Jumu'ah Khutbah - Shaykh Hafeezullah Khan

Khutbah Opening

All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, we seek His help, we seek His forgiveness, and we believe in Him and put our trust in Him. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds.

Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whosoever He sends astray, none can guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that our Master and Protector is Muhammad, His servant and Messenger.

As for what follows — the best speech is the Book of Allah. And the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. And the worst of things are newly invented matters. And every newly invented matter is an innovation. And every innovation is a misguidance. And every misguidance is in the Fire.

The Disease of Heedlessness

The time of their account has approached for the people while they are in heedlessness, turning away. Among the weaknesses of a human is being heedless and careless. And those who are heedless and neglectful — you will see that they don't do anything on time, and then they regret it later.

If this negligence is in relation to worldly matters, then probably one can change himself and improve for the future. But if this heedlessness is in relation to our deen, to the hereafter, then that regret will be too late for them and we won't be able to change anything then. That is why the Quran and hadith reminds us again and again that we should not be heedless about our deen and about our hereafter.

The Consequences of Heedlessness

1. Divine Punishment in This World

Those people who are careless about their deen, about their hereafter, they will face different types of loss. Firstly, they will face Allah's punishment in this world as well. As Allah says in Surah Al-A'raf about the previous nations:

So We took revenge from them. We drowned them in the sea because they denied Our evidence, Our lessons, and they were heedless of them.

2. A Seal Placed Upon Their Hearts

Secondly, Allah places a seal on their hearts. As Allah says in Surah Al-A'raf:

And they have ears, but they don't want to hear the truth. Allah says that these people are like cattle — rather even more astray than them. And they are the heedless ones. Allah gave them the means through which they can gain the guidance and blessing of Allah. But they did not use these blessings of Allah in the right manner and at the right time. And hence Allah sealed their hearts.

3. Denial of Allah's Revelation and Signs

Thirdly, the heedless and neglectful people also deny Allah's revelation and its fearful reminders. And they don't take any lessons from the signs which Allah showed them. As Allah says in Surah Al-A'raf:

If they see all the proofs, all the evidence and signs, they will not believe in them. And if they see the way of righteousness, the way of piety, the way of good deeds, they will not adopt it as the way. But if they see the way of error, crimes and evil deeds, they will adopt that way. That is because they have rejected Our verses, Our evidence and Our signs, and they were heedless to learn a lesson from them.

4. The Day of Judgment Will Be a Day of Regret

The Day of Judgment for such people will be a day of regret, not a day of success. As Allah says:

And warn them, O Muhammad, of the day of grief and regrets. When the case has been decided, while now they are in a state of negligence, in a state of carelessness. And they believe not.

Dear brothers and sisters, these are the people who spend their whole life in carelessness in the matter of their deen, in the matter of their hereafter. And this then becomes a regret, an embarrassment for them on the Day of Judgment. Such a regret which they cannot overcome. And this starts from the last moment of their life in this world, when they start to wish that they had one more chance to live and to come back in this world. As Allah says in Surah Al-Mu'minoon about them:

When that comes to one of them, he says: "O my Lord, send me back that I might do righteousness in that which I left behind."

Signs of Heedlessness

The question is: how do we know we are among the heedless people, among the careless people? Brothers and sisters, it is important for us to know this. Otherwise, we might spend all our life in negligence from our deen without realizing. Alhamdulillah, the Quran and Hadith tells us the signs of the heedless people.

Sign 1: Difficulty in Performing Good Deeds

Firstly, the ones who are heedless and neglectful find it very difficult to do good deeds — any kind of good deeds. When they are called towards good, they always have an excuse. If they are called towards a bad deed, they are instantly ready. As Allah says about them in Surah An-Nisa:

And when they stand up for prayer, they stand with laziness — to show off and to be seen of men. And they do not remember Allah even in their prayers except but little.

Sign 2: No Remorse After Committing Sins

Secondly, whenever they commit a sin — minor or major — they don't have any bad feeling about that sin. As Abdullah ibn Mas'ud says about this: if you want to differentiate between a mu'min and a fasiq or a heedless person, then you need to see their reaction and feeling after committing a sin. Because if a mu'min commits a sin, he becomes so worried, he becomes so tense about it — as though he is sitting in a place where a rock will fall upon him at any time — and he becomes restless and does not feel comfortable until he has repented. And if a fasiq or a neglectful person commits a sin, it is like a fly sitting on his nose and he just waves it away with his hand — meaning that committing that sin is not a big thing for him.

Anas ibn Malik used to say to his students: "In the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, we used to be so serious about some evil actions — that they could destroy our deen. But today you consider them as something very little and unimportant." Yes — sometimes when we commit a sin, we consider it as a small thing, whereas in the sight of Allah they may be a major sin. And because of such a mindset, we don't bother about our prayers, about haram and halal, and easily without any hesitation we lie, we backbite, we oppress others, and we are not afraid of its consequences. So we need to assess ourselves and see if any of these things applies to us or not.

Causes of Heedlessness

Likewise, we need to know the reasons why we are being heedless, so that we can save ourselves from this. There are many reasons for that, but the most important reasons are as follows.

Cause 1: Excessive Love for This World

The most important reason for being heedless is our love for this world. There is nothing wrong with having love for this world and whatever is in it — such as wealth, children, family, etc. These are natural things for us. But the love that diverts us from the hereafter, that diverts us from the deen — that is wrong. As Allah says about such people in Surah Ar-Rum:

They know only the outside appearance of the life of this world — like the matter of their livelihood — and they are heedless of the hereafter. You will easily see many people around us who are very clever and talented in worldly matters. Choose any topic and they will speak for hours about it — whether it is business, politics, sports, or anything — they know it all. But as Imam Hasan Al-Basri says: these are those people who can buy the whole world with one dirham, but in the matter of the deen, they don't even know how to pray properly.

These are the people who, when they get up in the morning, plan only for this world. When they go to bed in the evening, they plan only for this world. And this is their state of mind throughout the day and all their life. So they become heedless about their deen, about their hereafter. And Allah says about them in Surah Al-Hijr:

Leave them to eat and enjoy, and let them be preoccupied with false hope. They will come to know. They become intoxicated with the love for this world, thinking that they will remain here forever. And that's how they plan for their time in this world.

In a hadith, the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, described such people in these words:

(Reported in Al-Jami' — see also Sahih Ibn Hibban and related narrations)

He says: "Allah hates every such person who has foul speech, a harsh attitude, and whose arrogance leads him to always try to gather wealth but not spend it. He works hard all day like a donkey to gain this world, and at night he goes to sleep like a dead person. And he knows everything about this world but is totally ignorant about the hereafter."

Is it not true that there are such people around us whose whole day is spent in gaining worldly things, as though they have been created just for this world?

Cause 2: Lengthy False Hopes

Another reason for being heedless and neglectful is having lengthy false hopes for this world — thinking that we have lots of time to do good deeds. Such people, with this thinking, become lazy in doing good deeds. Their hearts become heedless, and the love for this world increases their greediness. As Imam Hasan Al-Basri says: the people who have lengthy hopes about the life of this world will commit that much more sins. And the Shaytan keeps calming them, saying that there is plenty of time to do good deeds. As Allah says about them in Surah An-Nisa:

Shaytan promises them and arouses desires in them. But Shaytan does not promise them except delusion. Yes — Shaytan promises them things which will never be fulfilled and gives them hopes which are never to be achieved. He presents every evil thing as beneficial for them and shows loss in the good deeds.

And another form of false and lengthy hopes — which makes us neglectful and which is very dangerous — is having the belief that we can do whatever we wish in this world, as long as we maintain a strong link with so-called spiritual leaders, whether alive or dead. Make a pledge with them, and you just have to visit specific shrines from time to time and make sacrifice in their name. And then all your stages of the hereafter will become easy for you. There will be no question and answer in the grave, there will be no accountability on the Day of Judgment, and your spiritual leader will take you straight away into Jannah.

Dear brothers and sisters, such people are totally misguided. They will not even get the blessing to repent and to do tawbah, because they don't consider themselves as doing anything bad — whereas actually they are ruining their hereafter. Such people should remember what Allah says about the mushrikeen of Makkah in Surah Yunus:

And they worship besides Allah things that neither harm them nor profit them. And they say: "These are only our intercessors with Allah." Whereas such aqeedah and action is considered as associating others with Allah and His worship — and it is totally shirk.

And we must remember that shirk is such a major sin that Allah, who is Most Merciful, Most Forgiving — He will forgive everything, but He is not going to forgive shirk unless the person does tawbah before he dies. As Allah says in Surah An-Nisa:

Indeed Allah does not forgive associating with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills.

And in Surah Al-Ma'idah, Allah says:

Indeed, whoever associates others with Allah — Allah has forbidden them paradise, and his refuge is the Fire.

And in Surah Al-An'am, Allah says:

If they had associated others with Allah, then whatever they were doing — any kind of good deed — will be worthless for them.

Dear brothers and sisters, from these verses we can understand that those who commit shirk will face three kinds of loss: one, Allah is not going to forgive them; two, Allah will make Jannah haram upon them; and three, their good deeds, if any, will be wasted. So is it not better for us to assess ourselves?

Cause 3: Bad Company

Another reason for getting into carelessness and being heedless is having bad company. You will see that the heedless people are often friends with sinful people. As the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, says in a hadith:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4833; Jami' At-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2378)

A person is on the deen of his friend, so be careful about who you keep as friends. You can see easily how many people who used to pray regularly, used to fast, used to do good deeds — but after they joined bad company, you can easily see the bad changes in them. And how many people who were involved in many evil things, but when they joined good company, they changed themselves totally in a good manner.

So we should always think: whatever steps we are taking, are they making our akhirah successful, or destroying it? When we know that the result of bad company is always a loss, then is it not better to be with such people whose company brings love for Allah and the Prophet in our hearts — which leads us to do good deeds and stops us from bad ones, which makes us close to our deen?

Everyone of us needs to assess ourselves and see whether they like to be in the company of good people or whether they enjoy sitting in the company of bad people. If they enjoy sitting and spending time with pious people, then this is a good sign for them. As reported by Anas ibn Malik in Sahih Al-Bukhari:

(Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadith 3688)

A person asked the Prophet about the Day of Judgment and he asked: "When is the Day of Judgment?" The Prophet asked him: "What preparation have you made for it?" He said: "I don't have lots of prayers or fasting, but I love Allah and His Prophet." Then the Messenger replied: "You will be with those whom you love on the Day of Judgment."

Anas says: "This is the biggest happiness for us after the happiness of accepting Islam." And then Anas ibn Malik said: "I love Muhammad. I love Abu Bakr. I love 'Umar ibn Al-Khattab. And I hope I will be with them because of my love for them, even though my practice is not as good as theirs."

So we should think: do we like to be in the company of those who have love for Allah, and Muhammad and his companions? And there are some people who pray, who fast, and they do good deeds, but they don't have company of the pious people — so they could easily be misled by the Shaytan. But if they adopt the good company, it will help them be steadfast on their good deeds. And on the Day of Judgment, if they are not able to enter Jannah due to any of their shortcomings, then those pious people are going to intercede for them.

In a hadith from Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, says: when the people of Jannah have entered Jannah and they don't see the people around them with whom they lived in this world, they will say to Allah: "O our Lord, there are some of our brothers who used to pray, fast, and they used to do good deeds with us, but today we don't see them here in Jannah with us." Then Allah will say to them: "If you want them, go to the hellfire. And whoever you see there from your friends who had iman equivalent to even one dinar in their heart, bring them out of the fire into Jannah." So they will do that. Then Allah will say again: "Yet you can go again and bring those who had even half a dinar's worth of iman in their heart." And then those who had even a tiny bit of iman in their heart.

So this hadith shows that Allah will accept the intercession of the people of Jannah for those: number one, who had iman and tawheed in their hearts — which shows that Allah will exempt those who used to do shirk in this world, because iman and shirk cannot be together. And Allah will accept the intercession of the people of Jannah for those who spent time in this world among those who were pious and had true iman, and those who followed the Quran and Sunnah. And when they have entered hellfire because of some of their bad deeds, they will gain freedom from hell because of that company they had with the pious people.

So brothers and sisters, this shows how important it is to be in the company of pious people who were on tawheed.

Closing Du'a

May Allah save us from heedlessness and guide us to the right path.

وَصَلَّى اللهُ عَلَى نَبِيِّنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ