{"id":120,"date":"2008-01-25T14:41:37","date_gmt":"2008-01-25T14:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/v2\/?p=120"},"modified":"2013-08-31T23:18:54","modified_gmt":"2013-08-31T23:18:54","slug":"gods-greatest-gift-good-guidance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/v2\/2008\/01\/25\/gods-greatest-gift-good-guidance\/","title":{"rendered":"God’s Greatest Gift: Good Guidance"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many years, I made the big mistake of thinking that I shouldn\u2019t bother Allah to ask him for silly, small things, only for the big important things. I imagined that He\u2019s too busy to care about little things. Then, one day I realized that my attitude was completely wrong. By thinking he\u2019s too busy, I had fallen into the dangerous trap of attributing human weaknesses to Allah…”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAs-sal\u00e1mu ‘alaikum wa rahmatul l\u00e1hi wa barak\u00e1tuh!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA-\u00fathu bill\u00e1hi minash shayt\u00e1nir rajeem. Bismill\u00e1hir rahm\u00e1nir raheem.<\/p>\n

Al hamdu lillahi nahmaduhu wanasta\u2019eenahu, wanastagh-firuhu, wanatoobu ilayhi, wana\u2019oothu Billaahi min shuroori an-fusinaa, wamin sayyi aati a\u2019maalinaa. May- Yahdillahu fa huwal muhtad, wa may- yudlill falan tajidaa lahu waliyan murshida. Wa ash-hadu an Laa ilaaha ill-All\u00e1h, wahdahoo laa shareeka lah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan \u2018abduhoo warasooluh\u201d<\/p>\n

All Praise is due to All\u00e1h, 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 All\u00e1h, 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 All\u00e1h, the Only One without any partner; and I bear witness that Muhammad, sws, is His servant, and His messenger.<\/p>\n

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem! Ya Ay-yuhal-latheena \u2018aamanut taqul-laaha, haqqa tuqaatihee wala tamu tun-na, il-la wa antum Muslimoon.\u201d<\/p>\n

O You who believe, – Fear Allah, as He should be feared, and die not except as Muslims.<\/p>\n

Ya Ay-yuhal-latheena \u2018aamanut taqul-laaha, wa qooloo qawlan sadeedaa. Yuslih-lakum a\u2019maalakum wa yaghfir lakum thunoobakum, wamay yu-til-laaha warasoolah, faqad faaza fawzan atheemaa.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2026<\/p>\n

My Dear Brothers and Sisters<\/p>\n

Good guidance is God\u2019s greatest gift. We cannot do without His guidance. Our lives will be absolutely bereft of any meaning, unless we acknowledge Allah and worship Him as He alone deserves to be worshipped. We can do without wealth and without good health and many other things. Although life would then be quite challenging, As long as we have right guidance, we would know where we came from and where we\u2019re going to when we die. As Muslims, we are so very lucky because we don\u2019t even have to hunt and search for the right guidance. In our Holy Quran and the life of our Prophet Muhammad sws we find all the guidance we need to be successful.<\/p>\n

Every time we recite Sura Fatiha, we begin by thanking and praising and glorifying Allah, not because he needs praise and glory, but because we are so forgetful, we need to remind ourselves of Allah\u2019s greatness and irresistible power:<\/p>\n

Alhamdu lil-laahi Rabbil aalameen. Ar-Rahmanir Raheem. Maaliki yawmid-Deen.<\/p>\n

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of All the worlds. The Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. King of the Day of Judgement.<\/p>\n

The next line defines of relations with Allah:<\/p>\n

Iy-ya kana\u2019budu wa iy-ya kanas ta\u2019een.<\/p>\n

You [alone] do we worship and from You [alone] do we seek for help.<\/p>\n

Then we come to the crux of the matter, the real core of Sura Al Fatiha:<\/p>\n

\u201cIhdi nas Siraatal Mustaqeem!\u201d \u201cGuide us to the straight path!\u201d<\/p>\n

Siraatal latheena an \u2018amta \u2018alayhim, ghairil maghthoobi alayhim, waladd dhal-leen. Ameen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe path of those with whom you are pleased, not the path of those who make you angry, nor of those who go astray. Ameen\u201d<\/p>\n

Brothers and Sisters, Allah\u2019s guidance is the greatest gift we can ever hope for. Pleading for it is the essence of Sura Al Fatiha, the first Sura of the Holy Quran. In the next Sura, Al Baqara, we read in the opening lines:<\/p>\n

Alif, Laam-Meem. Thaalikal kitaabu la rayba fee, Hudan lil mut-taqeem.<\/p>\n

A.L.M. This Book, there is no doubt in it, is a Guide to those who have Taqwa, [those who regard Allah with an awe-inspired sense of love, fear and hope].<\/p>\n

So, the first Sura teaches us how to ask for Allah\u2019s guidance, and, moments later, in the very beginning of the next Sura we are promised that Divine Guidance within the Holy Quran itself. But the Holy Scripture needs to be interpreted to us. It needs to be made visible within the human context of time, place and circumstance. So, the Holy Quran again tells us that, \u201cTruly in the Messenger of Allah, we have the finest of examples,\u201d Uswatul hasanah.<\/p>\n

Allah\u2019s guidance covers the whole spectrum of life, from personal cleanliness to inheritance laws and dealing justly with non-Muslims. Brothers and Sisters, never hesitate to ask Allah for help, even for the smallest thing. For many years, I made the big mistake of thinking that I shouldn\u2019t bother Allah to ask him for silly, small things, only for the big important things. I imagined that He\u2019s too busy to care about little things. Then, one day I realized that my attitude was completely wrong. By thinking he\u2019s too busy, I had fallen into the dangerous trap of attributing human weaknesses to Allah. He\u2019s never too busy. He keeps the planets in their orbits while feeding an ant under a black rock on a dark night in the middle of the desert. He\u2019s cares for everything from the biggest to the smallest. And he never gets tired. As we read in Ayatul kursi, the verse of the Throne:<\/p>\n

La ta\u2019 khuthuhu sinatun wa la nawm. Slumber does not overtake Him, nor sleep<\/p>\n

Wa la ya oothuhu hivthuhuma Guarding and preserving the whole cosmos does not cause Him any fatigue.\u201d So if you need anything, big or small, ask Allah.<\/p>\n

We often forget that Allah alone can help us overcome the many problems we encounter in our daily lives. The secret is to keep Allah in mind, constantly, so that when any difficulty arises, we can address it confident in the knowledge that Allah is aware of our situation. We should never face any problem on our own; Allah is with us and He inspires and authorises the solution.<\/p>\n

I remember reading a story about a young man who was keen to be a spiritual leader. But his Shaykh said to him, \u201cBefore you can hope to be a leader, you must answer this correctly. Imagine you are walking through the fields, when suddenly you are attacked by several sheepdogs at once. What will you do?\u201d The man replied, \u201cI will grab a stick or some stones to throw at them, and defend myself. His teacher smiled and said, \u201cThat\u2019s not the answer. You may hold off one or two dogs, but the others will get you. You cannot defend yourself against so many attacking you all at once. The wise answer is to call on the shepherd, call the dogs\u2019 master, and ask him for help. He\u2019ll call the dogs away and they will leave you unharmed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brothers and Sisters, this is of course a deeply philosophical story with many layers of meaning. The dogs are the problems we face in life, every day. The Shepherd is Allah. Don\u2019t try to defend yourself without Allah. You cannot win. Take Allah into your confidence. Make Him part of your life, part of every waking and sleeping moment. Allah loves it when we seek his help in big and small matters. This is another dimension of Taqwa, being constantly mindful of Allah, filling our hearts with a sense of love fear and hope. We love Allah, we fear His punishment and we are ever hopeful of His forgiveness and Mercy.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of this khutbah, we heard that, May- Yahdillahu fa huwal muhtad, wa may- yudlill falan tajidaa lahu waliyan murshida. Anyone who is guided by All\u00e1h, he is certainly guided; and anyone who has been left astray, will find no one to guide him. The key word here is guidance. Think about it. We have many blessings from Allah. We enjoy good health, we live in comfortable homes. We have a good education. We value the love of family and friends. Health, wealth and happiness; we also have Allah\u2019s guidance, through His sacred book, the Holy Quran and the life example of Prophet Muhammad sws. Which of these blessings is the most important? Which of Allah\u2019s blessings are indispensible? Brothers and Sisters, without our health, with wealth or material happiness life would be challenging indeed. But Allah\u2019s guidance would help us to endure hardship, to make suffering bearable. However, if we had no divine guidance, no matter how healthy or wealthy we were, we would be spiritually bankrupt and our lives would be empty of meaning.<\/p>\n

Let us be truly thankful to Allah that we enjoy the great blessing of His guidance. We have no excuses. We have only to apply that guidance to our lives and to be good role models to others. That\u2019s all. Let us pray that Allah accept our humble perhaps faltering, but essentially sincere efforts to follow His guidance, His Holy Quran, and His beloved Prophet Muhammad sws.<\/p>\n

Alhamdu lillahi Rabbil \u2018Aalameen. Was-salaatu was-salaamu alaa Khairil mursaleen. Muhammadin-nabeey-yil Ummiy-yee, wa-\u2018alaa aalihee, wasah-bihee, aj-ma\u2019een.<\/p>\n

Ammaa ba\u2019ad:<\/p>\n

Innall\u00e1ha wa malaaikata yusall\u00fana alan nabi. Y\u00e1 ay yuhal latheena \u00e1manu sall\u00fa alayhi wasalli m\u00fa tas leema. Allahumma salli al\u00e1 Muhammad, wa ala \u00e1li Muhammad, kama salayta ala Ibrahim, wa ala ali Ibrahim. Allahumma barik ala Muhammad, wa alaa \u00e1li Muhammad, kama barakta ala Ibrahim, wa ala ali ibrahim. Fil \u00e1la meen, innaka hameedun majeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part Two:<\/p>\n

Sub’ hanallahi wal hamdu lillah, wala hawla wala quwwata illah billah yu althi yual theem.<\/p>\n

“All glory is for Allah, and all praise is for Allah; There is no power and no strength except with Allah.”<\/p>\n

Dear Brothers and Sisters,<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a saying that goes, \u201cThe proof of the pudding is in the eating.\u201d You cannot appreciate something by just looking at it, admiring it but failing to experience it properly. Islam is no exception. There are many people, who admire Islamic art, study Islamic History, write beautiful books and give wonderful lectures about Islamic civilization, but they are not Muslim, and their hearts haven\u2019t been opened to Islam. If they regard their extensive knowledge purely as a professional career, an intellectual exercise, it won\u2019t be enough for their salvation. On the day of Judgement, Allah will not be impressed by our academic knowledge. He\u2019ll want to know how we applied our knowledge to worship him and serve His creation. Therefore, a simple uneducated person, who loves and lives for Allah with a full heart, is really more successful than someone who may have acquired Ph.D\u2019s and written scholarly books, but whose knowledge has not brought him closer to Allah.<\/p>\n

The poet Jalaluddin Rumi asks: \u201cAre you only going to admire the jug, or are you actually going to drink the water?\u201d Brothers and Sisters, to make good use of God\u2019s greatest gift, His divine guidance, we must know it in order to live it completely, wholeheartedly. Our thirst for spiritual knowledge will never be quenched by only admiring the jug. We must drink the water of Islam.<\/p>\n

Allah says \u201cAnd whomsoever Allah wills to guide, He opens his heart to Islam.\u201d Brothers and Sisters, we have Allah\u2019s guidance before us. Let\u2019s take it up and live by it wholeheartedly. This is the way to appreciate Allah\u2019s greatest gift.<\/p>\n

Let us conclude our khutbah:<\/p>\n

InnaAllaha, Yamuru bil adel, wal ihsaan, wa eetaa-i zil qurba; wa yanha anil fuhshaa-i, wal munkari walbaghi; ya-idzukhum lallakum tathak-karoon. (Sura 16:90),<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

Fadth kuroonee adth kurkum, wash kuroolee walaa tak furoon [2:152].<\/p>\n

\u201cand remember Me: I will remember you. Be grateful to Me, and do not reject faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

wala thikrul-Laahi akbar, Wal-Laahu ya\u2019lamu maa tasna\u2019oon.\u201d [29:45].<\/p>\n

\u201cand without doubt, Remembrance of Allah is the Greatest Thing in life, and Allah knows the deeds that you do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ameen. Aqeemus salaah!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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