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The Chapter of The Iron
Surah Al-Hadeed is the 57th chapter of the Quran and comes after Surah Al-Waqiah and before Surah Al-Mujadilah. The primary focus of this Surah is to encourage Muslims to take Islam seriously and put their full effort into obeying the commandments of Allah and His Messenger (pbuh).
In this khutbah that I gave this past Friday at Ar-Rahman Islamic Center in Atlanta, Georgia, I discussed this topic and used this Surah as a reference. In fact, the Khutbah was really a commentary on this great Surah.
My goal was for my audience to see the importance of sincerity in Islam and how much Allah wants us to do our best in all aspects of worship. I started the Khutbah off by reciting a verse that particularly highlights this idea:
Has the time not come for those who have believed that their hearts should become humbly submissive at the remembrance of Allah and what has come down of the truth?
Chapter 57, verse 16
Allah begins this Surah by extolling Himself and informing us of His power, might, wisdom, and knowledge. Then He gives us, in ever increasing degrees, an idea of the depth and magnitude of His knowledge.
From that point on, it’s a reminder to us to put our best effort into our deeds and not become sidetracked by the life of this world. It is truly a magnificent Surah and I hope I was able to get the message across adequately. I was hoping this Surah would encourage people to become more serious about practicing Islam. I guess we all some ways to go as the donation collection was quite low and the number of people coming for evening prayer was relatively small.
[...] It’s best for any new Muslim to remember that Islam is a balance. [...]