IMAN Center of Kirkland

As the days of Fāṭimiyyah continue, our Nahj al-Balāghah series reached lessons 7–12 of Saying 113. In them, Imām ʿAlī (ʿa) turns from what a person is to what a person does. It was also the first Friday after the midterm elections. Whatever any of us hoped for, the work of a just society does not begin or end at the ballot box. It begins with the kind of people we are. The first khutbah followed five lessons from personal integrity to public responsibility:

• Tawfīq is the leader that places us on the path, and the open doors of the Eastside are an assignment to serve others.
• Good deeds are the best trade, but only when our values reach the worker, the driver in the November rain, and the neighbor who voted differently.
• Divine reward is a profit with no ceiling, and it grows best in people and institutions.
• Waraʿ means pausing at the edge: checking before we forward, and never blaming a whole people for a government’s actions.
• True zuhd is wealth earned and spent cleanly.

It closed with one question: do we practise the justice we demand from others? The second khutbah turned to the twelfth lesson, “No knowledge is like contemplation.” Our children are growing up a few miles from where artificial intelligence is being built. The more the machines know, the more our children need to think. The khutbah gathered the six lessons into six commitments for a community that builds. IMAN pledged to grow participation in daily congregational prayers and our Qur’an circles, and to give parents a greater role in shaping enrichment for our children and youth. It ended with two things to do before next Friday: ask your children one real question at a family meal and listen before you answer, and call one young person whose path you can open.

▶ Watch the khutbah on YouTube

📄 Slides (PDF): 2026-11-06 – From Character to Action

Past khutbahs are in our Friday Prayer playlist and the Friday slides folder.