awareness of Allah the Exalted.
Here is the month of Rabīʿ, which has
come to us once again, carrying with it the
fragrance of the anniversary, the anniversary of the birth of our beloved
Prophet Muḥammad, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, and are the
Muslims all over the world preparing to celebrate this anniversary by give
speeches and poems, wonderful words of influence and content, and the media, in
its various forms, will be drafted in for this. However, I ask, O slaves of
Allah, about the relationship between this repeated celebration that we enjoy
every year and the reality of the Islamic Ummah, which has relinquished most of
what the Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him,
brought, and is being tested with most of what the winds from the west and the
east, from here and from there, are raising and scattering upon us.
Do you
think that this is drawing us closer to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and His
Messenger or is it bringing about the opposite in our lives? Indeed, I feel
that these various and diverse oral celebrations, along with our reality, which
I have described, are not drawing us closer to Allah, Mighty and Majestic.
Rather, it is all necessitating shame before the Messenger of Allah, may
Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, and it is making it necessary for us to
be immersed in shyness and shame with regards to addressing the Messenger of
Allah, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon, with speech that is not supported
by conduct.
Indeed
you know that he, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, placed before us a
whole host of pieces of advice and principles, commands and prohibitions, and
he stressed to us that if we adhere to these pieces of advice and commands,
Allah, Mighty and Majestic, will never abandon us. Our worldly benefits will be
realised and Allah will guarantee for us the benefits of the end (al-ʿuqbā),
and bliss in the Hereafter as well.
However,
after Al-Muṣṭafā, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, had departed, and
then the first generation, followed by the second and then the third, the
fourth came: “An evil generation succeeded them who neglected the prayer and
followed their appetites.” [Maryam 19:59] as our Lord, Glorified and
Exalted, has said. They forgot, or they pretended to forget, most of those
pieces of advice. They forgot, or pretended to forget, most of those commands
and prohibitions. You know that he, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him,
said in in a long, authentic ḥadīth:
‘Men
will be driven away from my Ḥawḍ[3]’ i.e. men will be forced away from
my Ḥawḍ ‘the way a stray camel is driven away, so I will say:
“Indeed, come forward! Come forward!” But it will be said that you don’t know
what they changed after you, and I will say: “Away with them, away with them,
away with them!”’
Here
you can see, O slaves of Allah, how we are applying ourselves assiduously to
altering what Allah, Glorified and Exalted, has commanded us to preserve and
maintain, what Allah, Glorified and Exalted, has commanded us to be constant
guardians over. Here you can see the greedy ambitions that call us from the
right and from the left to change and alter the commands that Allah, Glorified
and Exalted, has entrusted us with.
Indeed
you know that he, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, said in an
authentic narration: ‘Indeed you will find many different ways[4] after me, so be patient until you
meet me at the Ḥawḍ.’
He said this as a part of a thoroughly effective piece of advice. We look
at ourselves and we see that we have reversed this piece of advice as well. We have exchanged
altruism for selfishness and monopoly, instead of being patient with the
tiresomeness and being patient with adhering to the principle that Allah,
Mighty and Majestic, has commanded us to, the egos and passions have clamoured
from within us and hastened us to embrace our passions and desires, which is
the opposite of the advice that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s prayers and
peace be upon him, gave to us. It has been authentically narrated, O slaves of
Allah, that Allah’s Messenger, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, along
with some of his companions, passed by a dead billy goat that had been tossed
onto the road. He took it by the ear and said: ‘Who will buy this from me
for a dirham?’ They said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, indeed we have no desire
for it whatsoever. What would we do with it?’ He, may Allah’s prayers and peace
be upon him, said: ‘Indeed Allah hates the life of this world more than your
hatred of this.’ We have heard this statement of the Messenger of Allah,
may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, and yet we place the life of this
world, of which the Messenger of Allah said what he said, we place it in our
hearts as the most beloved of all.
Do you not see how we rush, morning and
evening, to gather more, and we don’t distinguish between the means, are they ḥalāl
or ḥarām? We look and we find that we are embodying the statement that the
Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, made: ‘If the
son of Ādam were to have one valley of wealth, he would desire a second. If he
had two valleys, he would desire a third, and nothing will fill the throat of
the son of Adam except dirt.’ Nothing will suffice him but death, and
nothing will bar him from this love except the grave that awaits him.
This
is our state, after the Messenger of Allah has told us about the life of this
world and its worth, and he likened it to this dead billy goat.
The Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, said to you: ‘None of you will truly have faith until I am more beloved to him than his wealth, his children and all of humanity’ and in another authentic narration: ‘and his own self that is between his two sides.’ We look and we find that we have filled our hearts with love for everything except the love of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him. Yes, indeed there is imitational love whose place is the tongue that praises, whose place is the tongue that extols. As for the heart, the life of this world has taken control over it. Passions and desires have taken control over it.
Slaves
of Allah: Indeed I ask, if I am invited to a speech on an occasion like this,
which we will be honoured with you, would it be appropriate for me to speak or
would it be appropriate for me to remain silent, silence that expresses shame,
silence that expresses confirmation of where our state has arrived and the
neglect that we have fallen deeply into with regards to the pieces of advice of
Allah’s Messenger and his commands that he stressed to us? I believe that the
priority for me is silence, and that is because if I spoke and talked about the
love that I cannot find a substantiation for and talk about the yearning for
the Messenger of Allah regarding which I find a wall between myself and the
Messenger of Allah, a wall of passions, desires and the life of this world,
which have taken control over my being, I would thus feel that I am lying. I
would feel that I am placing a mask over my face that contradicts what has
taken over my heart. I am talking about myself, O slaves of Allah. I am
imagining that Al-Muṣṭafā, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, is
calling us from afar, from his life in the barzakh: ‘I have told you and
I am bidding farewell to the life of this world through you. I left you upon
pure whiteness, its interior like its exterior, and no deviates from it except
that he is ruined, so why have you deviated from what I left you upon? Why have
you replaced it with that which makes your saliva flow such that everything
before your eyes glitters, in both the east and west?
The
Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, says to us: “If
the Muslims knew what was in the first third of the night and al-fajr” i.e.
if they knew what was in going out to pray ʿIshāʾ and Fajr in the masjid in
congregation “they would go to them [i.e. ʿIshāʾ and Fajr] even if they had
to crawl.” We look and we find ourselves, when evening is approaching, we
go to various evening parties, we go to various canteens, we go to various
places of amusement and entertainment and this continues until the last part of
the night. Then we return and sleep has filled our eyes. Thus, when the time
for Fajr has come and the masjids are open to receive those coming to the
masjid, we find that most of these masjids are almost empty, except for a few
youth whose hearts burn and have been taken over by the love of Allah, Mighty
and Majestic, a few. As for the people of distinction, the upper class, as for
the businessmen, or most of them, I say that they are engaged in something that
is preoccupying them from what the Messenger of Allah said: “they would go
to them [i.e. ʿIshāʾ and Fajr] even if they had to crawl.” Indeed I reflect
on how the roads to the masjids were in the time of Allah’s Messenger? They
were dark. They were full of mud, but despite that they would race to the
masjids in order to pray ʿIshāʾ and Fajr. Today, the roads are
smooth. The roads are wide and full of lights. The masjids are many and close
by, but despite that the people of distinction, and indeed most people, are
engaged in something that is preoccupying them from what the Messenger of
Allah, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, said.
O
brothers: the difference between us today and the first generation is embodied
in this example that you see in the person of ʿUmar ibn Al-Khaṭṭāb on the day he arrived in Shām to meet men from the Christian
religion, and he insisted on wearing the rags that he preferred to wear, and
nothing else. Abū
ʿUbayda gently rebuked him, so ʿUmar said to him: ‘Abū ʿUbayda! If only someone else had
said such a thing. We are a people whom Allah made mighty with Islām, so whenever we seek might with
other than what Allah made us mighty with, Allah humiliates us.’
Have
you reflected on the meaning of this speech? Have you reflected on the meaning
that these words expound? Indeed he is saying: ‘This crown that shines above
our heads, we have not weaved it with wealth from our dominion. We have not
weaved[5] it with a civilisation that we
have acquired. We have not weaved it with a power that we have mastered.
Indeed, it is the Hand of Allah that has weaved it. The One Who has honoured us
and placed it above our heads is Allah, when we pledged allegiance to Him to be
sincere and truthful upon the Islām that he has honoured us with. Thus,
if we become intoxicated with the crown and forget the Crowner, and if we
become intoxicated with blessings, with civilization, with the wealth that we
have been granted, and we forget the hand that provided it, then that is
wickedness and it is the most evil kind of wickedness. No. Everyone will
continue to know that the Arabs of the Peninsula did not climb the ladder of
civilisation through effort. Rather, the decree of Allah, Mighty and Majestic,
took them to the highest plateaus of civilisation when they adhered truthfully
and sincerely to this Dīn.
Today
we look at the crown that makes our history radiant – the history of this Ummah
– we have become intoxicated with the crown, indeed, but we have forgotten the
Crowner. Slaves of Allah; is this allowed? We talk about the history of the
Islamic Ummah. We talk about the Arab civilisation that dominated all other
civilisations and western scholars still consider it a mystery that defies
explanation and understanding. We are proud of this history. We are proud of
this crown, but we have turned away from the Crowner. We have turned away from
the One Who honoured us with this crown. Our eyes have wandered far astray. Our
eyes have wandered towards repugnant traditions. Our eyes have wandered towards
passions and desires, and soon they will bid farewell to us and we will bid
farewell to them. Soon we will depart and each one of us will find his grave in
a constricted hole that barely fits him. Then we will be brought back to life
in order to stand before the Lord of all Creation. What will you say?
I
say this statement of mine and I seek forgiveness from Allah the Most Great.
[This translation is also available from the English Naseem al-Sham site]
[1] This khuṭbah was given by Imam Muhammad Saeed Ramadan al-Bouti, may Allah have mercy on him, on 11/02/2011.
[2] This term means
‘master’ and only applies to human beings.
[3] The Ḥawḍ is one of the meeting places for the believers on the
way to the Paradise and it is the source of the Kawthar’s
sweet waters. It is sometimes translated as ‘pond’, ‘pool’ or ‘basin’, but none
of these terms carry the necessary grandeur and majesty that is required.
[4] This refers to all the various religions, ideologies,
cults and other false notions. Literally, the word atharah means
selfishness.
[5] Translator’s
note: This may be because the ʿamāma is the crown of the Arabs, which is
from a statement made by Imam ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, the fourth Khalīfa, as
mentioned by Imam Hishām in his Sīrah. Please see this article for further
details.
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