Khutbah #3 - 06/03/98

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Alhamdulillahi rabbil'alamin wa salaatu wa salaamu ala Rasulihi  

The Jummah is still changing - and it's very obvious this week - we've been moving the furniture to make sure that there is room for the women to participate in the prayer.

As I said, it is your Jummah, and your Khutba, so it will change as we do. I have been told that you would like more Du'a - but I like to recite Qur'an, and read Hadith, and talk about things of importance to the community, and in the few minutes of the Khutba there is so little time. But I will see what I can do.  

I asked last week if we were really an Ummah, a community, a family, one body, each part crying out to the other - Sharing each other's joy, and supporting each other through hardship and temptation. I also said last week that I'd talk of Temptation, Shaitan and the way he works. Temptation - living where we do we are surrounded by it (but there again, you are surrounded by Shaitan wherever you go). What Shaitan does is make what is bad for you seem attractive, and what is good for you seem unpleasant.

Said Iblis, "My Lord, respite me till the day they are raised from the dead." Said He, "Respite is granted you till the Day of the Time Appointed." He replied, "My Lord, because you have allowed me to fall into error, I shall deck all fair to them in the earth, and I shall beguile them into error all together, excepting those among Your servants that are devoted."  

Not everybody can be trusted. Street traders in the market have been known to slightly misrepresent the truth to gain a sale, Politicians are not noted for their honesty, and millions of pounds are spent on Advertising to persuade us that things are exactly what we want and desperately need. How easily fooled we humans are. And that is just by humans, not Iblis, the Great master of confusion and deceit. Now there is a salesman with the knowledge, skill and power to persuade us to believe not just the exaggerated but the impossible. With the greatest of ease he can make what is bad for us seem wondrously attractive, and make what is good for us seem quite repellent.

Why is it that when we think of what is good for us we imagine the bitter taste of a medicine rather than the fact that it makes us feel better? I know that when I exercise I enjoy it. Swimming or bicycling is strenuous but fun, and keeps me healthy, and feeling good about myself. Yet somehow there always seems to be a reason to do something else instead, and avoid the pain and effort involved in warming up my muscles enough to reach that point of feeling good. I really must start again - tomorrow.  

And vice is versa. "Here is a bottle" says the salesman, "Let me tell you what will happen if you drink it. You will lose your ability to speak and remember, vomit and lose control of your body. You will want to fight with your friends and loved ones, or weep uncontrollably for no reason. You will crash your car, pass out and wake up feeling violently ill, and if you drink the contents often enough it will poison your liver and you will die." "Well, that sounds like just what I need" says the customer "It may be expensive but it's sure to be worth it". You must admit that really is a salesman to beware of. Qur'an says that Satan makes promises and creates false desires, but Satan's promises are nothing but deception.  

Of course, those of us who are not inclined to drink must also beware of the temptation to self-righteousness and other such vices. Islam involves a personal commitment - this is always so - but living in a non-muslim society the laws allow you to do un-Islamic things. But then, if you are to search for knowledge as far as China - Do you think that the laws in China enforce muslim standards of behaviour? Anyway, laws can't make you act a certain way - you have to want to do it.

I want to finish this section with another bit of Qur'an, which always lifts my soul with the feeling that when the Prophet was laughing and smiling it was because God provided man with a sense of humour. And the Qur'an doesn't usually read like that - except for one special time, when God's use of the masculine was questioned, and the response was so ornate, and quite impracticable for ordinary human communication that it was as though God was saying "How can I speak like that all the time?" - And yet at the same time that passage is one of the most beautiful in the Qur'an, and God never spoke like that again.

Umm Salamah asked the Prophet "Why are men mentioned in the Qur'an, and why are we not?" and waited for an answer. When it came, it was as follows: "Men and women who have surrendered, believing men and believing women, obedient men and obedient women, truthful men and truthful women, enduring men and enduring women, humble men and humble women, men and women who give in charity, men who fast and women who fast, men and women who guard their chastity, men and women who remember God oft - for them God has prepared forgiveness and a mighty wage."  

*****

Finally, I have heard that you would like to hear more praises on the Prophet - but I don't do that very well - I lack that kind of formal oriental eloquence, and I don't pray that way much - My relationship to the Prophet is inevitably very different to those of you who were born and raised into a culture in which the Prophet is integral. My own typical du'a comes down to "Please God give me what's best for me, and help me to get through it." When I try to orate Du'a in a style that is so unfamiliar (and truth to tell, unappealing) to me, I'm haunted by feelings of hypocrisy. My words are so inadequate compared to his. I'm still trying to find a way of following his example.

The Prophet who in Sajda was reported as saying: "Before You I prostrate myself, in You I believe, to You I am surrendered. My face is prostrate before Him who created it and moulded it and pierced it for hearing and sight. Blessed be God the Best of Creators."