A forthright, powerful and sobering khutbah (sermon) by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf regarding how the Muslim community should respond to the provocations that we are faced with, whether they be blasphemous cartoons about the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) or deliberate misinterpretations of Islam and its teachings. Although the khutbah was delivered in the wake of the Embassy attacks in Libya in 2012, it nevertheless has relevance for the Ummah on a daily basis in these politically sensitive and delicate times.
Hamza Yusuf asks us to reflect on verse 186 of Surah Al-Imran in the Holy Qur'an:
"You shall most certainly be tried in your possessions and in your persons; and indeed you shall hear many hurtful things from those to whom revelation was granted before your time, as well as from those who have come to ascribe divinity to other beings beside God. But if you remain patient in adversity and conscious of Him - this, behold, is something to set one's heart upon."
In the face of provocations, the Holy Qur'an and the Sunnah of our noble Prophet (pbuh) teaches us to remain patient, have taqwa (piety) and remain steadfast in our prayer.
We should have beautiful character, for the nature of goodness is that it obliterates evil; evil is the absence of goodness and if there is goodness evil does not have room to exercise itself.
These testing times give the Ummah the opportunity to elevate ourselves above our human nature to a transformed nature, the nature of belief, the nature of taqwa. We must show restraint and control our nafs (ego) and beware of using violence and foul language.
Finally Hamza Yusuf reminds us that the Prophet (pbuh) was ridiculed and provoked during their lifetime but that they dealt with the provocations with dignity, calmness and constraint. Nothing that the enemies of Islam say can reach the Prophet (pbuh).
"The dogs will bark all night at the moon, do the sounds of the dogs affect the glory of the moon crossing the sky?"
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