“And they were not commanded except to worship Allah, [being] sincere to Him in religion, inclining to truth, and to establish prayer and to give zakah. And that is the correct religion.” Qur’an 98V5.

In this Khutbah, three important issues will be examined, biqudirat-Llaahi. These are: a recap on the out-going sacred month of Rajab the last Jumu’at of which is today in Nigeria;the strategy to acquire the Abrahamic dissociation from his polytheistic father and people; and introduction of salaat as the nucleus of the irreducible minimum requirements for success in the Standard Religion and as the Strategy to acquire the spirit and skills of the Shaadah.

Goodbye to the Sacred Month of Rajab and welcome to Sha’baan.“ ; ’ a ; .”

So let’s review our righteous deeds in Rajab, and pay extra attention to making them perfect in Sha‘baan, so that we will be able to do them in a perfect manner in Ramadan.
The scholars refer to this idea in several ways, including the following:

It was said that Rajab is for a person to stop drifting away, Sha‘baan is for striving and sincerity, and Ramadan is for truthfulness and purity.

Rajab is the month of repentance, Sha‘baan is the month of love, and Ramadan is the month of closeness to Allah.

Rajab is the month of sanctity, Sha‘baan is the month of service, and Ramadan is the month of blessing.
Rajab is the month of worship, Sha‘baan is the month of turning away from this world, and Ramadan is the month of increase.

Rajab is the month in which Allah multiplies the reward of good deeds, Sha‘baan is the month of expiating bad deeds, and Ramadan is the month of waiting for gifts and honours.
Rajab is the month of those who are excelling, Sha‘baan is the month of those whose progress is moderate, and Ramadan is the month of the sinners (in which they can mend their ways).
Allahummabalighna Ramadan! O Allah! Let’s reach the month of Ramadan.
Strategic dissociation from the idols of our people and the world.
We are commanded to do only THREE things: 1. Worship Allaah alone and not allow six competitors in His worship. 2. To observe Salaat and 3. Do Zakat(Q98:5).
Summary of the competing gods we must avoid as a first step to correctly dissociate from them in actualization of our Shahadah.

1. Senses (Q17:36). Antidote for this is to use our senses to discover the hidden drive for the manifest actions and events. AI, ordinary moving fan, atom, electron, sleep, dream and self. No physical reality without invisible spirit behind and driving it. Facts are not the same as Truth. Life after death is real but not sensible, but we die and resurrect daily. This an example of subjection of our senses to our creator in order to use the senses correctly.

2. Environment and popular company (Q6:116-117). Majority is always wrong. For instance, democracy being a game of numbers of ignoramuses. Study-Read the environment and discover the evils of fake life. Don’t be vulnerable.

3. Authorities (Q14:21; 34:31-33). Remember the day when no soul would avail another and all Authorities would be with Allaah alone. Satanism is very influential in the acts and actions of people in authorities today. They are mostly friaun who play God and rely heavily on magic which demands three liquids that anger Allaah and the earth for the material success of the worshippers of Shaytan. The three liquids are wasted and anguished SWEAT, TEARS and BLOOD. That is why the sweat of honest workers gets dry and wasted and employees enjoy the suffering of the unremunerated and satanically short-changed workers. All Promises are always Cancelled like APC.

That is why people generally cry because life is becoming unliveable and at the same time cheap and worthless.

Blood is being shed in a variety of ways now. Plane crash, strange accident, bomb blast, needless killings by bandits and other sundry brigands etc.
Kidnapping combines the three while Muslims who should runaway from suchsatanic act to avoid Allaah’s wrath are now experts in this act. It is now the best business that takes them to the next level. The fact that nobody seems to have any idea of the way out of this tragedy suggests complicityor deliberate acts as conditions for maintenance of power. This takes us directly to the fourth god.

4. The Cult of the Elderly and the youth influencers (Q6:123; 34:34-44). Almost everything today is occultic and Muslims must be careful. You may be propagating cult ideas and advocating and advertising cults ignorantly. For instance, certain hairdo, beards, and wears. Lol finger-twisting to show Satanism.

5. Shaytan (Q2:36, 168, 208, 268,275; 4:22; 38:60 etc). SHAYTAN is the author of all negativities like LGBTQ and its contents, drone and AI for robbery, fraud and scam like yahoo, yahoo+ etc.

6. Self (12:53; 50:16, 21; 53:23; 59:9; 64:16;79:37-41; 82:19). Self is the author and finisher of all evils because it is stronger than SHAYTAN. When we devote our lives to the remembrance of Allaah, our companion follows suite and we are blessed with a life without fear and grief (Q20:123).
But when we turn away from the remembrance (Qur’an) we live a miserable life (Q20:124).
Shaytan and his progeny among Jin and mankind are now appointed companions of the negligent man (Q41:25; 43:36).

In summary, we live all our lives with a Qorin, who is a Jin responding to our attitude to the remembrance of Allaah. It is negative and spiritually tragic if we are negligent of the Qur’an and it is positive and submissive if we are companions to the Qur’an. The prophet and Aisha teach us about this.
Salaat as the strategy to acquire the spirit and skills of the pure Shahadah
Iqomatis-Salaat (Standing in salaat) is the strategy to acquire the spirit and skills of the pure Shahadah. It is the platform to integrate IkhlasunDeen, and Zakah.

When we achieve Khush’ in salaat, it functions for us as a drive to service and repair us (Q29:45).But when we fail, our hypocrisydestroys our salaat and consequently our other acts of Ibaadah (Q4:142, 107:4).

The actions in Salaat comprise: Sa’yu, Takbirat,Qiraatul Qur’an, Tasbih, Istighfar, Dua’ and Sujud.

Indeed, standingin salaat is a rehearsal and physical drills for the various stands we must take in life such as the following:

1.Standing in the Masjid (the house of Allaah) like Ibrahim did to produce the Maqam as a great sign, is for ‘security’ and ‘eternal Power and Glory’(Q2:125). Non-Muslims are always afraid every Friday not for fear of possible end of the world like the Prophet said, but for possible Muslim renaissance and end of falsehood, oppression and tyranny if the Muslims should decide one Friday to wake up and rescue the world.The Prophet used to dispatch armies after eid and Juma’h and also encourage travelling for business after Juma’h.

2. Standing before Allaah to receive glad tidings and acceptance of Dua’ like Zakariyah who prayed for a child for decades. Allaah accepted his prayer while standing in the Masjid(Q3:38-39).

3. Standing against evil to get strength as the As’abulkhaf (the companions of the cave) did (Q18:14).

4. Standing for Justice even if it affects us or ours(Q4:135). It is an obligation and when the oppressor happens to be a Muslim, standing with him in the Masjid pricks his conscience and gives us the strength of the heart and tongue to talk to him.

5. Standing to recite Fatiah is practical mysticism as we converse with and receive Bushra from Allaah. Allaah responds to every ayah.

6. Standing is a mystical position to establish human superiority as the only creature on the earth that naturally stands erect but can bow like the erect trees without breaking; bend into quadrupeds position without remaining permanently there; prostrate like the reptiles without remaining permanently like that and fly like birds with or without devices like Jinns. Angels and Jinns can assume these positions as their own form of worship or natural expression, but only humans can do all of these and return to their erect position to show karaama over most creatures of Allaah (Q17:70). It begins with standing.

7. STANDING is the beginning of the mystical writing of the name of Allaah. It is the Alif which stands for one and one thousand. Ruku’ is Lam which is 30 geomantic value while rising from Ruku’ is another Alif or Madi and U is written by our prostration as the name completed.

8. Standing is physical drill to acknowledge Allaah as the most Great and Alpha and Omega and to take instructions from Him like the troops take instructions from their commanders.
In the case of standing in salaat, both the commander and the troops face Allaah to take and pledge to obey the commands from the Supreme Commander (SWT).

We ask Allaah to give us a better understanding of His words .
RabbanaTaqobalQiyaamana, taqabalrúkú Ana, taqabalsujudana…Aameen.

Prof Azeez is Chief Imam, University of Abuja Mosque.