First Khutba 19^th May 2006

Say: ‘Kafirun! I do not worship what you worship and you do not worship what I worship.

Nor will I worship what you worship nor will you worship what I worship.

You have your deen and I have my deen.’  (109)

You who have iman! Do not take the kafirun as friends rather than the muminun.

Do you want to give Allah clear proof against you?(4:143)

It is vital for us, as Muslims of this time, to wake up out of our present state of political gullibility and passivity and to wise up to the stratagems our enemies are using to keep us under control. There is no doubt that the kafir power structure, which now basically governs the whole world, is implacably hostile towards Islam. Islam is the one thing it has never been able to neutralize and absorb and the only obstacle which remains in the way of its complete hegemony.

            In the pre colonial era its approach to Islam was one of outright hostility and rejection. The practical exigencies of colonialism changed this into an arrogant assumption of superiority and overt attempts at subversion. The post colonial period, which saw the appearance for the first time of large numbers of Muslims in the heartlands of the colonial powers, caused another change. The first approach, adopted in the belief that the colonial attempts to subvert Islam had been effective, was to simply pretend it did not exist. Once, however, it became evident that Islam was not going to lie down and die and that, far from withering on the vine, new growth was springing out in every direction, a new approach was clearly needed. The strategy adopted was the good Muslim, bad Muslim dialectic.

            Most fortuitously, at exactly the same time this was happening, a blockbuster Hollywood movie was produced called “Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves”. This big budget, high publicity production with an all star cast headed by Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman was shown everywhere to huge audiences and just happened to contain a perfect illustration of the good Muslim needed by the framework of this newly devised dialectic.

            The film starts somewhere in the Middle East where piles of cut off hands and other gory effects show what happens when Muslims are left to their own devices, the bad Muslims that is! Morgan Freeman, definitely the good Muslim, helps Kevin Costner as Robin Hood escape from imprisonment in this savage land and accompanies him to the idyllic landscape of Sherwood Forest where, submitting to his leadership, he becomes one of his band of merry men. Throughout the film nearly all the good ideas come from the good Muslim and he also provides a much needed moral balance to the licentious excesses of the rest of the outlaw gang. Contrary to the Christians in the film, he is also patently sincere in his worship of God. When, in the end, Robin Hood beats the wicked sheriff and gets the girl and there is a wild party to celebrate, the only difference between him and the rest is that, whereas they all get roaring drunk, he goes to the party but doesn’t drink.

            This is practically a perfect blueprint for what is expected of the Muslims in the world today who live under non-Muslim rule, although there is, in truth, almost no difference in so-called Muslim countries. They must submit to the justly established authority of the state, play their part by working hard and effectively in the communities where they live, pay their taxes, get any social benefits they are allowed, and provide a much needed moral element, in return for which they will be permitted to worship in their mosques as long as that does not interfere with the right of anyone else to behave in almost whatever way they like. These are the good Muslims. They accept the status quo, become good citizens, tow the global line and on no account rock the boat. Any other kind of Muslim is de facto a bad Muslim, a fundamentalist, a fanatic, probably a terrorist, someone who wants to oppress women, and stone people to death and cut off their hands and heads whenever possible.

            The point is that under the terms of this dialectic there are only these two alternatives; if you are not one then you must be the other. Both of them are, of course, in Islamic terms totally unacceptable but the depressing fact of the matter is that we, the Muslims, have by and large accepted this definition of us. The tiny minority of actual terrorists and suicide bombers, whose methods have nothing whatsoever to do with Islam and owe almost everything to the nihilistic political theories of 19^th Century European anarchism, have of course played right into their hands. Almost worse than this, however, has been the willingness of the vast majority of us to accept the other alternative in this false dialectic and allow ourselves to be fooled into accepting its definition of what it is to be a good Muslim.

            The truth is, of course, that the straight,upright, balanced, just, harmonious path of Islam, brought and demonstrated to us by the Messenger of Allah, salla’Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, and implemented by him and his Companions in Madina and by those who truly followed them right down almost to our own time, is very different from either of these proffered alternatives. But far too many of us have settled for being Robin Hood Muslims, have been seduced by the deceptive blandishments of the kafir propaganda machine and sold our priceless inheritance for a pittance of meagre leftovers from the overloaded tables of our kafir paymasters – a few increasingly worthless wealth tokens, detritus left behind by the uncontrollable flood of usurious financial dealing – and for some hollow accolades of patronising approval from them. That should worry us considerably because Allah ta’ala tells us in His Mighty Book:

The Jews and the Christians will never be pleased with you until you follow their religion.  (2:119)

So if they do approve of us it is a sure sign that we are no longer following the deen of Allah; rather we have borne out the truth of the words of the Prophet, salla’Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, relayed to us in Bukhari and Muslim and related by Abu Sa’id al-Khudri, radiya’Llahu ‘anhu:

“You will follow the ways of those before you inch by inch and yard by yard to the point that if they were to go down a lizard hole, you would follow them into it.” We said, “O Messenger of Allah, do you mean the Jews and the Christians?” He said, “Who else?”

            We cannot, and must not, continue to allow ourselves to be defined in this way by the kuffar. If we do, we will find ourselves rushing headlong with them towards the cliff edge of self-destruction towards which, by Allah, they are heading at ever increasing speed. No, we must turn against that stream and once again firmly grasp hold of the guidance we have been given and make it our business to create a safe haven for all those human beings who desire to worship their Lord and follow the path of His Messengers.

O Allah, show us the truth as true and give us success in following it and show us the false as false and give us success in turning away from it.

Second Khutba 19^th May 2006

On the authority of Abi Sa’id al-Khudri, radiya’Allahu ‘anhu, who said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah, salla’Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, say: ‘If any one among you sees wrongdoing, they should change it with their hand and if they are unable to then with their tongue and if they are unable to do that then with their heart but that is the weakest form of iman.’”

So as things stand it is getting increasingly difficult for us to say with sincerity and conviction lakum deenukum wa liya deen, because the truth is that we are up to our necks in the deen of the kuffar. It is, therefore, increasingly necessary for us to make the difference between them and us clear. The way to do this is not complicated. It is simply a matter of implementing the guidance Allah ta’ala has given us, of submitting ourselves to the laws he has revealed to us in His Book and through His Messenger, salla’Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, to the maximum extent our situation permits. If we truly do this Allah’s help will certainly be forthcoming and the borders of what can be implemented will certainly be extended and we will find it possible to put more and more of our deen into practise.

            The way to achieve this is clearly indicated by the hadith just quoted. The minimum we can do – and it is something which is both possible for and incumbent on every single Muslim man and woman – is to actively reject in our hearts anything displeasing to Allah and His Messenger. It is not acceptable for any of us to settle inwardly with the way things are, to see things contrary to our deen and say to ourselves, “Oh well, there’s nothing I can do about it, so never mind.” The present status quo is not an option for any Muslim. Our hearts must be alive and active in this respect, loving what is loved by Allah and hating what He hates. The story told by the Prophet, salla’Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, which we heard last week, of the men in the cave, shows how powerful a heart filled with a strong resolve can be and how Allah responds to it. Just think of the power which would be generated by tens of thousands of Muslim hearts in this place really desiring things to change. How could Allah not respond. The effect would be felt within a very short time.

            Then there is the tongue. The importance of what comes out of our mouths is made abundantly clear for us in many ayats of the Book of Allah and in many hadiths of the Messenger of Allah, salla'Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. The point is that the words we speak matter; what we say has an effect, both on ourselves and those who hear it. Speech is a kind of action. In the Messenger of Allah, however, salla'Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, we have a model of human perfection in the use of language in practically every situation it is possible to face during the course of a human life. How to speak in public and in private; how to address Allah and other human beings; how to speak to family and to friends; how to speak to strangers and to enemies; how to speak when angry and when pleased; how to admonish and how to praise; how to joke and how to commiserate; how to teach and how to learn; how to command the right and forbid the wrong; how and when it is best to hold our tongues altogether; the examples are endless but they are all there if we look and learn and digest what we discover. Good words have a purifying and enlightening impact. And this process has a snowball effect so that the more we remember Allah, and speak of things which are pleasing to Allah, and remind other people of Allah and His Messenger in whatever way we can, the brighter our hearts will become and the brighter our hearts are, the better and more efficacious the words which come out of our mouths will be.

            Finally there is the hand, what we can actually do to change the situation we are in. Here there is a very practical step we can take and it is at the same time a definitive implementation of Allah’s deen and an effective means of attacking the enemies of Islam. Many of us know that the way the kafir power structure has been able to gain its present dominant position is not so much through force of arms but rather through its mastery of usurious financial techniques. The capitalist financial system is the means by which the whole world is controlled but this apparent strength is actually at the same time its greatest weakness, since it is, in reality, a false kind of wealth almost entirely based on people’s continued belief in it. And we can potentially deal it a death blow by bringing back real wealth through the simple expedient of reintroducing gold and silver coinage. The gold dinar and the silver dirham were the money of the first community and remained the currency of the Muslims up until the beginning of the 20^th century and it is now up to us to bring it back into use.

            In fact we have, in reality, no choice about this since the traditional books of fiqh make it absolutely clear that the only acceptable form in which the zakat on monetary wealth and trade goods may be paid is in actual gold and silver. It is, therefore, obligatory for us in the deen to use gold and silver coins to discharge our zakat and, indeed, our amir here has both collected and distributed the zakat of some members of the community in that way for a couple of years now. But we must take it further, put it into a living context. Muslim professionals, shopkeepers, tradesmen, business people and housewives should begin to receive and make payments using dinars and dirhams. The hard work has already been done. Dinars and dirhams have now been minted in several places throughout the world and are available here and successful trials using this truly halal currency have been carried out for extended periods in some locations. The Muslim community of Cape Town is almost uniquely suited to do this. The size, diversity, maturity and cohesion of the community here make it an ideal environment in which to make this huge step forward towards the re-establishment of Allah’s deen a living reality. By doing it the Muslims of the Cape will become a model and an inspiration for the Muslims of the whole world and will also play a pivotal role in the victory of Allah’s deen over the forces of kufr thereby gaining the highest possible reward in both this world and the Next.