Friday Sermon by dr Rashad Khalifa Seek GOD's Kingship Over You and Everything Else Follows 1988
Transcript
0:00 ALHAMDU LILLAH, WA ASHHADU AN LA ILAHA ILLA ALLAH, WAHDAHU LA SHARIKA LAH
0:06 Praise be to God
0:08 and we bear witness that there is only one God.
0:13 I want to start my Khutba,
0:15 this time with the beautiful quotation from the Bible,
0:19 from Luke 12: 29-31.
0:24 It is, of course, a Quranic idea. The author is One and the same.
0:30 And this is expressed beautifully in English.
0:34 Starting at 29, it says "it is not for you to be in search of what you are to eat or drink.
0:41 Stop worrying.
0:43 The unbelievers of this world are always running after these things.
0:49 God knows that you need such things.
0:54 Seek out, instead, His kingship over you.
0:58 and the rest will follow, in turn."
1:01 So all you need to do is seek God's kingship over you and everything else you need, follows,
1:08 the food, the provisions, the clothing, the health.
1:12 Everything else follows.
1:14 So, what does this mean? What does seeking God's kingship mean?
1:20 It means that you give priority to God's commandments.
1:24 You give priority to the 5 contact prayers.
1:28 You wake up in the morning and you say "my duty today is to do the 5 contact prayers."
1:38 That you... the Friday prayer is a commandment from God. There is a commandment in Sura 60, verse 9
1:43 that you must go to the Friday prayer. You give this priority.
1:47 You arrange your life and your job and your circumstances
1:52 so you will do the 5 daily prayers and the Friday prayer.
1:58 And of course, you people here are the least people who need this.
2:01 Some people out there are the ones who need this kind of reminder.
2:07 You put on the list of your priorities, the Quranic study.
2:11 There's a Quranic study, every Friday night, going on here, where we study the word of God
2:18 and you have to work your circumstances.
2:21 You cannot be somewhere in Tucson and there's a Quranic study going on somewhere in the mosque.
2:27 Otherwise, you don't really care.
2:29 You're not seeking God's kingship over you,
2:32 to be sitting within, say 50 miles,
2:36 and there's a Quranic study going on.
2:42 What does it mean to seek God's kingship over you and everything else follows, the provisions, the health, the happiness?
2:48 You give priority to the activities of the believers.
2:54 You remember the verse in Sura 18 that say "force yourself to be with those who worship God Alone."
3:02 Because it takes some effort and some work. It's not easy.
3:06 But this is what is good for you, as you will see in the second KHUTBAH, Insha Allah.
3:12 It means that
3:14 you make a point of giving out the ZAKAT charity
3:17 as commanded by God.
3:18 This is how you seek God's kingship over you
3:21 one day in the year, whatever, January first, December 31st, the first day of Ramadan, any day you set for yourself,
3:31 one day in the year, you calculate exactly how much you are worth
3:34 and you give out 2.5% to people that you know personally,
3:39 people who need your charity.
3:43 And the Quran gives the exact order:
3:46 your parents, first. If they don't need it, then your relatives
3:49 your cousins, your brothers, sisters.
3:52 I mean your genetic brothers and sisters.
3:56 And if all your relatives are rich, they don't need it, then you go to the orphans,
4:01 children who have no support
4:03 one of the parents is missing somehow
4:07 and after that, the traveling stranger.
4:11 Somebody stranded from Mexico or Nicaragua or whatever and passes by your house
4:17 or you know personally
4:18 people who immigrated from Thailand or Vietnam and they're living in a house in a terrible conditions and you know them.
4:25 Then, they come next.
4:27 So, there is a specific sequence or order to give out this charity.
4:36 You give priority to Hajj eventually
4:39 not now. I wouldn't advise you to do it now.
4:41 The Quran makes it conditional.
4:44 Someday all of us, Insha Allah, will go. We're gonna charter a plane when we'll go, all of us. We'll make Hajj.
4:50 And we'll go in as will be great victory because the land over there will be worshiping God alone.
4:56 This is God's promise to us and therefore, I can talk about it in this way.
5:00 So eventually, you'll have to observe Hajj.
5:06 You seek God's kingship over you,
5:09 and everything else follows by observing the prohibitions that God gave you.
5:14 You don't drink. You don't gamble. You don't eat pork.
5:20 You don't lie. You don't cheat.
5:24 You don't violate your promises.
5:27 You must be a person of your word.
5:29 You must be an example of a person of God,
5:33 one, a member in God's kingdom.
5:43 Anything else in your life must take place number two.
5:48 You give priority to these activities, the commands of God
5:52 and this way you seek God's kingship over you
5:55 and this way you attain all other goals:
5:58 money, health, wealth, happiness, etc., etc.
6:04 TUBU ILLA ALLAH. Repent.
6:17 ALHAMDU LILLAH, WA ASHHADU AN LA ILAHA ILLA ALLAH, WAHDAHU LA SHARIKA LAH.
6:26 By studying the Quran continuously, we have discovered the secret of happiness.
6:32 The secret of happiness is a developed, nourished and grown soul,
6:36 the real you, the real person, not this body.
6:40 This is the secret of happiness.
6:42 And we came to this conclusion by studying people who obtained everything.
6:48 They got everything that the human beings go after:
6:51 money, fame, good looks, sports cars, whatever.
6:57 And I have used the example of Eddie Murphy,
7:01 a movie star when he was interviewed by Barbara Walters
7:04 He's got millions of dollars. He's got palaces in California, exclusive places and in New Jersey,
7:12 the five luxurious cars,
7:15 all the girls, all the money, all the fame that he wants.
7:21 And he told Barbara Walters he was not happy.
7:23 So, what is the secret of happiness?
7:25 Aren't these the things that people are going after
7:28 money and fame and wealth and whatever?
7:31 And he is not happy.
7:33 So, the secret of happiness is that he must develop his soul.
7:38 And the soul can be developed by worshiping God alone.
7:45 Now, this KHUTBA, I want to talk about God's name: AL-RAZAQ, the provider.
7:51 The provider.
7:53 God is the exclusive provider.
7:57 He is the one who decides how much money you're going to make, or you made from birth to death.
8:04 And I want to shed a whole new light on this word "the provider"
8:10 because God provides for the body and for the soul.
8:16 Therefore, the contact prayers that you do five times a day are a provision from God.
8:24 The duties that I talked about in the first KHUTBA, they're actually a gift from God.
8:29 And we see this... there's a lot of evidence in the Quran for this.
8:38 For example, in Sura 7, verse 43,
8:41 we see that the people in Heaven
8:43 pray and say "ALHAMDU LILLAH", "Praise be to God" who guided us to this.
8:48 We could not, we could never be guided without God's blessing and guiding us."
8:52 In other words, it was not their doing.
8:55 It is God's blessing and God's gift to them that guided them.
9:00 In sura 10, verse 9,
9:03 we see a very clear principle
9:06 saying that God guides the people because of their faith or their belief.
9:12 In other words, when you decide to worship God alone, then God provides for your soul
9:18 and God provides the five contact prayers for your soul
9:22 and the fasting of the month of Ramadan for your soul.
9:26 I mean, you think that you're gonna do the five contact prayers,
9:29 but really it's a gift from God. You cannot do it without God's guidance.
9:34 Sura 9 verse 10. Sura 10, verse 9, excuse me.
9:38 In sura 49, verse 17,
9:42 another clear evidence for this.
9:44 The verse says "they act as if they are doing you a favor by embracing Islam or by practicing Islam
9:53 instead, God is the one who blessed them by guiding them to Islam."
10:01 So, when we worship God alone, when we do the five daily prayers, when we fast the month of Ramadan,
10:07 when we join the Quranic study and even the picnics of the Muslim group,
10:12 we are not doing God a favor.
10:16 It is God's provisions to our souls.
10:22 In sura 14, verse 40, we see Abraham praying
10:26 and what is he saying?
10:27 He says, "please God make me an observer of the Contact Prayers"
10:32 because it's a gift from God.
10:35 "and also my children" he said.
10:38 He said "please God make me an observer of the Contact Prayers."
10:44 رَبِّ ٱجْعَلْنِى مُقِيمَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةِ (14:40)
10:47 in Arabic.
10:48 He didn't say, "please, God give me a million dollars."
10:52 So, observing the five Contact Prayers is a privilege, and a gift and a blessing.
10:58 It is not a hardship. It is not work.
11:00 You get up for the morning prayer, before sunrise,
11:04 not because you want to do this, or because you're doing such a great effort, you know, for God's sake.
11:11 It's because God blessed you and enabled you
11:15 to get up before sunrise to feed your soul,
11:18 this very important meal, the morning prayer.
11:24 Abraham said " رَبِّ ٱجْعَلْنِى مُقِيمَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةِ" My Lord, make me one who observes the Contact Prayers,
11:31 and also my children.
11:37 People in Satan's kingdom are provided with sins.
11:46 We see this in Sura 24, verse 21.
11:49 When Satan collects people in his kingdom,
11:53 he pushes them to go to the bar and lie and cheat,
11:57 and drink and do not feed your soul.
12:03 This is what sins are: not feeding the soul, depriving the soul, poverty of the soul.
12:10 On the other hand, in Sura 7, verse 28,
12:14 we see the principle that God does not advocate vice.
12:24 So, it's the exact opposite of what Satan does.
12:27 And this is why I want to remind you again that God never ordered Abraham to slaughter his son
12:33 because this is a terrible vice, of course.
12:36 And this is why we never, never find it in the Quran that Abraham ordered Abraham to sacrifice his son.
12:44 That wouldn't make sense and it does not... this law that "God does not advocate sins" would be violated.
13:04 People in Satan's kingdom, because of their idol worship,
13:09 they may observe the five Contact Prayers, but they do not make contact.
13:14 They dial the wrong number.
13:17 They dial Satan's number because they mention other names with God.
13:21 And this is a trick of Satan.
13:23 And this is why we find in the Quran such statements as "woe to those who observe the Salat prayers."
13:29 وَيْلٌ لِلْمُصَلِّينَ (107:4)
13:33 Because, now they are really doing an effort,
13:36 but it's all in vain. As we see in Sura 39, it is all in vain.
13:41 Once there is a name mentioned with God in the prayer, it violates the commandment in Sura 72, verse 18.
13:47 Once another name is mentioned, the whole effort is in vain.
13:54 And we are blessed here.
13:56 See, we're gonna stand up, we're gonna pray to God,
13:59 we're gonna establish contact with God,
14:03 and there will be no name.
14:05 From the moment we say, "ALLAH-O AKBAR" (God is the greatest) to open the prayer to the end,
14:08 there'll be no name but the name of God.
14:13 And you can see the difference.
14:15 AQEM AL-SALAT (let's observe Salat prayer)
14:18 ALLAH-O AKBAR, ALLAH-O AKBAR, LA ILAAHA ILLAA ALLAH. (God is the greatest, God is the greatest. There is not god but one God.)
14:22 ALLAH-O AKBAR (God is the greatest)
14:27 (1:1) بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
14:29 (1:2) ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ
14:31 (1:3) ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
14:33 (1:4) مَـٰلِكِ يَوْمِ ٱلدِّينِ
14:35 (1:5) إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ
14:38 (1:6) ٱهْدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٰطَ ٱلْمُسْتَقِيمَ
14:40 (1:7) صِرَٰطَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ ٱلْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا ٱلضَّآلِّينَ
14:46 ALLAH-O AKBAR (God is the greatest)
14:53 سمع الله لمن حمده (God listens to those who say praise)
14:55 ALLAH-O AKBAR (God is the greatest)
15:03 ALLAH-O AKBAR (God is the greatest)
15:05 ALLAAH AKBAR (God is the greatest)
15:08 ALLAH-O AKBAR (God is the greatest)
15:16 (1:1) بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
15:18 (1:2) ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ
15:20 (1:3) ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
15:22 (1:4) مَـٰلِكِ يَوْمِ ٱلدِّينِ
15:24 (1:5) إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ
15:27 (1:6) ٱهْدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٰطَ ٱلْمُسْتَقِيمَ
15:29 (1:7) صِرَٰطَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ ٱلْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا ٱلضَّآلِّينَ
15:35 ALLAH-O AKBAR (God is the greatest)
15:43 سمع الله لمن حمده (God listens to those who say praise)
15:45 ALLAH-O AKBAR (God is the greatest)
15:53 ALLAH-O AKBAR (God is the greatest)
15:55 ALLAH-O AKBAR (God is the greatest)
16:03 ALLAH-O AKBAR (God is the greatest)
16:11 ASALAAMU ALAYKUM (peace be upon you)
16:13 ASALAAMU ALAYKUM (peace be upon you)
16:18 This is why it is appropriate to say Congratulations at the end of the prayer
16:21 because we just received a gift from God,
16:25 the equivalent of a hundred million dollars in your account.
16:27 Congratulations.