GREATEST GIFT

“As-salámu ‘alaikum wa rahmatul láhi wa barakátuh!”

“A-úthu billáhi minash shaytánir rajeem. Bismilláhir rahmánir raheem.

Al hamdu lillahi nahmaduhu wanasta’eenahu, wanastagh-firuhu, wanatoobu ilayhi, wana’oothu Billaahi min shuroori an-fusinaa, wamin sayyi aati a’maalinaa. May- Yahdillahu fa huwal muhtad, wa may- yudlill falan tajidaa lahu waliyan murshida. Wa ash-hadu an Laa ilaaha ill-Alláh, wahdahoo laa shareeka lah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan ‘abduhoo warasooluh”

All Praise is due to Alláh, 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 Alláh, 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 Alláh, the Only One without any partner; and I bear witness that Muhammad, sws, is His servant, and His messenger.

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem! Ya Ay-yuhal-latheena ‘aamanut taqul-laaha, haqqa tuqaatihee wala tamu tun-na, il-la wa antum Muslimoon.”

O You who believe, – Fear Allah, as He should be feared, and die not except as Muslims.

My Dear Brothers

Good guidance is God’s greatest gift. We cannot live happily without His guidance. Our lives will be absolutely meaningless, unless we acknowledge Allah and worship Him as He alone deserves to be worshipped.

Although life would then be quite challenging, as long as we have right guidance, we would know where we came from and where we’re going to when we die. As Muslims, we are very lucky because we don’t 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.

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’s greatness and irresistible power:

Alhamdu lil-laahi Rabbil aalameen. Ar-Rahmanir Raheem. Maaliki yawmid-Deen.

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of All the worlds. The Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. King of the Day of Judgement.

The next line defines of relations with Allah:

Iy-ya kana’budu wa iy-ya kanas ta’een.

You [alone] do we worship and from You [alone] do we seek for help.

Then we come to the crux of the matter, the real core of Sura Al Fatiha:

“Ihdi nas Siraatal Mustaqeem!” “Guide us to the straight path!”

Siraatal latheena an ‘amta ‘alayhim, ghairil maghthoobi alayhim, waladd dhal-leen. Ameen.

“The path of those with whom you are pleased, not the path of those who make you angry, nor of those who go astray. Ameen”

Brothers,

Allah’s 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:

Alif, Laam-Meem. Thaalikal kitaabu la rayba fee, Hudan lil mut-taqeem.

A.L.M. This Book, there is no doubt in it, is a Guide to those who have Taqwa,

So, the first Sura teaches us how to ask for Allah’s 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, “Truly in the Messenger of Allah, we have the finest of examples,” Uswatul hasanah.

Allah’s guidance covers the whole spectrum of life, from personal cleanliness to inheritance laws and dealing justly with non-Muslims. Do not think that Allah is too busy until He will not have time to hear you. By thinking he’s too busy, you had fallen into the dangerous trap of attributing human weaknesses to Allah. He’s 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 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:

La ta’ khuthuhu sinatun wa la nawm.

Slumber does not overtake Him, nor sleep

Wa la ya oothuhu hivthuhuma

Guarding and preserving the whole cosmos does not cause Him any fatigue.”

So if you need anything, big or small, ask Allah.

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 will offer a solution.

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 Alláh, 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’s 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’s blessings are crucial?

Brothers, without our health, with wealth or material happiness life would be challenging indeed. But Allah’s 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.

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’s 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.

Innalláha wa malaaikata yusallúna alan nabi. Yá ay yuhal latheena ámanu sallú alayhi wasalli mú tas leema. Allahumma salli alá Muhammad, wa ala áli Muhammad, kama salayta ala Ibrahim, wa ala ali Ibrahim. Allahumma barik ala Muhammad, wa alaa áli Muhammad, kama barakta ala Ibrahim, wa ala ali ibrahim. Fil ála meen, innaka hameedun majeed.”