Kamal El-Mekki – Friday Khutbah 21-06-2024
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AI: Transcript ©
Brothers and sisters in Islam, the title of
our Khutba today is trusts and covenants,
and it's
from the verse in Surat Al Mu'minun
where Allah
begins the Surah
by informing us
that by describing
those who have succeeded.
So
successful
are the believers.
So Allah describes those who have succeeded and
those who are successful, and their first description
is that they are believers.
Then Allah
gives certain descriptions and characteristics
of these believers
until he gets to the verse that we
want today.
Those who guard their trust and their covenants.
When you entrust them with something,
they will never betray that trust. When they
have a covenant between you
or and them or
anyone else or an entity, they do not
betray that covenant
in any way.
Likewise, in Surat Al Nisaa, Allah
says
Allah
commands you that
you return
the
Amanat, things that you are entrusted with, you
return them to their rightful owners.
In Sahih al Bukhari, narrated by Abu Hurair
a man came to the Prophet
and he said,
when is the hour? Meaning, when is the
day of judgment?
And Nabi, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam responded to
him,
If the trust is lost, meaning, you
no one keeps their their trust anymore. You
entrust them with something, they betray you. You
give them something of value, they take it,
and you cannot trust people anymore.
Because as we know, the hour will only
come upon the worst of creation. So what
is a sign that the hour is getting
close? That
people are start to not be trustworthy.
So he asked, Kaifa
How will it be lost?
He said,
He said, when the affair is given to
the one that is not the right person,
unworthy,
someone that is not worthy of that position,
then we await the hour.
And just based on this hadith, half of
us are awaiting the hour then because we've
seen this, Yani. When is the last time
you saw the right person in the right
position or the right leader in the right
position?
When this starts to happen, you know that
the hour is drawing near.
There's a famous hadith that we all know
and memorize in Sahih al Bukhari and Nabi
is telling us, here are the signs,
the indicators of some of one who is
a hypocrite.
And we know that the hypocrite
is in the worst and the lowest level
of the hellfire.
The hypocrites will be in the lowest rank
of the hellfire, meaning the worst part of
the hellfire. So they're in the worst position.
So that means we don't ever want to
resemble them or be like them in any
way, shape, or form. But the famous hadith
as we know, and Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam
said,
There are 3 signs of a hypocrite.
When he speaks,
he lies.
And when he promises,
he breaks that promise.
When he is entrusted with something, he betrays
that trust.
Meaning,
it could be that you give him something
that is valuable
or wealth and he will betray, and he
will take it. Or you give him a
secret. The scholars even said, even the secret,
he will can he will, like,
Yesh Yesh Sirya, and he will convey or
tell your secret to others. If he if
it's a right
that it's upon him to make sure it
is given
or so on, he will betray that as
well.
Just an important clarification here is that a
lot of times,
if you let's say, if you promise someone
and then you have an accident or yours
you fall ill, they always quote half of
this hadith. They tell you what's the sign
of the hypocrite. Yeah. And you promised me,
he didn't show up. The scholar said that's
not what it means. The scholar said,
the the hypocrite,
while he is promising you
next Wednesday, I'm we're gonna do this,
while he's saying that to you, he knows
very well that next Wednesday, he's in Dallas.
That's the difference.
Not someone who honestly promised you something, and
then due to circumstances
outside of their control,
they couldn't make the promise, then that means
they have the sign of a hypocrite. But
that's what it means.
But the point is that when we see
qualities in people that we don't wanna be,
we don't wanna be hypocrites, we don't wanna
be like the the misguided. So we want
to put effort to make sure that quality
is not in us. So this also includes
not just secrets, valuables, wealth, rights,
also includes our relationship
with our employer,
and also include that's, that's a type of
covenant and a type of trust,
And also includes if we have employees,
or if you're a manager and there and
you have subordinates,
or you're a teacher with your students, all
these are trusts and covenants.
Or and and especially when it comes to
leaders especially when it comes to leaders. And
we've seen
leaders and how they behave when it comes
to what we entrust them with, with wealth
and with our lives. You see
leaders stealing the wealth as if it belongs
to them. You see them disregarding the lives
of or the population. They disregard the lives.
Whereas Nabi
he cared about the lives of his companions.
Yeah. Honey, do you know one time when
the Nabi, salallahu alaihi wasalam, didn't care if
his companions will be killed or butchered severely
in battle because they're going to Jannah anyways?
Do you know how great it is to
be a martyr? They're gonna die anyways, they're
gonna be in the highest level, so therefore
let them die. Did you ever once hear
something like that?
But where did we get this lack of
care for the lives of the believing men
and women? Where do we get that?
Honey,
in Mecca, why weren't the believers allowed to
fight back in Mecca? Because they were a
minority, they would all be killed
because Islam valued their life.
Uhud and Nabi
didn't want to go out and meet the
enemy in the battlefield. He wanted to meet
them in Medina as he did later on
in Al Khandaq.
Why? And he even saw that in the
dream that many of his companions will be
killed.
He cared.
Now we get leadership,
they make a decision,
they kills 1,000 and thousands of men and
women and children, and they don't care. And
we hear speeches, and we will present another
1,000,000
shuhada for
the 1,000,000 shuhada. And who gave you the
right to decide to kill to have a
1000000 people die? Who gave you that right?
The worst caring for people's lives.
Where was this ever in this seat or
where was this ever in Islam?
Where do we ever learn that
land is more valuable than lives?
This is something that has been ingrained in
in our minds in the recent years and
it's stuck
now. And even some of you don't like
me saying this,
but the soul of one believer is greater
than land.
And bring evidence if you disagree.
And we have evidence,
and Nabi salallahu alaihi wasalam said, the destruction
of the Ka'ba is easier in the sight
of Allah than the extermination of 1 Muslim.
1, the Kaaba.
But this is from the trust.
People in charge, they care about people's lives.
They care about the wealth. This is a
trust. But Nabi
said it's gonna be scarce, and that's why
we're not seeing it much. He said it's
gonna be so scarce that there will be
you will hear people say, in the village
of so and so, in the tribe of
so and so, there is one honest person
there. There's a trustworthy, one trustworthy guy. Just
like that. That's how scarce it's gonna be.
In Nabi
narrated by Ahmed, prophet said,
There is no iman
for the one who does not have amanah,
and we see it scarce.
You go to the Muslim lands and you
see how
government workers
behave in the offices,
police officers, and how they take,
yeah, and
bribes.
Muslims in the West, we're not far from
that.
I don't want to be cross in this
Khubba,
but
we have a lot of problems. Yaani, one
one of
my friends is an imam, and he has
a workshop on sexual abuse.
He said, when I finish the workshop, the
line is to the wall.
People waiting in line to tell me about
their sexual abuse stories and its relatives.
I was sexually abused by my uncle, by
by
my stepfather. Stepfather?
Where is the trust?
So common now to hear about stepfathers.
This girl looks at you like you're her
own dad, and this is how you look
at her.
What happened to the trust?
So it's a lot of problems, and this
Khutba is not meant to be a beat
down or anything like that. But
we we all need to review ourselves and
our lives and see, and we'll talk about
that in the second Khubba. But I wanted
to give the story of Ibn Aqeel
Aqil He was one of the
he was a Hambali Fatiha,
and he one time in Hajj. And this
story is about the reward of your trustworthiness.
He was in Hajj and he found a
pouch with a very expensive necklace.
So in Hajj, how are you gonna find
the owner with thousands of people? But he
spent his days nights asking around asking around
until someone told him, there was an old
man yesterday asking about this this this necklace
that he lost. Until he found the old
man, he gave it to him. He refused
to even take
a reward from him. And then Hajj is
over, he says, I was gonna go back
to Baghdad, but I was not in any
hurry. He's single, he's
not going back to our job or anything.
He said, I just started to take my
time. I said, I'll make my way slowly
to Baghdad. So I went to the mosque
first,
and it was a cold night, so I
slept in this Masjid. And then when Fajr
came, they saw him as a a person
of knowledge, so they had him lead the
salah. Then they liked his recitation, then they
asked him to stay and and lead them
in Ramadan.
Then he stayed with them in Ramadan, then
they said, because the Imam of the Masjid
had passed on, they asked him to lead
Ramadan. Then they said, we have a young
girl,
and, why don't you get married and stay?
And
he got married to this woman, and then
he says, Allah gave me blessed me with
a boy, a baby boy from her. He
said, Then after a while, she fell ill
and she was now on her deathbed,
so she gave me
the same pouch I gave the old man.
He said, when I saw it, I was
startled. I said, how do you have it?
Said, this used to belong my father, the
imam of the Masjid you replaced. He tells
her the story
of how he gave it back to him.
She said, SubhanAllah,
ever since my father returned from Hajj, he
used to always make dua. Oh Allah,
give me a young man just like that
one who found the necklace so I can
marry him to my daughter.
Or how about the example of the great
scholar, Abdul Ahlul Ibn Mubarak,
who borrowed a pen from someone in a
sham.
He says, I didn't remember it until I
was in Maru,
in Persia.
He borrowed a pen from someone in the
shop, and I didn't remember until I was
in Maru.
And he went back. This is not on
an airplane,
This is on riding animals weeks weeks until
he got back, and he returned the pen.
And just as there's great reward, there's also
great punishment for betraying trusts. And
there was a a story that happened in
our times of someone who entrusted a 100,000
with one of his friends,
but they didn't write anything. They didn't write
down the the loan or anything like that.
And
when he comes back for his money, the
man said, do you have any piece of
paper or anything written to prove that I
have this money? The guy says, no. He
says, leave. He says, Wallahi, the same day
I kicked him out and I stole his
100,000. He said, The same day I lost
500,000.
This is in
property and in stocks and whatever he had.
He lost 500,000 in the same day, and
his wife told him, That's because you you
betrayed the man. That's because you were unjust
to the man. And he says, Even then,
I wouldn't give him his 100,000
back. And time passed, and then my children
were involved in a car crash, and I
lost all 3 of them at one go.
And my wife again told me, that's what
you get for betraying the man.
But being honest and trustworthy, this is a
constant quality in the believer. Yeah, Ani,
It's a it's a constant quality in me,
no matter the person I'm dealing with. It's
not that I'm only honest if I'm dealing
with a Muslim, but with a non Muslim
it's okay. Or
it's with the government, it's okay. I can
cheat.
Or with tests and exams at school, it's
about dunya, if I had to cheat. But
it's a constant quality in you. You're honest.
You're trustworthy whether you're dealing with a Muslim
or a non Muslim, a government or an
individual.
And in Surat Al Munun, we said,
though they also guard their covenants.
The in the hadith, the Qudsih hadith, Allah
mentions 3 types of people. He says, 3
types of people, I will be their opponent
on the day of judgement.
So when you oppose someone, you either win
or they win. If your opponent is Allah
what's the outcome, the clear outcome? You will
lose.
So the first of them,
The scholars explained this is someone
that using the name of Allah,
he was trusted because of the name of
Allah
So he was given because of that,
and he betrayed.
And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
4 traits, if you have them, you're a
hypocrite. Yeah. And if you have these 4
things together, you're a hypocrite.
And whenever he has a covenant,
he betrays.
Ask Allah for his forgiveness. Indeed, those who
ask for his forgiveness shall prosper.
So how can I become someone who always
who is trustworthy,
guards their trusts, covenants,
whether they're at work, whether
with at home with the family, wife?
Basically,
become a person who is more concerned with
making sure you give everyone around you their
rights
before you ask for yours.
Do you understand?
Make sure you are always checking. Am I
giving this person their rights? Yeah. And let's
look at it this way. Imagine there's a
couple, 2 couples.
1 of them, the minute he wakes up,
he thinks, is she giving me my rights?
She still didn't give me this one, and
this one, and this one, and this one.
The woman wakes up,
he didn't give me this one and this
one and this one and this one and
this one and and her list is longer,
of course.
So it which will be happier, this couple
or the other couple? He wakes up and
says,
Am I giving her all her rights?
I'm falling short in this area. And she
wakes up and she says, Am I giving
him all his rights?
Which couple do you think will last longer?
Which couple do you think will do better?
Because one of the scholars said, he said,
on the Day of Judgment, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala will not ask you if you got
all your rights.
First, he will ask you if you give
others their rights from you.
Allah Azrael will not ask you if you
secured all your rights in this dunya. He
will ask you if you gave everyone else
their rights. So that should be the number
one question in your mind. But we today,
everything is about rights. Yeah. And even our
books, the rights of women, the rights of
the husband, the rights of the children, our
khutab, the rights of women, the rights of
the man. It's all about you getting your
rights. So we've been put in that conditioned
to be in that state where we're always
making sure nobody tramples my rights. And if
anyone dares to think of it, out comes
our phone and we make a big ruckus
and a fuss because our rights are the
most important thing. More important than that, make
sure other people get their rights from you.
Because that's what Allah Azul will ask you
about. And if you make sure
every morning that your wife has all her
rights from you, she will reciprocate
even without telling her. She will reciprocate and
she will start to make sure you have
all her rights from her.
With that, we ask Allah to make us
of those who recognize the truth as a
clear truth and follow the best of it,
and to make us of those who recognize
falsehood as a clear falsehood and abstain from
it.