Q: Going through the conversations I am impressed by oppertunity Allah subhanautala gave his believers to share values of Islam, Quran , Sunnah, good governances, Adam, ihsan, treatment of relatives, charities etc etc . It’s the platform for so many purposes. It seems there has been attempts to control this platform by rulers, scholars, colonial powers and has been struggling amongst these entities like what we are seeing “ control the media” the world is yours? Calls can be made for good cause and otherwise . At the end all acts , their failure and successes depends on Allahs wisdom and permissions. Please comprehend on these.

A:

🕌 The Minbar — Allah’s Platform, Humanity’s Battlefield
The Original Vision — A Platform of Divine Purpose
When the Prophet ﷺ first stood on that simple three-stepped pulpit of tamarisk wood in Madinah, he established something that had never existed in human history — a weekly, recurring, structured platform dedicated simultaneously to the worship of Allah, the education of the community, the dispensing of justice, the announcement of public affairs, and the moral renewal of society.
In those early khutbahs, a single gathering addressed:
∙ Aqeedah — reminding people of Allah’s oneness
∙ Adab — treatment of relatives, neighbours, the poor
∙ Zakat and charity — redistributing wealth
∙ Justice and governance — the ruler accountable before the people
∙ Community news — births, deaths, marriages, migrations
∙ War and peace — beginning and end of expeditions announced
The Friday Khutbah is a weekly re-enactment of the prophetic curriculum. The imam recites the verses, his reminders aim to purify hearts, and he teaches the Book and Wisdom. The weekly congregation is a mandatory “lecture” in the University of Faith, designed to keep the process of Tazkiyah alive. 
The Prophet ﷺ himself described this vision perfectly. His khutbahs were short — 3 to 5 minutes — but utterly transformative. They covered everything from cosmic theology to how to treat your wife, from the rights of orphans to the ethics of trade. It was, as you beautifully put it, a platform for so many purposes.

🔷 The First Corruption — When the Minbar Became a Throne
The deterioration began almost immediately after the Prophet’s ﷺ passing, and it is one of the most honest and sobering chapters in Islamic history.
Muhammad’s successors, the caliphs, used the Prophet’s minbar as a symbol of their authority. During the first century of Islam, provincial governors came to use the minbar primarily in their capacity as rulers — making speeches and hearing petitions from it. 
Initially, the delivery of the Friday sermon was restricted to the caliph himself or his official representatives. Eventually, the task was delegated to others who spoke in the ruler’s name. From this relationship, the practice emerged that the preacher was obliged to include an explicit mention of the sovereign — normally in the form of a blessing upon him. 
What happened next is extraordinary in its parallel to what you observe about modern media:
In the pre-modern Middle East, the mention of a ruler’s name in the sermon was one of the two prerogatives of sovereignty — the other being the right to mint coins. Mentioning meant accepting the sovereignty and suzerainty of a ruler. Omitting the name of a ruler from the sermon was like publicly declaring independence. 
The sermon also announced the deposition of a ruler, the accession of a ruler, the nomination of an heir, and the beginning and end of a war. The sovereign’s name was declared in khutbahs during Mughal rule — Babur was styled ‘Zahir-ud-Din Bábar Muhammad’ during Friday khutbahs. Sher Khan was content if Bengal was given to him in return for the emperor retaining his right to mint coins and proclaim the khutbah in the emperor’s name. 
So there it is — control the minbar, and you control the Muslim world. This was understood by every dynasty from the Umayyads to the Mughals.
The significance of the khutbah in terms of politics was that it indicated the balance of power. Tahir ibn Hussein, in 822 CE, became the first governor who ordered the khutbah to be recited in his honor rather than the caliph’s — as a sign of independence. Since the recognition of the caliph meant the recognition of the supremacy of the governor, some dynasties preferred not to recognise the caliph at all. 

🔷 The Second Transformation — From Political Tool to Hollow Ritual
When the khutbah lost its informative, political, and discursive character and became a purely religious sermon during the reign of the Abbasid caliphs, the minbar also became a religious object — more permanent, covered with cloth, increasingly ceremonial. 
The political character of the mosque had also been retained in another sense — the religious scholars endorsed the validity of praying for the leader of the Islamic state. In the case of a major crisis or community dissatisfaction, members flocked to the mosque to discuss the problem or seek remedy. Throughout the history of Islam the mosque has been the center of numerous uprisings, revolts, and social movements, often led from the minbar. 
So the minbar oscillated between two extremes across Islamic history:
∙ Tool of political domination — rulers using it to legitimise power
∙ Engine of popular resistance — scholars and reformers using it to mobilise the community
Both represented a departure from the Prophetic model — which was neither domination nor rebellion, but truthful, courageous, compassionate guidance.

🔷 The Colonial Chapter — Silencing the Minbar
When European colonial powers arrived across the Muslim world, they understood immediately what the minbar meant. Following World War I, the defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, and the abolition of the Caliphate by Atatürk, many Muslims perceived that the political power of their religion was in retreat. There was also concern that Western ideas were spreading throughout Muslim societies — leading to considerable resentment of European powers. 
The British in India, the French in North Africa, the Dutch in Indonesia — all developed sophisticated strategies for controlling the Friday sermon:
∙ Requiring khatibs to be government-licensed
∙ Banning political content from sermons
∙ Monitoring mosque attendance
∙ Imprisoning scholars who used the minbar to call for resistance
The Muslim Brotherhood emerged in Egypt as a politico-religious movement aimed to resist British colonial efforts and oppose Western cultural influence. Rashid Rida’s influential Islamic journal Al-Manar promoted anti-British revolt as well as Islamic revivalism. 
The colonial powers had learned the same lesson as the Umayyad caliphs a thousand years before: control the minbar, and you control the Muslim mind.

🔷 The Modern Era — The Minbar in Competition with New Media
Your observation about “control the media, the world is yours” is profoundly apt. What has happened in the modern era is that the minbar has been both amplified and competed with simultaneously:
Amplified — The same khutbah that once reached 500 people in a mosque now reaches millions via YouTube, satellite TV, and smartphones. Scholars like Mufti Menk, Nouman Ali Khan, and others have congregations larger than any medieval caliph could have imagined.
Competed with — For the first time in Islamic history, the Friday khutbah is not the primary source of information for Muslims. Social media, Netflix, news channels, and the internet all compete for the same hour on Friday afternoon that Allah سبحانه وتعالى designated for His remembrance.
The Quranic warning in 62:11 — revealed 1,400 years ago — is astonishing in its prescience:
وَإِذَا رَأَوْا تِجَارَةً أَوْ لَهْوًا انفَضُّوا إِلَيْهَا وَتَرَكُوكَ قَائِمًا
“But when they saw a transaction or entertainment, they rushed to it and left you standing.”
The Companions left the Prophet ﷺ standing for a trade caravan. Today’s Muslims leave the Imam standing for a WhatsApp notification.

🔷 The Deeper Pattern — Allah’s Platform Cannot Be Permanently Captured
Here is the most profound theological insight your reflection opens up: throughout all 1,400 years of this struggle — rulers, scholars, colonial powers, and now algorithms — not one of them has permanently controlled the minbar.
Every dynasty that hijacked it eventually fell. Every colonial power that suppressed it eventually withdrew. Every corrupt scholar who weaponised it eventually lost credibility. Because the platform ultimately belongs to Allah سبحانه وتعالى — and He protects it through an unexpected means: the very ordinariness and accessibility of the Friday congregation.
Any Muslim, anywhere, with any number of believers, can establish Jumu’ah. The Khutbah can be delivered in any language. The Imam need not be licensed or approved. The sermon content cannot be permanently controlled — because the Quran itself, recited within every Khutbah, carries the original uncorrupted message directly.
This is why the Prophet ﷺ chose Surah Al-Jumu’ah itself to be recited during the Friday prayer — making it the Surah for the occasion, the weekly spiritual heartbeat of his Ummah.  By encoding the message about Jumu’ah within the Jumu’ah, Allah ensured that the very act of gathering would perpetually remind the community of its original divine purpose — even when rulers, scholars, and colonial powers tried to subvert it.

🔷 The Donkey Carrying Books — The Warning Within the Surah
Surah Al-Jumu’ah itself contains one of the most piercing warnings about the misuse of knowledge and the platform that carries it. Allah سبحانه وتعالى addresses those entrusted with the Torah who failed to act upon it:
مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ حُمِّلُوا التَّوْرَاةَ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَحْمِلُوهَا كَمَثَلِ الْحِمَارِ يَحْمِلُ أَسْفَارًا
“The likeness of those who were entrusted with the Torah but then failed to uphold it is as the likeness of a donkey carrying books.” (62:5)
It contains a powerful and humbling parable — a timeless warning for anyone who possesses knowledge but fails to benefit from it. 
This applies with equal force to every entity that has tried to control the minbar throughout history: the ruler who uses it for legitimacy without justice, the scholar who uses it for influence without sincerity, the colonial power that suppresses it without understanding it, and the modern institution that fills it with empty formalities without transformative content. They are all, in Allah’s devastating metaphor, donkeys carrying books.

🔷 Ultimately — All Acts, Their Failure and Success, Rest With Allah
Your final observation is the most important of all, and it is in perfect alignment with the opening verse of Surah Al-Jumu’ah itself:
يُسَبِّحُ لِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ الْمَلِكِ الْقُدُّوسِ الْعَزِيزِ الْحَكِيمِ
“Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth exalts Allah — the Sovereign, the Pure, the Exalted in Might, the Wise.” (62:1)
The Surah begins not with the command to pray, not with the Khutbah, not with the conditions of Jumu’ah — but with the absolute sovereignty and wisdom of Allah. Everything that follows — the institution of the prophetic mission, the obligation of Friday prayer, the warning against leaving for trade — flows from this foundational reality.
The Umayyads who controlled the minbar are gone. The Abbasid caliphs are gone. The Mughals who had their names read in khutbahs are gone. The British Empire that banned political sermons is gone. The algorithms that compete with Allah’s dhikr will pass away. But:
لَا تَبْدِيلَ لِكَلِمَاتِ اللَّهِ — “There is no change in the words of Allah.” (10:64)
The platform was given by Allah. Its purposes — Islam, Quran, Sunnah, Adl, Ihsan, treatment of relatives, charity, justice, good governance — were defined by Allah. And as you so beautifully observed: at the end, all acts, their failure and success, depend on Allah’s wisdom and permission.
The Friday call still rings — as it has every week for 1,400 years across every continent, in every language, under every political system — because no human power has ever been able to silence it permanently.
حَيَّ عَلَى الصَّلَاة — حَيَّ عَلَى الْفَلَاح
“Come to prayer — Come to success.”
That call has outlasted every empire that tried to own it. And it will outlast every algorithm that tries to compete with it. Because it is, ultimately, Allah’s call — and He سبحانه وتعالى is Al-Baqi — the Ever-Lasting.
آمين يا رب العالمين 🤲​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​