|
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Friday Sermon
HAZRAT KHALIFATULLAH AL-MASSIH AL-MA’OUD
Munir Ahmad Azim
(30 Safar 1432 Hijri)
(Summary of Friday Sermon)
After having greeted everybody with the Salutations of Peace, the Messiah (Massih’ullah) read the Tashahhud, Taouz and Surah Al Fatiha and then he said:
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَى وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ
“O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female; and We have made you tribes and sub-tribes that you may know one another. Verily, the most honourable among you, in the sight of Allah, is he who is the most righteous among you. Surely, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.” (49 : 14)
One of the attributes of God mentioned in the Holy book of Islam, that is the Holy Quran, is “As-Salaam” meaning ‘The Source of peace”.
Islam teaches that peace proceeds from God, and He alone, who is All-Knowing, the All-Aware, is qualified and competent to set the rules which will lead to peace.
As a Muslim, I am bound to acknowledge the truthfulness of the divinely inspired religions as Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism as well as others at source, and to pay due respect to their holy founders. This is an inherent part of my faith through these holy messengers (upon them be peace), God sent down His rules, His laws to ensure that mankind lives in peace and harmony. In fact there is no justification at all that men should live in a state of hostility, be it as an individual, an ethnic, a national, a racial or even a religious level.
Indeed, from a logical viewpoint and from the natural feeling that pervaded through the hearts of all human beings, they are more inclined to feel sympathy for one another and to create a society where peace and security would predominate.
As I have quoted at the beginning, God gives a common ancestry to all human beings, and the Holy Prophet of Islam has said: “we all belong to the family of God”. As highlighted in the verse, the basis for tying links between human beings or the philosophy behind the diversity of races is to know one another, knowing one another, and not dissension, contention.
It is true that at times obstacles do get in the way to impede, to obstruct the path to “knowing one another”. But this should not cause us to forget the wisdom underlying the essential factor, “know one another”. All roads that lead to strengthen the essential factor of knowing one another should not be neglected, so that its fruits of peace and harmony might be reaped.
Religion should not be an instrument linking to a certain limited number of individuals, but it should be a universal concept that takes due consideration of all realities and establish true relations, firstly between men and their Lord, God, and secondly, among men themselves. One of the worst enemies of peace which is rampant in the world is egoism pure self-interest. When it dominates the hearts, all good disappears; the individual knows himself only, and feels no care at all for his fellow human beings. He does not care the least for the thousands of human beings that live around him. He knows them for what he gets from them, for what he can rob from them for his own interest.
Religion should fight this egoism by true fraternity. Religion teaches to the individuals that life as such does not belong to him, alone, but that life improves itself through him. Man should know that he is not alone by himself: he should remember the rights others have on him. And here respect of the rights of others comes in as an important factor leading to peace. This indicates the necessity of religion to fashion noble, generous and honourable conduct as a source of respect for others. Respect implies working for the sake of something other than oneself.
The Holy Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) taught “God Most High never ceases to be concerned with the need of a servant while the servant is concerned with the need of his brother”.
In other words, religion should teach spiritual chivalry or spiritual nobility – It entails: pardoning the slips of brothers, not seeing in yourself any superiority over other people, having no enemy, fighting for your Lord against yourself, not being the enemy of anyone else, placing faith in God alone, breaking one’s ego, opposing one’s selfish desires, dealing fairly with others while not demanding fairness for oneself, having a good character, not avoiding a poor man, nor imitating a rich one, seeing your countryman and the foreigner as the same, giving up what you want because of what you fear, making no difference whether a saint or an unbeliever is eating with you.
It is related to religious traditions that once a Magian asked hospitality from Prophet Abraham (upon him be peace), the friend of God who said; “on the condition that you surrender to God”. So the Magian went his way. Then God Most High revealed to Abraham (upon him be peace): “for fifty years I have fed him in his unbelief. Is it too much for you to give him morsel without requiring that he changes his religion?”
Abraham followed the Magian’s track until he caught up with him and apologised to him. Asked the reason, he told the man. The Magian then surrendered to God.
Spiritual mobility demands that you restrain yourself from causing troubles while giving freely. It is called:
1. Loyalty and guarding what is precious. 2. A virtue you attain without seeing it yourself. 3. Not running away when a beggar approaches. 4. Not hiding yourself from those who come to you in need. 5. Not hoarding and not making excuses. 6. Manifesting blessing and concealing trouble. 7. Inviting ten people and not caring whether nine or eleven come. 8. To abandon making distinctions. 9. Not to make a profit on a friend.
It is easy to understand that spiritual mobility or chivalry is an essential prerequisite of respect, particularly respect of rights due to God and to others; and respect itself is an essential prerequisite leading to peace.
Respect starts at home – let’s consider as an example respect to parents – From the traditions of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) a few examples would suffice to enlighten us:
Once a man came to the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and complained that whenever his father desired, he took his money. The prophet (peace be upon him) called for the father. He (peace be upon him) saw an old man, weak and infirm man coming with the help of a stick. When he (peace be upon him) enquired of the old man, about the facts of the matter, he said,” O Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him) there was a time when my son was weak and helpless and I never stopped him from taking my things. Now I am weak and he is healthy and strong. I am poor and he is rich. Now he keeps his money away from me”. On hearing this, the prophet (peace be upon him) was tearful and turning to the son said, “You and your money is your father’s”. (This incident needs to be meditated upon – therein is much food for thought.)
Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that a man said, “O Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) who is deserving of my respect?” He (peace be upon him) replied, “Your mother”. The man then enquired, “Who comes next?” He (peace be upon him) said, “Your mother”. The man enquired, “Who comes next?” He (peace be upon him) replied, “Your father”. (Bukhari and Muslim)
Abdullah son of Umar (May Allah be pleased with him) related that the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “The pleasure of the Lord is in the pleasure of the father and the displeasure of the Lord is in the displeasure of the father”.
Paradise lies at the foot of the mother (Hadith).
From the Holy Quran we can read:
“Your Lord has commanded that you worship none else but him and treat parents well. If one of them or both attain old age, say not even ‘fie’ to then, or be rude to them, but talk to them respectfully. Be polite and soft to them and pay obedience to them, and pay thus:
“Lord! Have mercy on them both, just as they had brought me up with love and kindness when I was a child!”
Respect for brothers, sisters, near relations, friends, companions, neighbours and strangers are also recommended. It will be too long for me to give quotations from the Holy Scriptures and the traditions of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) to illustrate my point.
I would like to conclude now, by praying: May God, the Source of peace “As-Salaam”, help all of us to come to know one another as He has taught us, and thus foster strengthened respect and peace in our homes, in our neighbourhood, in our small island and from here export it to the world. Ameen |
