By Sheikh Osama ibn Abdullah Khayyat – 03 MUHARRAM 1437

His Eminence Sheikh Osama ibn Abdullah Khayyat –May Allah protect him– delivered this Friday Khutbah titled “Steadfastness on Truth until Death” in which he talked about the necessity of clinging to Truth since it is the most important thing that man hopes to cherish in life until he meets Allah, the Almighty, free from seditions and personal desires.

Quoting Qur’anic verses and some Hadiths of the Prophet ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒he mentioned some safety precautions from going astray.

Praise be to Allah, The Almighty Who has bequeathed ample compassion upon His servants, and granted His the devout amongst them ‘His company’ and the ability to hold on to His righteous Sharia, and He instilled in their hearts the light of knowing Him and loving Him. I thank Him –May He be extolled– He entrusted His servants with mentioning Him, thanking Him, duly worshiping Him and yearning to meeting Him. I bear witness that there is no deity except Allah alone with no associate, and I bear witness that our Master and Prophet, Muhammad, is Allah’s Servant and Messenger who was steadfast in conveying the Message, completing the mission with which he was entrusted and counselling the Ummah. O Allah! Please send YourSalat(Graces, Honours, Mercy) upon him, his family, Companions –the bearers of his banner and the adherents of his Sunnah‒ and upon all those who follow in their footsteps till the Day of Judgement!

Now then,
Observe Taqwa, O Servants of Allah; it is the best provision and the best equipment for those who are seeking to meet the Lord of the Worlds. Blessed be the one who observes Taqwa vis-à-vis his Lord and collects provision in the herein for the hereafter.

Start your new year with a covenant with Allah Almighty to continue obeying Him and achieve total servitude to Him and to implore Him to grant you the power to remain thus until death. Maintaining course, following the straight path and being cautious against straying are sure indications of wisdom, maturity and sagaciousness.

The most sublime kind of steadfastness – O Servants of Allah – is the heart’s steadfastness vis-à-vis Truth, religion, and immunity against vicissitude. Hence, avoiding misguidance is the concern of the wise, the path of the thoughtful and the savvy of those who seek to please their Lord –May He be extolled– and try to get closer to Him in search of His Compassion and out of fear from His Torture. The Almighty mentioned how these people supplicate Him to help them maintain their grip on Truth and fend off aberration in His following holy words ‒May His Name be glorified:

“It is He Who has sent down to you (Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) the Book (this Qur’ân). In it are Verses that are entirely clear, they are the foundations of the Book [and those are the Verses of Al- Ahkâm (commandments, etc.), Al-Farâ’id (obligatory duties) and Al-Hudud (legal laws for the punishment of thieves, adulterers, etc.)]; and others not entirely clear. So as for those in whose hearts there is a deviation (from the truth) they follow that which is not entirely clear thereof, seeking Al-Fitnah (polytheism and trials, etc.), and seeking for its hidden meanings, but none knows its hidden meanings save Allâh. And those who are firmly grounded in knowledge say: “We believe in it; the whole of it (clear and unclear Verses) are from our Lord.” And none receive admonition except men of understanding. (Tafsir At-Tabarî). (They say): “Our Lord! Let not our hearts deviate (from the truth) after You have guided us, and grant us mercy from You. Truly, You are the Bestower.” [Al
Imran: 7-8]

O Servants of Allah! This delicate feeling, humble supplication and realfear (of Allah) are instilled in the guidance of the most noble of mankind ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ that constitutes the perfect example of model leadership, good emulation and sincere adherence.

Umm Salamah‒May Allah be pleased with her‒ narrated that the Prophet ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ used to repeat this supplication: “O Allah! You Whoturns heartsabout, keep my heart steadfast on your religion!” ‘O Allah’s Messenger,’ I asked the Prophet.‘Do hearts turn about?’ “Yes,” he answered. “The heart of every human that Allah has created in Adam’s progeny is between two fingers of Allah’s; if He ‒to Whom belong Might and Majesty‒ wishes, He may cause it to be straight or cause it to be deviant.” [Narrated by Imam Ahmad in his Musnad(book) and by Al-Tirmithi in his Jami’(book) with a good chain of narration]

Anas Ibn Malik ‒May Allah be pleased with him‒ narrated that the Prophet ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him– used to repeat: “O Allah! You Whoturns hearts about, keep my heart steadfast on your religion!” ‘I said: O Prophet of Allah! We believed in you and in what you brought us. Are you afraid for us? I asked.’ “Yes, the hearts are between two fingers of Allah’s. He turns them about as He wishes,” he answered.’ [Narrated by Al- Tirmithi in his Jami’ and Ibn Majah in his Sunan with a good chain of narration]

If the Prophet ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ was afraid for that righteous group and rightly guided earliest generation (of Muslims) despite their indefatigable faith, unshakable certitude and unquestionable submission to Allah, what about their successors, then, in this regard?

We are living in an age of seditions in which Muslims are being plagued with one plight after another, in which the banners of evil are being raised high, the flags of deviance are luminously bright, the hearts are being subjected to gusts of suspicion and desires and to floods of visual, audible and written temptations. Means of temptation have taken roots and are using desire-instigated acts astheirpillar and pivot.

Some have even dared to ridicule our constant principles expressing their nefarious doubts about the Holy Qur’an: its perfection, some of its rulings, scholars, memorizers, reciters and schools. They have expressed their doubt about the Message: its perfection and comprehensiveness, or its global, timeless validity, and about the Prophet ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him– his Sunnah, and life and the success of his Da’wah.

All this is perpetrated in an unprecedented, unparalleled presumptuousness, sometimes in the name of scientific research, sometimes in the name of objectivity and impartiality, and sometimes under the pretext of freedom of speech, etc. However, all these attempts are but misnomers and quibbles, for no other purpose but deception and hiding of the truth.

“They (think to) deceive Allâh and those who believe, while they only deceive themselves, and perceive (it) not! [Al-Baqarah: 9]

Innovations alien to religion have infiltrated the Muslim community. They have become a religion for worshiping Allah –a means of getting closer to Him and a unifying common denominator.

Things came to a head by authorising the shedding of sanctified blood and the killing of inviolable souls on the basis of doubts and personal desires, and in direct opposition to the exhortation of the Prophet ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him– to his Ummah during the Farewell Hajj as he said: “Your blood and property (and in another version: ‘and honour’) are sanctified as the sanctity of this day of yours, in this month of yours, and in this country of yours until you meet your Lord. Have I conveyed the message?” “Yes,” they answered. “Let Allah be my witness! Let those who are present inform those who are absent. A news bearer might be more cognizant than a hearer. When I am gone, never revert to unbelief killing each other.”

Ibn Abbas –May Allah be pleased with him and his father– said: “I swear by Him Who is holding my soul in His Hand that(the Prophet’s words): ‘Never revert to unbelief killing each other’ was indeed his (last)commandment to his Ummah.” [Narrated by Bukhari in his Sahih (book)]

This great commandment was not received attentively by certain groups, organisations and parties that lack the humble and pious heart that can stop them from shedding sanctified blood and committing this hideous act. Such presumptuous aggression has led them to the false belief that such acts are jihad in the cause of Allah:

“… Mighty is the word that comes out of their mouths [i.e. He begot (took) sons and daughters]. They utter nothing but a lie. [Al-Kahf: 5]

All the foregoing –O Servants of Allah– is something that engrosses fear of deviance, and corroborates the necessity of keeping the hearts steadfast on Truth, and shows the quintessence of that noble supplication of the Prophet, its honourable status, and the need to reiterate it all the time.

O Servants of Allah! Safety from going astray has certain reasons from which, we hope‒with Allah’s Grace and Mercy:

1. To have true faith, strong and absolute certainty about one’s religion, and a sincere belief in the Oneness of Allah ‒be He exalted‒as to His Lordship, Divinity, Names and Attributes; for indeed, there is no happiness, success, and salvation except by establishing monotheism and avoiding all that might contradict it.
2. To hold tight to the Sunnah, and avoid innovation in religion, for every innovation is a deviation and loss as the Messenger of Allah ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ said in the Hadith narrated by Al-‘Irbadh Ibn Sariyah ‒May Allah be pleased with him:”…Whoever outlives me will see many differences, so beware of newly invented matters for they are misguidance. Whoever sees them must adhere to my tradition and that of the upright, rightly-guided successors. Bite onto it with your back teeth. And beware newly invented matters, for every newly invented matter is an innovation (in religion) and every innovation is a misguidance.” [Narrated by Ahmad in his Musnad, and Abu Daoud, Al-Tirmidhi, and Ibn Majah in their Sunan with an authentic chain of narration]
3. To do good deeds at times of seditions, for the sake of Allah alone, and keep on doing them as the Prophet said in his Hadith:”Rush to do(good) deeds now, before fitan (seditions and trials) of pitch-black darkness (appear), wherein a man wakes up in the morning as a believer and by the evening he becomes a disbeliever, or he goes to bed in the evening as a believer and wakes up in the morning as a disbeliever, selling his religion for some petty worldly gains.” [Narrated by Imam Muslim in his Sahih]
4. To adhere to the Muslim community and their leader according to the commandment of the Prophet of Mercy‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ to Hudhaifa Ibn Al-Yaman ‒May Allah be pleased with him‒ when he asked the Prophet about evil in order to avoid it; this is a famous Hadith about seditions and trials narrated by Bukhari and Muslim in their Sahihs.
5. To cooperate in righteousness and piety, advise each other to truth and patience, and enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong, which are the safety valve for this Ummah and the condition for its being the best one.

Therefore, fear Allah, O Servants of Allah. Follow this straight path, pray Allah for safety from going astray and for keeping you steadfast on Truth. Receive your new year through reactivating and seizing time to do what has been eroded of good deeds. Do compete in pious deeds, especially in this Hijri month,Muharram, in terms of increasing fasting in it, for the Messenger of Allah ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ advised us to do so, as it was reported in Sahih Muslim and the fourSunan(hadith books) via Abu Hurairah ‒May Allah be pleased with him:”The best fasting after Ramadan is that in the month of Muharram, and the best prayer after the prescribed ones is night prayer.”

The most certain day for fasting is ‘Ashoora (the tenth of Muharram), for Prophet‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ told his companions that by fasting this day Allah will forgive the Muslim’s previous-year sins, as was narrated in Sahih Muslim and other sources. How nice it is to start the New Yearwith this good deed.Only the one deprived would miss it:

“But none is granted it (the above quality) except those who are patient, and none is granted it except the owner of the great portion (of the happiness in the Hereafter i.e. Paradise and in this world of a high moral character). [Fussilat: 35]

May Allah benefit you and me with His Book’s guidance, the Sunnah of His Prophet ‒May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him! This being said, I ask Allah, the Almighty, the Exalted, to forgive my sins, yours and those of all Muslims. He is truly Most Forgiving, Most Merciful!