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November 5, 2004
SERVING GOD BY STRIVING WITH YOUR LIVES AND MONEY
I seek refuge in Allah from satan the rejected.
In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful.
2:207 Then there are those who dedicate their lives to serving GOD; GOD is compassionate towards such worshipers.
There are a variety of ways that one can dedicate their lives in the cause of God. They are all mentioned in the Quran. Besides the actual acts of worship that include Salat, Zakat, Fasting and Hajj, there is lots to do in taking care of other humans in the cause of God. At any given time, and especially in this generation, there are a lot of widows and orphans around the earth. The increase in the numbers of such people has swelled due to wars; civil and foreign, and the looting of the wealth and resources by the rich, which has deprived the poor of their rights. Persecution and oppression are rampant on earth. Human rights are violated every day, and the innocent are jailed for no apparent reason. Justice is needed to fight cruelty and persecution, while the feeding of the poor and the despondent is needed to fight hunger and starvation.
God repeats in the Quran a few times that He has blessed the Children of Israel. We clearly see that they are not only blessed with material possessions but are also blessed with more compassionate hearts in serving humanity. The majority of the world-renowned charitable institutions and relief agencies are mostly Christian, some Jewish and others. The so-called Muslims are seriously lagging behind. Similarly, we see that most of the orphan children adopted from various countries are handled by Christian agencies and the foster parents are mostly from the group called the Children of Israel (today's Christians and Jews). Their compassion and kindness are not just limited to humans. Even the pet animals, like cats, dogs, horses, and the birds are mostly owned, adopted, and taken care of by the Children of Israel. The best-known hospitals and treatment centers are mostly in countries where the same people live. All of this is only accomplished by overcoming selfishness and with the sense of devotion towards others.
What is the duty of Believers when they see injustice, persecution, and oppression
anywhere? God tells us that they are fearless in His cause. I recite to you:
4:75-76 Why should you not fight in the cause of GOD when weak men, women and children are imploring: “Our Lord, deliver us from this community whose people are oppressive, and be You our Lord and Master.”
Those who believe are fighting for the cause of GOD, while those who disbelieve are fighting for the cause of tyranny. Therefore, you shall fight the devil’s allies; the devil’s power is nil.
The second topic is taking care of the widows and the orphans: It is a natural tendency that we like a child or children of our own. Those who are not blessed with children wait an entire life to have one. Each day they dwell on the thought that they are missing something in life. This in turn causes them grief and despair, which is the work of satan. In the meantime, they have lost the good time that they could have used in dedicating their lives in the cause of God, by raising and adopting orphan children. While there are orphanages in the Muslim countries, though not many; there are hardly any families who adopt and raise an orphan child, or hardly any men that are willing to marry widows with children. Some people may contribute charities to orphanages but do not volunteer to raise a child, as they lack true devotion to God and service to mankind. You will hardly notice an Arab or a Pakistani adopt an African or Chinese child.
These so-called followers of Quran have a deep sense of racism and a wrong sense of commitment to their cultures and traditions. They have forgotten that iblees refused to prostrate to Adam on God’s command because of racism and superiority complex, him being made of fire whereas Adam being made of mud. He decided for himself that the one made from fire is superior to the one made from mud. Some men do have more than one wife, but they always marry single women without children. All of this shows a callous attitude and disregard of God’s laws, whereby He allows more than one wife only if you want to raise orphan children, then you may marry them conditioned upon the fact that you have to maintain complete justice amongst them, otherwise you shall be content with one wife. If we do not please God, how is He ever going to forgive and redeem us? It is extremely hard to rally the followers of the Quran behind a worthy cause. Most just listen, somewhat agree, but choose to stay with the sedentary. It is easier to rally the people from the Children of Israel behind humanitarian causes.
For those who do not heed God’s call and give a deaf ear to the Quran, a profound verse is given.
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2:171 The example of such disbelievers is that of parrots who repeat what they hear of sounds and calls, without understanding. “DEAF, DUMB AND BLIND; THEY CANNOT UNDERSTAND.”
Miracle: GV of Allah letters is precisely 66, being the GV of ALLAH (the Praiseworthy).
Miracle: The entire verse has precisely 19 Allah letters, stressing the importance of the verse.
God’s system of creation; what He creates, how many and through whom is reflected through:
42:49 To GOD belongs the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth. He creates whatever He wills, granting daughters to whomever He wills, and granting sons to whomever He wills.
42:50 Or, He may have the males and the females marry each other, then render whomever He wills sterile. He is Omniscient, Omnipotent.
Whether God decides to bless us with a lot of children, or no child is a test from Him. (8:28)
8:28 You should know that your money and children are a test, and that GOD
possesses a great recompense.
18:46 Money and children are the joys of this life; but the righteous works provide an eternal recompense from your Lord, and a far better hope.
23:55 Do they think that, since we provided them with money and children,
23:56 We must be showering them with blessings? Indeed, they have no idea.
Temporary relationships:
80:33-37 Then, when the blow comes to pass. That is the day when one flees from his brother. From his mother and father. From his spouse and children. Each one of them, on that day, worries about his own destiny.
The example of Zachariah is given in chapter 19, verses 2-9. He implored God for an heir because he was old and worried about his dependents after his death. His wife was sterile and could not bear children. He also wanted the religion of submission to be passed down his generation. That is why he implored God by saying: “Let him be my heir and the heir of Jacob’s clan, and make him, my Lord, acceptable.” Indeed,
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God blessed him with a righteous son called Yahya or John. This proves God’s specific plan for each human being.
Another example of God’s plan is through 18:80 where Moses followed an angel messenger who was blessed by God’s knowledge and mercy.
18:74 So they went. When they met a young boy, he killed him. He said, “why did you kill such an innocent soul, who did not kill another soul? You have committed something horrendous.”
18:80 As for the boy, his parents were good believers, and we saw that he was going to burden them with his transgression and disbelief.
18:81 “We willed that your Lord substitute in his place another son; one who is better in righteousness and kindness.
Question: Did this angel messenger mentioned in these verses conduct these acts on his own or did he carry out God’s commands?
Answer: 18:82 Part: “I did none of that of my own volition. This is the explanation of the things you could not understand.”
Miracle: This portion of verse that confirms what is stated in the end of 18:82, that it was indeed from God has precisely 12 Allah letters with a GV of 165, (being the GV of “Al-Samad” and the “Shahadah”). The angel messenger was simply obeying God’s command and authority, to carry out His will.
We also see God’s specific plan through the wife of Amram, who declared that she had dedicated her baby in her belly to God, which was Mary, who in turn was brought up under the guardianship of Zachariah. Though being a virgin and unmarried, God blessed her with a son called Almessiah Jesus, who was appointed a prophet and a messenger upon birth and given several miracles to deliver God’s message. Shortly after his death, the message evaporated. Today’s descendants from the Children of Israel know nothing of Jesus’ message about the monotheistic Allah, though they still enjoy God’s provisions and blessings.
In the Arab society, a son is considered essential in carrying the family name and they pride themselves in such tradition. Women are routinely divorced for not bearing a son, or they marry another woman in addition to the existing wife. They fail to see and reflect that God did not bless prophet Muhammad with any son. He only mentions his wives and his daughters, without any mention of a genetic son. But he did have an adopted son called Zeid, mentioned in 33:37. Still, some of them dare to call themselves the descendants of Muhammad, when they fully well know
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that you cannot be as he did not have a son to descend from. (93:6) tells us that Muhammad himself was an orphan and God provided him with a home. It means that he was raised by some family. This serves as a good example for all of you, if you are believers.
O servants of God open up your hearts and show love and compassion towards other beings. I advise those of you who are not blessed with children to do this charitable act in the name of God to adopt and raise an orphan child, one or more, according to your means and circumstances. Your money, time and effort will be well spent. Overcome your prejudices and do whatever it takes to please Allah. The believers are blessed with inspiration and faith from God, who has chosen to redeem some of the humans. You should take advantage of God’s mercy and strive to increase your credits, thus continuously developing your soul. If you refrain from doing it, there will always be someone else; but you miss the opportunity to earn credits from God. Recall that Joseph was raised by the governor and his wife; and Moses was raised by Pharoah and his wife. Some of these adopted children were later blessed by God to deliver His message and were appointed messengers.
Early on in life, I used to implore God to give me the opportunity to raise orphan children. In my ignorance, I did not comprehend the difference between the words: “raising” and “supporting” a child. The former involves adoption whereby the child lives with you and involves your time, effort, and money. Thus, it needs greater sacrifice on our part. The latter can be done at arm’s length by giving material support to an organization, and only involves sacrifice of money, but not your time. You can have greater freedom of your time by just supporting and not raising the child. God did exactly what I implored for, which was “raising orphans”. I could not have married another woman to raise orphan children, while having an existing wife, in this country. So, He took away from me the first blessing, and substituted with another blessing- another woman who had two orphan daughters. Though I admit, at times I find it awfully hard to raise someone else's children and has certainly taken away my freedoms; but in the end I feel grateful to God that He honored my imploring and gave me a chance to earn some credit in His cause. He always does things the way He thinks is best for us. Praise and Glory be to Allah.
I shall recite to you some verses on your duties towards orphans:
4:36 You shall worship GOD – do not associate anything with Him. You shall regard the parents, the relatives, the orphans, the poor, the related neighbor, the unrelated neighbor, the close associate, the traveling alien, and your servants. GOD does not like the arrogant show-offs.
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COMMENT: Those who do not carry out this major command are counted as the arrogant ones- meaning they will be devoid of God’s mercy.
2:220 Part: And they ask you about the orphans: say, “bringing them up as righteous persons is the best you can do for them. If you mix their property with yours, you shall treat them as family members.” GOD knows the righteous and the wicked.
COMMENT: You are tested when you raise and bring up orphans, whether you sincerely overcome your prejudice and treat them as family members or not. Moreover, you are tested if you can handle their financial matters honestly or not. God also wants to see if you spent time to teach them about Islam or not.
89:16 But if He tests him through reduction in provisions, he says, “My Lord is humiliating me.”
89:17-18 Wrong! It is you who brought it on yourselves by not regarding the orphan. And not advocating the charity towards the poor.
COMMENT: You may incur financial losses and reduction in provisions for not taking care of orphans on earth, and they are plenty, as I have mentioned in the beginning of this Khutbah.
93:9-10 Therefore, you shall not forsake the orphan. Nor shall you reprimand the beggar.
COMMENT: God is telling you that you should never forget that there are orphans out there. Seize the opportunity. He purposely made some of them to be orphans, in order to test others for their attitudes towards the unfortunate ones.
107:1 DO YOU KNOW WHO REALLY REJECTS THE FAITH?
107:2 That is the one who mistreats the orphans. 107:3 And does not advocate the feeding of the poor. 107:4 And woe to those who observe the Salat – 107:5 Who are totally heedless of their prayers.
107:6 They only show off.
107:7 AND THEY FORBID CHARITY.
Miracle: I end this Khutbah, as always with God’s approval of the subject matter. The chapter is sealed with God’s Signature on 1st and last verses, having Arabic letters as 19 and 14, revealing God’s Supreme Miracles of 19-14.
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Furthermore, the messenger’s letters are 9 in the first verse and 10 in the last verse, revealing the difference of 1 GOD, confirming His “Revelation of 1”.
Peace be upon the messengers.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Universe.