Friday sermon (khutbah) in character building and social development in a minority context: the case of Mosques in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Friday sermon known as ‘jum’ah khuṭbah’, is a major programme of all jum’ah mosques in Sri Lanka. Traditionally, Friday sermon is a significant occurrence and mosques placed great emphasis to make it successful. For instance, the entire Friday khuṭbah from one of the prominent Friday mosques is usually broadcasted at national level by the ‘Muslim service’ unit of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Cooperation (SLBC). This paper explores the potentiality of the Muslim tradition in individual character building and social improvement by looking at how this useful instrument has been used in Muslim community to expound on individual as well as social issues. The findings reveal that the traditional structure allow khaṭībs to communicate with the congregation predominantly on a devotional rather than political and social. Consequently, the content of khuṭbas include mainly rituals and theology. It praiseworthy that the content is also extended on maintaining unity and cooperation among Muslims in minority Sri Lanka. Relatively bodies of the very few regions operate to make Friday sermon relevant to their space and time factors.