2nd Jummah Khutbah- Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed
By Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | 2026-06-04T12:07:00.709179+00:00 | Topic: Khutbah
The Reality of Life and Death
Peace be upon you, and this will continue to happen. Whoever is here is because Allah wanted him to be here. One of our relatives who runs a masjid was telling me that, subhanAllah, just last year amongst the people who sponsored different iftars for Ramadan in his masjid, he said eight people, he can count eight individuals who came and gave money to sponsor an iftar. And just a year later, relatives of those eight people now are paying the sponsorship on behalf of their deceased ones. Those eight people have died, different people. Who last year came and gave the imam the check, "we would like to sponsor iftar for the community." And now their son is saying, "can I sponsor iftar on behalf of my dad." This is the reality of life. Who's here, how long we'll be here, we have no idea. What counts is that when the last day of our life comes, that it should be the best day of our life.
The Beautiful Du'a of the Bedouin
The Prophet ﷺ once heard a Bedouin. He heard a Bedouin making du'a. He was so impressed with his du'a, he said, he appointed someone that when this Bedouin finishes his salah, I want you to tell him I'm waiting for him. So, that's exactly what happened. What was his du'a? The Bedouin said:
"Oh the one who the eyes cannot see. The imagination cannot properly comprehend. The best of describers cannot do justice in describing him. The happenings and the incidents of the world do not bring any change to him. He is absolutely unafraid of any calamity or any problem that may happen in the world because at the end of the day it's from him. He knows the weight of all the mountains. He knows the volume of all the oceans. He knows the number of raindrops that have fallen anywhere, any place, anytime. And he knows the number of those things upon which the sun rises, on which the sun sets. No heaven can hide from Allah what lies above it. And no earth can hide from Allah what lays below it. No ocean can hide from Allah what lays in its craters, in its deep valleys inside. And no mountain can hide from Allah what lays in the craters of that mountain, in the caves in the craters of that mountain."
The True Nature of Du'a
This is this lengthy beautiful du'a which is only what? Only praising of Allah. He hasn't even come to ask. From here we understand that du'a is not about placing an order with Allah. Allah Azza wa Jalla is not here to take orders from us. Du'a is a communication that happens between us and Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. It is a dialogue. It is a moment of, it's our therapeutic session where we come and we share all of our problems and all the good things and the bad things and we simply talk. Instead of venting to people we have an opportunity to vent to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. Instead of praising people we praise Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala number one and then we praise everyone else. Instead of just thanking people we first thank Allah and then thank everyone else.
Gratitude to Allah for Love in Our Hearts
If our spouse has been so nice to us today, if our mothers and fathers we remember them today that how much they have done for us. Before we say thank you to anyone we must thank Allah who put our love into the hearts of our parents. Into the hearts of our children. Into the hearts of our spouse. How nice and cute it is when your daughter, your son comes and gives you a big hug. They do that when they're young. May Allah allow us to do that when we grow older as well. That love that that child shows it melts your heart. Your stress from the day goes away when you see your little baby. A toddler crawling to the door to meet you. It's so cute isn't it? It's so amazing. But where did that attraction come from? It came from Allah. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala made you attractive to your spouse, to your kids, to your parents and to whoever else shows you care and love. So a person if he really wants to get things right he has to show appreciation to Allah. He has to praise Allah. He has to thank Allah. And after saying all these things and then you present your case. So if you can say 70-80% of it is speaking and communicating with Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala before we even ask for our needs. And this is a very common theme in the Sunnah, in the Hadith of the Prophet ﷺ.
Seeing Allah in Everything
And so this Bedouin, he was a graduate of where? He was a graduate of the madrasa of the Prophet ﷺ. Yes he was a Bedouin. But look at how he described Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. Look at how he's looking at nature that surrounds him in the desert. And he is interacting with that nature to connect with Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. He sees Allah in the sunrise and in the sunset. He sees Allah in every grain of sand. He sees Allah in the heat of the day in the desert and in the cold of the night of the desert. He sees Allah in the scarcity of the water and the abundance of water in the oasis. He sees Allah in the way in the forbearance that a camel has and the strength it has to be able to traverse long distances without eating or drinking. That Bedouin is looking at his surroundings and his surroundings and is seeing Allah's hidden hand in everything.
And this is what we're supposed to do. We are supposed to look at our work, our corporate job, our stay home job, our university studies, our college studies, our high school studies, our drive on the highway, expressway, non-stop reading through the news of the world, the news of whatever. We are supposed to be connecting the dots back to Allah. And we're supposed to be filled with absolute conviction إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ - That Allah is capable of doing anything and everything. وَمَا ذَلِكَ عَلَىٰ اللَّهِ بِعَزِيزٍ - That is not difficult for Allah.
Not an iota, مِثْقَالُ ذَرَّةٍ - Not a speck, not a dot, not an equivalent to a mustard seed in the heavens or the earth. Larger than a seed, larger than an iota or smaller can escape Allah's knowledge.
The Three Requests of the Bedouin
So this Bedouin praises Allah, and then he presents his case. Three things he asks. Number one, he says:
Look at the knowledge that is sitting in this room compared to the knowledge of this simple Bedouin. What a du'a he made. Honestly, if you think about it, the level of foresight this man had, the level of understanding of the true essence of life and death, the true priorities of life this man had it. He said, number one, اللهم اجعل خير عمري آخره - Ya Allah, make the best part of my life the last part of my life. I want to enjoy life and have the best towards the end. What's the point of having an amazing life at the beginning, only to die in a state that Allah dislikes us and the world dislikes us and we have fallen from the esteem of the people and fallen from the esteem of Allah. That we started off from the front row and we die on the street. That's not a good death. We want to make sure that the last portion of our life is spent in doing such things which are pleasing to Allah and pleasing to people.
The Importance of Character and Relationships
A quick story. A member of our community, I'm from Chicago. He told me a story of him and his father. He said, his father like many unfortunate fathers and mothers, very tight-fisted, very harsh, very arrogant, very narcissistic with their kids. Talk down to their children, speak ill behind their back. Always in the name of pushing them forward, push them down. Because of the harshness with which they speak and address their kids. That so-called tough love, sometimes it's not love at all. If it's not being received as love, how is it gonna be tough love? So please, listen with... Focus is what I'm saying. I hope you're not one of those dads and moms whose children hate them.
Because I am on the receiving end. Every day, children reach out to me expressing how much they hate their parents. How much they hate their parents. And that's the last thing. The last thing I want is one of my kids coming and saying to any of you, my baba is like this. I always tell this to my own children. You are my report card. Yes, I have a responsibility to making your tarbiyah. But not at the cost of you hating me. Because then, there's no tarbiyah. If my children hate me, I will never be able to bring a change within them. Change comes through love and trust. That's it. There's no doubt about that. You have to love someone to want to follow them.
If our children do not love us, you can pay all their fees at college. You can buy them new pairs of clothes, take them for vacation. But if we do not speak to them properly, if we do not trust them, if we do not speak to them in a loving, caring manner, our children will not love us. Previous generations, they will make patience, they will do sabr. Today, there's no sabr. They walk out as soon as they turn 18. And I've seen too many such cases of 18-year-olds walking out on their moms and dads. And that's it. We never hear back from them. The police, the lawyers, they all say, he's 18, he left on his birthday. If you had called us a day before, if this happened the day before, we could have helped you. But now it's too late. May Allah save all of us from ever having to suffer something like this. Ameen. And all of those who are going through this, may Allah in this blessed month of Ramadan, join the families back together.
Character Is Not Automatic
But akhlaq and character is a very big thing that Ramadan will not fix unless we actually address it. Don't think by fasting, your character becomes better. Don't think by standing here for qiyam al-layl, your character will automatically become better. You and I have to tell ourselves, don't listen from one ear out the other ear and say, am I that person that the shaykh is speaking about? Who my kids don't like? My wife doesn't like? My husband doesn't like?
A brother came to me and said, my wife is cursing every single day. "Married, ya Allah allow your marriage to fall apart." Curses her own son. And he says, she prays so much tahajjud. So much dua. Nafil fast. But look what shaytan is in her. Which mother would curse her own son? And he said, when the husband and wife, her son and daughter-in-law were fighting, she was so happy. And as soon as they start getting along, she's upset. This is nothing but shaytan. You got a shaytan. So remember fasting and Ramadan does not make you automatically a well-mannered person. Your tahajjud will not make you a well-mannered person. You and I have to make this a conscientious effort to become a better person.
A Powerful Confrontation
So he said, my dad raised us with a really tough hard fist and was just very harsh with us because of which none of us liked him. And he said, I came to America. I had a great career. My dad pushed me. So he's happy that I went to America and made so much money. But the freedom in America away from my dad allowed me to grow into my own identity. He said, I found out that my dad has got cancer. Or some other disease. He's got a few months left. I flew back to Pakistan. He said, I went to go visit him. Sat down with the father and said that, Dad, do you know one thing? I can't imagine the courage he had to have to say this. He said, Baba, you know, he's a Punjabi dad. He tells him, do you know all your kids and grandkids they hate you?
None of them like you. When you're gone, no one's gonna be crying. He let her all out. The reason I'm able to tell you this is because I've lived away from you for so many years. But all these people around you, they don't care about you. And it's because of your tongue. It's because of how you speak with them. No one in 70 years or 60 years had ever told this man what he needed to hear. Someone needed to tell him that they were scared. This is an example of the du'a being accepted. That's why I'm giving this story.
When he heard his son say that, he immediately repented. And he said, I can't believe I've done this to myself. That he had about 6 weeks to go. In those 6 weeks, he spent those 6 weeks dedicated to enjoying time with all of his children, grandchildren, asking forgiveness from each one of them, showering them with gifts, and spending quality time with them. His son came back to America. But he wrote a bequest. And he said, whenever I die, I want my son from America to come and to lead my janazah prayers. Because if it wasn't for my son, I would have never known what I had done to myself. And I don't know what type of punishment I would be waiting for in the akhirah.
Allah's Mercy in the Final Moments
This is an example of Allah having mercy on a person. That towards the end of his life, he repents. And he recognizes and realizes that I have done wrong my whole life. Whether that's drinking, whether that's alcohol, whether it's zina, whether it's drugs, whether it's riba, whether it's interest, whether it's having extramarital affairs, and the list goes on. Neglect to the masjid, neglect from the Qur'an. As we grow older, we have to make sure and we have to keep on praying that, ya Allah, allow my life to become better. Not worse.
(Sahih al-Bukhari)
There's a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, he said, إِذَا أَحَبَّ اللَّهُ عَبْدًا When Allah loves someone, what happens? He opens up the doors of some goodness upon him. He gets involved in something good. And then he takes him away while he's doing that good deed. He takes him away while he's doing that good deed. There's so many beautiful examples that I know of personally. That I'm sure you know of. Of people before they passed away, they repented in the last 2-3 years. And they got involved in some dhini effort. And alhamdulillah, they passed away without. So this is a sign of Allah loving someone.
The Bedouin's Du'a - Three Parts
So the first part of the du'a of this Bedouin, Oh Allah, make the last portion of my life, the best part.
Number 2, he said, وَخَيْرَ عَمَلِي خَوَاتِيمَهُ And Oh Allah, make the best deeds, the final deeds. إِنَّمَا الْأَعْمَالُ بِالْخَوَاتِيمِ Actions are judged based on their final minutes and seconds. What's the point of how much we have done our whole life if our death is not an iman?
The Crisis of Faith in Our Time
It's not sufficient to have a great childhood, my friends. You know, we're living in an interesting era. Scary era. Not era of the past. When people are leaving Islam left and right. Are we aware of that? Yes? No? No? Okay. So I'll tell you of a of a school, a hifz school within Texas. And this is, just by example, this is in Illinois, this is in California, this is in Florida, wherever they are.
Who goes to a hifz school? Those parents send their kids to the hifz school who are the most dedicated amongst us. Which children go to a hifz school and graduate the top of those who are in the deen? They're the ones who gonna give the adhan and the iqama and the taraweeh. These are the type, the top 1%, the cream of the crop.
I have a student from one of the cities of Texas that studies with me in Chicago. He told me about 10 of his classmates that completed hifz al-Qur'an in a madrasa or a school or a masjid, whatever, Qur'an school somewhere here in Texas. And 2 years later, he told me from those 10, 5 of them are Muslim and 5 of them have left Islam. They're 18 years old. They haven't even hit masters and PhD yet. They're still kids.
But the era of fitna is so strong that even a hafidh al-Qur'an, unfortunately, if he doesn't have Allah's mercy and if he doesn't have a good environment, and if he doesn't have good guidance from teachers and parents, he won't last. This is the world we're in. Thousands of people are leaving the fold of Islam. Congratulations to our brother who accepted Islam. But I'm very sad to say, as this brother is entering Islam, I bet you there's 10, 15 who have left today. From within our own communities.
Just a few days ago, I got a text message from a brother saying, from my own community. He's my musalli. He says, there's another young brother who I grew up with. He lives 3 miles away from the masjid. He's no longer a Muslim. The only reason he fasts is because he doesn't want to cause a ruckus at home. So he fasts because his mom tells him to. But he doesn't believe in God. He doesn't believe in akhira. But he acts like he's fasting and does suhoor and iftar because he wants the bills to be paid, tuition to be paid, college, jeans, gas for the car, everything to be paid for. This is the new era of hypocrisy. And I receive these messages all day, every day, from all across. This is a real problem. That we need to ask Allah's protection from. For ourselves and our kids.
So now imagine how important is this dua. وَاجْعَلْ خَيْرَ عَمَلِي خَوَاتِيمَهُ Ya Allah, make the best deeds of mine, the final deeds. It's not like I go on a high, so many good deeds and Allah forbid, final moments, final years of my life go downhill.
And the last part of the dua, وَاجْعَلْ خَيْرَ أَيَّامِي يَوْمَ أَلْقَاكَ فِيهِ And from the hundreds and thousands of days that my life is, the best day of my life should be the day I come to meet you. Meaning the day I die should literally be the most prized day of my entire life. Why is that? Because I am dying in such a state that you are super pleased with me. And I'm excited to meet you. That's how our death should come. Not that we are shocked, unprepared, no. When death comes to us we say, Ya Allah, this is exactly what I was waiting for. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept this dua on behalf of all of us, say Ameen.
Three things, I want you to say Ameen as I say this. اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْ خَيْرَ عُمْرِي آخِرَهُ وَخَيْرَ عَمَلِي خَوَاتِيمَهُ وَخَيْرَ أَيَّامِي يَوْمَ أَلْقَاكَ فِيهِ Three things. Make the best portion of my life, the last portion of my life. Make the best deeds of my life, the last deeds. And make the best day of my life, the last day.
The Prophet's Gift for Beautiful Praise
What happened? He finished his salah. The man said, Rasulullah is waiting for you. He came. He said, Ya Rasulullah, you called me? He said, Yes. He said, Who are you? And then he said, What tribe are you from? He shared his tribe. The Prophet ﷺ had a gift for him. He gave him, you could say a gold bar from some of the mines that had been mined and someone gave it to him. The Prophet ﷺ gave him a gold bar.
He said, Ya Rasulullah, why are you giving me this? And then he said, Is it because we are 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th generation related? Is it because silatur rahim? Is it because we're related, you're giving this to me? And the Prophet ﷺ said, No. Relations, blood relatives have rights over one another. That's true. But this gift, I'm not giving you because of that. Instead I'm giving it to you because لِحُسْنِ ثَنَائِكَ عَلَى اللَّهِ Because of how beautifully you praised Allah. Because of how beautifully you praised Allah. Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Ramadan - The Month of Du'a
Beloved friends, this is the month of Ramadan. This is the month of dua. This is the month of us praising Allah. This is the month of us building a relationship with Allah. And we need to, if you want that dua to be powerful on a blessed day of Jum'ah, we need to dedicate 30 minutes, half an hour, 40 minutes to dua.
How we measure how much water we drink, how many steps we take, that's not the natural way. We're doing it because we have unnatural lives. That's why we have to measure how much we walk and how much we drink water. Similarly, we need to measure how much dua we do. So I encourage you to put a stopwatch for 10 minutes, 12 minutes, 15 minutes. Press start and start your dua. And until that alarm doesn't ring, don't stop. Don't stop. And every single week, increase that in the month of Ramadan and hopefully even beyond.
Friday Family Du'a
On the days of Jum'ah, what I learned from my teachers, they would gather the family together between Asr and Maghrib. Every Friday. And the father or the mother would collectively make du'a. If you can do this today, this would be amazing. Before Iftar, gather the family together, especially on Friday, and hopefully every day. Then we make a collective dua together.
Recommended Du'a Books
And I'm gonna give you references to two books, which I have benefited tremendously from. One is Al-Hizb Al-A'adham, which translates as the greatest litany. By Mulla Ali Qari, you can find amazing translations of it available from Makkah books. It's called The Greatest Litany. Remember that, The Greatest Litany, by Mulla Ali Qari. You can find it from Makkah books in Pennsylvania.
And number two is another book, similar, it's called Accepted Whispers, or known as Munajat Maqbool. You can get a nice copy of that from Al-Balagh bookstore. These have about 200 du'as from the Qur'an and Hadith. And they are divided over seven days of the week. If you were to read through it, in one week you would have completed 200 approximately du'as. This du'a that I just shared with you and spoke about today, is in these books.
So what greater way than to supplicate to Allah in the manner that the Prophet ﷺ did. And after you finish supplicating to Allah through that, then you make your own personal dua.
Final Du'a
So I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that He makes this month a month of dua for all of us. That He allows us by the end of this month to be easily be able to speak to Allah for 45 minutes, an hour, and enjoy every moment that we spend with Allah. May Allah allow us to teach our children how to speak to Allah. May Allah allow us to teach our children how to take from the treasures of Allah. May Allah improve my character and your character. And the character of our spouses and the character of our children. May Allah make us aware of our flaws and faults. And may Allah make us concerned about rectifying ourselves before our last breath comes.
Announcements
And a quick announcement myself, my name is Azimuddin Ahmed, and I'm visiting from Darussalam in Chicago. So if you want to benefit from some of our free programs, lots and lots of stuff, just visit our YouTube channel at masjidds.org or ds on masjidds on YouTube. Alhamdulillah, lots of programs on Spotify, Apple, iTunes, and what not. Loads of lectures. We have a seminary with about 55 alhamdulillah teachers. So their programs can be found at Darussalam Seminary.
Additionally, SalamGuard is a new initiative that we started. It's a free program for anyone of us to use to safeguard our phones and our digital devices being misused. Meaning, watching haram, listening to haram, or overusing it. I encourage you to remember this SalamGuard, S-A-L-A-M guard, G-U-A-R-D.com SalamGuard.com, please benefit from these free resources to lock up your phones, your spouse's phones, your children's phones, and to ensure that no haram content is coming in this blessed month of Ramadan into our homes. And hopefully outside of Ramadan as well.
May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala inspire us one and all and protect us from the filth that exists out there. Peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah.
In the first scriptures, the scriptures of Abraham and Moses
Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. The Beneficent, the Merciful. Sovereign of the Day of Judgment. It is You we worship and You we ask for help. Guide us to the straight path. The path of those You have blessed.
Say, He is Allah, the One. Allah, the Eternal. He neither begets nor is born. And there is none like unto Him.
اللَّهُ، اللَّهُ، اللَّهُ
السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ
السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ