“Praise be to God, the Renewer of Years, and the Multiplier of favours, and the Creator of months and days, according to the most perfect wisdom and most admirable regulation; who hath dignified the months of the Arabs above all other months, and hath pronounced that among the more excellent of them is al-Muḥarram the Sacred, and hath commenced with it the year, as He hath closed it with Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah. How propitious is the beginning, and how good is the end! I extol His perfection, exempting Him from the association of any other deity with Him. He hath well considered what He hath formed and established what He hath contrived, and He alone hath the power to create and to annihilate. I praise Him, extolling His perfection, and exalting His name, for the knowledge and inspiration which He hath graciously vouchsafed; and I testify that there is no deity but God alone; He hath no companion; He is the Most Holy King; the God of Peace; and I testify that our lord and our Prophet and our friend Muḥammad is His servant and His Apostle, and His elect, and His friend, the Guide of the Way, and the lamp of the dark. O God, bless and save and beautify this noble Prophet, and chief and excellent apostle, the merciful-hearted, our Lord Muḥammad, and his family and his companions, and his wives, and his posterity, and the people of his house, the noble persons, and grant them ample salvation.
“O servants of God, your lives have been gradually curtailed, and year after year hath passed away, and ye are sleeping on the bed of indolence, and on the pillow of iniquity. Ye pass by the tombs of your predecessors, and fear not the assault of destiny and destruction, as if others departed from the world and ye must of necessity remain in it. Ye rejoice at the arrival of new years, as if they brought an increase to the term of life, and swim in the seas of desires, and enlarge your hopes, and in every way exceed other people in presumption; and ye are sluggish in doing good. O how great a calamity is this! God teacheth by an allegory. Know ye not that in the curtailment of time by indolence and sleep there is very great trouble? Know ye not that in the cutting short of lives by the termination of years is a very great warning? Know ye not that the night and day divide the lives of numerous souls? Know ye not that health and capacity are two blessings coveted by many men? But the truth hath become manifest to him who hath eyes. Ye are now between two years: one year hath passed away, and come to an end, with its evils; and ye have entered upon another year, in which, if it please God, mankind shall be relieved. Is any of you determining upon diligence in doing good in the year to come? or repenting of his failings in the times that are passed? The happy one is he who maketh amends for the time past in the time to come; and the miserable one is he whose days pass away and he is careless of his time. This new year hath arrived, and the sacred month of God hath come with blessings to you, the first of the months of the year, and of the four sacred months, as hath been said, and the most worthy of preference and honour and reverence. Its fast is the most excellent of fasts after that which is obligatory, and the doing of good in it is among the most excellent of the objects of desire. Whosoever desireth to reap advantage from it, let him fast the ninth and tenth days, looking for aid. Abstain not from the fast through indolence, and esteeming it a hardship; but comply with it, in the best manner, and honour it with the best of honours, and improve your time by the worship of God morning and evening. Turn unto God with repentance, before the assault of death: He is the God who accepteth repentance of His servants, and pardoneth sins. The Apostle of God (God bless and save him) hath said, ‘The most excellent prayer, after the prescribed, is the prayer that is said in the last third of the night; and the most excellent fast, after Ramaẓān, is that of the month of God, al-Muḥarram.’
(The k͟hat̤īb, having concluded his exhortation, says to the congregation, “Supplicate God.” He then sits down and prays privately; and each member of the congregation at the same time offers up some private petition, as after the ordinary prayers, holding his hands before him (looking at the palms), and then drawing them down his face. The k͟hat̤īb then rises again, and recites the following):—
“Praise be to God, abundant praise, as He hath commanded. I testify that there is no deity but God alone: He hath no companion: affirming His supremacy, and condemning him who denieth and disbelieveth: and I testify that our Lord and our Prophet Muḥammad is His servant and His apostle, the lord of mankind, the intercessor, the accepted intercessor, on the Day of Assembling: God bless him and his family as long as the eye seeth and the ear heareth. O people, reverence God by doing what He hath commanded, and abstain from that which He hath forbidden and prohibited. The happy one is he who obeyeth, and the miserable one is he who opposeth and sinneth. Know that the present world is a transitory abode, and that the world to come is a lasting abode. Make provision, therefore, in your transitory state for your lasting state, and prepare for your reckoning and standing before your Lord: for know that ye shall to-morrow be placed before God, and reckoned with according to your deeds; and before the Lord of Might ye shall be present, ‘and those who acted unjustly shall know with what an overthrowal they shall be overthrown.’ Know that God, whose perfection I extol, and whose name be exalted, hath said and ceaseth not to say wisely, and to command judiciously, warning you, and teaching, and honouring the dignity of your Prophet, extolling and magnifying him. Verily, God and His angels bless the Prophet: ‘O ye who believe, bless him, and greet him with a salutation.’ O God bless Muḥammad and the family of Muḥammad, as Thou blessedst Ibrahīm and the family of Ibrahīm among all creatures, for Thou art praiseworthy and glorious. O God, do Thou also be well pleased with the four K͟halīfahs, the orthodox lords, of high dignity and illustrious honour, Abū Bakr, aṣ-Ṣiddīq, and ʿUmar, and ʿUs̤mān, and ʿAlī; and be Thou well pleased, O God, with the six who remained of the ten noble and just persons who swore allegiance to Thy Prophet Muḥammad (God bless him and save him) under the tree (for Thou art the Lord of piety and the Lord of pardon); those persons of excellence and clemency, and rectitude and prosperity, T̤alḥah, and Zubair, and Ṣaʿd, and Saʿīd, and ʿAbdu ʾr-Raḥmān ibn ʿAuf, and Abū ʿUbaidah Āmir ibn al-Jarrāh; and with all the Companions of the Apostle of God (God bless and save him); and be Thou well pleased, O God, with the two martyred descendants, the two bright moons, the ‘two lords of the youths of the people of Paradise in Paradise,’ the two sweet-smelling flowers of the Prophet of this nation, Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan and Abū ʿAbdi ʾllāh al-Ḥusain; and be Thou well pleased, O God, with their mother, the daughter of the Apostle of God (God bless and save him), Fāt̤imatu ʾz-Zahrāʾ, and with their grandmother K͟hadījah al-Kubra, and with ʿĀyishah, the mother of the faithful, and with the rest of the pure wives, and with the generation which succeeded the Companions, and with the generation which succeeded that, with beneficence to the Day of Judgment. O God, pardon the believing men and the believing women, and the Muslim men and the Muslim women, those who are living, and the dead; for Thou art a hearer near, an answerer of prayers, O Lord, of the beings of the whole world. O God, aid Islām, and strengthen its pillars, and make infidelity to tremble, and destroy its might, by the preservation of Thy servant, and the son of Thy servant, the submissive to the Might of Thy Majesty and Glory, whom God hath aided, by the care of the Adored King, our master the Sult̤ān, son of the Sult̤ān, the Sult̤ān Maḥmūd K͟hān; may God assist him, and prolong [his reign]. O God, assist him, and assist his armies, O Thou Lord of the religion, and the world present, and the world to come, O Lord of the beings of the whole world.
“O God, assist the forces of the Muslims, and the armies of the Unitarians. O God, frustrate the infidels and polytheists, thine enemies, the enemies of the religion. O God, invert their banners, and ruin their habitations, and give them and their wealth as booty to the Muslims. O God, unloose the captivity of the captives, and annul the debts of the debtors; and make this town to be safe and secure, and blessed with wealth and plenty, and all the towns of the Muslims, O Lord of the beings of the whole world. And decree safety and health to us and to all travellers, and pilgrims, and warriors, and wanderers, upon Thy earth, and upon Thy sea, such as are Muslims, O Lord of the beings of the whole world.
“ ‘O Lord, we have acted unjustly towards our own souls, and if Thou do not forgive us and be merciful unto us, we shall surely be of those who perish.’ I beg of God, the Great, that He may forgive me and you, and all the people of Muḥammad, the servants of God. ‘Verily God commandeth justice, and the doing of good, and giving what is due to kindred; and forbiddeth wickedness, and iniquity, and oppression: He admonisheth you that ye may reflect. Remember God; He will remember you: and thank Him; He will increase to you your blessings. Praise be to God, the Lord of the beings of the whole world!’”
The k͟hut̤bah being ended, the k͟hat̤īb then descends from the pulpit, and, if he officiate as Imām, takes his position and leads the people in a two-rakʿah prayer. The k͟hat̤īb, however, does not always officiate as Imām. The Prophet is related to have said that the length of a man’s prayers and the shortness of his sermon, are signs of a man’s common sense.
According to the best authorities, the name of the reigning K͟halīfah ought to be recited in the k͟hut̤bah, and the fact that it is not so recited in independent Muḥammadan kingdoms, but the name of the Sult̤ān or Amīr is substituted for the K͟halīfah, has its significance, for it is a question whether the Sult̤ān of Turkey, has any real claim to the spiritual headship of Islām. [[KHALIFAH].] In India the name of the king is omitted and the expression “Ruler of the Age” is used.
In India, the recital of the k͟hut̤bah serves to remind every Muḥammadan priest, at least once a week, that he is in a Dāru ʾl-Ḥarb, “a land of enmity.” Still the fact that he can recite his k͟hut̤bah at all in a country not under Muslim rule, must also assure him that he is in a Dāru ʾl-Amān, or “land of protection.”
K͟HUT̤BATU ʾL-WAQFAH (خطبة الوقفة). The “sermon of standing.” The sermon or oration recited on Mount ʿArafāt at the mid-day prayer on the ninth day of the pilgrimage. (Burton’s Pilgrimage, vol. ii. p. 219.) [[KHUTBAH].]