Eid Al-Adha - Dec 7th, 2008

قوموا الى صلاتكم
We are going to pray salat al eid
it is 2 rak3as. There is no athan and no egamah
The first rak3a will be 7 takbeerat including takbeerat al e7ramand
the second rak3ah will be five takbeerat excluding the takbeerah of qyaam And then we will have the khutbah.
ان الحمد لله نحمده و نستعينه و نستهديه و نستغفره،
ان الحمد لله حمداً يليق بجلال وجهه و عظيم سلطانه،
ان الحمد لله حمداً كثيراً ‘طيباً مباركأً فيه، ملء السماوات و الأرض، و ملء ما بينهما، و ملء ما شاء من شيء بعد،
In deed all praise is due to Allah, we praise Him, we seek his assistance, guidance and forgiveness,
We praise Allah and thank Him in a way hopefully suitable for his glory and honor,
We praise Allah and thank Him on everything he gave us,
We praise Allah and thank Him for being Muslims,
We praise Allah and thank Him for being believers,
We praise Allah and thank Him for every blessing and bounty he bestowed upon us,
We praise Allah and thank Him for giving us this gift, this eid, this holiday.
الله أكبر، الله أكبر، الله أكبر
Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest,
الله أكبركبيراً، و الحمدلله كثيراً، و سبحان الله و بحمده بكرةً و أصيلاً
A word that we have been repeating for the last half an hour or so,
A word unfortunately nowadays is associated with stereotyping about the Muslims,
Some non-Muslims, some people, some media today, every time they hear Muslims saying “Allah Akbar”, they think something bad is gonna happen.
Every time they hear Muslims saying Allah Akbar they think that some evil is gonna happen, and that’s not true. Here we are proving them wrong, here we are celebrating Allah akbar, Here we are exclaiming Allah Akbar. If you go all around the world, you’ll find Muslim right in this time of the day saying Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar.
أما بعد،
Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) once walked to his house, in the same day: eid Al adha. After he prayed, he went home. His wife Aaishah invited two girls from the town, from Madinah, what do they do? They were singing.
So what did Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) do? He lay down and turned his face to the other side. He (salla Allahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) did not look at them, he lowered his gaze.
Then her father, Abu Baker, walked in to the house, and for him he thought that this is not appropriate for the prestige of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) to have girls singing in his house, so he walked in and asked his daughter: What are you doing? This is not appropriate for the house of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
‏Prophet Mohammad told him: Oh Abu Bakr: leave them alone for these are the days of 3eed, every nation has a eid. Every society has a holyday, and this is our eid, this is our holyday, so let us enjoy it.
In the same day, in the evening, there were punch of people from habashah playing with their shields and spears, In other words, they were displaying a cultural performance. What did Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) do? Imagine walking to the masjed and some brothers are doing something like that, what would you do? Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) let them and enjoyed looking at them.
His wife Aaishah who narrated this hadith, she said: he even allowed me to look at them, I was putting my head over his shoulder and my cheek is touching his cheek, standing behind him and looking at those people doing all that. And when I was done, he said : have you seen enough? I said Yes, and then Prophet Mohammad told me to leave.
So, let us enjoy and celebrate our day according to the sunnah of prophet Mohammad (PBUH).



But let’s go back to the word “Allah Akbar”:
What does it mean? We said it for the past half an hour or so,
What does it mean to say Allahu Akbar?
It means Allah is the greatest.
Yes, Allah is the greatest in might and power, but He (SWT) is also the greatest in kindness, He is the greatest in mercy, He is the greatest in forgiveness, He is the greatest in generosity and giving,
So, if you are a believer in Allah, and you say Allah Akber over and over again, then mean it, and prove it with your actions,
Allah is the greatest in might: then I am not gonna take any one’s side but His.
Aallah is the greatest in generosity: then I am not gonna ask any one else to provide for me but Him.
Allah is the greatest in forgiveness: Then I am not gonna ever lose hope that he is gonna forgive me. I’ll always ask for his forgiveness,
Allah is the greatest in mercy: Then I’ll always go back to Him whenever I need something,
That what it means when we say “Allah Akbar”.
And it is amazing, that we usually say allah Akbar before 3ebadah. What is the first word that we say when we pray? Allah Akbar, everyday! We are obeying allah afater sayng Allah akbar, as if Allah is telling us after you say allah akbar, obey my orders.
In eid, we obey Allah’s orders.
Some people do not like the word orders. We live in a free country, in a free time, in a free society, do not give me orders, do not give me obligations. Yes brothers, we need to follow the orders of Allah today. The orders of Allah are not to make us live in a prison, are not to make our life hard or miserable, طه، ما انزانا عليك القران لتشقى, Allah said in the Quran, we did not reveal this book, this Quraan so that you have a miserable or hard life. The orders of Allah are meant to make us happy, to make us enjoy our life but of course while following certain standards.
And the orders of Allah today, in this day, is to celebrate, is to contact our families and relatives, is to strengthen the relationship between the community members. The scholars said that for everything that Allah has given us, there are magased, goals:
Why do we pay Zakah? so that we help the poor.
Why do we have eid? there are many goals and magased for that:
(1) For example, number one: Strengthening the relationship between the community members. Look at the brothers sitting down next to each other, may be it’s been few months since you’ve seen each other. After salah, you’re gonna stand up, shake hands and hug each other. Strengthening the relationships between you.
The purpose of eid is to strengthen the relationships between you and your family members. Today, do not separate the father and the mother and the kids. Be together as one block: Say we’re gonna go from one house to one house, from one place to one place. We’re gonna have all the meals together, dinner, lunch, and may be breakfast altogether as a family. That’s the point of eid, strengthening the family relationships. For those of you who do not have families here, you can visit your Muslim friends and strengthen your ties of brotherhoods and sisterhoods.
(2) Another purpose of eid is to break the routine. To break the routine that we’ve been living for the past year or so. Ask yourself, for the last year, what have you been doing everyday? Probably you wake up in the morning, very hectic, you have your breakfast, may be take your kids to the school, come back, go to work, come back from school, have dinner, probably you watch tv, go to sleep. Next time cycle is going on and on and on.
Today you break that cycle, you break the routine. That’s one of the points of eid: is to break the routine. To break the boredom of the routine that we have everyday.
(3) Another purpose of eid is to have a substitute of our families and our children for the holydays that we see around us. Some of your kids might ask you: daddy, why don’t we have decorations like how the Christians have for Christmas. This is the chance for you brothers to make the eid fun for your children,
- decorate your home,
- play games with your children,
- invite your relatives and friend who know your children,
- have different food that you do not normally have, and make 3eed unforgettable to your children, so they have no need to envy the holiday of the Christians and the Jews and other religions.

This is the time of the year where we can exchange gifts. Some will say, do not imitate non-Muslims, Nooo, this is an Islamic manner. Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) said: "تهادوا تحابوا" before any Christmas culture that we have, Prophet Mohammad said: exchange gifts so that you love each other more.
- Have you ever thought of buying a gift for your wife on the day of eid?
- Have you ever thought to buy gifts for your kids? Take them to the toy store, let them buy some as much as you can afford.
- Have you ever thought of buying a gift to you father and mother or your cousin?
- Have you ever thought of buying a gift to your friends in the masjed?
How many of you did that? How many of us did that? You go to the mall, and you buy a gift probably you can afford, and you come to the masjed, a brother that you like, a brother that you have a good relation with, or may be a brother that des not like you, and you tell him 3eed Mubarak, this is a gift for you. That is the advice of prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Exchange gifts so that you love each other more.
We want to enjoy our time today; we want to celebrate 3eed brothers and sisters today with two conditions, with two precautions:
(1) Please, do not disobey Allah today. I am not saying that you can disobey Allah any other day. But Today is a sacred day so it’s extremely bad choosing to disobey Allah in this day.
- If you are going to celebrate eid with your family by going out to a restaurant, lower your gaze brothers and be modest.
- If you’re going to visit people, stop the gossip and the backbiting. Also when you leave refrain from criticizing the quality of entertainment that the host has provided you? Not, the minute you walk out from their house. Oh, did you see how ugly the furniture was! Did you see how bad the food was! Let’s not gossip, let’s not disobey Allah on this day.
(2) The second condition, the second precaution: do not let this day be an excuse for you to miss prayers. For those of you brothers and sisters who may not be consistent in their 5 daily prayers. Today is great day to begin being consistent.
Let’s not break these two conditions today. And we ask Allah that all of us will have the good time in 3eed.
اقول قولي هذا و أستغفر الله لي و لكم، أستغفروا الله.
الحمد لله و الصلاة و السلام على رسول الله و على اله و صحبه و من تبعه و استن بسنته الى يوم الدين،
أما بعد،
Dear brothers and sisters, my last advice or reminder for each one of you is to strengthen today 4 relationships:
(1) Your relationship with the Muslims around the world. Make duaa for them.
- Not all the Muslims around the world are living the luxury that we are living.
- Not all the Muslims around the world had the chance to wear new clothes today. Not all of them had the chance to be gathering as a family.
- In some countries, the father leaves his house and he does not know f he is gonna be back or not. So, let’s make duaa to our brothers and sister all around the world.
(2) The second relationship is your relationship with your relatives. I am talking about extended family: You second cousin, you cousins, your niece your nephew, your grandfather, your uncles.
- Right now, the minute you walk out of this masjed and once you get to your home, pick up your cell phone and call every single family member you have it on the phone, even if they’re living in the other part of the world. It’s OK, couple of dollars more and you get the reward of صلة الرحم . Specially, if there is a problem or disagreement between you. This is the time to forget, this is the time to fix those relationship.
(3) The third relationship that I want you to strengthen today is again the relationship between your own families: the father, the mother and the kids. All of you sit today and talk and say: what do you like for 3eed? What do you expect from me for the next year? And strengthen that relationship and that bonding.
(4) And the forth relationship, and this is very important brothers, is with our non-Muslim friends. Your neighbors, your coworkers, your friends in school, any one that who you know he is not a Muslim. Send them if you can some desserts. Knock the door on your neighbor with a plate of dissert. Tell them this is our holyday, this is our 3eed, please enjoy. Let the people know that what’s going on. Let them know that today is the 3eed for Muslims.
We ask Allah that Allah that all of us will have the good time of 3eed today
And we ask Allah that all of us will do their job in conveying the message of peace in Islam,
We ask Allah to return our brothers and sisters who are in Hajj safe back to their homes
We ask Allah to forgive us our sins,
We ask Allah to accept our deeds,
اللهم أغفر للمسلمين و المسلمات، و المؤمنيين و المؤمنات، الاحياء منهم و الاموات، انك يا ربنا قريب سميع مجيب الدعوات.
عباد الله هذا عيدكم، فانطلقوا الى احتفالكم، و تقبل الله منا و منكم صالح الاعمال، و صلى الله على سيدنا محمد و على اله و صحبه اجمعين.