The Point of Juma

The Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “If a person bathes on Friday, cleans himself thoroughly, combs his hair, uses perfume if available, goes to the Masjid taking care not to step over anyone in the congregation, offers the prescribed portion of the Friday prayer and also listens silently to the Imam’s sermon, then whatever sins he committed since the previous Friday will be forgiven.” [Bukhari]

A Muslim wrote a letter to the editor of the Jamaat newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to the Masjid every Friday. “I've gone for 30 years now,” he wrote, “and in that time I must have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me I can't remember a single one of them. So I think I'm wasting my time . . . and the Imams are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.”

This started a real controversy in the “Letters to the Editor” column, much to the dismay of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:

“I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall what the menu was for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: they all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me those meals, I would be dead today.”

No comments were made on sermon contents anymore.

The lips of the righteous nourish many . . . souls need food as bodies do.

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