Khutbah #15 - 09/10/98

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Alhamdulillahi rabbil'alamin wa salaatu wa salaamu ala Rasulihi  

When I first led the Jummah prayer last Semester we spoke of what the Jummah was, and the purpose of the Khutbah

Over the weeks, I tried to find a style for a khutbah in English, not translating something else, but an Islam that can be seen in, and comes out of my personal culture, my native culture.

Islam always adapted to suit its cultural surroundings, and we all have our own cultural context for our Islam, the way we express our deen. It is comfortable - we don't challenge it too much. But the culture that surrounds you now, for many of you is rather different, quite alien, and probably occasionally disturbing. Many of you are quite a long way from what you might think of as home. But if your Islam is in your home culture, does that mean that you need be a long way from your Islam?

Does that put your Islam at risk? Surely it does, if you are surrounded by all that temptation. But if that's true, how come the Prophet recommended that muslims travel as far as China in search of knowledge. At any time in history, such muslim travellers weren't surrounded by a muslim society, but an alien one. And the Prophet obviously thought that it was good for their Islam.

An Islam that would have to be not only intensely personal, because there wouldn't be any muslim experts on hand to give you helpful advice, but also expressible in terms comprehensible to the widest range of humanity, because the people you were talking to had no Islamic intellectual context. An Islam you take with you on the road that you travel, and of more importance to you than that cultural Islam that you swim in within your society.

That's why I welcomed you at the start of the Semester with the quote from Qur'an "no soul knows in which land it will die". You may never go home. Students die. You need your Islam here.

But you don't have time to study Islam - you're too busy studying other things. Right? But what exactly does studying Islam involve? What are we recommended to go to China to study, exactly? Certainly not Shari'ah Law, or Hadith Criticism, or Qur'anic Linguistics, unless you are taking most of your reference books with you. Which of course is really what we all do. We approach our subjects with our own personal link to a set of references drawn from our Islamic heritage, which makes our view of it distinct.

But if what we are studying is not what we traditionally think of as "Islamic" knowledge, why is it so important to our Islam? Perhaps it is precisely because you have to bring your Islam to your subject, and we gain such knowledge in a place where our Islam is consistently challenged, and that requires us to at least think about it for ourselves. And certainly because, as Qur'an says "Of God's servants, it is those who possess knowledge who fear Him" (35.29)

Anas reports that the Prophet said "Whoever goes forth in search of knowledge is busy in the cause of God until they return from their quest."

And according to Abu Sa'id Khudri, the Prophet said "Believers never have their fill of knowledge, until they end up in Paradise"

*****

Al-Hamdulillahi rabbil'alamin, wa salaatu wa salaamu ala rasulallah

Individualism - A key characteristic of the West. One man/woman standing up for their personal principles, alone against the odds.

Is individualism a danger? Well, the Companions don't come across as a flock of sheep. They didn't seem to have any difficulty in being quite distinct individuals. As Umar said when he instituted Tarawih 'What an excellent innovation'. A charismatic character, yet open to new thinking. Like so many others.

But nowadays, at least in public, muslims tend to voice a kind of "societal" view of Islam. What they think of as a "true" Islam - rarely admitting even to "personal" views, let alone challenging traditional opinions. All this shows a remarkable self-effacement that I have never been able to master. I'm not prepared to accept anything that I can't question.

A recent acquaintance phoned the other day, a new muslim of less than two years, talking about being banned from the new muslim discussion circle at the mosque - for asking questions. Wanting someone to justify what was being put forward as the truth. I mean, it's not like you have to travel more than a few hundred yards from the mosque to meet a wide assortment of people prepared to offer a very different version.

How do you choose a version of the truth?

This idea that truth might be something you choose it to be is very scary for most muslims. They tend not to want to take responsibility for saying anything. Even the ones who insist that you accept everything they say without argument, and preferably even without discussion

I had a problem myself, when I first came back to Scotland, and visited my first study circles at the Muslim House. The man leading the circle was most upset when I launched into an idea related to the way we think of angels. But Angels were completely and absolutely off the agenda. Islamic study involved no flights of fancy. Eventually it all came down to a discussion of the verse in the Surah known as the House of Imran, which translates one way as this:

"It is He who sent down upon you the Book, in which are verses clear that are the Essence of the Book, and others ambiguous. As for those in whose hearts is swerving, they follow the ambiguous part, desiring dissension, and desiring its interpretation; and none knows its interpretation, save only God. And those firmly rooted in knowledge say, "We believe in it; all is from our Lord"

But it does continue: "yet none remembers, but men possessed of minds."

We discussed the verses at length, and they were obviously impressed enough with the unorthodoxy of my explanations that they ended up letting me run the circle. But that was long ago, whereas in much more recent times I have been rapped over the knuckles at a gathering of new muslims, for giving voice to things too radical to mention. This far and no further say the powers that be. Don't even talk about it beyond this point. Some areas are best left to the experts

But what do you expect new muslims to do if not question, and challenge what they are asked to accept. That is exactly what they did to their own cultural traditions to get them where they are. It often seems that for those born muslim even the important questions are left unanswered.

So my Khutbas have been quite personal. But then again, why wouldn't they be, if Islam is a personal connection with your Lord. For a traveller, Islam is personal. It doesn't start with changing others. The process begins with oneself, building a personal Islam that is necessary for your sanity on the road in an alien culture. And as for Shari'ah - the man who first taught me Islam said "You are a traveller. Wherever you go, just follow the Imam".

But what do you do when you are the Imam? Well, when you pray alone you are the Imam. What do you think about what you are doing?

Sometime soon, I think others of you should give the Khutba. What would you say to other muslims about your Islam. What is the heart of your Islam. What is the essence of your deen.

"God bears witness that there is no God but He - and the angels, and men possessed of knowledge - upholding justice; there is no god but He, the All-mighty, the All-wise." (3.18)

"The true Deen with God is Submission." (3.19)

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