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Khutbahs
Is This What We Should Be Talking About? | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman
A tension has opened up in Muslim communities: Is it right to talk about salah, hijab, or personal worship while Gaza is under siege and Al-Aqsa remains under occupation? One camp says centering these "smaller" matters right now is a distraction. Another says losing sight of them in the name of bigger issues comes at its own cost.
In this khutbah, Dr. Omar Suleiman directly addresses the hierarchy of priorities in Islam, and where both camps may be missing something the other has right. The aim isn't to pick a side, but to reconcile what preservation of faith and standing for justice actually require of a Muslim in this moment.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
00:00We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, by bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him. And we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is His final messenger.
00:11We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen.
00:25Dear brothers and sisters, if you could determine the khutbah topics for the next year, if every single person was given a survey as to what they think the discourse from the minbar should be.
00:39I want you to think about the variation that would come back. If everyone had a list and said this is what the next 20 khutbahs in the masjid should be about.
00:53Some people are going to say that the biggest problem in the ummah is this. Some of them might point to an act of worship that they feel like is being neglected.
01:04Someone might point to an extreme detail that they find lacking amongst the Muslims and say this is what we should be talking about.
01:13And some of them would say how could you even be talking about this, this and that when Gaza is still under genocide, when Sudan is still starving, when there is so much right now, the world is on fire. Why are we talking about these things?
01:27Every single person would come back with a different set of priorities. And of course some people just want to get Jumu'ah over with and go back to what they were doing and don't really have that strong of an opinion on what the religious discourse is supposed to be in the first place.
01:40But it's interesting that if you were to speak to any set of Muslims, whether it's on site or online, there is such a variety of opinions as to what people should be focusing on right now. What should be our priority right now as an ummah?
01:54What should we be talking about? And I'm going to come at this not from a place of accusing anyone of bad intentions. In fact I'm going to assume husn al-dhan, the best of every single one of these opinions and actually try to address it in a few minutes the way that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala calibrates us.
02:06When we talk about what the priority of the deen should be. What should be the priority of the ummah? And I want to start off by giving you two sets of people
02:18and they represent two sets of extremes in regards to this discussion. And I want you to think about what a modern manifestation of these people could look like. The first are the people of Musa alayhi assalam.
02:32When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that Musa alayhi assalam said to his people إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَن تَذْبَحُوا بَقْرًا Allah commands you to slaughter a cow. What was the response?
02:46أَتَتَّخِذُنَا هُزُوًا Are you taking us for fools? What do you think we're silly? Is this really what you're talking about right now? You see the way that the Qur'an gives us a word or two to represent what people were saying
02:57even in a different language is representing a sentiment. And so you could imagine, why are we talking about a cow? Someone was just murdered. Why are we talking about a cow?
03:10We just escaped Pharaoh. We're trying to talk about Jerusalem and how to get back to Jerusalem. Why are we talking about this? Why are we talking about that? Why are you bringing up something so silly, O Musa? And Musa alayhi assalam responds
03:22أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِنَ الْجَهْلِينَ I seek refuge in Allah from being from the foolish, from being from the ignorant. And in that was a sign that of course when we read Surah Al-Baqarah and we come to what the story was actually about
03:36that the command of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is never pointless. The command of Allah actually directly connected to the murder that they were inquiring about. But Allah azza wa jal has a connection, a thread
03:48between every command that He gives and the intended outcome. Meaning Allah does not legislate in foolishness. Allah does not legislate without purpose.
04:01Every amr, every command from Allah azza wa jal has purpose, has meaning to it. That maybe we don't see but follow the command of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and it will end up in something. So you have one group of people, the people of Musa alayhi assalam saying
04:14why are we talking about this? We have other things to be talking about. Why are you bringing this up right now? That's one extreme. And you can think about all the modern manifestations of that. Another extreme are people that came to
04:28Abdullah ibn Umar radiyallahu ta'ala anhumah and they asked Abdullah ibn Umar radiyallahu ta'ala anhumah about the blood of a mosquito. And they happened to be from a place in Al-Iraq
04:40where the grandson of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was murdered. Al-Hussain radiyallahu ta'ala anhumah was murdered. And so they're coming to Abdullah ibn Umar and saying is the blood of a mosquito impure? Is the blood of a mosquito on your shirt, does it make it impure?
04:54And he says, subhanallah, look at these people. They're asking about dam al-ba'udah, they're asking about the blood of a mosquito. وَقَدْ قَتَلُوا إِبْنِ النَّبِي ﷺ And they shed the blood of the son of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
05:06Like, what is wrong with you people and your priorities that this is what you're talking about when you're guilty of something far worse than this thing. These two stories represent two sides of the spectrum.
05:18Right? Where these extremes can go. Where indeed the deen has priorities, the religion has priorities, the religion has proportionality,
05:31but the way that we assign those proportionalities is what can be messed up. Not that Allah azza wa jal has given us anything without purpose, but indeed Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
05:43has reason for everything and the way that you start to talk about the religion and you determine priority is based on what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made a priority, not what you think should be a priority.
05:57And so how do we start to find our way through this discussion? Number one, if Allah azza wa jal gave weight to something, we give weight to it. If Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not give weight to something, then we don't give weight to it. Anything that Allah azza wa jal spoke about,
06:11whether it is, and the ulama mention two types, the amount of verses, or the amount of times the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said something, then that represents weight, or the mighty reward or the mighty punishment associated with it. You understand?
06:25Like how do you decide something has weight in the Shari'ah, has weight in the deen? You could say for example, Allah only spoke about this in the Qur'an one time. Yeah, but the one time He spoke about it in the Qur'an,
06:39He spoke about it very seriously. That means it has weight. So you can't dismiss it and say Allah only spoke about this one time, so it doesn't matter. There is only one hadith about this, but there are hundreds of hadith about that.
06:52That's number one, the gravity of it. How important it actually is, is associated with the gravity that Allah azza wa jal associated with it. Or indeed if Allah azza wa jal repeats something over and over and over again, or the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam repeats something over and over and over again,
07:05that has weight to it. And you have to pay attention to it, even if Allah did not talk about a particular reward or a particular punishment. So that's the first thing.
07:16How much weight did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give to something? The second thing is to understand that Allah azza wa jal does not separate personal piety from public decency. It is one of the greatest flaws in this entire discussion.
07:30Oh God, here they go talking about Salah again. Oh, they're talking about wudu, another wudu video. Oh, they're still talking about this, they're still talking about that. And there is an extreme here,
07:42where if you're not talking about Gaza three years into a genocide, And there is an extreme here, where if you're not talking about Gaza three years into a genocide, you're not talking about the war machine that you fund with your tax dollars,
07:55you're not talking about the zulm that happens, the oppression that happens right in your backyard, sometimes with your complicity, even if it's just with your... that's a problem. But then the opposite extreme of that, here they go again. They're talking about prayer again.
08:08You're still talking about this, you're still talking about that. Allah does not separate personal piety from public decency. It is one of the faulty interventions to this, and one of the worst ways to try to express outrage in this.
08:22And subhanallah, look at the comprehensiveness of the Qur'an. أَرَأَيْتَ الَّذِي يُكَذِّبُ بِالدِّينِ Allah addresses a root cause. Those that deny the day of judgment.
08:32They don't act with a sense of accountability to something greater. فَذَلِكَ الَّذِي يَدُعُ الْيَتِيمُ وَلَا يَحُضُّ عَلَىٰ طُعَامِ الْمِسْكِينِ The person that repels the orphan.
08:44The person that does not show concern for taking care of the poor. But then what does Allah say? فَوَيْلٌ لِّلْمُصَلِّينَ Woe to the people of prayer. الَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنْ صَلَاتِهِمْ سَاهُونَ Those who are forgetful in their prayers.
08:58You see, one group of people would look at that and say, wait a minute, why are we talking about prayer? Yeah, why are we repelling the orphans? Why are we not taking care of the poor? Prayer and forgetfulness in prayer, that's not that big of a deal, right?
09:12Or the opposite of that is, how can we even be talking about this and how can we even be talking about that? The people are not even praying properly. That's the opposite extreme. Allah does not separate between these things.
09:24Allah 'azza wa jal sets out the root cause. The thing that is making you neglectful of the orphans, the thing that is not letting you pay attention to the poor is the same thing that's making you forgetful in your prayer. يُكَذِّبُوا بِالدِّينِ
09:38You have a weak connection to the deen here, the deen being يوم الدين, the day of judgment, the day of debt. That's why you're forgetful in prayer. فَوَيْلٌ لِّلْمُصَلِّينَ الَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنْ صَلَاتِهِمْ سَاهُونَ
09:51الَّذِينَ هُمْ يُرَاؤُونَ وَيَمْنَعُونَ الْمَاعُونَ And Allah ends this surah with those who show off and they don't extend the smallest courtesy. So it starts off with a person's moral foundation
10:04lacking this belief in ultimate accountability. And then how that skews them and messes up the way that they are in public and messes up the way that they are in private. And then Allah 'azza wa jal ends with
10:16the problem is you only do good to be seen by the people and you won't extend the most basic courtesy. Because your foundation is off. The problem is not that there is a contradiction
10:29that you're putting too much emphasis on this or too much emphasis on that. The problem is that your foundation is messed up. See the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam with his companions while they are out there
10:41and they are engaging in the most momentous battles in the history of Islam. He's teaching them how to pray salallahu alayhi wa sallam in those circumstances. He's telling them be careful with your heels when you do your wudu.
10:55Make sure that your wudu... He's teaching them salallahu alayhi wa sallam the prayer of fear to where they have to break this up and they have to break that up.
11:02Not as a means of taking away from the bigger issue, bigger in quotation marks because it's bigger to some and not to others. But to say that this is all deeply interconnected.
11:16That personal piety and what you do in public are deeply connected to each other. And there is no time where the deen is disposable.
11:26You understand, sometimes there is priority, sometimes there is focus, sometimes there is emphasis, there is no doubt. But at no point does any part of the deen become disposable.
11:37Maybe you delay something, maybe you have an excuse to do this and not do that. Fear Allah as much as you can.
11:46That you have a necessity that's going to make something that is permanently haram, temporarily halal. Perhaps these things can be taken into consideration. But at no point is the deen disposable.
11:59At no point do you say this part of the deen no longer counts because of the weightiness of this affair. Who gave you that ability to separate and pick the deen apart and say this counts and this doesn't count.
12:13See subhanallah, some people when they approach the religion, they approach it like a buffet. Like I like this part, I like that part and I'm going to put it all together and I'm going to say I'm a really good Muslim because I'm doing this and I'm doing that. And we're talking about this and we're talking about that.
12:27And everyone looks a bit different in terms of their preferences. But one of the most powerful ahadith of the Messenger of Allah salallahu alayhi wa sallam and how he talked about the deen, was when he said salallahu alayhi wa sallam,
12:39الْإِيمَانُ بِضْعٌ وَسَبْعُونَ شُعْبَةٌ Faith is seventy something branches. He said أعلاها, in some narration أفضلها The highest branch is لا إله إلا الله
12:53The highest branch is لا إله إلا الله The lowest branch is إيماطة الأذى عن الطريق To remove something harmful from the road. Right?
13:05If you think about that, when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is talking about a tree, that every branch is connected. Every branch is connected. You know subhanallah, you could be looking at a tree with beautiful branches and beautiful fruits,
13:18but it's very disproportionate. It looks strange. This part is shaved off and then these branches are here. So what starts happening? Naturally, what happens to a tree when you don't have an equal distribution of branches around?
13:31What happens to it? It starts weighing awkwardly. And at that point the tree will no longer be viable if it remains in that imbalance. Right? So it's not a buffet, it's not that I take this and I take that.
13:45No, it's all connected. There is a deep connection from لا إله إلا الله, the basic of لا إله إلا الله and all of the personal 'ibadaat that stem from that. And yes, everything about our salah, everything about our 'ibadaat,
13:58everything about our fasting, everything about our dress code, everything about our food and our drink, we don't diminish any of that. It's all part of the deen. And Allah 'azza wa jal has made it sacred and Allah did not command without purpose.
14:11I take it all. And I will never belittle a part of the deen and say, it's not all about that, you know. It's not all about that. It's not all about that. No, it's all about this. It's all about this.
14:25But then you know what the same hadith teaches us? That there is a hierarchy. أعلاها لا إله إلا الله He said, the highest of it is لا إله إلا الله and the lowest of it is removing something harmful from the road
14:37which teaches you that there is a hierarchy in the deen, that there are priorities in the deen, that there are things that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives more emphasis to. And when the Messenger of Allah salallahu alayhi wa sallam
14:49puts لا إله إلا الله in there in particular, mentions it as the highest part, right? Because لا إله إلا الله is what clarifies and makes pure
15:01the creed of your worship and your deeds and it also makes sure that your deeds are only for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You know why? Because that means that even when you do something public, you won't do the right thing
15:15only when people see you and only when people approve of it. Because it's ikhlas, it's for Allah, it's not for the people. Which is one of the main reasons why even public good gets skewed is that people only do public good
15:29when the public sees that good or when the public is on the right side of that good or on the side of that good. But lā ilāha illā-Allāh keeps the balance that this is for Allah سبحانه و تعالى and everything stems from that,
15:43whether it's personal or public, whether it's the private 'ibādāt or the public 'ibādāt. And I will make great what Allah سبحانه و تعالى made great. And I will focus on what Allah عز و جل told me to focus on.
15:55And where I have an imbalance in myself, then I'll pay attention to that. You know, in this hadith, the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم mentioned over 70 branches of faith, but he only named three. Lā ilāha illā-Allāh, the highest,
16:08the lowest, meaning don't belittle the most insignificant of deeds. By the way, imātat al-adhā 'an al-tarīq, removing something harmful from the road. There is on-site traffic and there is online traffic too.
16:20Sometimes you need to remove the pollution online too. Right? Don't belittle the smallest thing. And then the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said wa-l-hayā'u min al-īmān, and modesty is from faith. Why? Because people diminish that part of faith.
16:32So out of the 70 plus branches of faith, he only mentioned three صلى الله عليه وسلم. Right? But to show you that it's all connected to each other. And that you cannot say that this part is what we should be talking about
16:46and this part is not what we should be talking about. Otherwise the dīn would not have reached us with this balance and with this completion that it has reached us. Now why is this important to each and every single one of us on a personal level? And I want to conclude with this because someone is saying
16:59I don't even have that much interest in what you talk about in the first place or what people are talking about. I'm not in that world. It doesn't really matter to me. Number one,
17:10be careful with turning your own deficiency, your own taqṣīr into kibr, into pride. And saying this doesn't matter. At least I do this, this, this and that. Where you start to become the arbiter
17:24of your own righteousness. Right? I don't think Allah is going to put me in hell for this. That statement might haunt you on the day of judgment. I doubt that Allah is going to punish me for this
17:38when I do this, this and this and that. You know, I might have these problems. But at least I do this, this, this and that. And I don't think that Allah... Allah already told you who He is. And Allah already told you what to do.
17:49So you can't now use your own skewed compass to try to shave the dīn in parts that you feel are inconvenient for you to practice. It's number one. Number two,
18:02some people try to hide the details of the dīn like the details are not important. And some people hide inside the details. Like the people that 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar رضي الله عنه was talking about. Right?
18:15You get so caught up in this point and that point. And indeed you neglect the broader call, the broader mission of the Prophet ﷺ. Islam is not just a set of laws. This is a mission.
18:29This is a dīn, truly a complete way of life with a mission, with a way of thinking, with a value system, with a way of intervening. You're not just learning fiqh here. You're not just learning what's halāl and what's harām.
18:43You're learning what the Prophet ﷺ wanted of you to be a follower of his ﷺ. What it means to extend his light ﷺ. And number three, and this is the last one, and insha'Allah ta'ala one
18:56that you can all take home very seriously. Do not pit the rights of Allah ﷻ against the rights of the people against each other. You know what that means? Why are we talking about salāh? Why are we talking about halāl and harām? Why are we talking about this
19:10when we should be talking about the people of Gaza and we should be talking about the people of Lebanon? Don't pit the rights of Allah ﷻ against the rights of the people against each other. Instead, pit your own desires against them both together.
19:23Because Allah ﷻ made this sacred and He made that sacred. No, instead accuse yourself. Why am I so concerned with this when I should be concerned with this? Why am I, my priorities so messed up in life where the things that I ask myself, the things that concern me,
19:37the things that make me happy, the things that make me sad, and the things that I get passionate about, don't fall in these two arenas. No. The rights of Allah ﷻ and the rights of the people, you honor them. And then you submit yourself because I want you to remember this
19:51based on Sūrat al-Mā'ūn. The same ego that prevents you from having meaningful sujūd, meaningful prayer and prostration is the same ego, the same nafs that prevents you from meaningful sacrifice. The problem is you.
20:05The problem is not the dīn. The problem is each and every single one of us diminishing those things for the greater call. May Allah ﷻ allow us to weigh heavier what He puts weight in. And may Allah ﷻ purify our hearts. And may Allah ﷻ allow us to approach this dīn
20:19with balance and comprehension and show us where we are lacking and guide us to fill those voids. Allāhumma āmīn. Aqūlu qawlī hādhā wa-astaghfiru-llāha lī wa-lakum wa-nisā' al-muslimīn. Fa-staghfirū, innahu al-Ghafūru al-Rahīm.
20:38Al-hamdu li-llāh wa-al-salātu wa-al-salāmu 'alā rasūli-llāh wa-'alā ālihi wa-sahbihi wa-man walāh. Allāhumma ighfir li-l-mu'minīn wa-l-mu'mināt. والمسلمين والمسلمات الأحياء منهم والأموات إنك سميع قريب مجيب الدعوات اللهم اغفر لنا وارحمنا
20:51وأعفو عنا ولا تعذبنا ربنا ظلمنا أنفسنا وإن لم تغفر لنا وترحمنا لنكونن من الخاسرين اللهم إنك عفو كريم تحب العفو فاعفو عنا اللهم اغفر لوالدينا رب ارحمهما كما ربيانا صغاراً
21:03ربنا هب لنا من أزواجنا وذرياتنا قرة أعين واجعلنا للمتقين إماماً اللهم انصر إخواننا المستضعفين في مشارقة أرض ومغاربها اللهم انصرهم في فلسطين وفي السودان وفي لبنان وفي كل مكان اللهم عليك بأعدائك أعداء الدين
21:17اللهم أرنا في الظالمين عجائب قدرتك اللهم أهلك الظالمين بالظالمين وأخرجنا وإخواننا من بينهم سالمين عباد الله يأمر بالعدل والإحسان وإيتاء ذي القربى وينهى عن الفحشاء والمنكر والبغي يعظكم لعلكم تذكرون فاذكروا الله يذكركم
21:31واشكروه على النعم يزد لكم ولذكر الله أكبر والله يعلم ما تصنعون وأقيموا الصلاة










































































































































































































































































































