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ãäÒáÉ ÇáäÕíÍÉ
Ýí ÇáÅÓáÇã
Summary
1) The keenness
of Muslims to draw ever closer to Allaah.
2) The great bounty
of advice.
3) The virtue of
accepting advice.
4) The lofty rank
of those who give sincere advice.
5) The true meaning
of advising Allaah.
6) The true meaning
of advising His Messenger sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam.
7) The true meaning
of advising the Book of Allaah.
8) The true meaning
of advising the Muslim leaders.
9) The true meaning
of advising the Muslims in general.
10) The
continuous celebration for the obedient.
First Khutbah
O Muslims! The beauty of this life with all its
glitter and joy can never be an obstacle for the humble believers which prevents
them from drawing close to Allaah and from being steadfast in this with firm
steps and an unremitting determination which never weakens.
Those people whose main concern is worldly gains
pay the utmost attention to this and jealously guard their gains and high positions
in life. Likewise, the people of vision and direction who are upon the right
path, the true slaves of the Most Merciful, are extremely eager to protect their
high levels of faith, unyielding certainty in Allaah, deep piety, purity of monotheistic
belief, precision in following the Sunnah, and
the soundness of their words and actions. This is why, as they aim to preserve
the worldly bounties and great favours that Allaah has bestowed upon them, such
people always bear in their minds and hearts that the greatest bounty Allaah has
bestowed upon them after that of belief in Him and being firm on Islamic monotheism
is the gift of facilitating for them sincere brothers in faith who always advise
them and remind them of Allaah; those who inform them of some of their mistakes
which they are unaware of and enlighten them about the areas in which they have
shortcomings, as well as advise them to avoid that which would lead to their destruction.
Indeed by following this advice, such people draw closer to success and
guidance.
Knowing all this makes the believer fully
comprehend the wisdom and sincerity in the words of some of our pious
predecessors, may Allaah have mercy upon them, when they said: "Know
that the one who advises you is the one who truly loves you and that the one
who flatters you with sweet talk is in fact deceiving you."
Slaves of Allaah! Accepting advice and reminders are
noble qualities and honourable manners; they reflect the soundness of ones mind
as well as fine qualities and inward purity. People who possess such gracious
characteristics fully understand that humans have faults and shortcomings, are
prone to error and always make mistakes; they also realise that perfection is
rare and that they cannot combat their wickedness and correct their mistakes
except by the help of Allaah and then with the assistance of those honest believers
who offer advice to them.
The true accuracy of these words can only be understood
by those who fully comprehend the meaning of the word ‘advice’, as the scholars
of Islaam have defined: "The one who gains all that is good is the one
who accepts advice." This is because the word ‘advice’
linguistically in the Arabic language means ‘to purify’ (i.e., a person will be
purified from his mistakes as a result of the advice he receives and acts
upon).
How can anyone doubt the precision of these words
after knowing that he who refuses to accept advice becomes ensnared in the trap
of arrogance and destroys himself by refusing to accept the truth? Do such
people who refuse advice not fear that they might be among those whom Allaah
describes in His Book when he says that which means: “And when it is said to him: 'Fear Allaah,' pride in the
sin takes hold of him. Sufficient for him is Hellfire. And how wretched is the
resting place.” (Al-Baqarah: 206).
How can anyone doubt the accuracy of these words
while they recite the Book of their Lord day and night and discover how Allaah
punished previous nations due to their arrogance, pride and rejection of the
advice of their Prophets and Messengers; such as in the story of Thamood where the people of Prophet Saalih, peace be upon him, refused to heed his
advice and closed their ears to his warnings, Allaah says that which means: “So they hamstrung the she-camel and were insolent toward
the command of their Lord and said: 'O Saalih! Bring
us what you promise us, if you should indeed be of the Messengers. So the
earthquake seized them, and they became within their home [corpses] fallen
prone. And he [i.e., Saalih] turned away from them
and said: 'O my People! I had certainly conveyed to you the message of my Lord
and advised you, but you do not like advisors.” (Al-A’raaf: 77-79).
Slaves of Allaah! It is due to the noble status and
lofty rank of those who give sincere advice that the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam
greatly stressed upon it to those who came to him pledging to become Muslim. Ziyaad Ibn ‘Alaaqah,
may Allaah have mercy upon him, said: "I heard Jareer
Ibn ‘Abdullaah, may Allaah be pleased with him, on
the day Al-Mugheerah Ibn Shu’bah,
may Allaah be pleased with him, died saying after praising Allaah and
glorifying Him: 'Fear Allaah alone, and maintain order and tranquillity until a
new leader comes to you.' Then he said: 'Ask Allaah to forgive
your deceased leader (Al-Mugheerah) because he used
to love seeking forgiveness from Allaah’ then he continued by saying: ‘I
came to the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alayhi
wa sallam and said to him:
'I want to give you my pledge of becoming a Muslim', so he sallallaahu
‘alayhi wa sallam greatly stressed upon this saying: “You must give advice to every Muslim.” so I
pledged to do so. I swear by the Lord of this mosque! I am telling you this as sincere
advice to you (as pledged to the Prophet sallallaahu
‘alayhi wa sallam)." (Bukhaari).
Dear brothers! It is no surprise then that the definition
of the entire religion of Islaam given by the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alayhi
wa sallam is 'to give
advice'. Tameem Ad-Daari,
may Allaah be pleased with him, narrated that the Prophet
sallallaahu ‘alaihi
wa sallam said three times:
“The religion (of Islaam) is to give advice.”
His companions, may Allaah be pleased with them,
asked: “To whom O Prophet of Allaah?” He replied: “To Allaah, His book, His Messenger, to the leaders of
Muslims and to the Muslims in general.” (Muslim).
Imaam Ibn Hajar, may
Allaah have mercy upon him, commented on this Hadeeth by saying:
·
Advice to Allaah means to establish pure monotheism by believing in
the oneness of Allaah, His divine Lordship and all His names and attributes; to
fully submit to Him inwardly and outwardly; to give precedence to the rights of
Allaah over the rights of all others; to seek His pleasure by performing what
He loves; to fear His wrath by refraining from His disobedience; and by working
hard to aid the disobedient to return to the path of Allaah.
·
Advice to the Book of Allaah means learning it; teaching it to others;
acting upon it; learning how to correctly recite it, understanding its meanings;
adhering to the boundaries it sets; and defending it from the liars and
fabricators who strive to defame and distort it.
·
Advice to the Messenger of Allaah sallallaahu
‘alayhi wa
sallam means loving him; obeying him; supporting
him (i.e., his Sunnah), reviving his Sunnah by learning it, teaching it to others and
applying it; imitating him in his words and actions; and shunning innovations
and extremism in all matters of religion.
·
Advice to the leaders of Muslims means helping them fulfil their
responsibilities; warning them whenever they become heedless and uniting people
under their leadership. The leaders of the Muslims also include those who are leaders
in terms of their knowledge, such as the well known scholars; advising them means
spreading the knowledge they impart as well as their good qualities.
·
Advice to Muslims in general means being kind to them, facilitating
whatever benefits them; preventing harm from afflicting them; loving for them
what one loves for himself; and hating that harm would ever afflict them, just
as one would hate it to afflict himself.
Second Khutbah
Slaves of Allaah! One of the issues which many of
our pious predecessors, may Allaah have mercy upon them, have addressed, is the
issue of ‘Eed, or Islamic celebrations and
what they signify and entail. Some of them said: "’Eed
is any day during which one does not disobey Allaah." This means that such
days are a cause for joy in the same way as ‘Eed is,
but not that they are celebrations or festivals in the Islamic terminological
sense.
Slaves of Allaah! Indeed every day that a Muslim
refrains from disobeying Allaah is one of celebration, so work hard to always
desist from all acts of disobedience so that all your days are a celebration.