Sermon's Title: Regression and Reviving the Traditions of Jāhiliyyah
Themes of the Sermon:
1- The condition of nations before Islam.
2- The misguidance of those who revive the legacy of Jāhiliyyah.
3- The remnants of destroyed nations are lessons, not occasions for celebration.
4- Statues and the revival of pagan symbols.
All praise is due to Allah, who guided us to Islam, exalted its banner, clarified its rulings, and established its pillars; who destroyed falsehood and humiliated those who sought to revive its traces. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone without partner, and I bear witness that Muḥammad is His servant and Messenger. May Allah’s peace and abundant blessings be upon him.
To proceed: Fear Allah, servants of Allah, as He should be feared, and be mindful of Him in secret and in public, as He says:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ
“O you who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.” [Sūrat Āl ʿImrān: 102]
Servants of Allah:
Do you know who are the most hated people to Allah?
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ answers: “The most detested of people to Allah are three: one who commits deviation (ilhād) in the Sacred Sanctuary, one who seeks to revive in Islam the practices of Jāhiliyyah, and one who unjustly seeks the blood of another to shed it.” (Reported by al-Bukhārī.)
Our discussion today concerns that second wretched type—“the one who seeks in Islam the ways of Jāhiliyyah.”
He is the one who, after Allah has guided the Muslims to Islam, seeks to revive the relics and customs of that ignorant era which existed before the light of Islam dawned—or who strives to maintain or spread them.
Indeed, Allah has not blessed His servants with a greater favor than Islam, through which He brought them out of darkness into light, from misguidance to guidance, and from oppression to justice.
How were people before the light of Islam?
The Prophet ﷺ said: “Indeed, Allah looked at the people of the earth and despised them all—the Arabs and the non-Arabs—except for a few remnants among the People of the Book.” (Reported by Muslim.)
People lived in a state of ignorance—in belief, in law, in morals, and in conduct. Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib (may Allah be pleased with him) described this state when the Negus, king of Abyssinia, asked him: “What is this religion by which you have separated from your people, yet you have not entered my religion or that of any of these nations?”
He replied: “O King, we were a people of ignorance: we worshiped idols, ate carrion, committed shameful deeds, severed family ties, and mistreated neighbors. The strong among us devoured the weak. We remained upon that state until Allah sent to us a Messenger from among ourselves, whose lineage, truthfulness, trustworthiness, and chastity we knew well. He called us to worship Allah alone and abandon what we and our forefathers used to worship besides Him—stones and idols. He commanded us to speak the truth, fulfill trusts, maintain family ties, treat neighbors kindly, and refrain from sins and bloodshed. He forbade us from immorality, false testimony, consuming the wealth of orphans, and slandering chaste women. He commanded us to worship Allah alone without associating partners with Him, and he commanded us to pray, give Zakāh, and fast.” Jaʿfar said: “So we believed in him and followed him in what he brought.” (Reported by Aḥmad.)
Such was the state of all nations—except for a few among the People of the Book. They lived in polytheism and idolatry, worshiping false gods while acknowledging the existence of Allah and His Lordship, yet associating others with Him. They erected idols for every tyrant and built temples for every false deity. Over them presided sorcerers, fortune-tellers, and deceivers who terrorized people through superstition and trickery.
They established corrupt laws driven by misguided desires, taking their rabbis and monks as lords besides Allah. Their societies were full of indecency and immorality, overwhelmed by injustice and tyranny. They oppressed like tyrants and rallied around tribal, racial, and blood loyalties, so that the strong would consume the weak and the rich would crush the poor.
Then Islam came—to bring humanity from the worship of idols and men to the worship of Allah, the Sovereign, the True, the One and Only; from the injustice of false religions to the justice of Islam; from the distortions of soothsayers to the clarity of the Qur’an; from the narrowness of this world to the vastness of this world and the Hereafter.
He showed them clear signs that He alone is the Truth and that everything besides Him is falsehood. He sent His messengers with the religion of justice and mercy—prohibiting oppression and immorality, and making people equal, with no superiority except through piety and righteous deeds.
The light of Islam spread throughout the world; Allah vanquished falsehood and its followers, exalted the banner of Islam, and made Muslims condemn the Jāhiliyyah they once lived in—when they were dead, and Allah revived them.
They cast it beneath their feet, as the Prophet ﷺ proclaimed during his Farewell Pilgrimage: “Behold! Every matter of Jāhiliyyah is beneath my feet, abolished.” (Reported by Muslim.)
Yet even today, the corrupt and their paid propagandists cry out among the people, resenting the light of Tawḥīd and glorifying Jāhiliyyah—its idols, temples, darkness, and ideas. They seek to drag creation back into that filth so that they may abandon Islam and define their identity, belonging, and pride by those extinct eras of ignorance.
They raise its symbols high, boast of its legacy, and publicly declare allegiance to its people—rather than to this great religion and the firm bond of faith.
Two men once boasted of their lineage during the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. One of them said, “I am so-and-so, son of so-and-so! And who are you? You have no mother!”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Two men boasted of their lineage during the time of Mūsā (may peace be upon him). One of them said: ‘I am so-and-so, son of so-and-so’—until he counted nine ancestors. Then he asked his companion: ‘And who are you? You have no mother?’ The other replied: ‘I am so-and-so, son of so-and-so, son of Islam.’ So Allah revealed to Mūsā (may peace be upon him): ‘As for you who trace your lineage through nine ancestors—all of them are in the Fire, and you are the tenth among them. And as for you who trace your lineage to two ancestors who are in Paradise—you are the third of them in Paradise.’” (Reported by Aḥmad)
Those who boast about their forefathers from Jāhiliyyah—those who lived in ignorance and misguidance—are addressed with the severe warning of the Prophet ﷺ:
“Do not boast about your forefathers who died in Jāhiliyyah. By the One in whose Hand is my soul, what the dung-beetle rolls with its nose (the filth and stench it pushes) is better than your forefathers who died in Jāhiliyyah.” (Reported by Aḥmad)
Before us lived nations on this earth whom Allah established in the land. They tilled it and built upon it. Allah granted them gardens, springs, and rivers. They carved out homes in the mountains with great skill and built palaces in the plains in safety. He blessed them with livestock, children, treasures, and honored positions. He sent to them messengers—bearers of glad tidings and warnings. But they disbelieved in Allah, the Lord of the worlds. So, He made them a lesson for those before and after, and left their ruins as witnesses to their destruction until the Day of Resurrection.
Allah the Exalted says:
قُلْ سِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ ثُمَّ انْظُرُوا كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ الْمُكَذِّبِينَ
“Say: Travel through the land and see how the end of those who denied the truth was.” [Sūrat al-Anʿām: 11]
Allah made the remnants of these deniers a visible lesson for people, so they may know that the promise of Allah is true, and that the word of Allah is supreme, even if the disbelievers detest it.
The Prophet ﷺ passed by the dwellings of Thamūd—those ruins of an extinct civilization which Allah turned into an empty relic, a sign of the fate of those who deny the truth. He said: “Do not enter upon these punished people unless you are weeping. If you are not weeping, then do not enter upon them, lest what afflicted them afflicts you.” (Reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim)
This is the attitude of the believer when he passes by the ruins of nations that disbelieved in Allah and His messengers—nations that Allah made a sign for those after them. He enters their places only with fear and reflection, taking admonition from what befell them; not living among them, nor celebrating their remains and relics.
May Allah bless me and you with the Great Qur’an, and benefit us with its verses and wise reminders. I seek Allah’s forgiveness for myself and for you, so seek His forgiveness. He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.
The Second Sermon:
All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and companions and all who follow him. To proceed:
Servants of Allah:
When the Prophet ﷺ entered Makkah, around the Kaʿbah stood three hundred and sixty idols. He began striking them with a staff in his hand while reciting:
جَاءَ الْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ الْبَاطِلُ إِنَّ الْبَاطِلَ كَانَ زَهُوقًا
“Truth has come and falsehood has vanished. Indeed, falsehood is ever bound to vanish.” [Sūrat al-Isrā’: 81] (Reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim)
In our religion and our sacred law: statues are not to be made—they are to be obliterated. This is the instruction of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (may Allah be pleased with him) said to Abū al-Hayyāj al-Asadī:
“Shall I not send you forth with what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent me with? Do not leave a statue without effacing it, nor a raised grave without leveling it.” (Reported by Muslim)
Clear and authentic texts have come prohibiting the making of statues of living beings and counting it among the major sins—for it was the very origin of shirk in the world.
Even Ibrāhīm (may peace be upon him), after he smashed the idols with his own hands, turned to his Lord in fear and supplication:
وَاجْنُبْنِي وَبَنِيَّ أَنْ نَعْبُدَ الْأَصْنَامَ * رَبِّ إِنَّهُنَّ أَضْلَلْنَ كَثِيرًا مِنَ النَّاسِ
“Keep me and my children away from worshipping idols. My Lord, they have led astray many among mankind.” [Sūrat Ibrāhīm: 35–36]
So, beware of ever feeling safe from the trial of idolatry, or thinking that the Muslim Ummah is immune from it. The Prophet ﷺ informed us that shirk will reappear in this Ummah, to the extent that idols will again be worshipped besides Allah.
The Prophet ﷺ said: “The Hour will not be established until the buttocks of the women of Daws sway around Dhū al-Khalāṣah.” Dhū al-Khalāṣah was the idol of Daws in Jāhiliyyah. (Reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim)
He ﷺ also said: “Night and day will not pass before al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā are worshipped again.” (Reported by Muslim)
And he ﷺ said: “The Hour will not be established until tribes from my Ummah join the polytheists, and until tribes from my Ummah worship idols.” (Reported by Abū Dāwūd)
Thus every Muslim must honor only what Allah and His Messenger ﷺ have honored, and disavow Jāhiliyyah—its idols, its darkness, and its misguidance—and take pride only in his faith and Islam:
My only father is Islam—none besides it,
Though others boast of Bakr or Tamīm.
The call of Jāhiliyyah I will never answer,
Only the sinful cling to such a claim.
O Allah, make faith beloved to our hearts, beautify it within us, and make disbelief, corruption, and disobedience hateful to us. Make us among the rightly guided.
O Allah, let us live as Muslims, die as Muslims, and be resurrected among the righteous—without disgrace or trial.
O Allah, fight the disbelievers who deny Your messengers and obstruct Your path. Pour upon them Your punishment—O God of truth.
O Allah, grant victory to Islam and honor the Muslims, and destroy the Zionist criminals.
O Allah, send tranquility into the hearts of those who strive in Your path, deliver Your oppressed servants, and raise high the banner of the religion—by Your might, O Mighty, O Strong.
O Allah, forgive the Muslim men and women, the believing men and women, the living among them and the dead.
O Allah, grant success to our leader in all that You love and are pleased with, and guide him to righteousness and piety.
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 with abundant remembrance, and glorify Him morning and evening.
And the last of our supplications is that all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
