Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 15. September 2023
On so many occasions in the Qur'an, God puts us on notice for something that, if we were people with any level of reflection and deliberation, we would already know innately and intuitively. God alerts us to the sheer capacity for ifsad—for corruption, spoliation, and exploitation—that human beings do, indeed, possess. In Surah al-Rum, God tells us that corruption has spread everywhere, and that the source of this corruption is human beings themselves through the exercise of their volition...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 17. March 2023
We are now in the countdown to Ramadan. By next jumu'a, we will have already begun the month of Ramadan. As I have noted for a number of years now, every Ramadan is an occasion for the Ummah to pause and reflect upon the past year, how that year compares to the years before it, and to think of the coming year, the challenges ahead, what must be achieved, and what must be accomplished. As we approach the month of Ramadan, the United Nations, acting through the offices of its Human Rights...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 03. March 2023
Once we take seriously the duty of testifying in the path of God for the sake of justice, or testifying in the path of justice for the sake of God (Q 4:135; 5:8); once we understand that the two are interchangeable and indistinguishable; once we understand that God is not about communal activities that affirm a sense of identity; God is not about Muslim camps in which people come together to indulge in gossip and chitter-chatter, endlessly talking about mindless topics; once we understand that...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 13. January 2023
We live in a world in which advances in technology and communications have enabled human beings to deliver narratives. Human beings are now able to transmit narratives without any of the screening or vetting processes that are typically used in societies, especially as societies develop and become settled and urbanized. Throughout history, societies have developed mechanisms by which narratives are vetted so that certain things are scrutinized. For example, you may try to scrutinize that the...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 30. September 2022
Embedded within my conscience, and what should be embedded in the conscience of every Muslim who takes his or her religion seriously, is God's refrain in Surah Al Imran: “...and that there might grow out of you a community [of people] who invite unto all that is good, and enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong: and it is they, they who shall attain to a happy state!” (Q 3:104). This is further underscored in the same surah: “You are indeed the best...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 19. August 2022
In Surah Al-Hajj [verse 41], God tells us about the concept of tamkeen [empowerment]. Those, who when empowered, possess autonomy, self-determination, the ability to direct their own affairs. God does not tell us to what extent, but the context seems to be quite clear that if you are enabled with any amount of power, any degree of self-determination, any degree of autonomy, any extent to which you are able to decide upon your own affairs and determine your own direction in life, God lays it...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 20. May 2022
There is an image that is hard to ignore, that really puts Muslims to the ultimate test. The image is quite simply this: An excavator, a big monstrous truck beginning to tear down the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is accompanied with a caption stating the destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque will begin on May 29th, inviting all Israelis to come to Al-Aqsa Mosque so that the tearing down, the dismantling, and the destroying of Al-Aqsa Mosque can begin. This call for the destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque to begin...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 22. April 2022
We are already in the third jumu’a of Ramadan, and already in the last 10 days of Ramadan. This month of contemplation and reflection, the rare passing opportunity at rebirth, is already coming to a close. I wish that we could speak about the last 10 days of Ramadan without having to confront the reality of what is happening in the Aqsa Mosque, but before I delve into this, the entire plight of the Aqsa Mosque, which has become habitual - but not predictable in a mundane and unimportant...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 15. April 2022
I do not know how anyone can take the podium this Friday and dare talk about anything other than what is transpiring in our beloved Jerusalem and our beloved Aqsa Mosque. As I say this, I am certain that there will be plenty of khutbahs and plenty of mosques that will not even mention the Aqsa Mosque. But what is new, right? This is the sign of the ailment and disease of our Ummah. First, it would be immoral to not mention the fact that throughout the West Bank, Israeli forces have been killing...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 11. March 2022
It is not an exaggeration to say iman (faith) - that most basic, core thing - is the seed for everything that has to do with our Islam; within everything that has to do with our relationship with God, with the Prophet, with the history of Islam, with the tradition of Islam. At the very heart and core of iman is a very important concept, that being to trust. Someone may claim, "I believe" but at the same time, they do not trust that God knows what is good for them or for others. They do not...