Laury Silvers' Eid al-Fitr Khutba

Salams and Eid Mubarak to all!  Nakia and I want to write up a summary of the Eid prayer.  It was a beautiful expression of the umma coming together.  Thanks to all who came and those who didn't come but gave us support in kindness and friendship whether they agreed with the prayer or not.

In the meantime, I'll put up my khutba.  I'll put up the Arabic sections later, insha'Allah.  For those who wonder, one has a choice for one or two khutbas for the Eid prayer according to various manuals.  I chose one. This is just a cut and paste from my document:

Eid al-Fitr Khutba

Open:  Hamd, Prayers on the Prophet, Exhortation, recite Quraysh 

Dua:  Allah, Nakia and I invited our sisters and brothers to share in this Eid prayer today for Your sake alone.  We made our intention to lead and speak here for Your sake alone.  Allah, Allah, Allah.  That is easier said than done. 

Khutba:  The Prophet, alayhi salam, is reported to have said, "Faith has many branches, the most excellent is saying 'There is no god but God'.  The lowest is removing an obstacle from the road.  And modesty is also a branch of faith."

The lowest is removing an obstacle from the road.

I objected when I was taught this hadith.  How could moving an object out of the road have anything to do with faith.  Shouldn't the shahada be the minimum?  I could only imagine pulling the car over on a windy day to drag some nasty Rubbermaid garbage can that had blown into the street back onto someone's lawn.  Please.  How is this faith?

My teacher explained that there can be no shahada without there first being the inclination to care for someone other than ourselves.  Not just that, the hadith implies that we must care for someone we have not met.  We must do a simple, decent thing for someone we will probably never meet.  In fact, the next driver will probably never thank us for pulling that can out the road.  Because when we moved that can out of the road, the road was clear.  Nothing to notice, nothing to be thankful for.  Not just that, we drive on after we move the can out of the road.  We do not wait around for the satisfaction of seeing the next driver go by without swerving.  To move an obstacle out of the road is to care for someone without expecting to see the results.  To move an obstacle out of the road is to do a simple decent thing without hope of recognition.  To move an obstacle out of the road is the first gesture toward doing something for the sake of God, and not for yourself. 

If caring for others without recognition or approbation is the first and lowest articulation of faith, Allah help us.  Which of us doesn't see that garbage can rolling in the street on a windy day and think someone else will grab it, or wonder at the unthinking can-owner, or the unthinking sanitation worker who probably just tossed it up on the driveway willy-nilly, and now look!  Which one of us doesn't think, 'I don't want to get my hands or my clothes dirty, I'm in a hurry', or which of us just drives around it and doesn't think about it at all.  Now I'm sure we've all stopped to move that can out of the road at some point.  Masha'Allah.  The point here is that the inclination to do for others in this trivial and unrewarded way should go without saying. 

TabarakAllah alaykum, here you all are moving an obstacle out of the road.  You didn't think 'Someone else will go to that prayer, I'll stay home'.  You didn't think, 'It isn't my responsibility'.  You didn't think, 'What does it matter nothing is going to change anyway'.  You came.  God bless you.  You came even though we all know we may not see female imams accepted by even a small majority in our lifetime.  You came even though the Muslims who will benefit most from what we do here today may not even have been born yet.  Because you came the whole community can keep the conversation open and alive for a while longer.  You are the kifaya, the ones who moved the obstacle out of the road so that others could travel more freely.

This event is not a rejection of our community or the tradition.  This event is a gesture of our trust in God and the wisdom of our community.  God willing someday shared authority will be so traditional that there will be nothing to notice about a woman-led prayer.

Maybe moving an obstacle out of the road *is* the lowest expression of faith, but maybe when fully realized it is actually the highest.  Fully realized, it should be nothing other than the shahada.  When we take an obstacle out of the road, who do we hand it to?  We hand it to God.  When we hand it to God, we open our hearts towards Him.  All we can do in this life, ever, is pull one obstacle out of the road at a time and turn to God with our burden.  There is no god but God, there is no guide but God, there is no helper but God.  When we move an obstacle out of the road, we give over something of ourselves to God.

How could it be any other way?  The highest branch of faith must be fully present in the lowest.  God is nearer to us than the vein in our necks, even if we do not realize it. 

Dua:  Please God, gently make us aware of how near You are to us.  Please God, gently turn us towards You.  Please God, gently hand our burden to You and gently take our burden from us, and gently return us to this world of roads and obstacles so that You might gently turn us toward You and gently take our next burden from us. 

May God give us strength to continue in this struggle.  May God give us the humility and patience to continue on without the support of so many of our sisters and brothers.  May God open their hearts to understand what moves us.  May God open our hearts to understand what moves them.  May God open their hearts and ours towards each other so that we may resolve these differences, if only to agree to disagree.  May God give us what we need to love each other through Him, support each other through Him, and inspire beauty in each other through Him.  God is the Beautiful, and He loves Beauty.  God help us all to see through the veil of our righteousness to His justice.

Close:   Prayers on the Prophet, closing dua