As Salaam Alaikum Auzu Billahi Minaash-Shaitanir Rajeem Bismillah Ir-Rahman nir-Rahim Al-Hamdu Lillahi Nahmaduhu wa Nassta eenuhu, wa Nasstaghfiruhu,

wa Natoobu Ilayhi, wa Na oozu Billahi Min Shurouri Anfusina wa Saiyaati Amaalina. Praise be to Allah, we praise Him and seek help from Him; we ask forgiveness from Him; we repent to Him; and we seek refuge in Him from the evils of our own souls and from our own bad deeds. Ash hadu an-la illaha illallahu, wahdahu la sharika lahu, wa ash hadu anna Muhammadan Abduhu wa Rasuluhu, Sallallahu was alihi was Salam am mabad I bear witness that there is no deity except Allah (with no partners or associates) and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Servant of Allah and His Messenger, The Prayers and the Peace Be Upon Muhammad, his successors and what follows of that salutation. Dear Muslims: We thank Allah for this blessed day of Jumuah-the best day of the week; the day on which Adam was created; We thank Allah for the blessing of being a Believer; we thank Him for awakening us this morning healthy and sane. We thank Him for the health of our families; We thank Him for the blessing of His Last Revelation, Qur'an and for His last Messenger Muhammad. (SAW) Our leader and best human example, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said in his last sermon: Beware of Satan, for your safety of your religion. He has lost all hope that he will ever be able to lead you astray in big things, so beware of following him in small things. Before Allah created the world, He presented a picture of His creation to the angel, Jibreel. And the picture was so beautiful that Jibreel said: My Lord how could anybody go wrong in a world like this. Then he showed him a picture of the world after Satan had corrupted it and Jibreel said: How could anybody go right in a world like this.

This is the world we see before us, the world we live in. And it is difficult to be right. It seems sometimes that Satan is in charge. He has influenced the commercial world. They will sell you anything as long as you buy it; as long as they can make money off of it. He influences the political world, where lying is common and the people are oppressed by ignorance. He influences the intellectual? world where a well known astrophysicist, Steven Hawkings promotes the idea that "...there is no g-d that is responsible for this magnificent universe. And we know also that Satan has influenced the Sanctuary of the church, the synagogue, and the mosque. So, in our lives, as Believers, Satan will attack us in the small things. But we know that whatever Satan plans, will be encircled and that Allah will cause it to advance His Plan. Most of us would sacrifice our life before we deny that Allah is G-d and that Muhammad is His Messenger. That is the big thing. It is this belief, this declaration of two things, Shahadatain, that makes us Muslim. Our Prophet says: "I leave you with two things- the Quran and my Sunnah." We as Muslims hold on to that. The Muslim world has had Allah's Revelation in Qur'an and the Sunnah of our Prophet for 1400 years- and yet here today, they are having what the West calls the "Arab Spring." Al-Faurat Al-Arabiya- The Faurat comes from the root word Fara, which means to boil over, to gush forth, to be raised, to be in a fit of passion, to come instantly, immediately or all of sudden. None of these definitions fit the characterization of springunless were talking about a geyser or a volcano. But thats what they are calling it. If there is widespread poverty in the Muslim world, if there is ignorance among the people and oppression by their leaders, then this tells us that we have neglected some little things. This may be one of those little things but I reject the term Arab spring for several reasons. First of all I am suspicious of anything which is defined by an oppressor for the people they have oppressed. Most of us have lived in America under Christianity and we came here and suffered brutality and oppression under the banner of Christianity. So what makes us think that them giving us Christianity as a religion is going to be, in any way to our benefit? The United States has supported oppression throughout the Muslim world for their own economic interests such as oil, and for their own national security interests, such as having a base from which to launch their attacks and having place at which to park their Fifth Fleet. And the leaders and the oppressive regimes that have been overthrown have been those that obeyed the will of the

Western powers and ignored the will of their own people. So we have to be skeptical of others defining our struggle even though they are claiming to support you. I do not believe that we should hold a grudge forever, but when I see you behaving better, then I'll think better about you. I think the better term would be Arab Rebellion, and that is the literal translation of what Western commentators are calling an Arab Spring. Secondly the media did not just coin the term Arab Spring in response to the recent protests and revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain. The term was first used to describe the flowering of Western friendly democracies, the United States and other Western powers had hoped would happen after the US invasion of Iraq. But after the January of 2006, with the election of Hamas by the Palestinians in Gaza, they stopped using the term because they wanted selected democracies-not those in which the common people really ruled and may insist on rights for the Palestinians or demand Israel end their occupation and oppression. No they didnt want real democracy. They wanted democracy looking regimes that were run by friendly despots. Then in 2011, they revived the term as protests and rebellions spread throughout the Muslim world. Another problem is that by labeling the Arab Spring it continues to marginalize Islam as an Arab religion. This has been a problem among Westerners and among Muslims themselves. Muslims of other parts of the world have resented this, and Westerners have discouraged the conversion of other nations and races as if Islam should be foreign to them. There is another problem. If the Arab Rebellion is an Arab spring that means it is in its youth or infancy. It then has to grow and development into maturity. If that's the case and if democracy is the objective, then they should look to the west for guidance toward getting there. Respect for the dignity of the human person-for his life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness- was established by Prophet Muhammad. Now we must give credit where credit is due, and it has been America and the Western world that has championed these ideas in the modern world and we have been asleep. To be fair we must also acknowledge that as early as 1975, Imam W. Deen Mohammed, urged the rulers in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries to give their people freedom and participation in the government and to stop dominating their lives and their affairs.

When you read the media accounts of the Arab Rebellion, you will find little or no reference to Muslims, Islam or the Qur'an. To read their reports they are Twitter and Facebook revolutions. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was persecuted and denied political participation and imprisoned for decades, in Syria. We know that they were instrumental in the Tahrir Square protestsin encouraging the protests, organizing then protests and in maintaining peace and order there. In Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood was virtually destroyed by Hafez Assad when he killed at least 10,000 people in Hama in 1982. But he remained a friend of the West. So those who see Islam and the Quran as the vehicles for securing freedom have been both an inspiration and involved in these movements. If I send you a Tweet to remind you to make your Fajr prayer, do you give Twitter the credit. In fact how am I even entitled to the credit. All I did was touched something in your soul and in your nature that motivated you to do the right thing. American philosopher and counterculture commentator Noam Chomsky claimed, "The U.S. and its allies will do anything they can to prevent authentic democracy in the Arab world. The reason is very simple. Across the region, an overwhelming majority of the population regards the United States as the main threat to their interests." Why don't they want us, and the world, to know these things? It is because they do not want people to know that Islam, and our Prophet, and our Qur'an are the most effective help to the liberation of people. Our Prophet Muhammad was sent as a Liberator to break the bonds and remove the yokes from the people. I am a descendant of slaves and at the time I had no knowledge of the Qur'an; but the thing that influenced me most in accepting my own nature, as Muslim, and my own religion of Islam, was the Honorable Elijah Muhammads reference to Qur'an that "a people guided by Allah can not be enslaved. This is just another relatively small thing that people are not aware but ingesting a small amount of falsehood, just like a small amount of poison over along period of time will have serious consequences. In America, the media, which used to be viewed very narrowly as the press, is known as the Fourth Estate. There are the three branches of the government, Executive, Legislative and Judiciary, and they represent a balance of power. The press is supposed to be independent of the government and when government becomes oppressive, it acts as a check on the government, by keeping the people informed and pointing out the failures of the government. But at times, it is used by the government to misinform and then can be seen as a Fourth Branch of government.

It is the small thingsWith all of this being said we still have to acknowledge that this country, with all its faults has remained far ahead of most others in advocating the dignity of the human person. We have to be able to accept the truth from whatever source it comes. And right now its coming from the West. Americas not perfect and were not perfect. But we can help. Dr. Martin Luther King once observed: We aint what we ought to be. We aint what we could be. We aint what we gonna be, but thank God we aint what we were. This country of ours is not where it ought to be. Neither are we. But I believe, as our Prophet has told us, that we have to guard the small things. Small lies lead to big misperceptions. We have to support the freedom of people wherever they are oppressed. Prophet Muhammad is our leader and he came to break the bonds of slavery and oppression and we have to do the same thing. But the greatest oppression is ignorance and we cant follow blindly. We have to follow with our eyes wide open. There are more than 20 states now that are considering or have enacted laws prohibiting the practice of Sharia law. Now this is a big thing but we are not treating it like that. Sharia covers all of the Principles of our faith and principles of our Practice. Does this mean that we are going to be forbidden to make our Salat, even in our own homes and masjids? Are we going to be forbidden to fast during Ramadan? Are we going to be forbidden to conduct our marriages and Janazahs. They have already forbidden Jihad, they way that they perceive it. But Jihad is an obligation upon all of us. I know that they see it as suicide bombers attacking all Westerners. But we are obligated to fight against anyone who oppresses us. And we are obligated to fight against the oppression of sin and ignorance in our own souls. Let us not allow anyone to define or confine our religion. I think the first thing to do, the small thing, is have a correct perceptions of the things around us.

Rabbana atina fid-dunya hasanatan Wa fil-Akhirati hasanatan wa qina 'adhab an-Nar. ' O Allah! Grant us good in this life and good in the life to come, and save us from the torment of Hell Fire." Al-Hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen Wassalatu Wassalamu Ala khairil Mursaleen, Muhammadin Al-Nabiyil Ummiyee; wa ala Alihi wa sahbihi Ajma een ammaa Baad.

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of All the Worlds; the Prayers and the Peace be upon the best Messenger, Muhammad, the unlettered Prophet; and upon His Family and upon all His companions, and what follows of that salutation. 125. Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him): The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wassallam) said, "Iman has over seventy branches, the uppermost of which is the declaration: `None has the right to be worshipped but Allah'; and the least of which is the removal of harmful object from the road, and modesty is a branch of Iman.'' Reported by [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] We can look at Iman as the big thing in our religion and in our lives, and just as a tree has many branches so too does faith, and I think we can see these branches as the many small things. We see that the word Iman comes from the word Amina and there are many attributes and qualities that are implied in the word. There is trust, or trustworthiness. While it may not seem like that big a thing, it is really the mortar that holds us together as the solid wall that Allah wants us to be. We want to know that our brother has our back. We want to know that if I leave my possessions with him, they will be intact when I get back. That is why our Prophet was known, even before Revelation, as El-Amin, the Trustworthy. There is security. Is my honor and my reputation safe and secure from you? Will you guard my property and family just like you would your own? There is belief. We believe in Allah and in his Messenger Muhammad, but do we believe in each other. Do we believe in our Imam, in our brother. And here is something that is equally important. Do we believe in ourselves? How can we be successful in anything if we dont believe in ourself? That is confidence. We cannot be discouraged by the difficulty of the task nor by repeated failures. It is well known that successful scientists, inventors and others, go through many, many unsuccessful efforts before they finally succeed. If you are going to be discouraged by the first effort, it will be hard for you to accomplish anything. Our Prophet endured much persecution and rejection before Islam was established in Arabia. He was called crazy, he was called a liar, but he never let it shake his faith. And that is steadfastness another meaning that is implied in Amina. There is attention to duty. Do we demonstrate our faith on our jobs by doing an excellent job? Do we try to perform every task excellently? That is what our Prophet has directed: That whatever the Muslim undertakes he seeks to perfect

it? We have many duties and responsibilities and I believe that it is through the neglect of these perhaps small thing that we open the door to weakness and sin. There is reliability, and related to that is being able for people to rely on what we say and that is truthfulness. How can a person trust us or belief in what we say, if we are not truthful in word and deed. If all of these qualities are missing then how can we say we have faith. Arent we then just a believer in name only? I believe that in these simple words, our Prophet has given us keys to guard against the things that can weaken our faith and keys to strengthen our faith.