Dear Brothers and Sisters!

Human beings live and die by living a limited life in a limited time and space. The commitment to life is so strong that we live as if we will never die, even though we know that our life will end with death one day. However, death, which spoils the flavour of our mouths, is a clear fact in life. Death is the gateway to the eternal life where there will be no more death. It must be for this reason that our Prophet (saw) said, “Remember often the destroyer of pleasures: death.”^[1]

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

A conscious believer is a person who can make the limited and mortal life an investment for the eternal and immortal hereafter life. These people are capable of review and have forethought and intellect. “Basirah” means being able to see far away and perceive the facts. “Taking a lesson or example”, on the other hand, is to be aware of the unseen and wisdom by looking at the events that occur in front of us. Ali (ra) said, “How many examples there are but how few are those, who learn from them.” Saadi Shirazi said, “The bird does not go to the grain displayed. When it beholds another fowl in the trap. Take advice by the misfortunes of others. That others may not take advice from you” emphasised the importance of taking an example and taking lessons.

Dear Jama’ah!

Showing submission to the troubles and calamities that befall us by saying “Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi râjiûn” also expresses the attitude we take towards life. Here, there is an indication that we should return to Allah (swt) while we are still alive, adjust our direction and make repentance.

Dear Brothers and Sisters!
We ask all humanity without discrimination: Don’t the atrocities in Palestine, the murdered babies, slaughtered children, women and the elderly hurt us? Don’t they bring fire to our hearts? Won’t the tens of thousands of lives lost in the recent earthquake in Turkey be a lesson for us? Doesn’t the war that has been going on in Syria for years, hundreds of thousands of dead, millions of migrants tell us nothing? Are we not interested in the images of children whose bodies are washed up on shores? Won’t the genocide in East Turkistan, to which the whole world is blind and deaf, cause us to question our humanity? Are we going to forget what happened in Libya, Morocco and Myanmar by saying that it is over and done with? In the words of the Qur’an, “O people! Where is this going?” Won’t we question, “Where are we in humanity in the midst of so much death and destruction?”

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

If all these things do not lead us to seek refuge in Allah, to turn away from the trivial, to shake ourselves up, in short, to take an “example”, what else will happen? What more will we have to face? In the Ayah read at the beginning of the khutba, Allah (swt) mentions, “Do they not contemplate within themselves? Allah has not created the heavens and the earth and what is between them except in truth and for a specified term. And indeed, many of the people, in the meeting with their Lord, are disbelievers.”[2] This is the state of the servant who has lost his eye of warning and fallen into neglect. Rasulullah (saw) describes the state of this type of servant as follows: “How unfortunate is the servant who plunges (into neglect), laughs and plays, and forgets the graves and decaying under the earth! What a miserable servant is he who transgresses the limits and forgets where he came from and where he is going!”[3]

Dear Brothers and Sisters

We are neither the first nor the last Muslims living in difficult times. The ongoing events should never lead us to hopelessness. Let us not forget that we have Allah (swt) who advises us not to despair of His mercy even if we are servants who exceed the limits in sin. We will continue to fulfil our responsibilities with patience. We will be purified at the doors of repentance and we will continue to keep alive the awareness that Allah (swt) is with those who are patient. May Allah (swt), the Almighty, not make us forget that we are “servants” and that we will surely return to Him to give an account. May He keep us fixed on the straight and true path. May He be among the conscious believing servants who have Basirah, who can look at life with the view of example and see. Ameen

[1] Nesâî, Cenâiz, 3

[2] Surah Ar-Rum, 30:8

[3] Tirmizî, Sıfatu’l Kıyame, 17

Khutba: Taking a Lesson from What Happened