Feeling The Weight of the Prophet's Mantle
About this episode
Imam Marc Manley reflects on the weight of delivering religious sermons and the responsibility it entails.
﷽ Before starting my Saturday Qur’ān class, Understanding the Qur’ān , where we read from Ibn Juzayy’s tafsīr, I shared a reflection on what it’s like to give a khuṭbah on the minbar , week after week. That there’s a weighty feeling of responsibility that comes with opening your mouth in not just a public space but most importantly a sacred one. Even after having given a khuṭbah nearly ever single Friday for over a decade, I still wrestle with the weight and the significance of standing in the place where the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ stood and preached. This is compounded now with the ever increasing tendency, at least in America (if not in the greater West) of the “speakerfication” of religious sermons in our community and not for least because when someone listens to one of my khuṭbahs —and takes what I say to heart—and then acts on those words, it leaves me feeling inadequate and hesitant to speak. Every time. Imam’s Corner is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. As I said, we live in an age where the word “speaker” has come to replace khaṭīb or preacher. This shift may have been understandable in the…
People in this episode
Host: Imam Marc Manley
Topics covered
- responsibility
- religious sermons
- public speaking
- Islamic teachings
- community dynamics
Keywords
- khuṭbah
- Islam
- public speaking
- responsibility
- religious sermons
- community
- Imam
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Understanding the Qur’ān, Ibn Juzayy
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