The Prophetic Gift of Meaning

Jum'ah khutba - Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad - Cambridge - 2013 -  21mins 55secs

Say: by the grace of Allah and His mercy, let them rejoice in that, it is better than all that they gather.

Surah Yunus Verse 58

The Sheikh begins this khutba with the verse from Surah Yunus, alluding to the fact that for much of our lives we busy and torment ourselves with the collection of material wealth. This is the source of our agitations and aspirations, but no matter how much we accumulate the heart is left hungry for more of the same, but also for the Divine Other, the only thing that brings nourishment and satisfaction. 

Believer possibly has little in his hand but sees everything that Allah gives him. These are all irreplaceable treasures and jewels. The believer is thus farhan, joyful, because his joy is in Allah's grace and mercy and thus sees everything as a manifestation of His grace. Amongst these joys are are the numberless blessings of this world, those that even if you tried to count them you could not do so. A blessing deeper than these and underpinning them is the ability to connect outward forms to meanings, the ability to make sense of the existence and put ones self in tune with it. Thus the greatest mercy is that of explanation, which brings life to the desert of the heart and satisfies it to the point beyond which music and poetry and all other things can reach.

Of course the perfect embodiment of this wisdom was the Prophet, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. As the narrations say nobody smiled more than him, which is a sign of his understanding. When we follow him outwardly but also inwardly we can share of this ma'na, this meaning of creation. May Allah give us the grace to follow in the Prophet's footsteps, to receive some of his wisdom and understanding and thus heal our broken hearts. 

Photograph taken in the Mosque and resting place of Sidi Ahmad al-Tijani, Fez, by the CKETC team.

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Beauty and the Sunna

Jum'ah khutba - Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad - Cambridge - 30th November 2012 - 14 mins 56secs

'Shall the reward of doing what is beautiful be other than doing what is beautiful?' 

-Surah Ar-Rahman verse 60

In this khutba covering the topic of beauty, the Sheikh begins by noting that the connection linking us to Transcendent is the receptive affirmation of what is beautiful and indicates the Supernatural. To the extent that the sense of beauty, truth and order rules in our hearts, that is how in touch we are with reality. This apprehension is available to any person, no matter how young or unlettered they are. 

Indeed the Sheikh notes that the life of the Prophet was a life lived intensely, passionately and lyrically in response to what is beautiful. As human beings we have two ways to respond to beauty; to turn inwards towards individualism, or outwards from our selves, to engage with the Ultimate. We are between tendency upwards, and the tendency down. Ugliness is always due to the engagement with the nafs, the downward. The arrival of the Prophet on the other hand affirms the universal other, not just of Arabs but of human beings as brothers everywhere. Earlier prophets were sent only to their people, but he was sent to all mankind. This is why his way is a path of beauty, and why the deen was able to spread and flourish so magnificently in the following centuries. 

The Sheikh closes by telling us that the heart craves beauty. The Sharia makes outward judgements, and so inwardly does the soul. We are asked to live our lives making these soulful judgements, to follow those who act beautifully, and surround ourselves with those beautiful things that bring our hearts peace, for as the Qur'an says

'Verily in the remembrance of Allah do the hearts find rest!'

 -Surah Ar-Ra'd verse 28

Calligraphy reading 'He uncovered the darkness by his beauty' from the poem about the Prophet by Shaikh Sa'di, mosque, Istanbul. Taken by the CKETC team.

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Religious Freedom & the Sunna

Talk by Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad - Cambridge - June 2008 - 1 hr 18 mins 17 secs

In this talk, the sheikh discusses the role in the modern world of following the sunna ('example', 'practice') of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). He begins by analysing the fragmentation of the modern world, in which different aspects of human existence and even of an individual are disconnected from each other. As humanity learns more and more about the material details of our existence, there seems to be a correlating reduction in our real understanding of the overall meaning of creation and our place in it. Yet how can we find an antidote to this in the practice of the Prophetic sunna, which, superficially at least, is concerned with the very fine details of our day-to-day life? The sheikh explains the importance firstly of the fact that it is a source of harmony by allowing us to integrate our outward and inward states and conform both to the fundamental reality of our existence. Secondly, the sunna is a shelter and liberation from the imprisonment with which our uncultivated egos (nafs) and desires (hawa') threaten us. To the modern eye, trained to judge only by the criterion of personal freedom, limiting oneself to a prescribed type of behaviour seems a surefire route to misery and repression. Yet what real freedom is there in living according to the unrelenting demands of the nafs, which will always push for more and more because any apparent happiness it finds in transitory acts is just as fleeting? Unfortunately, for many of us religion has become just another way of acting out the hyperactive impulses of our unquiet souls. But, the sheikh reminds us, its real function is just the opposite - a route to inner contentment (sakina) and thereby freedom.

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