Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 24. September 2021
This khutbah will deal with a difficult and touchy subject. It is a subject that not only must be addressed but addressed frankly and honestly. Part of this khutbah will be technical, but it is not technical for the sake of technicality. When moral and ethical perspectives are obstructed because of the technicalities, it is the job of the moral scholar and the moral jurist to address these technicalities in order to make space for morality and decency. Recently, a well-known Muslim figure...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 27. November 2020
It is so critical, when so much in the world is turbulent and confusing, that we go back to the fundamentals within our hearts and minds. Because without re-instilling the fundamentals within us, we drift. If you drift, it is only a matter of time before you are lost. If you are lost, you are without a base. If you are without a base, then you are without a being. If you are without a being, then you are staring down the face of meaninglessness; a state where meaning is lost and an anchor is...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 20. November 2020
The most basic statement that all Muslims know and are meant to internalize are the simple words, “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest). Muslims repeat this phrase in their azan (call to prayer), in their prayers, and often throughout daily life, perhaps even without much thought. But within this simple mantra is an entire philosophy. It goes beyond saying, ‘God is great,’ instead saying, “God is greatest,” which implies a relationship. Greatest in relation to what and to whom?...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 13. November 2020
The issues of representation and self-perception are always present in the affairs of Muslims. Islam is a living religion. Islam is not about idols, artifacts or dead symbolisms. Islam is about a living God that lives with us and that accompanies us in all our affairs, that is ever present with us. The minute that we forget that God is with us in everything, we in fact forget the core message of Islam. We forget the imperative of Godliness and what God and Islam are. In my late childhood, among...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 06. November 2020
The entire world is occupied in one way or another with what is going on in the United States and its elections. There is so much to observe, reflect upon and study. Recall that God intended for us Muslims to take the world as a school. A constant, enduring, unrelenting school for Muslims that see with the light of God. A Muslim that fails to learn from all that God has created is a Muslim that has steered away from the covenant that binds us to our Lord. Bearing witness means keen observation,...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 30. October 2020
October 29th was the occasion of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. This occasion cannot pass without us pausing to fully reflect upon the legacy of that great man who gave us the continuing, perpetual and individual revelation of the Qur’an. So many in this world live and die without granting themselves the opportunity of studying the meaning of the presence of that man in their temporal life. The Prophet did not just transmit the revelation of the Qur’an, but embodied the message of the...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 16. October 2020
In many khutbahs, I focus on the theme of Muslim awareness of their own realities and situations in life. I focus on shedding light on the challenges that confront us collectively as Muslims. It would be simply immoral and sinful to ignore the plight of fellow Muslims, to ignore what Muslims in China are going through, or what the Rohingyas are going through. It would be immoral to focus on topics that soothe the feelings of Muslims that reside in the U.S., who reside in relative luxury and...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 09. October 2020
I received a considerable amount of correspondence. Every week, Muslims of different orientations with different issues write to me. Among the most challenging correspondence that I receive are from women who present a problem that, by this day and age, should no longer exist. These are women who find themselves locked in marriages that they did not desire in the first place, that are abusive or that they were forced into, often by their parents. It is remarkable that a lot of these women are...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 02. October 2020
Of all the religions of the world, there is one religion that sanctified the role of the intellect. There is so much in our Islamic tradition that honors and elevates the role of the intellect in human affairs. The true nature of piety is not ignorance or obliviousness, but a fully engaged intellect that is disciplined in the path of God, wrestles with the challenges that thinking poses to human beings, and employs the gifts of the intellect in a relationship with God. It is easy to be dumb and...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 25. September 2020
The Islamic tradition is full of pearls of wisdom born directly from the Qur’an, like rays of light influenced by the guidance of the Quran. These pearls of wisdom, partly because of the nature of historical progression, and partly because of the way that Muslims have failed to take care of their own tradition, are not always easily located or appreciated. They are often scattered, sometimes even submerged in accumulations of dust, mud, ignorance, and misguidance. To locate, understand and...