Text Box: بسم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Friday Sermon HAZRAT AMIR’UL MOMENEEN MUHYI-UD-DIN AL KHALIFATULLAH Munir Ahmad Azim 19 February 2010 (04 Rabi’ ul Awwal 1431 Hijri) (Summary of Friday Sermon) After having greeted everybody with the Salutations of Peace, the Khalifatullah read the Tashahhud, Taouz and Surah Al Fatiha and then he said: وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ وَحَمَلْنَاهُمْ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَاهُم مِّنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَفَضَّلْنَاهُمْ عَلَى كَثِيرٍ مِّمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا تَفْضِيلًا ۝ Wa laqad karramaaa Banii Aadama wa hamalnaahum fil-barri wal bahri wa razaqnaahum minat-tayyibaati wa fazzal naahum alaa kasiirim-mimman khalaqnaa tafzii-laa. And surely We have honoured the children of Adam, and We carry them in the land and the sea, and We have given them of the good things, and We have made them to excel by an appropriate excellence over most of those whom We have created. (Chapter 17 Verse 71) The world in which we are living is decorated in all ways; there are all sorts of games being played. There are games of friendship, enmity and passions. Man fights and by this wants to achieve all his desires; he wants to come out victorious in all fields. He tries all ways to justify his existence on earth and goes further down the lane in his pleasures, forgetting that we humans are only temporary in this world; we being only short-time visitors, not immortals! We are only concerned about us, that is, we like always to come out victorious; we do not like to find our brothers achieve success. We humans are so engrossed in ourselves that we want to become great personages whom everybody respects and holds in awe. We forget the divine favours upon us and many other blessings which Allah has bestowed upon us for our comfort in this life. Thus, these thoughts lead man to believe that he is eternal on earth. Wherever you look nowadays, there is destruction, war, revenge, oppression, leading modern life deprived of spirituality (Pop life), social unrest, and religious and moral codes vanished completely. In our little island in which we are living, there is no dearth of churches, mosques, temples and pagodas, but regardless of these spiritual institutions, the Mauritian youths have become materialistic people. For them to have become like this, the actual society must have been spoiled completely. Many of our youths today want facility and their pleasure is found in going out with friends to have fun. They are leading such a care-free life, filled with drugs, alcohol, disco, and television (with its films – video films etc.). The society has fallen into a very grievous decadence. Today the greatest problem is television. People, especially the youths spend too much time before the television set. They lose their precious time in it. There is a study which has been made about this, whereby a housewife spends about five long hours per day before the television set. If that study is correct, the time spent before the television set is simply outrageous. Television is a means of entertainment, for there are also good programmes. There are cartoons for the children, stories, news, and documentary and so on. But there are also such programmes or films which influence us negatively. There are even publicities which are promoters of alcohol taking etc. Television influence people in various ways – An innocent child watching television becomes a better judge in this field, grading the films he watches and knowing the names and styles of the many actors by heart. They know who are the heroes and the villains. In the aftermath of watching a film, he imitates the main actor and makes his friend act as the villain from the film. Thus, little by little, these ways of life is being imprinted in the children, whereby the criminal aspects of films is more poignant in his mind than any other good programmes he may have seen on television. Thus, he manifests these criminal aspects and slowly a new type of children is created, whereby they are not only self-destructing, but they ruin also the lives and health of their parents, putting them in an awesome lot of troubles. Then parents wonders what has gone wrong, why their children are behaving like this, whereas all their ills comes from the films and characters projected on televisions (in films etc.). The elders who are present here, if we make a flash-back of our past life, a life where there was no television, we will see that all our free time were spent on reading a good book. In the past, an educated man used to spend his free time reading, but nowadays, the educated fellow do not spend even a tenth of his free time in reading. In the past, reading was leisure, but today, it is being considered as a burden; instead leisure has become synonymous with watching television. After work, and after the children having done all their homework, the whole family would spend their time together watching television. A person who enjoys reading can choose whatever he likes to read, but as for television, even if it forms part of entertainment in our life, we must find a way that we do not exceed all limits for we are very different from the western world. Thus, we must take care of the well-being of our children, and encourage them to read instead of watching television (reading good books rich for their vocabulary, and for their religious knowledge). Reading is becoming all the more difficult to practise today, especially books which will give religious knowledge. The younger generations take it as a nuisance (they do not want to attach themselves to reading religious books which will represents nothing to them). If you give him a religious book, he will look at it strangely, with disgust, and he would tell you, what are you doing? Nowadays children tire quickly (or so they say!) When you tell them to do a work, or to perform their prayer, or to go and read, he would say: “Oh I am tired! I have spent a hard day at school.” Afterwards, he would go and sit before the television set to views his favourite programmes. If you give him a religious book to read, he would against his will read only a few lines, and then stop and say: “I do not understand anything.” So, look where have our younger generations fallen into! If he reads, he reads very little, and afterwards says that he does not understand anything, and stop right there. The parents on the other hand do not put any pressure on their children and let them do all that they like, as if they fear their children. Do they not realise the negative effects of television, where it is leading them day by day, and how their children are being influenced by it and you also, and you are doing nothing about it? We are not worrying about the future of our children; what shall happen to them; we are only following blindly the fashion trends and thus falling into its trap. We must be conscious of the time that we and our children have lost and which we lose before the television set. If you do not succeed in making them understand the philosophy of our life and belief – which is completely different from the western world – then, it would be too late. Therefore, encourage them to read good books (especially religious books), and you set the example by reading also. May Allah help you and remain with you always! Ameen. All young people who are present here today bear in mind that youth is a phase of life where you should devote yourselves completely in your prayers to Allah, work hard and take up responsibilities. The reform of a nation will be successfully done if the youths reform themselves. Therefore, the young people must devote their time in such activities which shall help them to reform themselves morally and spiritually; such reform which shall be a good example for the next generations after them. By these means, they will be able to increase their religious knowledge and boost their interest for religious works, so that later they may devote themselves fully in this honourable work; that is, inviting people towards Allah, towards the unicity of Allah through preaching the word of Allah. The mission of the Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam is to establish the unicity of Allah, love for our human beings, live in peace with others and to re-establish the moral values which have disappeared. It is for the accomplishment of this mission that you will find established under divine instructions such programs as Study-Circles and the different classes for all members, ranging from children to adults. All these classes are also for giving our youths training so that they may come to see Allah, obtain His love in their hearts, and obtain also the love of their fellow human beings and thus serving their country and humanity at large. To attain this goal, we must have an extended program on their spiritual, moral, intellectual, and physical development… For us, our guide, our light is the Holy Quran. We must act in conformity with the commandments found in it. Each of us must make it obligatory upon us that we read the Holy Quran everyday and we look for guidance through it. Insha-Allah. The excellences of the Holy Quran is such that we must project this light and spread it beyond our horizon and it is our duty to give these teachings of the Holy Quran to the whole world. Each member of the Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam must do his five times obligatory prayers, and we know that Salaat is one of the five pillars of Islam. Without Salaat, all our good actions will be like a building without foundation. All injunctions of the Holy Quran and that of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) put emphasis on this subject (prayer). The Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has said that to distinguish between a Muslim and a hypocrite is through Salaat. The one to neglect even a single prayer of his five daily prayers cannot be said of him a Muslim. The work of the officers of the Jamaat (in all fields), be them from men side or women side or the youths, is not an easy one. You must take seriously your work, and each of you must perform his five daily prayers, et be aware of their translations, and you must make it a must to perform your prayers in congregation. Moreover, you must make it a habit to wake up for Tahajjud prayers also and if possible in congregation. We must pray for the good of our relatives (especially the believers), our friends, our fellow citizens, for our country and even enemies. The Promised Messiah (on him be peace) has said: “My religion has taught that as long as you do not pray for your enemies, your conscience will not be at peace.” He says that praying for your enemies is following the example of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him). Is it not with prayer that Hazrat Umar (May Allah be pleased with him) became Muslim? This is because the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) used to pray a lot for him. The Promised Messiah (on him be peace) has said: “You must not become miserly in your prayers. I did not witness having prayed for all my enemies and that I have not prayed for them several times.” He said to follow this teaching and you shall real its fruits. Our youths are the pillars of a nation; you must walk on the path of progress and take your own responsibilities et it is my wish that you take the right path leading towards Allah. The objective of Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam is to build a new world. From either a mundane or a spiritual point of view, this progress will not be achieve until you do what you are told, and are not slow (lazy) in your work. The progress will be achieve only when all of us will cooperate together to build this new world. Insha-Allah. Thus, place your trust in Allah and reform yourselves. Wake up in the night for your additional prayers and then you will become the person or youth who makes good dreams (dreams as a form of divine revelations). The elders who are here, strive to attain the rank of Aqtab – those who through their prayers have established a special relation with Allah and they reflect the divine light and they are also a guide for humanity. As for our youths, strive to become Abdal. The Abdal are those whose prayers are sincere and have got the divine favour and are models of virtue. Thus strive hard to come close to Allah, till people know that Allah listens to your prayers and grants them, and thus these people ask you to pray for them. I pray to Allah, that Allah help you all and give you a face illumined with the light of Allah and not a devil face. Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 30 Verse 31: Fa-aqim wajhaka lid-Diini haniifaa : fitratallaahillatii fataran-naasa alayhaa. Then set your face upright for religion in the right state – the nature made by Allah in which He has made men. In all our spiritual achievements, we must acknowledge the efforts of the young girls and women who work with dedication for the propagation of Islam in the world, and here amongst us we have the Siraj Makin. The victory of Islam nowadays is found in the hands of women. In the present era, it is such an era where women will devote themselves more than men in work of Islam. Insha-Allah, I will continue this Sermon in a couple of weeks. May Allah enable us at all levels to serve the religion of Islam with devotion and sincerity, especially the young people in our midst, whereby you must be ever ready to sacrifice your time, possessions and life in the path of Allah. Ameen.