Jumu'ah Khutbah at As-Siddiq Mosque
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh. (Arabic khutbah continues.)
O Muslims, believers! Allah (swt) revealed to us:
قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
Qul in kuntum tuhiboona Allaha fa attabi`oonee yuhbibkumullahu wa yaghfir lakum dhunoobakum w'Allahu Ghafoorun Raheem.
"Say (O Muhammad to Mankind): 'If you love Allah then follow me. Allah will love you and forgive your sins, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." Surat Aali `Imraan (3:31)
If we follow Sayyidina Muhammad (s) according to Islamic Shari`ah, Allah (swt) will reward us with His love, and if He rewards us with His love it will be indescribable! "ad-dunya la tazzina `ind'Allahi janaah ba`ooda - the value of this world in Allah's Eyes is less than the wing of a mosquito." When someone loves someone, he gives that one everything. You love your children and you give them everything; you don't keep anything for yourself. If you love wife, you give her everything. What do you think when Allah (swt) says, "If you follow My beloved one, I will give you everything." To know if we are following that ayah of Holy Qur'an, we must remember Sayyidina Muhammad (s) when we are waking up, at noon, evening, and make salawat on him (s) which attracts Love of Allah (swt) towards us. when u love someone you imitate the one you love. when we say ya sayyidee we love you it is impotant to imiate his way.
When you love someone, you will try to imitate the way he is living. So it is important when we say, "Yaa Sayyidee (s), we love you," to imitate his way, although we can't do what Prophet (s) was doing, and Sahaaba (r) couldn't do it, but at least we can imitate the way of Sahaaba by following them. When you want to show your love you imitate that person whom you love, and you say, "I am following in your footsteps." In that case, you cannot do something he doesn't like or you will be ashamed.
Why did Allah (swt) order us to pray five prayers? Because it takes away sins. People say, "We are not praying." Of course if you don't pray, how will Allah (swt) forgive you? Prophet (s) said in an authentic hadeeth, man ahya sunnatee faqad ahabanee, "Who revives my sunnah (follows my way), it is a sign that he loves me." And what is his way? Too many, no one can do it all. But at least we can begin to do some.
(Hadith) al-mu'min idhaa wa`da wafaa, "A mu'min (believer) fulfills his promise." Today we are not fulfilling our promises. Why is it called the "Day of Promises"? Too many promises we have not fulfilled in dunya. What should we do? A mu'min has to fulfill his promise! So at the end we are saying, "Yaa Rabbee, forgive us." Of course Allah (swt) is generous and He will forgive us, but try to keep your promise.
Allah (swt) said, "O Believers! Try to praise My Beloved one." We are forgetting! We might do it daily 10, 100 times, but even if we do it every moment it is not enough! And many times we are free (spare time) and we can recite salawaat, and that is the way Allah can love us. "O believers, praise him." It is a divine order, but we come to dunya and don't do it. We only promise our stomach how many times to eat or our ego, how many times to the see the movies, and we promise to watch TV, and this is what we are fulfilling! But we are forgetting our promise to Allah (swt), to be Muslim and to die on imaan!
O Allah! Let us die in Islam and on imaan, ya fawzan lil-mustaghfireen astaghfirullah. We have to keep that big promise!