Ibrahim Negm – Jan 04 2019 Khutbah
AI: Summary ©
The importance of time and accountability is discussed, as well as the need to be mindful of one's actions. The speaker emphasizes the importance of time and the need to be careful of violating rights. The speaker gives a sermon on the importance of time and the importance of time management. The speaker also discusses the importance of good deeds and a strong heart, as well as the importance of faith in one's life and sharing in one's community.
AI: Summary ©
My dearest brothers and sisters,
we just started
another
calendar year of our life.
And everyone
is indulging
and for this matter should indulge
in moments of retrospection
and
reflection
about about our past
year
and past days,
our gains and losses.
And this is a healthy practice.
It is very beneficial
from time to time
to engage
in moments of retrospection,
to see
your gains and your losses,
to think about
your
good days and not so good as well
as
bad
deeds. This practice
is suggested to us
by our beloved
prophet
and by the companions.
He's reported in the Hadith,
and please listen carefully to this Hadith be
because we want
to apply this Hadith
in our lives
every day.
He
said
Bring yourself
to account
always
before
you are going to be brought
to the court of Allah
and he's going to settle the account.
So bring yourself to account.
Do the accounting yourself.
Do the retrospection
yourself.
Do the reflection
yourself
before
you are going to be brought to account,
before
it is going to be weighed against you
on the day of judgment.
So it is very healthy,
brothers and sisters,
to engage
in accountability.
Spare
some moments
every evening be right before you go to
sleep,
and
do a little review
of your day
or days
or years.
Do a little review in your mind.
If you find good,
thank Allah
If you find
every night,
be mindful
or extra mindful,
extra cautious
of violating
the rights of your brothers and sisters
because it is not just enough
to ask Allah's forgiveness.
You have to settle the account
of your victims first.
Otherwise,
we are all
going to run the risk,
and I'm very particular with the word bankrupt
because this is the word of our beloved
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
One time, he was sitting among the companions,
and he posed this question to them.
Do you know
who is the real bankrupt
at Hadruna Manil Muflis?
Do you know
the bankrupt?
So the companions answered by saying the bankrupt
is the one who doesn't have any money
or assets.
So they are talking about the literal meaning
of the word bankrupt.
The one who doesn't have any money is
a bankrupt.
But the prophet
gave the meaning
a
profound
sense.
He said, sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, the bankrupt
from among my ummah is the one
who is going to come with a lot
of good deeds
to his credit
on the day of judgment,
but he has
violated
the rights of his own fellow brothers and
sisters.
He backbited.
He abused.
He did a lot of bad things to
his brothers and sisters. He's going to settle
the account.
Allah is going to take
some of his good deeds,
and we and he will put it to
the credit of his victims.
And if his deeds if his good deeds
fall short of settling the account, what is
going to happen?
Some of their bad deeds
will be
credited to his record,
and, eventually, he will go to hellfire.
Be extra cautious.
Be extra
mindful.
Be extra careful
of violating the rights of your fellow human
beings, your fellow brothers and sisters.
So it is very healthy to engage
in accountability,
in a little review,
moments of review right before you go to
sleep.
Why
again? Mind the hadith of the prophet
bring yourself into account before you are going
to be brought
to account
in the court of Allah
Weigh your actions
before it is going to be weighed against
you on the day of judgment.
My dear brothers and sisters,
we always say time just flew.
And this is something that we need to
be aware of.
Every day
that goes by
draws us closer
to Allah
Actually,
Sayyid al Hasan al Basri,
alayirahmatullah,
said something very profound.
He said just we each and every one
of us is composed
of time.
Each and every one of us
is divided up in time.
If some time goes by,
some of us will go by, and
eventually,
our time will come in which each and
every one of us will be a history
will be
a history, my dear brothers and sisters.
Sayedna Umar ibn Khattab
He heard
someone
is saying so and so passed away.
So and so died.
So he said
that
Omar died.
Soon, it will be said about Omar himself
that Omar died,
and Omar indeed died.
The best creation
that Allah
created our beloved prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
He died a long time ago.
His sunnah is present with us, but he,
as a human being,
died.
This is the best of the creation of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, but still he died.
Each and every one of us, my dear
brothers and sisters,
is going to die.
You are going to die, oh,
prophet Muhammad,
and everybody else is going to die.
Again,
Al Imam al Shafi'i
he said something very profound about time.
He said,
time is like
is as sharp as the sword.
If you don't cut it, it will cut
you.
If you do not cut it
by spending it wisely,
it will cut you, my dear brothers and
sisters.
That's why the companions as well used to
meet each other.
They would not part
until one of them
recites
a small Surah
to the other,
a small Surah
to the other,
reminding them
about the value of
time.
And this is the Surah
that, again, Imam Shafi'i said,
if nothing of the Quran was revealed to
the ummah of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
except
this Surah,
it would have been sufficient been sufficient for
them
only if they reflected
on the meaning of this Surah, and this
is Surah
by
the time.
When Allah
takes an oath
about something, it is an indication
that this thing is very crucial,
is very significant in the eyes of Allah
by the time.
So Allah
is telling us
mankind is indeed in loss. This is a
general ruling,
but Allah has made an exception.
Except.
And then Allah
listed 4
categories
of people.
And I'm going to spend the rest of
the Khutba
elaborating
on the qualities
of the good investors,
the good investors
in time.
The good investors in time. But before that,
let me just draw your attention to a
event
on Fridays.
Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, tells us,
and please listen
with your hearts and minds.
This is verse for those of you, brothers
and sisters, who
if you want to go home and reflect
more
on these two verses, it is chapter 18,
Sur Al Kahf,
verse 103-104.
103-104.
Please do your homework
because it has an important message for all
of you, my brothers and sisters, and for
myself.
Allah is telling us
in the meaning,
shall I tell you
about
the greatest
losers
in their
deeds, in their works?
Those
of you,
Allah is telling us in the meaning,
who spend a lot of efforts
in this life,
but in vain.
Again,
shall I tell you about the greatest losers
in their
works? Those of you
who spend a lot of efforts
thinking that
they are doing so well.
Now I want all of you, my dear
brothers and sisters,
to ask the forgiveness of Allah
and to ask Allah's refuge
so that he would not include us among
such people
who are doing so
good in life.
So may Allah
include us among the good investors.
The people,
when they do good, they will
feel
the goodness inside, and they will bear the
fruit
of good deeds on the day of judgment.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and Surah Al Furqan,
he talks to us
about a frightening scene.
Some people
Some people will come to Allah with mountains
of good deeds.
All disappear.
Why?
Again, go back to the hadith I shared
with you earlier
about bankruptcy,
the real bankruptcy,
because they messed up
with the rights of their fellow human beings.
So my dear brothers
and sisters, Allah is saying mankind is indeed
in loss except
those number 1 who
believe, who have iman.
From here until tomorrow, and it will not
suffice.
But I want
all of you to think about iman
in 3
ways,
3 aspects,
and decreases.
Iman
goes up
and sometimes
goes down. So it is not a fixed
state.
It goes up how
and it goes down how
our scholars say
that with good deeds and decreases with
bad deeds.
So it is not just
you know
the 6 articles of iman
and you are now all set.
No. Actually, every day is a test.
Every day is an opportunity
so that we can
go up.
The bar is up
with good deeds
and that we try as much as we
can
not sinking.
Our iman also can sink with bad deeds.
That's the first
aspect about iman. The second aspect about iman
that the house of iman
house of Iman
is not with the limbs,
is not with the organs.
Where is Iman?
Iman
is in the hearts, my dear brothers and
sisters.
A man is
in the hearts,
and this is why people,
the Bedouin Arabs
claimed
that we have attained faith.
No. You have not attained faith.
Because faith did not penetrate
into
your hearts.
So, again, number 2, the house of iman
is in
the hearts.
What is our hearts, my dear brothers and
sisters, nowadays?
If you open your heart
and you are the best judge,
you are the best judge.
The imams and the ulemas
cannot
see your hearts. Only Allah
knows what is in the heart. What is
in your heart?
Is it the dunya
alone?
Is it your work?
Is it your business?
Is it your house?
Is it Allah? In in there, you'll find
Allah, his messenger.
You are the best judge,
but rest assured
that iman
is in the hearts.
Number 3 about iman.
Iman will not be complete
without good deeds.
Once iman is not going to be complete
without carefully to this
Our beloved prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
defined iman
in such a clear cut way.
He said
Eman
consists of some 60
or
some 70 branches.
Eman consists
of some 60 or
70
branches.
The highest branch
is
La ilaha illallah.
The lowest
branch
is that you
from the road of Muslims, no. We don't
find this from any road.
This is part of your iman,
and modesty
is a branch of the faith. This hadith
is narrated
by imam Bai Haqqi,
and you can look up
what
these
60
some branches or 70
some branches.
You will see
the the comprehensive
nature of the faith.
You will see being nice and good to
your parents
is part of the faith.
You will see feeding hungry people is part
of the faith.
You will see doing dawah engaging
Islam
with others is part of the faith.
The inner struggle
is part of the faith.
Praying on time is part of the faith.
Being nice to our sisters
and women
is part of the faith.
You could see that Islam is really
no. Islam is very comprehensive.
It is the rights of Allah
and the rights of fellow human beings.
So
sincerely for Allah
and in accordance with the way of the
beloved prophet
is considered
a good deed.
And number 3,
This is where the community
comes in.
This is where the community comes in because
the meaning here is that
those who mutually
advise one another,
those who mutually
recommend one another to stick to truth
and to stick to patience.
And you know
this time and age, it is full of
confusion.
We need to band together
so that we can stick to truth,
and we need to advise each other
so that we can stick
to patience and perseverance
in these difficult
times.
And, Inshallah, I'm going to elaborate further
on these points in,
this evening forum, Inshallah.
My dear brothers and sisters,
each and every one of us
is going to stand in front of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is going to bring us to account.
One zero
one without
translators,
without helpers,
without attorneys,
without supporters
will be speaking to Allah
alone. Even though we might forget
that we have messed up with Allah
or with our fellow human beings,
but Allah does not forget, my dear brothers
and sisters.
Each and every day, Allah
brings us to life.
I, as much as you can,
to keep the bar
raised up,
to keep your faith
in a good shape,
to increase in good deeds.
In this time and age,
I think
each and every one of us will not
be saved
by his
or herself
if we band to
and this community is a blessing.
So keep visiting the community
to get nourishment,
to get support.
You will be stronger.
When you come to this masjid, when you
get involved in the so many activities
of this beautiful mosque
in interfaith,
and this is one of the hallmarks
of this center
in
knowledge sharing
and seeking
And in so many
community activities,
you will be strong,
my dear brothers and sisters. You will be
strong.
Our beloved prophet
said that the wolf
will get the sheep that is away from
the herd.
All of you, and may Allah
make us spend each and every moment wisely.
May Allah
grant us success.
May Allah
grant all of us forgiveness
and gather us together
in the company of our beloved prophet
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala have mercy on
our sisters.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
protect and
guide
the
imams
of this community.
May Allah
guide
and forgive
all the generous brothers and sisters who have
been
supporting this great center.