From the Umayyad Pulpit to the UN Podium: The Politics of Jumu'ah - Maulana Syed Muhammad Rizvi

I seek refuge with Allah from Satan, the accursed. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. All praise is due to Allah, we praise Him, we ask His forgiveness, we forgive Him, we ask His forgiveness. And I seek refuge with Allah from our sins and our deeds. Who guides Allah, does not misguide him. And who is the one who leads the success, does not guide him. We bear witness that there is no god but Allah, one and no partner. And we bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. The messenger of the messengers, the messenger of the prophets, and the mercy of the worlds. And may Allah's peace be upon his pure ones, those who have gone to Allah, that they are righteous, and their sacrifice is a sacrifice. I seek refuge with Allah and myself in the face of Allah. I'm not really just under the weather at the moment. Nothing worried to worry about. It's just the irritating cough and sore throat. You know, taking the traditional as well as the modern medication, inshallah, together both will help. Salawat, Pranek. So I wanted to make this khutbah lighter today. And I just decided to pick up a section from one of the courses that I've been teaching on online hosr. And this is about the Salat al-Jum'ah itself. We know that Salat al-Jum'ah consists of two things. There are two sermons in which we praise Allah, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. And we have the Salawat for the Prophet and his Ahlul Bayt. And those two sermons, you know, the praise of Allah and the Salawat on the Prophet and his family, these are to be done in Arabic. But the main message of the Friday khutbah has to be done in the local language. And then we, of course, we have two rakat namaz after that. Now let me just clarify this issue. I get this question many, many times, that what happens if I come late and the Friday khutbah is done? You know, isma, as-salat al-Jum'ah valid or not? Although we commonly say that Juma prayers is taking the place of Zohar prayers, and instead of four rakat, two are khutbah, two are prayers, it doesn't mean they are connected to one another. Even if you miss the khutbah, you can still do Salat al-Jum'ah. Not only that, even if you miss the first rakat of Salat al-Jum'ah, you can still join in the second rakat. But before the Ruku of the second rakat. Normally in namaz al-Jum'ah, when we talk about joining the Jama'at, you know, we say as long as the Jama'at is in Ruku, you can join in. But in namaz al-Jum'ah, the slightly different ruling, if you are able to reach before the second Ruku, you are okay. Then you will have to complete one rakat on your own later on. So remember that these two things are not connected to one another, the khutbahs and the two rakat. Now what about the hukum itself? What is the shi'i fiqh when it comes to Salat al-Jum'ah? We know that in the presence of the ma'sum imam, you know, Jum'ah becomes wajib e'ayni. If it is led by the imam, or somebody specifically appointed by the imam, na'ibi khas as we call them. If they are the ones who are doing it, then it becomes wajib e'ayni. You know, it becomes like any other daily prayers. And you know, the reason why we put this condition of imam or especially appointed person from the imam, because even if you look at the Ayat of Quran, where it says, you know, when the call is made, is iza nudi al-as-salat, when the call is made, you know, fa'sa'aw ila dhikr illa deha, then it has to the zikr of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. The point is, who is the caller for Ramad-e-Jum'ah? Quran doesn't specify that. But from our point of view, it has to be a ma'sum imam or somebody specifically appointed by him. And that is where we see that if during his time, led by him or somebody who is especially appointed for that, then Jumu'ah becomes wa'aji e'ayni for all those who work or live in the 11 kilometers radius of that masjid. If they are beyond that, then it doesn't apply to them. Now during the iqaybet of the imam, what happens? So that was only when we were talking about the time when the imam, ajar allah, fa'sha'aw ila dhikr illa deha, so during this era of iqaybet, what happens? What is the opinion? There is a difference of opinion among the mushdahideen in the Shia world. The majority of them say that in the time of the iqaybet, salat al-Jumu'ah is wa'aji e'ayni, as opposed to wa'aji e'ayni. In the first case, it was specifically wa'aji e'ayni. Wa'aji e'ayni means it is wa'aji, but you have a choice between two things. Either you do Jumu'ah or you do Zohar. You can't neglect both of them. So you have to either do Jumu'ah or you have to do Zohar. Now, if you live in a place where there are no, you know, less Shia congregation, and the Jumu'ah prayer is led by an opponent of Ahur-ul-Bayk, then it is not wa'aji to participate. Because remember the khutba has a social, political aspect to it. It is not only a simple, you know, ahlaki issue. You know, the emphasis is to talk about the current issues, you know, pertaining to the Ummah and the community at large. And unfortunately, you know, in the early days after the prophet, the unjust rulers actually misused this vehicle to promote themselves, especially during the early days of Bono-Omaya, where not only promoting themselves, but actually tarnishing the image of Imam Ali-Aliya-Salaam and his descendants. Actually, the instructions was that, so, you know, talk about him negatively every Friday, so that a child starts hearing it every Friday until he becomes old. You know, this is the way how they, you know, wanted to basically promote this hatred towards Imam Ali-Aliya-Salaam and his companions. Salah al-Pranik Barar. And so basically, you know, what do you do in that situation? You basically, if you have to still attend, you attend, but it will not be counted as namaz-e-juma, you will still have to do zohr after that. One of the questions which would come up that, what did Imam Ali-Aliya-Salaam did do before he was accepted as a Khalifa? Remember, his house was just next to the masjid. The whole community is going to namaz-e-juma. It couldn't be that he went and Amir al-Mu'mineen is sitting at home. You know, it creates a very negative, you know, situation. And so yes, you know, you might be surprised. We have a beautiful narration from Zorar-e-Bina'ayun, a very prominent Sahabi of the 1560 Imam. This conversation is with Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, alaihi salatu wa salam, where he says to the Imam, In unasan, Rawan Amir al-Mu'mineen, salawatullah alaihi, Anna wa salli arba rak'aat, ba'ad al-juma'a, lam yufsil baynahunna bis tattaslimin. Some people narrate that Amir al-Mu'mineen used to recite four rak'aat in juma. Means after the fellow has finished two rak'aat, Ali would stand up and continue two more rak'aat. And this is where Imam says, O Zorara, verily Amir al-Mu'mineen prayed behind the sinful persons, but not with the need of Jama'at. When the sinful Imam did the salam and concluded the prayers to rak'aat, Amir al-Mu'mineen would stood up. He would stand up and continue two more rak'aat, praying four rak'aat without separating two and two with a salam. So basically what he would do is he would do his mead for the Zohar prayer. And once actually there was somebody sitting by Ali alaihi salam, when he noticed there he says, you know, Ya'ab al-Hasan, you recited four rak'aat without separating them with the salam. And of course Amir al-Mu'mineen just wanted to, you know, give a vague answer to this fellow. You know, he just says, you know, the four rak'aat they seem similar to one another to you. And this is where Imam Muhammad al-Baqir said that he didn't realize what Ali was trying to say. This was more done in a taqiyyah form. And we actually have even a similar story from Imam Zainul Abideen, alaihi salat wa salam. So if you have to go, you know, sometimes you see some of the fatawahs in that way, but these are all on the basis of taqiyyah. You know, you still have to do your Zohar prayer if it is not led by somebody who is from the Shia, it's an asheri background. Salah al-Palaniq, by the way. In Ahsan al-Hadiyyis, Kitab Allah al-Aziz, Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. Wal'asr, Inna al-Insana la fi khusr illa al-Ladhi n'aaman wa amal al-Salihaat wa tawansu bil haqq wa tawansu bil shgabr. Awudh billahi min al-Shaytan al-Ain al-Rajeem. Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. Al-hamdu lillahi illa ilaha illa hu al-Haleem al-Kareem. Ghafir dhambe wa qaab al-Tawbah wa hu al-Ghafir al-Raheem. Wa nashhadu an la ilaha illa hu al-Aatu fil al-Aibad bi judihi. Wa al-Aawad al-Al-Mudhunibina bi-Hilmi. Wa nashhadu anna Muhammad al-Nabi hu wa Habiba. Sayyid al-Mursaleen wa Shafi'il al-Mudhunibin wa Rahmatu an-Nalalameen. Wa sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi. Ad-da'een al-Asabirillahi bil-Hikmatu wa al-Mawzat al-Hasana. Qadat al-Oman wa Awliya an-Ni'ma wa Ma'dan al-Rahma. Ruseekum ibad allah bi-Tawbah ma salafa min dunubikum. It is, you know, let me just briefly paraphrase the hadith which is not here in my notes here. When I mentioned that Friday khutbah has a social political element in it, you know, this is actually is coming from a hadith of Imam Ali Ibn Musa Riddha al-Israat al-Israam. It is narrated by Sheikh Sadukh Ilele Sharayih, when Imam talks about, you know, what is the purpose of Juma prayers. And he mentions that, you know, the second or the first, one of the two khutbahs have to be among the issues which they hear or you come to know about it from, you know, different parts or the region which are relevant for the community. And so when we talk about, you know, talking about the social political issues, this is not a bid'ah. This is the purpose of namaz-e-juma, especially when it comes to the khutbah. Now, you know, sometimes as I, we saw the example of Amir al-Mu'mineen as well as Imam al-Sajjad, that you have to participate with the congregation, even if you don't believe in it. And this is basically going back to the principle of taqiyyah that we have in our madhab. And, you know, on a political level, I would say, even if you look at the example of the General Assembly of the United Nations organization, you know, interestingly, it is held in New York in the USA, where Trump, you know, as a title leader of our time from the superpower, comes to the international community and openly threatens to annihilate a Muslim country. And no political leader stands up to say to him that what you are saying is wrong. It even goes against the speech which was made earlier by the Secretary General of the UNO, where he strongly emphasized the respect for international law and order, and strongly spoke against unilateral and aggressive steps to resolve conflicts. And this is what is the philosophy of Trump. You know, and so in this environment, you know, people say, why do you when why don't you one go there? What is the point? This is very easy to realize if the opportunity is there in such an environment, a shri ahead of state can go, participate there and also defend his own country and his own people against the aggression which has taken place. And so, you know, in his speech, I don't know if this fellow even goes back and thinks about what he said and how it contradicts with the things he had been saying at other times. You know, he stands up in this General Assembly and he says, we will not tolerate any leftist influence in our neighborhood in Central and South America. You know, we will use our force, you know, to prevent that influence the way they want to deal with, you know, they dealt with Venezuela. Now it's coming to Cuba. Even to some extent, the pressure is there on Mexico. And, you know, if this is the criteria that you don't want, leftist ideology to be there in your neighborhood, then what are you doing thousands of miles away from the shores of the United States in the Middle East? They also have a right to say that, you know, we don't want your influence here. And this is where we see, you know, it's basically, you know, the point of whoever has the power, they would like to dictate whatever they think. There is nothing as far as justice is concerned, international laws, or the, you know, civilized method of dealing with the, you know, conflicts. What was most surprising for me was the sudden change in the tone of our prime minister. You know, he, in a way, without saying much, echoed the words of Trump against Iran. You know, perhaps he is seeking favor with Trump in his trade deal. Otherwise, we also hear at the same time reports that he was even considering plans to defend Canada in case U.S., you know, takes military action against Canada. So he knows, you know, what is the motivation there, but it seems it's just trying to, you know, you know, carry some favor with him to get a better, you know, trade deal. But this is where they are basically then going against their own, you know, philosophy and their values that they talk about. May Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, the appearance of the Imam will bring about global peace, inshallah. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. Nahaan al Fahshai wal Monkari wal Baghi Ya'idukum Al-A'laakum Tadakkarum