Whodunnit?
Who Killed the Jum'ah Khutbah?
Dr. Pasha
(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time!
Taking the Qur'an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It --
And which One Does Not?)
This is what I read -- in brackets:
{How to Unlock the Treasures of the Friday Sermon
These reminders shook the companions, their hearts broke, their eyes shed tears, having truly felt that they were individually being spoken to and not their neighbors. One of the greatest signs of a heart that is still asleep is when we hear or read a reminder and immediately think, “He is referring to so and so” or “if only so and so were here listening to this, he needs this.”
This is not a sign of a healthy heart.}
Good Muslims writing about Jum'ah Khutbah and its role in the life of Muslims -- and the world.
What can I say? If I say "My tears never stop flowing," it would sound pompous and possibly self-serving.
So, I say nothing.
Maybe, except for a few quick comments -- so help me God:
1. First of all, a Khutbah is not a "Sermon."
Christians give sermons, Muslims don't.
That is because there are no priests in Islam.
So, all that the word "khutbah" means is "a speech."
2. Next, so, it is all the fault of the listeners then? Is that what we are saying?
That the Khutbahs are not "well-received," as it were, by the Muslims?
That the problem lies with the "Congregation" -- or is the right word the Jama'at?
It is the people who don't get it? Who don't react positively? And who don't seem to change?
Because they are so different from the Companions of the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam?
Because they are bad people?
This is where I want to strike a different tune. I want to say: hey, hold it.
How about looking at this whole thing a different way?
How about looking at the nature and content of the Khutbah for a change? Rather than routinely condemning the Congregation?
And how about subjecting the mode, style and quality of the delivery of the Khutbah to scrutiny using the known tools and methods of analysis and evaluation?
And how about placing the responsibility on those who deliver the Jum'ah Khutbah -- and so often do such a miserable job with it?
And upon those who handpick them for that purpose?
Again and again and again?
All those Gatekeepers who guard the Mimbar so vigilantly? And make sure that only their handpicked people get to go up on the Mimbar -- and get to give the Khutbah?
Oh, yes, I am suggesting there are those whose job it is in various Masaajid (plural of Masjid) to make sure that only the right kind of people go up the Mimbar on Jum'ah.
And those right kind of people deliver the right kind of Khutbah.
On many occasions, many of those folks -- the chosen Khutbah givers -- are visibly challenged and lacking in many ways:
Some can barely speak decent English.
Some have trouble with Arabic.
Some barely know the first thing about giving a good speech.
This is in spite of the fact that some of these fellows may be hiding in the portals of prestigious universities.
And this is also in spite of the fact that the so-called mother tongue of some of these gentlemen may be Arabic, and some of them may have been actually born and grown up in places where Arabic is spoken as a principal language of the land.
So, you tell me what kind of Khutbah such people will give?
And, also tell me, what kind of effect such a Khutbah will have on people?
Poor people -- the Muslim Jum'ah Jama'at -- who are locked up as a captive audience for the full duration of the Khutbah, such that they cannot so much as utter a word, no matter how terrible they may feel at what is being unloaded on them?
Whodunnit? That is the question everyone should be asking.
How did this come to be?
Who picks these people to give the Khutbah -- right from the Mimbar of Rasulullah, Sallalahu Alaihi wa Sallam, no less?
Who are the people who are responsible for these third- and fourth-rate Khutbahs?
For giving them?
And for arranging for them?
In mosque, after mosque, after mosque -- week after week after week?
And you are telling me this is not by design? That this is just a happenstance, just a coincidence -- that this happens week after week after week?
In Masjid after Masjid after Masjid?
No, don't bother. I will supply you the words you are looking for: Conspiracy Theory!
Oh, I am familiar with that expression. And let me tell you a thing or two about conspiracies.
Life is full of conspiracies. If you don't know that, if you have not seen that in your own life, and if you don't believe or understand that, then you must have just emerged out of a test tube in a laboratory.
You cannot possibly be a real human being, living a real life on God's earth, in the midst of real human beings -- some of whom at least are out to get you, for one reason or another.
Often because you may have what they want: wealth; beauty; land; power; prestige; whatever!
That is why the Bible issued the Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Covet!
For, coveting leads to conspiracy to grab what others have. Meaning, if you covet, you will do a conspiracy to take what others possess.
You will plan. And you will plot. That is often the stuff of human life on earth.
And you shall then kill and bear false witness. And that is why the Bible issued the Commandments not to do any of that:
Thou Shalt Not Kill!
Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness!
False Witness: just call it propaganda, of all kinds -- from personal, to political to commercial to religious to every other kind.
And Propaganda is what sleeps in the same bed as Conspiracy.
And Propaganda is what runs human life on earth -- false and often malicious.
And that is why the Biblical Commandment says:
Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness!
As for the Qur'an, if you read the Qur'an with any degree of attention and diligence, you would notice that the Qur'an is full of talk about Conspiracies.
So much so, I would venture to say that if you do not believe in Conspiracies, you cannot be a Muslim.
Or a believer in the Qur'an. Check out the following Aayats of the Qur'an:
Wa Makaroo wa Makarallah!
Wa Makaroo Makran Kubbaaraa!
I go to Jum'ah -- all over the world -- and I come home crying: at what has happened to the quality of the Khutbah.
Not at what has happened to the quality of the people who attend the Khutbah. Not the quality of the Congregation, or the Jama'at, but the quality of Khutbah-givers -- the Khateebs -- and their Khutbahs.
So, what I am saying is this:
Just make sure the right kind of khutbah is given,
in the right kind of way,
by the right kind of people,
using the right kind of content,
and then see how wonderfully the Muslims respond.
I daresay, the Companions will be proud and happy of the reaction of this Ummat at this time, were this Ummah to receive the right kind of Khutbah by the right kind of Khateebs delivered in the right kind of way?
And that is what the enemies of Islam and Muslims fear most:
That this Ummat will one day wake up!
And they are fearful, and they understand full well, that the Jum'ah Khutbah may turn out to be the very instrumentality by which the new awakening of this Ummah would happen -- if this Ummat is given:
The right kind of Khutbah,
with the right kind of content,
delivered by the right kind of people,
using the right kind of language, style and delivery.
That is what the enemies of Islam and Muslims -- and enemies of the world and enemies of humanity at large and the enemies of God -- are determined to stop.
If they can.
END
