Hujjatul Islam Ustad Syed Jawad Naqvi
(Principal Jamia Orwatul Wuthqa – Lahore)
Delivered at: Masjid Baitul ul Ateeq
Lahore – Pakistan
Friday Sermon – 1st December, 2023
Sermon 1 : Help with reach Gaza, but what should be done with these 58 dead Muslim countries?
Sermon 2 : Pakistani masses should not allow any entity of the friends of Israel to function in Pakistan if war starts again
I invite you all and myself to establish and live your lives in accordance with Taqwa which is the protection plan of human life from Allah (s). By ignoring Taqwa if man makes other arrangement for his protection he gets more exposed to destructive dangers. The most important element for Taqwa is Adl by Quran.
Taadul is the assurance for security of human life. Adl has been kept at various levels and degrees the way the universe is established on the foundation of Adl. The most fundamental dimension of human life is social. A human society is like human body which means the body is arranged by parts the same way is society. Human body is composed by parts which gives it a living existence and same for society as well which has its own living existence. The human society also after formation , grows and has a life. The way the human hand is alive the society is also alive but not the same form of life like body. The life of hand, legs are different and the life of body is different. At times parts of body get amputated but the body remains alive. There is one soul that is for all animals as well and there is another soul for body which recognizes realities. Similarly the society has a body and soul whereby both grow and nurture. The way the soul comprehends things, the society also has a soul. The way body becomes sick and it needs treatment the society also becomes sick and gets inflicted with diseases. Every living creation have the element of sickness, similarly the human society also become sick. The way body gets death the society also dies and after death it gets counted into nonliving things. The way body after death decomposes , gets infected, insects eat it and it turns into earth. The society also becomes corrupt when it dies. When human being dies, the dead body should not be kept in open, it should be either buried, burnt or fed to vultures in some religions. This way the corruption of body gets hidden. Same law applies for society as well where it decomposes, gets infected and everyone who has sense of smelling left feels the bad odor of social corruption. At times body enters the state of Coma even though it is alive. This person can live for years but he is still counted amongst dead.
Just like human body the society also needs a physician who can diagnose the disease. At times incidents expose the diseases present inside man. There are many who are kept in cold storage considering them as dead but at the time of burial it is felt that this person is living. In hospitals also they keep dead persons on ventilator for the sake of making money.
The society is also like this only and the society that is present today carries utmost importance for us and not those societies that have passed before. We can refer to the past for taking lessons from them but man cannot play any role their lives to change their destiny. We cannot give any benefit or harm to those who are dead or past generations but we can definitely help the entire current generation. We are living in three societies, global, national and Islamic. We have to assess whether we are living in a living, sick, healthy, corrupt, righteous, senseless or dead society. Since we are part of it we ourselves are not able to diagnose the problem. The doctor is not sick but understands the sickness more than the patient. A person living in a society cannot claim that he understands the society much better than anyone else. Let us asses based on certain laws on what type of society we are living in now? Certain events, incidents expose the realities.
Today Gaza has exposed the status of societies. There is one group of Gaza who are under oppressed , suffering and then rest of world with whom this is not happening and they are just watching everything. We feel more aggrieved about the 8000 children being martyred in Gaza which is one big oppression. On the other hand are these communities of Pakistan, Islam and Global. If we analyze these two groups from social perspective, whether these non-Gaza people are living or dead? For the people of Gaza we know that it was a living society who are being oppressed. The rest of the world who are busy with the occupancies of life. If we look at the social rules then which society deserve more sympathy? It is the Islamic society where there are Muslims without faith. Like today we have Allama’s without knowledge similarly we have Muslims who do not have any sign of faith as well inside them.
Like the oppression happened in Karbala which everyone listened and the group who remained senseless, unconcerned is sicker and Imam Hussain (a) left for reforming the same corruption. There is one discussion over here as to what will happen with Palestinian, the war will continue or not? Everyone are commenting, analyzing these but there is no research , analysis being done about the rest of world. The Palestinians are in danger and everyone is concerned as to what will happen with them? But what about billions who are outside Palestine? The most concerned state is of these Muslims specifically. The diseases that has inflicted them, the calamities that has hit them are more dangerous than the oppression that is being done on Palestinians. It is necessary to get this Ummah out of this corruption. This pathology is required on what is this sickness?
There have been certain scholars who have given importance to such topics. If we don’t go too far then Syed Jamaluddin Afghani was this type of personality. It is established that he was the most awakened person in the last 2 centuries in the Muslim world. Allama Iqbal was the one taught by him only and Allama was highly impressed by his teachings. When the Islamic world was about to be captured by the British , Syed Jamaluddin Afghani was trying to awaken the society. In the society there are two categories; one was the masses and other was elite. The masses do not carry any of their own thinking, they get impressed by thoughts of others and follow their path like flock of sheep. The elites irrespective of them being educated or not, they develop their own thinking and adapt a path based on their thinking and understanding of the situation and issue, possible they might be doing right or wrong, but they have decided themselves. When it comes to personal interests everyone is elite as they decide for them, but when it comes to social issues the masses follow the thinking of elites and are their captives. The masses always follow the elites. Like today social media also has elites and masses. The elites of social media are those who make their own message whether right or wrong and masses are the ones who just forward the messages of others.
Syed Jamal would think that since the reigns of masses are in the hands of elites, so if the elites awaken then masses will get awakened themselves. Hence should not waste time in awakening masses but better to awaken elites. He spent his entire life in awakening the elites in various countries where he would go. He would shake their conscience and some effect would be there but majority would not take any effect. He was a physician trying to awaken the dead society. In Egypt the elites whom Syed Jamal awakened and the personality who got awakened completely was Sheikh Mohammad Abdo and a very known personality who has written Tafseer Al Manar as well. He was the one who became a copy of Syed Jamal and started awakening Egypt.
In Indian sub-continent the one who got awakened by him was Allama Iqbal (r.a). In Iran also one group got awakened. There should be conferences on such personalities so that the current generation should understand the corruption, apathy, death of this society.
The spectators of Gaza are also in abundance , so what should be done? There is a solution for this. When Imam Hussain (a) saw the apathy of this nation, he started his uprising which had different dimensions. He gave invitations and one big part of this uprising was awakening and then one big part is on Jihad, martyrdom and after martyrdom as well the act of awakening continued in the form of Azadari. When human society dies the death of senselessness then what is the duty and obligation was given by Imam Hussain (a). Today to blow the spirit in these dead people is more important than helping the people of Gaza in welfare which most of the people are ready to do. How do we awaken the 58 countries? Leave it there only so that more oppression is being done? Or we should awaken them and this can be done. If we take religion from Quran, Prophet (s), Ahlulbayt and make Imam Hussain (a) as the headline of our lives but not just crying, instead learn and do what he did. We should be now doing what Imam Hussain (a) and it starts from the reformation of Ummah. This is the utmost duty on those who have media in their hands.
SERMON 2
Today the tragedy we are going through is in two forms; one is in Gaza where the innocent children, women are killed barbarically. The second tragedy is that billions of human beings are watching like silent spectators and not even thinking to take any step to do this. To provide emergency help to two patients, first it is seen who is in more danger and that person is first addressed. Similar situation is in front of us, one is Palestinians who are victims of oppression, the second ones are senseless Muslims spectators and this is a bigger tragedy and their situation worse than people of Gaza. There are various reasons, causes behind this senselessness and we have to understand these.
The arrangement which Allah has made to form a dynamic, active society of Muslims has been neglected and abandoned by us. The system which Allah(s) has made of Imamat and Ummat was as per the rules of Quran and expressed by Prophet (S) and which also harmonizes with the natural state of society. To keep a society health and in state of growth is the most obligatory act for human beings. One such arrangement is the Friday prayer. We think that Friday prayers are meant only for rewards in hereafter. The purpose of these methods of worship is not to do act here and gain in hereafter. The purpose it so establish and maintain a health, active, dynamic society. Today we the realized that the Muslim Ummah is the weakest. We listen from our leaders that Israel is a spider web which has been proven by Hamas but what about Muslims? They cannot even destroy this spider’s web. The Muslims are weak in every aspect , materialistic, spiritual, intellectually. Despite of having big forces they are weak. This is because the design made by Quran for preserving a healthy society has been destroyed by our Maulana’s. That method of Muslims gathering for five times in a local society and then all localities in 5 kms on the day of Jumah (that is congregation) should gather for the whole day to form the society and then give a system that is development of Ummah behind Imam. This was the task given to the Muslims on forming a strong society which we sacrificed on Fatwas. How much importance we give to Friday ? Why this spider web cannot be broken by the Muslims? Another weak thing Quran mentions is fly and this fly becomes victim of spider. The status of Muslims is like fly and this is because they have left the mechanism of strengthening the society which is Friday prayers. You can see the mentality, mind-set , teachings, admonishments about Friday prayers. These are the things which has weakened us. Every fly is thinking itself as something big. We have left the purpose of these gatherings; we could not take the outputs from Salaat ul Jamaat and Jumah. The way Allama Iqbal has said that elites have forbidden on themselves every goodness but I have seen sincerity and purity in people.
Today the Pakistani masses have taken privilege over the elites of entire world. The way the Pakistani masses have raised voices for Palestine no one in the world has done. They are not able to get free from their political and sectarian leaders. They are obstacles for the masses. If you compare the Arab masses and Pakistani masses then Arab masses are more dead in their luxurious lives. Same for the rest of the world but Pakistani masses have shown the glimpse of being lively in them.
The other question is what will happen tomorrow, after the ceasefire ends, will the war start again or not? I am addressing the entire Pakistani community irrespective of their religion, sect that they can play a very important role in this war and if they do it collectively. If we want the oppression on Gaza to stop then the Pakistani community could not do one thing that all the partners of Israel like America, Arab countries, Europe who want the Palestine generation to be eradicated then these countries have various entities, organizations in Pakistan. If the war again starts from Israel then they should not allow any of these organizations to work in Pakistan. This can be done by the masses of Pakistan and not by rulers, leaders, religious scholars, politicians as they don’t have any strength to do this.
Another thing is that Pakistani community should awaken other Muslim nations to do the same and not allow any entity of these criminals whether education ,commercial, companies, interests, political entities and embassies to function here. The entire Pakistani community together can take this step for their Palestinian brothers. This is the step which will give freedom to the Palestinian. If Israel wants to fight then fight with Hezbollah, Hamas and other soldiers, but to kill children, women with bombs with the world watching then what should we term these spectators in Muslim world. We should prepare the people to stop this oppression. May be our rulers, sectarians will not like but we have to now see what Allah likes. To stop this oppression every Muslim should take step and this step would be effective on global situation as well and we can take a decisive step. The entire masses should take message and show to other masses that we are awakened. If they start the oppression then Pakistani people will not allow any friends of Israel to function in Pakistan.
