The One Change I Need to Make This Year | Jumu'ah Khutbah | Sh. Yaser Birjas

The One Change That Matters Most

Change is happening around us, scaring people off completely, but still, as human nature, we're always eager to bring change. A lot of us think of bringing change to the world. Like you want to see a specific public international or national cause, you'd like to be part of it.

So I want to change the world around me, and I would like to change everybody around me. You want to change your spouse, you change your children, change your parents, change your friends, and make change. You want to make change around you.

But my dear brothers and sisters, if you're thinking about real change — the real change, and the one that matters the most — it is the one from within. You change yourself first, before anybody else. If each and every one of us can focus on this change this year, I hope we will have a better world.

We'll have a better environment, a better life, a better community. Because if we keep looking outwardly to see where the problem is coming from — to me — instead of seeing that I am maybe part of the problem, we're probably never going to make any change. So my dear brothers and sisters, I want you to remember this: the one change that will matter the most this year for you is to change yourself.

To make a better version of yourself this year, inshaaAllah — especially since you have a booster coming up very soon. In less than 45 days, Ramadan will start. And once Ramadan starts, subhanAllah, a new version — a super version — of yourself will show up.

And we all know that. You become someone completely different from yourself. You couldn't even recognize yourself at Ramadan sometimes. This is how great it gets in Ramadan, alhamdulillah rabbil alameen. But how can we keep that image? How can we continue after that as well? So in order for this to be sustainable, we have to start before Ramadan begins. So when Ramadan comes, inshaaAllah, we don't have to start from zero.

We start from 30 percent, 40 percent. And by the end of Ramadan, I hope you're close to 100 percent, inshaaAllah, with the barakah of Allah.

The Divine Law of Change

Brothers and sisters, Allah made that rule clear in the Qur'an. He says:

Allah would never change a people's affairs, a people's state, until they change their own state — themselves. You start with that change and Allah will facilitate. You don't just sit there and wait for Allah to change your life for you.

You're not going to sit there waiting for your marriage to be perfect without making an effort. Your relationship with your children to be good and better. Raising, inshaaAllah, the future generation of our community and leaders — it's not going to happen unless you start with that change.

And Allah made it very clear in the Qur'an:

And those who strive in our cause, We shall guide them through. He says: you begin, and I'll help you. But that change is not going to just come like this for free. You're going to have to be part of it as well.

The Hadith of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As

Brothers and sisters, it was mentioned in the hadith of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As — and he was a young man at the time, by the way — he was attending a gathering when the Prophet ﷺ was speaking about the future. He gave a prophecy of what's going to happen. He said:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 4342; also referenced in Sahih Ibn Hibban)

He said: "Ya Abdullah, how will you do when you are left among the dregs of mankind?" — the leftover of the people. The good, the best, the amazing people will be gone. And you're left with those who just don't have that much ambition. They don't have that kind of goal for the future. How about if you're going to be left among the dregs of mankind? He said: those people, their covenants and their trusts have been impaired. You can't believe them. You can't trust them anymore.

Jama'at, we live in a society that's all about that, unfortunately. Look at the international level. Politicians lie, they cheat, and they break rules. You can't guarantee anyone's word anymore. They give you safety and then they break it. You can't trust anybody.

And the Prophet ﷺ continues: they will all intermingle among themselves, mix up until they become like this — meaning they're always differing and fighting among themselves.

Abdullah asks: "What is your order to me, ya Rasulallah? If I live until that time, what should I be doing?"

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 4342)

He said: adhere to what you know — what you know is right, what you know is good, what you've been taught that is considered righteous. And it is clear to you as a believer; it's in the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. What is right? What is wrong? What is halal? What is haram? What is permissible or not? You know what it is. It's there. It's public.

So he says, hold on to that which is righteous, to that which is right. And the concept of righteousness is universal, my dear brothers and sisters. That didn't change over time. Lying will never, ever be okay — even if people do it, and politicians give it diplomatic names. It will still be wrong. Hypocrisy will always be bad. Stealing, cheating — all these things will always be bad. So no matter how much society changes about these principles and gives them nice, fancy, beautiful names to justify them, they're still not right.

And stay away from the things that are considered bad and evil. No matter what they say — no matter what scary titles they give it to frighten you away from righteousness — what is right is right. What is wrong is still wrong.

Then he said to him: you need to make sure that you keep to your own self. Even if the whole world goes against what you know to be right or wrong, you still need to adhere to it — even if you are by yourself. Don't follow the general masses.

Allah gave us advice in the Qur'an — if you follow the majority of the people on earth, they will mislead you. Look at society today. Look at social media. What is it promoting? What kind of content is being promoted to you? What exactly are the most common trends these days? When people want to make money online, what do they do? Unfortunately, they go as far as possible into cheating, exposing themselves, being completely reckless — just to earn some money. And the Prophet ﷺ says: stay away from what the masses do. Stay private. Do that which is right.

Ibn Mas'ud, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, was once asked about the meaning of al-jama'ah — adhering to the community. He said: you have to understand the principle of jama'ah. The principle of community, the principle of ummah, is that which is on the truth — even if it was you by yourself. Because we measure right and wrong by the principle, not by what people do and say. If you know the principle to be true according to the Qur'an and Sunnah, no matter what people say otherwise, you should be adhering to this principle. That will be the jama'ah.

Five Changes to Make This Year

Brothers and sisters, in order for us to make some change for ourselves inshaaAllah, I would like to suggest five things, bismillah, to start with this year.

1. Grow Your Knowledge

Ironically, you need to learn that knowledge grows. You see, in the Qur'an, Allah did not ask the Prophet ﷺ to ask for anything more, except for one thing. What is that? Knowledge. He said to him ﷺ:

Say: "My Lord, increase me in knowledge." Why is that? Because knowledge is power. Knowledge gives you confidence. Because if you know that you have the truth on your side, no matter what people say, you can stay strong like a mountain. But if you're lying, being hypocritical, trying to hide the truth and fake it, you'll always be shaky because you're not confident.

Knowledge is important in this society — important in this time specifically — whenever things become, as the Prophet ﷺ said, mixed up completely. People are lost. They don't know where to go.

And when I say knowledge, the number one thing is knowledge of your deen. Alhamdulillah, you've been a Muslim for all these years — but have you tried to upgrade yourself to iman? Have you tried to go all the way up and become a muhsin? Or maybe you never thought that there are actually stages to your faith.

We read that in the hadith of Jibreel, when the Prophet ﷺ was asked by Jibreel: Mal-Islam, mal-iman, mal-ihsan — what is Islam? What is iman? What is ihsan? We learned the hadith, we heard it, and we said, "Wow, amazing story." But have you ever tried to increase in your knowledge to reach those levels? If you're not increasing in knowledge, you're actually going backward. If your faith is not increasing and it's stagnant, at some point it's going to start falling behind — because nothing stays stable in this life.

So my dear brothers and sisters, dedicate this year to focus a little bit more on your religious knowledge — the knowledge that will increase you in iman, in faith, in belief in God. Dedicate yourself to a halaqa. Dedicate yourself to a series. Dedicate yourself to reading a book, or a series of books. Dedicate yourself to a program that will help you increase in knowledge. Because Allah says:

Those who truly fear Allah most, those who are most conscious of Him — those are the ones who have knowledge. May Allah make you among them, ya Rabbal alameen.

And frankly, if you shake the gaps in your day and night, you'll find plenty of time unused properly. If you have that time — and you should — maybe enroll in an online program to give you structure. That's it. Just structure, so you can study, stay motivated, and finish one class at a time, inshaaAllah.

2. Pair Knowledge with Action

Knowledge will be useless if it is not paired with action. Alhamdulillah rabbil alameen, you do a lot of good things. May Allah reward you, ya Rabbal alameen. You come to the masjid, you pray regularly, you come to Jumu'ah, you fast Ramadan, you participate in Taraweeh — you do a lot of good things, alhamdulillah rabbil alameen.

But what if I'm missing something that I should be doing? That one single act of worship I haven't been doing — or maybe never even tried because I thought it wasn't for me. Is it fasting Mondays and Thursdays? Is it giving charity every single day, even if it's one single dirham? Is it praying more often in the masjid? Is it never missing Salat al-Fajr in the masjid? Is it praying night prayers? Is it being good to my neighbors? Is it being good to my family? Whatever it is — what is an act of worship that you've probably been missing? So you know what — I want to add this to my schedule this year, inshaaAllah. It could be a personal thing, could be a family thing. But that knowledge you learn, you need to put into action. Otherwise, if you don't, it will be lost completely.

And when Allah praised the believer, what did He say?

Those who have faith and they acted upon this faith with good deeds. So it's not just about believing or knowing — it's actually about practicing that.

3. Master Your Reactions

One thing we especially need to learn in this life of ours today is to master our reactions. We live in an overstimulated world. You always have the phone in your hand. You watch things that make you upset, angry sometimes. You watch things that make you lose your faith for a moment. And as a result, unfortunately, our brain is always functioning as a reaction to what we see and what we've been fed on social media, on our computers, on our phones. You're reacting to what you see, what you observe, what you listen to. Most of your day and night, unfortunately, is about that.

Even when I see people gather together — even as a family — a lot of conversation goes around what? A funny reel someone watched earlier. And they're sharing it from one person to the other, and you end up spending half an hour just laughing at things you watched, but never bonding with one another. So we react. I want you to master that reaction. Sometimes you just need to control it. Because if you lose control of this, if you're reacting all the time, you're not living your authentic real life. You're living someone else's life.

So what do you need to get there? Be patient. Restrain yourself. Learn to be patient — even with little things we don't pay attention to. Next time you go grocery shopping, don't keep moving from one cashier to the other to find the shortest line. Just stand in one and be patient. Five extra minutes are not going to kill you. Learn to be patient with these little things — so hopefully with the bigger ones it becomes, inshaaAllah, more applicable to you.

4. Create Consistency

The other thing I need to be vigilant of in this year is to create consistency. Once you start something good, keep doing it. The thing that kills our momentum after Ramadan is the absence of consistency. We start something, alhamdulillah — grand, and we're happy about it. And then we get busy, we get tired, we get distracted. We say, "I'll catch up next week inshaaAllah." And the week after goes by, and then we find that we're not going to be able to do it. And what do we do? We give up on it.

Don't do this this year. Build that consistency right now. If you would like to finish the Qur'an in one month in Ramadan, you have a month and a half to start practicing. If you plan to attend Isha and Taraweeh every single night in the masjid during Ramadan, you have a month and a half to start — from tonight. Every single night, come for Salat al-Isha, inshaaAllah. You'll be doing it in Ramadan anyway. So start now. Whatever you plan to do in Ramadan, start now to build that consistency.

When the Prophet ﷺ was asked about the best of the good deeds, what did he say? The most consistent deed — even if it was little. It's not about how big the deed is. It's about how consistent that deed is going to be, inshaaAllah.

5. Live with the Akhirah in Mind

Finally, my dear brothers and sisters, if there is anything I need you to keep in mind for this coming year, inshaaAllah, it is to live your life with the akhirah in mind. Live your life with the akhirah — the hereafter, the afterlife — always in mind.

This life is temporary. We've seen the people around us dying one after the other — our loved ones, our parents, our friends, our neighbors, our uncles, our sisters, our brothers. We've seen them dying — old and young. Even just yesterday, we went and we buried two babies. Stillborns, subhanAllah. Death is an equalizer. It doesn't distinguish old from young. When it comes, it comes. That's it.

So what does that mean? This life has to have a meaning. Otherwise, it'd be useless. And alhamdulillah, in our faith, in our deen, it's clear. Allah made it very clear to us: I created you, He said — I want you to worship Me. This is how you worship Me. And if you do it right, I'll give you eternity in paradise. And if you don't, then you're going to be subject to punishment. It's very clear.

So if I have that in mind — that this life is temporary — I hope I'm not going to be impulsive and just go after my desires every time something itches me. I want to do it, so I'm going to do it — no. You're going to learn to restrain yourself. You'll be patient. You will do the right thing. And you'll increase in your knowledge. Put all this together, and you'll have a wonderful life.

Brothers and sisters, make sure to keep this: live your life with the akhirah in mind — on a personal level, on your family level, professional level, social level, and all aspects of your life. If you keep the akhirah in mind, I hope you will do the right thing, inshaaAllah.

Start with Dhikr and Du'a

My dear brothers and sisters, if you're going to start this year by changing anything, you start with yourself. And if I would like to leave you with one last thing, I recommend that you start with making a lot of dhikr, a lot of du'a. Keep your tongue moist in the remembrance of Allah — all the time. Praise Him. Seek forgiveness. Repent back to Him. Ask for guidance. At all times.

Never start your day without a moment of reflection — even if it takes just 5 to 10 minutes. Instead of grabbing the phone as the first thing you do, sit down and just reflect. Make those words of dhikr and du'a. Start with this.

And I'll guarantee you, your life will be better. Because inshaaAllah, the way you start your day will determine the direction in which your life will go. So make sure to start with du'a — supplicating, asking Allah — and words of remembrance to praise Allah at all times.