Salamualikoum everyone welcome back to Allah Loves. So we've
covered prayer, we covered purification, now we're going to cover the masajid,
we're going to cover the mosques. And I know that many of you have heard
many hadith about the importance of the masjid but again let's cover it within
this context. The Prophet peace be upon him said "ahabo el belaedi" .
(correction) the Prophet peace be upon him said "ahabo el biladi illa Allah masajidoha" that the most
beloved of places to Allah are the masajid and the most hated of places to
Allah are the marketplaces. Now when we talk about the masjids and the central
importance of the masjid to our lives and what this means in terms of the love of
Allah subhana wa ta'ala, obviously it's the house of Allah and he
who seeks to make Allah his primary concern then let everything that is
beloved to Allah become beloved to him and so let the house of Allah become his
own house and that's why the Prophet peace be upon him said "al masjido bayto
koli mo'men" that the Masjid is the place is the home of every single
believer so it's the house of Allah and it's the house of every single believer
the Prophet peace be upon him forbade those who tried to forbid their wives
from going to the masajid and he used the very powerful rhetoric "la tamna'o
ima'ollah masajido Alah" don't forbid the female servants of
Allah from the houses of a lot just as you as the male servants of Allah go to
the houses of Allah because these houses of Allah are meant to become our homes
as well. Every single believer even a child is meant to find the house of Allah
as the primary house in their own lives the place that they go to for mercy for
tranquility for nourishment and there's absolutely no replacing the role of the
masjid in one's life. There are other places that you could get together and
do halaqas and do gatherings. There are other places that you could get together
to socialize you can pray in other places too you can form a congregation
in your home but there is no place like the masjid. So let's talk about this for
a moment. The masjid is the place of prostration, is the place of sujood, it's
the place of the remembrance of Allah and that's the obvious reason
why it's the most beloved place to a Allah (swt). How many people
remember Allah in the marketplaces? So think about dhiker versus the lack of
dhiker, the remembrance of Allah versus the lack of the remembrance of
Allah. Now back then there was no concept of nightclubs and bars and things of
that sort so let's just keep it towards that these were the two most functional
places in a person's life they were between the masjid and the marketplace
and usually when you go to the marketplace it's very hard to remember
Allah (swt) and that's why there is such reward for 'dua al souk' for
making the supplication upon entering the marketplace "la ilaaha illa Allah wahdaho la
sharika la, lahul mulk wa lahul hamd yohyee wa yomeet wa ho hayon la ya moot
bi yadihi el khayr wa howa ala koli shay'en qadeer" that there is no god but Allah He is one
and there is no partner with Him, He is everliving and never dieH, he gives life
and He gives death and He has dominion over all things. The Prophet peace be
upon him mentioned the great reward of saying this upon entering the
marketplace because it's not easy to remember Allah in the marketplace. In the
masjid you're surrounded by the remembrance of Allah subhanho wa ta'ala or
you should be. The Prophet peace be upon him also extended that idea of places in
which Allah is remembered versus places which Allah is not remembered to every
other social gathering and thing that we do in our lives so he said the most
blessed of gatherings are the ones in which Allah's name is mentioned and the
worst of them are the ones in which his name is never even mentioned so bringing
Allah into our gatherings, into our spaces beyond the masajid, it is
certainly beloved. But this hadith has a greater dimension that I think is very
important especially in the 21st century where the masajid, where the mosques are
not just places of the dhiker. Imam Al Nawawi, rahimAllah, commented on this
hadith and he said that the reason one of the other reasons why the masjid is
beloved to Allah is because of the type of interaction between people that it
fosters. So it's a place where you come to seek
mercy and it's also supposed to be a place of exchanging mercy and he said
that in the marketplaces you usually see division in argument you know people
usually haggle and argue and bargain in the marketplace and they're divided
they're just there's deception there are false oaths and all types of things.
And he said the masjid ideally is supposed to be a place where none of
that is present where it's supposed to be a unifying place where there's mercy
and tranquility and harmony and nourishment and instead of false oaths
calling upon Allah subhana wa ta'ala instead of deception a place of great
admission and vulnerability and so it's not just the space of the masjid and the
space of the marketplace and certainly the Prophet peace be upon him taught us
to engage both ethically but it's how we turned the masjid into the most beloved
masjid to the Prophet peace be upon him, to the Muslims, to Allah. Right, how do
we take this masjid it and turn it into the madani community that
medinan community that the Prophet peace be upon him established where we're not
just remembering a lot in the masjid but that remembrance of Allah is cultivating
a certain type of interaction amongst each other in the masajid and then that
same spirit is carried out to the marketplace it's also telling that the
Prophet peace be upon him said that the masjid is not a place for buying and
selling and he said if you see people doing trade within the masajid tell
them may your transaction not be blessed so the masjid is supposed to be a
place that's reserved for those things. May Allah fill our lives with its mercy
and tranquility make it of central importance to us and dedicate us to
making the masjid the closest to the masjid of the Prophet peace be upon him
so that it could be most beloved to him. Allahoma ameen, jazakoumAllah khayran
wasalamualikoum wa rahmatolahi wa barakato.