Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 19. March 2021
In the Project Illumine tafasir halaqas, the last surah we dealt with was Surah al-Najm, a surah that is profoundly eloquent, profoundly beautiful in its meter, music and in its descriptive power. Furthermore, the meaning of the surah is remarkably earth-shattering. For so long, Surah al-Najm has been considered a surah that relates to the Isra wa al-Miraj and the ascension of the Prophet to the Heavens to be in proximity to the Divine. It has unfortunately become the center point in a rather...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 12. March 2021
SubhanAllah, who has left us with the eternal message; the continuing, perpetual and eternal prophecy of the word of God until the Final Day. The Qur’an is like a living prophet, it speaks to us. But the prophecy does not have an impact in this world unless there is an audience that is willing to listen to the words of the Prophet and implement these words into an actual methodology, an actual way of life. The Prophet died and left with us the actual, eternal word of God. But where are the...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 05. March 2021
With the remarkable rate by which time passes, and how time is seemingly experienced in such a relative, specific and intimate fashion, life seems to slip by one's fingertips. Every day rolls into another, every week rolls into another. Nothing remains constant nor unchangeable in this journey that is life, except for God. One way or another, we encounter a question in this journey that often is like a companion in existence, a question that perhaps every mumin (believer) feels, or at least...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 19. February 2021
The Prophet, in so many of the lessons that he imparted to his ummah, taught a path of personal integrity, self-respect, dignity and honor; a way of existing in society that is aspirational in nature. It set as a moral objective a certain type of character and a certain type of ethical order that the individual must, as a Muslim, be endowed with and seek to fulfill. We witness one of these core lessons in the well-known hadith reported by Abu Sa'id al-Khudri. He heard the Prophet say, "Let no...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 12. February 2021
The message of your Lord has been completed in truth and justice - anchored in the easily recognizable human qualities of truth and justice. The challenge is to live as truthful people; live in truth with ourselves and against ourselves; truth with others and against others; and justice for ourselves and for others. This is the essence of the message of the Lord; the essence of the monotheism of Islam. God warned us that it is no easy task to live in truth and in justice; and, in fact, raised...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 05. February 2021
Although the Prophet was the bearer and the communicator of the revelation - of the Qur'an - it is well reported that he loved to hear the Qur’an recited by others back to him, especially by those who have a beautiful voice that could give power to the voice of the Qur’an. A dua that he would repeat often, that had become a cornerstone of understanding the relationship between the Prophet and the Qur’an, goes in part: “Make this Qur'an the spring of our hearts, the light of our chests,...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 29. January 2021
How often does the Qur'an alert us to the fact that it is intended to be a paradigm shift? The very opening of Surah Al-Baqarah directs our attention to the momentous reality of the revelation. This book, which prevails over doubt, serves as a guide to those who want to embrace and follow the path of guidance. To follow this path, you have to believe in ghaib (the world of the unseen). You must be one who internalizes in their heart the world of the unseen, the non-material world. You must...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 22. January 2021
As in its nature, life never ceases to come up with its pleasures, distractions, delusions and challenges. Every day that you wake up, you are part of the theater of life. It is a theater full of richness and meaning, but only if you are able to find it. Life is like a dazzling show, full of surprises, glimmer, glamor and tragedy. But the meaning that flows in the heart of all these events often eludes us. It is the hardest thing to uncover, and even harder to hold onto and internalize in your...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 10. July 2020
Life on this earth makes sense if and only if it is a temporary abode with consequences and results, a state that has been ordained by someone bigger than this life, that understands its objects and its purpose, and that decreed it. In life, it is tempting to lose sight of the fact that this is a purposeful existence. Either we exist in a world measured by justice - and in order for justice to be the premise of our existence, there must be a Creator and Owner - or we exist in a whimsical,...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 03. July 2020
Dr. Abou El Fadl recently watched a video that unsettled him so much that he found it very challenging to focus on anything else. The video was of a woman – a widow and orphan herself with one child - in Egypt, pleading for help because a police officer started harassing her six months ago, demanding that she submit to him sexually. When she refused, he arrested her younger sister – a divorcee with no children – and has kept the sister in detention without charges for several weeks. The...