Our faith requires shared responsibility
“We must understand our obligation to ourselves and our obligation to our children and the generations coming after us.”
Quran 8:36 remains relevant today because Muslims must actively protect their faith, raise their children, resist harmful influences, and use communal resources to uphold Islam and oppose injustice.
The khutbah in 6 steps
- Explains Quran 8:36 as describing wealth spent to hinder people from Allah’s path, resulting in regret, defeat, and punishment.
- Uses the Battle of Badr, Uhud, and the conquest of Mecca to explain the verse’s historical context and foreshadowing.
- Applies the verse to modern industries and influences involving pornography, tobacco, alcohol, usury, and missionary activity.
- Warns that divine victory does not excuse passivity; believers should use their resources and social stability to serve Islam.
- Urges parents to provide tarbiyah and communities to replace rugged individualism with unity, empathy, and shared responsibility.
- Closes by emphasizing duties beyond the five pillars and warning against love of worldly life and hatred of death.
In the khateeb's words
“This is the honor of the believer. He should feel pride if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala uses him as a source for this.”
“But Islam, Islam is the opposite of that. Islam, it preaches unity.”
“We must understand our obligation to ourselves and our obligation to our children and the generations coming after us”
For the dinner table
Today's khutbah was about Surah Al-Anfal, verse 36. In that verse, Allah says some people spend their wealth to stop others from following His path, and that this spending will end in regret and defeat for them. The khateeb explained the history: after Badr, the Quraysh used the wealth of a caravan to take revenge at Uhud, and the verse told of this before it happened. He said the same thing happens today, with huge industries pulling people toward harmful things like alcohol and tobacco. He also shared a comparison from Ibn Abbas: trying to put out Allah's light is like trying to blow out the sun, so Islam will keep shining. But he reminded us not to just sit back. It is an honor when Allah uses us to help His deen, by doing good, stopping wrong, raising our children with care and sticking together like one body.
- Ibn Abbas said trying to put out Allah's light is like blowing out the sun. What does that picture make you think of?
- If the five pillars are the base of a house, what good things could we build on top of them as a family?
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