Focusing on Tawhid in the Friday Sermon
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah grant you success. There is no doubt that the Friday sermon is one of the most important means of da'wah (calling others to Islam). When we advise some of the preachers to focus on calling people to tawhid (the oneness of Allah), or warning against shirk (associating partners with Allah), or calling people to prayer and urging them to maintain it because many are neglecting it, you find that the preacher is not satisfied with that. He says, "These are known matters, firmly established in the mind, and calling to them may be a form of belittling the people, or it may be boring for them because they already know them." So I ask for your guidance, Honorable Shaykh.
Answer:
This is a mistake. It is not the case that everyone knows these matters; many people are ignorant of them. Also, even those who know them may forget or become heedless of them, or they may be reminded of them. So he calls to tawhid in the sermon, and he also calls to enjoining good and forbidding evil. He addresses various topics in the sermon, mentioning them under one theme: what people need in their worship, their creed, and their transactions. He does not stick to one single topic and repeat it every Friday, but he always focuses on tawhid. The beginning and introduction of the sermon should be about disbelief, and then he proceeds to what people need in their transactions, their worship, and the matters in which they fall into error and the violations they are required to avoid.
May Allah grant you success. There is no doubt that the Friday sermon is one of the most important means of da'wah (calling others to Islam). When we advise some of the preachers to focus on calling people to tawhid (the oneness of Allah), or warning against shirk (associating partners with Allah), or calling people to prayer and urging them to maintain it because many are neglecting it, you find that the preacher is not satisfied with that. He says, "These are known matters, firmly established in the mind, and calling to them may be a form of belittling the people, or it may be boring for them because they already know them." So I ask for your guidance, Honorable Shaykh.
Answer:
This is a mistake. It is not the case that everyone knows these matters; many people are ignorant of them. Also, even those who know them may forget or become heedless of them, or they may be reminded of them. So he calls to tawhid in the sermon, and he also calls to enjoining good and forbidding evil. He addresses various topics in the sermon, mentioning them under one theme: what people need in their worship, their creed, and their transactions. He does not stick to one single topic and repeat it every Friday, but he always focuses on tawhid. The beginning and introduction of the sermon should be about disbelief, and then he proceeds to what people need in their transactions, their worship, and the matters in which they fall into error and the violations they are required to avoid.
Source
شرح قرة عيون الموحدين في تحقيق دعوة الأنبياء والمرسلين، باب تفسير التوحيد وشهادة أن لا إله إلا الله — islamhouse.com (1:06:39)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.