Sermon Title: Al-Aqsa Mosque
Themes of the sermon:
1- The honor of al-Aqsa Mosque and the city of Jerusalem.
2- Al-Aqsa Mosque is a special heritage for Muslims.
3- The path to liberating al-Aqsa Mosque and the city of Jerusalem.
Praise be to Allah, May Allah exalt and send peace to the Messenger of Allah, his family, his companions, and those who follow him. To proceed:
Fear Allah, O servants of Allah, be mindful of Him, obey Him, and do not disobey Him:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنتُم مُسلِمُون
“O you who have believe, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims [in submission to Him]. (3:102).
Fellow Muslims:
Allah created everything and favored some of His creation with His wisdom. He chose certain people and honored them, certain times and glorified them, and certain places and dignified them:
وَرَبُّكَ يَخلُقُ مَا يَشَاءُ وَيَختَارُ
"And your Lord creates what He wills and chooses" (28:68).
Among the places that Allah has honored is the city of Jerusalem, the blessed city, where there al-Aqsa Mosque is, the place of the Prophet'sﷺ night journey, and the first of the two Qiblas. Allah says about it:
سُبحَانَ الَّذِي أَسرَى بِعَبدِهِ لَيلًا مِنَ المَسجِدِ الحَرَامِ إِلَى المَسجِدِ الأَقصَى الَّذِي بَارَكنَا حَولَهُ
“Exalted is He who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa, whose surroundings We have blessed” (17:1).
This is the mosque where our Prophet ﷺ prayed with all the prophets on the night of his night journey. This event established the unity of the religion of the prophets, peace be upon them, and that their religion is one; Islam. They all confirmed and supported our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and their true followers are those who believed in them and along with this seal Prophet after his mission, and they are the Muslims. The followers of Abraham are Muslims, the followers of Moses are Muslims, the followers of Jesus are Muslims, and they are the followers of Muhammad ﷺ.
Allah blessed this mosque and its surroundings in the land of Greater Syria and made it a dwelling place for the prophets, a place of migration for them, a land of steadfastness and great battles, and a land of resurrection and gathering, as authentically reported from the Prophet ﷺ.
Furthermore, Allah has distinguished al-Aqsa Mosque with a virtue that He has not given to any other mosque except the Sacred Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque. He made prayer in it equal to two hundred and fifty prayers in other mosques except those two. He singled it out for the legislation of undertaking a journey to it, so traveling with the intention of worship is not permissible for any other place except for the three mosques. In the two Sahihs, Abu Huraira narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said: "No journey should be undertaken except to three mosques: the Sacred Mosque, the Mosque of the Prophet ﷺ, and Al-Aqsa Mosque."
Al-Aqsa Mosque is the second mosque that was established on Earth after the Sacred Mosque. Al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated in their Sahihs from Abi Dharr: I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about the first mosque that was established on Earth, he said, "The Sacred Mosque." I asked, "Then which one?" He said, "Al-Aqsa Mosque." I asked, "How much time was between them?" He said, "Forty years."
Brothers in faith:
Jacob, the son of Isaac (peace be upon them both) established the foundation of Jerusalem. Then, when Allah, the Almighty, caused the believers among the children of Israel to inherit the land of the blessed Sham (Greater Syria), Solomon took charge of rebuilding it. Then the Children of Israel deviated and most of them disbelieved in Allah, killed the prophets, and distorted what Allah had revealed to them in the Scripture. Thus, Allah punished them, and al-Aqsa Mosque fell into the hands of the Crusader Romans, until Umar ibn Al-Khattab liberated the Levant, and Jerusalem returned to the obedient servants of Allah. Then, Muslims weakened, and the Crusaders reoccupied it until it was liberated by Salah al-Din with Allah's help.
In our time, the Jews have taken control of Jerusalem and occupied it, and the Crusaders have come to bless them, to support them in doing so, and seek to give them this great mosque. It is a gift from those who have no right to give to those who do not deserve it, in the negligence of many Muslims and their weakness in fulfilling their duty.
Brothers in Islam:
Indeed, al-Aqsa Mosque is a noble inheritance for the people of Islam from the time of the prophets, that no one deserves it except Muslims, and it is not permissible for them to be negligent about it. It is an inheritance and a trust that must be cared for, and it is obligatory to preserve it as it is Muslims’ right and a responsibility; it is not permissible to compromise even an inch of it, nor from the city of Jerusalem, land of Palestine or any other land of the Muslims.
The Jews’ allegation that they are more entitled to the mosque because they are the Children of Israel, and that it is the temple of their prophet Solomon, is nothing but a false and unfounded claim. Allah the Exalted says:
إِنَّ الأَرضَ لِلَّهِ يُورِثُهَا مَن يَشَاءُ مِن عِبَادِهِ وَالعَاقِبَةُ لِلمُتَّقِينَ
“Indeed, the earth belongs to Allah. He causes to inherit it whom He wills of His servants. And the [best] outcome is for the righteous.” (7:128)
And in another verse, He, Glory be to Him, says:
َلَقَد كَتَبنَا فِي الزَّبُورِ مِن بَعدِ الذِّكرِ أَنَّ الأَرضَ يَرِثُهَا عِبَادِيَ الصَّالِحُونَ
“And We have already written in the book [of Psalms] after the [previous] mention that the land [of Paradise] is inherited by My righteous servants” (21:105).
The entire earth belongs to Allah, and He has caused believing servants to inherit it. Thus, no disbeliever has a right to inherit any land over the believing servants of Allah. So how about the mosques of Allah, which He has established for His remembrance and worship, and to be glorified and exalted in them? Will He, the Almighty, grant it to those whom Allah has cursed and has become angry with, and made into apes and pigs, and the worshipers of false gods? Are they more entitled to the mosque of the prophets and the Qiblah than the monotheistic servants of Allah, while, whenever a messenger came to them with something their souls did not desire, they would either call him a liar or kill him? Can the purest and most beloved places to Allah be in the hands of impure people who only know magic, disbelief, treachery, betrayal, corruption on earth, igniting sedition, sinning, and devouring what is unlawful?
Certainly not, by Allah! Indeed, the worthiest of Abraham and the prophets of his offspring are their monotheistic followers, our Prophet ﷺ, and those who believe in him, as Allah, Exalted and Almighty, says:
إِنَّ أَولَى النَّاسِ بِإِبرَاهِيمَ لَلَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوهُ وَهَذَا النَّبِيُّ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَاللَّهُ وَلِيُّ المُؤمِنِينَ
"Indeed, the worthiest of Abraham among the people are those who followed him [in submission to Allah] and this Prophet and those who believe [in him], and Allah is the ally of the believers" (3:68).
Verily, whoever claims that the disbelievers from the People of the Book are worthy of a mosque of Allah’s mosques than the believing servants of Allah, is completely one of the hypocrites and enemies of religion, who take the disbelievers as allies instead of the believers.
O Muslims:
It is the duty upon the believers to stand united against those who showed them fierce enmity, to come together to support their faith and their sanctuaries. How can they not when Allah has united their hearts in His monotheism and united them through following their messengers? The Eastern Muslim is a brother to the Western one, and the Arab is an ally to the non-Arab. Striving to protect the lives and homelands of Muslims is an obligation upon all of them, as much as possible. Allah says:
وَالمُؤمِنُونَ وَالمُؤمِنَاتُ بَعضُهُم أَولِيَاءُ بَعضٍ
“The believing men and believing women are allies of one another” (9:71)
And in another verse, He, Glory be to Him, says about the believers:
وَالَّذِينَ استَجَابُوا لِرَبِّهِم وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَأَمرُهُم شُورَى بَينَهُم وَمِمَّا رَزَقنَاهُم يُنفِقُونَ * وَاَلَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَهُمُ البَغيُ هُم يَنتَصِرُونَ
“And those who have responded to their lord and established prayer and whose affair is [determined by] consultation among themselves, and from what We have provided them, they spend. And those who, when tyranny strikes them, they defend themselves” (42 :37:38)
May Allah bless us with the Qur'an and Sunnah, and grant us the benefits of their verses and wisdom. I say this and ask Allah's forgiveness; seek His forgiveness, for He is the Most-Forgiving, the Most-Merciful.
The second sermon
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and May Allah exalt and send peace to the master of the messengers, and upon his family and companions, all together. Moving on:
O Muslim community:
No matter what weakness, humiliation, or division befalls the Muslims, they must not despair or lose hope in Allah's mercy and relief. They must not submit to their current state of humiliation and weakness. Are they not the descendants of Omar ibn al-Khattab and Khalid ibn al-Walid? Are they not the remnants of Tariq ibn Ziyad and Salahuddin? Is this nation not the best nation brought forth for mankind? Can those born of honor and pride accept humiliation and disgrace? Or will they submit to the sons of Zion who have tasted them nothing but humiliation and disgrace throughout history?
Allah has a promise that He will not break, as His truthful and trustworthy Messenger ﷺ told us Muslim narrated in his Sahih, on the authority of Abu Huraira, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.”
If you want to know the way of salvation, the path of dignity and empowerment, then ponder, O Muslim, in this hadith, and what it contains of descriptions that stones and trees call you saying: "O Muslim! O servant of Allah! There is a Jew behind me, so come and kill him!" Yes, when your religion, your thought, your actions, your attire, your customs, and your entire life are submissive and obedient to the revelation of Allah, then you are truly a Muslim for Allah, submitting to His command, and you are the victorious by Allah's permission.
When you make Allah dearer to you than anything else, preferring Him over your pleasures and desires, your opinions and whims, when you rise from your sleep, walking in the darkness of dawn to His house to fulfill some of His rights upon you, avoiding the forbidden and detesting it because Allah has forbidden it, pondering over His Book, and following His intent and ultimate purpose, then you deserve to be a servant to Allah, who surrenders to His greatness and obeys His command, and then he is honored by His servitude.
When we disavow the modern calls for liberation from this servitude; between (the freedom of disbelief), (the freedom of nudity), (the freedom of adultery and fornication), and (the freedom of usury), when we disavow them... and establish servitude and Islam in their place, then we have completely prepared ourselves for Allah's victory and support.
When our deeds are pure for the Lord, Glory be to Him, we worship Him with what He commanded, in the manner He loves, following His servant and messenger, the Prophet of Islam ﷺ, cautious of innovations and polytheism, then Allah will not break His promise.
When our struggle stems from the description of (Muslim), not from the description of being (Arab) nor (nationalist) nor otherwise, stones and trees will fight with us.
وَاَللَّهُ غَالِبٌ عَلَى أَمرِهِ وَلَكِنَّ أَكثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعلَمُونَ
“And Allah is predominant over His affair, but most people do not know.” (12: 21)
وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنكُم وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَيَستَخلِفَنَّهُم فِي الأَرضِ كَمَا استَخلَفَ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبلِهِم وَلَيُمَكِّنَنَّ لَهُم دِينَهُمُ الَّذِي ارتَضَى لَهُم وَلَيُبَدِّلَنَّهُم مِن بَعدِ خَوفِهِم أَمنًا يَعبُدُونَنِي لَا يُشرِكُونَ بِي شَيئًا وَمَن كَفَرَ بَعدَ ذَلِكَ فَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الفَاسِقُونَ
“Allah has promised those who have believed among you and done righteous deeds that He will surely grant them succession [to authority] upon the earth just as He granted it to those before them and that He will surely establish for them [therein] their religion which He has preferred for them and that He will surely substitute for them, after their fear, security, [for] they worship Me, not associating anything with Me. But whoever disbelieves after that - then those are the defiantly disobedient.”
Servants of Allah: Pray and send peace upon the one you were commanded to pray upon: O Allah, send prayers and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and companions all together.
O Allah, liberate Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews, and grant us the opportunity to pray in it before death, and make it stand superior and lofty and honored until the Day of Judgment. O Allah, we ask You for unending blessings, and joy that never ceases, and we ask You for contentment after Your decree, and for a comfortable life after death, and we ask You for the delight of gazing upon Your face, and the longing to meet You, without harmful distress or misleading trials. O Allah, adorn us with the beauty of faith. Our Lord, grant us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.
Servants of Allah: Remember Allah often, and praise Him morning and evening, and our final call is to praise Allah, the Lord of the worlds.
