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Rec.ca.on of the Ummah

What follows is a summary of a Friday khutbah delivered by Sayyidi al-Habib `Umar bin Haz (may Allah preserve him and benet us by him) in Masjid al-Rawdah, Tarim, on 10th Jumad al-Awwal 1434 / 22nd March 2013. In it he discusses the problems the Ummah is currently facing and oers soluGons to those problems. These words come in the wake of the shocking events that took place in Syria the previous night.

O believers in Allah, the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), the one entrusted with guiding us and recOfying us, taught us how to respond to calamiOes and hardship. He taught us that the founding principle is returning to Allah and calling upon the One Who has control over all aairs. He emphasised our need to realise our slavehood to Him and to realise our complete subjecOon to His power and authority. In spite of this, many hearts have deviated and instead of turning to Allah, the One Who says to anything: Be and it is, they seek to recOfy the Ummah through means which were not legislated by the Seal of Prophets. At the same Ome; they persist in disobeying Allah in their homes, on the streets and in their dealings with each other. They disobey Him with their tongues, their eyes, their ears, their hearts, their stomachs, their private parts, their hands and their feet. They disobey Him by day and by night, in secret and openly. For that reason their suering conOnues and they are unable to recOfy themselves or anyone else. They try to repair a crack but this leads to numerous other cracks; they try to solve one problem but this leads to numerous other problems. This will always be Allahs way. Who will teach the Ummah the necessity of returning to Allah and changing ourselves so that He changes us? Who will teach the Ummah the necessity of improving our transacOon with Him by veneraOng His religion and establishing His Sacred Law in ourselves and our families? We must surrender our aairs to the Best of CreaOon, who was sent to recOfy our worldly aairs and help us to prepare for our return to Allah. Had it not been for the existence of a few people who humble themselves to Allah, cry to Him and plead with Him, things would be far worse. How many people are crying in the night, pleading with Allah to remove the tribulaOons that have befallen the Ummah of Muhammad? How many people have sought means to recOfy the Ummah while forgeQng that Allah is the One who created those means? Is it not incredible that people who belong to a religion that teaches them excellence and perfecOon even in the way they slaughter their animals are unable to treat each other well? Has the Ome not come for us to realise the greatness of this religion? This is a religion which teaches us not to wrong each other; it teaches us jusOce, piety and awareness of Allah. Look what the Messenger said to the Noble

Companions: `Ikrimah the son of Abu Jahl is about to approach wishing to accept Islam, so do not insult his father, for insulOng the dead harms those who are alive. People have reached the state that the Prophet warned them against: Do not return to being disbelievers aAer I have gone such that you kill each other. If they dier in opinion with someone they regard it as permissible to spill his bloodnot to speak of taking his possessions and defaming him. Every group claims to provide security and safety but this claim has no meaning if places of worship are not places of safety. Nothing is graver in Allahs sight than bloodshed. It has been narrated: Had all the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth conspired to wrongly spill the blood of a Muslim, Allah would throw them all in the Fire. The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace): The believer remains within the parameters of the religion as long as he does not unlawfully shed someones blood. He spoke severely to Usamah bin Zayd, who was beloved to him: Did you kill the one who fought you aAer he said: l ilha illAllh ? Woe to you! What will you do with l ilha illAllh on the Day of Judgement? This is the methodology of Muhammad, the one who forbade Muslims from killing the enemy when they are retreaOng from the baPleeld, the one who forbade Muslims from killing women and children. He refused to kill the hypocrites as long as they outwardly professed Islam; he refused to kill non-Muslims as long as they outwardly honoured the treaty that he had made with them. Who is our example if it is not our Master Ahmad? He informed us that there would be much bloodshed at the end of Ome. He informed us that the Ummah would divide into facOons and he said to one of his Companions: Distance yourself from all those facOons, even if it means that you hold on to a tree trunk unOl death comes to you. One of the Companions said: O Messenger of Allah, A disbeliever cut o my hand and then took refuge behind a tree and said l ilha illAllh. Should I kill him? Do not kill him, for if you do so you will be in the same state he was in before he said it, and he will be in the same state you were in before you killed him. He said (may Allah bless him and grant him peace): Whoever kills a non-Muslim who has a treaty with the Muslims or is a subject of the Islamic state will not smell the scent of Paradise. In spite of all this we nd people entering one of the houses of Allah and blowing up the scholars and pious people, the young and the old, hoping to enter Paradise. Who gave you that fatwa (legal opinion)? The Messenger of Allah claried the issue. Where did you get your understanding from? He also said: If death comes to someone while he is seeking knowledge to revive Islam then there is only one degree between him and the Prophets in Paradise. Do not jusOfy something which Allah has not jusOed. If a man was wrongly killed in the East and a man in the West was content with this, then he is an accomplice of the one who killed him. Whoever assists in the killing of a Muslim even with half a word will meet Allah and it will be wriPen on his forehead: I have despaired of Allahs mercy.

O believers, we have to truly return to Muhammad so that Allah removes our tribulaOons. We must reproach ourselves, for this is what Allah loves: Allah will not change what is in a people unGl they change what is in themselves. The Prophet informed us that if someone recites the following verse seven Omes in the morning and seven Omes in the evening, Allah will remove his worries whether they are connected with this world or the next:

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Allah is sucient for me; there is no god but He. On Him I rely; He is the Lord of the Awesome Throne. May Allah inspire the Muslims to recite it and inspire them to seek relief from their suerings through following him. The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) also said: "No slave ever says [the following words] when he is aicted with worry or grief except that Allah removes his worry and replaces his sorrow with joy:

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O Allah I am Your slave, the son of Your male and female slave, my forelock is in Your hand, Your order will be implemented, and Your decree concerning me will be just. I ask You by every name You possess, of the names which You have called Yourself, or revealed in Your Book, or taught to any of Your creaOon or kept to Yourself in the Unseen Realm, to make the Qur'an as a garden for my heart (to wander in), and to make it the light of my vision, and the cause for the removal of my sorrow and my worry. May Allah relieve the suering of every Muslim. Our Lord, forgive us and those who have preceded us in faith and do not allow any rancour towards those who believe to enter our hearts. Our Lord, truly You are Most Kind, Most Merciful.