Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 18. August 2023
As I was preparing for this week’s khutbah, I was struck by how many issues I could choose to focus on. There are so many incidents and events unfolding, so many occurrences that, in direct and indirect ways, are relevant to Muslims. When confronted by so many grand issues that drown the consciousness and overwhelm the intellect, I often escape to micro-level events, for these help us to unpack and unravel the much larger events that surround us in the world. This week, what caught my...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 14. January 2022
Every week, I ask people to send me writings with a view towards what would be appropriate to talk about at jumu’a. The articles that I end up reading in preparation for khutbahs are somewhat like getting a pulse on the ummah and what exists in our day and age. These days, getting to that pulse is often, if not always, a traumatizing endeavor. It is when we feel that sense of trauma that we are reminded of how much the ummah is connected. Imagine Muslims as a single unit, as parts of a single...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 07. January 2022
There is an interesting story receiving a modest amount of attention in the regular sources of media in the world; but if things were as they should be, this story would receive a great deal of attention. In the European Union, there is a system by which European countries have a revolving system of presidency over the European Union (EU). So, in six month periods, different countries have the opportunity to assume the official role of being the president of the European Union. Currently,...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 17. January 2020
Tawhid, in the sense of monotheism, is the realization that this existence has a Maker, an Owner; someone responsible for it that is not the product of chance. The one God, which is the core of Tawhid, can have no partners precisely because it is a God who is not subject to the laws of human beings, nor the laws of physics, nor the laws of time and space, nor the logic of human beings, physics or mathematics. Islam is the only religion on this earth that is firmly anchored in the theology of...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 27. December 2019
"TAWHEED AND TRINITY: WHY IS MONOTHEISM SO HARD?" 27 December 2019 Dr. Abou El Fadl begins with the reminder that there is no simpler, straight-forward and unadulterated creed than the creed of Islam. Islam is the creed of intuition (fitra) because intuition tells us that there is a God and God is singular and immutable and not subject to the same laws of creation; God is the first cause of the created world. We dwell in a world limited by laws of existence. Islam came to existence before...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 20. December 2019
"THE SYMBOLIC CALIPHATE" 20 December 2019 Dr. Abou El Fadl reminds that we are but guests in the existence, that accountability is the first principle of justice and that God will hold each individual accountable for what each has committed, intended or achieved in their lifetime. Recently, there was a notable Islamic conference that took place in Malaysia. This conference – attended by Turkey, Iran and a few other Muslim countries; with the UAE excluded and Saudi Arabia and Egypt vigorously...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 13. December 2019
"LIBERATION FROM MYTHOLOGY AND THE POWER OF A WHITE JESUS" 13 December 2019 Dr. Abou El Fadl reminds us that the message of God and His prophets has always been the same in its central themes, its basic precept, and in the normative, ethical, moral message and trajectory brought to humanity time and again, which can be summed up in the phrase, “There is no god, but God”. We worship no One but God and submit to no One but God. It is a simple and straightforward message. There is only One God...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 06. December 2019
"RETURNING THE GAZE: A WALK THROUGH THE BIBLE" 6 December 2019 Dr. Abou El Fadl begins with the caveat that he will deliver a different kind of khutbah. The modern age of information comes at a time in history when Muslims are at one of their weakest points. Information is power, and power negotiates information. Information is not simply an objective reality that is presented, or data that you either take or leave. Information is intimately connected with power. The flow of information...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 30. August 2019
Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl reminds that the Qur’an, as the final revelation and the final message given to the final Prophet came as humanity had sufficiently matured to the point that they could preserve the testament of faith in a book rather than rely on miracles. Once humanity reached that point, the prophecy ended, and the responsibility was fully borne by human beings to become God’s representatives on earth. God’s will only materializes through human beings, as fully accountable and...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 05. July 2019
Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl begins by reminding that Islam is a theology of logic and common sense, and describes what it means when God tells us that God is with us, but that there are rules--like the laws of nature, the laws of gravity or the laws of causation--as to what God will and will not bless or partake in when it comes to human actions. He reminds of what actions would cause a severance from the divine. Returning to the foundations of the faith from the time of the Prophet, he reminds...