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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.
And peace and blessings be upon the honour of the prophets and messengers.
Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and his companions,
a lot of peace and blessings be upon him.
My brothers and sisters, in this whole issue of the questions of how dua can be accepted,
sometimes I remind myself and you, and this is a reminder for all of us that we sometimes do things.
The intention may be good, but we find that the results are not good.
Now, you might say, well, if the intention is good, why is the result not good?
Because in the deen, especially, and of course also in dunya, a good intention alone is not sufficient.
With the good intention, we also need the right method.
And the right method is the method of Rasulullah s.a.w.
The method of the Anbiya, alayhi salam.
If you consider the time that Rasulullah s.a.w. preached Islam, when he first announced Islam,
how did he do that?
He did that in the way that Anbiya, alayhi salam, present their message,
which is clear, without any embellishment, without any change.
Without trying to water it down, without trying to sugarcoat it,
without anything, just straight as it is, as Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala ordered and commanded,
the Anbiya, alayhi salam, presented that just like that.
Rasulullah s.a.w. stood on Safa and called out,
which was like an alarm call for the people and they came running.
And he said that, I have come to announce to you that there is no one worthy of worship,
and I am not worthy of worship.
I accept Allah, and that if you do not leave the worship of others than Allah,
that you are doing, then you will be punished by Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
Now, if you think about this, and if we look at it from our perspective today,
and the kinds of arguments that we seem to present,
when we talk about dawah, people talk about how we must,
make the message palatable and how we must sweeten it,
and how we must present it in a way which is acceptable in the culture of the people
that we are preaching it to.
And that is how, for example, music came into Islam,
even though it is prohibited, and it came in the name of dawah.
Because people said, well, you know, these people are used to singing,
and these people are used to singing, and they are not used to singing.
And these people are used to dancing, and these people are used to drums,
and these people are used to flutes and to, you know, harmoniums and so on.
So therefore, we will sing khawalis and we will sing anashi,
but the anashi will be sung with music and so on,
because this is what these people are used to doing.
This is how they worship their gods.
And therefore, if we substitute the name of our God for their God,
the job is done.
Think about this.
That is exactly how it came to be.
Now, please understand that, interestingly,
the reason why the leaders of other religions permitted many things,
which were clearly prohibited in their scriptures,
was to become popular and to attract people to their places of worship.
The plea has always been the same.
If we are too strict, we will drive away the youth.
If we are too strict, we will drive away the people.
But just look around you.
Look around you, especially in America, especially all over Europe.
And see what the result of this permissiveness has been.
Right?
Not only is there a degeneration of the values and ethics and morals of society,
but even the places of worship that they tried to populate,
there is, they were unsuccessful.
Right?
For example, adultery and fornication.
Sex outside of marriage.
This has been prohibited in all religions, without exception.
You want to get married, you want to have sex, you get married.
But there is no sex pre-marriage and no sex with someone who you are not married to after you get married.
So that’s called adultery.
The other one is called fornication.
So no sex outside of marriage.
This is the rule in all religions.
But see what’s happened in the West.
Sex outside of marriage is the norm.
It is not only accepted, but this is the norm.
People not having sex until they get married or after they get married,
being faithful to their partners is the exception.
Right?
The average lifespan of a marriage, I was told the other day,
something I was reading, it said,
the average lifespan of a marriage in America is eight years.
Which means that almost everyone that you meet is, if they are married, it’s their second marriage.
They have married somebody and they have divorced.
The divorce is the norm, not remaining married.
And think about it, just one generation before that, that is the fathers and mothers of the people who are
currently married.
So people who are now in their, you know, say thirties and so, their parents, their norm was to remain married.
And we have a lot of older people who are, who have been married for 30 years, 40 years, 50 years and more.
They didn’t break up.
But their children, gone.
People come into the church and they are sitting there.
The priest is preaching.
He knows those people.
He knows that boy and that girl was sitting there are not married to each other.
He knows they are living together, but he will not raise his voice against that.
He will not say this is haram.
Although it is haram.
So just allowing disobedience of Allah, it makes absolutely no sense.
You’re allowing disobedience of God in order to populate the house of God.
How is this possible?
Tell me.
You allow people to disobey Allah so that they can come into the masjid.
Today, we grade our masajid, especially in this country, in America.
We grade our masajid by the quality of their basketball courts.
I get calls from people from various places.
Oh, chef, you know what?
I’m in, I’m in, I’m in Florida.
This is fabulous masjid.
Okay.
Fantastic.
What’s the, what’s the, you know, quality of the masjid?
Oh, you should see the basketball court.
Is this a masjid or is it a basketball court?
What are you talking about?
Why are people coming to the masjid?
Are they coming to worship Allah or are they coming to play basketball?
Masajid are graded by the quality of their basketball courts, not by how many of the
Musallis are Huffat or how many scholars grew in this masjid.
How today the great scholars of this, of, of the country and the world are people who
went to a makhtab or a madrasa in the masjid.
None of this.
You don’t hear any of this.
Huge masajid.
If the Imam is not there, there’s not one person in that hundreds of people.
There’s not one person in that who can decently lead salah or who can decently give the khutbah
of jamaah.
If the Imam is not there and they bring a janatah for, for, to pay for salatul janatah,
there’s not one person who can read salatul janatah properly.
What’s the point?
We build the building, but the masjid is not the structure.
The masjid is what happens in the masjid.
The structure is not the structure.
The structure is the structure.
The structure is the structure.
The structure is the structure.
Masajid are not graded by the quality of the dars or the number of people who attend the
dars, who come for the Quran, who come to listen to the dars, of about Rasulullah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, but by extracurricular games and play activities
that happen in the masjid.
And the excuse always is if we don’t do this, they will go to some harab place.
We have magnificent churches here.
Absolutely fabulous churches, huge buildings, massive spaces inside, beautiful architecture.
Next to that, they build the YMCA’s, which I have asked about courts and swimming pools
and the works.
And today, the YMCA’s are populated, the churches are empty.
And excuse always is, if we don’t do this, they will go to some haram place.
I submit to you that you can never give in a masjid what the world of entertainment can
give in their places.
Don’t even try.
Instead, operate on the principle of focus on your core.
This is what we teach in business consulting.
Focus on your core.
Don’t go all over the place.
Give what you have been created for.
Give what you have created your masjid for, to the best of your ability for the pleasure
of Allah alone.
And He will fill your masjid for you.
Rasool Allah said,
The Prophet established masjid and abiyya sharif for five times salah.
But people say, you know, Sharif, in this masjid, nothing happens.
So what do you mean nothing happens?
Is there five times salah?
Yeah, of course.
But that is the purpose.
That is the fundamental purpose of the masjid.
Is that going to a hospital and saying, nothing happens here.
What do you mean nothing happens?
Do sick people come here?
Yes.
Are they given medicine?
Are operations performed?
Yes.
So what is the nothing?
What do you mean nothing happens?
For every place has a purpose.
Ask yourself, what is the purpose of the masjid?
And focus on that.
The purpose of the masjid is not your basketball court.
It’s not your soccer field.
It’s not your swimming pool.
It’s not your gym.
It is five times salah.
It is recitation of Quran.
It is teaching of the Quran and the hadith of Rasulullah .
It is .
This is the purpose.
That is the reason for establishment of the masjid.
See if that is happening.
Don’t worry about anything else.
The job of the was to convey the message, not to convince people or to compel them or
attract great numbers to gatherings.
Just to convey without embellishment, without sugarcoating or anything else.
Say it like it is.
Convey what Allah .
Convey what Allah declared, the way He commanded.
Like when Ibrahim was ordered to call the adhan, he said, Ya Rabbi, there is nobody
here to hear my voice.
Allah told him, you call the adhan and I will send them and they will come on lean camels
through dry valleys.
Ibrahim called the adhan and they came.
He called the adhan and they came.
He called the adhan 5,000 years ago.
Over 5,000 years ago.
And two until today, they come.
And they will keep coming until Allah sends them.
And today they come across oceans.
In Boeing 777s and Airbus 380 planes declaring Allahumma labbaik.
Labbaika laa sharika laka labbaik.
Inna alhamda wa al-ni’mata laka wal-mulk laa sharika laka.
Trust in the power of Allah.
Trust in the power of Allah.
Trust in the power of Allah.
And do what He commanded with complete trust that He will make it happen.
That only He can make it happen.
Don’t adulterate what Allah commanded with your own thinking and try to justify it by
saying times have changed.
Our deen is timeless.
It is from Allah who is the creator of time and He is not subject to it.
Our scholars have always been clear about the boundaries and have refused to compromise.
For the best of reasons.
And the boundaries have been set by Allah and only He has the authority to alter them.
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala stated and declared.
Al-yawma akmaltu lakum deenakum wa atmamtu alaykum ni’mati.
Wa raditulakum wal-islamadeena.
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala stated clearly and He said.
Al-yawma akmaltu lakum deenakum.
Wa atmamtu alaykum ni’mati.
Wa atmamtu alaykum ni’mati.
Wa raditulakum wal-islamadeena.
Today I have perfected your faith for you and completed my favor upon you and chosen
Islam as your way.
So believe it or not, our deen is perfect.
It is the deen that has been chosen for us by Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
Don’t spoil it.
Don’t demean it.
Don’t demean yourself.
The deen is perfect.
It does not need any changes.
It is good for all time because it has been completed and chosen for us by Allah subhanahu
wa ta’ala Himself.
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala sent us a teacher, Sayyidina Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
to teach and demonstrate how to live according to Islam.
Our job is to follow the way of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
And that is why we make the dua which Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala taught us and He said.
Wa minhum man yakulu Rabbana aatina fi dhunni.
And that is why we make the dua which Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala taught us and He said.
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