Morad Awad – The Word That Changed Everything
AI: Summary ©
The importance of protecting oneself from extreme statements and words is highlighted in Islam, where the tongue is the only one allowed to communicate. It is also discussed, as it is used to convey joy and grief, and to create wealth. The importance of controlling what comes out of social media, especially during the holiday season, is emphasized, along with warning of consequences of anyone who talks about it without evidence. posting and commenting on Islam is encouraged, but it is stressed to avoid offense.
AI: Summary ©
We start by praising Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and sending our peace and blessings to our
noble and beloved prophet Muhammad
And I remind myself and yourselves on this
blessed day of yamuljumu'ah
to fear Allah
The way he should be feared.
As he reminded us of this in the
Quran when he said,
Fear Allah
the way he should be feared
and do not die except in the state
of submission to
him. We ask Allah
to die in this state,
And we ask Allah to be resurrected in
this state.
And we ask Allah
to
protect us all,
and to protect our families,
and to protect our friends and our relatives
from the * fire. Amin
Brothers and sisters,
there's a particular
subject.
If you post about it,
your account with a 1000000 followers
will be flagged.
Gone.
You'll be blocked
from your accounts
on social media.
If your
password
is stolen,
the bank password
that you use to log in to your
bank account,
they can access
your money and
all your savings can be gone.
If your personal information
and your identity is leaked,
Gone.
Someone
can take your identity over and commit all
sorts of crimes that you will be blamed
for.
Very scary statements.
Very scary statements.
And we spend so much time
protecting ourselves
from these types of scenarios,
so that we don't have to put up
with this type of headache.
No one wants to go down that path.
But when
I stand here on the minbar,
and I say,
a scarier statement.
It doesn't strike fear in the hearts,
the way the previous statements
struck fear
or made us cautious,
made us alert,
made us aware.
There's a particular word. Imagine if I told
you there's a word,
that if you say it,
your actions will go to 0.
There's a word
that if you say it
or a statement,
if you say it, you'll be ascribed to
the hellfire.
Someone might hear me say this and say,
This
is too extreme.
What are you talking about?
A statement?
Allah is the most forgiven merciful. Why are
you making things so complicated?
La'awalla.
The only reason
a statement like this is considered
extreme or harsh
is because we do not take faith as
serious
as we do.
Our money in our bank accounts,
our jobs,
our social media accounts, our followers,
our social status.
These things are things that we directly care
about.
But when it comes to spirituality,
it's not the case. Therefore,
these types of statements can be perceived
as extreme,
when indeed they are not.
What if I say a word
can make your iman disappear
or reduce the amount of tawheed that you
have.
The prophet
alaihis salatu wassalam,
he said in a
hadith,
That the iman of a servant will not
be straight until their heart is straight.
The iman
faith
will not be straight
until the heart is straight.
And the heart cannot be straight and will
not be straight
until the tongue is straight.
Yes, brothers and sisters,
the tongue
The tongue,
one of the most important
organs that Allah
gave us.
This tongue is what Allah gave us to
pronounce the kalima,
the word of tawhid,
the word of
Muhammadun Rasulullah,
the heaviest statement in the universe, and the
most truthful thing that any person on the
face of this earth or in the universe
can say, there is no God worthy of
worship except for Allah.
Allah
gave this responsibility
to this tongue.
Hence,
this tongue was given great importance.
In another hadith in Bukhari in Muslim, the
Prophet
said,
indeed a servant
can speak or utter
a word,
They do not even pay attention to it.
And because of it,
their faces will be distanced from paradise,
or be deepened into the hellfire
as far as the east
and the west.
Meaning, they'll never come together
because of a word or a statement that
someone can utter without
even knowing.
And this is the scary part.
A lot of us say things
and we don't even notice.
A word that we the prophet said, la
yunqeelaha
balam.
You may not even remember when you said
it but it can be the reason
of a person's torture in the * fire,
or being distance from paradise.
May Allah
make us from the people of paradise. Ameen.
Brothers and sisters, one of the greatest
blessings that Allah gave us is this tongue.
This tongue that allows us to spell out
what's in our hearts.
This tongue that allows us to communicate joy
and grief.
This tongue that makes
our lives
nice and beautiful communicating with the people that
we love, and we enjoy communicating with.
Without it, everything will be bottled up inside
of us.
Communication will be difficult, but it's one of
the greatest,
greatest
gifts that Allah
gave us. And Allah
reminded us of this in the Quran.
When he said,
And did we not give him meaning
Bani Adam, the sons of Adam. And did
we not give them 2
eyes and a tongue and 2 lips?
So that we can communicate with. And Allah
said,
Musa alaihis salam. And look.
Musa alaihis salam
was one of the great
messengers
of history. One of the top five,
and the only one who spoke to Allah
Kalimullah.
When Allah
bestowed upon him the responsibility of messaghood.
When Allah
told him,
You will become a messenger and you will
convey my message to Firaun,
the biggest enemy of Allah in history.
The first thing he asked Allah
what did he say?
One of the first things he said,
He said, And untie the knot in my
tongue, so that I can convey the message
properly.
He thought of his tongue.
And then
and not only that,
but he also thought it's befitting for his
brother
to be
a prophet as well with him.
And the only reason he thought so was
for a reason that he mentioned. Musa alaihis
salam mentioned. He
said,
My brother Harun
is more proficient in his tongue so send
him with me as a prophet.
His tongue was the only reason
he was seen to be befitting of prophethood
by Musa alaihis salam. Imagine. And Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala
gave him the answer and told him, We
will make your brother
a Prophet
with you.
Brothers and sisters,
Allah
he told us about the believers who will
succeed.
When he said,
Indeed
the believer will succeed, but who?
Those who have Khushu and their salah.
And those who avoid,
unnecessary
speech.
Something that has no meaning,
something that has
no benefit to anyone.
No way a believer will be found
indulging in something that has no benefit whatsoever.
A believer cannot be seen.
But not a regular believer.
A successful believer because Allah labeled the successful
believers as the ones who fit these characteristics.
The second one,
Brothers and sisters,
Allah
didn't stop there.
But Allah
didn't tell us that the believer is the
one that only controls their tongue. But the
believer is someone who does not controls their
tongue. But the believer
is someone who does not
like to listen
to people
who have loose tongues either.
People
who just talk
As a matter of fact, one of the
most
disliked people by Allah are
The people who just speak
for the sake of speaking, with no meaning,
with no point, with no direction.
Allah
says in an ayah,
ayah,
describing the believers,
And if they hear people engaging
or indulging
in these types of useless talks, if they're
just dropping foul language, if they're backbiting, if
they're slandering,
if they're speaking about something that is useless,
the believer
avoids them. He says, Oh, I gotta go
right now. Man, next I'm not gonna waste
my time with these people.
And they say to them, you know, to
us is what we do and for you
is what you do. You know, like, I
have better things to do with my life.
Because the believer has no time for that.
The believer knows they have 60, 70, 80
years on the clock, and they do not
want to waste a minute.
Because they're trying
to get the highest level of jannah they
can.
That's the mindset of a believer.
A believer understands
that they are going to die. A believer
understands
that
part of their life,
they were either in misguidance, they were under
the aid, they were
under puberty.
Right? Their actions were not accounted for.
The rest of the 3rd of their life,
they're going to be asleep
or they're going to be busy. And you
know, when they have free time, the believer
understands
that this free time is very
valuable and you cannot use it for just
anything.
And you don't have the time
to
sit there and listen, let alone indulge
in any speech that has no benefit or
effect on your hereafter.
Positive effect that is.
And that's why the prophet
said in the authentic hadith,
That the Muslim
is the one who does not harm anyone
with their tongue or or their hands.
Of course, unjustly.
And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
Whoever believes in Allah
and the hereafter, if you truly believe This
is a challenge to every believer.
He says, If you truly believe in Allah
and the hereafter, then say
something that is good or stay silent.
Don't say anything.
So a believer thinks before they speak.
Say, okay. Is what I'm going to say
going to benefit anyone? If not, they withhold
because it's absolutely
no benefit.
If there's some benefit, they would say it.
And sometimes they won't because if they're cutting
off someone else who will say something more
beneficial, then there's no point of their beneficial
speech that's going to be less beneficial. So
they respect
the status of others with their tongues.
And in a long hadith,
a part of a long hadith, a famous
hadith of
an authority of Mu'adh ibn Nujabal
One of the great companions.
He says
The Prophet
tells Mu'ad ibn Jabal, Should I not inform
you of the head of the matter? Rasul
Amr,
and its pillar,
and the highest point,
After he described,
the Prophet described to Mu'adh
zadeen,
He broke it down, the
obligations and the prohibitions. Right?
He told me, you want to know
the the highest point? Do you wanna know
the pillar? Do you wanna know the head
of it? You want the whole thing? He
said, Yes.
You Rasulullah.
I'm listening. I'm all ears You Rasulullah. And
I'm sure we are too, because we want
to know what Rasulullah is going to tell
us.
He said, he held his tongue,
and he said, He said, control this.
That's everything.
If you control this, you got it all.
But if you can't control it, the moment
you let it go rampant,
that's it.
It's spiraling down after that.
So let us take this opportunity, inshaAllah, and
reflect and introspect, brothers and sisters, and think
of our tongues and how we use them.
May Allah
make us from those who control their tongues.
And may Allah
forgive us for what our tongues othered that
displeased Him. And may Allah
make us from those who say what is
best or stay silent.
Let us fear Allah, brothers and sisters, with
our tongues,
and how we use them.
But there's one thing,
and one parallel,
and one bridge
that I wanna make today.
That perhaps many of us did not associate
in the past.
And that is the connection between
our texts,
our posts,
our comments,
our likes and dislikes on social media.
That is no less
in sin
than the tongue in one and and what
it utters. As a matter of fact,
what you post up there
can be
what your tongue can say multiplied.
Because the amount of people it impacts,
either negatively or positively,
is something that you can never
count.
Because once it is posted,
once
you backbite someone,
once you slander someone,
once you take away from the honor of
someone,
once you accuse someone
of something that they did not do,
every time someone reads that,
every time someone acts upon that, every time
someone transmits that to someone
else, guess who is getting the sin for
that?
Perhaps a word can be said to one
person, or I could say it to a
1000 here. But if it's not recorded, at
least you know it's limited to everyone in
here.
But when it's constantly
visited
and revisited and revisited, imagine
how much sin a person is
wracking doing that.
So brothers and sisters,
we need
to take a deep introspective
dive into
our interactions on social media. As much as
we spoke about the tongue in the first
khutba, and I transmitted to you
the ayaat and the hadith that I did.
And I'm sure
you all understand the gravity of the situation,
but also understand
that those who indulge
in what we call modern day cancel culture
on social media,
and listen to videos,
and pass on videos
or comments or posts or articles that backbite,
that slander,
that speak down, that discredit, that take away
from
the benefits of a particular scholar,
a student of knowledge,
a sheikh, an imam,
someone that is benefiting the community, that is
benefiting the world.
Know
that if you don't have
what
it takes to defend yourself in front of
Allah,
And if you have no answer, then you're
going to get all that sin.
The person who initiated
this argument,
the person who spoke about the scholar
can
have an understanding
or a misunderstanding
that they could stand in front of Allah
and say, You Allah, I heard, I said,
and you said, and this is why. And
they have an excuse. But the person who
transmits it without knowledge,
without proof,
without benefit, Wallahi.
What's their answer going to be in front
of Allah?
What's their answer going to be in front
of Allah?
Wallahi, I am very saddened.
And this is the reason, obviously because it's
it's holiday season and what not. We we
usually give Khutab about holidays and Christmas, and
greeting, and this and that.
But wallahi, because of, you know, what's going
on, especially amongst the younger generation.
The older generation, you heard plenty of Khutab,
insha'Allah,
about about
these holiday seasons and our stance as Muslimen
towards them.
But for the younger generation who are engaging
in this, when I see someone
who, wallahi,
probably never read the whole Quran, 1 khutma.
Or someone who's struggling to read 10 pages
of Quran a day. Or someone that never
read
5 books in Islam. 5 books in a
particular science in any
of the sciences of Islam. They don't know
anything.
And they speak about a scholar.
And they speak about
an imam. They speak about a sheikh. Someone
who has given to Islam, who has done
for Islam more
in 1 year than they would probably do
in their whole lives. I don't know how
a person
has it in them to do that.
What will they say to Allah
when this person
grabs them in front of Allah and says,
You Rabbi, tell this person why they slandered
me.
You Rabbi, ask this person why they said
this and that about me when they didn't
know.
And then the person will be asked, and
they will stand before Allah.
And they will say, I don't know.
It's just, you know, it was the cool
thing to do.
Brothers and sisters,
we need to control
what we say
with our tongue, as well as what we
write, and what we post, and our opinions
online.
You don't need to write your opinion on
everything. You don't need to have one.
I don't.
Despite what I studied and what I went
through, I still until today don't feel entitled
to have an opinion on so many things.
Hence, why I don't post anything,
I don't comment, I read. They say, I
don't need to comment because my opinion doesn't
have a value.
If it was valuable, and I saw it
that it would be beneficial, then I would
put it. If not, then what Rasul
says,
Hold it back.
Hold it back.
Because if you're not sure it's gonna benefit
you on the day of judgment,
if you're not positive
that the good outweighs the
bad, then
Just leave
it. Drop it. You don't need to like
or dislike.
You don't need to comment.
You don't need to say anything.
Listen.
Benefit. Read for others. Take in.
But the moment you feel like you can
benefit others for sure,
and you analyzed,
and you prepared yourself
standing in front of Allah and answering, then
you could post something.
The moment you envision that, that's when you
could go ahead and do it, Shaw.
We ask Allah
to forgive us
for everything that we uttered upon our tongues
that displeased Him.
We ask Allah
to make us from those
who you said about them in Surat An
Nisa.
You Rabbi,
forgive us for the lemam.
Forgive us for these things that we say
that we do not even notice.
That perhaps took us
years deep into the hellfire. You Rabbi, forgive
us for them. You Rabbi, make us turn
a new page. Forgiven, You Rabbi give us
a tawbah that is completely sincere on this
blessed day of Yomul Jumaa.
You Rabbi, forgive us and forgive our parents,
and enter us all into jannah, You Rabbi.
You Allah, we ask You to unite us
with our parents, and our children,
and our spouses,
and our grandparents,
and our whole progeny who believe in You,
and attest to your tawhid. Enter us and
unite us in
So I'll make sure everyone outside,
if there's a place inside, just come in
and fill the gaps usually to the back,
to the right, and to the left. There's
always a space inshallah.
Fill the first row in front and then
go back to the second.