Al hamdu lillahi rabbil ‘alameen. Was salaatu was salaamu ‘alaa ashrafil mursaleen. Sayidinaa wa nabi’na wamoulanaa Muhammadin wa’ala aalihee wa sahbihee wasallim.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters

Today’s khutbah is about reviving the Individual, so that we can become more effective as a community. It is based on an article by Khaled Is-haque, and was published in a magazine called "the Muslim" some years ago.

Individuals committed to serving Islam, are like building bricks fused together to form a solid wall. Each individual, like a brick, must be strong and capable of withstanding the loads and stresses that it is called upon to bear. Just as each brick must be fully burnt and purified in a kiln and pass certain minimum standards, so too an individual has to go through a process of training and development in order to be an effective ambassador of Islam. But what is involved in this construction of the individual? What has the individual got to do in order to prepare for this God-given role? These are fundamental questions – because, a pre- requisite to the revival of Muslim society is a revival of the individual or the self.

The starting point in this process is what the Qur'an calls the qalb – the human heart. Look at yourself and you will find inside you a whole universe - emotions, desires, urges, instincts - which motivate you from within. The qalb does not mean the pump which pushes blood around the body -- it means the centre or locus of the personality which is pumping motivations, desires and urges and which makes us do what we want to do. The Qur'an goes on to explain that this is the key to ourselves. Our success depends not on what we are physically, nor on what we do, but on what lies at the centre of our personality.

The Qur'án declares that

"Except the one who comes to Allah with a sound heart on the day of Judgement,"

no-one will be successful in the eyes of Alláh. Another hadíth of the Prophet - peace be upon him – says,:

"Beware, there is a piece of flesh in the human body. If it is right, then the whole body is right and sound; and if it is corrupted then the whole body is corrupted. Look, this is the 'heart'."

According to the Qur'an, the basis of corruption stems from within ourselves. The social institutions may be corrupt, there may be exploitation and abuse in the economic sphere and politics, but the basis of all these diseases lies inside our heart.

The Qur'an says 'The disease (is not somewhere in the body, it) is inside their heart."

What it is that stops man from seeing right and doing right, that turns him blind?

The Qur'an explains 'It is not the eyes which go blind but it is the heart inside you which goes blind."

This then is the basic starting point for any [Islamic] Movement, and any effort to improve human conditions. It should be our starting point. [It is] - to purify the heart and then summon it to the service of Alláh, through service to mankind, whether it be in a professional career, in government, in political institutions or in economic ventures. For us who are committed to Islam as a Movement and who are involved in the path of Jihad, attention should always remain riveted on keeping the heart - the centre of our personality - pure. Our whole attention must be focused on this continuous struggle. All the rites that have been prescribed by the Qur'an reach out to purify the deepest regions of our self.

The Qur'an states "It is not the flesh and blood that reaches Allah, it is the taqwa within your heart that finds acceptance. "

If the individual is the primary building brick of society, then the heart is its foundation within each man. The important question is therefore how should we set about preparing this most basic of building bricks. First we must understand that the 'heart' must submit totally and exclusively to its Creator. It cannot be compartmentalised - we cannot dedicate one piece of it to Allah, and another to some other god, like our wealth, our status, our career, our families and so on.

There is a beautiful verse in the Qur'an, which throws light on the absurdity of such a situation. It tells about some of the Mushrikin [those who associate partners with Alláh] who sacrifice animals and then say that one part of the animal is for Allah and another is for their other idols. Then it asks us to remember that whatever is assigned to Allah is also, in reality, assigned to the idols, because Allah does not accept something divided. He is One, indivisible, and wants us to be undivided in service to Him. So long as we remain divided within ourselves, so long as our heart lies in a hundred places, so long as our eyes are set in a hundred directions, so long as our destination is not one but many, we shall never be able to achieve that first condition for building a strong and pure Islamic personality.

Dear Brothers and Sisters

Why do we allow divided loyalties to capture parts of our heart? Nothing of this world is going to be of use to us when we die, however hard we may have striven for it and however valuable it might seem to us. We must recognise that the prizes we should want are not the worldly possessions received from human beings like ourselves. It is only our Creator who can put a real value on our striving and bestow the real reward.

The Qur’án asks, "Shall I tell you of a 'business' which will deliver you of a tormenting punishment?" This 'business' amounts to a man committing his whole undivided being to Allah alone, and selling himself in order to seek His pleasure. This is the first step towards the building of the individual. The second step is to love Allah.

The Qur'an says "Those who believe, love Allah more than anything."

It does not say that one must love only Alláh, and no one else. Love is a blessing given to us by Alláh, which is manifested in so many aspects of life. In Islam, however, it must be foremost for Allah, our Master.

What is love? Perhaps it cannot be defined in terms, which adequately reflect its nature and importance in man's life. It is not possible to define it by a formula as we define a scientific fact, nor can we define it by a mathematical equation. But still each one of us knows what love is and can tell, from his own experience, the powerful force that it is once it comes to reside in the heart. It becomes the overpowering force in life. It captivates you, it grips you, it moves you and you are prepared to do anything for the sake of it. Once love is there, what you do is not something, which has to be imposed upon you, because you need imposition only for the things you do not love.

Iman is something, which must penetrate deep in our heart and generate love for Allah and His Prophet, more than for anything else. Unless that happens inside you, you cannot even get the real taste of Iman. According to one Hadíth, nobody can taste Iman unless Allah and His Prophet are more beloved to him than everything else. But we must remember that this love for Allah and His Prophet is not of a kind to take us into the seclusion of a monastery. It is a love that makes us do our duty to Allah while we are in the street, at home or at work - everywhere we live as servants of Allah, willingly making every sacrifice required of us. Whether or not we have that love is something for each one of us to closely examine. One of the criteria is that if you love something, one of your most intense desires is to get nearer to it. Now we have a way in which we can come nearer to Allah and 'talk' to Him, and that way is the Salat. The Prophet said that when a person performs Salat, he actually comes nearer to Allah and talks to Him.

If you look at how you pray five times a day, you will have a barometer in your hand to find how much you love Allah. Once you are praying to Him, you are in front of Him, you are near to Him, you are talking to Him, you are responding to Him in gratitude, you are asking for His forgiveness. Prayer is not just a ritual in which you go through certain postures. The soul has to surrender itself exclusively to Allah and love Him. This love is like a seed which, as it grows, envelopes the entire personality. This will make us the sort of person Islam needs today.

The next question is how to nurse and cultivate this seed of Faith, Iman. The most important nourishment for it, is the Qur'an itself. We know that the first workers of the Islamic Movement got their training from the Qur'an. It was their guide, their light, their leader. It is a treasure house of soul-stirring inspiration and wisdom. We can, and we should spend much effort in trying to understand the Qur'an. There are thousands of pages of Tafseer to read. But we must know that the real test of benefiting from the Qur'an lies somewhere else. We must translate those divine words and ideas into action, in our own lives.

The Qur'an, itself says that when people really listen to it their faith must increase. Where there is a fire there is smoke. If the fire of iman has been lit inside the heart, there must be smoke, and you will see that those who truly listen to the Qur'án, and allow their hearts to be affected, their eyes begin to well up with tears which trickle down their cheeks. Sadly, many of us listen to the Qur'an or read it, but our hearts are not moved, nor do our lives change. It is as if water is failing on a rock and flowing away. Our task is to replace this hard rock with soft absorbent soil, so that the Qur'an may nourish the seed that has been planted.

We should always study the Qur'an as if it is being revealed today. One of the greatest injustices we do to the Qur'an is that we read it as if it was something of the past, and of no relevance to the present.

The next method of sustaining the seed of iman is to develop a strong bond of brotherhood, Brotherhood reinforces man's life like nothing else. The Qur'an says "you bind yourself with those who call upon Allah morning and evening. " As soon as you have planted the seed of íman in your own heart, you will recognise it in someone else. You find that he agrees with you, and you feel ten times stronger, It has been proved experimentally, that 'group' life is one of the most powerful ways to stimulate and inspire [people].

The final method to nourish the seed of Imán is Da'wah - to strive and invite others to the path of Allah, the same path as you are following yourself. Again, if the faith is there inside you, this is a necessary outcome of it. As Imán increases you get aroused and you want to go out and tell everybody what you think is right or call upon them to join your mission and your group. Moreover, as your group grows, your Imán grows as well, each reinforcing the other, and that is how the whole of life becomes integrated and finds a path to what pleases Alláh.

To sum up, You, the individual, are the key to the [Ummah], and your 'heart' is the key to you.

Let us pray to Alláh, to help us make our hearts strong in faith, Imán. help us purify our hearts of all pollution, of unworthy desires and obsessions. O Alláh, help us to increase our love for You, and our love for all Your creatures, and help us increase our desire for doing the things that please You. Help us in our effort to come nearer to You, to seek your Forgiveness, Love and Mercy. Help us to fulfil our role as your khaleefatulláh, your ambassadors, on earth, and to reach that divine destiny that You have decreed for us.

Ameen!              Aqeemus salaah!