Note: The Alislam Team assumes full responsibility for any errors or inaccuracies in this translation of the Friday Sermon.
(Sermon delivered on 28 December 1923)
Published in Al-Fazl, 11 January 1924
Topics: Friday prayer, Promised Messiah's(as) era, tabligh, cycles of time
After the recitation of tashahhud, ta'awwudh, and Surah Al-Fatihah, Huzur(ra) spoke as follows. Although the practice in the time of the Holy Prophet(sa) was for the sermon to be brief — shorter, in fact, than the Friday prayer itself, which consists of only two units — the sermon is lengthened here in consideration of the needs of the present age. Delivering a brief sermon is neither a sunnah nor an obligation, because the custom in Arabia was to convey the greatest counsel in the shortest of phrases, and to express the most expansive of ideas in the form of a proverb. In our land, people grasp meaning through extended discourse, whereas in Arabia the effort was to compress a vast subject into two sentences. Since the purpose of the sermon is moral reform, the conditions of the country necessitate a longer address. Yet just as a short sermon is not obligatory, neither is a long one. Since today the remainder of the annual gathering programme will follow after the sermon, I shall keep today's address brief, for the address at the gathering may run long.
Friday bears a resemblance to the Promised Messiah(as). Time moves in distinct cycles. One such cycle is what may be called the seventh millennium. I use the phrase "cycles of time" because some people mistakenly hold that the total age of the world is merely seven thousand years. What I mean is that among the cycles of this world, the present one is the seventh millennium. Whether this cycle is the final one, only Allah the Exalted knows. In any case, it is the seventh. And the advent of the Promised Messiah(as) belongs to this seventh millennium. Similarly, among the seven days of the week, the Holy Prophet(sa) ordained a special act of worship for Friday.1 On this day, two forms of worship are observed: the daily prayers that people perform, and the Friday prayer; and on this day the two are joined together as one. On this day, the people of an entire region gather at one place and engage in the worship of God. This present era — the era of the Promised Messiah(as) — is the era of propagation and dissemination. The era of the Holy Prophet(sa) was the era of the completion of guidance, while the era of the Promised Messiah(as) is the era of the propagation and dissemination of that guidance.
When people assemble on Friday, they are reminded of a lesson that has been taught to them for thirteen hundred years — that the seventh millennium, in other words the era of the Promised Messiah(as), would be the era of gathering the world together. In this age, all the world shall be assembled. (At this point, one of those present rose to hand His Holiness a note. His Holiness remarked: When the sermon is being delivered, no activity of any kind should take place.) And this duty — namely, the duty of propagating guidance — has been conveyed in a concealed manner through the day of Friday.
Following this, I convey a request from an Ahmadi sister whose only child went missing one month ago. I also appeal to the brethren, and if Allah the Exalted wills, I shall myself pray for this matter. May Allah the Exalted grant this sister solace and bring about a means of peace for her heart.
Upon rising for the second sermon, His Holiness said: Friends, please gather together immediately after the Friday prayer so that the address may conclude promptly and we need not spend too much time in the evening. Secondly, after the prayer please clear a path for me to the stage so that I may reach it quickly, as was done yesterday. I pray for them to this end.
Footnotes
[1] Mishkat al-Masabih, Kitab al-Salat, Bab al-Jumu'ah.
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