Jumu'ah Khutbah | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | 4.24.26

And we praise Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ for making us from the ummah of Rasool Allah صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ. These blessings and ni'mah are such that even an eternal endless shukr will not be sufficient.

And my dear brothers and sisters, alhamdulillah we are aware of the program of the upcoming weekend - the retreat, the end times. And Rasool Allah صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ mentions a very important hadith that should strike us to our core:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 186)

Make sure you hasten towards doing good deeds - بَادِرُوا بِالْأَعْمَالِ فِتَنًا كَقِطَعِ اللَّيْلِ الْمُظْلِمِ - then make sure you do good deeds before such fitna and such calamities and such difficulties and such challenges and tests from Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ before you that will be like pieces of a very dark night.

And the analogy to a dark night - a very pitch black dark night - is for example when a person is walking, there's no lights, it's pitch black, he can't see anything. Usually he will stub his toe on something or a branch will whack him across the face, and he will only realize until it's too late. He will only come across it, he will feel the pain, he will get hurt, and only after he stubs his toe, only after he injures himself will he realize that there was something dangerous here, something that was harming him.

Rasool Allah صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ is giving the same comparison - that make sure you do good deeds before such times come upon you, such trials and challenges come before you that you will only realize after it's too late, when the fitna has crept into the home, when the fitna has crept into the heart, when a person is now in a situation where he feels like there is no way back.

And Rasool Allah صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ continues and he says يُصْبِحُ الرَّجُلُ مُؤْمِنًا وَيُمْسِي كَافِرًا or يُمْسِي مُؤْمِنًا وَيُصْبِحُ كَافِرًا - that in the morning he awakes and he arises with iman in his heart as a believer, but by nightfall he has apostated and he has now kufr in his heart, he has become a kafir. Or in the evening يُمْسِي مُؤْمِنًا - he has iman, he is a bearer of لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ - but by morning, due to the severity and the difficulty of these fitna and these trials and these challenges, he has now left the fold of Islam. يَبِيعُ دِينَهُ بِعَرَضٍ مِّنَ الدُّنْيَا - he has sold his deen for some material gain of the world, whether it be wealth, whether it be status, whether it be a certain mentality, ideology that he has sold his deen for, he has let it go.

May Allah save us and our ummah, our progeny, our children, our families, our household from such a fate. آمِين يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِين.

The Importance of Good Deeds

My dear brothers and sisters, one of these a'mal that is extremely important - as Rasulullah صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ says بَادِرُوا بِالْأَعْمَالِ hasten towards good deeds - one of the most important good deeds that we need to have in our lives, and this is a primary component of every single ibadah: the chief of the ibadat - our salah, our du'a, our tilawah, our dhikr - it revolves around this primary component.

Two Primary Components of Worship

One of two primary components, and those are the components of shukr and du'a - gratitude to Allah and beseeching Allah, begging Allah for His rahmah and His mercy. Gratitude for His ni'am and His blessings, and beseeching Him, begging Him for His rahmah and His mercy.

Even the Surah al-Fatihah - the surah that is read in every single rak'ah - it is half shukr to Allah, praise of Allah, and the other half is du'a to Allah. These are the two primary components of every single ibadah. Our salah essentially, the gist, it is shukr to Allah for His ni'am and du'a to Allah for further increase.

The Promise of Increase Through Gratitude

Allah is mentioned in the Qur'an:

That if you are going to be grateful, if you are going to engage in My gratitude and being thankful to Me, لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ - I will increase. وَلَئِن كَفَرْتُمْ إِنَّ عَذَابِي لَشَدِيدٌ - but if you are going to be ungrateful, then My punishment is severe.

The Beauty and Symmetry of Allah's Speech

Before we dive into the meaning, let's take a step back and look at the ayah just from an external point of view. Allah, as we know, Allah in a hadith:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 164)

Allah is beautiful, Allah is jameel, and He loves beauty. And the kalam of Allah is also full of kamal and jamal - it is also full of depth, such precision and beauty that is unmatched.

But if this ayah - if we view it and the understanding of beauty from a dunya level, from an objective level - beauty is always in the eye of the beholder. However, beauty - one of the defining traits of beauty is symmetry. Anytime you want to make sure something is beautiful or it is aesthetic, it looks nice, then you make sure that the symmetry is almost perfect or near perfect.

We are sitting mashallah in this beautiful masjid and we say beautiful - the brain is processing the beauty, but why? Of course the colors are there and the tones are there and so on and so forth, the chandelier, etc. But when you look, every single thing will be very symmetrical - the number of sufuf, the arches, the tiles, the fans, etc. This is subconsciously adding to our perception of beauty. It is the symmetry.

So when something is symmetrical, it is considered to be more beautiful, and when it is asymmetrical, then it takes away from the beauty a little bit. So if you view this ayah لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ ۖ وَلَئِن كَفَرْتُمْ إِنَّ عَذَابِي لَشَدِيدٌ - so dhahiran, from an external perspective, this is asymmetrical. If you are going to be grateful I will increase; if you are going to be ungrateful I will decrease - as it should be, or our understanding of beauty would have been that Allah will decrease. But Allah, again, His kalam is full of kamal, full of depth, full of precision, full of jamal and beauty. And while apparently there isn't symmetry in the ayah, in the ma'na, in the meaning, there is.

Understanding the True Meaning of Increase

Let's explore this a little bit. Allah says لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ - if you are going to be grateful, then I will increase. And if you are going to be ungrateful, then My punishment is severe.

Let's look at the lives and compare and analyze those that are grateful to Allah - the believers, the salihin, the shuhada, the anbiya - and then the kuffa, the mushrikeen, etc.

So our understanding of ziyadah - does it matter or not? Allah says if you are grateful I will increase. So those that were the best of the shakireen, the most grateful of people to Allah, those who were ahl al-iman, had true taqwa - did Allah increase them every single time? Did Allah increase them in their material, in their wealth, in their money, in their status, etc.? No. Rasulullah صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ himself chose faqr. Majority of the anbiya of Allah were not well off. This is the nizam of Allah.

But Allah is saying that I am increasing. وَلَئِن كَفَرْتُمْ - if you are going to be ungrateful - إِنَّ عَذَابِي لَشَدِيدٌ - My punishment is severe. Allah is not taking away. We look around today and in the past - the wealthiest and the people with the most fortune and those who enjoyed the greatest of status, etc., were some of the worst enemies of Allah.

If you were to follow this quote-unquote script that you do the shukr of Allah and it will increase in your wealth or in your ni'mah and your blessings and bounties, and if you do not then Allah will punish you and take it away, then the nizam of the world was so different and it wouldn't fit. Because ahl al-iman and ahl al-taqwa, Allah continuously tests them and He tests them through various different ways - through their health, through their wealth, etc. And the people of kufr and the people of batil, Allah gives them and Allah allows them to enjoy in the world.

The True Understanding of Allah's Increase

So my dear brothers and sisters, what is the understanding? لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ - Allah is saying that if you are grateful to Me, I will increase. Increase in what? Increase in your understanding of what are the ni'am of Allah. Increasing in your tawfeeq to do even more shukr to Allah.

We view our health, for example, as a ni'mah from Allah. But when a person gets closer to Allah, then Allah opens up more profound understanding, an enhanced level of understanding with regards to this ni'mah of health, and he is even more grateful to Allah.

لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ - I will increase you in your tawfeeq to do more shukr. I will increase you in your understanding. I will open your mind and heart to this ni'mah of iman, ni'mah of Islam, where you will now be - you will feel even more indebted, you will feel even more grateful to continue doing My shukr, and your iman will increase.

This is لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ - not in the material sense. If that happens, that is from Allah, but that is not what a believer is hoping or looking for - that let me do these a'mal, let me do shukr, let me pray my salah so that Allah will increase my wealth. This is not the maqsad and the primary objective, but it is to increase my iman and my closeness to Allah.

Enhanced Understanding Through Gratitude

And when a person does this, the enhanced understanding then becomes that even something which is seemingly a difficulty, something which is seemingly musibah and a calamity, and something which is regarded to be a hurdle and misfortune - by a person of iman and a shakir, someone who is grateful to Allah with his qalb, with his heart, with his a'mal, his action, with his tongue - then he views and he perceives that musibah to be a ni'mah as well.

So a person gets an understanding of greater ni'mah or higher understanding of what are the ni'mah - something he may even be ghaafil or forgetful of before. But not just that - the masaib and the difficulties also are perceived by him as blessings from Allah, because these are opportunities for him to turn to Allah.

Whereas a person without this enhanced understanding - something difficult comes across, he comes across something difficult, some musibah, some setback, some hurdle - and now he is worried about how can I fix this, how can I go about working this problem out, getting a solution to this. That is his primary objective.

Whereas a person views that this is a ni'mah of Allah - a reminder, an opportunity for me to turn to Allah.

The Example of the Prophet

Rasulullah صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ, when he would see dark clouds, immediately he would resort to salah, reminding himself that this could be the azab of Allah - let me pray two rak'ah salah to Allah.

Anytime something good happens to a believer, he does two rak'ah salah of shukr - he turns to Allah. Something difficult - salah al-hajah - he turns to Allah. Every single opportunity, even what is considered a musibah objectively, what others would consider a musibah, a person turns to Allah.

The First to Enter Paradise

And that is substantial in the hadith. Rasulullah صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - the very first people, the very first group and delegation right behind the anbiya of Allah, right behind the shuhada, the salihin, the awliya, the close muqarrabin friends of Allah, who will be called to jannah on the Day of Judgment - those who praise Allah in good times and bad times, in prosperity and poverty, in fortunate situations and unfortunate situations.

Because the hamd of Allah, the praise of Allah, the gratitude and thanks to Allah is only happening because he views everything to be a ni'mah from Allah. He views everything to be khair from Allah.

And a heart will only be this way, it will only have this perception when there is continuous shukr, when the heart is grateful - it is grateful for every situation that Allah puts. This is when the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ...