The title of my khutbah today is “Endings and Beginnings”. I
chose this theme because today’s khutbah marks an end of an era- it will be the
last khutbah at this location. J and O are moving, so this home is no
longer available and the format of the Friday jummah will also be changing in
2019. We can talk about this more in the discussion portion, but suffice to
say, today for me, feels like an ending.
Before I dig deeper into the khtubah, I would like to take
the time to say thank you to J and O, and also B and H and S and J, who have shared their homes with us in fellowship and allowed
us to worship in our own particular style with equality of prayer space. Thank you for giving us safe spaces
to express our thoughts and opinions in freedom. May God in His generous wisdom
reward you for your generosity. Also, I am reminded to thank God for allowing
us to live in a country where we have the freedom to worship how we please, the
freedom to gather with people we choose , and to express ourselves free from
violence. Many of our fellow Muslims around the world are not able to enjoin
many or most of these kinds of freedoms because of the government and society
under which they live. Thank you God for the United States of America.
When we see an ending approaching, it is a good time for us
to sit back and stake stock of what we have learned, what we have struggled
with, and what we hope to see in the future-a starting point to set new goals.
Every ending marks the start of a new beginning. We know this
from our personal experience, and from Quran. The first thing that might spring
to mind when I talk about “ending’ in the Quran is dying and what happens after
we die. J gave a very nice khutbah about that a few ago, so I’m not going to
use that metaphor today. Instead, I’d like to talk about the process of religious
conversion. What happens when we change our minds about what we believe?
I’m going to define religious conversion as the process of
switching from one belief system to a different belief system. In the time of
the Prophet, the old belief system was based on worship of many gods and
goddesses and the world was organized around appeasing these entities with
sacrifices and rituals. Mirroring the fragmentation of the deities, society was
organized around tribal loyalties. The new religious system which the Prophet
gave to his followers was organized around the belief of a single God, Allah,
with very different rituals and
sacrifices. Similarly, followers of this new belief system were asked to
organize into a single group and if not reject, then at least have weakened
tribal allegiances. With this unification of God’s oneness, there must have
been tremendous mental pressure on the new converts. Instead of bundling all of
life’s unpleasant challenges into the workings of disgruntled gods and
goddesses, all the contradictions of life on this planet had to be reconciled
into the plan of one divine being Not only were they renouncing the belief
system of their tradition and families, but they were also organizing
themselves into a community of like minded believers (as opposed to the
genetic basis of tribes). It is perhaps
not surprising that this ending of old beliefs and springing up of new ones can
make many people undergoing religious conversion prone to psychological
dissonance and discomfort.
One way to deal with this mental pressure is to
engage in”end of days” thoughts. The apocalypse of the mental world in their
heads is projected out to the belief of an apocalypse of the physical world. If you read the early Mecca surahs, many of
them have a lot of end of days, end of the world imagery.
Surah 100 The Chargers (Al-Adiyat)
In the name of God, The Merciful, the Compassionate- by the
chargers, panting, by ones who kindle fire, striking fire, by the raiders in
the morning, when they plowed it to a trail of dust and they penetrated the
center with it, a multitude. Truly the human being is unthankful to his Lord.
And truly he is a witness to that. And he is more severe in cherishing of good.
Knows he not that when all that is in the graves is scattered about and shown
forth is what is in the breasts, truly their Lord on that Day will be aware of
them.
Surah 101 The Disaster (al Qari’ah)
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate- the Disaster!
What is the Disaster? And what will cause you to recognize what the Disaster
is? On a Day humanity will be like dispersed moths and the mountains will
become like plucked wool clusters. Then for him whose balance is heavy will be
one whose life is pleasant, well-pleasing. Abut he whose balance is made light,
his abode of rest will be the pit. What will cause you to recognize what it is?
It is a hot fire.
The later surahs have far less of these apocalyptic
references, many of them focused on the day to day problems facing a community
of like minded believers. For instance, Surah 49 Al Hujurat (Private
Apartments) was revealed in Medina year 9 and is a “how to” primer of how to
get along.
49:6 “O You who have attained to faith! If any wicked person
comes to you with a tiding, use your discernment, lest you hurt people
unwittingly and afterwards be filled with remorse for what you have done.”
49:10 “ Only the ones who believe are brothers, so make
things right between your brothers. And be Godfearing of God so that perhaps
you would find mercy.”
49:12 “ Avoid suspicion much. Truly some suspicion is a sin
and spy not nor backbite some by some other. Would one of you love to eat the
flesh of his lifeless brother? You would dislike it. And be Godfearing of God.
Truly God is Acceptor of Repentance. Compassionate!”
While the old way of doing things and thinking about the
world may be ending, these old belief systems are replaced with new
perspectives and beliefs. This is a time of transition, which can be scary,
because it is a chaotic time of death and renewal. It can be hard to predict
what will remain, and what will be cast off.
Eventually, things settle down.
PAUSE
From Ibn Sa’d’s book The
Book of the Major Classes (Arabic: Kitab
Tabaqat Al-Kubra), we learn that when Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) died, his
companions were thrown into confusion and fear.
Hazrat Umar shouted in the
masjid, “The Messenger of Allah did not
die. He is alive. He was struck by lightning like Moses. If anyone says,
‘Muhammad died’, I will split him into two with my sword.”
However, after leaving the house of the Prophet, Hazrat Abu
Bakr went to the Mosque. He heard Umar say, “The Messenger of Allah did not
die.” Abu Bakr stopped him and said, “Whoever worships Muhammad (pbuh) should
know that Muhammad (pbuh) died. Whoever worships Allah should know that Allah
is Hayy (immortal).”
He then recited from Surah Imran ayah 144:
“Muhammad is only a Messenger. Surely Messengers have passed
away before him. Then if he should die or be slain, will you turn about on your
heels? And he who turns about on his heels will not injure God at all; and God
will give recompense to the ones who are thankful.”
Abu Bakr calmed the crowd, and then started organizing.
All the companions learned so much from their time with the
Prophet and this served them when they came to take leadership positions. After
the Prophet’s death, all of the Khalifah Rashedeen were called upon to do
things which were not part of the community’s expectation of their character.
Abu Bakr, considered the meek and mild companion, was forced to act as an
authoritarian tax enforcer during the Ridda Wars because many tribes would not
pay zakat. Umar ibn Khittab, the fierce warrior, exercised compassion and mercy
during a terrible drought that struck the Arabian peninsula. Uthman, the
refined aristocrat, learned that tribal nepotism had no place in the new Muslim
meritocracy, and Ali, the rigid knight, had to negotiate and compromise with
his enemies.
While our Friday jummah will be dramatically changing and
in some sense, coming to an end, I think the experience of being in this
fellowship has changed all of us and I am confident that we will carry many of
these lessons forward into other aspects of our lives.
I know for myself, I have learned so much. As one example, I
was asked to speak at a recent school board meeting and I presented, what I
considered to be, some uncomfortable truths about why a recent referendum had
failed. The next day, as I drove my daughter to school, I said to her, “You may
get some funny looks from your teachers because I had to speak some
uncomfortable truths at last night’s meeting.” My daughter replied, “I think
you deliberately seek out situations where you have to bring up your
uncomfortable truths.” Maybe she is right. Maybe I am able to bring up
uncomfortable truths because I have had
a space here to bring them up, discuss them, and I’ve learned that my friends
will still talk to me the following week.
Thank you all for participating in this Khutbah Project. Thank
you for your patience and understanding. May God bless you and help you as you
carry forth the lessons we have learned here.
My closing du’a is from 2:286, last ayah of Al Baqara: Our
Lord! Do not punish us if we forget or make a mistake. Our Lord! Do not load on
us a severe test as You did burden on those before us. Our Lord! Do not impose
upon us that which we have not the strength to bear; and pardon us and forgive
us and have mercy on us, You are our Defender, so help us against the
ungrateful people. Ameen
