Title of the Sermon: The Sanctity of Muslim Blood
Elements of the Sermon:
1- The grave prohibition of killing a Muslim unjustly.
2- Why might a Muslim commit aggression against his brother?
3- The blessing of Islam demands gratitude, not ingratitude.
All praise is due to Allah, who created souls and gave them life, who honored them through Islam and made them precious, and who threatened those who transgress against them with the Fire and its blazing heat. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship but Allah, alone without partner, and I bear witness that Muḥammad is His servant and Messenger. May Allah’s peace and abundant blessings be upon him.
To proceed: Fear Allah, servants of Allah, with true fear, and be mindful of Him in secret and in public, as He says:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ﴾
“O you who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.” [Sūrat Āl ʿImrān: 102]
Servants of Allah:
Have you heard the question of the wronged soul: “O Lord, ask this one — for what reason did he kill me?”
What an awe-inspiring scene! What a terrifying moment!
Reflect on this three-way dialogue that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ told us about, as reported by al-Nasāʾī and others: “The killer and the one killed will be brought on the Day of Resurrection, with the slain person holding onto the head of his killer, his veins gushing blood, saying: ‘O Lord, ask this one—why did he kill me?’”
Then the Lord of all worlds—though He knows everything—will ask: “For what reason did you kill him?”
One killer will answer: “I killed him for the rule of so-and-so.”
Another will say: “I killed him so that honor might belong to so-and-so.”
Allah will say: “Indeed, honor does not belong to so-and-so,” and that man will bear the burden of his sin.
Then Allah will say to the killer: “Perish!,” and he will be taken away to the Fire.
Servants of Allah:
What in this world could be worth such an end?
The calamities that befall the believers keep breaking their backs; scarcely does one wound heal before the blood of innocent Muslims begins to flow again in torrents. Muslim blood has long been shed at the hands of disbelievers, but what is even more shocking is when it flows at the hands of those who claim to belong to Islam—when both the killer and the killed are Muslims. Where is the faith of these wicked killers in their violation of sacred life? Where are their minds?
The Prophet ﷺ informed the Companions one day, saying:
“Before the Hour there will be great killing.”
They asked: “O Messenger of Allah, what is this killing?”
He said: “Murder.”
Some people thought he meant fighting between Muslims and disbelievers, but the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“It is not the killing of the disbelievers; rather, some of you will kill one another—until a man kills his neighbor, his cousin, and his close relative.”
Some Companions said: “O Messenger of Allah, will we still have our senses on that day?”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied: “No. The minds of most people of that time will be taken away, and a deluded mass of people will remain, who have no sense. Most of them will think they are upon something, but they are upon nothing.” (Reported by Ibn Mājah and Aḥmad.)
How astonishing were the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them), who exclaimed in shock: “Will we still have our minds that day?”
Can a sane Muslim—one who knows the sanctity of Muslim life, how greatly Allah has honored it, and what terrible punishment He has prepared for its unjust killer—ever bring himself to kill a soul protected by Allah without right?
Can a Muslim who has heard Allah’s words:
وَمَنْ يَقْتُلْ مُؤْمِنًا مُتَعَمِّدًا فَجَزَاؤُهُ جَهَنَّمُ خَالِدًا فِيهَا وَغَضِبَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَلَعَنَهُ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُ عَذَابًا عَظِيمًا
“And whoever kills a believer intentionally—his recompense is Hell, wherein he will abide eternally. Allah has become angry with him, has cursed him, and has prepared for him a tremendous punishment.” [Sūrat al-Nisāʾ: 93] —allow his soul to drive him to murder an innocent Muslim?
Can a believer who fears Allah’s punishment and hears His warning against killing the souls He has forbidden without right—where He says:
وَالَّذِينَ لَا يَدْعُونَ مَعَ اللَّهِ إِلَهًا آخَرَ وَلَا يَقْتُلُونَ النَّفْسَ الَّتِي حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ إِلَّا بِالْحَقِّ وَلَا يَزْنُونَ وَمَنْ يَفْعَلْ ذَلِكَ يَلْقَ أَثَامًا * يُضَاعَفْ لَهُ الْعَذَابُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَيَخْلُدْ فِيهِ مُهَانًا
“And those who do not invoke any deity along with Allah, nor kill a soul which Allah has forbidden except by right, nor commit adultery—and whoever does this shall meet a penalty. The punishment will be multiplied for him on the Day of Resurrection, and he will abide therein in humiliation.” [Sūrat al-Furqān: 68–69]—
can such a believer still take part in shedding forbidden blood?
Indeed, killing a Muslim without right is among the gravest of sins and the greatest of major crimes after shirk (associating partners with Allah).
The Prophet ﷺ said: “A believer will continue to have room (and hope) in his religion as long as he does not shed unlawful blood.” (Reported by al-Bukhārī.)
Do you know the worth of a believer’s life in the sight of Allah? Before I answer you, let me ask: which do you think is more sacred—the House of Allah, the Kaʿbah itself, or the life of a single innocent Muslim?
I refer the answer to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who once looked at the Kaʿbah and said: “How great you are and how great is your sanctity! But the sanctity of the believer is greater in the sight of Allah than yours.” (Reported by al-Bayhaqī.)
Thus, our Prophet ﷺ made clear that the sanctity of a believer before Allah is greater than that of the Kaʿbah itself. What crime, then, have these oppressive killers committed?
The enormity of the sin of killing is such that the Prophet ﷺ placed it alongside shirk (associating partners with Allah) as one of the sins for which Allah does not forgive its perpetrator, and which leads inevitably to the Fire. He ﷺ said:
“Every sin may be forgiven by Allah, except one who dies as a polytheist, or a believer who kills a believer intentionally.” (Reported by Abū Dāwūd.)
Such is the madness of these criminal murderers that they take pride in the killing of the innocent, even displaying their crimes to the world with joy—without shame or remorse.
Have they not heard the Prophet’s ﷺ words: “Whoever kills a believer and feels pleased or proud about it, Allah will not accept from him any obligatory or voluntary act.” (Reported by Abū Dāwūd.)
Today, gangs are mobilized to attack the innocent, accompanied by corrupt media outlets that justify and trivialize their crimes—until people become desensitized to the sight of Muslim blood flowing in rivers, regarding it as something ordinary.
To all such people, the Prophet ﷺ says: “If the people of the heavens and the earth were to join together in shedding the blood of a single believer, Allah would cast them all into the Fire.” (Reported by al-Tirmidhī.)
By Allah, it is a disaster and a dreadful trap for anyone who brings himself into this great sin—there is no escape from it.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) said:
“Among the grave matters from which there is no escape for one who plunges into them is shedding unlawful blood without right.” (Reported by al-Bukhārī.)
Servants of Allah!
Why has the shedding of blood become so easy among people? Search within the love of this world (dunyā) and its temptations, and you will find your answer.
What caused the very first murder on earth, after which the flow of blood never ceased?
What made the son of Ādam kill his brother? What made him say to his brother: ‘I will surely kill you’? And for what crime did his brother’s blood become lawful to him?
It was the world—the dunyā—which the Prophet ﷺ even feared for his Companions. He said to them: “By Allah, it is not poverty that I fear for you, but I fear that the world will be opened up to you as it was opened to those before you, and that you will compete for it as they competed for it, and it will destroy you as it destroyed them.” (Reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.)
That is the deceptive, bewitching dunyā—which appears in different forms: competition over a woman, pursuit of power and authority, or greed for gold and wealth.
And indeed, the Prophet ﷺ said: “The Hour will not be established until the Euphrates uncovers a mountain of gold. People will fight over it, and out of every hundred, ninety-nine will be killed, and each man among them will say, ‘Perhaps I will be the one to survive.’” (Reported by Muslim.)
Do you see this worldly life that people fight over and all its fleeting pleasures? Its disappearance in its entirety is less significant before Allah than the killing of a single Muslim without right.
The Prophet ﷺ said: “By Him in whose hand is my soul, the killing of a believer is greater in the sight of Allah than the destruction of the entire world.” (Reported by al-Nasāʾī.)
May Allah bless me and you through the Noble Qur’ān, and benefit us through its verses and wise remembrance. I seek Allah’s forgiveness for myself and for you, so seek His forgiveness—for He is the All-Forgiving, the Most Merciful.
Second Sermon
All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, his Companions, and those who follow them. To proceed:
Servants of Allah:
Allah has blessed us with Islam—truly the greatest and most precious of all blessings. Allegiance to it is greater than allegiance to kinship, lineage, or blood. It is the bond that can never be broken, and the brotherhood that endures as long as Islam remains.
O Muslims:
After the blessing of Islam, faith, and the Qur’an, can a Muslim take up arms against his fellow Muslim?
Did not our Prophet ﷺ say: “Whoever carries a weapon against us is not one of us”? (Reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.)
Is this how we show gratitude for the blessing of Islam?
The Prophet ﷺ called the killing of a Muslim an act of disbelief, saying:
“Insulting a Muslim is wickedness, and fighting him is disbelief.” (Reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.)
He ﷺ also stood before his Companions on the Day of the Greater Ḥajj and declared:
“Do not turn back after me as disbelievers, striking the necks of one another.” (Reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.)
The word of Tawḥīd—lā ilāha illā Allāh (there is no deity worthy of worship but Allah)—is precious and protective. It safeguards life, honor, and property. So what will those who shed blood say about lā ilāha illā Allāh on the Day of Judgment?
Beware of trials and tribulations! Beware of the deception of devils and their allies!
Fear Allah concerning bloodshed, and know that no one will avail another in anything on that Day.
We seek refuge in Allah from the time of which the Prophet ﷺ said:
“By the One in Whose Hand is my soul, there will come upon the people a time when the killer will not know why he killed, and the one killed will not know why he was killed.” (Reported by Muslim.)
O Allah, grant victory to Islam and honor to the Muslims, and destroy the wrongdoers.
O Allah, send tranquility into the hearts of those striving in Your path, deliver Your oppressed servants, and raise high the banner of the religion by Your power, O Mighty, O Firm.
O Allah, forgive the Muslim men and women, the believing men and women, the living among them and the dead.
O Allah, guide our leader to that which You love and are pleased with, and take him by the forelock to righteousness and piety.
Our Lord, grant us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.
Servants of Allah: remember Allah with much remembrance, and glorify Him morning and evening.
Our final call is that all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
