The Forgotten Sunnah: The Sermon of Need

The Shaykh : First, we open this session with the Sermon of Need, which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to open all his sermons with, whether it was the Friday sermon, the festival sermon, a sermon for marriage, a sermon for teaching, a sermon of admonition, or anything from which one benefits.Those present : from the words of the Messenger (peace be upon him). He (peace and blessings be upon him) hoped that by opening his sermons and speech with the Sermon of Need, his need would be realized in the hearts of the listeners. That need is for them to be admonished and to learn. The meaning of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) opening his speech with the Sermon of Need is that he sought nearness to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) through His remembrance, supplication, and humility before Him, asking Him to realize his need from his speech. We, the Muslims and callers to the Lord of the Worlds, cannot realize our need in our calling unless we follow the footsteps of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in every great and small matter, as much as we are able to do so. It is undeniable that reciting the Sermon of Need before the sermon or admonition is an easy and simple matter that every preacher can present before his admonition, lesson, or lecture. Nevertheless, we find that most— I do not say all callers, for among many callers there are those who cannot rightly be called callers— but I say that many people of knowledge and virtue do not open their sermons, whether the Friday sermon in particular or other sermons in general, except with introductions that they either invent themselves, originate from their own minds, or take from those who came before them and preceded them in this. As for the sermon of the Messenger (peace be upon him), they do not care about it or learn it in order to open their sermons. So I say, following the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): "All praise is for Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and from the bad of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, no one can mislead, and whom He misleads, no one can guide. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger." The Sermon of Need ends here. Sometimes (peace and blessings be upon him) would limit himself to its introduction without the three verses. Sometimes he would add to the completion of this sermon, including the three verses, saying: "As for what follows— especially on Friday— the best of speech is the speech of Allah, the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and the worst of matters are their innovations, and every innovation is a misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire." (peace and blessings be upon him) would follow the Sermon of Need with such an admonition to firmly establish in the minds a very, very important principle, which is that every innovation is a misguidance and every misguidance is in the Fire. Yet you will find that many of the elite, let alone the common people, contradict this general text or this important principle. They oppose it by saying, without any scrupulousness, "No, not every innovation is a misguidance. Many scholars have divided innovation into five categories." This division completely contradicts and opposes this universal principle in this hadith. They say that innovation is divided into two categories: good and bad. This general division strikes the words of the Messenger (peace be upon him) in the chest, as it is said, where he says: This striking is like the striking of those later generations of this authentic hadith. The hadith says "every," and they say "no." Innovation is two categories, good and bad! Then this division and that one are divided into five categories, meaning the five rulings apply to them...