| THE STREET MIMBAR JUM'AH KHUTBAH (24 October 2014) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_street_mimbar/ PLEASE e-mail Suggestions & Criticisms to khutbahs@yahoo.com It is in such a manner that We make plain Our signs so that the course of the Criminals may become clear. |
Bismillah Ar-Rahmaan Ar-Raheem.
Alhumdulillah. Peace and blessings on Muhammad (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam), his Noble Companions and Family.
Dear committed Muslims…
Audio on http://www.islamiccenterdc.com/apps/podcast/podcast/349331 (10-17-2014)
THE NEED FOR SELF-CRITICISM
This journey into the unknowns of the Muslim public mind has been an extensive one. We've tried to approach the issue of Islamic cohesiveness and togetherness from many angles. We've tried our best to highlight the positives that bring Muslims together and to diminish the differences that tend to distance Muslims from each other. Yet we still need to do more to conquer this self generated ignorance that locks hands with those who have information and use it to the detriment of our lives and our societies. We've quoted the ayah from Surah Aal Imran and we'll quote it again; maybe it will penetrate. Remember, this ayah during the details of the khutbah.
… and bear in mind (or) be conscious of Allah's bounties and blessings upon you for you were enemies and He has acquainted and reconciled your hearts with each other so you have become due to His ni'mah, blessings and bounty brothers to each other… (Surah Aal Imran verse 103)
In a nutshell this ayah exhorts us to be together (and) for all of us to hold on to the extension of guidance that has come to us from Allah; but then what do we have? Another ayah reinforcing this ayah, number 46 from Surah Al Anfal,
And don't be at disputational differences with yourselves because you will fail and your momentum will dissipate and you will lose motivation and you will lose energy… (Surah Al Anfal verse 46)
OK- now we are going to (and) we know some people are going to say after the khutbah that it's unnecessary to go into the details or the explanations of what is at the root of Islamic division and we rely that if we don't do that then this is going to remain a festering problem that we are not going to be able to solve. A sincere Muslim is one who takes a look at his own self- however way he defines his own self- and then begins to weed out those inclinations and those internal divisive thoughts that cause us now to pay very dearly as you may see happening in the different areas around the world. One issue we want to bring to your attention is we have quite a heroic history. We had the Ka'bah itself destroyed at one time. We had Al Madinah itself assaulted and many innocent people were killed and the atrocities of war happened in those two areas to begin with, (i.e.) Makkah (with) the destruction of the Ka'bah and the attack on Al Madinah and then prisoners of war and rape and the killings that took place. All of this we had. Then we had the occupation of Al Quds. (Do) you think the occupation of Al Quds is something new? Rethink yourself! This is the second time around we had Al Quds occupied in the flagrant, brutal military fashion that is in front of our own eyes today. We had Baghdad Egypt , in Al Yemen, in Europe . Our history has been stolen! You'll find their manuscripts in certain European capitals. Those who went into Muslim territories in the past hundreds of years and stole our heritage and placed it in their museums and in their universities and in their think tanks! Maybe, if we had enough energy, enough unity among ourselves, enough confidence in Allah and His Prophet and in our understanding of Allah and His Prophet we can revisit this lost chapter in our history and understand who these people were. So when we take these two segments of Muslims, (i.e.) the Sunnis and basically in today's world you can break them down into, (we're not talking in the fiqhi sense of the word or schools of thought; we're speaking about doctrine or as some in this category of people would prefer to call it, al aqidah), there are Al Asha'ira… You come to an average Sunni and you tell him "you're an Ash'ari." He'll tell you "what??!" He will exclaim "what do you mean? What are you saying?" He doesn't know he's an Ash'ari. That's because once again there's a degree of ignorance that, once again, has set in and some of us don't even know who we are. So in this broad lump of Sunnis in this world there are the Ash'aris. The Ash'aris in a nutshell are the ones who found middle ground between the rationalists, (i.e.), the Mu'tazilis who disappeared and the literalists- as'haab al aql wa as'haab an naql. They found the middle ground there and they were called Al Ash'aris pertaining to Al Ash'ari who was the scholar that crystallized this middle ground. Then there are those who call themselves the Salafis. In the Sunni context there's also those who consider themselves Salafis. These are the types who always unfailingly repeat "they belong to as salaf as salih, the virtuous ancestors." When you go back into their history and their internal thoughts they go back to the Sahabah to At Tabi'in and from there they take on ibn Hanbal and ibn Taimiyah and ibn Abd Al Wahab until we wind up with today's Salafis and Wahabis and neo-Salafis and all of these other groups that we have in our world today. Within these two sets of "Sunni Muslims" we have preponderant ignorance. A Salafi reads about Al Ash'ari from his own history books. Al Ash'ari reads about As Salafi from his own history books and we wind up not knowing each other and part of our life on this earth is to come to know each other.
… so you come to mutually know each other. (Surah Al Hujurat verse 13)
We don't mutually know each other. This is hard to say but it is the truth- Sunnis don't mutually know each other and the same thing we can go flip to the other side, (i.e.) to the Shi'is; basically among the Shi'is there are two groups. Just like among the Sunnis there's basically two groups among the Shi'is also there's basically two groups- Al Imamiyah and Az Zaydiyah. They have things that they say of themselves. They're a little smarter, may be in one sense, not to bring the differences out into the open. Some Sunnis have a tendency to do that (and) that's why we have this takfiri issue that we're trying to trail by this elongated introduction. So here, once again, we have ignorance. You come to an Imami Shi'i and ask him "what do you know about a Zaydi Shi'i?" He's blank! The same thing with a Zaydi Shi'i. You come and ask him, even though he will know a little better, but still he's sort of ignorant of who the Imami Shi'is are. When we are ignorant of each other, we'll go a step forward, (and) we'll say when we are misinformed about each other who is going to be happy with this? Who's going to take advantage of this? The people right now who are visiting us with these battles, confrontations and wars. These are the ones who are happy. "Oh look- we can go amongst these Muslims and stir these differences up because they don't know themselves." This is probably the way they are speaking in their backrooms. "You know, these Muslims- a Shi'i doesn't know anything about a Sunni. We mean they know what they are told in their history books and thank God if they refer to their history books they don't refer to their Qur'an and their Prophet and in their history books they have all of these divisions." They say this across the board concerning all other Muslims- but they study us. We don't study ourselves?! They study us! We should study ourselves to become united, they study us to divide us. Who's winning? Look at the world- who's winning? Then within these we said As Sunni is Asha'ira, As Salafiyah and Ash Shi'ah are Imamiya and Zaydiya and within them there are differences. They're not all the same. You think these people right now who are planning (and) are strategizing don't take into account these discrepancies among us (and) these defaults we have because we refuse (to look at them). You go to the person who gives the khutbah in a Masjid like this- in a less Masjid or a larger Masjid- and tell them "why don't you speak about the real issues? Allah has spoken about the real issues, aren't you supposed to be an amplifier of what Allah is saying?" They say "you know brother don't bother us with this. Don't rock the boat. Live and let live." It's become so ugly if we go deep down inside these history books- it's not the Qur'an, it's not the Sunnah- these are people who wrote some of their understanding about Islamic issues and you find that the Salafis condemn the Ash'aris and they give them a title like makhanith al Mu'tazilah because remember the Salafis are the literalists and the Mu'tazillah are the rationalists. So the Salafis say of the Ash'aris who took a midway between the two "they are the units of the Mu'tazilis." This is how bad it gets. (The word some should be introduced before every sentence that we previously said and that we're going to say from now on because this doesn't apply absolutely to 100% of all of them. Obviously anyone in his thinking mind would know that but we have to qualify it because there are some people out there who listen to this khutbah electronically who are fishing for "controversial statements or sentences"). Some of the Asha'ira say of the Salafis "they are the little chicks of the graven Yahud." In the middle of all of this where there is an imbalance- emotionally we're charged against each other and rationally we were empty towards each other, that's the atmospherics we are living in- there are some Ulema' who were balanced. When and where is it more appropriate then to mention them at a khutbah? We will; beginning with a person who wrote a book called Ithaar Al Haqq ala Al Khalq (or) Preferring Haqq to People (or) Giving Preference to Haqq Over People (by) Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Wazir. This was a scholar of about maybe 600 or 700 years ago, at least. Another scholar who's balanced in this charged atmosphere is Salih ibn Mahdi ibn Mu'qbiri. He has a book by the name Al Ilm Ash Shamikh fi Tafdhil Al Haqq ala Al Aaba'i wa Al Masha'ikh (or) Colossal Knowledge in preferring Al Haqq over Fathers and Ancestors. There's Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Al Ameer As San'ani. His book is Iqadh Al Fiqra (or) Stimulating Thought. Another scholar who didn't get caught in this emotional exchange of fire is Jamal Ad Deen Al Qasimi. His book is Tarikh Al Juhamiyah wa Al Mu'tazilah (or) The History of The Juhamis and The Mu'tazilis and another book called Al Jarh wa At Ta'dhil. So don't say, (even though we are in bad shape today), that we didn't have (balanced scholars). And right now we're not referring (to contemporary scholars). We have contemporary scholars along these lines. The reason we don't mention the contemporary scholars is because there are many stereotypical impressions about them. We wish we were mature enough and we don't mean here you and me because this khutbah is heard by hundreds of people every week beyond us and we thank Allah that many of them who tune in are mature and we wish the overwhelming majority of them were mature enough for us to mention the contemporary scholars and Ulema' who have not been overtaken by this undue polarizing emotionalism.
Here is where we come to a little delicate area and that is since the Prophet passed away there was a very significant political understanding of leadership called Al Imamah and the Shi'is believed in this concept (and) the Mu'tazila believed in this concept but the those who call themselves Sunnis, even though they had no problem with the word itself but they haven't developed that into something like a political theory, (to use today's social science vocabulary). They were concerned with keeping the Muslims together therefore they don't want to go and create civil wars here and there and all over even though many who consider themselves bona fide Sunnis are convinced that you have to confront a ruler who is a Dhalim. Al Khuruj ala Adh Dhulm is within this Sunni context but it wasn't developed. There were no explanations of leadership and all of this. So what happened during the time of Ahmad ibn Hanbal- and this is why when you read about these Salafis you'll always find them tracing themselves back to certain personalities leading all the way back to Al Faqih Ahmad ibn Hanbal- he said (and) these are in the Hanbali books, obeying individuals who have authority even if they were oppressive and lacking justice (and) even if they were offensive you can't rise up against them… These are their words quote, unquote … unless you see them with your own eyes committing flagrant kufr about which we have incontrovertible evidence from Allah. At that time it's permissible to carry arms against them (and) to oppose them by force and only then. Now when you come to these people (and) unfortunately they don't think; you try and tap on them to have a better person out of them but because they don't think you can't take this discussion a step forward. Tell them, OK, look at today's world, isn't there a kufr bawaah that those who are ruling over the Muslims represent? But because they just want to refer to this statement and similar statements (they can't see it). There's another Hanbali "scholar" by the name of Al Barbahari who said- and we will quote because these problems of takfir today (and) of the divisions and the bloodshed among Muslims can be attributed not to an ayah or a hadith but to statements like this- it is not permissible for any individual to spend one night without having a leader or an Imam who is either virtuous or in flagrant opposition to Allah. How is this? Anyone of these can be your leader? You say that this is your reference point?! Where is the ayaat and the hadith that support this type of statement? And he goes on. Another one of these scholars that they quote, (i.e.) ibn Taymiyah- they call him Shaykh Al Islam. It's not necessary to call him Shaykh Al Islam. Ibn Taymiya says- and we quote, listen to this, he's talking about Muslims- Muslims being patient with the oppression of the rulers and their injustice is the foundation of Ahl As Sunnah wa Al Jama'ah. (Do) you see where the problems arise? Where did this come from? Obviously you're going to have governments who are supporting these types of scholars, these types of writers (and) these types of speakers who are pounding in the public mind through mass media and through paid speakers in Masajid around the world "be obedient to your rulers. You cannot take issue with your rulers." They give this a religious basis and religious flavor and then they misquote. They quote an ayah out of context. The ayah is in Surah Ash Shura, ayah 30. It says
Whatever misfortune comes your way it's because of what you do… (Surah Ash Shura verse 30)
Meaning the Muslims not the rulers; the poor Muslim father and mother, brother and sister who are struggling everyday to come home with a loaf of bread and something to feed their children, that's if they can find that! They say that this ayah applies to the average Muslim and then they take that a step forward and they say the reason you have these bad rulers is because of what you are doing meaning you deserve them. Here is where they come full circle. OK-
Allah's not going to change the social condition of a people until they change their social psychology. (Surah Ra'd verse 11)
Allah's not going to change our politics (and) our economics until we change the way we are approaching Allah through these marginal references and reposition ourselves with Allah and His Prophet.
Dear committed brothers and dear committed sisters…
If you could just condense the first khutbah with all the previous khutbahs before about the fanaticism, the prejudice and the bigotry that comes out of these people (and) these types of individuals who at the end of the day are Muslims. They are wrong- they are viciously wrong (and) they are deadly wrong! If you put all that together you can understand. Right now, in the past week we had the Saudi government, who is permitted to rule because it finances division among the Muslims, pass a judgment on an Islamic scholar and activist and condemned him to death. Their legal system doesn't have an appeal. That cannot be appealed. They tell us "right now it needs the signature of the king. Everything else has been done. (They're) just awaiting that signature and this activist scholar will be on his way to execution square." We can't look at this in a simplistic manner. We come across some individuals who will tell you, "you know we should become buddy buddies with the Saudis. There should be some type of understanding between the Islamic people of self determination (and) the Islamic movement in the world. Those of a revolutionary Islamic impulse and pulse should approach the Saudis and try and figure out some amicable arrangement with them." How are you going to figure out? Look, do they give you the opportunity to do that? We have people who whisper these ideas among themselves. They're not brave enough to come out and say it as it is (or) the way they think. Then they react. All of these months and years they say "let's come. Remember at the time when there were good relations with the Saudis." We're talking about whether these are Sunnis or Shi'is; both sides from time to time will come to you and say "you know, let's get along. We have a lot of things in common. We disagree on things but there is some things in common. Let's work on those and all this." A Muslim in his good heart and with his inclination to do what is right tends to agree with that, "yes why not" but do they let you do something like that?! You're extending your hand, will they extend their hand? That's the issue right there! Why don't you look at the issue? Don't be blind sighted. These are not that type. If anyone has had enough of the Saudis it should be us out here in the street. 31 years- have they changed? Have you seen these people who rule inside the Masjid? Have they ever walked this way? Have they ever extended their hand? Have they ever said As Salaamu Alaykum? Ever?! In these 32 years? Are these the types? They look at us out here as Kafirs. Let's be frank and blunt about this, they think "oh yeah, these are Kafirs. Let them pray in the street." They are the holiest people in the world and here we are here and after all of this we are supposed to make believe none of this is happening and go to them and say "hey let's get along here. Let's have bilateral agreements and let's, you know, let bygones be bygones and all of this stuff." This is a history. This is not just a regime. This is a history and if you're not capable of understanding this history then just step out. At least don't get involved. Don't become a catalyst for the vices that come out of the Arabia Peninsula
This khutbah was presented by Imam Muhammad Asi on the occasion of Jum'ah on 17 October 2014 on the sidewalk of Embassy Row in Washington D.C.
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