New Literature for a New Era

Alienating the Muslim Youth

Across the waterway in the United Kingdom, mosque after mosque continued happily to deliver the Jum’ah Khutbah in Urdu – or in some other Indo-Pak-Bangla language – oblivious to the fact that the majority of the congregation may have difficulty understanding that language.

Often a sizeable number of those present were young people – mostly born and being brought up in England, Wales, Scotland or Ireland, with English as their primary if not their only language.

Thus, instead of using the Jum’ah Khutbah to educate and inspire the youth, who were under all kinds of unhealthy and unbearable social pressures from society, the Khutbah often became a device to cater to a fading generation of older immigrants, and quite possibly of alienating many of the Muslim youth from Jum’ah and the Masjid if not from Islam itself.

In community after community, Imams who barely knew English were put in charge of the affairs of the community, turning each Masjid into a little foreign oasis from back home, rather than a place that addressed the pressing social, educational, personal and spiritual needs of the younger generations.

As working Muslim communities turned into ghettoes and sank ever deeper into social problems of a myriad kind, some of these Masjids appeared to be more concerned with their own affairs – including collecting funds from those who showed up – rather than try and reach out to the community with practical programs of social service, uplift, revival, assistance and transformation.

One major mosque in Halifax prevented me from holding a Qur’an Program after I refused to brand a Muslim scholar from last century a Kafir. To the Imam – who was fresh from his home country and did not seem to know much English – that was the deciding factor: whether or not I considered this particular ‘Alim from India a Kafir.

In a major mosque in London I was witness to an extraordinary happening in the form of a Jum’ah Khutbah that brought home to me in a strange way the meaning of the expression double jeopardy.

The Imam first read out from the floor of the Masjid a 20-minute prepared speech in English. He did such a poor job of reading it that it was a challenge to make sense of what he was saying. Why he could not have asked someone with better language skills to read that speech is a question I ask myself to this day.

Then the Imam went up on the Mimbar and gave a brilliant extempore speech – this time in Arabic. But unfortunately not more than 20 percent of the congregation seemed to understand Arabic.

So, the Muslims were had that day both ways – first in English and then in Arabic.

And I don’t know who cared. I once said to some very good people in that part of the world in this context: How could you sleep at night? The answer was: Oh, we sleep all right!

The great Muslim slumber!

With eyes seemingly so wide awake and yet bodies, minds and souls in such deep stupor – almost reminiscent of the people in that celebrated cave that the Qu’an talks about in Surah Al-Kahf.

And when they stir and rub their eyes, the first thing some of them seem to think about is to want to run off to a far off mountain to do something profound in the service of Islam, rather than look to see what little things they could fix right where they were – in their own neighborhoods; in their own towns; in their own societies and communities.

These are just some examples from what I have seen in a lifetime of insatiable hunger for nice, brilliant, beautiful, soul-stirring Jum’ah Khutbahs. Each one of you reading this must do a review of your own personal encounters with the Jumah Khutbah – your own personal Jum’ah experience as it were.

And of course you are the best judge of how the Jum’ah Khutbah is being used – or abused – in your own mosque and community. That puts you in the powerful position of being Allah’s witnesses on earth – giving expression to what you think is the right thing.

What you need to do is to ask yourself if this is the best use of the Jum’ah Khutbah? And if not, then what is it that your community needs to do differently so that the Jum’ah Khutbah becomes once again the divine instrument of social and spiritual uplift, reform, revival and regeneration for the individual and the community that it was meant to be.

A very special gift from God to a very special people!

Jum’ah Khutbah: Some Important Pointers

Below are some aspects of the Jum’ah Khutbah that, if we understand properly, should help us to appreciate this special gift from God better.

These are also pointers for us on how to make the best use of the Jum’ah Khutbah in the communities and societies in which we live.

So, in the name of Allah, here it goes:

1. The first thing to understand is that the Jum’ah Khutbah is NOT a college or university assignment – a term paper – that you submit to your professor in a course.
2. NOR is it a research paper you are delivering before a community of scholars at an academic or professional conference or convention.
3. On the other hand, the Jum’ah Khutbah is a simple attempt to tell ordinary Muslims of all kinds of mixed background about what Allah and his Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, say on a certain subject.
4. It is a highly effective social device to tell people to be good and to ask them to stop being bad.
5. The Khutbah is not really a research report – even though research is a Muslim’s best friend, and even though as Muslims we should not say things that we have not researched and know to be true.
6. The Khutbah is also advice, reminder, admonition, Dhikr of Allah, Darood and Salat on Rasulullah, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam – and Du’a.
7. And, from beginning to end, it is a flood of Allah’s mercy and blessings on everyone.
8. The Khutbah is also a quick review of the wide range of realities that Muslims and the world face at different levels – from the most local to the most global.
9. The Khutbah should also provide practical guidance for members of the congregation in their personal and social concerns.
10. It should inform, help, counsel and comfort the congregation.
11. The Khutbah should NOT be an attempt to impress people with your ability to do research, read up a lot of books and come up with a lot of amazing facts.
12. The test of a good Khutbah is NOT how many people at the end of it say how wonderful you were. And how amazingly thorough and well-documented your Khutbah was.
13. The test of a good Khutbah is how many people were truly touched, influenced, informed and changed by what you said.
14. The idea is not to impress people with your skills, abilities and qualities of research, organization, delivery, oratory, speechmaking and all that. The idea really is to take the panacea of Islam, Qur’an and the Hadith to deprived, ailing and aching hearts of Muslims and help heal and guide them.

Keep it Simple!

1. So we must all keep the Khutbah simple.
2. And we must Keep it focused.
3. And we must in general keep it limited to one or two main points.
4. We must make it such that people will understand and remember what we said.
5. We must make the Khutbah a tool for educating the community – something people will carry with them for the rest of the week.
6. We must make it a tool for the revival, regeneration, energization and empowerment of the community.
7. We must make it a means to increase piety in people.
8. We must make it an occasion and an inducement for people to repent and to turn to Allah and come closer to Islam – and to Rasulullah, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.
9. We must make the Khutbah an occasion to invite people to good (Ma’roof) and discourage them from bad (Munkar).
10. We must make the Khutbah an instrument of social change, growth, development and upliftment for the community.
11. We must always remember the Khutbah is NOT about us – those giving the Khutbah – but rather it is about Allah, and his Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, and about Islam and Muslims – and about the people and the world in general.
12. Anyone can see that the Jum’ah Khutbah is part of the Deen. And that it is directly ordained by Allah and practiced and taught by Allah’s Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.
13. The Muslims have used and abused the Jum’ah Khutbah over the past 1400 years. But never have they been, all these 1400 years, without the blessings of this most powerful divine instrument of social service, education and transformation in their hands. Not a week has gone by, in all these 1400 years, when the floodgates of Allah’s mercy were not thrown open upon them through the Jum’ah Khutbah.
14. Anyone can see that the Jum’ah Khutbah is a part of the manifest blessings of Allah on the Ummat of his beloved Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.
15. And that it is a boon that Allah gave exclusively to the Muslims – and to no one else.
16. Therefore, next time you climb the Mimbar to give the Jum’ah Khutbah, be sure to leave yourself on the ground – your Nafs, your ego, your Hawa, your personal opinionateness, your sense of self-importance and your arrogance. Try to remember that you now occupy a place – on the Mimbar – that Allah’s Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, once occupied.
17. When you speak from the Mimbar, make sure you speak the truth and nothing but the truth, as the Deen of Allah is just that: the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And that this Jum’ah Khutbah, on this particular day, is the occasion and the platform from which Allah chose you to proclaim it – the truth – to the world.
18. And make sure you do it all in the language and idiom of the congregation in front of you. For, never did Almighty Allah send a messenger except in the language of his people.

Wa Maa Ar-salnaa Mir-Rasoolin Illa

Bi-Lisaani Qawmihi Li-Yubayyina Lahum (Ibrahim: 4).

Paraphrase:

Never did we send a messenger except in the language of his people, so he would explain to them… (14:4).

Wallahu A’lam!

END

(Revised)

© 2005 Syed Husain Pasha

Dr. Pasha is an educator and scholar of exceptional 
talent, training and experience. He can be reached at DrSyedPasha [at] 
AOL [dot] com or www.IslamicSolutions.com.

Next Article: Are Elections Haram? Says Who? And Based on What? Part 2

Previous Article: Dr. Pasha’s Qur’an Scale

Home | Writings | Audio | Quote of the Day

Related:

1. Islam’s Gift to Humanity [Quote of the Day - 277]
2. Smart Muslims [Quote of the Day - 257]
3. [My Log - 9] Why They Hate Islam – and Muslims
4. [Chapter 40] Darul What, Muslims?
5. [Chapter 19] Why Are the Muslims the Way they Are?
6. Using Aqeedah to Tyrannize the Muslim Mind in UK – The Case of Halifax
7. Clean Living Is a Gift from God [Quote of the Day – 11]
8. Islam Gave the World the Gift of Liberty
9. Miracle of Double Testimony: What Muslims Must Do To Qualify as Muslims?
10. Whither Indian Muslims – Third and Last Part
11. Whither American Muslims?
12. Reach Out Muslims! [Quote of the Day – 06]
13. Presenting Islam to Non-Muslims – The Role of the Masjid
14. In Islam, Education Is Worship [Quote of the Day – 22]
15. Don’t Make Islam Your Refuge from Islam [Quote of the Day – 44]
16. No One Does Connectivity Like Islam Does: And for the Past 1400 Years Too [Quote of the Day – 52]
17. Muslims, Muslims Everywhere, But How Much Islam Is There in Real Life? [Quote of the Day – 130]
18. Four Fly-Infested Children on a Very, Very Special Night Called Lailatul Qad’r [Quote of the Day – 148]
19. In Islam, Love of Knowledge Is Love of God [Quote of the Day – 163]
20. A Very Special Gift for the Holiday Season [Quote of the Day – 239]

Home | Writings | Audio | Quote of the Day