بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم .اللهم صلّ على سيدنا و مولانا محمد و على آله
الحمد لله و كفى و سلام على عباده الذين اصطفى. أما بعد,
Allah {سبحانه و تعالى} has blessed us with this day, with this gathering, with this majlis, with coming together for his sake; for the sake of ʿIbādah, and only ʿIbādah, where we leave our homes, and our jobs, and our families, only to worship him, only to perform Ṣalāh and unite in His name to worship him. This unity in the name of Allah, as you can see, is most effective when Muslims join together for the sake of ʿIbādah, not for the sake of other things, because in ʿIbādah (and especially in Ṣalāh), we are required to humble ourselves in front of Allah {سبحانه و تعالى}; we are no longer the king, or the master, or the leader, or the CEO, or the doctor, or the lawyer, or the chief of the [home]; we are no longer the teacher. We are all ʿIbād, servants of Allah, worshiping Allah {سبحانه و تعالى}; so Allah {سبحانه و تعالى} removes everybody’s ego and replaces that with ikhlāṣ and sincerity for his sake.
It is a testimony of the faḍl of Allah, and also to the commitment and dedication of the Muslim ummah, that while they could be somewhere else having lunch, or somewhere else doing other business, or somewhere else at home, or whatever, Allah’s faḍl remains with this ummah (Allah keep it and increase it insha Allah), and Muslims still value this pristine form of gathering for His sake, where Allah unites everybody and everybody is doing the same thing. The imām is doing the same thing as the people behind him. People behind him [are] doing the same thing the imām is doing. This level of unity is very unique to the Muslim ummah. This level of unity comes only when Muslims decide to worship Allah, and only Allah.
In other areas of Islām, Muslims have opinions. And when they have a platform, very rarely will they join hands, and very rarely will they have one philosophy, and very rarely will they say, “We are united in this cause, for this cause.” So, Allah’s Ḥikmah in designing ‘ʿIbādāt in Sharīʾah is very clear, and Allah calls this Ṣalāt al-Jumuʿah or yawm al-Jumuʿah, the day of gathering or the Ṣalāh of gathering, where Allah joins the minds and the hearts – and also the physical actions – of all Muslims collectively throughout the world, universally. This is how you express the unity of Islām, and the unity of Muslims.
We are very quick to say Muslims are not united, which may be true, but where they are united, we should observe and bear testimony and give shahādah to the world. That on this issue throughout Muslim civilization, we have always remained united. Who unites us? Allah.
{لو أنفقت جميع ما في الأرض ما ألّـفت بين قلوبهم ولكن الله ألّف بينهم}
O Muhammad {صلى الله عليه وسلم} if you were to spend everything on earth, have seminars, symposiums, do research, and invest millions and billions and trillions of dollars to unite them, you would not unite them; but Allah, he has united their hearts.
So [when] Allah’s name is mentioned sincerely, purely out of Ikhlāṣ, for the sake of worship and dedication and devotion, then Allah unites us. When you remove Allah from the equation and you bring the dunyā in, then there is no guarantee that Allah will unite us. It’s a done deal. So instead of asking the question, “Why are Muslims not united?” we should ask the question,“When are Muslims united?” And when you answer that question, you will be relieved. You won’t have this stress hanging over your head. You will not have this burden that we are doomed, and we are nothing, and we have given up the Dīn; Muslims do not have this and that, they do not have economic power, political power, military power, academic power, they do not have any power; but Baba, have you ever looked at what power they do have? Have you observed this?
{سنريهم آياتنا في الآفاق و في أنفسهم حتى يتبين لهم أنه الحق}
Allah’s promise is that, ‘indeed we will show them our signs, our evidences, our proofs, in the horizons outside of human beings, and within ourselves,’ that He is the truth, He is the Haqq. One call for Ṣalāt al-Jumuʿah, what happens? Muslims leave their jobs, leave their families, leave their workplace, leave their education, leave the dunyā and come here, on one call. If this is not unity, then what is?
You are responding to the call of the Ghayb. Where is Allah? Allah is bil-Ghayb {بالغيب}. When you respond to the ghayb and believe in the ghayb, the ghayb then reciprocates and unites us, whether we know it or not. This is the truth, and it’s right in front of us. Muslims in this country can go to Chicagoland and see every masjid, every center, every Muṣallā where they do Ṣalāt al-Jumuʿah, see how it is filled to the brim. Some places have two Jumuʿahs, and even then, it is not enough. Some towns have three Jumuʿah, and even then it is not enough. So while we become the commentators, the Monday morning quarterbacks, as they say in this country, and the pseudo coaches of the ummah, we must not let go of the reality that Allah is the Haqq. {حتى يتبين لهم أنه الحق} Allah is the Haqq. When Allah is the Haqq, then he does what he does.
And what does he do? {ولكن الله ألّف بينهم} Allah unites them. Allah is saying this to Muhammad {صلى الله عليه وسلم} who is the most magnetic, charismatic, influential leader in human history. He is saying this to him {صلى الله عليه وسلم}, that even though you have nubuwwah, even though you have this charisma and this magnetic, appealing personality, if you were to spend all the resources in the dunyā, you will not be able to do so. [All resources! {سبحان الله}] When a husband and wife have a dispute, they go to counseling, hopefully, or they go to their families, or they go somewhere, and they spend time and money to come together. Here Allah {سبحانه و تعالى} is saying that, if you were to bring time and money to bring them together,
{ما ألّـفت بين قلوبهم} you will not be able to do so. Who does so? Allah.
What I am saying my dear brothers and sisters is that the way we observe the Muslim ummah should not be through the lens of ours. Not our lens: “Oh! This is not contextual, this is not relative any more, this is not relevant any more. We are no longer relevant to the world, or to America, or to the culture of America.” That is the most fundamental mistake. Why? Because we are not observing Allah’s raḥmah, the way Rasulullah {صلى الله عليه وسلم} observed Allah’s raḥmah. We are not observing the world, the way Allah {سبحانه و تعالى} asked Rasulullah {صلى الله عليه وسلم} to observe the world.
Allah says in his promise {سنريهم} ‘We will most certainly, indeed, show them that He is the truth.’ So, if there is a third party, a bystander outside, who has never seen this before in his life, and he was observing this from the outside, what would he see? You tell me, what would he see? Or, if he went to the masājid where they have thousands of people for Ṣalāt al-Jumuʿah, what would that person see? Would he see a community that is disciplined and organized? Or, would he see a community that is not organized? Would he see a community that is united, or a community that is not united? The truth is very clear. {أنه الحق} He is the Haqq. When you respond to Allah’s call for ʿIbādah bil-ghayb, from the ghayb, then Allah unites us.
So the Sharīʾah of Muhammad {صلى الله عليه وسلم} is designed to unite the whole ummah through ʿIbādāt; and look at the five pillars: the Shahādatayn, Ṣalāh, Ṣawm, Zakāh and Ḥajj. You’ll see that it is a spectacle. These are the months of Ḥajj, Mashāʾ Allah, Allah give us the barakāt of the month of Ḥajj. What a spectacle! What a spectacle! That you see an ocean of people, you see a sea of people, and they are united doing the same thing. For what? For money? For glory? For politics? For economics? For social liberation? For human rights? Why in the world is everybody doing the same thing? {سبحان الله}
And you see that it’s on satellite images, and it is in your youtube, and in your phone. People sending images from there, and everybody in the world is seeing that. What is it that they are seeing? Stop analyzing the world the way you want to! See it from the perspective ofʿIbādāt: where there is Ikhlāṣ, there is sincerity, there is purity. And when you see that among Muslims, then you will have time to say, “Alḥamdulillah! We still have this.” Then you have time to be optimistic: Alḥamdulillah! We still have this. There is time for you to say there is hope: Alḥamdulillah, Allah is still with us. There is time for you to understand the first ayah of Qurʾān, in a practical application in a living human history:
{الحمد لله} All praise due to Allah, {رب العالمين} the Lord of the worlds.
So, Allah has not left the affairs of Sharīʾah on ʿIbādāt to human imagination. That came all through waḥy, from Prophet Muhammad {صلى الله عليه وسلم}, from Allah{سبحانه و تعالى}. But, this is the way you are going to organize yourself. Now, what does this mean? It means Allah’s {سبحانه و تعالى} ḥikmah is that when we stick to our basics, when we stick to our fundamentals, we appreciate that the basics are designed to make us a very superior ummah. We should not knock down the five pillars and the base, and say “well, these are fine, but we have been there.” No, you have not; you did not see anything yet. You refuse to. Why? Because, it’s the media that tells you this is the way you should see. It is your education that tells you this is what you should see. It is your whining, bickering, complaining about the world that tells you this is what you should see. “I should see the ummah as being disunited.” Allah said, {ولكن الله ألّف بينهم}: Allah is the one who unites the Muslim ummah.
This is a niʿmah upon Muhammad {صلى الله عليه وسلم} that he did not need to work the way he wanted to work to unite the ummah. He followed Waḥy. Once you follow Waḥy, the ummah is united. Once you move away from Waḥy, the ummah will no longer be united. Then [the Prophet] said, in his Khuṭbat al-Widāʿ {تركت فيكم اثنين} that if you hold, grasp on to the two things I am leaving you, {كتاب الله و سنتي و عثرتي وأهل بيتي} the Kitāb of Allah and the sunnah, {لن تضلّوا بعدي} then you will never be misguided. Meaning that our observation of the world must be guided by Waḥy, by the Qurʾān, by the sunnah, by Muhammad {صلى الله عليه وسلم}, by the Ṣaḥābah. This is how it is. Now, these small issues (relatively) to the unity of the ummah, are to be seen as tolerated and accepted differences. This is how the ummah used to be.
So, my dear brothers and sisters, this gathering here, this day here, is called yawm al-Jumuʿah and the Ṣalāh is called Ṣalāt al-Jumuʿah: the Ṣalāh of gathering, the day of gathering. Is that evident here? Yes! You have to be a fool to say it is not evident. The proof is in the pudding. What else do you want? We’re like a fish in the water saying: where is the water? A fish, swimming in the water, saying: where is the water, where is the water? {أين الماء؟
أين الماء؟}. It is right here! You are swimming in it! Where is unity? It is right here, you are swimming in it.
{ولكن الله ألّف بينهم} Allah is the one who unites the ummah. We are not the ones who unite the ummah. When it comes to Ībādāt, we fulfill the sunnah, Allah unites us bi-al-ghayb: through the ghayb. It is not through human resources that we unite the ummah. This is what the Qurʾān is saying, in a surah that talks about ghanīmah: spoils of war, ṣūrat al-Anfāl. Allah placed this ayah right there, so that Muslims can wait a minute. Hold your horses! Be careful how you want to go about creating unity in the ummah through disunity! We do not want to do that.
So my dear brothers and sisters, what I am trying to say is that Allah {سبحانه و تعالى} has blessed us, and we should see this blessing as a blessing. We should see Islām as a blessing. We should see the five pillars as a blessing. We should see the Qurʾān and sunnah as a blessing. If we close our eyes, then it will not be a blessing. Why? Because in the Western world, or in our minds, or through our education, this is not a blessing. It has yet to be proven a blessing.
{لاحول و لا قوة إلا بالله}.
So the Qurʾān says, immediately, about itself , {لا ريب فيه} there is no doubt in this. There is no shakk in this book. It is revelation, period. Why are you doubting? Everything else in the world has to be measured against the Qurʾān. That’s what {لا ريب فيه} means. Every other source of guidance has to be measured against the Qurʾān. Every intellectual theory must be measured against the Qurʾān. This is the meaning of {لا ريب فيه}. But do we do that? Yes! When? When we worship Allah! We do not question why there is two rakaʿāt in Jumuʿah and four rakaʿāt in Ẓuhr. Do we question? What! Should we have a convention? Let’s have a seminar and discuss it! No, no, no! This came from Waḥy. This came from the Prophet {صلى الله عليه وسلم}. We are not questioning that.
Our theories about the dunyā are about the dunyā, they may work and they may not work. The laws of physics and science, they may be real, they may be sometimes not real, but if they work, they work. Alḥamdulillah. And we use all of these laws of physics and nature to run this masjid. They may change, but Waḥy does not change. Because that came from Allah {سبحانه و تعالى} bi-al-ghayb. So my appeal to you and me, is that we start believing in the ghayb.
May Allah {سبحانه و تعالى} shower us with this faḍl. May Allah {سبحانه و تعالى} continue his faḍl upon us. May Allah {سبحانه و تعالى} unite the ummah even more than it is united.
آمين يا رب العالمين
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SHAYKH MOHAMMED AMIN KHOLWADIA
A transcription of a lecture delivered by Shaykh Amin | darulqasim.org/reflections