The mosque is the primary place of spiritual vigilance and education, where the community fulfils its responsibility before God through the remembrance of Him and the care of the community.
The text documents the opening of a lecture at the El-Fath Mosque in Offenbach on the topic of child raising. The speaker greets various guests, including the chairman of the Moroccan Council and the preacher Ahmed Rifi. He emphasises the great responsibility of the community towards Allah in the raising of children. As a theological basis, the Hadith is cited that every Muslim is a shepherd for his flock. The preacher Rifi explains that the building of the mosque primarily serves the remembrance of Allah. He compares staying in the mosque with the 'Ribat', a spiritual vigilance against Satan. The mosque is presented as a place of education and protection of the religion. The text announces that the sermon will be delivered in Arabic and Berber, in order to respect the diversity of the community.
Analysed with qwen/qwen3.8-27b, version v3.
The same standards apply to every tradition, see Values.
Full text in English
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, and may prayers and peace be upon the noblest of messengers, our Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be the best of prayers and peace. As previously mentioned, dear beloved ones, may Allah bless your coming to the House of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, so that we may benefit from our esteemed sheikhs. In your name, we also thank our website, our teacher, Sayyid Ilyas Hajri, who delighted us with this luminous recitation. Welcome to you all at Al-Fath Mosque. Al-Fath Mosque welcomes its guests and its people. We welcome our teacher, Sayyid Muhammad Bounou, who has come with us and traveled from afar, the president of the Moroccan Council. We also welcome Sayyid Maimoun Madghari, the mujahid, the mujahid of mosques, who always unites and strives to bring together the unity of mosques. May Allah reward him with good. I always say about him a word of truth, and I do not praise anyone beyond Allah: he is in continuous ijtihad (independent reasoning) until the word of the mosques and the associations is gathered under one roof. So may Allah bless Sayyid Maimoun. I also welcome the brothers who came to us from other mosques. Among them, I see my brothers and dear ones from our mosque, Al-Furqan Mosque, present with us: Sayyid Hajj Abdel Qader Ajwa and Sayyid Hamid Tahiri, and many other brothers as well, and from other mosques. So welcome to those we know and welcome to those we do not know. May Allah bless you in your presence, dear beloved ones. You have all heard the hadith of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him: "You are all shepherds, and each of you is responsible for his flock." Therefore, the topic of this blessed session, starting from this Prophetic guidance, is the upbringing of children, whether generally in homes or in the mosque. And we will address it, if Allah wills, from various aspects. But the important topic is the upbringing of children in our mosque. You know that this responsibility is a great responsibility before Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, and we will stand before Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, and be asked about it. Therefore, dear beloved ones, we are delighted by the presence of our esteemed sheikh, Sayyid Dr. Ahmad Al-Rifai, whom many of you know. He is one of our da'is (callers) in Morocco, a da'i of the Arabic language and the Amazigh languages. And, if Allah wills, from today until Tamazight, by the power of Allah. We ask Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, to place this in the scale of his good deeds, because the brothers are always traveling and always respond to the call and the invitation. So may Allah bless them, and I ask Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, to make our sheikh beneficial to us, if Allah wills. Also, on the right, no one is unaware of who Dr. Sheikh Abdel Haq Mezouar is. He is a well-known face in the da'wah to Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, especially in the Amazigh tongue. So we are delighted that he and our sheikh are with us, if Allah wills, in this inhabited house, Al-Fath Mosque. In your name, all of you, in the name of Sayyid Al-Bashir, the president of the association, and in the name of our imam, who, as you know, has traveled to Morocco due to his mother's illness. So we ask Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, to heal her with a healing that leaves no illness behind and does not leave any trace of it. So I will not prolong this, dear beloved ones. The first intervention will be with our esteemed sheikh, Sayyid Ahmad Al-Rifai, under the title "The Objectives of Building Mosques." After that, the word will go to Sheikh Sayyid Abdel Haq Mezouar under the title "The Upbringing of Children and Marriage, and the Connection of That to the Mosque." So we take advantage of this good and luminous opportunity and give the first word to our esteemed sheikh, Sayyid Ahmad Al-Rifai. Please, may you be thanked. The time, my sheikh, is, I mean, we have one hour between the interventions, if Allah wills, until the entrance of the Asr prayer. Yes, half an hour, if Allah wills. Perhaps we will open the floor for questions from the brothers so that, if Allah wills, we may have fulfilled our promise. If there are questions, if Allah wills, perhaps 70% will be in Arabic, so we will give the right to the Arabic language and also to the Amazigh language, if Allah wills. And in the questions, if Allah wills, if it is possible, we will also give the right to German, even though the young people perhaps do not master the Arabic language well. So we try to satisfy, if Allah wills, between the languages and dialects, if Allah wills. May Allah bless you and do you good. So please, my sheikh, may you be thanked.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and I send prayers and peace upon the one whom Allah sent as a mercy to the worlds. Then, after that, dear brothers, I ask Allah, the Exalted, to make our gathering a blessed and merciful gathering. O Allah, bless this noble gathering and guide the people of this mosque and the people of this center to serve Your religion, O Lord of the worlds.
At the beginning, I thank the brothers in charge of the Moroccan Islamic Cultural Center who organized this blessed seminar. We ask Allah, the Exalted, to reward them with the best reward for what they are doing in this path. We also thank the brothers present, and the sisters present at this seminar, and we ask Allah, the Exalted, to reward them for this presence and to record this in the pages of their deeds, O my Lord, if Allah wills.
Are you now, dear brothers, stationed in the mosque? The stationer, the one who is stationed, the one who is tied, the one who is stationed. And the "murabit" (stationer) in the language is the one who obligates himself to a place in order to repel the enemy from it. This is the murabit. Stationed, striving, we are stationed in the mosque. We are not stationed in vain. We welcome and... The greatest enemy for us, dear brothers, as you know, is Satan the accursed. Therefore, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, encouraged us to station ourselves in the mosque. We remain in the mosque. The mosque is necessary. We establish it well. Why? Because this ribat (stationing) is what repels from us many of the calamities that befall us and may befall us in our religion. Therefore...
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said to those who remain in the mosque awaiting the prayer: “That is your ribat, that is your ribat, that is your ribat.” This is the ribat, the state of being a murabit in the path of Allah. Thus, you are all, if Allah wills, both men and women, murabitun. This ribat in the mosque holds great importance. Therefore, our brothers chose this intervention under the title: “The Role of the Mosque in the Upbringing of Children.” The Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) made you murabitun so that you may be diligent in the upbringing of yourselves and the upbringing of your children.
The mosque gathers you. O my Lord, we are in the House of Allah, and it is sufficient for us as an honor that we are in the House of Allah, the Exalted and Glorious. We call it the House of Allah, and the House of Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, means that you are in the guesthouse of Allah, the Exalted and Glorious. I wish, O brothers, that we know the role of the mosque in the upbringing of our children. But before that, we wish to know why these mosques were built in the first place. We gathered wealth and built these mosques for the sake of Allah. This is a great purpose. We built the mosque, but why did we build this mosque? The mosque is not built for nothing. This is a necessary question that we must ask ourselves. We must ask ourselves in every action we undertake to know the purposes of every action we desire. The purposes of building the mosque are many and varied, according to the roles the mosque fulfills. What are the roles the mosque fulfills? There are many roles. In Islam, the mosque is entrusted with the educational role, the upbringing role, the social role, and other roles.
I believe that the first thing the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did was that he built the mosque. The first thing the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did—I mean in Medina—because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) considered Medina a cradle of upbringing. He utilized the gatherings of the Companions, especially the gatherings of the Companions at the house of Arkham ibn Abi al-Arqam, which was a place dedicated to upbringing. This was because we are not here merely to be safe from fear. Thus, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was diligent in upbringing and adopted various means. Among the means, when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) migrated to Medina and wanted to open up to the civil society, the first thing he adopted was the mosque. The building of the mosque: the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) built the mosque, and the building of the mosque was intentional, not arbitrary or casual. Rather, the building of this mosque was, first and foremost, for the remembrance of Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, and for the exaltation of the command of Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, in houses which Allah has permitted to be raised and in which His name is to be mentioned. This is the purpose in houses which Allah has permitted to be raised. Allah has permitted us to build houses, to build mosques, to establish centers of the remembrance of Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, in our homes. Allah has permitted them to be raised. Thus, you are departing, by the permission of Allah, and this is the great reward and the great wage when a person responds to the call of Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, and contributes to one of the matters which Allah has commanded in our homes. Allah has permitted them to be raised. Thus, you have raised the House of Allah, and in it His name is mentioned. You mean that we, all of us, in our mosques, remember Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, and we gather in these blessed mosques so that the word of Allah may be raised. Thus, the mosques were built for the remembrance of Allah. This is the greatest purpose.
O my Lord, You are the One who fills our hearts with the religion. O my Lord, this is the first and greatest purpose. Thus, you, O murabitun, every murabit, murabit, murabit, in any case, men and women, those who are present in these centers, in these mosques, intend only to remember Allah, the Exalted and Glorious. It is said that the greatest thing a Muslim does is to remember Allah, the Exalted and Glorious. The remembrance of Allah is His worship. To remember Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, is to worship Him. Why did Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, establish acts of worship? For the sake of the remembrance of Allah. He established prayer for the remembrance of Allah, and for the remembrance of Allah is greater. He established fasting for the remembrance of Allah. He established pilgrimage for the remembrance of Allah. He established zakat for the remembrance of Allah. All of them are connected to the remembrance of Allah, the Exalted and Glorious. And the remembrance of Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, is what gives security to the human being. If we knew, O brothers, the importance of this great remembrance, we would not have left it for even a single moment.
Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) met Hanhalah al-Asidi, one of the Companions who was with him and who was among the scribes of revelation, who used to write down the revelation. He said to him: “How did you spend your night, O Hanhalah?” Hanhalah said: “I was a hypocrite, and I wish I were a hypocrite.” He said: “Look at what you are saying.” Our master Abu Bakr said to him: “What is this thing you are saying? Be careful, look at what you are saying.” He said: “We were with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and he reminded us of Paradise and Hell as if we could see them with our eyes.” And this is the Prophetic upbringing. The Prophetic upbringing was for the purpose that the human being may know his Lord and know that he has a future, not in this worldly life, but in the Hereafter. We looked at Paradise and Hell as if we could see them with our eyes. He reminded us of Paradise and Hell as if we could see them with our eyes. Thus, when we left, we encountered spouses, children, properties, our affairs, these matters, and we forgot much of that. Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “We all find that.” This hadith is in the Sahih of Imam Muslim. He said: “We were with him, and he reminded us of Paradise and Hell as if we could see them with our eyes.”
He said: “Let us go to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. Let us go to the Messenger of Allah to ask him. We are inquisitive; we seek to understand the issue. Who is it that is not purified? Who is it that is purified? We establish the Book of Allah, the Most High, and the Sunnah of the Messenger as our reference. We derive from the Book of Allah and we derive from the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, so that nothing slips away and so that we remain always on the right path. Go to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.”
Then he said: “O Messenger of Allah, this is Hanbala al-Asidi. He says that he has committed hypocrisy. He says to him: ‘O Messenger of Allah, what do you say?’ He replied: ‘Hanbala has committed hypocrisy, O Messenger of Allah.’ He said: ‘Glory be to Allah! This is a grave statement. We are with you, and you remind us of Paradise and Hell. It is as if we have a vision of them. But when we leave, we are distracted by our children, our wives, and our properties, and we forget much of it. We are preoccupied with this world, we are engrossed in this world, and we become heedless.’”
The Noble Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “If you were to remain in the state you are in with me, in remembrance, the angels would touch you on your paths and in your dwellings. If you were to remain in this state that you are in with me in the mosque, the angels would touch you. If you were to remain in the state you are in with me, in remembrance, even if you were alone, remembering Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, this is the proof of your sincerity, and in remembrance, the angels would touch you on your paths and in your dwellings. But, O Hanbala, an hour and an hour, an hour and an hour, an hour and an hour.”
Therefore, the greatest purpose of building these mosques is not that mosques are built for the remembrance of Allah, the Exalted and Glorious. The second purpose, O brothers, O sisters, is to establish the bond of the Muslim with the community. We build the mosque so that, naturally, we may gather and be brothers, as Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, has willed for us. Love and cohesion among the believers: this cohesion is intended, and the building of mosques contributes strongly to it. When we build the mosque, the first thing is to bind us to one another. The individual is alone and exposed to trial, but when he gathers with his brothers, how does he become strong? The believer is weak in himself, but he is strong through his brothers. Therefore, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was keen to gather the believers and bind them with a strong bond, which is the bond of faith.
Thus, the Noble Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “There are not three people in a village or among the Bedouins in whom the prayer is not established, except that Satan has taken possession of them.” So Satan takes possession of those who do not establish the prayer, who do not gather. When they are not strengthened in the mosque, Satan takes possession of them. And indeed, a person is exposed to Satan taking possession of him when he is alone.
He said, peace and blessings be upon him: “Satan is the wolf of man. Satan is the wolf of man.” What does this mean? Like the wolf of sheep. He says: “Like the wolf of sheep, in the manner of the slaughter of sheep. The wolf eats the distant and peripheral sheep. It is not the sheep that he eats that are in the midst of the flock. Those who are far away, and the shepherd of the community is Allah, the Exalted and Glorious. When a person distances himself, he is far from the one who protects him, and the wolf eats from the distant sheep. So beware, O people, the Messenger of Allah warns us: ‘Beware of the isolated paths, and beware of isolation. And adhere to the community, the general public, and the mosque.’”
Look at this great admonition from the Messenger of Allah: “Adhere to the community. I am at the peak of my concern. Adhere to the community, the general public, the general public of people. Not those people where each one holds his own prayer alone, where each one raises people alone in another place. No, rather, upbringing must take place in the mosque. It must emanate from the mosque. Adhere to the community, the general public, and the mosque.”
In another hadith narrated by Ahmad, also from Ma’dan ibn Abi Talhah al-Yamri, he said: “Abu al-Darda’ said to me: ‘Where is your residence?’ Abu al-Darda’ was a companion, an educator, and a great companion. He was one who fasted during the day and prayed during the night. He asked one of his companions who were in Damascus, in the Levant: ‘Where is your residence?’ He said: ‘Beyond Homs, a little way from Homs.’ He said: ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say: There are not three people in a village in whom the adhan is not called and the prayer is not established, except that Satan has taken possession of them. So adhere to the community, for the wolf only eats from the distant sheep.’”
Thus, the bond with the community of the mosque spares the Muslim from trials. This is what spares us from trials. This is an address to us all. Before we think about our children and our sons, first we must try to fortify our own souls. Then, after our fortification of our souls, it makes us fear, and therefore we are cautious. And therefore, I hope, if Allah wills, that each of you, who has a child, brings the child to the mosque so that they remain always keen to adhere to the community. Adhere to the community, the general public, and the mosque.
O noble brothers, the disintegration is evident, and by Allah, it is evident. And were it not for these mosques, were it not for these Islamic centers, not all of us would be as we are. Everyone who isolates himself from the community of the mosque is afflicted with serious psychological illnesses, and this is more prevalent in this country, naturally. Therefore, the Muslim must be keen on the mosque and must be keen to bring his children to the mosque. Abd al-Hakim, if Allah wills, will speak on this topic, because the care to bind our children to the mosque spares them from serious trials, spares them from psychological illnesses, and places them in the safety of Allah, the Exalted and Glorious. May He grant us success in that.
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Satan is with the one, and he is far from the two.” This is the second purpose. The third purpose, O brothers, so that I do not prolong my speech, for I have ten minutes left, is upbringing in religion and values.
And morals, if one is good, then the first objective is to prevent the mention of Allah? No, rather, that the name of Allah, Glory and Exalted be He, be elevated in our hearts; this is the fundamental basis. Then, if we are to gather upon a single word, to be united, loving one another, and interconnected. Then, after that, the third issue: we come in order to be educated. Thus, the objective of education, or the objective of building mosques, is for the education of the Muslim, so that we fear, we are cautious, and we are educated. Education is a broad an