Khutbah: Rent Not Paid
Arshad Gamiet/Royal Holloway Univ. of London/ 9th November 2007.
“As-salámu 'alaikum wa rahmatul láhi wa barakátuh!”
“A-úthu billáhi minash shaytánir rajeem. Bismilláhir rahmánir raheem.
Al hamdu lillahi nahmaduhu wanasta’eenahu, wanastagh-firuhu, wanatoobu ilayhi, wana’oothu Billaahi min shuroori an-fusinaa, wamin sayyi aati a’maalinaa. May- Yahdillahu fa huwal muhtad, wa may- yudlill falan tajidaa lahu waliyan murshida. Wa ash-hadu an Laa ilaaha ill-Alláh, wahdahoo laa shareeka lah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan ‘abduhoo warasooluh”
All Praise is due to Alláh, We praise Him and we seek help from Him. We ask forgiveness from Him. We repent to Him; and we seek refuge in Him from our own evils and our own bad deeds. Anyone who is guided by Alláh, he is indeed guided; and anyone who has been left astray, will find no one to guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Alláh, the Only One without any partner; and I bear witness that Muhammad, sws, is His servant, and His messenger.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem! Ya Ay-yuhal-latheena ‘aamanut taqul-laaha, haqqa tuqaatihee wala tamu tun-na, il-la wa antum Muslimoon.”
O You who believe, - Fear Allah, as He should be feared, and die not except as Muslims.
Ya Ay-yuhal-latheena ‘aamanut taqul-laaha, wa qooloo qawlan sadeedaa. Yuslih-lakum a’maalakum wa yaghfir lakum thunoobakum, wamay yu-til-laaha warasoolah, faqad faaza fawzan atheemaa.”
O You who believe, - Be aware of Allah, and speak a straightforward word. He will forgive your sins and repair your deeds. And whoever takes Allah and His prophet as a guide, has already achieved a mighty victory…
“Ya ay yuhan-naasut taqoo Rabbukum min nafseew waahida, wakhalaqa min haa zawjuhaa, wabath-thamin huma rijaalan katheeran wanisaa-a. Wat-taquLaah hal lathee tasaa aloona bihee, wal arhaam. Innal Laaha kaana ‘alaykum raqeebaa.”
“O mankind! Show reverence to your Guardian-Lord, who created you from a single person, and created, of like nature, His mate, and from the two of them scattered (like seeds) countless men and women;- Show reverence to Allah, through whom ye demand your mutual (rights), and (show reverence to) the wombs (That bore you): for Allah always watches over you.” [Sura Nisa 4:1]
My respected Brothers and Sisters,
In my last khutbah we looked at our relationship with Allah, using the analogy of a landlord and his tenants. We can better understand this relationship if we think of Allah as the Generous Landlord of the universe, Who gives us everything for our benefit, and all that He expects as rent, is for us to acknowledge Him and to say, ‘Thank You’. This analogy and indeed this khutbah is based on an excellent speech by Shaikh Abdal Hakim Murad. It’s entitled: ‘When the Generous appears with the name Avenger’ and it was delivered at an Islamic conference in London in 1999, after a devastating earthquake that hit Turkey during that year.
Shaikh Murad uses the Landlord/tenant analogy and my previous khutbah only refers to the first half of his speech. Insh Alláh, in this khutbah I will try to deal with the other half of what he said. What happens when the tenant refuses to acknowledge the landlord, and refuses to pay the rent? What happens when people who enjoy Allah’s countless blessings every day, every moment, simply refuse to accept Him and offer thanks for His boundless generosity?
In surat al-Furqan, Allah tells us:
‘The Messenger said: My Lord, my people have taken this Qur’an as something abandoned.’
Perhaps this could be the epitaph of the traditional Islamic world. Many Muslims still adhere to [some] aspects of the Qur’anic message; but there seem to be whole sections of the revelation which we read, formally, but fail to digest. A little later in the same sura we come to one of these forgotten Qur’anic themes. The text reads:
‘And We gave Musa the book, and appointed with him his brother Harun as a supporter. Then We said: Go together unto the people who have denied Our signs. Then We destroyed them, with a destruction that was complete.’
‘And Nuh’s people, when they denied the Messengers; We drowned them, and made of them a sign for mankind. We have prepared a painful punishment for those who work injustice.’
‘And the tribes of Ad, and Thamud, and the dwellers of al-Rass, and many generations in between.’
‘To each of them We coined parables; and each of them We destroyed without a trace.’
We have read these verses many times. And we know that they were addressed, the first time they were heard on earth, to the heathen of Quraysh, as a warning. Earlier nations who had denied God’s signs were swept away by His punishment. If they persisted in denying sayyidina Muhammad (sws) they were opening themselves up to the same possibility.
Allah has names of Beauty: Al Rahman, Al Rahim, Compassionate, the Merciful, the Gentle, and many others. But He also has Names of Rigour: Al Jabbaar, the Overwhelming, Al Adl, the Just, Al Muntaqim, the Avenger. The world in which we live exists as the interaction and the manifestation of all of the divine attributes. Hence it is a place of ease and of hardship, of joy and of sorrow. It has to be this way: a world in which there was only ease could not be a place in which we can discover ourselves to be true human beings. It is only by experiencing hardship, and loss, and bereavement, and disease that we rise above our egos, and show that we can live for others, and for principles, rather than only for ourselves.
A feature of this world, this dunya, is therefore the existence of catastrophe. Sometimes this catastrophe takes the form of a test: in which case it may be a gift. At other times, however, it may take the form of a punishment. The dunya is, as the athar states, ‘the prison of the believer, and the paradise of the kafir.’ But sometimes Allah’s anger at the repeated and scornful denial of His signs can lead to a sudden snatching away of the delights of this world.
My dear Brothers and Sisters, one of the early Muslims said:
‘Know that when one of Allah’s servants sins against Him, He deals with him leniently. Should he sin again, He conceals this for him. But should he don its garments, [that is, should he wear the clothes of sin and become completely shameless] then Allah conceives against him such wrath as the very heavens and the earth could not compass, neither the mountains, the trees, nor the animals; what man could then withstand such wrath?’
One of the purposes of the Qur’an is to explain to us the risks involved in rejecting the will of Allah. If we obey our Creator, and respect His attributes, and emulate those attributes to the extent and in the way that is appropriate for us, we become like Adam and Hawwa, upon them be peace. We are restored to the fitra, to the primordial norm of our species. And we gain our designed place as Allah’s khalifas over the natural order.
However, if we turn our backs on the source of our being, if we face the blackness of space rather than the sun, if we reject infinite unity and prefer infinite multiplicity, we have become anti-khalifas; or rather, we have become the khalifas of Iblis, not of Allah. We acquire the attributes of Iblis: so that like him we become deceivers, liars, cowards, lovers of dirt and impurity, cynical advocates of empty pleasures.
To reject our God-given status as khulafa of our Maker, and to accept a position as khulafa of Iblis, is hence to deny our own humanity. We share in his primordial sin: like him, we refuse to acknowledge Adam, that luminous saint before whom even the angels must bow down. Instead, we prostrate ourselves before our own whims, our own desires, our own all-too-fallible judgements.
A-ra’ayta man ittakhada ilahahu hawah, says the Qur’an:
‘have you seen the one who takes his own passions to be his god?’[S 25:v43 and S 45:v23]
Violating the normality of our kind is a crime against the one who designed that normality. It’s a denial of His wisdom and artistry. And this violation can also render us vulnerable to the inherently rigorous forces of nature.
If we forget Allah, why should He care about us? If the tenant refuses to pay the rent, the Landlord has no obligation to maintain the property. Whenever we suffer floods, global warming and earthquakes, obviously something has gone wrong with planet earth’s plumbing, air conditioning, and the stability of its foundations. Why should our Landlord care about our troubles if we’re ignoring Him and not paying the rent?
We follow one material pleasure after another. Life becomes a series of short, pleasant experiences; but true lasting happiness eludes us. Why? Because we’re looking in the wrong places. We’re disconnected from our Maker, from our origins and from the Source of our being. The only way back is via the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad sws: the path that leads back to Allah, back to safety and security, back to wellbeing and lasting happiness. All other routes lead nowhere. They are paths of deception, signposted by Shaytaan with his false promises.
Brothers and Sisters, we can choose to travel in endless distraction after empty pleasures, or we can follow the Path of Allah with the promise of paradise. Allah, as we know for certain, never breaks His promise.
Alhamdu lillahi Rabbil ‘Aalameen. Was-salaatu was-salaamu alaa Khairil mursaleen. Muhammadin-nabeey-yil Ummiy-yee, wa-‘alaa aalihee, wasah-bihee, aj-ma’een.
Ammaa ba’ad:
Innalláha wa malaaikata yusallúna alan nabi. Yá ay yuhal latheena ámanu sallú alayhi wasalli mú tas leema. Allahumma salli alá Muhammad, wa ala áli Muhammad, kama salayta ala Ibrahim, wa ala ali Ibrahim. Allahumma barik ala Muhammad, wa alaa áli Muhammad, kama barakta ala Ibrahim, wa ala ali ibrahim. Fil ála meen, innaka hameedun majeed.”
All praise is due to Alláh, the Lord of all the Worlds; may the greetings and peace be upon the best messenger, Muhammad, the unlettered prophet; and upon his family and upon all of his companions. Amma ba’ad, And, after this,
Behold, Alláh and his angels shower blessings on the Prophet. O you who believe! Ask for blessings on him, and salute him with a worthy greeting.
O Alláh! Send your greetings upon Muhammad and his family, just as you sent your greetings on Abraham, and his family. O Alláh, send your blessings on Muhammad and his family, just as you blessed Abraham and his family. In both worlds, you are praiseworthy and exalted."
Part Two:
Sub' hanallahi wal hamdu lillah, wala hawla wala quwwata illah billah yu althi yual theem.
"All glory is for Allah, and all praise is for Allah; There is no power and no strength except with Allah."
My respected brothers and sisters,
Some people meet their death in horrific circumstances: a car accident, an earthquake, drowning in a flood or through violence inflicted by others. Some people die peacefully in their sleep. No one except Allah really knows how, where or when we will die, but we are all absolutely sure that one day we will die.
“Kullu nafsin thaa ikatul mawt”
“Every soul will have a taste of death” says the Holy Quran, “and only on the Day of Judgement shall you be paid your full reward. Only those who are saved far from the fire and admitted to the Garden will have attained the object of this life: for the life of this world is but goods and chattels of deception.” [Sura Al Imran 3:185]
This powerful verse 185 of Sura Al’Imraan says it all. Everyone of us will die, and we will not necessarily see true justice in this life. Our full reward waits in the next life, on the Day of Accounting. We must take account of our lives now, and make amends, before we are brought to account.
Brothers and sisters, let’s enjoy every good thing that Allah has put at our disposal in this life, but let’s not get emotionally attached to it. Don’t allow the pleasures of life to deceive us. The pleasures of dunya will pass. Every created thing passes. But what endures forever is our faith, love for Allah, and all the good works that flow from this state of the heart. I pray that Allah in His infinite mercy and love, will keep you and me and all our families and dear friends sincerely devoted to Him, loving Him and thanking Him, as grateful tenants should do, paying our rent on time, to our generous Landlord.
To end today’s khutbah,
InnaAllaha, Yamuru bil adel, wal ihsaan, wa itaa-i zil qurba; wa yanha anil fahshaa-i, wal munkari walbaghi; ya-ith-thukhum lallakum tathak-karoon. (Quran 16:90),
"Surely Allah commands justice, good deeds and generosity to others and to relatives; and He forbids all shameful deeds, and injustice and rebellion: He instructs you, so that you may be reminded."
Fadth kuroonee adth kurkum, wash kuroolee walaa tak furoon [2:152].
“and remember Me: I will remember you. Be grateful to Me, and do not reject faith.”
wala thikrul-Laahi akbar, Wal-Laahu ya’lamu maa tasna’oon.” [29:45].
“and without doubt, Remembrance of Allah is the Greatest Thing in life, and Allah knows the deeds that you do.”
Ameen. Let the prayers begin! Aqeemus salaah!
JazakAllah khairan.
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