A KHUTBAH FOR THE MUSLIM WOMEN – HOW A PEARL DEVELOPS – 2

Think about this Muslimah. How did she reach this level of Taqwa where she would sacrifice her hair when today other women do the same to imitate Kafir icons, and her son when other women would die so long as their son stayed home. Indeed, she spent her life in the obedience of Allah, and when exam time came, she passed. Not only did she pass herself, but her children shone with that same beauty of Iman, children that she herself raised.

Very often – and perhaps in our times when we have forgotten much of the Sunnah – the lectures, khutbahs, and talks are all directed to the Muslim men. We forget that from the Hadi – guidance and way – of Rasulallah – sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam – was that he would allocate a specific day of the week to teach the women. Women would come up to him in Hajj, in the street, even in his home and ask him questions about the Din. At the ‘Eid Salah, after addressing the men, he would take Bilal and go to the women section and address the women. Allah revealed an entire Surah by the name of Surah An-Nisa’ – the Women. And another by the name of – Maryam. And a third by the name of Al-Mujadalah – the women who pleads. It is in enlivening thisSunnah that today this speech shall be addressed to the believing women, Al-Mu’minat.

Dear Sister, Dear Mother, Dear Daughter. Everyone is looking for happiness and fun, and I am sure you are not excluded. Where is that happiness and fun though? And where and when do you want that happiness? Do you want happiness, do you want to have ‘fun’ in this life at the expense of the hereafter? Or is it in the hereafter, when you meet Allah that you want to be happy?

Every where you go you shall find a swarm of people and media and culture swearing to you that happiness is the happiness of the Dunya. Is it really happiness though? On the day of Repayment, Allah shall take the most ‘happiest’ kafir of the Dunya and dip him in Jahannam – Hellfire. Then he shall ask him, “Have you ever seen any happiness?” The Kafir will say, “Never!”

Nay, the happiness is only the happiness of the hereafter no matter what happens in this Dunya. Allah shall bring on the Day of Repayment the most tested human and dip him in Jannah – Paradise. He shall then ask him, “Have you ever seen sadness?” And that person shall say, “Never!”

And don’t think that this happiness and fun is exclusive to the hereafter. It is very much tied to this life as well. Listen and understand the words of Allah:

“Whoever works righteousness, whether male or female, while he (or she) is a true believer verily to him We will give a good life (in this world with respect, contentment and lawful provision), and We shall pay them certainly a reward in proportion to the best of what they used to do (i.e. Paradise in the Hereafter).” (Al-Qur’an 16:97)

Dear Sister, you have to understand that you or anyone may enter Hellfire! By Allah, we are not better than Fatimah, the daughter of Rasulallah – sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. And he said to her, “O Fatimah the daughter of Muhammad, Ask me whatever you wish from my wealth, for I shall avail you nothing to Allah.” Meaning that it doesn’t matter if you’re my daughter, if you don’t work for Jannah, saying to Allah that my father is so and so will not help you in anyway.

Islam is filled with many Mu’minat that completed their Taqwa of Allah. When the other girls put up posters of kafir singers andkafir athletes and kafir actresses, you should put up posters in your heart of Fatimah and many other Mu’minat.

Asiyah, the wife of Fir’awn. Her Iman in Allah thrived under the shadow of someone that said, “I am your Lord, Most High!” When news reached Fir’awn of his wife’s Iman he beat her and commanded his guards to beat her. They took her out in the scalding noon heat, tied her hands and feet and beat her perpetually. Who did she turn to? She turned to Allah! She prayed, “My lord, build for me a home with you in Paradise and save me from Fir’awn and his deeds and save me from the transgressive people.”

It was narrated that when she said this, the sky opened for her and she saw her home in Paradise. She smiled. The guards watched astonished – she’s being tortured and she smiles? Frustrated, Fir’awn commanded a boulder to be brought and dropped on Asiyah, to crush her to death. But Allah took her soul before the boulder was brought and she became an example for all the believing men and women till the end of time:

“And Allah has set forth an example for those who believe: the wife of Fir’awn (Pharaoh) – when she said, ‘My Lord, Build for me a home with You in Paradise, and save me from Fir’own and his deeds, and save me from the transgressive-disbelieving people.’ ” (Al-Qur’an 66:11)

When we talk about Jihad and Shuhada’ – martyrs, do you know who the first Muslim in Islam to be killed in the path of Allah was? It was Summayah, the mother of Ammar. When Abu Jahl heard of her Islam and her husband Yasir and her son Ammar, he whipped them all and beat them. So much so, that Rasulallah would pass by them as they went through this test of theirIman and would say to them, “Be patient O family of Yasir, for you have a date set (when you shall enter) Jannah!”

As Abu Jahl beat Sumayyah one day, she refused to recant her Din, something that enraged Abu Jahl. He took a spear as she lay on the burning sand, looking up to the sky, and he speared her through her midsection. She was the first of her family and the entire Ummah to meet Allah as a Martyr.

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