Bismillah Ar-Rahmaan Ar-Raheem. Alhumdulillah. Peace and blessings on Muhammad (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam), his Noble Companions and Family. Brothers and Sisters, committed Muslims… Audio on http://www.islamiccenterdc.com/khutbasarchive.htm?blogentryid=4532859 (09-20-2009) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIzA_4TULHw EID AL FITR 2011 This has been the month of Ramadhan, the month of taqwa O you who are committed to Allah- siyam, fasting has been assigned to you as it was to those who preceded you for the purpose of taqwa, so that you may gain or so that you may ingrain in you this component of taqwa. (Surah Al Baqarah verse 183) The reason for our fasting has not been only to experience hunger and thirst and sensual deprivation. No! That was not the objective of our fast; those were the means towards the end. The end of our fasting is the taqwa of Allah (i.e.) to take into consideration, to take into our conscience the fact that we have to avoid Allah's corrective power presence. This is why we were fasting. We realize through our fast that we become, relatively speaking, physically weak; we are more mentally and spiritually concentrated of Allah's power when we begin to lose our own power. This is the dynamic of taqwa. In many ayaat in the Qur'an, in context, Allah reminds us of this power relationship with Him. He is stronger when we are weaker- these words are expressed in relative terms- His strength is infinite and our weakness is infinite but in our relationship with Him, when we lose our power, we delegate this power to Him. O you who are committed to Allah- honor Allah with the taqwa that is due to Him rightfully… (Surah Aal Imran verse 102) And Allah in another ayah says … you consider, factor in, assimilate this taqwa/consciousness of Allah's power presence as much as you can … (Surah verse ) We are different human beings. Our capabilities, our potentials vary; they fluctuate even within one individual. You aren't at the age of fifty what you were at the age of twenty. There are different degrees but Allah expects as much as is humanly possible to observe this relationship with Him. That is why after a full month (that) we have had enough time to learn this lesson we emerge from the month of Ramadhan saying what? Saying Allahu Akbar. Allah is greater. Allah is the greatest. Allah is the most powerful. Allah is the most significant. If we mean what we say then there is no other influence, no other temptation, no other pitfall between us and Allah. This can only be appreciated by those who have lived in the heart of their hearts and in the core of their minds and in the marrow of their conscience with Allah's presence during this month. So when we say- and we are supposed to decorate out holidays with the takbiraat; the Prophet of Allah says decorate your holidays by vocalizing Allahu Akbar. This is a psychology on the day of Eid after the month of Ramadhan. We have a psychology- we have a social psychology, we have a massive psychology- that is suppose to indicate and is suppose to indicate or behave exemplifying the words Allahu Akbar. Yes- but look around brothers and sisters- do we mean it when we say Allahu Akbar or are we kidding ourselves. Take a look at those who make decisions in the Muslim world- they come and say to worldly powers, to Shaytaani powers "we need your help." And the response is "if you want our help we have to put military bases in your country." The presence of military bases in Muslim lands is a violation of saying Allahu Akbar. People who do this, of course, vocalize/verbalize Allahu Akbar- you can take your country of choice; if they have Mushrikun and Kafirun power presence in them, then either they are schizophrenic or hypocritical or they have sold their soul to Ash Shaytaan. When we say Allahu Akbar we mean Allahu Akbar. We rely only on Allah. We depend only on Allah. If you've been fasting during the month of Ramadhan and you've spent twenty-nine or thirty days of this fast and you don't have the psychology, if you don't have the confidence, if you don't have the will power to say that we Muslims can be independent, we Muslims can rely upon Allah by relying upon ourselves then you haven't reached the ends of the month of Ramadhan. How many times do the decision makers in the Muslim countries and in the Muslim communities in their lifetime say Allahu Akbar? Millions of times! But are they saying the truth? The truth is that theoretically (and) factually Allah is Akbar- there's no doubt about that; but in our social behavior do we reflect this fact?! In our interpersonal relationships do we behave this fact? You can look around- Allah has given you a mind, he has given you the faculty of thinking and reasoning and you can draw the conclusion for yourself if you are true to these words that we are expressing at this day (and) at this time saying Allahu Akbar. All of the Muslims the world over on this day say He honors His promise, He fulfils His promise, He is true to His promise. What is His promise? Allah has promised those who are committed from among you and do As Salihaat, that they will inherit the Earth… (Surah Nur verse 55) This is the end promise of Allah and He says He is honoring this promise, He is fulfilling this promise, He is true to this promise but are we true to Him? All the Muslims on this day at this time say and He has helped His servants, He has given victory to His servants. His first servant is his Prophet but ábd is also meant to be the generic subject of Allah which should be you and me. He will give us help provided that we give Him help. … if you support Allah, He will support you, give you victory and stabilize your position… (Surah Muhammad verse 7) He's not going to give us help when we give up on Him! He's not going to give us help when we run away from Him. The month of Ramadhan is supposed to have been a month of giving Allah the help that He requires from us- He doesn't need this. And He has dignified His troops, He has glorified His troops, He has given izzah to His jund. This is a military statement. Do the people who are saying this on this day realize this? Do they realize they are expressing a military statement? And then there's another military statement. And He, (in reference to Allah), defeated the enemies Himself. We do the fighting but Allah defeats our enemies if our enemies are the same as Allah's enemies; but some of us have made our enemies the patrons of Allah, the subjects of Allah! We reverse the dynamics of life and we wind up with the consequences that we all have, that many of us are suffering from. Do you want to go over that again? He honors/fulfils/is true to His promise; and He has dignified/glorified/given izzah to His troops/jund; and He defeated the enemies Himself. In today's world we have some mechanical type of Muslims who go through the motions of Ramadhan. Yes- they physically abstain from food and they experience hunger and thirst and at the end of the month of Ramadhan they verbally say what they don't mean. We want to say what we say and we want to mean what we say. This is the required equilibrium and harmony that comes out of this month long fasting experience. The Prophet of Allah says you may have a fasting person and the only thing he has/experiences from his fasting is hunger and thirst. Fasting is beyond just the experience of hunger and thirst. Fasting is a momentum that propels us throughout the rest of the year to live the power of Allah- to live by the power of Allah, to live with the power of Allah- consciously, reasonably, mentally, rationally in every decision we make. The taqwa that is required in Ramadhan is to be found in the family. O people: be conscious of Allah's power presence… (Surah An Nisa' verse 1) This consciousness of Allah's power presence is not possible when we ourselves… You know/look- we've been here in the streets for twenty-seven years almost and if Muslims really meant Allahu Akbar they would not run away from this opportunity, they would walk to it; but because there are other considerations that diminish- in their minds and in their thinking and in their calculations and in their interests and in their distractions there are other considerations- the fact that Allah is superior. What do they have on their mind? What are they afraid of? Some people say "Oh- they'll send spies around." What are they saying? We welcome them- come on spies wherever you are! Informers, Intelligence Agents whoever you are- come! We have a word to say to you! We're not saying anything wrong! We've been expressing ourselves for almost twenty-seven years running now- what have we said that is against the law or against morality or against civility or against civilization? Give us one statement?! But we can't blame those who are ignorant of Islam who are all around, but look at those who are supposed to be Muslims?! They are seasonal Muslims, they are celebrity Muslims, they are decorative Muslims, they are cosmetic Muslims but they are not the Muslims of the substance of Allahu Akbar. Brothers and sisters, committed Muslims… Let's bring these words to reality, to real life. When we say Allahu Akbar, (if we have to break it down for you), it means the following: Allah is superior to my personal preferences; Allah is more important than what I may desire; Allah takes precedence over my nafs; Allah is more important and more significant than my family, than my blood relationships, than my extended family or tribe or clan or community. If there is a conflict between myself and my family and Allah- Allah comes first. You will not find a people who are committed to Allah who will build a working, friendly, amicable relationship with those who are at odds with Allah even if they are their fathers or their sons or their spouses or their children or their tribe… (Surah Al Mujaadalah verse 22) Allah is more significant than the nation or the nationality or the ethnic group or the ethnicity that you belong to. Allah is more important than someone speaking about Arabian solidarity or Persian solidarity or Turkish solidarity or any of these other types of solidarities that are at odds with Allah's directives. Allah is greater than the superpowers when you say Allahu Akbar. We went through ourselves and Allah is Akbar; we went through ourselves and Allah is Akbar; we went through our families and Allah is Akbar; we went through the mass of people that we come from and Allah is Akbar; and we come to the militaries that are around. So what if they have nuclear powers? What?! Are you going to scare Allah with nuclear power, with nuclear bombs? If we are right we live and we die on our principle of being right! What are you going to take with you in this life? If you can't honor a principle what are you taking with you to Allah? … on a day in which money or offspring is not going to be of any value except for he who approaches Allah with a sound heart. (Surah Shu'araa verse 88-89) We ask any Muslim and every Muslim on this day: if you depart from your principle and the standard that Allah has given you, how are you going to approach Allah with a sound heart? We have now fellow brothers and sisters, Muslims, who are living in poverty, in hunger, in refugee status; when you go home, you remember this- this is a day of joy, of happiness; but it's a day of mixed feelings also. How can I be happy and I know that part of me is bleeding, part of me is sweating, part of me is shedding tears. The Prophet of Allah says whoever begins his day and is not concerned with the affairs of the Muslims is not a Muslim. Do you want more than that? It's as simple as that. If one of our body parts aches all of our body aches and we should respond to that ache and that pain in the appropriate way as one Muslim body of people in this world. If we have indeed honored the month of Ramadhan and this day of Eid, we have spirits that soar, we have uplifted morale that is confident- and we are always confident. Remember the first word in our salaah- Alhadulillah. We thank Allah even for the physical conditions that we are in because we are beyond our physical conditions as we are in the presence of Allah. And in the presence of Allah we say from the depths of our heart and mind to the extremities of existence Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar. Wa Kullu aamin wa antum bi khayr Eid Mubarak and an Eid Sa'eed to you, to your families, to the rest of the Muslims and the oppressed peoples in the world- that's where you will find our hearts and our minds on this day and on every other day of the year. Wa Salaamualaykum wa Wa Kullu aamin wa antum bi khayr This presentation was presented by Imam Muhammad Asi on the occasion of Eid Al Fitr on 20 September 2009. The Imam previously led the daily and Jum'ah prayers inside the Masjid. His speeches were revolutionary and thought provoking, and eventually irritated and threatened the Middle-East Ambassadors who control the Masjid. Finally, the Imam, his family, and other Muslims faithful to the course of Islam were forced out, into the streets. This khutbah originates from the sidewalk across the street from the Islamic Center, currently under seige. |
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