 praising Allah who subhanahu wa ta'ala The Lord of the heavens and the earth the king of all kings the controller of all affairs He's aware of every single feeling that passes through our hearts and every single thought that goes through our minds وعندهما فاتح الغيب لا يعلموها إلا هو With him are the keys to the unseen and nobody knows them except him ويعلموما في البرض والبحر and he's aware of every single thing that is in dry land and And all of the things are in the depths of the ocean وما تسقط من ورقة إلا يعلموها a leaf doesn't move on a tree Except that he's aware of it ولا حبت في الغلومات الأرض and a grain of wheat doesn't move in the darkness of the night Except that he knows about it ولا رطب ولا يابس إلا في كتاب مبين nothing is wet nothing is dry Except that it is recorded in a clear book. He is خالق كل شيء. He's the creator of everything and he's a a la كل شيء قدير. He has power over all possible things and after praising that individual where There's not a single person that can ever match his worth in character or in beauty to ever walk on earth I Envy every rock and tree and every grain of sand that embraced his noble feet or that kissed his blessed hand as The great Imam al-Busiri Rahimahullahu ta'ala. He says in his famous poem the Qasida al-Burda He says He says were you to mention Just merely mention the marvels and the greatness of the messenger of Allah You'd find that just by the mere mentioning of them it would bring dead bones back to life So imagine mentioning the Rasool sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and what effect that would have on our hearts He's the beloved of Allah and he's our beloved Sayyiduna wa Nabiyuna wa Habibuna Muhammadur Rasool Allah sallallahu alaihi wa ala adihi wa sahbihi wa sallam Alhamdulillah It's a great honor to be here once again. I just again as as normal routine just came from the airport So hence my slight delay, but alhamdulillah It's great to see so many worshippers come despite, you know, whether it's rainy or snowing I'm aware that the this particular state is it's not known for the rain But alhamdulillah Rain is a Rahmah and when it's torrential like this then you know, we we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to To protect us from any sort of difficulty that that comes with it But at the same time it's always a Rahmah and and the believer always looks at things with a positive outlet The believer should always think that there is always a khayr in everything I mean I jaballi kulli I jaballi amir al-mu'min and he is such as the affair of the believer that every single thing that he sees it's it's greatness There's always some greatness in it. Alhamdulillah. I I actually Was thinking I actually had a had a flight to catch and I was just thinking what do I speak about and and Subhanallah as the as the Khatib as mentioned generally before We we when we when we are living in a society like this. It's a global village then the Khatib is It tends to be aware of the issues that are happening around the world now because of all of the issues are pretty much the same As I mentioned probably in the last Khutba that I did a couple of months ago I said that generally what would happen is the the Khatib I the person who's delivering the Juma he would be from the local area And he would be aware of every single things that that is happening in the local area And then he would give a khutba on the basis of what's happening in the area But now because because we're living in in a day and age of social media and everybody everybody knows what what the issues are Because the issues are now like universal So where I'm from in the UK the issues are the same and you're going to find You know people and by the way from the time of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam up until now the issues have always pretty much been the same There's always going to be a battle of good goodness and evil and that's the way it is But they can come in different forms and the greatest and the best of goodness is attaching yourself to the Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi wa sallam Attaching yourself to the Sunnah of the Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam So whatever difficulty you find yourself in whatever obstacle you find yourself in wherever you are in the world You know that the the answer will be in the Sunnah of the Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi wa sallam Or the usul or the principles of the Deen that have come down from centuries 1400 years of tradition that we are proud to be a part of that's where the answers come as Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says Ati'u Allah wa ati'u Rasul wa ulu al-amri min kum Fainta naza'atum fi shay'u Farduhu ila Allah wa Rasulah That you obey Allah, obey the Rasul and obey those who are in leadership amongst you and of course the Ulama have discussed what this actually means but at the very least on a micro level we can say the Ulama The scholars that are around us whatever they say or whatever they they tell us because they have have the forts They have a foresight and of course those who are close to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala the men of Allah They have a foresight they can tell you look in this day and age We're having these sort of issues, but everybody is aware, right? Fainta naza'atum fi shay'u If you if you dispute regarding something Farduhu ila Allah wa Rasulah Go back to Allah and go back to the Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa sallam For us go back to the Quran Al-Kareem and go back to the Sunnah of the Rasul Sallallahu alayhi wa ala alayhi wa sahmi wa sallam The ayah that are recited actually so a couple of people smiling It's almost like a An ayah that people don't necessarily like to discuss but everything the Quran is relevant It's pertinent and it's the Quran is timeless Every single lesson in the Quran is timeless I mean wherever you find yourself in whatever day and age you find yourself Every single ayah of the Quran can be pertinent to you and on the basis of Al-ibra li umum il lath like it's it's a it's a principle in tafseed that you find that you know Even on the generic wording or the meaning You can find so many lessons From from the Quran Al-Kareem one of the biggest issues the biggest issues that we find now Is this whole you know, this this crisis of gender identity crisis almost not necessarily an identity crisis But in particular gender crisis, you know, you find people who are saying now that there's more than two genders and Subhanallah the Quran is very clear Whoever And there's only two things I mean you're either a male or you're a female there's no such thing as this not this whole non-binary thing But you see that's one issue and and that's obviously an issue that there needs to be spoken about in in probably lectures and Different horsepowers and things like that what I wanted to Particularly focus on today in the short time that I have is this whole idea of masculinity and what masculinity actually is And it's probably a topic that's already been spoken about but very you know something that I've been looking into because you know this whole The the red pill movement and you know people are like oh, you know What is it? What is a man and and people actually assume that a man is someone who looks down on women or speaks against women or you know And that's not actually what a man is as I said before if you ever have a dispute regarding anything you go back to Allah and his Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa ala alayhi wa sallam the real man and The greatest of men is our Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa ala alayhi wa sallam and the guidance of him I mean his guidance comes from the Quran Karim directly and and what I looked at at the word of Vigil itself Which is the the plural of the Rajul, which means men in the Quran it comes? 27 times in various different forms and and Subhanallah sometimes you you you beg to think like what are people assuming that men are Like men are those people who are you know macho men or those that go to the gym and lift I don't know how many pounds and and you think that's a real man But what is Allah who subhanahu ta'ala says a man is and interestingly the with the way in society that we're living in now people are not Unfortunately not men anymore and and you could say the same thing with women women are not women anymore And the reason is because we we've moved away from the guidance of the Quran Karim So what is Allah who subhanahu ta'ala say about men? What what does Allah say Allah says for example one of the ayat of the Quran and I'll move on to the Diya that are reciting the Khutba. What does Allah say about Rijal? He says He says And this is a this is a part of a longer verse In in one of the earlier surahs of that were revealed in the Quran that the men are those who love to purify purify themselves and This purification this this Tahara is not doesn't mean like you know I have like three showers a day and I'm a real man now and he doesn't work like that This Tahara is is more so the the inner purification and interestingly you'll find that in in in so many circles now all around the world Like I deliver courses online for example, and this is this is something that was it really shocked me And rather didn't shock me, but it's something that it's it's a common theme. You know whenever there's a class or There's a course or there's something that you know like the ulama come and they say you know You should attend, you know a particular course or a gathering or something along those lines Or you know when I'm delivering online courses for example, why is it that most of the people that sign up are females? That's just something that I've noticed it's just a perhaps it's an observation And maybe it's an it's an incorrect observation But I'm only going to go based upon what I know right and what I've seen in my life Like over the last two or three years when we're teaching and you when you find these courses and you find like for example They'll be a gathering tomorrow, right and I know they will be a gathering tomorrow because you know Honorable Sheikh Samir is here, so they'll be a gathering and there's gonna be a reading of the Hikm of in But what you'll probably find that mostly it's women that turn up and the reason is because either well You can you can formulate many reasons either or women don't get the opportunity So whenever they do find an opportunity, they'll take it with both hands, right? But that's not my concern right now my concern is why is it that you don't you don't find men turning up to these things? because men have this intrinsic Intrinsically built ego inside of them and they think that oh, we don't need to learn We don't just study. We don't to develop ourselves Yes, and and subhan Allah. This is exactly against what the Quran Karim is trying to teach about men Yeah, and the lesson is for everybody here whenever you find an opportunity to improve yourself Then you should go and take that opportunity with both hands Because we hear each other on a regular on your hip boona and yet other Men are those who love to purify the inner they love to increase Themselves and improve in themselves and you find many men sitting at home Yeah, I don't need to do anything. I already you know make money and I do this and that and some men don't even do that these days Yeah, but but the point is is that what are you doing in order to improve yourself as a man? And I know some brothers will say well, why don't you speak about women, right? Maybe that's for another time right, but you know the the society is formulated through you know these two genders right? They say that if you educate a man you educate an individual and if you educate a woman you educate a whole family Right, but but the point here is that how many of you are always and I speak to the men here directly And maybe women who obviously are responsible for Men as in like their children, etc, etc, right? How many do you how many men do you find? How many how many times do you find yourself thinking? I need to improve in XYZ area and By the way, just praying Salah giving Zakat and fasting It's not enough Right in the law It's enough because these are your faraid. Yeah, these these are your obligations that you have to do But then you may find like people who you know they on the outer they're manifesting all of these things And they pray this a lot. They you know, they give extra charity You know and they come to the message every single day, but they go home and they they will you know abuse their wives for example What what's the reason for that? And why is that and that's why any men men can't even be trusted anymore And I'm speaking it as very clearly as a man, right? This is this the why because they don't love to purify They don't love to increase and improve themselves And this is something for all of you to think about at this moment in time How many what do you do in the week to improve yourself as a person? Say the umar radiallahu anhu ar-dahi he said and this is also mentioned in in in a hadith different a hadith They're reached by the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi wa sallam that a man or an individual who has the same day as the previous day He's in loss That every single day you should be striving to improve because this is the guidance of the Quran Karim They are diseases of the heart that everybody suffers from myself included, right? I mean Ria Showing of ostentation, kibir arrogance Yes vanity jealousy envy these things subhanAllah and if you read the hadith about these these things that everybody struggles with But it's that that's not the point the point is is that what are you doing to work on these things? And now this applies to women as well. What are you doing to work on these things? What are you doing to? Yeah, yeah, what are you doing to improve yourself when it comes to these things? Rijalun yuhibbuna anya tata haru the one who loves to improve himself is the real man according to Allah Who subhanahu wa ta'ala for example kibir kibir is a beautiful example, right a beautiful and ironically What I mean to say is that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam has said that the one who even has an atom's worth of kibir Arrogance will not enter Jannah That's a very scary thing now. What does kibir actually mean? What does arrogance actually mean that when somebody tells you that you have to improve? Right, you deny it Listen, you should work on yourself in these aspects Oh, no, not me man. You know, I'm okay, man Hey, every single week you're receiving nasiha from from an Imam from you know You should do this or you should do that even when it comes to the smallest of things like you should pray five times a day And the issue is is that the real person who is beloved to Allah is the one who is truthful In fact in in the hierarchy of who is the most favorite Ulayka ma'alladina an'amallahu alaihim min al-nabiyyin wa siddiquin wa shuhadah wa salliheen It's a hierarchy that Allah who subhanahu wa ta'ala gives and it's a direct Tafseer of the ayah that we recite all the time salat al-ladina an'amta alaihim Those whom Allah who subhanahu wa ta'ala has favored the siddiquin are Greater than the shuhadah and the salliheen Now siddiquin according to the Mufassirun refers to the companions of the prophets But why how did the person become a siddiqu? This is the issue Being truthful doesn't necessarily mean not lying with the tongue Being truthful means being truthful to yourself You know that I know that I have things to work on I Know that I have deficiencies and Being truthful to yourself means that I know that I have to take action in order to work on these deficiencies That's a true siddique Because somebody can turn around and claim that I've never lied in my life I've never actually uttered a lie in my life, but that doesn't make you a siddique Because a siddique is the one who doesn't lie of course with his tongue Which is obviously something that you're not supposed to do anyway, but the person who doesn't lie to himself Who's true with himself and the and the biggest issue that we find is people aren't even true to themselves And that's why keeper can creep in there's arrogance this level of arrogance and creeping because when people tell you that you need to improve Or you need to do XYZ And any mom comes every single week, and he says you should do XYZ and you're thinking and he just goes into one E and comes out the other I mean in our language And I can't make jai or do so can be Nikala right? It's one of those things and he when we from the South Asian if you're from if you speak Urdu, right? It goes into one ear comes out the other But the one who loves to purify purify himself is the real man And that's the guidance that Allah who subhanahu wa ta'ala gives and many many many other verses that Allah who subhanahu wa ta'ala Speaks about what the real man is and by the way women are also responsible Because women and the cycle is absolutely phenomenal the way Allah who subhanahu wa ta'ala has created this cycle women are supposed to obey and Serve their husbands But the cycle is incredible because once a woman has a child and the child is a boy or a girl or whatever Then the child who is a man serves his mother and it's a full cycle. That's the way it works Right so but what are you doing to improve yourself? What are you doing to incite another man to improve himself and that's some that's something for you to all think about and That's the purpose of a Jumu'ah. That's the purpose of a khutba We come here and we receive reminders in the vikr of Tenfa'u al-Mu'minim because the reminder is constantly beneficial for the believer Tenfa'u yadullu al-istimrar, yes, constantly beneficial for the believer that maybe you've heard these things before We'll be seeing using our same old masculinity. It's a thing now. Everybody's speaking about it Yeah, but it's gonna be beneficial if you take heed and That's why whenever you sit in a in a Majlis or you sit with with the ulama Or you sit in a masjid and you're listening to some nasiha, you should come with an empty vessel Our teachers would say if you come with a with a vessel which is full like I know more and he married to He's gonna tell me yes, you know, I'm this old now. I'm 60 70 years old I mean, I'm not obviously, you know pointing out the elderly only yeah, but even if you're 25 and I I've got a degree Yes, I've got a degree. I don't need to improve. What's this Imam gonna tell me or what's this person gonna tell me? I mean, that's what kibir is and that's something that we you know, we should we should really really Evaluate and reflect on so you say you do now Imam al-Ghazali Rahimahu Allahu Ta'ala was one of the greatest Ulama to ever have lived actually from the Seljuk Empire. He he says that he mentioned this in his Ihiya He says a moment of reflection for a believer is greater Than a thousand voluntary prayers Something to think about I guess I haven't got the time to go into the verse that I actually mentioned But perhaps another time we pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accepts this from us and Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala allows us to really reflect and think about how we can improve so we can be those people Who love to purify ourselves and then those people who become the Muhsinun and those people who Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala loves Barak Allahulana wa lakum fil Quran al-Azim wana fa'ana wa iyakum bil aayati wa dhikr al-hakim Inna Hu ta'ala jawaad kareem al-qadim al-malikum darroof al-raheem Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah, Lord of the worlds Wa salatu wa salam wa ala ashraf al-anbiya wa imam al-mursaleen wa ala alihi wa ashab ijma'ina ma ba'adum Fa'udh billahi min al-shaytan al-rajim, Bismillahi al-Rahman al-raheem Inna Allah wa malakatahu yusalloon al-anbiya Ya ayyuha al-ladheena aaman wa usalloon alayhi wa salim utaslima Allahumma sali wa salim wa zid wa bariqa ala Sayyidina Muhammad In tib bil qalub wa dawa'iha wa aafiyat al-abadani wa shifa'iha Wa nur al-abasari wa dhiya'iha wa ala alihi wa sahbi wa salim khususun ala aafital al-bashari ba'ad al-anbiya Sayyidina wa maulana amir al-muminina wa imam al-mursaleen abibakrin al-siddiq rada yallahu ta'alaan wa ala adal al-ashab al-muzayyan al-minbari wa al-mahrab al-mwafiq raihu bil-wahi wa al-kitab Sayyidina wa maulana amir al-muminina wa imam al-mursaleen umar abdin al-khattab rada yallahu ta'alaan wa ala kamir al-hayayi wa al-iman jami' al-Quran Sayyidina wa maulana amir al-muminina wa imam al-mursaleen Uthman ibn Affan rada yallahu ta'alaan wa ala imam al-mashariq wa al-magharib Asad al-Lahi al-Ghalib Sayyidina wa maulana amir al-muminina wa imam al-mursaleen Ali ibn Abi Talib Karam al-Lahu ta'ala wajjahu al-kareem Wa ala binayhi al-kareemayn al-saeedayn al-shaheedayn Abi Muhammad al-Hassani Wa Abi Abdullah al-Hussain rada yallahu ta'alaan Huma Wa ala Sayyidat al-Nisa Fatumat al-Zahra rada yallahu ta'alaan ha Wa alaina ma'uhum ya ahla taqwa wa ahla al-maghfara I'd like to just finish off on one reflection Something which I find is a common problem I was once with a friend and just driving with him And I was in the car and I was driving And he's like, and I was in silence I didn't put any music on or Not to say that it's permissibility We can go into that later on But yeah, not even a podcast or a speech or anything like that And he just goes to me and he says, bro, like Do you drive in silence? Like, what's wrong with that? Is there something wrong with you? And I said, nah, there's nothing wrong with me here, bro There's something wrong with you And he goes, what do you mean? I go, because people are scared of their own silence And this is something that I want to leave you with You know, people now They can't go a moment without actually listening to something Or even talking to someone But the greats as we find our highest prejudices And this is for every single person Whether you're a child or you're old You're a male or a female or, you know, whatever The great highest prejudices we learn from them That a lot of the time they would spend in silence Because silence brings reflection So he thought I was weird because I'm not putting anything on I actually find peace in that Because when I'm driving it gives me time to reflect The question is, can you even sit in silence? Just an extra pause People start to think, oh, what's going on here? You see? Why? Because people are scared of their own thoughts But the question is, can you sit in silence And when you sit in silence, that allows you to reflect And it allows you to think about Allah SWT And it allows you to think about the Rasul Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam And the favours that Allah SWT has done for you And just something that you should perhaps, you know Bring into your life Even when you're praying salah, obviously we're not silent And we shouldn't even pray salah silently Yes, you know that, you know, people who pray Allah SWT and they keep their mouths completely shut And they don't even move their lips According to the Ulama, the prayer is not even accepted The point being is that, rather not accepted, valid Acceptance is up to Allah SWT But the point of reflection here Before I leave you is that, how often do you sit in silence? Can you sit in silence? And if you can't, you really need to start Whether you're commuting to work, whether you're driving It's something that you need to think about So we pray that Allah SWT allows us to reflect And be people of reflection Allah knows what you're making The value of prayer Because prayer is the end of the devils of the world