الحمد لله، الحمد لله الذي جعل النجاحَ والتوفيقَ في طاعةِ الصادقِ الأمين، وجعل سنتَه وحياتَه تفسيرا وتوضيحا لكتابه الكريم، نحمده تعالى ونستعينه، ونشكره تعالى ونستغفره ونستغيثه، نعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعمالنا، من يهد الله فهو المهتد ومن يضلل فلن تجد له وليا مرشدا، ونشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له، له الملك و له الحمد، يحيي ويميت، بيده الخير، وهو على كل شيء قدير،  ونشهد أن سيدنا و مولانا محمداً عبده ورسوله، وحبيبه وصفيه، بلغ الرسالة وأدٌى الأمانة ونصح الأمة، النبي الأمي الذي أرسله الله بالهدى والدين الحق، بشيرا ونذيرا بين يدي الساعة، صلى الله عليه وسلم وعلى آله وأصحابه ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.

أما بعد! فيا عباد الله اتقوا الله حق تقاته ولا تموتن إلا وأنتم مسلمون. يأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله وقولوا قولا سديدا يصلح لكم أعمالكم ويغفر لكم ذنوبكم. ومن يطع 

الله ورسوله فقد فاز فوزا عظيما. اتقوا الله فيما أمر وانتهوا عما نها عنه وزجر.

قال الله عز وجل في كتابه العزيز: يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا مَنْ يَرْتَدَّ مِنْكُمْ عَنْ دِينِهِ فَسَوْفَ يَأْتِي اللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ يُحِبُّهُمْ وَيُحِبُّونَهُ أَذِلَّةٍ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَعِزَّةٍ عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ يُجَاهِدُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَلَا يَخَافُونَ لَوْمَةَ لَائِمٍ

 

Allah says in His Mighty Book, the translation of which is, “O you who believe! if any of you renounce your deen, Allah will bring forward a people whom He loves and who love Him, humble to the believers, fierce to the unbelievers, who do jihad in the Way of Allah and do not fear the blame of any censurer.”

Last week, we mentioned the importance of loving the Companions of the Messenger of Allah and protecting their name from those who seek to cast aspersions upon them, and an important reason for that, aside from their being people whom Allah loves, for according to al-Hasan, Qartadah and others - as mentioned by al-Qurtubi in his tafsir - those mentioned in the aya above are none other than Abu Bakr and those who joined with him to fight those who apostasised after the death of the Prophet. An important reason for that is that it is only through the Sahaba that we have access to the sunna of the Messenger of Allah - it is only through them that knowledge of the words, states and actions of our beloved Prophet have been preserved.

In the course of the past few centuries, there have been calls from some Muslim academics and groupings, notably Muhammad Abdu, Taha Hussain and their ilk in Egypt, to discard much of the hadith literature (and by extension the sunna) and base the deen entirely on the Quran. And today such calls are being championed by modernists and ‘Muslim’ academics, many holding university teaching posts in the Western world. Such people claim that the hadith literature is suspect because, in their view, all the major collections of hadith, including Bukhari and Muslim, are full of contradictions; and, in their view, the authenticity of the vast majority of hadith is in doubt, because the trustworthiness of the original narrators cannot be confirmed through rigorous scientific analysis. And in any case, they say, we have no need of the Sunna since the Quran was the only timeless miracle of the Prophet; and the the Quran is the only guidance we need, for did Allah not say,

 

إِنَّ هُدَى اللَّهِ هُوَ الْهُدَى

 

the translation of which is, “Allah's guidance, that is the (only) true guidance,” and so what need is there for the sunna? Everything that man needs is in the Quran. We do not disagree,  the Quran is the complete book and the entire affair may be found therein. But in order to understand it and unlock its meanings, one requires the Sunna, as ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab well understood when he wrote to his governors telling them to learn the Sunna, the shares of inheritance and the dialects, saying,

 

إن ناسًا يجادلونكم يعني بالقرآن فخذوهم بالسُّنَنِ فإنَّ أصحابَ السنن أعلمُ بكتاب الله

 

“People will try to argue with you (i.e. by using the Qur'an), so overcome them with the Sunna. The people of the Sunna have the greatest knowledge of the Book of Allah.” And even a cursory reading of the Quran shows us the importance attached to the Sunna, for there are dozens of ayas in which Allah commands us to follow and obey is Messenger. For example, Allah says,

ياأيها الذين آمنوا أطيعوا الله ورسوله

 

the translation of which is, “O you who believe, obey Allah and His Messenger.” And Allah says,

وما أرسلنا من رسول إلا ليطاع بإذن الله

 

the translation of which is, “We did not send any Messenger but for him to be obeyed by the permission of Allah.” Indeed never once does Allah tell us to obey Him without also telling us to obey His Messenger. The two are inextricably linked as is clearly stated by Allah in another aya:

من يطع الرسول فقد أطاع الله

 

the translation of which is, “Whoever obeys the Messenger has obeyed Allah.” And obedience to the Messenger, according to the mufassirun and a’imma, means clinging to his sunna and putting into practice what he brought. So, the sunna of the Messenger of Allah has the same status as the Book of Allah and is equally important for the Muslim. The Prophet said,

 

القرآن صعب على من كرِهه وهو الحَكَم، فمن استمسك بحديثي وفهمه وحفظه جاء مع القرآن، ومن تهاون بالقرآن وحديثي خسر الدنيا والآخرة، أُمِرتْ أمتي أن يأخذوا بقولي، ويطيعوا أمري، ويتبعوا سنتي، فمن رضي بقولي فقد رضي بالقرآن. قال الله تعالى: وما آتاكم الرسول فخذوه 

 

“The Qur’an is hard and difficult for anyone who hates it. It is judgement. Whoever clings to what I say and understands it and retains it, then it will be like the Qur’an for him. Whoever considers the Qur’an and what I say unimportant and neglects it loses this world and the Next. My community is commanded to take my words and obey my command and follow my sunna. Whoever is pleased with my words is pleased with the Qur’an. Allah says, ‘Whatever the Messenger gives you you should accept .’” Indeed, in some ways, it is more important for the Muslim to know the Sunna than to know the Quran because the the Messenger of Allah was the Quran walking and his entire life was there to show us how to put the Message of Allah into practice. And when we say sunna, it is not limited to what the Messenger of Allah said or did, but also includes what his Companions said or did, and in particular the four rightly-guided khalifs who came after him, for the Prophet said, 

 

فعليكم بسنتي وسنة الخلفاء الراشدين المهديين، عضوا عليها بالنواجذ وإياكم ومحدثات الأمور

 

“You must follow my sunna and the sunna of the Rightly-Guided Khalifs. Cling to it fiercely and beware of new things.” That is the only way to honour and affirm the Book of Allah. Umar ibn Abdal-Aziz said, 

 

سنّ رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم ووُلاةُ الأمر بعده سُنَنا، الأخذُ بها تصديقٌ بكتابِ الله، واستعمالٌ بطاعة الله، وقوةٌ على دين الله

 

“The Messenger of Allah made a Sunna and the people in command after him made sunnas. To adopt them is to affirm the Book of Allah, and to act on them is to obey Allah and strengthen the deen of Allah.” One cannot divorce the Quran from the Sunna and anyone who does so is in effect rejecting them both, for rejecting the sunna is tantamount to rejecting some of the ayas of the Quran, such as Allah’s Words:

 

وما آتاكم الرسول فخذوه وما نهاكم عنه فانتهوا  

 

the translation of which is, “Whatever the Messenger gives you you should accept and whatever He forbids you you should forgo.” And rejecting part of the Quran is the same as rejecting it in its entirety. So anyone who disregards the sunna as a source of law and bases his deen entirely on the Quran is an unbeliever - such people are no longer part of the umma of the Prophet, for he said,

 

من اقتدى بي فهو مني، ومن رغب عن سنتي فليس مني 

 

“Whoever follows me is of me and whoever wants to abandon my sunna is not of me.” So we ask Allah to make us people who love His Prophet and follow his sunna and that of his noble Companions.

 

أقول قولي هذا و أستغفر الله لي و لكم و لسائر المسلمين من كل ذنب فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرَّحيمالحمد لله الحمد لله رب العالمين، وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له وأشهد أن محمداً عبده ورسوله، صلى الله وسلم وبارك عليه وعلى آله وصحبه، والتابعين وتابعي التابعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.

أما بعد! فيأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله ما استطعتم واسمعوا وأطيعوا وأنفقوا خيرا لأنفسكم. يا عباد الله أوصيكم وإياي بتقوى الله وطاعته وأحذركم وإياي عن معصيته ومخالفته.

قال رسول الله صلّى الله عليه وسلّم: لا ألفين أحدكم متكئا على أريكته يأتيه الأمر من أمري مما أمرت به أو نهيت عنه فيقول: لا أدري، ما وجدنا في كتاب الله اتبعناه

 

The Prophet said, “Do not let any of you be found reclining on his bed when he hears an injunction from me which is from among those things which I myself have commanded or forbidden so that he says, ‘I do not know. We only follow what we find in the Book of Allah.’” Those who reject hadith fall into a number of different camps - there are those who reject them completely, either claiming that the Prophet only came to deliver the Quran, or that the only ones directed to follow the sunna were the Sahaba, or that it is incumbent on us to follow the Sunna but impossible because the sources cannot be proven to be authentic or trustworthy. 

And then there are those who reject some and accept some, not necessarily because of their reliability but because they do not fit in with their view of the world and how they think it should be. They have found themselves confronted by a world in which the Muslim umma is weak and subservient and the kafir ethos is powerful and dominant, and have been deceived. They have become blinded and cannot see beyond the means to the One who grants the means and takes them away. They are like the people who when they saw Qarun said, 

 

يَا لَيْتَ لَنَا مِثْلَ مَا أُوتِيَ قَارُونُ إِنَّهُ لَذُو حَظٍّ عَظِيمٍ

 

the translation of which is, “Oh! If only we had the same as Qarun has been given! What immense good fortune he possesses.” They looked admiringly at the success of their enemies and the system which had brought them it and wanted it for themselves. They thought that the only way for the Muslims to regain their power was for Islam to stop looking back and start looking forward, for Islam to abandon medieval ‘barbaric’ practices such as polygamy, slavery and hadd punishments, and adopt the enlightened ideas of the modern age - democracy, banking, insurance etc. - all they had to do was make them Islamic. 

They viewed the weakness of the Muslim umma as being a sign of the weakness of the deen, whereas in fact the weakness lay not in the deen but in the Muslims themselves. The deen is complete and perfect in every way, as Allah Himself says:

 

الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِى

 

the translation of which is, “Today I have perfected your deen for you and completed My blessing upon you.”, and does not require any updating. The sunna of the Messenger of Allah has been preserved in its entirety by the scholars of hadith and the fuqaha, and the Madinan model remains there, vibrant for all to see, a timeless model of how a society should be. For the commands of the Prophet and his sunna are as much addressed to us today as they were to those whom accompanied him in his lifetime, And if it does not fit in with the modern world, then that is a sign that modern society is lacking, not Islam. So it is not Islam that should be modernised and adapted to fit the modern world, but the modern world that should be adapted to accommodate Islam. We do not have to redesign Islam to accommodate banking, paper currency, standing armies or democracy, but rather must restore free markets,  gold and silver, true leadership and properly legislated jihad. We do not need to beat the bankers and politicians at their own game, for such an endeavour - involving as it does disobedience to Allah - will only ever lead to failure. All we have to do is obey Allah and His Messenger and bring his sunna back to life. The key to the entire affair lies in the restoration of the Madinan model - therein lies our ultimate success and victory. As Umar ibn Abdal Aziz said, 

 

من اقتدى بالسنة فهو مهتد ومن انتصر بها منصور، ومن خالفها واتبع غير سبيل المؤمنين، ولاه الله ما تولى، وأصلاه جهنم ، وساءت مصيرا 

 

“Whoever follows the Sunna is guided and whoever seeks help by it will have victory. But whoever opposes it and follows other than the path of the believers, Allah will hand him over to that which he turns to and he will roast him in Jahannam. What an evil ending!” 

We ask Allah to establish the sunna of the Prophet in us, through us and by us. And make us at the forefront of those who re-establish the deen and restore the Madinan model.

 

إنَّ اللهَ ومَلائِكَتَهُ يُصلُّونَ على النَّبِي يَا أَيُها الذينَ آمنوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وسَلِّمُوا تَسْليماً. اللهمَّ صَلِّ وسَلِّم وبارِك عَلَيْهِ وعلى آلِهِ وصَحْبِهِ  أجمعين. 

وارض اللهم عن الخلفاء الراشدين المرشدين الحنفاء ساداتنا وأئمتنا أبي بكر وعمر وعثمان وعلي ، وعن سائر الصحابة أجمعين، خصوصا الأنصار منهم والمهاجرين، وعن التابعين وتابعي التابعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.

اللهم اهد أولات أمور المسلمين لما يرضيك ولاتباع سنة نبيك صلى الله عليه وسلم  وثبت أقدامهم على الصراط المستقيم وأصلحهم يا رب العالمين.

اللهم بارك على شيخنا، و على أميرنا، وعلى جميع أمراء وزعماء المسلمين.  

اللهم بارك على المسلمين في هذه المدينة ووفقهم لما تحبه وترضاه يا أكرم الأكرمين. 

اللهمّ أَعِزَّ الْلإسلامَ والمُسِلمينَ (3)  واَخْذُلِ الكُفْرَ والكافِرينَ، وانْصُرِ المُجاهِدينَ في سَبِيلِ اللهِ. واجْعَلْ كَلِمََتَكَ هِيَ العُلْيَا وكَلِمَةَ الكُفْرِ هِيَ السُّفْلى.

ربنا ءاتنا في الدنيا حسنة وفي الأخرة حسنة وقنا عذاب النار. 

اللهم لا تضعْ في مقامِنا هذا ذنبا إلا غفرْتَه، ولا عيبا إلا سترْتَه، ولا مريضا إلا شفيتَهُ وعافيتَه، ولا مسجونا إلا طلَّقْتَ سراحَه، ولا مسافرا في برِّك وبحرِك إلا سلِمتَهُ وغنِمْتَه.

إن الله يأمر بالعدل والإحسان وإيتاء ذي القربى وينهى عَنِ الفحشاءِ والمُنكَرِ والبغي، يعظكم لعلكم تذكرون، ولَذِكْرُ اللهِ أكبر والله يَعْلَمُ ما تَصْنَعُون. وقُومُوا إِلَى صَلاتِكُمْ يرحمكم الله