Juma Khutba – 3 Voices

Allahﷻ created us and sent us into this world for a short period of time. During this time, He promised to take care of all our affairs in return for which He gave us the honor of establishing His Deen on the earth. وَمَا خَلَقْتُ ٱلْجِنَّ وَٱلْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ مَآ أُرِيدُ مِنْهُم مِّن رِّزْقٍ وَمَآ أُرِيدُ أَن يُطْعِمُونِ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ هُوَ ٱلرَّزَّاقُ ذُو ٱلْقُوَّةِ ٱلْمَتِينُ Zariyaat 51: 56-58   I did not create jinn and humans except to worship Me. I seek no provision from them, nor do I need them to feed Me. Indeed, Allah ˹alone˺ is the Supreme Provider—Lord of all Power, Ever Mighty. Allahﷻ created us to know Him and to worship Him and to enable us to do that not only did He take care of all our needs, but He also gave us a system, the Deen of Islam, whereby every action of ours becomes an act of worship if it is done with the right intention and in the right way. Both intension and method are important, and one doesn’t nullify the need for the other. Allahﷻ sent us His Messengerﷺ to teach us by word and action how to apply Islam in our lives. That is the Sunnah of Rasoolullahﷺ which is the Field Book of the Qur’an. The orders are in the Qur’an. How to carry them out, we learn from the blessed life of Rasoolullahﷺ. If we do this, then every action of ours, from eating, to sleeping, to working, to studying, to marrying, to raising children; in short, every action that we do for our own benefit will be rewarded by Allahﷻ. We do the action to fulfill our need, but if we do it in keeping with the Sunnah, we will be rewarded for it. It was narrated from Abu Dharr (R) that some people from among the Sahaba of Rasoolullahﷺ said to him, “Ya Rasoolullahﷺ, the rich people will get more reward. They pray as we pray, and they fast as we fast, but they give in charity from their excess wealth.” Heﷺ  said, “Has not Allah given you things with which you can give charity? Every Tasbih (Subhaan Allah) is charity. Every Takbeer (Allahu Akbar) is charity. Every Tahmeed (Al-hamdu-Lillaah) is charity. Every Tahleel (Laa ilaaha ill-Allah) is a charity. Enjoining good is charity. Forbidding evil is charity. Having intercourse (with one’s wife) is charity.” They asked, “Ya Rasoolullahﷺ, if one of us fulfils his desire, is there reward in that?” He said, “Do you not see that if he does it in a Haraam way he will have the burden of sin? So, if he does it in a Halaal way, he will have a reward for that.” (Muslim). What more can we ask for? Live your life normally. Do whatever you like. Enjoy yourself. Set great financial, political, educational, family or community goals and achieve them. Become rich, famous, successful, and powerful. But do it as Allahﷻ ordered and as Rasoolullahﷺ showed us. And we can have all we desire in this life and Jannah when we meet Allahﷻ.  Rasoolullahﷺ was all these things and more. In a purely worldly context, Rasoolullahﷺ was the most successful human being ever. He took his people from being the weakest, least influential, most oppressed, and persecuted to becoming role models and undisputed leaders of their land in just 23 years. He inspired the creation of great empires which ruled the world for over a thousand years. His message permeated the psyche of the world and founded universities and educational institutions, spanning boundaries of time and geography. His model of life is a model of success for anyone who wants to use it, Muslim or not. And for the Muslim it is the ticket to Jannah. The biggest fact to note is that unlike the so-called ‘greats’ of the world, he did all this without wars, bloodshed, or oppression. He won hearts and minds over by his unbending commitment to truth and reason and his beautiful manners. In a world which is characterized by compromising truth, justice, and compassion for the sake of political power, it is good to remind ourselves, that Rasoolullahﷺ had and inspired more political power than anyone can hope to do today but he did that without c...