Shia Strength: [MahdiUniteMuslims] KHUTBAH : TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING ISLAM PART7

THE STREET MIMBAR

JUM'AH KHUTBAH (15 May 2009)

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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.

Brothers and sisters, Committed Muslims…

Audio on http://www.islamiccenterdc.com/khutbassermons.htm (03-04-2009)

TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING ISLAM PART 7

We ask Allah the commitment and security of belonging to Him and we plead for His assistance and protection from those who don't belong to Him, in saying, expressing and explaining His words and guidance. Brothers and sisters, there is a confusion of a topsy-turvy nature in the Muslim community, character and generally speaking in the Muslim domain. People are told, many times on many occasions, from different individuals that this Islam of ours is an Islam of ease, comfort, and coexistence; and these statements are generally true. We will bring you to the ayaat and ahadith that will explain where we locate the truth about these statements, not as they are presented to us by employed clergy or financed functionaries. There are many ahadith that are quoted; you and we know that we can't exhaust all the ahadith; we brought to you a sample of them. One hadith that is often quoted says this deen is strongly structured/compact- each part of it reinforces the other part of it, therefore approach/ enter into/penetrate it with ease/composure. A person who over does it does not travel a distance and does not maintain his mount- which means the analogy here (is) of a person who tries to approach, comprehend, absorb and work the meanings of this deen is similar to a person setting out on a journey; he has his mount and so if you overload or place too much on this mount of yours it could be a vehicle, camel, horse or whatever you have, then you're not going to go a distance and you're not going to have the mount that you have that was working in tiptop condition i.e. by overloading himself he doesn't still have the mount that he's supposed to have and by overloading himself, he can't go a distance. This is one hadith that is very much quoted in the realm of trying to convince you and me, the regular, average run-of-the-mill Muslim that "look, this Islam is easy going or comfortable." In another hadith, the Prophet is saying to them and also us- I caution you lest you become ghulu'… The word ghulu' has a shade of meanings- let us come down to the organic or root meaning. Al ghulu' is to over extend the meaning of this deen. The Prophet is saying I caution you, do not over extend the meanings or intents of this deen because what destroyed those who preceded you who were also the recipients of scripture, revelation and deen was their over extending of the meanings of deen. Al ghulu also has the meaning of petty, small or phobic mindedness; it has the meaning of fanaticism to it. We don't like to use the word because it's being loaded in our age and generation with connotations and denotations- there's a slur of meanings to this, but the Prophet of Allah is saying to us don't over extend the meanings that come to you in a comfortable manner. Remember, people who speak about how we should be relaxed in a turbulent world that is against us quote ahadith and we'll come to the ayah and explain how it's out of context; but another hadith that is often mentioned in this regard and direction is related to Umm Ul Mu'minin Aa'isha, she says whenever the Prophet of Allah had a choice between two options, he would choose the less demanding or taxing as long as there was no infraction involved in that choice. OK- these are samples of the ahadith that are coached to the general Muslim public to have them feel that you shouldn't be concerned with any higher responsibilities. There's one ayah or maybe two in the whole Qur'an that they try to place in this mix. The 1^st ayah is taken from Surat Al Baqarah and it says

… Allah wants for you what is easy and accessible and does not want for you that which is prohibitive, demanding, difficult or inaccessible… (Surah Al Baqarah verse 185)

Now any Muslim who has multiple years of mature experience and consciousness should know that this ayah belongs to the context of fasting. When we fast the month of Ramadhan, there's a cluster of ayaat in Surah Al Baqarah that speak about and explain the devotion of fasting. In this context, Allah is saying that He doesn't want to overburden any of us if we don't fall within the definition of tolerating the fast; so this ayah belongs to a context, and that context is if someone is going to fast and that act of fasting is going to be debilitating to him, his health or wellbeing to his survival, then he/she is exempted. You can't come and say that the ayah and the words is meant as a general rule that is to be applied to all of the year and generations and (are) to be applied to such an extent that the higher responsibilities of Islam are omitted, ignored or neglected. The other possible ayah that some of these wizards in reverse quote to us is

Ta-Ha. We have not brought down this Qur'an and its meanings upon you so that you may suffer. (Surah Ta-Ha verse 1-2)

Ash Shaqaa here is equivalent in today's words to depression.

This Qur'an was not meant to cause you to be depressed. (Surah Ta-Ha verse 2)

Now, this is where the dislocation occurs. They take these ahadith basically- their thrust is in the area of ahadith and then, along with that they trail these ahadith with this ayah or these two ayaat, (we couldn't find any other), they bring these along to say to you, I and one-and-a-half to two-billion other Muslims in the world that "look, take it easy; be calm or cool it" (to use the lingo in the street), "what's all of this about? You people are hyped up! There's no reason for all of this." OK- we say to them "you are correct in as far as Muslims should be calm and not be hyped up, but these are in such matters that pertains to such issues as As Salah, At Taharah, Al Hajj, As Saum- this is where we shouldn't be suffering from signs of depression; this is where we should be tolerant; this is where all these ahadith apply. Don't take it out of context." Which means what in practical terms? It means you- the Muslim whoever you are- the way you perform your salah should accommodate the way the other Muslim performs his/her salah- this is where this applies. Have you ever come across people in the Masjid who are very tight/narrow minded/spirited because the another Muslim doesn't have his toe touching the other toe of the Muslim beside him? This is the hype that Allah's Prophet cautioned us about. This is where al ghulu is. Have you ever come across Muslims who turns fanatical because a person in his ruku' is not at a 90 degree angle? Brothers and sisters- the generation of Muslims that were with the Prophet of Allah had aches and pains in their bodies; (do) you think all of them were at a 90 degree angle in their ruku'? They were bruised, injured and bleeding and here we have those ghulaat or hyped Muslims who overextend the meanings to judge other Muslims because of their toes and whether the angle of their torso is 90 degrees or not. This is ghulu. Then we have the time of Ramadhan (with) Muslims watching each other on the minute after the sun goes down to judge whether the Muslim is accurate, pious or his siyam is acceptable in the course of the 30 or 40 minutes after the sun goes down- this is al ghulu- this is where you shouldn't be hyper. Have you seen some Muslims wash their feet for wudhu and others wipe their feet for wudhu and you have this disease of al ghulu which runs narrow deep in the minds and hearts of some Muslims who say "that type of wudhu is not acceptable;" this is the ghulu that the Prophet of Allah was cautioning us about. They took these meanings, misplaced and took them out of context and they said we have become extremists when we read Allah's book when it says

If there are twenty of you, you can defeat two-hundred; and if there's one-hundred of you then they can defeat one-thousand… (Surah Al Anfaal verse 65)

What do you individuals who go around trying to either hypnotize or anesthetize the Muslims say here? You spend your time telling the Muslims in fact and in practice "oh don't think about these higher responsibilities." They want to draw the Muslims into a conflict of mind and thought because here, the Qur'an conflicts with each other; how can Allah say that

… He wants you to opt for what is easy and to avoid what is hard… (Surah Al Baqarah verse 185)

and then in another ayah He says

… if there are twenty of you they can overcome one-hundred, and if there is one-hundred of you they can overcome one-thousand… (Surah Al Anfaal verse 65)

Is this yusr?! (Can't) you see- the Qur'an begins to contradict itself?! The Qur'an doesn't contradict itself; it's these individuals who contradict themselves. If we place these ayaat in context, we discover there's no contradiction but they don't place it in context. 1^st of all, they don't come to the Qur'an to begin with- the Qur'an is secondary; they rely on some ahadith- some which are valid and some that are less then valid- and then, as an appendage they bring in an ayah or two, to do what? We wish they were doing all of this in the right direction because they're doing it in the wrong direction! They want to neutralize the Muslims so that you, I and the rest of us don't have a consolidated and collective effort in this world; they want to divide and decimate us on these basis and they do this on the manaabir in the Masaajid week-in-and-week-out; from conference to convention from one country to the next- all over the place. Is it any wonder that we are where we are now? This is tough talk, this is not easy. You may listen to this in a khutbah, but in many places these types of khutbahs are banned from being expressed from the mimbar because these khutbahs are 1^st and foremost anchored in the book of Allah and then in the guidance and direction of Allah's Prophet, not like these people who get their signals, (if we wanted to be frank about this- and let's be frank about this), they get their signals or directives more or less from the Saudi government and from other governments that are in the orbit of the Saudi government- that is where it all begins. Then, they begin to configure how they are going to express this to the congregation, jama'aat and ijtimaat- "well, let us find some ahadith around which we can build a presentation, and then if we can throw in some ayaat- all the better"- this is how it works. The Saudis are the ones who show them the direction and then they go squirming and scrambling for ahadith here and there, and then if they can find an ayah out of context, (like we just demonstrated), then they will throw in the ayah- this is how it works and this is what you the average Muslim have been listening to in all of these years and reality is catching up with them, especially these Saudi big wigs. These Saudi bosses that are running the Islamic show in Bilad Al Haramain Ash Sharifain as well as in immigrant/foreign far away lands as is the case here in Washington DC. Who are the Muslims of independence and integrity who can stand up to these corruptors of Islam and say to them the word of truth in a time when the word of truth is wanted dead or alive; at a time when everything we hear are lies about Islam- lies from the mimbar. These are strong words, but it's the truth! Who's going to stand up and diagnose this truth.

Brothers and sisters, committed Muslims…

What we express is not a matter of academic free time. This is a matter that pertains to what is happening to us and why it is happening to us. The news out of the kingdom of darkness in Arabia is that they are having a royal difference (or) an argument concerning who's going to rule after the current king- this is the world we are living. In is it going to be one brother or the other? Is it going to be the old generation or the new? The world is falling apart all around them and this is what consumes them. Right now, they have their moral police, hay'at al amri bi al ma'ruf wa an nahi an al munkar- in last weeks performances by these moral police, they went into a hotel lobby and found some actors and actresses. We don't know if it was one actress or more, (can't remember that little detail), and they say "this is a non mahram meeting. Don't complain, don't yell and don't shout. We are going to detain you." This is not the only thing, the other issue is we have one of the Royal brothers, Talal- whose been known to be outside or not favored by the other brothers. During the 1960's, in the heyday of Arab Nationalism, he had to go to Egypt because he didn't agree with the policies of his brotherly controlled kingdom. Here, he has his daughter-in-law who wants to drive a car and so they begin to make noise that "we want to have women driving in Arabia." Brothers and sisters, this is what happens when these corrupt leaders of a passive Muslim public begin to implant the meaning of extremism pertaining to issues like tahara, salah and sha'aair and what is called "ibadah"- it comes back to haunt them! Where is it in Allah's book or by the Prophet's words that you find a prohibition on Muslim women being able to go a distance without walking or she has to be chauffeured to where she is going? Where did this come from? Either you chauffeur her to her destination or she has to walk to her destination- where in the book of Allah and in the Sunnah of His Messenger do they find the verification for this violation of the dignity of our mothers, sisters and daughters? And they get away with this. Why is the world looking the other way? There are human rights organizations, civilized society and industrialized nations who tries to find a little mistake in an Islamic movement and then splash it all over the place; their mistakes are flagrant and obvious to the blind and you have the world establishments silent! What makes them silent when you violate Islam and what puts them in an echo when decent Muslims want to obey Allah? The irony is the average Muslim cannot see this. Throughout all of these years, they've been getting away with personalizing, individualizing and turning the Hajj and Umrah, (for that matter), into a function of their own regime, which is only an extension to the regime here in Washington DC and we can't speak about this? They had a Summit recently and they come out empty handed, (with) nothing to offer and Muslims are not speaking about this! Some brothers asked "why can't you speak about issues like this Summit in the khutbah?" We say "we pray for the day when we can speak about these issues in a khutbah to answer the questions in the Muslim mind rather than to evoke more questions after the khutbah than were answered during the khutbah." It is the du'a of this humble person to see the day when we can elevate our understanding of Allah and his Prophet to speak with enlightenment about the political crimes that they are responsible for in light of the Qur'an and Sunnah without causing a mental confusion in the Muslim public. We hope these years have contributed to a foundation of the necessary information to expose these criminals in the name, appearance, garb and rituals of Islam.

This khutbah was presented by Imam Mohamed Asi on the occasion of Jum'ah on 3 April 2009 on the sidewalk of Embassy Road in Washington D.C. 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 siege.

TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING ISLAM PART 6

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THE_STREET_MIMBAR/message/672

TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING ISLAM PART 5

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THE_STREET_MIMBAR/message/655

TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING ISLAM PART 4

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THE_STREET_MIMBAR/message/641

TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING ISLAM PART 3

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THE_STREET_MIMBAR/message/633

TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING ISLAM PART 2

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THE_STREET_MIMBAR/message/575

TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING ISLAM PART 1

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THE_STREET_MIMBAR/message/514