Hujjatul Islam Ustad Syed Jawad Naqvi
(Principal Jamia Orwatul Wuthqa – Lahore)
Delivered at: Masjid Baitul ul Ateeq
Lahore – Pakistan
Friday Sermon – 12th April, 2024
Sermon 1: Taqwa and Tawakkul guarantees protection from enemies
Sermon 2: Disgrace of Muslims can only be removed with practical repentance now
Without Taqwa life is destroyed both in this world and hereafter. In reality man destroys himself in this world and same continues in hereafter. The example of life and hereafter has been expressed in traditions as this world is the farm of hereafter where man cultivates crops in this farm of world. Whatever they cultivate they harvest with their own hands in the end and nothing comes from outside. Whatever is sowed you reap the same. For a farmer after sowing seeds in farm he has to protect the farm. He has to water the farm, protect it from animals, birds and pests. Hence to cultivate is one stage and same importance is for protection. Thus, Allah has made system of guidance to plant the seed of guidance in man and then Taqwa is kept to protect this farm of guidance which also the farmer has to do himself. We can see at times people acquire knowledge of religion, Fiqh, Hadith, ethics but despite of this they don’t acquire Taqwa. Then they have cultivated but not protected. Now for them the hereafter is not their knowledge but the practical life which they have spent without Taqwa. We have attraction towards religion, learn the Shariah, act also to some extent but do not protect it. Thus, what we plant we destroy it as well.
The other example given by Quran is about that lady who weaves carpet throughout the day and then at night unweaves it herself. Quran says do not waste your acts like this. This is Habtul Amal, whereby man does good deeds but then wipes off all goodness. It is like someone has a hole in pocket. Man has to protect his deeds else they get wasted. Taqwa does not comes by acquiring knowledge or carrying out ritual worship. For protection man needs planning and management for protecting every segment of life and Allah has expressed this. Like you have various ways of protecting things at your home, that is everything has a different type of protection. Hence one type of Taqwa does not secure every dimension of life. The Taqwa for traders is of different form, for farmers, women, relationship all have different forms of Taqwa. Allah has mentioned those field of life where it is essential to acquire Taqwa
One such field is Jihad. Surah Maida, verse no 11
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ هَمَّ قَوْمٌ أَنْ يَبْسُطُوا إِلَيْكُمْ أَيْدِيَهُمْ فَكَفَّ أَيْدِيَهُمْ عَنْكُمْ ۖ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ ۚ وَعَلَى اللَّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ {11}
O you who believe! remember Allah’s favor on you when a people had determined to stretch forth their hands towards you, but He withheld their hands from you, and be careful of (your duty to) Allah; and on Allah let the believers rely
The message is addressed to believers to first remember and be attentive toward the special bounty which Allah has bestowed on you. This bounty is when you were besieged by enemies and it was near that he would have destroyed you all. Then Allah stopped their swords, attacks and hands reaching you. And you were not aware about this, it was done by Allah. Hence acquire Taqwa and believers only rely on Allah.
Allah has protected you from this attack but you have to continuously adapt a defensive and security mechanism. It is not that once Allah has protected you so now you should not do anything. Some have this threat throughout the year that they are on target of enemies. But some are such that they do not do anything which creates enemies or enemies come towards them in fact enemies like them. There are many such who pretend to be believers and just claim. Everyone today claims they are believers but has Allah testified their faith. They are not believers because they try to deceive Allah, others but they deceive themselves. Such kind of believers are best friends of enemies. If we take the current issues then these people are more dangerous than enemies. The situation that is on Gaza, Palestine and you see the state of Muslims in the world. That is worse than infidels. And above believers are Ulama we can see their characters towards Gaza. That is worse then enemies and Zionists. Allah says they are not believers.
Those who are believers are definitely in dangers. The enemies have agony towards them for their faith, monotheism. We can assess who are our enemies and from that we will come to know if we are believers or not. If Faasik, transgressors are our friends and pleased with us then we are not believers. When infidels, polytheists, corrupt people, Taghoot, oppressors are pleased with you then there is no faith in you.
We consider not having enemies as goodness, but we have to buy enmity. If we see Ibrahim, Azar who is considered as his caretaker and Quran addressed as father. He was the sponsor and guardian of Ibrahim. He told Azar that this is not correct what you are doing and then eventually Ibrahim condemned Azar for his acts and disassociated with him. He said that we have enmity (Adavat) between us if you are persistent on idol worship and polytheism. Ibrahim addressed in three stages; first woe on you, second, I am disassociating and third is I am at enmity with you. And after this as well Ibrahim did not sleep, he went and destroyed the idol temple. A believer has to buy such enmity and is a sign of belief. The enmity which Imams were purchased was at high cost. The enemies of Ali (a) and Imam Hussain (a) were taken up by themselves. It was possible that Imam Hussain (a) could have transformed the enmity into friendship. Like today we are friends to every corrupt people just because they are uncles, aunty and relatives. This is deception. And enemies want to kill and finish the believers. For Taghoot the biggest enemy is believer. Imam Khomeini (r.a) would address the non-political scholars a very simple argument who say that Imams had nothing to do with the rulers and were just into spiritual activities, so why were all Imams martyred by the rulers. So, what problem these rulers had with Imams? Why did Saddam martyred Shaheed Sadr and his sister? And at the same time some Ulama were at peace with Saddam. He would pay stipend to them because they were not harmful for Saddam in fact beneficial. But if we see Imams were not allowed to live in peace and all were martyred either with sword or poison. Imam Khomeini (r.a) would question the scholars why they got martyred? This means the rulers, Taghoot had problems with Imams. The Imams were active leaders and every Taghoot would tremble from them. Just like Imams the Taghoot are enemies of believers as well and they will do all sort of secret planning, torments, accusation to get the believers or their manifested personality out from their way.
For this verse revelation there are various backgrounds mentioned. Majority of them concludes that the Prophet (s) was surrounded by enemies and then this verse descended. But the way Allama Tabatabai says that the verse has no indication that only Prophet alone was surrounded. The verse is generic and has plurality addressing all the crusading believers along with Prophet. There is no authentic evidence about which event was this. The tone of the verse is also not pointing towards any specific event but is generic. We can say that in all battles this was the situation. A general policy has been presented by Quran. When a community determined to finish the believers then Allah waived the danger. Now the believers are asked to acquire Taqwa and Tawakkul.
If you acquire Taqwa then Allah will protect. If we ponder over this then a fundamental policy of Quran is mentioned over here. Taqwa and Tawakkul is the guarantee for remaining secure from enemies. This is only possible when Taqwa is not an ethical principle but a Quranic principle and system. Taqwa and Tawakkul are both systems from Allah. The believers would come under threats and dangers from enemies because it is a condition for the path of faith. Like for Imam Hussain (a) everyone of his friends, relatives came with sympathy towards him to stop him from not doing the uprising. Abdullah ibn Umar who was a sanctimonious personality also came to stop Imam Hussain (a). He used to be continuously busy in worships. He emphasized a lot to Imam Hussain (a) not to proceed. Imam (a) asked him you tell me whether the path I have adopted is an incorrect? Abdullah said, no you are not at fault but under danger and we want to protect you from danger. Imam (a) said if I want to protect from danger, threats then I have to commit fault and mistake. A believer can waive off danger by doing mistakes but Allah says you should not commit mistake but instead take threats.
You cannot compromise with enemies as it is not permitted by Allah. When Allah has placed believers under threat so has Allah made any system for protection. Allah has made arrangement and every arrangement Allah makes is through a system. With the system there are laws placed and whatever you want to do will happen only when you connect with the system. If you bypass the system your work won’t get done. It is not that Allah at night did not decide to give you something and morning Allah decided to reward you. This is impossible because this is secondary intention related to something which was not there and then now happened. It is not that something was not in the intention of Allah and then Allah did this. So how when we supplicate things happen? So, is it that we cried and Allah decided to give me? So where do our Duas go? These supplications do not go any office, it goes inside the system. The universe is organized with a system. Whatever you want you place in the system and system will detect whether it is as per the system or not. Like in your software if you enter something it says it does not accept. Whatever you do enters the system and you get everything from the system. First come inside the system.
In this verse there two systems and practical principles of life that is Taqwa and Tawakkal. The life of believers run on these two rails of tracks like a train runs on two rails. If you place your life on these rails then the train will reach the destination. The enemies might come in the way, but you should not get down from the track rest Allah will manage. If some group comes to derail you then there is one more system that is with Allah and not with you. You have been told to develop faith, become believers and then build the track of your life on Taqwa and Tawakkal. There are many other things in the universe apart from this and for these as well there are systems made by Allah.
We have elaborated Taqwa before and we are looking the fields of Taqwa. The Taqwa in this verse is expressed in the field of Jihad. For Tawakkal we need to explain this as we have a different picture in our minds. We have to see what is the reality behind Tawakkal presented by Quran.
Sermon 2
The month of Ramadan was a great opportunity to acquire Taqwa. Those believers spent their Ramadan as per the instructive guidelines from Ahlulbayt (a), got the Taufeeqat of worship and have come on the path of Taqwa now they have to express Taqwa.
As mentioned in first sermon about the verse of Surah Maida verse 11. In this verse Allah makes believer remember that time when enemies wanted to finish you Allah protected you by controlling the hands of enemies. This is a policy of Quran that when believers acquire Taqwa Allah stops them. But today this is not happening whereby the hands of all tyrants are moving towards believers and want to destroy them.
As discussed in Ramadan Quran lectures, we discussed about verse no 50 of Surah Baqarah where Allah makes them remember the bounty whereby Allah gave them salvation from Firaun. The Bani Israel were people living in Kanan that is Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan. Due to economic problems they migrated to Egypt and their generation grew for few hundred years. They were respected due to being children of Prophets but gradually they became the slaves of Egypt and get into worse kind of tormenting from Bani Israel. To give them salvation Allah gave birth to Moosa. The point over here is that two things were involved in their downfall. One was the weakness which was present inside Bani Israel that is ethical, personality and social. The second was the system of Firaun which also became the basis of their slavery. These two things are always present. Allah says if you acquire Taqwa and do Tawakkal then Allah will defeat your enemies. These few companions of Prophet (s) would get besieged frequently by enemies but Allah would protect them due to Taqwa and Tawakkal which they were doing under the leadership of Prophet (s).
Today also the same situation is there in Gaza. For six months the entire face and reality of believers have been exposed. Why did Allah not stop the hands of enemies? The enemy after destroying Palestine is moving forward towards Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and even Iran. The verse says that a tyrant community intended to stretch forth their hands towards you, means tried to attack you Allah stopped their hand because you have adapted Taqwa and Tawakkul. Today the Muslims have left Taqwa and Tawakkal, due to which the enemy is gradually moving forward. When Israel attacked Gaza, America and Britain came forward to help them. Now also they are saying that if Iran attacks Israel, then America, Britain and NATO will come out to help Israel. The behavior of believers is very dreadful because Israel never got the courage, intention which they have today. It has become difficult to stop Israel. If you could have stopped them in Gaza they would not have reached further. Here the Muslims need to reassess their behavior and Allah can stop the hands of enemies. Those who are elders would know that when Islamic revolution came, the Iranians were captives, slaves inside Iran. The Iranian parliament with the stamp of Shah a bill was passed whereby even if an American dog bites an Iranian, and if Iranian beats the done then American will punish the Iranian. But if an Iranian gets killed by America, then Iranian court is not having rights to punish the American. This was worse than Firaun. After revolution the youths of Iran besieged the American embassy and for four hundred days the embassy was besieged. America made a special force who got trained for this operation. They landed at Tabas in a deserted area near Mashad and wanted to attack Iranian leadership home. They had full planning and Iran was not aware. But when they landed on this base and when the time of operation was near a sand storm came and the helicopters wanted to fly out but they crashed. This is how Allah stops the enemies if you acquire Taqwa and Tawakkal. Today the hands have stretched in a worse manner but the weakness which Muslims have shown the law of Allah does not get activated. Allah has made system which handles events. If things are moving as per system, then the system would stop the enemies. As per the system the faith, Tawakkal which the Muslims had to demonstrate they did not do it, instead they have shown cowardliness. Those who are running against the system of Allah, they are not helped and instead handed over to tyrants and rulers. If you acquire the path of Allah then Allah will help you.
On the day of Eid martyred three sons and three grandsons of Ismael Haniya who were in Gaza. Haniya is in Qatar and when he got this news, he said that value of the blood of my children is not more valuable than the Palestinians blood. Today I have seen the picture of wife of Haniya is showing the sign of Victory on hospital bed. She is not crying and father is smiling with signs of victory. Allah has accepted this sacrifice from us which means victory is coming near to us. Against this grandeur see the character of other Muslims. How lowly they are seen? The Arab world looks filthy in front of them. The system of Allah is that the outcome of patience and perseverance will come as victory and Aqsa will be free but the disgrace of Muslims will still not end. The shame which they have shown in last six months will remain and Allah will take tough tribulations from them. The Muslims priority should seek repentance from Allah for the shortcomings and not just by word. It is time that everyone should rise and every Muslim country should remove their embassies and organizations from all countries. This is absolutely shamelessness which we are demonstrating. Our rulers think they are secure under the umbrella of America. Even boycott Fatwas are not given by the scholars but they have to give Fatwa of Jihad. But this needs courageous heart. May Alah get us out of this disgrace.
