O my brother, my Khatib brother, What is the subject of your Juma’ah Khutba?

Bismillah! Al Hamdulillah!
As Salatu As Salamu ala Rasulullah

AsSalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu

My dear Khatib Brothers, firstly I would like to begin with a sincere apology if what I am going to say hurts you. But let me just assure you I mean no disrespect. I have prayed Jumu’ah in almost all the Masjids around the city where I live. So I come to you with an upsetting mind, a broken heart and in an anguished state after what I have observed.

My dear brothers. Now I will start with a question to all the khatibs around the world who give Khutbas on the day of Juma’ah.

What do you say when you find that a lecture is being given on the topic of ‘cell-biology’ or ‘calculus’ to a 3rd-grade class? What do you think of the one who chose a topic which is not suitable for their class?

Then may I ask what topic do you choose for your Jumuah Khutba? Did you ever think about the types, classes and levels of Muslims that come to pray Jumuah? Did you analyse the types of levels of the Muslims who you’re giving the khutbah to?

How many of these Muslims live their lives in Kufr during the entire week (not praying any other salat at all)?

How many of them only pray on and off whenever they want to?

How many of them pray regularly, but yet are in a confused state about Islam, Quran and the Islamic law because their heart and mind are fed by the junk and because they were never exposed to the pure resources?

How many of them are ‘Muslim’ only because they were born in a Muslim family? They never used their brain to try and find what being a Muslim really means. They never tried to find what the Quran really is.

How many of them have never read the Quran even ONCE in their life to understand and to know what their Rabb says?

How many of them live the lifestyle of Kufr?

How many of them don’t follow the system of Allah in their life as if they had a Rabb other than Allah?

How many of them remain in Shirk and Bida’a?

How many of them do not know the basics of the prayer? Do you not see the Musalli around you and how they pray?

And how many of them have closed their eyes and minds because their minds were sold to the Ulama so much so that an Ayah of Quran or a Sahih Hadith does not affect them as it goes against what they know from their Ulama?

And how many of them just follow the Quran partly and remain ignorant about most of it, the consequence of which is Jahannam?

And then how many more of these questions I need to put forward to you to make you understand what should be the subjects of your khutba?

And are you giving a khutbah about the benefits of optional ibadah when they have the least of Eeman in their hearts?
And are you giving them a khutbah which is supposed to be given to one who has full heartedly turned to Allah and wants to increase in ibadah, like the lectures given in a Shariah class?

Did you not do your research before giving a khutba? Then would you not know the percentage of people who consist of those mentioned above? If you think about it, you will find that your chosen topic of khutba only caters for about 5% of the people that come into Jumuah prayer, while the other 95% gain no benefit from your khutba.

And that’s not their fault. They already at least present themselves here with the lowest iman. But you are the one who is supposed to show them some light. You had the opportunity to teach them something that they would not learn otherwise. These 95% of people are at least giving you an ear. What a golden opportunity you miss to guide a whole nation of Muslims! But out of your ignorance and short-sightedness these people remain at the same level as they are all the year round.

Did you ever notice and thought why it is that the Musalli in the Fajr prayer and all other regular prayers do not increase? That’s because your khutbah’s do not have the slightest impact on them. That’s because your khutba does not even cast the slightest interest in their minds. Your khutbah does not answer their questions and does not influence them to even read to find out for themselves anything they have questions about.

I give you this to rethink about your responsibilities, keeping in mind the variety of Muslims in the community. Please, my brother, you have the honour and the blessings from Allah, the Almighty, who granted you systematic education, the ability of public speaking that many do not have, in order to address your brothers and help them turn whole-heartedly towards Islam. Please, my brothers, choose your topic of khutba responsibly and wisely.

May Allah make us firm in our iman and on Islam and make us an Ummah that turns to Allah with full submission. Ameen.