MSH.16 NOV 2010.EidKhutbah.PREPOST.ENG

Ummat an-Nabi Has the Highest Honor

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

16 November 2010    Burton, Michigan

`Eid al-Adha Khutbah at As-Siddiq Mosque

As-salaam `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Alhamdulillah, nasta`eenahu wa nastaghfirahu wa nastahdi, alhamdulillah alladhee haadana li-hadha wa maa kunna li-nahtadi law la an hadaan-Allah...man yahdillah fa laa mudilla lahu wa man yudlil fa laa hadiya lahu. Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar wa lillahil-hamd......wa laa yakhfa `alayhi al-`ilan wal-israar. Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar wa lillahil-hamd. Subhaanalladhee nawwar quloob al-`arifeen...Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar! Laa ilaaha ill 'Llah! Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar wa lillah-al-hamd....    alhamdulillah alladhee ja`ala al-ka`batu qiblatan lil-anaam wa fadala ayyam ....wa ja`la `eidan li ahl al-islam...fa idhaa afadtum min `Arafaatan fadhkurullah `indal-Masjid al-Haram. Alladhee j`ala al-Ka`batu al-Bayt al-Haram qiyaaman lin-nas....Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar! Laa ilaaha ill 'Llah wa lillahil-hamd. Wa nashadu an laa ilaaha ill 'Llah ....wa nashada anna Sayyidina wa sanadana wa mawlana Muhammadan rasoolullah... Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar! Laa ilaaha ill 'Llah. Allah Akbar wa lillahil-hamd...wa `ala baqiyyat as-sahabat wat-tabi`een ridwanullah ta`ala `alayhim ajma`een... ya ayyuhal-muminoon al-haadiroon ittaqullah wa ati`ooh inn Allah ma` alladheen attaqaw wal-ladheena hum muhsinoon.

O Muslims! Believers! Allah (swt) honored us and we have to listen carefully, all of us. He honored us with a big honor. Above that honor there is no honor. Lower than that honor there are too many, but our honor has been the greatest. Why? Because He made us from ummat an-Nabi (s). That is a favor which no one can thank Allah enough for. Whatever you are standing for, day and night, that is not enough to give Allah (swt) His right for creating us from ummat an-Nabi, and greatness of the Prophet (s) is the greatness of the ummah. That is why we must always be thanking Allah for making us from that ummah!

Allah (swt) said, "You are the best ummah sent to humanity, calling for the good and advising to avoid evil." Kuntum, in past tense, since the Day of Promises you were the best ummah, not because of us but because of Sayyidina Muhammad (s)! It is our duty to raise the name of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) and to be proud to say anywhere, "We are Muslim. We follow Islam and the religion of Sayyidina Muhammad (s)!" Nahnu ummatan wasatan. We have to know what kind of religion we are following. Don't interpret the verses of Qur'an and show the religion as extreme. No, the Prophet (s) said, "We are a moderate ummah, so stay in the middle." We are following the footsteps of the Prophet (s); therefore, we cannot call for fitnah. Prophet (s) said, "Fitnah is dormant and Allah cursed whoever brings it up." Anyone, an imaam or normal person, who tries to make fitnah for Ahl al-Islam by bringing something up will carry that sin forever, for making the ummah look bad.

Sayyidina Musa (a) asked Allah (swt) to make him from ummat an-Nabi! He said, "no" but Sayyidina `Isa (a) also asked to be from ummat an-Nabi and Allah said, "For you, I will." And so we believe that `Isa (a) is coming when ignorance fills Earth and once all predictions that the Prophet (s) predicted have passed, then Sayyidina `Isa (a) will descend from Heavens on the white minaret in the land of Sham, the land of resurrection. The Prophet (s) said that all people will be resurrected in that small peice of earth and all will fit. And most prophets are buried in Sham. 

So Sayyidina Musa said, "Make me from ummat an-Nabi." As Allah gave him the Tablets, al-alwaah, he read them and found the honor and favor of Ummat an-Nabi (s) in them. He found it in these tablets and he said, man hadhihi al-ummat al-marhoouma, "Who is that ummah that You have granted them Your mercy and Your forgiveness? I am seeing it written in the tablets You gave me." Allah (swt) answered, "That is the ummah of the Prophet Muhammad (s)! I give them and they are happy with whatever I give them and I accept from them even if they do a small `amal. I am not putting on them too much difficulty." Five prayers, not 50 prayers. As Bani Israel, He gave a lot of duties (for them), but for ummat an-Nabi it is five prayers and fasting is 30 days only, not longer; and still people are not fasting. They say, "We are sick," "O I hurt my finger," and we ruin our fast with backbiting and spreading false rumors against each other. "I accept from them the easy works and enter them into Paradise with saying laa ilaaha ill 'Llah Muhammad Rasulullah.

According to a hadith in al-Adab al-Mufrad of Bukhari, the hadith relates that all nations come to the Prophet (s) for his intercession. And first he says, "I am interceding for my nation first." But still we are not happy. Allah has granted us something to save us in akhirah and we are not happy. All day we find something to complain. And he (s) said, "I will go into sajdah in Allah's Divine Presence and I will recite prayers no one has ever heard before. Allah will open in my heart prayers that I never heard before and never been inspired by it." What kind of prayers? Different language than Arabic? And he (s) says, "I am not asking anything except what You promised me. Give me my ummah!" And Allah says, "Take one-third to Paradise with no account." The two-third are feeling miserable. It might be that their husbands or wives are taken and they are left there. 

The sun is going to be over the heads of people by three feet; you burn but you don't disintegrate, as that is Allah's miracle, kun fayakoon. And the Prophet (s) will go into sajdah another time and will make all kinds of prayers. Then finally Allah says, "What do you want? Raise your head and ask." The Prophet (s) says, "I want them. I won't go into Paradise without them!" We can say they are like his (s) children. An army general will never leave a soldier behind. And the Prophet (s) says, "I cannot leave them behind." And Allah (swt) says, "Take one-half of the remaining two-third." The rest remaining will feel the pain, heat and suffering. They will be afraid. O Allah! Help us and forgive us.

We cannot do anything. The minbar is on behalf of ummat an-Nabi (s); it should not be for politics, it has to be for the message of the Prophet (s), the message of Islam, not for politics. The masajid are for Allah, not for the chair or to be in politics. So the last one-third are remaining, crying and praying. And the Prophet (s) goes into sajdah and Allah opens to his heart du`a never opened before and Prophet (s) asks for the rest. Allah (swt) with His endless mercy says, "Take them all, except that one. That one is the worst one." The Prophet is happy and takes them into Paradise and begins to intercede for other nations. And Allah (swt) Himself says to that remaining one, "Do you think the Prophet's (s) mercy is more than Mine? I am the Most Merciful!" And He sends that one to Paradise. 

Try to minimize complaining. Say, la hawla wa la quwatta illa billahi 'l-`Aliyyu 'l-`Azheem. Don't complain; leave that in Allah's hands.

Sayyidina Musa (a) was reading further in the tablets and he said, "Yaa Rabbee! I see they are resurrected on the Day of Judgment and the light of their faces is like the moon shining from the light of the Prophet (s), who is the sun. And if You don't want me to be from that ummat an-Nabi (s), then make them to be my ummah."
Allah said, "No, they are the ummah of Sayyidina Muhammad (s). They are not for you. I gave you your ummah, which is Bani Israel. And I gave Sayyidina `Isa (a) a different ummah. So don't ask for ummat an-Nabi to be your ummah."
Then Sayyidina Musa said, "I see that ummah is being resurrected on their mounts and they are carrying their swords and going against the anti-Christ, the False Messiah, that comes near the Day of Judgment. Make me their ummah."
Allah said, "No, that is ummat an-Nabi."
Then he said, "I saw in my tablets that they pray five times a day and that the Heavens open for them and all angels descend to them when they are praying. Make them my ummah."
And Allah (swt) said, "No, they are ummat an-Nabi."
And at the end he said, "Yaa Allah! Make me from ummati Muhammad!"
Allah said, "No, that is not for you." 

Look, a prophet is asking to be from ummat an-Nabi and although we didn't ask, we still received that honor! We are not better than Sayyidina Musa (a), but Allah honored us. That is enough to make us happy day and night, not to be stubborn and arrogant. Arrogant for what? Allah can crush us in one second. Even the small ant that you cannot see was able to call her people:

حَتَّى إِذَا أَتَوْا عَلَى وَادِي النَّمْلِ قَالَتْ نَمْلَةٌ يَا أَيُّهَا النَّمْلُ ادْخُلُوا مَسَاكِنَكُمْ لَا يَحْطِمَنَّكُمْ سُلَيْمَانُ وَجُنُودُهُ وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ

Hatta idha ataw `ala wadi annamli qaalat namlatun yaa ayyuha an-naml udkhulu masaakinakum laa yahtimannakum sulaymaanu wa junooduhu wa hum laa yash`uroon.

Till, when they reached the Valley of the Ants, an ant exclaimed, "O ants! Enter your dwellings unless Solomon and his armies crush you, unknowingly." (27:18)

It means, "Be careful! Run to your homes before Sulayman destroys you." How did they hear that ant? It had a microphone, mobile phone, computer, Skype? Every ant was able to hear its voice. Can we have that power? No, but still Allah made us from ummat an-Nabi (s). May Allah (swt) grant us to always be thanking Him for making us from ummat an-Nabi, and not from other umaams, that are in their graves since a long time ago. We are going to be in the grave for the shortest time. Some of them are in the grave for thousands of years! People might say, "We might stay for thousands of years also." If you believe like that,  you are coming against Holy Qur'an. No, Allah knows the Unseen; we don't. But Allah said:

اقْتَرَبَتِ السَّاعَةُ وَانشَقَّ الْقَمَرُ            

iqtarabata is-sa`at wanshaq al-qamar 

The Day of Judgment approached and the moon split. (Al-Qamar, 54:1)

When the moon split by the order of Prophet (s), he said, "I have been sent near the Judgment Day as these two fingers are near each other," and he held up his two fingers. 

O Mu'mins! Don't count years, count days.

إِذَا زُلْزِلَتِ الْأَرْضُ زِلْزَالَهَا

idha zuzilat al-ardu zizaalaha,
When the Earth is shaken with her (final) earthquake." (99:1).

That shaking will make what is up to go down and what is down to go up, and it may happen at any moment. As Sayyidina Ali (r) said, "Do for your life of dunya as if you are living forever, but live for Akhira as if you are going to die tomorrow," as if you are going to leave suddenly and go. May Allah make us not to die except in our beds, because sudden death is hard on the family. And may He give us normal death, with normal sickness and pain; many go like that. Your father (an attendee) died in 2003, in Ramadan, in a masjid in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They were praying taraweeh and the imaam went into sajdah, then stood up, but his father did not; he died in sajdah. May Allah forgive us. Ya fawzan lil-mustaghfireen astaghfirullah.

Du`a.

Allahuma salli `ala Sayyidina Muhammad. Du`a.

We will do ziyarah to the holy hair of the Prophet (s). I want to say one thing, that the ladies went upstairs, and that is better for them as that is a higher level for them and from now on it is better if they go upstairs (to the designated area) as it is more piety for them. Kullu `am wa antum bi-khayr.