Jumua Khutba

by Shaykh Muhammad al Qasabi - 3rd November 2006

Jumua Mosque of Cape Town

Shaykh Muhammad al Qasabi is Imam of the Granada Mosque

Muslims you should know that amongst the most important objectives of the Islamic shariah is being united, helping one another to goodness and taqwa and these are amongst the most fundamental goals which the shariah pursues. Our mutual experience of solidarity and gathering and mutual assistance in our obligatory acts of ibada such as the prayer, zakat and hajj and the celebrations of the two Eids is nothing but an active proof and a container of the secrets of the communal nature of our din. It also shows that the din encourages co-operation and mutual concern. There are quranic ayats and prophetic hadiths which order us to come together and forbid us from splitting up.

He says ta'ala in Surat Ali Imran:

"You who believe have taqwa of Allah as He deserves and do not die without being muslims and hold firm to the rope of Allah altogether and do not separate and remember Allah's blessing to you when you were enemies and He united your hearts. By His blessing you became brothers."

In this ayat Allah ta'ala addresses His slaves by an attribute which makes them beloved by Him and that is that attribute of iman which is defined as the declaration by the tongue, confirmation by the heart and action with the limbs. And then He orders His slaves to have taqwa which is defined as obeying the commands of Allah and avoiding His prohibitions.

Then He goes on to warn His slaves from leaving this world without being in a state of submission to Him. Since no-one knows when his death will arrive he has no alternative but to be in a continual state of   preparation and preparedness and far away from everything which the shariah of Allah has forbidden and this can only be attained by holding fast to the rope of Allah.

When the slave loves his Lord he draws nearer to him by increasing his acts of obedience, and when he is afraid of Allah's punishment or fears harm from any of Allah's creatures he should seek refuge with Allah from that because there is no safety from Him except in Him. Allah sent all His prophets to establish the din and the community and to abandon differences and divisions because that leads to conflict and conflict inevitably leads to failure and the loss of command and strength.

Allah ta'ala says in Surat al-Na'am

"Do not quarrel or you will fail and lose your sovereignty."

Concern for the unity of the community is one of the top priorities of the sharia and has always been the formative pattern of the prophets and the people of Allah. When Musa went for his appointment with his Lord he left his community in the hands of his brother Haroon. Upon his return he found them worshipping the golden calf. He was furious with them and reprimanded his brother and in Surat al Ta Ha we find the ayat:

"Haroon what prevented you when you saw them going astray from following my instructions, did you disobey me?"

Haroon said:

"Son of my mother do not take hold of my beard or take me by the head - I was afraid that you would say that I have caused a division among the tribe of Israel and had not paid attention to what you said."

Haroon's excuse for his silence in the face of what happened was his fear of breaking up the community and he preferred to wait until his brother's return. If that had happened in the present time you would find many who would have accused Haroon, who was a prophet of Allah and protected from any wrong action, of failure to denounce the greatest form of shirk. This is because the people of our time have been overpowered by egotism and made their own understanding the measure of everything and they quickly leap to accusing others of kufr and bida.

If you examine the story of Musa with al Khidr in Surat Al Kaf you will find a useful lesson in the rules of companionship and steadfastness and there are many people who are unable now to show patience in the face of something they do not understand.

Coming back to the ayat we started with the Book of Allah reminds us that amongst the greatest of Allah's blessings to His believing slaves is that He has sewn affection and affinity between their hearts and it is clear that enmity and rancour take those who have them to the fire - so have taqwa of Allah slaves of Allah and strive to implement everything that leads to the unity and cohesion of the community and know that the present weakness of the muslims in the world is due to their lack of holding together in the face of the kuffar and know that if there is a sincere intention there is no doubt that Allah ta'ala is capable of restoring might and sovereignty to this community.

And what you witness of the great actions of Shaykh Abdalqadir as Sufi in the cause of dawa in the way of Allah and his using of every possible means to ensure that Allah's words are made uppermost in the world once more and his directing his call to action to muslims in every part of the world so that they gather in the love and remembrance of Allah and his encouragement of the revival of the knowledge of the din and his opening of the schools and colleges where the knowledges may be studied and his spreading of the lights of knowledge of Allah in many languages and his spreading of Islam throughout the world will help the ummah to regain its rightful position of power in the world.

All these things are evidence of his strong intention and his absolute trust in Allah's support and in Allah's promise that he will never break and we ask Allah ta'ala to give him success in all that he does and reward him with His help that will bring victory to the din and the same for everyone else who strives to benefit the ummah of Islam.

Allah subhanawa ta'ala says in Surat al-Nisa:

"You who have iman obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you and if you have a dispute about something refer it to Allah and His Messenger."

Allah ta'ala only created His creatures to obey and worship Him - He says:

"I only created jinn and men to worship me."

And a condition of obedience to Allah is obedience to the Messenger of Allah - He says:

"Whoever obeys the Messenger has obeyed Allah."

There are people now who say that they believe in the Quran alone and do not believe in the hadith of the prophet sallallahu alahai wassalam and by the stand that they take they deny the command of Allah ta'ala in His book when He says:

"What the Messenger brings to you take it and what he forbids avoid it."

Obedience to the people of authority in the muslim community is one of the obligations of our din because our din is built on order and respect and it rejects chaos and lack of loyalty. The prophet sallallahu alahai wassalam - who received the revelation - when he sent people on expeditions and if there were more than three would appoint one of them as their amir to be obeyed in everything recognised as correct.

Therefore obedience to those in authority and respect and loyalty to them and good counsel towards them - this is one of the great elements of our ummah which has preserved its integrity and greatness throughout the ages.