Khutbah #9 - 01/05/98

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Alhamdulillahi rabbil'alamin wa salaatu wa salaamu ala Rasulihi  

Last week I talked of shared understanding, how it must be simple and subtle. We need to remember simplicity and not get lost in minor details. In simplicity is the essence an understanding which can be communicated to our children.

Simple, but not stupid. It has to make sense to a child as to an adult. And simple but not childish. There is no use in passing on an understanding which is discarded when childhood is left behind, but one that can grow and incorporate new information, an understanding that can increase in depth and subtlety with increased knowledge, not only of Islamic Sciences, but also worldly knowledge.

Simplicity and Subtlety. I said that I would try to examine these characteristics of some of the facets of Islam. But there is a problem in trying to deal with such issues in Khutbas such as these and that is one of time. In these few minutes on a Friday it is obviously possible to deal with simplicity, but to look at any issues with Subtlety and Complexity - there just isn't enough time.

For instance, I said I'd talk about Prayer, and I can deal with the basics in a few minutes, but when it comes to extrapolating those ideas into something more complex, I can talk around the subject for several hours. How many of you would think in terms of being able to extemporise around the subject of prayer for several hours? And yet most of you are eloquent, well-educated, knowledgeable of the world and of Islam, and even though you may be making the prayers on a weekly, or daily, or even five times daily basis, it is unlikely that you would consider it.

The complexity of our relationship with something that is with us for a lifetime, like the prayer, can be confusing, and we need that simplicity to hang our ideas on, and keep them under control. Like a skeleton giving an essential shape to all the shifting flesh that clothes it.

So I'll talk about Prayer, and see if I can keep it simple, but keep to the same subject for a few weeks, to see if it gives you any ideas. Inevitably in any simple overview, I will be talking about things that you may often feel are self-evident. But if you are interested in Da'wah, it is useful to remember that in matters of religion, self-evident truth is rarely as self-evident to someone else, and it's not a bad idea to review your approach to such issues. If it seems too boring let me know, and I'll try something else.

So what do we mean by prayer? As soon as we begin to discuss it, we find that we have a linguistic problem. There are three words in Arabic to deal with a topic for which we have only one word in English. What better recipe for confusion?

Dzikr, probably best translated as Remembrance, is the easiest to grasp. Those many who have no religious affiliation yet believe in a God manifest in Nature (what could perhaps be called the Church of David Attenborough) might well claim remembrance for their own. But the verbal Dzikrs of Islam were certainly the sounds that first attracted me towards the Islamic practice. Phrases on which to meditate that seemed to have enless personal meanings and associations.

Such personal associations are necessary for your own Islam, but also particularly for Da'wah. What communicates Islam is not reciting text book definitions, but enthusiastically sharing personal experience and understanding. Subhan Allah, Al-hamdulillah, Allahu Akbar. I used these phrases before I learned the prayer, and when I talk about their meaning I rarely quote other people. I usually just say what they mean to me.

Subhan Allah: As a muslim in India translated it - God is the "Most Clean", spotless, no blemishes, and His Creation includes no mistakes. We actually live in the present, but so much of our energy goes onto the past, worrying over events that are already over, distracting us from the present and the future. But what has happened is never due to an oversight on God's part. There are no mistakes. There is no point in our looking back and dreaming of changing past events. They were given to us to learn from and move on. The way to deal with the past is Subhan Allah.

Al-Hamdulillah: Gives us a way to face the present. Al-Ghazali writes of Hamd being praise that springs from gratitude, not from awe and fear, that joy-filled praise that we would give on the occasion of someone showering us with wondrous gifts. Grateful praise - what better frame of mind in which to live your life each moment - in the present.

Allahu Akbar: When we are not worrying about the past, we are usually worrying about the future. Will we be able to achieve our plans? Will disaster strike us unexpected? What will happen if I fail my exams, or get sick, or miss the bus? But outcomes in life are rarely predictable, and perceived potential disasters are rarely fulfilled. It is the unseen future to which we are vulnerable, and what it brings could be unseen bounties. We are in God's hands, and if we do our best we can trust in God for the outcome. To Him all thins are possible. And to whom would you rather entrust your future?

Subhan Allah, Al-Hamdulillah, Allahu Akbar - Ways of dealing with the past present and future. Not textbook commentary, but what I like to associate with them.

The Prophet said that God says: "I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me. If he makes mention of Me, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assembly better than it. And if he draws near to Me a hand's span, I draw near to him an arm's length; and if he draws near to Me an arm's length, I draw near to him a fathom's length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him at speed."

*****

If God makes no mistakes, and knows what is best for us, so much better than we do ourselves, is there really any point in asking for anything? Clearly there is, as the words of the Qur'an in our mouths sometimes voice themselves as Du'a, or calling.

When reading Surat Al-Baqara, we say: "Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget and fall into error. Our Lord! Lay not on us a burden like that which You put upon those before us. Our Lord! Lay not on us a burden greater than we can bear. Blot out our sins, and grant us forgiveness, and have mercy on us."

So we do need to ask for God's help. But it is often said that the most dangerous thing to get is what you ask for, and it is hard to find words to ask God's help at the same time as leaving decisions to Him, asking for change while remaining submitted to God's will.

Here is a Du'a from Lasting Prayers by Ahmad Zaki Hammad:

"O God, enable me through Your knowledge to choose what is best, and empower me through Your power. I ask You to grant me from Your vast bounty, for truly you have power and I have no power, and you know, and I do not know. You are truly the Supreme Knower of the Unseen."

"O God, if You know this matter to be the best for me regarding my religion, livelihood, and ultimate end, then decree it for me. And if you know this matter to be evil for me regarding my religion, livelihood and ultimate end, then turn it away from me and turn me away from it, and decree for me what is best, wherever it may be. Then make me pleased with it."

O God, forgive us, and have mercy on us, and guide us, and grant us security, and grant us sustenance.