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“Indeed, Your Enemy is The One Cut Off” | Khutbah
This verse was revealed in response to a particularly nasty insult directed at Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Our existence and adherence to his way and character is within the context of this verse.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. We bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasalam is his final messenger. We ask Allah to send his peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him and those that follow in his blessed path until the day of judgment and we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen. Dear brothers and sisters, from a purely spiritual perspective for a moment, completely punting anything to do with the current political climate or context regarding what is taking place in France and what is sparking certain global conversations. Inna shaniaka huwal abtar. Verily, your enemy, O Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasalam, is the one who is cut off. The word that Habib used to describe the French president, Abtar, today and looking into that term, Abtar, and the context of that verse. How often do we read surah al-kawthar? It's a really short surah. So, especially those who are accustomed, I should say all of us as we're maybe trying to get quickly through a salah or whatever it may be or a short time, al-kawthar comes very quickly. But like surah al-asr and some of those other short surahs that we read, it has such a profound meaning and a context. Inna shaniaka huwal abtar. And I want us to go back to what this meant to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam who received these verses in response to the taunts and the insults that were being hurled towards him sallallahu alayhi wasalam. And this was a particularly unique one, a particularly hurtful one that thrived on concepts from jahiliyya, from the days of ignorance. They used this claim against the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam. They said that you will be abtar, you are cut off, you are a distanced one.
After the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam's baby boy died. Because they said that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam does not have sons, he only has girls. And we know the attitude in the days of ignorance that people had towards daughters. Allah tells us about it multiple times in the Quran. The days of ignorance, they saw daughters as a curse and sons as a blessing. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala completely reversed that discussion, not saying that sons are a curse, but that they are all blessings. And that is Imam Ahmed rahimahullah said the prophets are the fathers of daughters. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam loved his daughters. And in a society where people buried their daughters alive, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam treated his daughters like queens. He treated them with a special type of treatment that no parent gave to their child, even a father to a son in that deeply ignorant society. But when they said to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam as his two sons passed away in infancy, they said to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam that your name will not survive. No one will carry your name. Abtar, you're cut off. Your four daughters will go on and get married and carry someone else's name, their children will carry someone else's name and you will be cut off. And that was a form of the taunting and the mockery towards the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam in a deeply vulnerable moment. It hurt the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam to bury six of his seven children and to add to that injury and say you are a cut off one. Abtar is literally an animal that has his tail cut off. Nothing will survive you. No one will remember your name. No one will speak your name. No one will carry your name. Fast forward to where we are right now. How many kids in the world are named Muhammad? SubhanAllah, it really is a miracle.
How many kids in the world are named Muhammad? Let's just talk about that one particular insult of Abtar, the most popular male name in the world. In fact, the most popular name in the world and by the way now in the top 10 even in the United States, Muhammad, the highly praised. Because just as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ We have exalted your mention that the name of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam will be shouted 24 seven through the adhan, through the call for prayer. That ash-hadu anna Muhammadun Rasulullah will be in the intimate conversations that people have with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala 24 seven in their prayer around the globe. That no matter what time of the day it is and no pandemic can take it away. Everywhere around the world there are people saying sallallahu alayhi wasalam, sending their peace and blessings upon him. Around the globe, around the clock and no pandemic and no insult and no fear can take that away. His name is exalted forever sallallahu alayhi wasalam and exalted in the hereafter as well as he has the highest level, the most praiseworthy station in paradise. So think about those moments and how they tried to hurt him and they called him abtar and look how it all turned around. And this is the sunnah of Allah with the righteous and with the prophets and specifically with the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam. All of the prophets were opposed, humiliated, fought against and people tried not just to kill them and persecute them but to remove the athar, remove the effects of their message. Whether it was Moses or Jesus or whoever it may be, whether it was Yusuf alayhi salam thrown into the well and then into a prison cell rotting away only to find the same people that threw him into the well in front of him as he sits on a throne now. Every single one of them went through this but what does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say to us?
To izzu man tashaa wa to zillu man tashaa. Allah honors whom he wills and Allah humiliates whom he wills. We say it every single night in our witr of salah, in our qunoot. Inna hu la yadhillu man waleyt wa la ya'izzu man adayt. Allah will not allow for his beloved ones to be humiliated. Eventually they will be honored and those that seek to humiliate them will be humiliated and they will be dishonored. And this is a personal lesson that we should take by the way that when we are upon the truth, when we are upon righteousness and persecuted for that, may Allah put us on the truth and on righteousness and persecuted and hated and insulted for that, that eventually, allahu waliyul ladheena amanu. Allah is the protective friend of the righteous and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala honors whom he wills and humiliates whom he wills. So we take that as a personal lesson for ourselves as well, not just about the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and what he went through. That if we go through these things, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala honors those that honor the truth. Look at what happened with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Abu Lahab uniquely tried to humiliate the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. The only one who stood up and who had the nerve to use the words against his nephew, tabban laka ya muhammad, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala uniquely humiliated him, tabbat yada abilahabin watab. Allah specifically named Abu Lahab and uniquely humiliated the one who tried to humiliate the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Abu Jahl opposed the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam on the basis of name, on the basis of legacy. It was on the basis of legacy that Abu Jahl opposed the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Their Banu Hashim, their Banu Maqsoom, we can't let them win because our names have to go down as a superior tribe. And look, forever he is known as the father of ignorance, Abu Jahl. And I remember
subhanAllah, the first time I went to Hajj and I saw the graves of the shuhada of Uhud, and I saw al-Baqi' the graves of the companions in Medina, and the way that the people were saying salam to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and Abu Bakr and Umar. And I thought to myself, you know, I wonder where the graves of Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab are? I don't know till now. Where are they? Forgotten, completely disregarded, humiliated, because they try to humiliate the loved one of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They try to humiliate the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and the only time they are remembered is in disgrace. The places that they try to contain the light of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, in Medina and Mecca, where they try to purge, extinguish the light of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's from there that the light of Allah and the Messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam shone and spread to the rest of the world. And so, Innashan ya'ka huwal abtar. The one who takes you as an enemy, oh Rasulullah, is the one who will be cut off by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Cut off from all good, is the one who will be humiliated. Now for us, dear brothers and sisters, it is very easy for us to take offense, as we should, when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam's name is done with what is done with in France and other places, and when they seek to humiliate us by dishonoring the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. But let's think for a moment for ourselves. Deprivation equals distance from the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And it is the month of Rabi' al-awwal, and separate from all political contexts and climates, there's no other month of the year where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is more remembered in some capacity than the month of Rabi' al-awwal throughout the Muslim world. But let's remove all of that and think at a deeply personal level. The one who is bakheel, the one who is stingy and deprived, is the one who hears the name of
Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam and does not say salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Radhima Anfu, as Jibreel alayhi salam said, who feels too stingy to send salawat on his name salallahu alayhi wa sallam when he prayed for you though he never met you, increasing in the salawat. Deprivation is distance from the sunnah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam which Imam Malik rahimahullah ta'ala aptly described as the Safina of Nuh alayhi wa sallam, as Noah's Ark for us. Are we depriving ourselves from the Ark of Noah? Are we depriving ourselves from salawat, from the sunnah? Deprivation on the day of judgment is suhqan suhqa, is the one who is pushed away. A barrier is put between him and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam as the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam comes to him with a glass of water, the way that he came to us with righteous guidance in this world and he's pushed away and says that this is a person that changed your religion after you. That's deprivation. Deprivation from his proximity on the day of judgment. Inna ahabbakum ilayya wa akrabakum minni fil aakhirah. The most beloved of you to me and the closest of you to me on the day of judgment is the one with the best of character. Allah sent him ala khuluqin azeem, with an exalted standard of character. Innama bu'iftu li utammima makarimal akhlaq. I was only sent to perfect good character. If your co-workers, if your world does not come to love Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam through seeing your character manifesting what you learned from Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam, then there is room for introspection. What distinguishes me if I am a follower of a mercy to the world, of the one who was sent with an exalted standard of character? What distinguishes me? How do I reflect that mercy and that good character? Because that's proximity on the day of judgment to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. How much sujood am I doing at night? How much of my time is my face spent on the ground
prostrating the way the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam used to prostrate? Because he told Rabi'a ibn Ka'b al-Aslami radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu to assist me with your claim of wanting murafaqat al-habib salallahu alayhi wa sallam, the companionship of the beloved salallahu alayhi wa sallam on the day of judgment. Assist me by kathrat al-sujood, by increasing in your prostration. So deprivation is depriving ourselves from sujood, especially in times that should be driving us to the prayer rug. Especially at these times of uncertainty where we should be taking our burdens to our prayers and releasing those burdens from our heart. That brings us closer to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. وَأَنتَ مَع مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ And you are with the one that you love. How much do you love the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam? We love him, we love Allah, we love the Prophets, we love the righteous. How much do you love the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam? How much do I love him? أَنتَ مَع مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ You are with the one that you love. And so deprivation, the greatest deprivation, abtar, is the one who takes him as an enemy salallahu alayhi wa sallam. But to simply make emotional claims of closeness is not enough. To simply make emotional claims of love is not enough. There are measures for us to think about what our proximity is to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Measure your sujood, measure your salawat, measure your character, and ask yourself, what is my proximity to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam? May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us all his companionship on the day of judgment in Jannatul Firdaus. Allahuma ameen. أقول قولي هذا واستغفر الله لي ولكم ورسالة المسلمين فاستغفروه إنه الغفور الرحيم الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله وعلى آله وصحبه ومن ولاه
Dear brothers and sisters, at this moment over 51 charities are being investigated in France seeking dissolution from the government. 72 masajid, schools, have been shut down right now, are being declared enemy of the state in France. Starts off with a ban on hijabs, it starts off with banning, it goes to banning Arabic in the Turkish language, banning home schools. Can you imagine the paranoia and the insecurity and the level of disgrace? Banning home school in France because God forbid Muslims teach their kids at home and prevents us from assimilating them because they are separatists. All of this culminates in so many different things. The collection, subhanAllah, the collection of millions of Muslim skulls and museums from the dirty colonial history of France and now seeking the humiliation of a people by broadcasting these racist images, these disgraceful images of the Prophet Salaam on government buildings. It's not just a cartoon the way that they're putting it. This is meant to feed the subjugation of a people and to tell them that we have no regard for you whatsoever and we should respond. How do we respond? We respond by rejecting the narrative. We respond by rejecting the way that the Muslims are being scapegoated in France. Yes, we respond rejecting violence against innocent people and the carnage and chaos no matter what. We don't honor the Prophet Salaam by dishonoring his way. We respond the way the Prophet Salaam taught us to respond. Every single time they seek to dishonor the Prophet Salaam, you know how we honor the Prophet Salaam best? By teaching about him. And so yes, as we're talking about the economic boycotts and we're talking about
calling upon the world to step in to stop this fascism, this element, this cycle, vicious cycle that we constantly see in France and in other places in the world, educate about the Prophet Salaam and educate first and foremost by living the Prophet Salaam's example in your life. I want to end with just one thing. Our love for the Prophet Salaam is really ajeeb to some. It's strange to some. والذين آمنوا أشد حباً لله Those who believe they love Allah in a special way. And I'm not talking about people that cause carnage and you know give them the exact image that they want to subjugate further because that's the idea of provocation, right? We want you to look like that in the image because this was the image that was used to colonize. You know, SubhanAllah, I was listening to a social scientist just an hour ago and he said that the example of the image of the Prophet Salaam is the same example of white Jesus that was used to enslave. It's used to subjugate, put people down, humiliate. We want you to submit. This is a different type of subjugation and submission. So no, it's not that. We're not going to become that. But our love for the Prophet Salaam is special. And it's different. It has to be. And I wanted to just share with you the saying of Urwa bin Mas'ud, radiAllahu anhu, who became Muslim of course after Hudaybiyyah. When he went to Hudaybiyyah as a negotiator on the part of Quraysh and he saw the way that the Muslims love the Prophet Salaam. He was blown away. Why? Because the Prophet Salaam was not earning his place amongst them by subjugation. He was shy, humble, the poorest amongst them, the most humble amongst them. The Prophet Salaam
كان يخالط الناس ويصبر على أذاههم. He would take things from Bedouins that the average Muslim could not take. All types of things, right? Anas ibn Malik radiAllahu anhu gives you the image of the Prophet Salaam walking in the street one day and he's not wearing anything special. A man comes, starts tugging away at his garment Salaam and says, اعطني مما اعطاك الله. Give me from what Allah gave you. And the Prophet Salaam just takes off his shirt and gives it to him even though it leaves marks on his neck. He didn't command that place with a palace. He didn't command it the way we see dictators do it around the world today. Put their pictures everywhere. You can't walk into a barber shop without the face of a ruler in front of you to let you know, right, who's in charge. He did none of that. And you know what Urdu ibn Mas'ud said when he came back to Mecca? He said, oh my people, he said, look, I've seen kings, Khosrow, Kisra, the most pompous ruler in the earth of Persia, Caesar, Najashi of Abyssinia. I've seen all of these kings. I have never seen a man so glorified by his people than Muhammad Salaam. Once he gives an order, they hasten to fulfill it. He does wudu and they fight them. They collect the water of his wudu. When he speaks, their voices are hushed. They lower his gaze in his presence out of reverence for him, Salaam, not because he scares them, not because the Prophet Salaam had a booming voice, not because they feared a hit. That was the love that the Prophet Salaam commanded from his followers by what? His character, his position. And I end with what Bosworth Smith said. He said he, Prophet Muhammad Salaam, was Caesar and Pope in one, but he was Pope without Pope's protection, Caesar without the legions of Caesar, without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a palace, without a fixed revenue. If ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by the right divine, it was Muhammad Salaam, for he had all the power without its instruments and without its supports.
He won their hearts, Salaam, and we love him, Salaam, for who he is to Allah, for who he is to us and as he was sent to us. And we pray that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala find us worthy of being from his Ummah and being amongst his neighbors in Jannatul Firdaus. Allahumma khfirli walidina, Rabb irhamhuma kama rabbona sigara, Rabbana hablana min azwajina wa dhuryatina qurrat a'ayun, wa ja'alna lilmuttaqina imama, Allahumma aslih ahwala ikhwanina almankubina fi kulli makan, Allahumma aslih ahwala ikhwanina almankubina fi kulli makan, Allahumma ansur ikhwanina almustaba'atina fi masharif al-ardi wa magharibiha, Allahumma ahlik al-zalimina bil-zalimin, wa akhrijna wa ikhwanina min baynihim salimin. Ibadallah, inna Allah ya'qrul bil-adli wal-ihsan, wa ita'idh al-qurba, wa yanha'an al-fahsha'i wal-munkari wal-baghi, ya'idhukum la'allakum tadhakkarun, fathkuru Allah yadhkurukum, wa shkuruhu ala ni'ma yadhid lakum, wala dhikru Allahi akbar, wallahu ya'lamu ma tasna'oon, wa aqeem as-salah.
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