Assalamu alaikum Br. Siraaj,
I was there when you gave the khutbah and thought you did a great job MashaAllah! I hope you continue to give khutbahs because it’s one of the best ways to give back to the community.

To answer your question, I think the best content of a khutbah is stories that people can relate to, stories which humanize the historical messages we so often hear.

•correct tajweed when leading the salah afterwards.
•passion-raise the voice when necessary – especially on jumuah. If you are boring, no matter how inspirational the topic, it falls on the ears of sleeping people. In fact when it is jumuah a special emphasis to the quality of the content and delivery of speech. In conferences, it’s usually the more committed who turn up. In jumuah you have Muslims of every, so it must be done excellently.
•Know your audience and relate Hadith to their lives.
•ask rhetorical questions – makes audience think, engaging their minds.
•personal stories from the speaker’s own life. Helps audience connect.
•Not necessary to quote the isnad of every Hadith. Perhaps sometimes it’s better to leave it at “in an authentic Hadith, the prophet sws said…” Whether it is islamically preferable to do this, I do not know but in short concise khutbahs it helps the flow.
•Concision- differentiate between lecture and khutbah.
•Reading the khutbah from a book…just no.
•To remain politically acceptable, some stopped talking about global and political issues. We don’t live in a bubble. We live in the society so the things on the news should be addressed!
•Counter-arguments to your own points and refutations of them – adds persuasiveness.
•insight – speaker should have more knowledge and be able to extract more lessons than the average listener.
•confidence in your own words – if you don’t believe what you are saying, why expect others to?
•balance – many times, it is almost as though the imam wants us to live in caves worshipping Allah. What about food…? We need advice for both this life and the hereafter. I love it when speakers make the point that our whole lives should be worship, but when they forget to explain that worship entails fulfilling our financial and social responsibilities it confuses and alienates the audience.
•please no group dua after the jumuah Salah. No evidence from Quran or sunnah for this. I question the reliability of the speaker when they engage in all kinds of Bidah after the Salah.
•no need to sing the Du’aas at the beginning of khutbah. Tajweed for Quran ayat are fine, but some of the Duas are actually sung. Too much.
•avoid sectarianism. When it’s adds no benefit, just don’t mention any particular group. People have these biases otherwise. If they are sincere, the evidences will suffice.
•Authentic Hadith!- I’m not joking sometimes these email circulation stories have been used in actual khutbahs I’ve attended.
•agree with the above comment. Stories are an excellent way to begin the khutbah.
•Integrety-the speaker should be known to actually practice what they preach.
•Ihsan- the speech should be encouraging us to excellence. No need to water anything down.
•the speaker should be humble enough to take feedback and constructive critisism.
•available to community- if the speaker disappears after the khutbah, what about those who had questions or needed clarifications. Jumuah is the only time most of us enter a mosque, and if there is nobody there willing to answer questions, what a wasted opportunity.

The above were all from my own experiences. Some are cringeworthy. Others can so easily be corrected.
Assalamu alaykum.

PS: a message to moderators: I think I’ve been blocked from this site. Please unblock me. It is quite annoying writing a long comment, giving some advice to my kind brother Siraaj, and having it lost in cyberspace. It’s frustrating. Btw I still think you should uncensor my OBL conspiracy comments. They were all valid points…no?

Bismillah.
Back…Can’t live without MM for long…

First thing first, Speak from the heart.
Give naseehah on a relevent topic that people can relate to with example ( personal life would be best as they say, Dil se jo awaz nikalti hain asar rakhti hain meaning the voice coming from bottom of heart (with genuine concern) definitely Learn all the khutbah of prophet sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam and 4 top sahaba rashideen.
create genuine Humor, if possible within first three sentences. Read wiston churchill speeches for reference if you like.
making preparation ahead of time and begging Allah to give you the best tawfik that your words may be just may be affect people, towards pleasing Allaah.
Take blessings from your parents/family, may be they will tell you not to yell at people.

I did not give any khutbah until I was told to give a khutbah before 30000 people and I ended up on giving it on the manners of Prophet sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam and all I could remember that the people near me in first few rows had their eyes filled like mine with takbeer. wal hamdulillah rabbil ‘alameen.

Off topic, Your naseeha sessions are so impressive and are those that work mash Allah, I could only imagine khutbah. may Allah preserve you and all those here who put sincere naseeha and silent prayers.
wassalam

Assalamu’alaykum
This is something I think about quite often, because listening to a great khubah is really a rarity these days. Whenever I hear a bad khutbah, my wife says I get into “Khutbah Rage” (kinda like when you drive you get road rage) and I get in a bad mood. It really upsets me that we have an opportunity to benefit and help reform people’s hearts, but it’s wasted.
I echo most of what was said above:
Must haves:
1. Stick to one topic/theme and make it memorable. If you say all sorts of different things people will forget it an hour after they leave.
2. Relevance. I shouldn’t be asking myself, “What does this have to do with me?”. That kind of question should be answered within the first few minutes of the khutbah.
3. Topics of spirituality. It’s ironic to me that a speech meant to uplift and inspire people never addresses topics of spirituality. Examples: Love, Fear, and Hope of Allah. Paradise and Hellfire. Patience. Tawakkul. Repentance and Seeking Forgiveness. Modesty and Humility. These topics are rarely talked about in the khutbahs I attend.
4. Action Items.
5. Actually motivating people. Like people said above, even if you talk about the Hellfire, people should feel motivated to become better and not feel like they are being yelled at or they’re not good enough.
6. Engage the people. Answer questions that people have in their head.

Things that are nice to have:
1. Clear English accent, as well as clear Arabic pronunciation
2. Good tajweed and recitation
3. An actual curriculum. Nouman Ali Khan mentioned this in a conference once. A regular Khateeb should have all of the khutbah topics planned out for the year, each khutbah in order and building on each-other. Just imagine the effects of that…subhanAllah.

Great idea for a thread guys!

Great khutbas contain processed insight, not regurgitation.
they are also adorned with neat concepts
delivered by someone with a healthy approach to learning.

The khatib doesnt waste everybodies time and embody all ill of the ummah in his delivery, length and content. He does not speak in a whiney/accusative tone

The khutbas have integrity and demonstrate uloomination
They are able to nourish the subtle minded and the not so subtle minded at the same time, not by being a black or white convert, but by being well thought through

The greatest khutba I ever went to was a friend reflecting on the bi in bismillah!

Great khutbas animate the soul and the body.

Br. Siraaj, what resources did you use for your khutbah?

Was there a sense of nervousness becuase it had been so long?

Also, for time, 25-30 minutes is ideal. One of my masaajid do 45-55 minute khutbahs (they do them in Arabic and half the audience is asleep).

1.Iman Boost – Its got to hit the heart
2.Reflective – It must be reflective of what we ought to be as muslims and what we are right now
3.Hope – That its never too late to change or strive harder
4.Pride

Awesome article/thread masha’Allah, this should be very useful mwaha.

One of the things I learned in high school was that it’s surprisingly easy to give consistently good khutbahs. Our khatib was one of our teachers and he was in his 20′s so he had that cooler older brother effect on us, so being able to relate that well with your audience and at the same time being a strong role model is gold and comes out in da’wah skill. The topics were pretty much floating around the same straightforward theme of akhira and dunya throughout the year, and they were still consistently powerful.

As for bad khutbahs err… I’ve seen some really terrible things that were conscious decisions, man. I don’t think those are helpful to mention. As for those who are trying their best and seeking advice, a good khutbah (like a good speech) is almost completely a function of how much time is put in to it (confessions of a public speaker, awesome book). Sure some people will have a head start with natural charisma (like the brother in the last paragraph), but it’s all something that can be targeted, analyzed and improved if one is willing to put in the effort – reading this thread is a good start! =)

Assalamu Alaikum

Thumbs down on khutbahs that basically say, “we are oppressed”, “we are messed up”, “we are not blessed” …because we are not following the deen. I wonder, “dude, we are sitting in the masjid listening to you because we care about the deen”

Thumbs up on khutbahs that provide tangible solutions, from quran and sunnah, on day to day issues. These are so few and far between…sigh!!!

Asslkm

Always make sure your khutbah is not a “Information dumping” khutbah where you quote hadith after hadith &Quranic ayat after ayat,,, make it sound real & relevant and extract from the hadith and Quran to a point where everyone becomes involved!
JAZAKALLAH