Why the Masjid Deserves Our Respect

Alhamdulillah. He was.

[Silence]

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speak out the the ancient house of Allah subhanahu.

[Arabic recitation]

The Kaa was built definitely by Ibraimisam. However, the question that the scholars differ on is whether or not it was built originally by Ibraim or whether it was rebuilt by Ibraim. We know that the first house of Allah on the earth is the capital and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala refers to it as the ancient house of Allah and there were many prophets and messengers on the earth before Ibraimisam. For this reason, the correct opinion amongst the Muslim scholars, the scholarship of Islam is that the Ka was built by Adam. And of course, over time it, you know, flooding and and and wind and natural disasters and time and so forth, it had to be re rebuilt a number of times, most notably by Ibraim. And then following that most notably by the prophet sallall.aii wasallam and his people before he was made into a prophet or before he was appointed as a prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. The point here is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks about the ka speaks about the house of Allah and he says subhanahua in the next verse in that is that whoever exalts exalts the sacred sacred places of Allah then that is the best for that person with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala part of our worship of Allah is that we exalt not only Allah but anything that is ascribed to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we exalt the people of Allah we exalt the prophets and messengers of Allah we exalt the houses of Allah We exalt the people of knowledge, the people of Allah. We exalt them. All of this is part of what? The exaltation of Allah subhanahu.

[Arabic recitation]

And anything that is sacred sacred whether it be a time that is sacred, a place that is sacred, an act that is sacred, right? And that is that we exalt things in a number of ways, but it's not most notably our exaltation of the house of Allah. See, there's there's a balance that has to be had. The balance there is we want to be able to accommodate and bring everyone and allow as much into the house of Allah and the masid as possible. However, the balance is we can never allow anything that we bring into the masid to impede the purpose of the masid. What is the purpose of the masid? The prophet sallall.aii wasallam says he says He said the masid there was a man a bedin man that came into the masid. Many of us have heard the narration and you know he's a bedin which is kind of if you imagine with me somebody that is very uncultured somebody that lives a life that is very kind of primitive if you can imagine the most hillbilly of hillbillies in America right someone that is just they have their own kind of way of living very different. They're very uncultured. They don't have you know much class. They don't have He came into the masid. He was a believer. He believed in the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. But he was not someone that came to the masid often. And so he went to a corner in the masid and he started to urinate in the masid. Now of course there wasn't carpet in the masid. It wasn't you know it was just dirt. It was a dirt floor and where he comes from how things are. He thought that that was appropriate. And so the companions saw this and they got extremely angry and they were very close to beating this man and forcefully removing him. The prophet sallallah.aii wasallam said don't stop him let him finish now cuz we have two options here. Either he finishes it all in one place or he finishes it in many places. Let him finish. And so when he finished, he told them to bring a bucket of water and to pour it on the urine. And he said to the man, "Come here." And he said, "These mass these kinds of things are not appropriate in the masid. These massagid what they are built for is the remembrance of Allah and a salah and the recitation of Quran. What we understand from this narration is not that these are the only things which are permissible in the masid and anything outside of these is haram. The scholars did not understand that from this narration. Rather what is in understood from this narration is that this is the purpose of this building. This is a building but we use it as a conduit between us and Allah in order to become closer to Allah. It's a place that its environment is geared towards cultivating a relationship between the servant and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That's the purpose of it. Anything that is permissible may be permissible in the masid as long as it does not impede this which is the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala what the masid was built for. And you know often times when we speak about that balance, the balance of I want to bring my children, I want to bring everybody into the masid, but as well I want to maintain the exaltation of the masid. We all have to share this space, right? And so we have to give and take with each other. We would never imagine that we say to everybody, bring all your family and your kids out and then we expect them to be absolutely silent. That is impossible for a child to do. As a matter of fact, if a child is doing that, probably something is wrong. That's not a good sign. Children naturally are curious and they play and so forth. However, the culture that has started to creep into our mass which is you know the masjid is it's a hangout it's you know the main purpose of it is to link up with my buddies and you know the doors are closed so I know the kid is in the masid they can't get outside therefore we just let them run free and scream and yell and so forth There has to be a medium had right. There has to be a level of harmony had to where anyone can walk into the masjid and not be deterred by anyone else in their worship of Allah. In Sah Bkari the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam once came out of his home into the masjid and he found the companions were praying right each of them was praying and they were reciting in in their respective prayers loudly so if you could imagine 10 of us 20 of us in here each one is in a in his own prayer but as they're reciting they're reciting aloud so everyone can hear everyone. And now the volume is very high because each is trying to hear himself. And so the prophet sallall.aii wasallam said Quran do not recite the Quran at one another. And he made it impermissible for a person to raise his voice in the masid in reciting the Quran if it will disturb another person in the masid. So it's not permissible for a person to raise his voice while reciting the Quran in the masid if that recitation will disturb someone else in the masid. This is the Quran. And so, as we've mentioned many times before, you know, habits are hard to change. And we're all understanding. I have kids. , you know, I I love to see my kids in the masid, but from a very very young age as as as they became of age to where they could understand what I was saying to them and they could understand the difference between a library and a masid and a playground. I tried to teach them, do not ever raise your voice in the masid. This is not a place that is any other building. This is a very holy place. And how do we treat a holy place? We we keep it clean. This is exalting the messenger. We keep it clean. We keep it quiet. The prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam said beware of the rumblings and the sound of the marketplace in the masid. And so you know sometimes when if I when I say this a person might feel personally offended or attacked and you know oh she ali is you know extreme or he doesn't like my kids or he doesn't kids. No I love kids. Anybody who knows me knows that she Ali loves kids especially now cuz my kids are far away. They're in another country. I'm substituting my children with your children, right? I to be around children as much as possible, but what is the point of bringing our children to the masid if they don't know that it is a masid? What's the point of that? And if we were all right now as a masid, if we received an invitation to the Oval Office from the president's desk, it doesn't matter who the president is, let it be the president that you admire the most. Who is it? JFK, , Lincoln, whoever it is, imagine this that you rece MCCT received an invitation to the Oval Office of the President of the United States of America and bring your children. Would we bring our children dressed in pajamas? Would we bring our kids and when we get in the Oval Office say, "Hey, go nuts, guys. Just run around, right? grab stuff off the shelves, knock things over, play with the microphones, grab the pens off his Would we allow that to happen? When we go to the library, do we allow that to happen? No, we don't. But the idea is, well, you know, that kids and you don't want to make him feel bad cuz if you make your kid feel bad, he's going to grow up, you know, , with trauma. like kids are some delicate little tiny flower that if you just say the wrong thing one time, they'll be messed up for life. This is not how kids are and this is not the real world. Right? Children will never grow up and say, "I wish my dad let me play more." But they will grow up and say, "I wish my dad taught me more. I wish my mom taught me more. I wish that they taught me a culture of exaltation of the masid. Right? When we say we want the kids to be in the masid, it's not just come and fill the building up. We want them to come and learn. This is a sacred place. Don't raise your voice in the masid. Say bismillah, enter with your right foot. Make sure that you're clean. Don't touch anything, right? That is that is not yours, etc. the things that we teach our children when we live in civilized society. Even when we go to the grocery store, we have rules and the kids know it and they adhere to those rules. And so this is something that takes time. We have to be patient with each other and so forth. But don't think bad of me when I correct something or when I mention it to you. There's nothing at all personal here. There's nothing at all that says children are not allowed in the masid or they shouldn't play in the masid. No. But within reason, within reason, right? Because this is a shared space and because it is the house of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because it is a place we have to teach and instruct our children. I'll leave you with this one final narration. Malik narrated that the prophet sallall.aii wasallam said.

[Silence]

The prophet sallallah.aihi wasallam, our prophet, he said at the end of time there will be Muslims that will sit in groups in their masid. The only thing that they are discussing each time and every time is the affairs of the dunya. They do not remember Allah in their gatherings. The prophet sallall.aii wasallam said Allah has no use for them. So do not sit in their company. Doesn't mean that saying something of the dunya is haram in the masid. But when the masid turns into a rotary club, how can we then turn it back? And if a person wishes to escape the dunya to get closer to Allah, where's he going to go? I mean, look, even now the Cabba has turned. People are there it's a tourist attraction. They've got their phones out and everybody's taking pictures and videos and selfie sticks and it it's become so difficult to find a place to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So we have to always remind ourselves and instruct our children and make sure that we maintain civility especially in the house of Allahham. Alhamdulillah. I think this is.