Remembrance of Allah سبحانه و تعالى - Shaykh Hafeezullah Khan

Khutbah: Remembrance of Allah

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنُؤْمِنُ بِهِ وَنَتَوَكَّلُ عَلَيْهِ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ سَيِّدَنَا وَمَوْلَانَا مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَمَّا بَعْدُ فَإِنَّ خَيْرَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ وَخَيْرَ الْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ

Introduction: Why We Forget Allah

My dear brothers in Islam, it is natural that we always try to remember those who do good for us, and we often mention them in our gatherings with a good name. But it is strange that Allah, the One who created us, the One who provides for us, and the One because of whom we are here in this world — we always forget Him. Whereas, if we always remember Allah, this will be for our own benefit.

The Benefits of Remembering Allah

Benefit One: Allah Remembers You

We can get lots of benefits by remembering Allah. Number one, for example, as Allah says:

Remember Me, and I will remember you. And be grateful to Me. Do not be ungrateful.

So if we want Allah to remember us — especially in our hard times — then always remember Allah. If we remember Allah, He will remember us.

In a Hadith Qudsi from Sahih al-Bukhari, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ narrates that Allah says — He gives a guarantee — Allah says:

I am with My servant when He remembers Me. It means we have to believe that when we remember Allah, He is with us — with His help, with His mercy, with His favour. And Allah says: if he remembers Me in himself, in his heart, I remember him in Myself. And if he makes mention of Me in a gathering, I make mention of him in a gathering better than it. And if he draws near to Me a hand span's length, I draw near to him a forearm's length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go towards him in a hurry.

So dear brothers, Allah is with us. It means that His mercy and His help is with us if we remember Allah.

Benefit Two: A Living Home vs. a Dead Home

The second benefit is that the Prophet ﷺ says in a hadith from Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, he gave an example of two houses: the house in which Allah is remembered, and the house in which Allah is not remembered. And then he said they are like a living or a dead person:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 6, Hadith 212)

The house in which Allah is remembered — through the nawafil, through the recitation of the Quran, through the dhikr, and through the daily du'as — the Prophet ﷺ says that the people living in this house are alive. They are not dead people. They are alive.

And a house where there is no salah, you don't hear any recitation of the Quran, and many weeks pass by and they don't read any nawafil, they don't do any dhikr, they don't do any du'a, they don't teach their children any du'as — the Prophet ﷺ says that this kind of house is occupied by dead people. The people who are living there are not alive. They are dead people.

And whenever you visit them, you can see the atmosphere — that there is a Shaytan living there. And when the Prophet ﷺ said that the people who are living there are dead people, it means this house is not a home — it is a graveyard. Because in a graveyard, the people living there are dead people. The alive people don't live there.

And the homes in which Allah is always remembered — there is no doubt — Shaytan cannot stay there. Shaytan cannot stay in a home where Allah is remembered. And the angels come and go in these houses with the blessing of Allah. And the people in such homes — you can see — are always in peace, in love. They love each other. They are in peace. You can feel the atmosphere of peace there.

But the homes where people don't remember Allah become homes of Shaytan. Because Shaytan likes homes where there is no recitation of the Quran, where there is no nawafil, where there is no du'as. These people cannot get any blessing, any barakah of Allah. And these homes — you might see them as mashallah beautiful, very well decorated — but you cannot feel any peaceful atmosphere there. Nor do you find people in these homes who love each other, who respect each other, who care for each other.

Allah says:

Whosoever ignores and turns away from the remembrance of Allah, the Most Gracious, We appoint for him a Shaytan to be his companion. His companion will be a Shaytan with him.

Benefit Three: The Protection of Allah

The third benefit, brothers, is that if we constantly remember Allah, we will be in the protection of Allah. Allah gives us His protection at all times — in our iman and in our worldly matters as well. As the Prophet ﷺ says in a Hadith Qudsi from Sahih al-Bukhari:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 7405)

When a person remembers Me with his tongue, I am with him — with My help, with My mercy, with My support.

In another hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said: if you remember Allah in your good days — there are no worries, no problems for you, and still you remember Allah, you don't forget Allah — then the Prophet ﷺ says, Allah will remember you in your bad day, in your bad time, in your hard time.

And we know about Yunus عليه السلام — the best example. Allah says about him:

In Surah As-Saffat: if My servant Yunus was not among those who remembered Me by glorifying Me, then he would have remained inside the whale's stomach till the Day of Judgment.

And as you know, why did Allah save Yunus عليه السلام even from inside the whale's stomach? Because he used to remember Allah in his good days. He used to remember Allah in his good times. So that is why Allah remembered him in his hard time.

So brothers, we have to ask ourselves: do we remember Allah only in our good times, or do we only want to remember Allah in our hard times?

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ مِنْ كُلِّ ذَنْبٍ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

Second Khutbah

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى نَبِيِّنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ

Do Not Wait Until It Is Too Late

Allah says:

On the Day of Judgment, the people who are destined for the Hellfire will say to Allah, they will ask Allah: "O Allah, please send us back to the world so that we can do good deeds." They are not asking Allah to return so they can enjoy the pleasures of this world as they used to — rather, they are asking Allah to send them back to do good deeds. They want to do good deeds. So we can understand the importance of good deeds. But these people did not use this opportunity of this world when they were alive.

Whereas doing good deeds was very, very easy for them. And usually we think that doing good deeds is very hard. No, doing good deeds, brothers, is very easy. We can do good deeds within our heart. We can do good deeds with our tongue as well.

The Best of Deeds: Dhikr of Allah

As the Prophet ﷺ says in a hadith from Jami' at-Tirmidhi — and this is a sahih hadith — he said: "Should I not inform you of the best of your deeds, and the purest of them with your Lord, and the highest of them in your ranks, and better for you than spending gold and silver, and better for you than meeting your enemy?" The Companions said: "Of course." Then the Prophet ﷺ said: the good deed is the remembrance of Allah.

(Jami' at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3377 — graded Sahih)

If you remember Allah in your heart, if you remember Allah with your tongue, it is not only a good deed — according to this hadith, this is the best of our deeds. This is the purest of our deeds. And this is the highest of our deeds in the ranks. And it is better than spending gold and silver in the way of Allah.

Practical Ways to Remember Allah

But our problem is that mashallah, we have lots of spare time — but we don't want to use it. Why don't we use this time to do dhikr of Allah instead of wasting hours and hours on the mobile, on social media, on other things? We have to use this time.

And as I mentioned, doing dhikr is not taking up your time. You don't have to spare so much time. Like for example, the best dhikr is the five times daily prayer. The five times daily prayer. And the nawafil. And the recitation of the Quran as well. And the du'as that the Prophet ﷺ taught us — du'as for the morning, for the evening, and for certain actions before and after.

Like for example, if we learn the du'as — what we have to say before eating, after we finish the meal, when we enter the house, when we leave the house, when we go to bed, when we wake up in the morning, when we drive our car — there are many things that the Prophet ﷺ taught us. So as a Muslim, if we learn these du'as, and if we practice them, and if we say these du'as, it means that we are remembering Allah always. We are remembering Allah in 24 hours. That is the main thing, brothers.

If we do that, inshallah, we will be among those whom Allah will remember.