Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl delivers the Friday khutbah and jumu'a prayer at The Usuli Institute (www.usuli.org). Recorded 11 February 2022.
“Shortly after the death of the Prophet, the Muslim Ummah experienced a truly demonic moment that, in and of itself, could have been enough to destroy Islam forever. That moment was the murder of Husayn, the grandson of the Prophet, by the political authorities of the day. The first Muslim dynasty commenced its legacy in a truly atrocious and blasphemous act. They murdered the grandson of the Prophet. Husayn was murdered because the vast majority of people put themselves first. Not the principle. Not the Prophet. Not justice, truth, or beauty. Most knew that Husayn was the just party. They knew that they had an obligation to support Husayn. Instead, they betrayed him, betrayed principles, and engaged in the utmost act of selfishness. Because of this betrayal, the first dynasty to rule Islam was a corrupting force. The Umayyad dynasty did everything within its power to corrupt and stymie Islam as an ethical revolution. They invented an enormous number of hadiths about the duty of obedience that is owed to a ruler, even if the ruler is unjust; wives should obey their husbands even if the husbands are unjust; slaves should obey their masters even if the masters are unjust; people simply need to say the Shahada to be Muslim; people just need to do their worship; that people need not think of what the Prophet himself did, that is, sacrifice his best interests. For that is what the Prophet did, the stellar Companions did it, Ali, Husayn, and Hassan did. Instead, Umayyad Islam said, ‘you do not have to do what Muhammad did, and you can still be Muslim.’”
In this Khutbah, Dr. Abou El Fadl comments that the Umayyad dynasty manufactured an Islam that put into service generations of corrupt scholars who are themselves hypocrites. Who invented, narrated, and collected hadiths, all to silence the Qur’an and sway Muslims away from principles. Then, after sharing news of injustices towards Muslims from Sweden to India, the Shaykh shares a lesson: if one is incapable to giving money towards just causes, or volunteering for legal representation and influencing politics, then the answer is simply to get beyond the self It is to teach yourself not to be selfish.
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