Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl delivers the Friday khutbah at Princeton University, 29 March 2019. Dr. Abou El Fadl reminds us of the sanctity of human life, the light of the soul that is uniquely divine, given to each human being regardless of faith or lack of faith or any other distinction. Each human soul is endlessly valuable, thus the Quranic exhortation that to murder a soul is as if to murder all of humanity. This only begins to suggest the horror, devastation and moral abomination of the murder of over 12.5 million Muslims in wars and the like over the past 20 years--a conservative yet well evidenced and documented estimate. Muslims will be held to account by God as to what they did with what God gave them to address this abomination. This is especially pertinent for those Muslims with privilege, like those at Princeton. Dr. Abou El Fadl reminds us that Muslims must exert their best efforts according to what God has given them to address the moral crises of our age.
As is the tradition of the Princeton Muslim Life Program which hosts the Friday khutbahs at Princeton, each khutbah is followed by an original du'a by a female member of the congregation. The du'a this day was given by Grace Song, Executive Director of the Usuli Institute. Delivered 29 March 2019.