Friday Sermon 1982 By Dr Rashad Khalifa
Transcript
0:02 Alhamdulillah, in my last talk, I have been talking about the greatness of God, and awareness, being aware of God, because the people go around unaware of their creator.
0:25 In the beginning of Surah 23, the verses say,
0:29 Indeed, successful are the believers who are reverent in their Salat.
0:35 And "successful" here is just one word, but it encompasses everything,
0:39 health, wealth, happiness, peace of mind, here and in the hereafter.
0:44 Indeed, successful are the believers who are reverent in their Salat.
0:49 So, the purpose of my talk on the greatness of God is,
0:51 when you bow, when you do Salat, you mean it. You don't just go through a mechanical motion of bowing down.
1:00 You must think of the greatness of God and that you are deliberately bowing down and saying,
1:05 "Glory be to my Lord, the Great." And when you make sujood, you also think of the greatness of God.
1:15 You may go through mechanical motions initially, but the purpose of this talk is to
1:21 have you have some awareness about the greatness of God.
1:26 And I mentioned in the past how the seven universes are in His right hand, as we've seen through our very math,
1:33 how vast our universe is, and that it is the smallest and innermost of the seven universes.
1:44 In
1:45 continuing this topic,
1:50 and hoping that you will remember
1:52 as you bow
1:53 and as you prostrate,
1:55 that you are doing a deliberate
1:57 action showing your respect
1:59 and your recognition of God's
2:01 greatness.
2:04 Let's talk about
2:06 the
2:07 planet earth, for example. This is what the planet earth looks like.
2:13 And it goes around itself, and around the sun.
2:18 Now, do you see this axis? God designed that.
2:24 And sometimes to bring it to our minds, like I said in one khutbah,
2:28 I like to imagine God like the chairman of the board sitting at a big desk or something.
2:33 He's the head of design for the moon and for the earth.
2:36 Remember when we were talking about the moon and how the speed of rotation of the moon
2:40 is the same as its revolution around the Earth?
2:43 And he said, "Let's put two eyes, a nose and a mouth on the moon,
2:46 and make the people of earth look at the same side all the time."
2:51 Design. Now God designed the axis of the earth like this.
2:54 23-degree tilt? I'm not sure.
2:56 But whatever it is, it's planned.
2:59 And what does this do?
3:01 Why does God design it like this?
3:05 The axis of the earth is tilted like this.
3:09 Now, if we put the sun over there, lighting
3:12 the earth. Now, in this position,
3:17 the sun is right here.
3:21 Now, when the rotation
3:25 let me, I want to make it a little smaller.
3:27 See, the sun will be in this position here, the sun is here,
3:33 where it will be lighting the upper half of the Earth.
3:36 Right? But when the Earth turns around like this,
3:41 it will be lighting the lower half here,
3:44 so it will be summer in South America, and winter in North America.
3:49 But when the Earth turns, and the axis is in this way,
3:53 then the sun will be lighting the upper half.
3:55 So it will be summer in North America, and winter in South America, in the Southern Hemisphere.
4:03 Now this creates the seasons. The summer, the fall, winter, and spring.
4:11 And the seasons are very important for growing certain crops.
4:17 There are plants that will never flower, unless the length of daylight is a specific number of hours.
4:24 Fruits will not grow. You have to have a certain amount of sunlight.
4:30 So the seasons will create the crops. We have to have different crops.
4:35 So this design is very important.
4:39 And the way of looking at the Earth, do you remember the last time we had a picture of the Earth from 100,000 miles away?
4:46 An actual picture. And it looked exactly like this.
4:49 And those who looked at it carefully saw all of Africa, Saudi Arabia, Mecca was there, Jerusalem was there, and it's there.
5:00 There's no doubt about it that this is how it looked. We see it, as if just from space.
5:05 Now, did any of you stand by the ocean sometimes and look at the ocean and how the waves come in?
5:13 How about walking around this globe with a cup full of tea?
5:17 You spin it, and this Earth is going, I don't know if you can see this, 1,200 miles an hour.
5:24 But the ocean keeps spinning with it there.
5:26 You can see the thin line of the ocean there.
5:29 And this water that's upside down, how come it doesn't spin off from there?
5:35 That's divine.
5:40 Speaking of the seasons and the different crops and plants,
5:43 And, you know, the things that we take for granted...
5:52 Just a moment, I'll just come back with an orange, okay?
6:09 That's how it was declared orange yesterday.
6:13 And one month ago, this orange was green.
6:19 For as long as it is not ready to be eaten, it is green and camouflaged in the foliage.
6:26 You don't see it. As soon as it is ready to be eaten, it says, "I'm here, come and take me."
6:32 You can see them. Now, I noticed that driving around the Phoenix area where there's lots of orchards,
6:39 and then going at my usual speed, within the speed limit,
6:46 and I can find all kinds of trees, and you don't see the fruits,
6:51 and then all of a sudden they're standing out, you can see them.
6:54 And who designed this, the color?
6:56 Same with the apples, they blend in for as long as they're not ready.
7:01 And what's the color made of?
7:03 So, God designed all this, a very fine chemical reaction, with carotenes and anthocyanins and chlorophylls.
7:15 This was full of chlorophyll a month ago, now the chlorophyll is gone.
7:20 All these chemical reactions were designed by God.
7:26 We must have awareness of the greatness of God.
7:29 And this planet here, that is very minute in the universe, is the only object in our universe that we know of, at least, that is teeming with life.
7:43 When you look at this from Heaven, it says, well, it's full of people and cockroaches, and trees, and bacteria, and lions, and elephants, and giraffes.
7:58 You know, just teeming with life.
8:01 And God designed all this.
8:07 Look at the pictures of the moon, Mars.
8:10 Do you see a thing that's green?
8:12 Jupiter, Saturn.
8:15 Not a sign of life.
8:17 And God said in the Quran that He created all those for our sake.
8:21 Just to adorn the sky for us.
8:27 And none of the planets around, as you see, have a blue sky like we do.
8:32 The minute you go out of the Earth's atmosphere, the blue color disappears.
8:38 That's the blue color for our pacifier, to keep us happy.
8:43 That's God's design.
8:45 The sunlight hits the Earth.
8:47 You know the sunlight is made of all the rainbow colors, as you know.
8:50 A prism will split the white light into all the rainbow colors.
8:54 But when it hits the outer atmosphere of the Earth, the blue color reflects back.
8:58 It comes at a specific angle that makes the blue color
9:02 reflect or reflect back. So it spreads out there,
9:06 this is why we see the blue color.
9:09 That's God's design.
9:15 Pardon? That means it gets black after you cross that.
9:18 The sun will look like just one big star up there.
9:22 Now, the Quran says, "Reflect on yourselves."
9:29 Just hold your ear, put your hand on it.
9:31 And think about, what is this design?
9:34 What is this audio engineering in our hearing?
9:38 That's a weird thing, isn't it?
9:43 You feel, when you touch your ear, there's a soft lobe here.
9:46 Some of them are not so soft, but that is it.
9:50 You know.
9:52 And inside, it is the same.
9:56 Now, this is a top audio engineering tool, so you can hear.
10:02 And in this ear, there is a tube that leads to a small membrane, the eardrum.
10:09 You don't have that, you can't hear.
10:12 It is in there, very thin.
10:14 What makes you hear audio?
10:18 Well, God designed for this audio,
10:20 a hearing nerve that goes from the ear to the brain.
10:24 Well, we take God for granted
10:26 for His design.
10:29 Now, put your hand on your neck.
10:31 Feel your neck. Who designed that?
10:33 What's in there?
10:35 There's the nerves, the veins,
10:38 Huh?
10:40 Muscles?
10:41 There's a backbone.
10:43 It's getting everything through your throat.
10:47 It's going to move your throat.
10:48 It has to go through your neck.
10:49 It's from the brain.
10:52 There's blood in there, pumping.
10:54 Can you feel it?
10:55 Can you feel the pumping?
10:58 What is this pumping?
11:02 What's the blood made of?
11:05 It's a chemical reaction.
11:06 It's a chemical reaction.
11:06 The acid is going out, and the oxygen is going in.
11:10 This is God's design. It's just overwhelming when you think about it.
11:16 When people take it for granted, they walk around the world unaware.
11:19 Some of them have the gall to say there's no God.
11:22 But who made this?
11:25 The genetics. Look at them. They always make the whole form.
11:28 They look alike.
11:31 All the genetics are there.
11:33 This kid took half from the mother and half from the father.
11:42 That's why doctors think about the skill.
11:52 Also, we talked about the moon design and how if the sun is over there, the moon goes like this.
11:57 It doesn't go like that, or like that, or like this.
12:01 Otherwise we would not have the different phases of the moon, to know what day of the month it is, and how many months in the year.
12:09 Also, the seasons, as you know, they were designed for the test.
12:15 Remember how hard it was to come to Fajr at 4 o'clock in the morning?
12:20 And now, for this season, you come to Fajr at 6 in the morning.
12:24 It's still hard because of the cold weather.
12:26 It's so warm. It's so nice. You don't want to leave this in the morning.
12:30 It's all for the test. Remember when Ramadan used to be 10 hours? The day was 10 hours?
12:37 The length of time now is 16 hours. And some people
12:41 will drop out when Ramadan is 14 hours. Some will drop out
12:46 when it's 12. But the true Muslim will pass no matter how long the day is.
12:51 16 hours, very happy to bear it.
12:55 And God helps them, and the people wonder, how do you do it?
12:59 There's a lot of teaching going on.
13:02 So God helps you. But you can see that this axis
13:07 of the earth is designed for many reasons.
13:10 Especially the Hajj.
13:15 When we bow in our prayers, we must think of
13:19 the greatness of God. When you do Ruku', you must think you are doing a deliberate act,
13:24 you are humbling yourself before your Creator.
13:29 Awareness of God, and God's grace.
13:35 Also, one of the things that we must know in this time is the four sacred months.
13:41 The four sacred months. God says in Surah 9 that the count of months, as far as God is concerned, is 12.
13:48 The day He designed the heavens and the earth. That's Surah 9.
13:54 Four of them are sacred.
13:58 So we have the lunar year. Now the sun doesn't give us any indication about the months.
14:05 The solar year is something that we invented, the Gregorian year.
14:09 But the lunar year is God's year.
14:12 And four months are sacred.
14:13 What does that mean?
14:14 You don't fight in them? No war?
14:17 You don't hunt?
14:19 Conservation.
14:21 Now people talk about conservation,
14:22 they think they invented conservation.
14:25 Now, if the seasons were fixed,
14:28 and the four months of conservation
14:30 were January, February, March, and April,
14:34 then only at one end of the year
14:35 specific species of animals will be protected, right?
14:37 The conservation will apply only to the
14:39 specific animals who
14:42 are found in the
14:43 Haram environment.
14:45 But the four months constantly change.
14:47 So, the conservation applies to all
14:50 species of animals.
14:52 Otherwise, the prohibitions will
14:53 only apply to the
14:57 animals
14:57 that happen to
15:00 appear at that time.
15:02 So, you see?
15:03 All this is achieved by just tilting the earth 23 degrees.
15:09 That's it.
15:21 Now let's change, I'll go to another subject.
15:24 And I hope to impress on you enough to think about God and God's greatness.
15:30 Especially when you pray.
15:32 The verse says, successful are the believers who are reverent in their prayers.
15:37 There's a lot in prayers.
15:38 This is the key thing.
15:39 At the beginning of the Sura, there's a lot of emphasis, you know.
15:43 There's a lot in prayer.
15:43 When you bow, you must remember the greatness of God.
15:51 This is the first point that I want to talk about: Satan.
15:57 Satan is so powerful that he wants to be a god with God.
16:01 That's how powerful he is. God gave Satan so much responsibility and so much capability
16:10 that he thought he was important enough to be a God with God. As a matter of fact, we owe our creation to Satan.
16:17 We were created to prove to the angels and to Satan that we will worship God alone without partners.
16:23 That's the whole purpose of our creation. But it was a test that Satan failed; he wanted to be a partner with God.
16:29 The angels saw God and they knew He was the ruler of the universe. But Satan had those
16:39 rebellious ideas, even though he saw God. So God created us to show the angels that
16:46 without seeing God, we're going to worship Him without partners. And this is why any
16:55 offense is forgiven, but not idol worship, not the idolization of anyone or anything.
17:02 We must worship God alone, and have absolutely no idols.
17:07 So, Satan was the reason for our creation. The whole thing, right now, is a test.
17:16 Now, because we were the reason for evicting Satan from Heaven, he is out for revenge.
17:22 So you are up against a very powerful creature, very powerful, he wanted to be a god with God.
17:27 And we must never underestimate the power of Satan.
17:30 So what does Satan want to do to you?
17:33 Now that we evicted him from Heaven.
17:38 Our father Adam was the direct cause of his eviction, at least outwardly.
17:42 The real reason for his eviction was his rebellious thoughts.
17:45 But Adam was the tool that was used, and he is taking out his revenge on us.
17:50 He wants to prove to God that God indeed needs a partner.
17:57 This is the objective he wants to prove. So his first objective is to make us disbelieve in God.
18:05 That's his first objective. He wants you to be a disbeliever. He wants you to be an atheist.
18:12 Now, if he fails, and you resist him, and you insist on believing in God, then his next
18:20 attempt, which is even more formidable, is to make you a polytheist.
18:26 If he fails in making you an atheist, he wants to make you a polytheist.
18:30 He wants to make you an idol-worshipper.
18:33 That's the second objective.
18:34 If he fails in the second objective, then he works on dividing us, the believers.
18:46 That's his last objective. And this is why in Surah 17, God says, "Tell My servants, My
18:54 servants"—and the implication is those who believe in God and worship God alone—"to speak
19:00 nicely to each other and treat each other in the best possible way,
19:04 because the devil will drive a wedge between them." Now we must remember these
19:10 three stages. The first one is to make you an atheist; if he fails, to make you a
19:15 polytheist; if he fails, to drive a wedge between you and your brother or sister.
19:24 Now, Alhamdulillah, we escaped the first objective; we all believe in God.
19:30 But the majority of believers in God are going to hell, as you know, because of their idol worship.
19:37 First of all, the majority of people will not believe.
19:40 So, Satan, to some extent, succeeded in duping the majority of people into being atheists, disbelievers.
19:47 And then he duped the majority of believers into being idolatrous.
19:56 The third objective is to divide us and make us dislike each other.
20:04 Now, we must make him pay.
20:09 As a group of people who succeeded in escaping the first trap
20:14 and the second set of traps, we must work on the third trap.
20:21 We must never have a hard feeling, or a dislike towards a brother or a sister.
20:28 And when I finish this khutbah, and sit down to repent, I want you all, you and me,
20:35 to direct this repentance to the wedges that Satan may have driven between you and me,
20:42 or you and a brother, or you and a sister.
20:46 And the way to do it,
20:48 is to absolutely forget the past.
20:53 As if you are meeting the person for the first time in your life.
20:57 You concentrate on that.
20:59 Now, let's suppose.
21:00 So Wali and I, we have...
21:02 Satan has succeeded in driving a wedge between us.
21:05 Then when we sit down to repent, I'm going to say,
21:08 "I'll forget everything Wali did to me,
21:10 anything bad, and I'm going to meet
21:15 Wali for the first time."
21:16 As if he's new to me for the first time.
21:18 When you come out of this repentance, I want you to think of any person you don't like, in this room, or outside, any of the believers. As if you're going to meet him for the first time. So you come, if you have anything against me, I want this thought to come over you: "I am going to treat him as if I never met him before." As far as his words are concerned, or any bad actions he has done against me. It is very important that we succeed in this, because any success he obtains is detrimental to us. And this is his last trap. You must convince yourself that you are meeting this person for the first time. So, my name is Rashad, and your name is Wali, now, we have nothing against each other, because we're meeting for the first time.
22:17 Satan will drive wedges among the people, so when they go in, they will not say salam alaykum to each other, or greet each other.
22:23 But if the person we're meeting is a person for the first time, so we're going to make today a day of renewal, of wholeness.
22:32 If you have anybody you don't like, when this prayer is over and you're meeting that person for the first time,
22:40 we must give each other a chance.
22:44 Give your brother and sister a chance. I mean, no mistake is so gross that it cannot be forgiven.
22:52 Now, the Quran repeats over and over that you must forgive and forget.
23:01 So let us give each other a chance and start all over again, for a hard feeling we shouldn't have.
23:12 So we are going to sit down and we are going to repent for letting Satan succeed in driving wedges between any of us.
23:21 And we are going to pledge that he will never succeed again, we will never let him.
23:24 We're going to treat each other in the nicest possible way.
23:27 We're going to talk to each other, treat each other in the nicest possible way.
23:31 This is a commandment from God.
23:33 Tell my servants to treat each other in the best possible way
23:37 and to utter the nicest words.
23:40 The word 'utter' is in the verse.
23:43 For Satan will try to drive a wedge between them.
23:49 And when this prayer is over, we're going to be the most loving group in the world,
23:52 as we are always supposed to be.
23:54 So the Quran says,
23:55 إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِخْوَةٌ
23:57 The believers are one family.
24:00 Brethren.
24:01 Siblings.
24:03 Whatever the translation is, it includes male and female.
24:06 We are, this is your family, you know.
24:09 Because your
24:10 blood family, your genetic family
24:12 may not go with you to heaven.
24:15 But this family,
24:16 the people who believe in God alone,
24:18 you're going to be stuck with us forever.
24:22 So this is the real family. Millions of years. Your genetic family is yours for 60 years or 70 years.
24:34 But your spiritual family is your family for eternity. And we must maintain the best possible relationships.
24:40 And when we repent, we are going to be full of love for Allah. SubhanAllah. Repent.
24:54 Think of anyone you have any grudge against, and forget that grudge, forgive and forget.
25:03 Then you treat those people as if you are meeting them for the first time,
25:11 Alhamdulillah, wa ashadu an la ilaha illa Allah, wa atubu ilayh.
25:19 There is a verse in Surah Al-Zumar that says,
25:24 Tell my servants who exceeded the limits, or crossed the limits,
25:33 Do not, never despair from the mercy of God, for God forgives all sins.
25:43 That's one of the
25:44 most beautiful verses in the Quran.
25:47 There's only one offense.
25:50 The greatest sin is to be an idol worshiper.
25:52 It's much greater than that.
25:55 And in this Masjid, you know, we read the total elimination of idol worship.
26:02 I was talking about the greatness of God. We all realize that only God can benefit you or harm you.
26:09 And that if you ever think that anything or anyone or any material can benefit you or harm you in any way, then you have fallen in idol worship.
26:21 You must know that God controls the flow of every single blood cell in your body.
26:25 How it flows, where it is going, how much sustenance you deserve, how much health you
26:32 deserve, how much money is good for you.
26:37 Money is not always good for you.
26:40 God decides all this and we recognize that.
26:45 But if you ever think that Jesus or Mary or Muhammad or Hussain or Ali or anybody can
26:50 benefit you, or harm you, or anything, you have fallen into idol worship.
26:55 You think your job provides you with money.
26:58 You have fallen into idol worship.
27:01 You must have God in mind.
27:05 The only thing that is not forgivable, as it is repeated in the Quran,
27:09 there are two verses in Surah 4.
27:11 إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يَغْفِرُ أَن يُشْرَكَ بِهِ
27:14 God does not forgive that you set up idols.
27:22 That's the only unforgivable offense.
27:25 Now this mosque is internationally famous, as we were told yesterday, for saying that
27:33 Hadith is bad, and Sunnah is bad.
27:36 You cannot follow Hadith and Sunnah; they actually have nothing to do with the Prophet.
27:40 We believe God when He says the Quran is complete, perfect, and fully detailed.
27:47 Now, the biggest accusation against us in Masjid Tucson is that we disrespect the Prophet.
27:55 Right? No, the accusation is rife.
28:01 Of course we don't disrespect the Prophet. We realize he is the final Prophet, the Messenger of God.
28:06 He was chosen to utter the last words of God. We know that. But you know he is dead, he can't help us.
28:11 His sole mission was the delivery. And we know that the hadith and sunnah have nothing to do with him.
28:16 But you see, Satan fabricated those things, as the Quran teaches us.
28:20 Satan fabricated, he said, the Prophet said. Satan said, the Prophet said.
28:24 And they are falling on their faces in Satan's trap.
28:29 But what I want to say is, let us agree with them.
28:32 Let us say we disrespect the Prophet. The question is,
28:37 is disrespecting the Prophet forgivable?
28:40 Is murder forgivable? Is adultery forgivable? Is lying forgivable? Is cheating forgivable?
28:48 The verse of Surah Az-Zumar says,
28:51 "Say, 'O My servants who have transgressed against their own souls, never despair of the mercy of God, for God forgives all sins.'"
28:59 And throughout the Quran, the only unforgivable offense is idol worship.
29:06 So, just to avoid idol worship, which is not forgivable, and to fall into disrespect of
29:12 the Prophet, which we don't, but even that, that is forgivable, but idol worship is not.
29:18 And we don't want to be idol worshipers.
29:27 You know, the choice: disrespecting the Prophet versus idol worship.
29:35 And if we have to choose, what would you choose?
29:39 Idol worship or disrespecting the Prophet?
29:41 We do not disrespect the Prophet.
29:43 We know exactly who he is, what he is, what he stands for, what he wants, what he wishes.
29:49 Just like you. You wish all the people to be believers.
29:52 And so do Muhammad, and Jesus, and Mary; they are all the same.
29:56 That's what they want. They don't want us to idolize them.
30:00 They want us to worship God. This is why in the Surah
30:04 of the Prophets, one of the important verses says, "We did not send
30:08 any messenger before you except to inspire him
30:12 that: 'There is no god except Me, so worship Me.'"
30:20 We did not send any messenger except to give one and the same message, which is,
30:28 "There is no god but God."
30:32 So, saints, prophets, and Mary and Jesus, they also benefit us naught.
30:38 And then, you've wasted your life.
30:45 So even if they accuse you of disrespecting the Prophet, and it's your word against theirs.
30:50 They say you disrespect the Prophet; you say, "No, I respect the Prophet." It is as Abdullah said,
30:56 instinctive.
30:57 You don't disrespect the Prophet.
30:59 If they insist, you say to them, "Well, that's idol worship, and that's unforgivable."
31:07 We must never let Satan sneak any kind of idol worship into our hearts, our minds.
31:14 We must always be aware of the greatness of God, that He is the doer of everything.
31:22 And when we enter our prayers, we do a deliberate act of humbling ourselves before our Creator.
31:30 In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
31:37 May God bless you.