How to be a Better Worshipper - Shaykh Mustafa Abu Rayyan

Khutbah: How to Be a Better Worshipper

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا، مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ، وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْهُ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَصَفِيُّهُ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ وَخَلِيلُهُ، أَرْسَلَهُ اللَّهُ إِلَى النَّاسِ كَافَّةً بَشِيرًا وَنَذِيرًا، فَبَلَّغَ الرِّسَالَةَ وَأَدَّى الْأَمَانَةَ وَنَصَحَ الْأُمَّةَ، وَتَرَكَنَا عَلَى الْمَحَجَّةِ الْبَيْضَاءِ لَيْلُهَا كَنَهَارِهَا لَا يَزِيغُ عَنْهَا إِلَّا هَالِكٌ، فَصَلَوَاتُ اللَّهِ وَسَلَامُهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَأَصْحَابِهِ وَمَنِ اهْتَدَى بِهَدْيِهِ وَاسْتَنَّ بِسُنَّتِهِ وَدَعَا بِدَعْوَتِهِ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ.

أَحِبَّتِي فِي اللَّهِ — I remind myself and all of you of the importance of praising Allah for indeed He is worthy of our constant gratitude and praise, and I send blessings and salutations upon our beloved master Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

Your Purpose: To Worship Allah

إِخْوَانِي فِي اللَّهِ — we have been created and brought into existence for one noble purpose, and that is to worship Allah. It is the one defining quality that one should have — you are a servant and in servitude of Allah. This is your purpose, this is who you are, and this is what your life should revolve around and be about. Allah created you so that you may worship Him, and your whole life should be dedicated to Allah, as Allah says in the Qur'an:

And worship your Lord until the certainty comes to you — which is death. So being a servant of Allah, being an abid — a worshipper — is something that should be in front of everything else about you. You are a worshipper of Allah before you are a parent, before you are a son, before you are an engineer or a medical doctor or whatever else you may identify yourself as. Number one is: you are an abid to Allah.

And it is the most noble quality in you. For when Allah was praising our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, He would refer to him as His abid:

Praise is to Allah, the One who has revealed upon His slave — upon His servant, upon His abid — the Book. So you are an abid to Allah, meaning you should be engaged in worship and you should make your whole life about Allah. This is how you go to Jannah, and we all want to go to Jannah. May Allah take us there and forgive our sins.

How to Become a Better Worshipper

1. True Determination (Azeema)

The first thing that can help you become a better abid, a better worshipper, is that you find within yourself true determination — and push yourself beyond what the Shaytan wants you to do or satisfies you with. Push yourself, because you know about all of the good things you can potentially be involved in, yet you are not — and something is anchoring you, something is pushing you back.

This is why you need azeema — you need determination. You may have saved up the money to go to Hajj, but somehow you are still not doing it. You may be able to go and call that relative and you know Allah will reward you, but somehow you are not doing it. You know you can read more Qur'an, you know you can pray more, attend the mosque more and learn your deen — and you can do so many good things, but something is holding you back: yourself, your nafs, the Shaytan, society. You can mention all of these things, but it is your responsibility to push yourself and have that determination.

The knowledge alone is not enough. We all know Hajj is obligatory upon us and Hajj is coming soon and it's coming close, yet we are saving money to go on holidays or to do other things, because you haven't found within yourself that push: I am going to put my Creator first. I am going to be an abd first. I am going to be serving Allah first. So you need that determination, you need to push yourself — and that comes from you, and from an understanding that this life is limited and you need to prepare your akhira and you need to build your Jannah.

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to ask Allah:

O Allah, keep me firm upon this affair — because if Allah does not keep you firm, you will go astray. So ask Allah for this firmness and this determination. Read this du'a, make the effort, push yourself, and decide you are going to do better. It all starts with you. And if you are waiting for that magical hidayah to come to you and one day you are all of a sudden going to become a better person — you have to work on it. You have to build that progress, and you build that now. But building that doesn't mean you do it in an instant — it is gradual.

2. Consistency Over Intensity

The second thing that is going to help you become a better worshipper of Allah is not overburdening or over-exerting yourself, but rather having continuity and consistency in your worship. So the acts of worship that you want to do — let's say you hear a very powerful reminder on charity and you go home and you say, "I am going to give all my wealth in charity." May Allah reward you if you do that. But what is more beloved to Allah is if you do a small amount consistently.

Similarly, if you have all that zeal and passion and say, "I am going to read the whole Qur'an this week" — Allah loves it more if you would read a small portion but do it regularly. The consistency is more beloved to Allah. The Prophet himself told us — when Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) asked him what are the most beloved deeds to Allah, he said: that which is consistent, even if it is small.

So when you are doing a small act of worship consistently, this builds your iman. You have a regular connection to Allah. There is less room for Shaytan to dissuade you, because you are doing something that you can manage — and then you gradually build yourself up from there. Do that with your sunnah prayers, do that with your reading of the Qur'an, do that with the charity that you give. Start small, but be consistent.

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said: don't be like this person who used to pray at night and then left it — because it was too difficult; they were doing too much. And the Prophet would sometimes speak to his companions and say: don't do too much ibadah. He came into the mosque one day and he saw a rope that was tied between two pillars and he said: "What is this rope for?" He was told: "Zaynab prays here, and when she gets tired she holds herself on this rope while praying because she is too tired." And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said: "Do from the deeds that which you can actually perform." And he said: "When you are tired, go to sleep."

So it's not all about overburdening yourself — whether that is a financial act of worship or whatever else. It is about doing it on a consistent basis. This has a better effect on your iman and is more beloved to Allah.

3. Building a Relationship with the Qur'an

The third thing that will help you become a better worshipper — and we should all be invested in improving ourselves for Allah — is building a connection with the Book of Allah, the Qur'an. The Qur'an is a guidance for you and I. Read the Qur'an — wallahi there is so much barakah in just the recitation. Read the Qur'an, learn its meaning, ponder over it, and build a relationship with the Book of Allah.

Allah tells us it is hudan lil muttaqeen — a guidance to those who have taqwa. Allah tells us:

Indeed this Qur'an guides to that which is better and upright. So you need to work on your recitation, work on the time you spend reading the Qur'an, the meanings of the Qur'an — listening to its tafsir, reading the translation. Ask yourself: where am I today as it relates to my relationship with the Book of Allah — the message that came from Allah — and how can I improve it?

4. Good Companions (Suhbat al-Akhyar wa al-Salihin)

The fourth thing, إِخْوَانِي فِي اللَّهِ, is suhbat al-akhyar wa al-salihin — it is to have good friends. This is extremely important. We tend to give this advice to the younger ones: "Make sure you're not hanging out with this person, have good friends, this is a bad friend." But this goes for all of us here as well. What kind of people are we surrounding ourselves with? Do we have friends that are telling us to be better, to avoid the haram, to go to Hajj, to pray more, to attend a class? What kind of people are you surrounding yourself with? Because you need good companionship.

How many sisters that maybe are struggling to wear the hijab — if all of their friends were doing it, it would have been a lot easier. And similarly, if you have not been learning the Qur'an, it is very likely that most of your friends aren't either. And if all of your friends are going to a Qur'an halaqah or learning, then it is very likely that you would as well. In the end of the day, we are who our friends are. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 4833; Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2378)

The individual is upon the path and upon the way and upon the religion of their friend — so let one of you look at who they are befriending. So who are your close companions and what are they like? And perhaps it's time that you looked for better ones. But more importantly, look at yourself and ask: what kind of friend am I? And am I the kind of friend that is good?

What is a good friend? It's described in the Qur'an by Allah when He described the believers — how we all should be:

The believing men and the believing women — to each other they are awliya': guardians, friends, protectors. And what is their defining quality, if you read the ayah? They enjoin good and they forbid evil. This is the good friend — this is the believing man and the believing woman. So surround yourself with such people, and this will help elevate your 'ibadah to Allah as well.

In fact, Allah says in the Qur'an:

Allah mentions that the friends in this dunya will be enemies in the Hereafter — except those who have taqwa, because those who have piety will have reminded each other, and they will be awliya' to each other as mentioned in the previous ayah.

5. Remembering Death (Dhikr al-Mawt)

The other point that will help you become a better worshipper to Allah is dhikr al-mawt — remembering death. Remembering death puts things into perspective. We plan and we plan — it's very human to plan for the future. You are making all of these plans: invest in this business, send my child to this school, move to this country, finish this degree — and your plans always go further than your ajal, your death. And the Prophet told us: do you think the people that died — they knew they were going to die? They didn't. So your plans, whatever plans you have, extend beyond your death. And you need to have that reality check often.

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2307; Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 1824)

Mention often the destroyer of pleasures — mention death — because there is benefit in it. You will put your life into perspective, you will recalibrate and focus on your 'ibadah and what's really important and what really matters. When you die and you are standing in front of Allah — wallahi, these businesses will not matter. You will wish you had put all of your wealth in sadaqah, you will wish you spent all of your time in dhikr.

So remember death often. And one of the ways is to attend funerals, follow the burials, and remind yourself. And Imam al-Ghazali mentioned that a sign that your heart has died is that when death is mentioned, you feel nothing. May Allah put life in our hearts.

6. Reading the Stories of the Righteous

Among the things that will help you become a better worshipper of Allah is the reading of the stories of the righteous — and that starts with the Qur'an. The stories of the prophets, the Sahabah, the Tabi'een, the righteous people that came before us — we should look into their stories. Why is it that Abu Bakr was promised Jannah? What kind of life did he live?

You want patience? Read the story of Ayyub (alayhi salam). You want a connection with Allah and to establish Tawhid in your heart? Read about Ibrahim (alayhi salam). You want to know about how to go through the trials in life? Read the story of Yusuf (alayhi salam). And all of the prophets — you can derive lessons from them that you can apply in your life. Similarly with the Sahabah and the Tabi'een.

Our Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam — the best to have walked this earth — Allah tells him about so many prophets in Surah al-An'am and then says:

O Muhammad, those are the ones whom Allah guided — follow them in their guidance. If Rasulullah is being told to find inspiration in the prophets, why are we not learning and reading and spending time learning about the people that were righteous that came before us? This is one of the things that will give you that passion, that zeal, that energy to want to better yourself.

May Allah make us among those who worship Him constantly, and may Allah forgive our shortcomings.

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

Second Khutbah: Ask Allah for Guidance and Avoid Sins

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ.

إِخْوَانِي فِي اللَّهِ — we should all be hoping to progress and to become better and to develop ourselves. Just like we are so heavily focused on developing ourselves in our dunya, we must focus on developing ourselves and becoming better. This means that you assess your prayer and see: can I improve it? You assess your Qur'an recitation: can I improve it? You assess your knowledge: can I improve it? And all of this is in service of you becoming a better servant to Allah. This is what we need to focus on — developing ourselves and becoming better worshippers.

We mentioned that you should have determination, that you should be consistent, that you should focus on the Qur'an because all of the guidance is in the Qur'an — as Allah mentioned — that you should surround yourself with good companions, that you should remember death often, and that you should read the stories of the righteous of the past.

إِخْوَانِي فِي اللَّهِ — all of these are things that we should focus on. But you should also remember: your guidance comes from Allah. So ask Allah to guide you often. Raise your hands, and when you make du'a — just like you make du'a for yourself for your wealth, for your health, for your children — the most important thing you should be asking Allah is hidayah, guidance. Think about it: the one surah we must repeat every single day in every single salah — in Surah al-Fatihah — what do we ask Allah? We ask Allah:

O Allah, You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help — because O Allah, we cannot worship You if You do not aid us. And then we say: guide us to the straight path. So ask Allah to aid you and make that du'a.

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam one time said to Mu'adh ibn Jabal, among his most beloved companions:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 1522; Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 22119 — authenticated by al-Albani)

O Mu'adh, I swear by Allah I love you — so do not leave off, towards the end of every prayer, saying: O Allah, aid me in remembering You, and to be grateful to You, and to worship You well and to worship You correctly. And worshipping Allah correctly is what we are talking about today.

Avoiding Sins

One of the things that will aid you in worshipping Allah — and might be hindering you from worshipping Allah — is sins. So staying away from them will help you become a better worshipper, and sinning often will push you back. Wallahi, what kept us behind — if you see others excelling in khair and others are not — what has weighed you down is your sins. And sometimes we are sinning and sinning and sinning and we do not realize that the fact that Allah does not give us the tawfiq to repent is a punishment within itself.

So avoid sins. Wallahi, a lot of khair that you could have done will be prevented because of your choice to disobey Allah. The more obedience you do, it will open doors of khair for you — and the more you are disobeying, it will close those doors. This is why it is all about your iman: your iman increases with good deeds and it decreases with bad deeds. So avoid sins.

Can we avoid all sins? No, we cannot. So what do we do? Plan A is to not sin. Plan B is to repent. Repent often. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam taught us that we should repent — and he would repent to Allah more than seventy times a day. So make it part of your life that you are regularly repenting to Allah.

Striving for the Highest Station: Wilayah

Finally, brothers in Allah — we need to strive to go to the highest place possible. We need to strive to become awliya' of Allah. Those are the nearest to Allah, and we should aim for that. And the Prophet taught us how to become the best type of worshipper. Through the hadith al-qudsi, the Prophet told us that the way you do that is by focusing on the obligations. Master the obligations — the things that are wajib upon you. There is nothing more beloved to Allah than when you do that which is obligatory. So that is your obligatory fasting, your obligatory Hajj, your obligatory Zakat, your daily five prayers, being dutiful to your parents — all the wajibat. Do those and do those well.

And then add to that the recommended acts of worship — and there are so many — and make that part of your life. Look at our Prophet's life, brothers in Allah. Look at how much he used to pray outside of the five, how much he used to fast outside of Ramadan. This is how you should build your life.

And if you do those two things — if you do the wajibat and the obligations, and you add on top of that other good acts of worship: charity, sunnah prayers, the night prayer, and all of that khair — if you do that, Allah promised that He will give you divine protection. Allah mentioned in the hadith al-qudsi:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6502)

I will be the hand by which you grab and the feet by which you walk — meaning Allah will protect you from sin and disobedience and guide you to repentance, and you will live a life in which Allah gives you constant protection. And Allah is the best of protectors. May Allah protect us from sin and guide us to that which is upright.

Brothers in Allah — these points, I hope that we take lessons from them and apply them to our lives and try to develop ourselves to become better worshippers.