How A Pearl Protects Itself, A Khutbah for the Muslim Women
by Muhammad Al-Shareef

 When news of the Christian army that had prepared on the horizons to
wipe out Islam reached him, Abu Qudaamah Ash-Shaamee moved quickly to
the Mimbar of the Masjid. In a powerful and emotional speech, Abu
Qudaamah ignited the desire of the community to defend their land,
Jihad for the sake of Allah. As he left the  Masjid, walking down a
dark and secluded alley, a woman  stopped him and said,  "As salamu
alaykum wa Rahmatullaah!" Abu Qudaamah  stopped and did not answer.
She repeated her salam again, adding "this is not how pious people
should act."  She stepped forward from the shadows. "I heard you in
the Masjid encouraging the  believers to go for Jihad and all I have
is this." She handed him two long  braids. "It can be used for a horse
rein. Perhaps Allah may write me as one of those who went for Jihaad."

 The next day as that Muslim village set out to confront the crusader
army, a young boy ran through the gathering and stood at the hooves of
Abu Qudaamah's horse. "I ask you by Allah to allow me to join the
army." Some of the elder fighters laughed at the boy. "The horses will
trample you," they said.

 But Abu Qudaamah looked down into his eyes as he asked again, "I ask
you by Allah, let me join." Abu Qudaamah then said, "On one condition,
if you are killed you will take me with you to Jannah amongst those
you will be allowed to intercede for." That young boy smiled. "It's a
promise."

 When the two armies met and the fighting intensified, the young boy
on the back  of Abu Qudaamah's horse asked, "I ask you by Allah to
give me 3 arrows." "You'll lose them!" The boy repeated, "I ask you by 
Allah to give me them." Abu Qudaamah gave him the arrows and the boy
took aim.

 "Bismillaah!" The arrow flew and killed a Roman. "Bismillaah!" The
second arrow flew, killing a second Roman.  "Bismillaah!" The third
arrow flew,  killing a third Roman. An arrow then struck the boy in
the chest - knocking him off the horse. Abu Qudaamah jumped down to
his side, reminding the boy in his final breaths, "Don't forget the
promise!" The boy reached into his pocket, extracted a pouch and said,
"Please return this to my mother." "Who's your mother?" asked Abu
Qudaamah. "The woman that gave you the braids yesterday."

 Think about this Muslimah. How did she reach this level of Taqwa
where she would  sacrifice her hair when today other women do the same 
to imitate Kafir icons, and her son when other women would die so long 
as their son stayed home. Indeed,  she spent her life in the obedience 
of Allah, and when exam time came, she  passed. Not only did she pass
herself, but her children shone with that same beauty of Iman,
children that she herself raised.

 Very often - and perhaps in our times when we have forgotten much of
the Sunnah  - the lectures, khutbahs, and talks are all directed to
the Muslim men. We forget that from the Hady - guidance and way - of
Rasul Allah - sal Allahu  alayhi wa sallam - was that he would
allocate a specific day of the week to teach the women. Women would
come up to him in Hajj, in the street, even in his home and ask him
questions about the Deen. At the Eid Salah, after addressing  the men, 
he would take Bilal and go to the women section and address the women.

 Allah revealed an entire Surah by the name of Surah An-Nisa - the
Women. And  another by the name of - Maryam. And a third by the name
of  al Mujaadalah - the  women who pleads. It is in enlivening this
Sunnah that today this speech shall  be addressed to the believing
women, al-Mu'minaat.

 Dear Sister, Dear Mother, Dear Daughter. Everyone is looking for
happiness and fun, and I am sure you are not excluded. Where is that
happiness and fun though? And where and when do you want that
happiness? Do you want  happiness, do you want to have `fun' in this
life at the expense of the  hereafter? Or is it in the hereafter, when
you meet Allah that you want to be happy?

 Every where you go you shall find a swarm of people and media and
culture swearing to you that happiness is the happiness of the Dunya.
Is it really  happiness though? On the day of Repayment, Allah shall
take the most `happiest'  kafir of the Dunya and dip him in Jahannam -
Hellfire. Then he shall ask him,  "Have you ever seen any happiness?"
The Kafir will say, "Never!"

 Nay, the happiness is only the happiness of the hereafter no matter
what happens in this Dunya. Allah shall bring on the Day of Repayment
the most tested human and dip him in Jannah - Paradise. He shall then
ask him, "Have you ever  seen sadness?" And that person shall say,
"Never!"

 And don't think that this happiness and fun is exclusive to the
hereafter. It is  very much tied to this life as well. Listen and
understand the words of Allah:

 Whoever works righteousness, whether male or female, while he (or
she) is a true  believer verily to him We will give a good life (in
this world with respect,  contentment and lawful provision), and We
shall pay them certainly a reward in proportion to the best of what
they used to do (i.e. Paradise in the Hereafter). - Surah AnNahl
(16/97)

 Dear Sister, you have to understand that you or anyone may enter
Hellfire! By Allah, we are not better than Fatimah, the daughter of
Rasul Allah - sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam. And he said to her, "O
Fatimah the daughter of Muhammad, Ask me whatever you wish from my
wealth, for I shall avail you  nothing to Allah." Meaning that it
doesn't matter if you're my daughter, if you don't work for Jannah,
saying to Allah that my father is so and so will not help you in
anyway.

 Islam is filled with many Mu'minahs that completed their Taqwa of
Allah. When the other girls put up posters of kafir singers and kafir
athletes and kafir actresses, you should put up posters in your heart
of Fatimah and many other Mu'minahs.

 Aasiyah, the wife of Fir'own. Her Eeman in Allah thrived under the
shadow of someone that said, "I am your Lord, Most High!" When news
reached Fir'own of his wife's Eeman he beat her and commanded his
guards to beat her. They took her out  in the scalding noon heat, tied
her hands and feet and beat her perpetually. Who did she turn to? She
turned to Allah! She prayed, "My lord, build for me a home with you in
Paradise and save me from Fir'own and his deeds and save me from the
transgressive people."

 It was narrated that when she said this, the sky opened for her and
she saw her home in Paradise. She smiled. The guards watched
astonished  - she's being tortured and she smiles? Frustrated, Fir'own 
commanded a boulder to be brought and dropped on Aasiyah, to crush her 
to death. But Allah took her soul before the boulder was brought and
she became an example for all the believing men and women till the end 
of time:

 [And Allah has set forth an example for those who believe: the wife
of Fir'own (Pharaoh) - when she said, "My Lord, Build for me a home
with You in Paradise, and save me from Fir'own and his deeds, and save
me from the transgressive-disbelieving people.] -Tahreem 66/11

 When we talk about Jihad and Shuhadaa' - martyrs, do you know who the
first Muslim in Islam to be killed in the path of Allah was? It was
Summayah, the mother of Ammar. When Abu Jahl heard of her Islam and
her husband Yaasir and her son Ammar, he whipped them all and beat
them. So much so, that Rasul Allah would pass by them as they went
through this test of their Iman and would say to them, "Be patient O
family of Yaasir, for you have a date set (when you shall enter)
Jannah!"

 As Abu Jahl beat Sumayyah one day, she refused to recant her Deen,
something  that enraged Abu Jahl. He took a spear as she lay on the
burning sand,looking up  to the sky, and he speared her through her
midsection. She was the first of her family and the entire Ummah to
meet Allah as a Martyr.

 Dear Sister, our role models come from the Quran. You may have heard
the story  of the boy and the king. When the entire village became
Muslim by the death of that young boy, the king ordered that an
enormous fire be kindled and that all  those who would not recant
their religion be burnt alive. A  Mu'minah, stood with her baby over
the fire. She looked at her baby, and  seeking her child's weakness
and innocence, she considered turning her back. The baby said to her,
"What are you waiting for mother. Go forward for you are on the
truth!" She nodded. Then with her baby in hand she was pushed to her
death.

 [And they ill-treated them for no other reason than that they
believed in Allah, Exalted in Power, Worthy of all Praise!- * Him to
Whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth! And Allah is
Witness  to all things.]. - Surah AlBuruj, 8,9

 And dear sister, your role models come to you from today. As her son
tells us, a  senior women in a Muslim land decided that all the vanity
that normally happens in the gatherings of women was not for her. She
turned to Salah and praying at  night, and in her old age, she found
herself calling to her son one night from her prayer room. He son
says, "I came in and she was in Sajda saying that she was paralysed!"
Her son took her to the doctors and she began a cycle of
rehabilitation, but there was little hope. She then  commanded her son 
to take her back home, take her back to her prayer room, take her back 
to that Sajdah.

 As she prayed to Allah in her sajdah, the night came when she called
to her son. "Astawdi'ukallaah alladhee laa yadee'u wa daa'i'uh - I
leave you in the trust of Allah, and whenever something is left in
Allah's trust it is never lost." She passed away in her sajdah. Her
muscles froze in that position and so they had to wash her body as
she was in  Sajdah. The prayed Janazah for her as her body was in
sajdah. The carried her to  the grave yard as her body was in Sajdah.
They buried her as she was in Sajdah.

 And the Prophet said that we shall all be resurrected on what we died
on, she shall be resurrected on the day of judgement in  Sajdah to
Allah - Jalla Jalaaluhu wa taqaddasat asmaa'uhu - because that it how
she lived and died.

 ***Part II***
 There are many other stories that we know about of powerful believing
mothers, wives and sisters and many, many that Allah only knows about.
Whenever a halaqah is going on, the Muslim women outnumber the men. At
the American Open  University, (www.open-university.edu) the
overwhelming  majority of students are Muslim women. Go to an Islamic
teachers/schools  conference, attend a lecture and you shall see the
mismatch of sisters to brothers. Sometimes it is sad to see all these
brothers lacking the  motivation that many Muslimahs have. But if
there is a beautiful sign in all this, it is that - in sha' Allah
ta'ala - those  sisters are going to raise an army of believing men
and women in the coming generation. WAllahu akbar!

 When Imam Ahmad was still young, his father died. He would tell his
students of the work his mother went through in raising him, and he
would pray for her. In the cold Baghdad nights, she would wake long
before him to warm the water so that her son Ahmad could make wudu for
Fajr. Then she would wrap him in blankets, herself cloaked in her
Jilbaab, and guide him through the dark, cold alleys to reach the main
Masjid, long before Fajr so that her son could get a good seat in
class. Her son Ahmad - at that age in grade 2 or 3 - would sit all
day long studying Quran and Sunnah, and she would wait for him to
finish so that she could drop him home safely. At the age of 16, she
prepared money and food for him and told him, "Travel for your search
of knowledge." He left for Makkah and Madinah and many other places
and met many great scholars. She raised Ahmad  to become one of the
four greatest Imams in Islam.

 Dear sister, after all this, ask a non-Muslim what it is that he
wants from you?  Does he want you to be liberated? Liberated from
what? From Allah and his Messenger? From the Quran and the Sunnah?
From Jannah? From this deen that Allah chose for you?

 And what is he going to give you in return? Happinness? By Allah, he
does not own any happiness to give. Is he going to give you love and
protection from punishment in the grave and from the gatekeepers of
hellfire and from death? Why is it that they want to liberate young
beautiful women? Why don't they liberate the seniors? Why don't they
liberate the indigenous? Why don't they liberate the inmates? Why is
their target audience a young and skinny and tall women (their
definition of beauty) between the age of 13 - 28? And why is their
first call for you to take off your Hijab?

 Remember that friend - if you consider him so - carefully, for -
without any doubt, by Allah - he shall be your bitterest enemy on the
day of Repayment:

 [Friends on that day will be foes, one to another - except the
Righteous] - Surah Zukhruf (43/67)

 One Kafirah summed up exactly what they think of women, "It's not who
you are, it's what you wear and what you look like!"

 And listen to Fabian, a  french `model' (of what?), as she spit on the
fashion industry.  "Fashion houses made me into a mannequin, a
wooden idol. The mission: to manipulate hearts and alter minds. I
learnt how to be worthless, nothing on the inside, cold. We lived in a
world of filth in all that filth means."

 When the Prophet - sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam - stood on the plain
of Arafah and gave his farewell speech he said to the Ummah, "Treat
the women kindly!" History records that in Europe in the same year, at 
the same time that Islam was saying this, the Christian clergy were
arguing  whether a  women was a human or an animal! Those clergymen
are the ancestors of the Kuffar that now want to `liberate' you.

 There is much more than can be said. I shall conclude with the advice
of Rasul Allah - sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam - to every Muslim mother,
daughter, and wife: "If the women prays her five (Salah), fasts her
month (of Ramadan), protects herself (from committing Zina), and
listens to her husband, it will be said to her, `from any door you
wish, enter Paradise!"

 Sister, that is where you want to be.

 [O ye who believe! give your response to Allah and His Messenger,
when He calls you to that which shall give you life; and know that
Allah cometh between a man and his heart, and that it is He to Whom ye 
shall (all) be  gathered.] - Surah Anfal 8/24

 Allah and His Messenger are calling you to life. Dear sister, reply!