There appears to be some confusion regarding the Asaa (Staff/Stick).

Answer

There are two kinds of asaas (staffs/sticks). The one kind is a normal walking stick or a staff which all the Ambiya and Sahaabah would keep with them. The other kind is a Hindu-looking ornamental stupidity, adorned and decorated to soothe the bid'ati palates of the Hinduinclining Ahl-e-Bid'ah.

This second kind of stick is a nonsensical innovation of morons. It is not permissible to hold this hindu-looking decorated stick when reciting the Jumuah Khutbah.

Furthermore, the hindustick has a bid'ah practice accompanying it. The hindustick usually is at the side of the mimbars in Bid'ati and semi-Bid'ati Musjids. On Fridays when it is time for the commencement of the Khutbah, the Muazzin gets up, takes the hindu-stick, stands with it facing the musallis and after reciting an Aayat of the Qur'aan Majeed, ceremoniously, ritually and stupidly hands it to the moron imaam who also ritually takes it and mounts the mimbar. This entire stupid clownish exhibition is a haraam bid'ah.

If the imaam is someone who usually walks with a stick, then there is no problem if he takes support of the stick on the mimbar. Sahaabah occasionally held their normal staffs whilst giving the Khutbah. Holding the asaa has absolutely no relevance to the Khutbah. It is not an element related to the Khutbah.

Holding the asaa is not among the Sunnats of the Jumuah Khutbah. There is considerable difference of opinion regarding holding a stick (asaa) whilst delivering the khutbah.

The asaa which is permissible is a normal stick or the

staff with which people walk. It is not an adorned, ornamentally decorated staff such as the Bid'atis keep in the Musaajid. For them, the ornamental staff is compulsory.

The emphasis accorded to this practice renders it Bid'ah. Even a Mustahab act becomes bid'ah and prohibited when it is emphasised and when those who abstain are criticized. Emphasising on the asaa is ghulu' (haraam extremism). The Akaabir Ulama of Deoband do not hold the asaa for the Jumuah Khutbah. All the molvis who had studied at Darul Uloom Deoband and at all the Madaaris associated with Deoband never held an asaa for the Khutbah. But some of them here in South Africa succumbing to the pressure of ignoramuses, fabricate stupid arguments for promoting this bid'ah.

Many decades ago Hadhrat Qaari Tayyib (Rahmatullah alayh), the Muhtamim of Darul Uloom Deoband, had visted South Africa. He delivered the Jumuah Khutbah in one of the Musjids in Johannesburg. In keeping with the then bid'ah practice, the Muazzin handed the ornamental hindu-asaa' to Hadhrat Qaari Taayib as he was about to mount the mimbar. Hadhrat Qaari Tayyib took the asaa and placed it alongside the mimbar. Then instead of commencing the Khutbah, he gave a lengthy bayaan on the innovation of the Asaa'. After completing his talk on the bid'ah of the Asaa', he commenced the Khutbah.

In view of the ghulu' and emphasis being accorded to the asaa which is unrelated to the Jumuah Khutbah, it remains a bid'ah on the basis of which all our Akaabir have shunned its use on the mimbar on the occasion of the Jumuah

Khutbah.