Friday Sermon: Behind the Drought, Allah's Mercy Awaits
Praise be to Allah, Lord of all worlds. We praise Him, seek His help, and ask His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own souls and from our bad deeds. Whomever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whomever He leaves astray, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, without partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, and whoever follows his Sunnah until the Day of Judgement. O Allah, send prayers, peace, and blessings upon Muhammad, his family, and all his companions.
To proceed, O servants of Allah, I enjoin you and myself to have taqwa of Allah, so that you may receive mercy. Allah the Exalted said, and I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan, in the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful: ‘And We send down from the sky blessed water, and We produce thereby gardens and grain for harvest.’
O congregation of Friday worshippers, may Allah have mercy upon you!
Today, let us pause for a moment to reflect on something so close to life. Not something distant. Not something only heard from the news. It is present around us, flowing through life, reviving the soil, and sustaining creatures. It is water.
As long as water still flows from the tap, its value often feels ordinary. As long as wells are still full, its presence is rarely contemplated. As long as rivers still flow, people sometimes forget that every drop is a blessing from Allah. But when prolonged heat arrives, only then does the preciousness of a single drop of water become apparent. It is fitting that Allah says: ‘And We made from water every living thing. Then will they not believe?’ (QS. Al-Anbiya: 30).
Without water, the soil slowly cracks. Grass begins to yellow. Rivers lose their force. Wells gradually shrink. Rice fields become parched and barren.
Farmers begin to gaze at the sky with full hope. Livestock breeders begin to think about water supplies for their animals. Communities begin to calculate their clean water reserves.
And as the drought grows longer, the threat of forest and land fires becomes ever more real. Amid the burning heat, people learn again that there are blessings whose value is often only felt when they begin to diminish.