H.E. Prof. Koutoub Moustapha Sano, Secretary General of the Academy, delivered the Eid al-Adha sermon on Sunday, 10 Dhu al-Hijjah 1445, corresponding to 16 June 2024, at the Sultan Ahmad Shah Mosque of the International Islamic University in Kuala Lumpur.

In his sermon, His Excellency addressed the reality of the Ummah and the difficult circumstances it is going through, saying: “The reality of the Ummah today is an exceptional reality that makes the heart bleed and lose consciousness, as its enemies have joined forces against it and friends have turned against it. Enemies have turned against it, and friends have turned against it. Its weakness and defeat are unparalleled, its ailments are worsening, its crises are escalating, and its challenges are continuous.” He pointed out that the cure is for the Ummah to return to the Prophet’s teachings, which included a description of effective medicines for all kinds of ailments and crises, citing the hadith reported by Imam Muslim from Al-Numan bin Bashir (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said: “The believers are like one another in their mutual affection, compassion and sympathy.” And in a narration by Imam al-Bukhari: “You see the believers in their compassion, solidarity, and sympathy like a body, if one member suffers, the rest of the body suffers.”

His Excellency added, “This noble and comprehensive prophetic teaching is a command in its meaning and requirement. O’ Believers, be kind, compassionate, and sympathetic, and be like one body; if one of its members suffers from a disease or crisis, the other members rise up to help and defend it. The meaning of the body in this wonderful artistic depiction is the Ummah, and the meaning of the members of the body is the Ummah’s people, peoples and states, and the meaning of the diseases are crises, disasters, and disturbances, represented by marginalization, backwardness, and retardation. The medicines capable of eradicating diseases and confronting crises are solidarity, compassion, and sympathy.”

His Excellency also spoke on the Ummah’s need to adhere to these practical and bright medicines that once enabled it to establish a human civilization to which nations and peoples were beholden for many centuries and that the Ummah’s departure from them made it a weak and lost nation whose civilization collapsed, its sunset, and became a subjugated nation, stressing that all these difficult circumstances, terrible diseases, and multiplying crises will be followed by a bright dawn for the Ummah that will inevitably come, citing the words of the Almighty: “Allah has promised those who have believed among you and done righteous deeds that He will surely grant them succession [to authority] upon the earth just as He granted it to those before them and that He will surely establish for them [therein] their religion which He has preferred for them and that He will surely substitute for them, after their fear, security, [for] they worship Me, not associating anything with Me. But whoever disbelieves after that – then those are the defiantly disobedient.” Surat Al-Nour, 55.

His Excellency then talked about the components of each of the three medicines and what they achieve in terms of treatment and healing:

The first medicine: It is an umbrella name for everything that achieves peace, harmony, safety and tranquility among the Ummah’s people, achieves cooperation and integration among its peoples, and promotes solidarity and rapprochement among its states, and its effect is manifested in the distance of the Ummah’s people, peoples, and states from the diseases of hatred, envy, and contradiction

The second medicine is compassion, which is also an umbrella name for everything that spreads mercy, kindness, charity, righteousness, altruism, and favor among the people of the nation and establishes solidarity, interdependence, and synergy among its peoples, and promotes communication and coordination among its states, and its effect is manifested in moving us as individuals, peoples, and states away from all forms of cruelty, unfairness, injustice, greed, and selfishness.

As for the third medicine, it is sympathy, which is also an umbrella name for relief for the distressed, support for the oppressed, solidarity of the nation’s peoples by sharing joys and sorrows, concern for each other’s conditions, defense of their just causes, and standing with them against injustice, oppression, and aggression. The effect of this medicine is evident in the Ummah’s members’ avoidance of negligence, ignorance, and indifference to the plight of its peoples and states, and its peoples and states’ avoidance of cooperation with occupiers, usurpers, and aggressors.

At the end of his sermon, he called on the Ummah to be healed by these medicines in thoughts, behavior, actions, and dealings with the brothers of faith and religion, and to stay away from hostility, hatred, backbiting, and intolerance for a race or tribe. He also called for strengthening cooperation, complementarity, solidarity, and synergy and put an end to sectarian fighting, ethnic rivalry, and civil strife, saying: “Let us return after this sermon to our homes, peoples and countries, pledging that each one of us will be healed by these medicines in our thoughts, behavior, actions and dealings with the brothers of faith and religion, we will no longer be envious, we will no longer envy, we will no longer hate, we will no longer desert, we will no longer slander, we will no longer be fanatical about a race or tribe, we will no longer be greedy or hypocritical. We will love for our brothers what we love for ourselves in security, safety, stability and prosperity. Let our peoples and states pledge to heal with these medicines by strengthening cooperation, integration, solidarity, and synergy among them, by putting an end to sectarian fighting, ethnic rivalry, and hellish civil strife, and by completely renouncing all forms of inaction and surrender to the forms of injustice, aggression, starvation, and destruction that are practiced openly and day and night against some of their peoples and states, especially in occupied Palestine and occupied Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem in particular, are subjected today to mass extermination, brutal injustice and blatant aggression in full view of the Ummah and the free world, at the hands of Zionist occupiers, usurpers and extremists. How terrible is the sight of the precious blood that is shed every day, the honors that are violated every hour, and the money that is unjustly and aggressively annihilated every minute!

His Excellency concluded the Eid sermon with the following Dua:

“O Allah, to You we complain of their weakness, lack of resources, and the humiliation they face from people. You are the Most Merciful of the merciful, You are the Lord of the oppressed, and You are our Lord. To whom do You entrust them? To a distant person who frowns upon them or to an enemy to whom You have given control over their affairs? If You are not angry with them, then we do not mind, but Your well-being is more expansive for them.”