A speech by Shaykh al-Halabi on the occasion of the marriage of one of the brothers.

The Shaykh : Please, my brother, improvise a speech. May Allah reward you. Come, rely on Allah and fulfill this brother's wish. Come, in the name of Allah.
Al-Halabi : All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and from the badness of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whomsoever He misguides, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger.
As for what follows: The most truthful speech is the speech of Allah the Exalted, and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). The worst of matters are those that are newly invented, and every newly invented matter is a religious innovation, and every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire. As for what follows: We praise Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He) for gathering us and you in this place and in this noble assembly, where we witness the building of an Islamic family to be a new brick standing upon the Book and the Sunnah in the structure of the desired Islamic community, if Allah wills. The Muslims today, in the painful reality they live in, we see them stumbling in many matters and we see them living in a delusion beyond which there is no greater delusion. This is only because of their distance from applying the Book of their Lord and the Sunnah of their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and because of their neglect of the understanding of their righteous predecessors regarding the Book of Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He) and the Sunnah of His Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him). Therefore, we see that often, when they want to hold a wedding for their sons or daughters, they turn their faces toward what is wrong and toward sin and disobedience, as if the celebrations of people today are not complete in their features except with sin, refuge in Allah. If you forbid them and warn them, they say to you, "We want to be happy." If you tell them to avoid musical instruments and music and those violations of the Shari'ah, they say, "What is the alternative?" You see them wanting to resort to an alternative, and they fall into an alternative that is in its reality also a sin, just as is the case with the groups called today "Islamic groups," in which men and young people, some of whom may be bearded, use hand drums, drums, musical instruments, and things whose names we do not know. Then they compose them to the tunes of the openly sinful and they sing along with them like the hymns of the people of misguidance. Then they claim after all of this that this is the alternative, and it is in reality not an alternative at all. The Shari'ah alternative to those sins is in such a blessed assembly as this, where there is benefit and where there is knowledge, and where the lights of the Book and the Sunnah shine. It is at the same time an announcement of the marriage and an introduction of it to the people. As for his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) , this is for women and not for men. And Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned in his treatise "Al-Sama'" that the righteous Salaf used to call one who beats the hand drum a eunuch. So I say: The alternative will not be a true Shari'ah alternative, if the term "alternative" is even permissible, except that this alternative is built in its essence and details upon the Shari'ah, not contradicting it. And our brother Abu 'Abdullah (may Allah preserve him) has accustomed us in previous occasions to include in his assembly and his celebration our Shaykh and his brothers, sons, and companions, so that they may be participants in his joy and providers of help and assistance to establish that happy family, for which we hope for permanence and love emanating from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). The pure Shari'ah came to clarify the general rules which are the standards of marriage. Regarding the man, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said . And regarding the woman, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said , meaning: If you do not do so, your hands will be covered in dust. This is a phrase the Arabs used to say to one who missed out on a good and beneficial matter. In such a marriage as we are witnessing today, there will be, if Allah wills, only these standards: standards built upon the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), not those standards built upon the desires of people, or their customs, or their traditions, or their inheritances from their fathers and grandfathers. Much of that is a decaying inheritance, but it is from the inheritance of guidance from the Book of Allah and from the Sunnah of His Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him). For all of this, we have gathered in this place around our Shaykh and in the house of our brother, so that his joy may be complete and his assembly may shine with light, illuminated by the lights of the Book and enlightened by the lights of the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). And as we want to congratulate the bride and groom, we congratulate them with the Islamic congratulation, not with the pre-Islamic congratulation. We say: May Allah bless them both and join them in goodness. And we do not say, as the people of ignorance and deviation from the new pre-Islamic pagans say, "May you have prosperity and sons." This is what the Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds (may Allah the Exalted send prayers and blessings upon him, his family, and all his Companions) forbade. We ask Allah the Exalted to decree marriage for every young man, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) encouraged it . So this is the advice of a brother to his brothers: that marriage is a fortress and a paradise in this age that is filled with desires, filled with doubts, and filled with misleading trials. There is no escape from it after Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) except by obeying His commands, and the greatest of that is marriage according to its Shari'ah principles, not according to its pre-Islamic laws in which people compete and imitate one another in the highness of mahr and the delay of the deferred portion, and similar matters that have no connection to the Shari'ah. In reality, they place obstacles in the face of applying the ruling of the Shari'ah. This is a speech I loved to say in response to the wish of our Shaykh and our teacher. Otherwise, it would not be fitting for one like me to speak in the presence of the great teacher. And I leave the space for a brief comment from our Shaykh (may Allah preserve him). May Allah reward you with good.