Eid Khutbah

Question:

: اَلسَّلاَمْ عَلَيْــــــــــــــكُمْ 

Brother Mufti sahib,

Can you please clarify following in the form of fatwa:

Can the Eid ul azha khutba be said before Eid salah?

I m 65 and all my life heard the Eid Khutba after Eid salat,

But in this Eid uk azha, a Bangladeshi person lead the Eid prayers in our small town in Ireland where about 50 people said Eid salat behind him and he said the Eid khutba before the Eid salat.!

Upon asking he said that's how we do it in Bangladesh and it is the correct way!

I asked him , is he a imam anywhere , he said NO, I asked him is he an alim, he said NO! 

Answer:

وعليكم السلام ورحمة الله و بركاته 

In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful 

The first of Shawwaal is known as Eid ul-Fitr, and the tenth of Zil Hijjah is known as Eid ul-Ad’haa. Both these days are days of festivity and celebration in Islam. On both these days it is necessary (wajib) to offer two rakaats of prayer as a form of gratitude. The prerequisites and conditions that have been mentioned for the validity and compulsion for Friday, apply for the Eid prayer as well. With the exception that for the Friday prayer the khutbah is a prerequisite and fard, while for the Eid prayers it is not fard but sunnah. Furthermore, the Friday khutbah is delivered before the prayer while for the Eid prayers, the khutbah is delivered after the prayer. However, listening to the khutbah of Eid is necessary (wajib) just as it is necessary (wajib) for the khutbah of Friday, i.e. while the khutbah is being delivered, it is haraam to talk, walk about or offer prayer.

The Sunnah is to deliver the Eid Khutbah after the Eid prayer, to intentionally reverse that order is not correct. Eid prayer will still be valid regardless but we should strive to follow the Sunnah in all manners of worship. 

It is narrated that the Emir of Medina Marwan during the time of sahaba delivered the sermon before the prayer as the people used to leave after the prayer, but the sahaba rejected this doing:

The Prophet (ﷺ) used to proceed to the Musalla on the days of Id-ul-Fitr and Id-ul-Adha; the first thing to begin with was the prayer and after that he would stand in front of the people and the people would keep sitting in their rows. Then he would preach to them, advise them and give them orders, (i.e. Khutba). And after that if he wished to send an army for an expedition, he would do so; or if he wanted to give and order, he would do so, and then depart.

And Allah knows best 

Mufti Umer Farooq Saleem