By Babatunde Jose

“All praise be to Allah, we seek His aid and we seek His forgiveness and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls. Whomever Allah guides, no one will be able to mislead him. Whoever he leaves astray will have no guidance for him. And I testify that there is no god except Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger whom He sent with the truth and as a warner before the Hour. Whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger will be guided aright, and whoever disobeys them will only harm his own self and he will not harm Allah, the Exalted, at all.” 

The Prophet once said: “The similitude of someone who remembers his Lord and someone who does not is like that of the living and the dead.” (Al-Bukhari). And almighty Allah went on to say in the Quran, Surat ul Jumuah:

O ye who believe! When the call is proclaimed to prayer on Friday (the Day of Assembly), hasten earnestly to the remembrance of Allah, and leave off business (and traffic): That is best for you if ye but knew!   (Quran 62:9)

This ayah tends to emphasise the need to remember Allah and be closer to him. There are many benefits in remembering Allah always, not just on the day of Juma’at. Among those that have been noted are the following:-

1. Remembrance of Allah aims at growing closer to Allah. ‘Almighty Allah says, I am with my slave when he thinks of Me and I am with him when he mentions Me. For if he mentions Me to himself, I have mentioned him to Myself; and if he mentions Me in a gathering , I have mentioned him in a superior gathering. If he approaches Me by a hands width, I approach him by arms length; and if he approaches Me with and arm’s length, I approach him by a miles length. And if he comes to Me walking, I hasten to him swiftly.’[Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
2. Remembrance of Allah revives the heart and gives it strength.
3. Remembrance of Allah leads to the shade of Allah on the Day of Judgment. The Prophet said, ‘Seven kinds of people will be under the shade of Allah [on the Day of Resurrection], when there is no shade but Allah’s,and mentioned a person who remembers Allah.
4. Remembrance of Allah is a protection from the hard life in the world and blindness on the Day of Judgment. The Quran says,

“But whosoever turns away from My Message, verily for him is a life narrowed down, and We shall raise him up blind on the Day of Judgment. He will say: “O my Lord! Why hast Thou raised me up blind, while I had sight (before)? (Allah) will say: “Thus didst thou, when Our Signs came unto thee, disregard them: So wilt thou, this day, be disregarded.”   (Quran 20:124-126)

5. Remembrance of Allah restrains evil actions and prevents shameful deeds just as prayer does. See (Quran 29:45)
6. Remembrance of Allah is a reason for forgiving the sins, getting high status and great reward.

We as human beings have been created as forgetful creatures and we need constant reminders. If we do not have these reminders then we fall into a state of heedlessness where all we see is the world in front of us and we forget Allah and our duty towards Him.

That is why the Huthba is so important, on Fridays; it is to remind all believers that they are on this earth for a purpose. It is to remind us that there is a reality to this universe that we cannot forget, and that is we exist to worship and serve Allah and one day soon we will stand before Him and He will judge us on how well we did in our duty towards Him.

Our leaders and the led should remember these facts in dealing with each other. We forget easily that there will be a reckoning. We cheat,  steal and are disobedient to our creator. It is time to change before it is too late. When death comes, it does not give warning. You could spend all you have and all your time putting up what you term a gargantuan edifice and on the morning when you want to move into it, you drop dead. You have laboured in vain. May our life labour never be in vain: Amen

For some Muslims all that they can think about is gaining the provisions of this world. They wish to spend all of their time and effort to acquire as much wealth as possible. They forget the hadith of the Prophet where he said that: ‘we should be in this world as if we are a traveller. A traveller does not seek too many provisions, he only looks for what can sustain him on his journey and what will get him to his destination. Our destination is the paradise of Allah  and His  pleasure. That is the goal that we must always focus and that is what we must strive to achieve.

May Allah always provide for everyone in this Ummah everything that they need! May Allah always keep our focus on Him and the Hereafter and not on the temporary and fleeting things of this world!

Our Lord! Grant us what Thou didst promise unto us through Thine apostles, and save us from shame on the Day of Judgment: For Thou never breakest Thy promise. (Quran 3:194)

Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend.

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