Malik Yawm Al-Din Avoiding Judgment And Self-Righteousness

Jumu'ah Khutbah — Mufti Minhajuddin Ahmed

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ، الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَكَفَىٰ وَسَلَامٌ عَلَىٰ عِبَادِهِ الَّذِينَ اصْطَفَىٰ، أَمَّا بَعْدُ

My dear respected brothers and sisters in Islam, respected elders and youngsters, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Introduction: Malik Yawm al-Din — Master of the Day of Judgment

In Surah al-Fatiha that we all recite — in fact, one of the titles of this surah is as-Sab'u al-Mathani, the seven often-repeated ayahs, that we frequently repeat — Allah says:

He is the Master of the Day of Judgment. So this concept — that Allah is the Master of the Day of Judgment — one aspect of this I wanted to explore with all of you today. As a reminder for myself and for everyone else; a reminder for myself first and foremost.

The background of why we are discussing this, to make it relevant for us: recently I was having a conversation with an individual — a well-meaning individual, insha'Allah, who is sincere — and that is why they brought it up to me. They said, why is it that in Darul Islam, people are so judgmental, have the holier-than-thou attitude, are so self-righteous, and they're not welcoming of diversity, and it's only one type of people who attend your masjid — or it's not my masjid, it's Allah's house.

The masajid belong to Allah. And nowadays it's all about diversity and inclusion. These are all subjective words — diversity and inclusion of different languages, absolutely; different colors, absolutely; different deens, perhaps not. In any case, these were the questions presented, or the objections made, or comments or suggestions that were made.

I strongly believe that one of the ways you know if someone is sincere or not, is if it's just water-cooler chatter, talking to each other, parking-lot chatter outside — or someone takes the time to bring it to your attention, come and speak with you, make an appointment, and say, "I have this genuine concern." Then, insha'Allah, we don't know what is inside the hearts, which is part of the discussion:

We judge based on the external conditions, and we leave the matters of the heart to Allah.

We hope the person is sincere, and we will treat them in such a manner — we will behave with them, considering them to be sincere. So this is what the perception is — not of everyone here. If I reach the conclusion that all of you sitting here, all of you who are regular attendees, particularly those who came earlier, are self-righteous and arrogant, that would be an extremely wrong conclusion.

But this was a person's perception about people in general: "Oh, Darul Islam, you have only one understanding of deen, you're not accepting diversity, and it's just your way or the highway." نَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ ذَلِكَ.

Two Extremes: The Liberal Interpretation and the Self-Righteous Extreme

So when it comes to the ayah Maliki yawm al-din — Master of the Day of Judgment — there are two different, polar extreme interpretations or applications of that.

One is that people say — on the extreme liberal end — and this is something that is present in the liberal culture, and is actually being taught in universities, being pushed down people's throats. It's not something they're just picking up through osmosis, but they're actually being instructed; they've been driven to believe in this manner: that truth is relative, there's no absolute truth and falsehood, everything is subjective, you should just live and let others live, let everyone adopt their own path in life. God is the Judge, He is the Master of the Day of Judgment, He will judge between His creation — you have no right to comment on anyone, whether it's right or wrong, whether it's moral or immoral, whether it's legitimate or illegitimate, whether it's ethical or unethical, whether it's truth or falsehood, whether it's male or female.

So this subjectivity is extended so far — from the realm of abstract theoretical concepts and theology and aqeedah — it has gone on to the fact that people are denying anatomy and physiology. And this is how we end up with gender fluidity and things of that nature. It's not only a matter of gender; if someone wants to identify as a tree, they're a tree; if they want to be identified as a cat, they're a cat. And if they're asking for a litter box in the classroom, then you have to respect their choice.

"Don't judge, don't judge, don't judge" — whether it's heterosexual, whether it's homosexual, whatever way of life they want to adopt. So this is the liberal end of it.

And then the other extreme is that people become the judge, jury, and executioner all in one. They are condemning individuals, saying it's just my way or the highway. This is the Safinat of Nuh — the Ark of Nuh (alayhis salam). There is tashbih, there is similitude, there are many things happening here. Safinat Nuh means: if you're on this ship, you'll be saved — and not only that, but if you're not on the ship, you'll be destroyed.

Because when Nuh (alayhis salam) was addressing his own son, he said:

"O my dear son, come with us. Don't be among those who are going to be destroyed." He said, "I will go climb that mountain; it will save me from the water, because at its peak the water will not reach." Then Nuh (alayhis salam) said, "No one will be able to save you from the punishment of Allah today, except for those upon whom Allah chooses to shower His mercy."

So when people say Safinat Nuh, they mean: "This is the only way, and you will be successful if you are following my way — if you look like me, act like me, dress like me, talk like me, walk like me. And if you don't, then we'll condemn you, we'll look down upon you. You are doomed and damned for the Hellfire. You are the father of the fire of Jahannam."

So that is the opposite extreme. And the reality of the matter — and the correct approach — as in many such cases, is somewhere in between. So let us approach both of these.

Responding to the Liberal Interpretation: Haqq and Batil Are Real

From the liberal side, the response should be very clear. We do believe that there is a definite haqq, and there is a definite batil — there is truth and there is falsehood.

Truth has come, falsehood has been vanquished and destroyed. And these realities are not subjective, based on personal preference, but are determined by Allah — determined by revelation, by wahi. And that is why one of the names and titles of the Qur'an is al-Furqan — the criterion. Yafruqu bihi bayna al-haqqi wal-batil — Allah distinguishes between truth and falsehood through the Qur'an.

So there is certainly a way of life that is beloved to Allah, and there is a way of life displeasing to Allah. And Allah has made that clear. We cannot say it's up to a person to determine their own path in life. There is a correct way, and all of us are striving to adopt it in the best manner possible — to the best of our ability, based on the tawfiq we are granted by Allah alone. Not based on our own accomplishments or our own efforts.

We would imagine this is self-evident and does not require further explanation. But the reason this has also become a cloudy and confusing matter is because of some of the messages being preached from the pulpit in masajid across America — and around the world, for that matter.

A Real-Life Example from a Jumu'ah Khutbah

There was a day recently when we had both Eid and Jumu'ah on the same day. So imagine at 10 o'clock there was an Eid prayer in the park, and then a few hours later at 1 o'clock, people were gathered for Jumu'ah. I was attending as a member of the audience. And these are, verbatim, some of the messages that came across in the khutbah.

The khatib was saying: when we were praying Eid a few hours ago in the park, if you saw a woman — her hair exposed, wearing tight clothing, wearing makeup, displaying herself — Allah says:

And Allah also says:

He didn't quote these ayahs, of course — but I'm just citing them for context. The message the khatib gave was: if she is dressed in a provocative manner and you are sitting there having done i'tikaf, done so much tilawa, so much sawm and ibadah — you do not know that she may actually be more beloved to Allah, that Allah may have a loftier status for her in the akhirah, that Allah may reject you and everything you've done. And her performing Eid in that manner may be more beloved to Allah than all the ibadah that you have done.

So this was the message. And then the lesson after that was: don't judge, don't judge, don't judge people. This is the whole liberal agenda — don't judge.

The Problem with This Approach

We have to understand this situation clearly and think about it for a moment. Because there are two things here. On one side, we may say — wait, that's wrong — because exposing yourself, beautifying yourself, showing off to others: is that for females only? If males are dressing with the intention of attracting females, that is equally haram. The command is to both.

Males are not supposed to display their 'awrah — the extent of the 'awrah on the male body is from the navel to the knee, including or excluding the navel and knee depending on the madhab. But basically from the navel to the knee. So if a male is exposing himself from the navel to the knee, it is as haram as a woman exposing her hair or other parts of her body that she's not supposed to.

So one is right, one is wrong. But then you have this message that you're not supposed to judge — and that's true too. Didn't you also hear that we're supposed to be humble? We're not supposed to consider ourselves better than anyone else? Our mashayikh say, "I am the most haqir and faqir, I am so full of sins." How are you supposed to regard yourself as less, while also recognizing that what the other person is doing is wrong and what you are doing is right? So how do you reconcile these two? That becomes the problem.

Because if you think about it — I just finished i'tikaf and this is the first day out of i'tikaf, it's Eid. And a person may have been partying the last ten nights of Ramadan, or the whole Ramadan, or their whole life. Or on the Eid day, one person is coming striving to follow the Sunnah, and someone else is violating the commandments of Allah. One seems clearly right and the other clearly wrong — but then we have the ruling of not considering yourself better than others. So how do we reconcile the two?

If you go on the side of "don't judge others," then we end up with such statements. And what are the problems with such statements? What happens is that we are empowering and legitimizing violation of the commandments of Allah. Because we're giving only half of the story — not the complete picture.

Imagine if I am presently in a spiritual state where I'm committing all of these sins. I came from Eid, changed into a new Jumu'ah outfit, and came to the masjid — perhaps even wearing perfume, which is haram for a woman when leaving the home for others. And then the khatib is patting me on the back and saying to others that they should not judge, and that I may be more beloved to Allah than all of them who did i'tikaf.

So Shaytan is already working overtime, day and night. And he is going to say: "Look, you just heard it. You never know — you could be more beloved. In fact, you are more beloved. There's no doubt about it. The khatib just said it. Allah made him say that for you." So you are further justifying it, further rationalizing it, further empowering sin. If there was any potential possibility of the person reflecting upon coming to Jumu'ah — thinking that what I did was wrong and I should make tawbah or reform myself — that possibility has now been extinguished.

The True Problem: Self-Righteousness and Arrogance

But then the other problem is a true problem and is our starting point. Allah says: Do not declare yourself to be pure, purified, sanctified — the holier-than-thou attitude as they say in English. Do you not see those people who declare themselves to be pure? Allah is the one who purifies individuals, and He knows who is pure and who is not.

Even when you praise an individual, what do you say? "We hope and we expect him to be such and such — so great, so nice, so sincere" — but we cannot certify any individual. This only lies in the hands of Allah. So if you start certifying yourself and saying, "We are so pure and they are so bad," that's wrong too.

And if you start having arrogance over your ibadah, then actually the one who is regretful over their sin is more beloved to Allah. Seeking forgiveness after committing a sin is more beloved to Allah than being arrogant after committing a good deed. Let me repeat that again. Seeking forgiveness after committing a sin is more beloved to Allah than being arrogant after committing a good deed.

The Resolution: Al-I'tibaru bil-Khawatim — What Counts Is the Ending

The way to resolve this is as our beloved ustaz was mentioning in the khatmah of the tafsir. Alhamdulillah, we have two khatmahs this week — one khatmah of Hizb al-Qur'an, and before that, the khatmah of the tarjuma and explanation of the whole Qur'an. With the students of the second year of the 'alim program, they finished learning the meanings of all the words of the Qur'an — all 30 juz in one year, 15 juz in one class and 15 in another.

We were asking the students: should we continue this pace? Because it's a bit ambitious — typically in the madaris they do 10 juz per year over three years. So we asked what they thought, and they said, "In the beginning, yes, it was challenging. But alhamdulillah, this Ramadan was an unbelievable experience — we were able to understand the majority of the Qur'an. We loved it. Don't stop it. Keep all 30 in the second year." SubhanAllah.

In that lesson, Mawlana Yusuf was mentioning the principle:

What counts is the ending. (A well-known principle of Islamic scholarship, referenced in Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6493.)

So let us separate the two. One is that currently at this moment, doing i'tikaf, tilawa, ibadah, and following the Sunnah is the right thing. And displaying yourself — whether male or female — in an attractive manner in public, which is only permitted with one's lawfully wedded spouse in the confines of the bedroom — that type of exposure publicly in an Eid gathering is haram.

So the current action there is clear: this is halal and this is haram. And we have to have no qualms in stating that. This is something right, this is something wrong. What are you doing? The right thing. Because you're so great? No — bi fadlillahi ta'ala, because of Allah's grace upon me. Who is doing the wrong thing? This individual is doing the wrong thing. It is the wrong thing. You don't have to go in their face and rub it in and say, "You're doing the wrong thing." But you have to at least know this is the wrong thing.

The problem then is you'll say: "Wait — so therefore I'm better and they're worse?" No, we can't say that. Why not? Because I'm doing the right thing and they're doing the wrong thing — but how am I not better than them?

The reason you are not necessarily better than them is because what actually counts is the ending. And the ending is unknown. The fact that you're doing the right thing today is no guarantee you'll die doing the right thing. And the fact they are doing the wrong thing today is no guarantee they'll die doing the wrong thing. So all of this could eventually become irrelevant — because what counts is the ending.

And there are many people who led lives of apparent righteousness, apparent taqwa — but they died without iman. From the minbar and mihrab, they ended up dying in the throes of vice and sin, in casinos and bars. And many people from those very haram places ended up dying in sujud by the Hajr al-Aswad, on Laylat al-Qadr, in ihram. That is possible — a person grew up in the pubs, the bars, the casinos, and died by the Hajr al-Aswad in ihram. You never know what's going to happen until the end.

So this is how we can resolve this issue. People say, "Oh, you can't judge, you can't judge." That's true. But they're taking the concept of "you cannot judge" so far that now, if someone is openly doing something wrong, you say, "How are you judging? You never know — their action, you can't say anything wrong about what they're doing, because they may be more beloved to Allah."

At the end of the day, unless someone is doing israr — persistently, openly committing sin — or is actively promoting and supporting batil, only then do you have to stand against them as individuals. Otherwise, the general rule is:

We have hatred for the kufr and the fisq, not the kafir and the fasiq. Hatred for the sin, not the sinner.

Because this is something mentioned by Allah in the Qur'an. And it is proven through the hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ. We take the ayah of Surah al-Hujurat:

And then the Prophet ﷺ made his du'a — which is the masnun du'a:

O Allah, make iman beloved to us and beautify it in our hearts. Make kufr — disbelief in Allah — and fisq — disobedience of Allah — disliked by us. And O Allah, make us among the rightly guided.

An Illustration: The College Roommate

An example of fisq: say a student is in college and had to stay in the dorms. He is a righteous Muslim with great tarbiyah from his parents; he doesn't drink intoxicants. But his roommate — also a Muslim — does. The liberal agenda will say, "Don't judge. Whatever — you have your zamzam and your ruwayba. If he likes beer, that's fine too." No, it's not fine.

You see, abstaining from the sin is not sufficient. Abstaining from sin, plus you have to have hatred for the sin. And doing the good deed is not sufficient — you have to do the good deed and love the good deed. Habbib ilayna al-iman — that which the Prophet ﷺ is asking for is matlub. And that which is matlub is maqsud. If it is not an objective, it wouldn't be asked for.

So the Prophet ﷺ is saying: O Allah, make the good deed beloved to us and make us hate sin — not only abstain from sin, but hate sin. We should have a repugnance, an inner hatred.

The Effect of Overexposure to Sin

Nowadays people have been so exposed to sins. I remember an incident as a young child — I think it was 1988, we went for Umrah. On the plane, from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where no alcohol was served anywhere, there was such an impactful incident. The air hostess was serving, and there was a non-Muslim passenger sitting nearby who asked for wine.

I was like — whatever. You go to the grocery store, you see wine everywhere. You don't have to go to a bar to see wine; there is so much exposure to sin for us. But when he opened the can to pour it, the Saudi person — who had never seen wine before; this is before Vision 2030, this is 1988 — he couldn't tolerate it. He was so shocked. He said, "I want to change my seat. How can I sit here?" Nobody was pouring it in his lap, nobody was force-feeding him. The guy next door — let him do what he wants.

So I was getting shocked by the fact that I wasn't getting shocked. And I was shocked at how shocked he was. I was like, "Whatever, he's just drinking." But then:

Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, let him not sit at a table where wine is being served. (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2801)

So I thought: wow, he's never even seen it. This is what happens — overexposure to sin removes the magnitude of disobedience of Allah from our hearts.

Christmas time, we see the nativity scenes — at least back in those days. When we were growing up in public schools — na'udhu billah — we used to sing the Christmas carols: "Silent Night, Holy Night..." But Allah says in the Qur'an:

The heavens are ready to split asunder, the earth is ready to open up, and the mountains are ready to crumble into dust — because they attributed a son to the Rahman. It does not befit the Rahman to have a son. To say Jesus is the son of God is such an enormous statement that the heavens, earth, and mountains react with horror. But we hear it and think, "Whatever — they believe he's the son of God, we believe he's the Prophet of God — not a big deal."

This is the reality. So those who are on the liberal agenda have to understand that this is wrong. What is right is clear and evident, what is wrong is clear and evident.

How Shaytan Attacks Both Groups

Shaytan is getting everyone. Those who may be practicing a little bit — Shaytan gets them by making them think they're better. As soon as we begin to think we are better than anyone else, then whatever good we are doing — which is already full of deficiencies — we cancel it out. Zero. End of discussion, because we have become arrogant.

We have to protect ourselves from falling into that. There are so many other dimensions to discuss — perhaps in the next session — where we can talk about when we see something different: how do we determine if this is a valid difference of opinion, or something from the wrong category? What is the definition of munkar when it comes to nahy 'an al-munkar? What is ja'iz ikhtilaf — valid difference of opinion — and what is not? Some principles of that we may discuss insha'Allah.

Conclusion: Being Welcoming Without Compromising on Truth

But let Allah protect us and guide us. Based on the feedback I received at the beginning, we are falling into that sin — which one? Being judgmental. We have to be loving, we have to be open. To the point that we hear from people the opposite feedback — that the community of Darussalam is so welcoming, so open, so embracing.

Because consider this: a woman wearing niqab and a woman not covering her hair. Before the woman in niqab has said a single thing — she never said anything — already Shaytan is telling the other sister: "She thinks she's better than you. She thinks she's more beautiful. She thinks you're a promiscuous woman. She thinks you're indecent. That's why she's covered up and looking at you like that."

Perhaps the woman in niqab never even thought like that. But already Shaytan is working overtime. So what do you have to do? You have to go above and beyond — to overcorrect — by being more welcoming, more embracing, more kind, than the default situation would normally require. To overcome what Shaytan is planting in the mind of that sister.

May Allah give us tawfiq to act upon this. وَآخِرُ دَعْوَانَا أَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

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