Title: Kutbah: The Character of a Believer
Tags: islam, kutbah, lecture
Blog Entry: Khalif Muhammad II : Jumaah Al-hamdu Lillaahi nasta’eenahu wa nastaghfiruhu, wa na’oodhu billaahi min shuroori anfusinaa wa sayi’aati a’maalinaa. Man yahdih Illaahu falaa mudilla lahu wa man yudlil falaa haadiya lahu. Wa ashhadu an laa ilaaha ill-Allaah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan ‘abduhu wa rasooluhu (Praise be to Allaah, we seek His help and His forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allaah from the evil of our own souls and from our bad deeds. Whomsoever Allaah guides will never be led astray, and whomsoever Allaah leaves astray, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allaah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger). We thank almighty God, Muslims, we say Allah, our creator, the Lord of all the worlds, all systems of knowledge for being here today at this beautiful Jumaah. We pray Allah that we will be very brief today and that He will be pleased with our kutbah. As we read and study the Qur’an, and study the life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and we compare it with the events of today, the question comes to mind… . What is the character of a Muslim?? In the Qur’an, Allah says of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) “and you stand upon a mighty character” Now Let’s Define Character … Character is a specific feature or a distinguished feature; a trait or a mark of an individual. The combination of qualities or features that specifically distinguishes one from another, that is character. Even before revelation was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), he was known as El-Amin, the trustworthy one. He was considered the most considerate to his fellow citizens. He was of the most honest in his talk, and the mildest in his temper. His character stood out like a shining light in the dark. This was just some traits of our beloved Prophet. Along with Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Prophet Yusef (PBUH) also stood out with excellent character. This was proven when his brothers threw him down the well and took his shirt, which they stained with false blood to their father, Prophet Jacob (PBUH) What is interesting about this is why would they give their father who was blind a shirt with fake blood and say it belonged to Yusef ,whereas he could not see the blood. The shirt represented Yusef’s character and the false blood represents lies, or false accusations to give a false pretense of his character. All of this stemmed from jealousy of character that Yusef portrayed and Shaytan used his brothers to try to belittle his character. Another incident occurred as he got older. King Aziz’s wife tried to seduce him and tore his shirt from the back saying that he was trying to seduce her. Yet again the shirt comes into play, representing his character. Now the shirt was ripped in the back. If we think about this, when back-biting someone, isn’t that ripping or staining their shirt from the back? This reminds me of the phrase Back Stabbers. Stabbing someone in the back will rip and stain their shirt. What are we talking about today; we are talking about character….of the Muslim. Now a Muslim is one who submits his or her will to God’s will. Submit!! Submit means to totally give into, to believe in fully of a greater force and to surrender. So a Muslim should be a believer. That brings me to this…. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was reported to have said, “the most perfect believer in faith is the one who is best in moral character. The best of you are those who are the best to their spouse in manners” How do we achieve to be the best in moral character? Allah gives us many examples in the Holy Qur’an how we as believers should treat each other. If we look at Surah 49, Ayat 10 , it says “The believers are members of one family; you shall keep peace within your family and reverence G-D, that you may attain mercy. “ Our character should show people that we are Muslim. That starts with how we treat each other and our family. As believers, we should only talk good about situations, if we can’t say anything good about someone or their situation, then we shouldn’t say anything at all. Allah tells us in the Qur’an, do we think that we can say that we believe and not be put through any tests?? This tells us that each and every believer is going through our own specific test. Only Allah knows what that test is. We should feel for each other. Because we know as Muslims, As Believers, we all are going through something. Remember Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said that none of us will be a believer until he wants for his brothers what he loves for himself. If I am going through difficulties and I want to make it to ease, I would want my brother or sister to do the same. How would I look as a Muslim or as a Believer, eating every night, driving around in a fancy car, and my brother is hungry? Muslims, how do we look disassociating ourselves from our family because in our eyes, or in our judgment, they are not Muslim? Just because we call ourselves Muslim, are we better than anyone else. We look at the events that are going on today. As Muslims today, the popular culture is trying to stain our character. We are considered to be terrorists, troublemakers, oppressors to our women, and most of all arrogant. Yes there are some who have those characteristics and may Allah guide them out of that mindset; but are they believers? No!! As believers, brothers and sisters, we know that Allah has power and control over all things and we all will answer to Him. So instead of causing corruption, as some say about us ,with Allah’s help and guidance we are resolving corruption that was influenced by Shaytan through popular culture. And believe it or not, the way this economy is going with gas prices, and the housing industry going upside down, we are all going to experience harder times. Being Muslim doesn’t mean we are exempt from these situations; Brothers the way things are going, we should uplift our wives to become strong role models for women in this society. We should love for them to become the teachers, and the physicians and so on. We need our sisters to educate our children and the children of the community. We need our sisters to teach and educate the women of the community and bring them to the mindset of being modest by way of character. Brothers, we need to get out there in that community and become leaders in society. We look around; there are no male role models, none... Allah has blessed us with Qur’an and Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) so we can work towards developing a character that will put decency back into the men. We can’t sit here and look at who is not wearing their hijab, or who does not know the entire Qur’an in Arabic, and distance yourself, because you feel that they are not Muslim. Remember, Allah is also Al-Hakam, the Judge... We are the ones to set the examples. As I look at the generation before me, my parents’ generation, I see that many of them were not born Muslim. Many of them made Shahadaa to become conscious Muslims. But let’s think about that….. This tells us that Allah put something unique in their character to guide them to making Shahadaa. See Brothers and Sisters, Allah is the one who makes us Muslims, and also makes us conscious Muslims. There is a difference. By nature, Muhammad Ibin Abdullah, had the character of a Muslim. Then he received revelation, and he became Prophet Muhammad, a conscious Muslim. The same with many of you. Many of you were Muslim by nature, and Allah guided you to make Shahadaa and you became a conscious Muslim. But it all began with a specific trait that Allah instilled inside of you to lead you to become a conscious Muslim. Conscious Muslim is one who knows there is only one God. And that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is the seal of the Prophets. Along with that a conscious Muslim is aware that Allah sees and hears all that we do. They are grateful for anything that Allah gives him or her. Prophet Muhammad, (PBUH) said that everyone is born Muslim. The environment and the social upbringing can change this and develop flawed characteristics. Believers, we know that Allah created us in the best of molds. Therefore, let’s look inside ourselves to see how we can emulate the character of our beloved Prophet. Once we achieve this, or make the intentions in our heart to do so, Allah has promised us success. Dua……………….. Rabbana atinafee alddunya hasanatan wafee al-akhiratihasanatan waqina AAathaba alnnari Dear Believers, In conclusion, let’s look back at how our Prophet Yusef avoided temptation when King Aziz’s wife wanted to seduce him. We face temptation everyday. Whether it is money, materialism, men, women, even knowledge. Remember Shatan said he is going to attack us from the front, back and from each side. There is a reason why I said that knowledge can be a temptation. Some of us will feed off of knowledge and become self proclaimed scholars and feel that no one can teach us anything. Just keep this in mind. It took almost 23 years for the entire Holy Qur’an to be revealed to our beloved Prophet. And some of us call ourselves scholars after being Muslim for 6 months... What does that say about our character? Humbleness and gratefulness are two key characteristics we need to emulate. One story of Prophet Muhammad, PBUH, when he saw someone making wudo’ in the incorrect manner, he didn’t approach them with a superior attitude; he approached them very humbly and asked them to show him if he is making Wudo correctly. They in turn realized that they made a mistake. We can’t point out faults of each other. Just because some of us may know how to correctly call the Adhan, and some don’t. That does not mean that we are more knowledgeable than the other. The one that has the most knowledge is the one who develops a class on how to call the Adhan correctly. He in turn also is a student as well. This goes for sisters also. Just because you have a full hijab on from head to toe, does not mean that you are better than the sister who has her hijab tied up or none at all. Only Allah knows the secrets of the heart. Character is also based on intentions. Our intentions develop character which will result in our actions. As we look amongst each other, we are coming out of Ramadan. We are getting ready for the big Eid. Eid-Al-Ahah. We have that new baby smell. We are fresh again. We need to ask Allah to bless us with new characteristics that he is pleased with. Throughout the upcoming weeks… Let’s look inside ourselves and let’s look at a good characteristic of ourselves and build upon that characteristic. Remember Allah has put a specific trait in all of us that has led us to become conscious Muslims. That is why we are all here today. We give praise and thanks to Allah for guiding us to become conscious Muslims. Because for all we know, instead of coming to Jumaah, we all could have been billionaires, sitting at home counting money, giving praise to something other than Allah. So let’s thanks Allah for whatever situation that we are in. Let’s thank Allah for or brother or sister who is sitting beside us for blessing them to be here. Let’s also thank Allah for blessing us with Prophet Muhammad who showed us that we can have a characteristic that can change the world and bring it back to the nature that God has put in them to begin with.
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