The Hijry Year

The Hijry Year
Dr. Sa`d ibn `Abdullah Al Humayyid
Praise be for Allah, we seek His Help and Forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of ourselves and from our bad deeds. Whom Allah guides no one can mislead and whom go astray, no one can guide them. I testify that there is no Allah but Allah alone, no partner with Him, and I testify that Muhammad is His Servant and Messenger (peace be upon him), his family, Companions, and those who followed him righteously. To the point:

Imam Ahmad, Abu Dawud and others reported from Al-`Irbad ibn Sariyah (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) One day the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) gave us a lengthy advice of which the hearts were softened and the eyes were full of tears.

We said: O Messenger of Allah! It seems as if it were a farewell exhortation, so what injunction do you give us? He then said: I enjoin you to fear Allah, and to hear and obey even if it be an Abyssinian slave, for those of you who live after me will see great disagreement. You must then follow my Sunnah and that of the rightly-guided caliphs. Hold to it and stick fast to it. Avoid novelties, for every novelty is an innovation, and every innovation is an error.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) instructs and exhorts us to adhere to his Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided Caliphs; Abu Bakr, `Umar, `Uthman and `Ali. This week we receive a new Islamic year, which has begun on a great Islamic occasion, namely the migration of the Prophet (peace be upon him). The Prophet began to establish the Islamic nation in an independent Islamic country governed by Muslims after that period which the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his Companions experienced in Makkah, where they suffered all kinds of trials and persecution such as beating, torture, hunger, ridicule and mockery. This is Khabbab ibn Al Arat, as was reported in Sahih Al Bukhary and others, came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) while he was sitting in the shade of the Ka`bah and said: "Would you seek help for us? Would you pray to Allah for us?" (that is because what they suffer of severe punishment) He said, "Among the nations before you a (believing) man would be put in a ditch that was dug for him, and a saw would be put over his head and he would be cut into two pieces; yet that (torture) would not make him give up his religion. His body would be combed with iron combs that would remove his flesh from the bones and nerves, yet that would not make him abandon his religion."

Infidels used to put a huge rock over the chest of Bilal (may Allah be pleased with) while laying him down on the very hot sand of the desert, saying to him: disbelief in Muhammad. However, he kept saying: He is the one (i.e, Allah).

Quraysh besieged the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and Banu Hashim in the mountain paths for a long time during which they suffered severe famine that made them eat uneatable food. They observed patience until the victory of Allah has come and the Prophet (peace be upon him) gave them the permission to migrate to Madinah while the people of Quraysh were trying to stop them from immigration until they set a serious matter and a wicked plot. They took a young man from each tribe to attack the Prophet (peace be upon him) in his house and strike him once and for all so that the crime may be distributed among the tribes and the murderer would be anonymous and the tribe of Banu Hashim would be helpless to take avenge from all tribes. Allah (Exalted be He) says: "And (remember) when the disbelievers plotted against you (O Muhammad peace be upon him) to imprison you, or to kill you, or to get you out (from your home, i.e. Makkah); they were plotting and Allâh too was plotting; and Allâh is the Best of those who plot."

Allah has informed His Prophet of their plan, so `Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) slept on the Prophet's bed. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) sent out to hide in the cave while the infidels surrounded the Prophet's house in which `Ali was sleeping supposing him the Prophet (peace be upon him). In the morning, they broke into the house and found `Ali was sleeping instead of the Prophet. They asked him: where is your friend? He said: I do not know. So, they followed his trace. When they reached the mountain, they found that the mount of the cave was blocked by the spider web. They said to one another: if he were to enter this cave, the web would be torn apart. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and Abu Bakr stayed there for three nights while Quraysh was still searching for them.

They passed by the cave but Allah direct them away from the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his companion. Abu Bakr said to him: O Messenger of Allah, if any one looks carefully under his feet, he will see us. The Messenger (peace be upon him) comforted him saying: Do not be sad, Allah is with us. O Abu Bakr, what do you think of two persons guarded by Allah?

Afterwards, the Prophet (peace be upon him) migrated to Madinah. That immigration which was the partition between truth and falsehood and Muslims were honored after humiliation, strong after weakness until Allah made His word superior and provided victory to His Prophet and His believing servants.

Dear brothers:
There was no calendar at the beginning of Islam until the succession of `Umar ibn Al Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him). In the third or the fourth year of succession Abu Musa Ash`ary (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote to him: We receive letters from you which have no date. Thereupon, `Umar gathered the Companions to consult them. It is said that some of them suggested to take a calendar similar to that of the Persians who used the death or accession of their kings as the start of a new era, but the Companions hated that. Some suggested to use the calendar of the Roman but they hated that either. Some said: start the Islamic calendar from the Prophet's birthday. Others said: start the Islamic calendar from his mission. Others suggested to start the Islamic calendar from his migration. `Umar said: migration has separated between the truth and falsehood, so use it as the start of the Islamic calendar and Muslims agreed to that. Afterwards, they consulted one another which month should we start our calendar with? Some of them said: Ramadan because it is the month in which the Qur'an was revealed. Some said: from Rabi` Al Awwal because it is the month in which the Prophet came to Madinah. `Umar, `Uthman and `Ali chose Al Muharram because it is a sacred month comes after Dhul-Hijjah during which Muslims perform Hajj which is the last pillar of Islam and in which the homage of Al `Aqabah took place and in which the decision of migration was taken. So, Muslims started their Calendar from that sacred month. Muslims have to follow and comply to this because of the Prophet's Hadith: "follow the my Sunnah as well as the Sunnah of my Rightly Guided Caliphs." May Allah grant us success to adhere to His Shari`ah, the Sunnah of His Prophet and the Sunnah of his Rightly Guided Caliphs.

The second Khutbah (religious sermon)
The name of Allah the Merciful
Praise be to Allah for His benevolence. Thanks are His for granting us success and for His favors. I testify that there is no god but He and Muhammad is His Servant and Messenger who guides for His pleasure (Peace be upon him, his family, his Companions and prophets. To the point:

The Prophet (peace be upon him) has told his nation that they will follow the traditions of the previous nations bit by bit and step by step even if they were to go into a hole of a dub, they would have followed them to. Anyone reflects on the texts of the Sunnah, they will note that the Prophet (peace be upon him) hated us to imitate the enemies of Allah and he always commanded his nation to disagree with them. He always said: Disagree with the Jews, disagree with the infidels and do not imitate the Jews or the Christians.

Unfortunately, the majority of Muslims these days replaced the Islamic Calendar with the Christian calendar which has no connection with us. Some of them may be excused due to the occupation they have been subjected to, where Christians occupied their land and forced them to forget about their Islamic Calendar, but now they have no excuse to use it since the occupation has been removed.

Dear Muslims:
Allah (Exalted be He) has informed us in the Qur'an that the number of months are twelve, as He says: "Verily, the number of months with Allâh is twelve months (in a year), so was it ordained by Allâh on the Day when He created the heavens and the earth; of them four are Sacred (i.e. the 1st, the 7th, the 11th and the 12th months of the Islâmic calendar)."

Allah made the beginning of the month by the vision of the crescent. Allah says: "They ask you (O Muhammad peace be upon him) about the new moons. Say: “They are signs to mark fixed periods of time for mankind and for the pilgrimage”. They are fixed periods for all people without distinction. There is no difference between Arabs and non-Arabs because they are evident noticeable marks for everyone by which people know the beginning and the end of the month. So, when the crescent os seen after sunset, even for a second, the new month begins.

Thereby, we knew that the beginning of the day is from sunset because the beginning of the month begins at that point. The beginning of the month is from sunset and since that moment the Shar`y rulings are put into effect. That means if a baby was born a minute before sunset in the last day of Ramadan, his guardian will have to pay the charity of breaking the fast. Likewise, if a person entered into the state of Ihram for `Umrah (minor Hajj) one minute before sunset in the last day of Ramadan, and stayed in Makkah to perform Hajj, he will not offer a Hady "sacrificial animal" if he later on intended Hajj because he has intended `Umrah in time other than the fixed time for Hajj. If a person entered into the state of Ihram one minute after sunset and waited in Makkah for Hajj, he must offer a Hady because he/she performed `Umrah in the time of Hajj after the vision of Shawwal's crescent. Based on this rule, we know that imitating the enemies of Allah, these days, has interfered in many aspects of our lives such as the Islamic calendar. That is due to the weakness which controlled Muslims' lives where they have become followers rather than leaders, weak rather than strong, and occupied rather than bearing the message of Islam to the world; all that because their bad deeds. We ask Allah by His Beautiful Names and High Attributes to remove the trial and unite all Muslims on the word of truth, o the soft-respondent.

O Allah, we testify that You are the One Who has no partner with Him, Who neither begets nor begotten and no equivalent to Him. O favors Giver, who created the Heavens and the earth in the perfect image.

O Allah, the Mighty and Magnificent. O Allah, the Live, we ask you to make this year and the years to come full of security, tranquility, useful knowledge, good deeds that lead to the best and humiliation to the enemies of Islam in all countries for You are the Most Merciful.

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