Friday Sermon (0985): s1. Allegiance, s2. The cautious optimism

Praise Be to Allah - we praise Him, we seek aid from Him, we seek guidance, and we seek from Him refuge from the evils of ourselves, and our bad deeds. It is He whom Allah guides that is on true guidance; but he whom He leaves astray, for such wilts thou find no protector to lead him to the right way. And I profess that there is no god but Allah alone, & He has no partners. And I admit His lordship, compelling this truth for those who denied Him and disbelieved in Him. And I profess that our master Muhammad, May Allah's Peace & Grace be upon him, is the messenger of Allah, the master of the created and the human race, and I keep professing that for as long as sight can be seen with an eye, for as long as news can be heard with an ear.
  O Allah, our Lord, have peace and blessings upon our master Mohammed, upon his folks, his companions, his descendants, and those who allied with him and followed him until the Day of Judgment. O Allah our Lord, teach us what is useful for us, and let us make use of what Thou hast taught us. O Allah and advance us in knowledge. O Allah show us the righteousness as right as it is, and bless us with following it. O Allah our lord make us amongst those who listen to the Word and follow the best meaning of it, and admit us, by Thy Grace, to the ranks of Thy righteous Servants. O Allah our Lord, lead us out from the depths of darkness and illusion, unto the lights of erudition and knowledge, and from the muddy shallows of lusts unto the heavens of Thy Vicinity. 
Allegiance and renunciation:
 Dear brothers, the outcome of a sound creed, uprightness and good deeds will be a state called by scholars as "Allegiance" which is the opposite of renunciation.
 Muslims today are in great affliction and they are in dire need to this topic.

What are the Quranic proofs of Allegiance? Allah says:

 This Ayah indicates exclusiveness. Pay attention, believers are nothing else than brothers, lest they are, they will not be believers.
 Unless believers are brothers, they will not be believers.
 Dear brothers, here is a second Ayah:

 Dear brothers, Allah the Almighty said:

 Allegiance and renunciation manifest belonging to this Ummah (nation) and to the group of believers, not to mention that we are in dire need to this topic. Allah says:

 This means that believers through eras and despite their different regions are one unity.
 Dear brothers, this is what Allegiance is all about and those are its proofs.
 Here is another proof from Allah's book (Quran):

 These Ayas, which are from Allah's book and are sent down from the Creator of heavens and earth, show that the natural outcome of a sound creed, of uprightness and of good deeds is to be part of the Islamic nation and to belong to the group of believers, namely, whatever hurts them should hurt you and whatever brings rejoice to them should bring rejoice to you.
 And In Sunnah, it was narrated on authority of Abu Mousa Al-Ash’ari that the Messenger of Allah, (PBUH), said:

 In another Hadith:
 Muslim narrated on the authority of Nu’man bin Al-Basheer, may Allah be pleased with him: The Messenger of Allah, (PBUH), said,

 These ahadeeth are agreed upon.
 Muslims are like one whole body if its eye thereof suffers, the whole body suffers, and if its head suffers of some pain, the whole body suffers of pain too.
 Hence, lot of Ayas and Ahadeeth show the strong belonging of the believer to the group of believers, and unless this brotherhood exists, a believer's faith will be to no avail.
Signs of allegiance:
 Dear brothers, we have already defined allegiance through Allah's words, but what are the signs of allegiance?
 If you were to ask yourself: Do I have allegiance to believers? We will say to you: There are signs to support that claim.
First sign: love
 First you should love believers.
 The prophet PBUH said as reported by Muslim and Bukhari and narrated by Anas, 

 You should love for your brother from the best of worldly life and the hereafter what you love for yourself. Hence, if you find yourself loving believers and wishing for them the best in their worldly life and their hereafter, then here is good news for you: this is a sign of your strong faith. However, if you wish for them to fail, to be exposed and to be controlled by their enemy, then by the Lord of Kabah you are not a believer.
 The prophet PBUH said:

 Dear brothers:

 This is another proof of the love between believers.
 Narrated Anas Ibn Malek, May Allah be pleased with him, he reported that the prophet PBUH said:

 O Lord, who among your servants is dearer to You so that I love him for your sake? The Lord said: The dearest to me is the one with the pious heart, clean hands (doesn't eat ill-gotten money), and the one who doesn’t wrong anyone, he loves Me and loves those who love Me, and endears Me to My creations.
 Therefore, the first sign of allegiance to believers is to love them, to wish for them the best from the worldly life and the hereafter, to hurt when they hurt, to grieve when they grieve, to get angry when they get angry, and to rejoice when they rejoice. This is a sign, up against which, every one of us should measure himself.
 Allah described the hypocrites in the Quran:

 Check the believers around you, do you wish goodness for them? Do you wish them safety or destruction? Do you wish that their enemy humiliates their dignity, kills their youth and steals their properties? 
 Dear brothers:
 Abu Huraira said: The prophet PBUH said:

 What is the crucial difference between the companions of the prophet PBUH and Muslims nowadays? Despite all the mosques, colleges, universities, books, and conferences, we lack, as Muslims, the love that used to prevail amongst the companions of the prophet PBUH.

  Spreading Salam among believers is the least of Ma'roof (good deed).
 Once I was at an assembly where I was told that neighbors in one of the hugest buildings don't know one another, don't greet one another, nor do they visit one another.


 The Salam doesn't require more than nice words (Assalam Alaikum Wa Rahmato Allah Wa Barakatoh) in which you invoke Allah for your brother asking Him for safety, security from every evil, and mercy upon the one you are greeting.
 Again, the first sign is love, and in the following there are some of the proofs.
Second sign: courtesy call

 Some people satisfy their ego by refusing invitations claiming that the place is far.
 The prophet PBUH said:

 Let me be frank with you: accepting the invitation of the rich and the powerful is a religious act, whereas accepting the invitation of the weak poor believers is an act of the hereafter.
 Here is a serious question: Do you have allegiance towards believers? Do you hurt when they hurt? Do you rejoice when they rejoice? Are you dearly concerned about them? Are you concerned about Muslims in other countries? Do the daily bloody scenes hurt you? Do they exhaust you?
Third sign: giving support:
 Giving support to your fellow Muslims and combining into one in facing their enemies.
 Dear brothers, Allah says:

 Dear brothers, narrated Anas Ibn Malek, May Allah be pleased with him, he said that the prophet PBUH said:

 The prophet PBUH explained that helping the oppressor will be by by preventing him from oppressing, whereas helping the oppressed brother will be by standing by his side against oppression.
 Hence, dear brothers, I have mentioned three signs of allegiance with which you will belong to the group of believers: to love your fellow believers, to accept their invitation and to support them. This allegiance will be a medal of honor with which you will exalt in the sight of Allah.
Nullifications of allegiance:
 What are the nullifications of allegiance? What are the signs by which you will not be a supporter of believers, furthermore, you will not be one of them nor will you be a believer. 
1- Intentionally excluding a Muslim from Islam (Takfeer):
 Whosoever accuses a Muslim of Kufr (disbelief), knowing that he is a Muslim, will be a Kafer himself. Therefore, he will be a Kafer the one who accuses a Muslim of Kufr.
 For the prophet PBUH said:

 Unless this person, you accused of Kufr, is really a Kafer, you will be the Kafer instead.
 He will not belong to Muslims the one who puts down Muslims' determination, weakens their strength and threatens them of demise and destruction.
 Let me be frank and transparent with you: I can't promise success to the student who didn't study, for this will be misleading and lying, instead I will say to him: "Study and you will succeed".
 Accordingly, you shouldn't praise those who are indulged in sins, who eat ill-gotten money, who mingle between men and women and who live in distractions, instead, you should warn them.
In the naive optimism one will say that nothing will happen (though people live in all these sins), instead, the challenge should take place when you are upright, spreading Islam in your country, removing sins and adhering to Allah not to this or that person, only then can you claim that you will triumph, for the latter has a price that should be paid.
 Dear brothers, Abu Dharr (RA) also related that he heard the Prophet (SAW) say,

 All these Ahadeeth are authenticated and reported either by the two Shaiks (Muslim and Bukhari), which means that they are agreed upon (by both of them), or they are reported by one of them.
 Dear brothers, it is not part of the religion to exclude a Muslim from Islam in a randomly Takfeer (the act or accusing others of Atheism) only because he did something that you didn't like. Furthermore, such an act annuls your allegiance to Islam which in turn annuls your faith. 
2- Deeming a permissible access to a Muslim's blood, money or honor:
 Those who deem legitimate a Muslim's blood, honor or money.
 The prophet PBUH said: 

 By the Lord of Kabah, you will not be a believer and your allegiance and faith will be annulled if you considered others' blood legitimate to you or helped in such act, if you transgressed somebody's honor or helped in such act, if you ravished a woman or helped in such act and if you deemed lawful taking other's money or helped in such act. The prophet PBUH said:

 Saeed Ibn Zaid narrated that the prophet PBUH said:

 When you accuse him of something he is innocent of.
 Dear brothers, the first thing to annul your allegiance is to go against your Muslim fellow and to exclude him from Islam. 
3- Standing by Kuffar (disbelievers) against Muslims:
 Considering this measurement to evaluate your acts will stun you with the results, for when you help a Kafer (Atheist) against a Muslim, and when you give him information in order to destroy Muslims, this will be nothing but High treason, Allay says:

 He, who helps a powerful Kafer against a weak believer, doesn't has an atom like weight of faith in his heart. This help is by giving him information and by exposing Muslims' weak points and personal issues.
 Dear brothers, here are some other Ayat:

 It is out of question that he is one of them.
 There are other matters which don't annul your allegiance and faith, yet they vituperate them:
4- Oppression:
 It is deemed impermissible to oppress a Muslim, because Allah the Almighty said in Qudsi Sahih Hadith:

 And the prophet PBUH said:

 There are hundreds of thousands of law suits in the court of justice between Muslims who attend mosques, most of which have no grounds, yet they are of malicious nature sued by a Muslim in order to take what doesn't belong to him.
 Hence, we are in a bad condition (as Muslims), and we didn't bring forth the reasons to deserve victory.
 Abu Umamah said that the prophet PBUH said:

 A brother told me once: "A witness was called for testimony in a case in front of me (in the court of justice), the building, subject of the law suit, was worth 57 million \, and to claim this building the oppressor needed a forged testimony, thus if the witness takes the oath and testified, the building will be owned by this oppressor. So after they brought this witness, he put his hand on the Quran, and swore as directed by the judge, then he raised his hand, but the hand stayed in the air raised, so the judge was upset and he told him: you can lower your hand", but the witness was already dead, then he collapsed on the ground."
 Dear brothers,

 Hence, oppressing vituperates your allegiance and your faith.
5- insulting, cursing, blaspheming, backbiting and calumny:
 Insulting a Muslim is an act of Fisq.
 Abdullah narrated that the prophet PBUH said:

 Insulting a believer is like killing him.

 Allah the Almighty says:

 Accusing a chaste woman annuls the allegiance, Allah says:

 As for backbiting, Allah says:

 Why are Muslims shredded and dispersed?
 They are shredded within their families, within their neighborhood, within their companies, within their schools, within their universities and within their hospitals, why is that?
 The answer is because of backbiting and calumny.
 Dear brothers, Allah the Almighty forbade backbiting and deemed calumny enough reason for a person to be admitted in hell fire.

 The tattler is the Nammam who passes over discourses from person to person to sow dissension between people. By Allah, people perform calumny like performing Awrad (laudations) on a daily basis.
6- Selling for lesser price to negate a Muslim's bargain:
 Selling over the sale to another, betroth over the betrothal of one another, Najash (outbidding with the sole purpose of leading others to pay a higher price for something) and fraud are reasons to annul allegiance and to weaken faith.
 Nafe'e narrated, that Abdullah Ibn Umar, May Allah be pleased with him said, that the prophet PBUH said:

 When the seller asks his customer about the price he paid for the commodity: How much did you pay for it? Then he offers him a lesser price to buy from him instead.
 Nafe'e narrated that Abdullah Ibn Umar said that the prophet PBUH said:

 Najash is to outbid with the sole purpose of leading others to pay a higher price for something, whereas bidding is allowed in Islam, but in case it was not real, it is forbidden, like when someone hires a person to outbid a certain commodity in order to raise its price, this is an impermissible act.

7- Deserting your fellow Muslim:
 To desert your fellow Muslim:

 Narrated Abu Aiyub Al-Ansari: The prophet PBUH said:

 Abandonment weakens allegiance and faith.
 Dear brothers, the first group, which is far from allegiance, are the hypocrites, for they are the vicious enemies of allegiance in origin, simply because deep inside they are atheists, their hearts are full of bitter feelings towards Muslims and they are eager to see Muslims defeated and weak. This group of people usually mock Muslims, make fun of them, insult them in quarrels, break their promise to them, behave treacherously towards their covenant with them, betray them, cheat them, tell them lies and they are annoyed, distressed and upset when Muslims are prospered with benediction, goodness and rejoice, whereas they are filled with joy when Muslims are afflicted with badness and calamity.
 The Quran described at great length their conditions and scandals, and in order to be aware of hypocrites' conditions, you can recite Surat At-Taubah, Al-Munafiqoon, Al-Hashr, Al-Ahzab and the starting Ayas of Surat Al-Baqarah. 
 Narrated Umar Ibn Al Khattab, May Allah be pleased with him, that the prophet PBUH said:

 The hypocrite owns a very dangerous sweet tongue with which he claims to be your ilk and adopts what you say, but inside he keeps bitter feelings and bears a grudge in his heart towards you.
 Dear brothers, it has been said: The believer's fate is to have a Kafer who fights him, a hypocrite who hates him, a believer who envies him, a lust which seduces him and an evil who tempts him till he sins.

 Dear brothers, in our next sermon if Allah wills, we will talk about renunciation since we tackled allegiance in this sermon. Allegiance is a natural outcome of a sound creed and uprightness. As aforementioned, we talked about Nullifications and matters which weaken Allegiance, all of which were supported by texts from the Quran and Sunnah as proofs brought to you and with which no person in the Islamic world can argue.
 Dear brothers, call yourselves to account before you are called to do so and weigh your deeds before they are weighed, and you should know that the Angel of Death has been reaching others and will reach us soon, so pay heed. The clever one is he who upbraids himself and works for what comes after death; and the weak one is he who follows his desires and lives on wishful thinking, and praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.
***
Second sermon:
 Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds and I bear witness that there is no God but Allah the ally of the pious, and I bear witness that our Master Muhammad PBUH is His slave and messenger the one with noble morals. O, Allah grant your blessings and peace to Muhammad, the Faithful and the Honest, and may Allah bless his folks and companions.
The cautious optimism:
 Dear brothers, again, optimism is demanded yet it should be a cautious one, namely, it should be an optimism with taking expedients (using the reasons to reach meaning optimism rather than wishing for it only), and unless you do so, your optimism will be foolish and meaningless.
 Here are some Ayahs which confirm this fact, Allah says:

 This is outstanding, for the creator of heavens and earth is saying:
 (( "I am with you))
 But be careful, for this divine accompaniment is conditioned, Allah says:

 Allah's accompaniment is conditioned. There is a common accompaniment:

 "By His knowledge" Allah is with the Kafer, with the hypocrite and with the Atheist, whereas the special accompaniment is only with believers, for Allah said that He is with the believers, with the honest and with the pious supporting them and granting them triumph, protection and prosperity. However, this special accompaniment is conditioned:

 In another Ayah:

 Succession, being firmly established and being secured are conditioned to worshipping, which is not but a voluntary obedience mixed with wholeheartedly love and based on unquestionable knowledge which leads to eternal rejoice.
 In a nut shell: the ball is in our court (so to speak).

 It is all up to us not up to our enemies. If Allah is with you who will be against you? And if Allah is against you, who will be with you? O Lord, what did he lose who found You? And what did he find who lost You? Hence:

 In case we worshipped Allah the Almighty, we will be paying the price for being successors, and the proof to that is that the companions were nothing but Sheepherders and they became leaders of all nations. Allah has promised us to become successors, to be firmly established in our religion and to be secured.
 By Allah, the next Ayah includes the six words in which the salvation of the Islamic nation lies within.

 Though their plot was a great one to such an extent that it would move mountains from their places, Allah says:

 Despite all that, Allah will protect us from their cunningness if we were patient and pious, however if we were patient and we disobey, all we can get is nothing but grief and grave.
 Here is a fifth Ayah:

 Within this Ayah lies a divine law, Allah says:

 By Allah, no matter what we do; unless we change (to the better) Allah will not change our conditions. Deal with Allah according to His laws not according to a random luck, emotions or affection, for Allah the Almighty has set up a method for us to deal with Him.

 Allah has prescribed the disease and its cure, Allah says:

 Scholars agreed upon considering losing Salah is not about not performing it, rather than voiding it from its gist.
 When our Salah doesn't prevent us from sinning, we will be losing Salah and it will be worthless.
 A Salah performer shouldn't, for example, swear by Allah and by the Kabah that he paid a certain price for his land in order to sell it for a higher price to get a small amount of profit, but the reality is that there is a huge difference between what he claimed and the real price. 
 Dear brothers, Allah says:

 The pure heart is the one which doesn't long for a lust which is not allowed by Allah, doesn't believe any reporting which contradicts with the revelation, doesn't resort to any law save Allah's law and doesn't worship but Allah.
 Hence, our agenda should be as follows: to tighten our relation with Allah after being upright on His path, to draw closer to Him, and to stay away from desires which are not allowed by Allah.
 Lest we get bored blaming the era for our bad condition, Allah said:

 When we neglected Allah, He neglected us in return. When we didn't carry out the teachings of the Quran they (our enemies) dared to defile it. When we didn't follow the divine commands in our lives, they challenged us and invaded our society with their foreign culture.
Glad tidings:
 Dear brothers, in order to keep balance, get ready for the coming glad tidings, Allah says:

 'Ad said: Who is mightier than us in strength? Whenever Allah demised a nation, he would remind them that he demised those who were mightier than them save 'Ad, for when He demised them he said:

 In western countries they claim that citizenship is the common denominator between citizens and they never discriminate according to religious backgrounds, however when they occupy other's lands, they sow dissension between its people and leave them in a hundred sects and parties.

 Their minister for foreign affairs said once: I am not satisfied to have 200 countries in the world, and I wish they were five thousand of them.
 In that purpose they are provoking sects and parties in every country till a civil war starts and when the latter occurs, the country will turn into five worthless countries.
 Hence, we are in dire need to have deep awareness with which we are able to abort the enemy's plans.

 The glad tidings:

 Yet there is danger which is awaiting:

 And this exactly what is happening in some Islamic countries:

 And this is the hardest thing, Allah says:

 I hope that you become optimistic, combine into one unity and strengthen one another's spirits, but be careful of the naïve and foolish kind of optimism and never say: We are the nation of Muhammad PBUH (and rely on that only):

 I hope that we are not among those who neglected Allah thus Allah neglected them in return (which is a fact).
 We are in dire need to combine into one unity, to love each other and to support one another. Our optimism should be based on facts not delusions. And finally, we should deal with Allah the Almighty by fulfilling expedients instead of relaying on random luck or emotions. We should consider reasons as if they are everything and depend on Allah as if they are nothing.
Supplication:
 O, Allah help us to control our desires so that we can stand by Your side in order to deserve triumph upon our enimies. We beseech you Allah to show us the way of rightness, together with those to whom You have showed it; and give us good health, together with those whom You have healed; and be our Protector, together with those for whom You have become their Protector; and bless us in what You have bestowed on us and save us from the afflictions that You have decreed, for You rule with justice and You are never judged. He whom You protect shall never be humiliated and he whom You make enemy shall never be exalted. Blessed and dignified are You, and we thank You for what You have decreed. 
 We seek your forgiveness and we repent our bad deeds, O, Allah guide us to perform a good deed for You are the One who guides to good deeds. O, Allah guide us to acquire good conducts for You are the one who guides to the best conducts.
 O, Allah make us do well in the religion which is our dignity and make our lives good for it is our living and make us safe on the day of judgment for it is our final destination please make the life our supply for all good things and make the death a rest from every evil our master the Lord of all worlds.
 O, Allah please make us with what You have made lawful needless of what You have made unlawful and make us with Your benevolence independent of all others.
 O Allah, our Lord! Grant peace and blessings to Sayyidina Muhammad, upon his Family and his Companions altogether.

Translation  : Noura Al-Sharabi
Edited by      : Kawthar Hajj Saleh