When it comes to Laylatul Qadr, commonly translated as the Night of Power, the meaning of the word al-Qadr actually has several meanings. The first meaning of al-Qadr is to honor. Laylatul Qadr is a night of Honor. It is the night when Allah honored us with the Quran, when He honored us with the Messenger (pbuh), when He honored us with His book, with His words.
Paradise is prepared for the people of taqwa. Taqwa is usually translated as ‘God fearing’ and in Old English, that is an accurate translation. But in modern English, when you say fear God, then that is no longer taqwa. That is now khauf (Arabic: خَوْفٌ). Fear is not something which Allah wants to give you. That is not the emotion connected to Allah.
A very short, yet comprehensive surah in the Quran is Surah Al-Asr. Imam Shafi, the great scholar of Islam, one of the four Imams, said that if people were to just learn and study Surah Al Asr, then it would be sufficient for them. It’s so short, yet it summarizes what we are here to do.
We are Allah’s khalifah on this earth. We are the caretakers of this earth. This earth is an amanah. It’s a trust given to us by Allah and He will hold us accountable for what we have done to the world around us.
Allah says that you are the best of nations brought out for the people. How can we reach this ideal that Allah has set up for us- that we are a nation, a community that is for the people, that calls towards good, that prohibit or that tries to stop evil. As Muslims, we have a duty to do that. This was the way of the Prophet (pbuh).
In the last khutbah, I went through the first four principles of building strong relationships. I will now share the next four principles. These are derived from family, counselors and therapists, as well as the Quran and sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh).
Many people think that da’wah, the spreading of the message of Islam, is only to non-Muslims or only to Muslim that have gone astray. But in fact, da’wah is to everyone because the path to Allah is not black and white. There’s a spectrum.
Envy is something which the scholars of Islam referred to as a disease of the heart. It is an illness in the heart. Just like you can have a physical illness, just like you can have a mental illness, you can have a spiritual illness. It’s important for us to understand envy and the dangers, causes, and cures for it.
Allah talks about the creation of Adam (as), the creation of mankind. The common interpretation is that Adam (as) fell from heaven because of his mistake, which was taking from the tree. But there’s a little more to it than that.
When we think of the Prophet’s (pbuh) character, what do we think about? Many of us might think about Ṣādiq al-Amīn, the truthful, the trustworthy. Let’s also look at the instances in the life of the Prophet (pbuh) when he showed such great times of empathy.