Jumah Khutbah - You are on your own: Take charge of your life. Shaykh Yaser Birjas

Opening

In the name of Allah, we praise Him, we ask for His help, we ask for His guidance, and we ask for His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whosoever He misguides, none can guide him.

And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.

O you people, fear your Lord, Who created you from one soul, and created from it a wife, and spread among them many men and women. And fear Allah, about whom you ask, and about the wombs. Verily, Allah is ever watching over you.

O you who have believed, fear Allah, and say the word of truth. Your deeds will be corrected, and your sins will be forgiven. And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger, he has won a great triumph.

Know, O servants of Allah, that the best speech is the speech of Allah, the Exalted. And the best guide is the guide of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.

After Ramadan: The Fading Momentum

Now this is the second Jumu'ah after the month of Ramadan. And people, they see the energy is now a little bit depleting. That momentum they have developed and they got from the month of Ramadan is fading out. And they're wondering what happened.

If you remember in the last khutbah, we talked about your self-development, that you need to move forward and upgrade, not go backward. But how can I do this? What is the secret? How would I know that I'm moving forward? And what is that main issue that if I can really comprehend and understand, that will help me move forward regardless of the circumstances?

Actually, it's in the Qur'an. It is an ayah in the Qur'an that we sometimes read it, we get emotional as we read it, but we don't pay attention much to it.

You Will Stand Before Allah Alone

The ayah, when Allah speaks about me and you and our responsibility on the Day of Judgment, He says:

Which means: each and every one of you will return back to Allah alone. You're going to be standing before Allah individually. No team members will be with you. No one who you always blamed for your faults will be standing next to you. And no one you thought was supposed to pull you up with them as they go forward in their lives will be standing next to you. You're going to be standing alone with Allah to answer for everything that you've done in this life.

If you can comprehend this matter, if you just understand this point, you realize: okay, so I'm on my own right now. I'm on my own, therefore I need to take charge of my own life. I need to make sure that I do it right.

The Five Questions on the Day of Judgment

The Sahabah, they understood this principle very, very, very well. Rasulullah ﷺ explained that to them in many, many different ways. In Sahih Ibn Hibban, from the hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ, when he said:

(Sahih Ibn Hibban, Hadith 93; also reported in Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2417)

That every human being — not just the believer, every human being — they are not going to move their feet before Allah, as they stand before Allah on the Day of Judgment, until they answer for things. And these things are the most important things for us in our lives.

1. Your Life

He said ﷺ: عَنْ عُمْرِهِ فِيمَا أَفْنَاهُ — Your life. How did you spend your life? Allah has blessed you with 70 years, 25 years, whatever that time that you spent in this life. What did you do with it? How did you spend your time?

2. Your Body

And he said: وَعَنْ جَسَدِهِ فِيمَا أَبْلَاهُ — The health that was given to you, your body, your ability to wake up every single day, الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ, to go and work and earn and do all these things. Allah blessed you with this body. What did you do with it and how did you use it? Was it used for the right thing or not?

3. Your Knowledge

And: وَعَنْ عِلْمِهِ مَاذَا عَمِلَ بِهِ — The knowledge that you have. The knowledge that Allah blessed you with. You know what? Not just the knowledge — the access to knowledge that Allah has made easy for you, and you never took advantage of it. And you're going to be questioned about that.

4 & 5. Your Wealth

And he says: وَعَنْ مَالِهِ مِنْ أَيْنَ اكْتَسَبَهُ وَفِيمَا أَنْفَقَهُ — About their wealth: where they got it from, and how they spent it.

So the hadith is about what? About your individual responsibility. That you'll be standing before Allah to answer for these questions. Just get this point right — on the Day of Judgment, you're going to be on your own. So you better be prepared. Don't throw blame on anybody. Make sure that you give the right answers when you're asked about these questions.

The Story of 'Abdurrahman ibn 'Awf

You see, the whole principle of being individually responsible for whatever that is — whether it's the matters of dunya or akhirah — was understood by the Sahabah. Look at this story.

'Abdurrahman ibn 'Awf was in Mecca, a very well-known and very successful businessman. He was rich. He was wealthy. But then when he had to leave Mecca, when he was forced out during the time of Hijrah, he didn't leave with much. Actually, he left everything behind. And he came out from Mecca with just the thawb, the shirt he had on his back. That was it.

And he moved from Mecca all the way to Medina. There, seeing the crisis of what we call them today — refugees. The Sahabah in Medina, they called them muhajireen, immigrants. So the case of the refugees: the Prophet ﷺ, he wanted to, of course, create a system in order for these muhajireen, these immigrants, to be taken into the society and assimilated in the community without having to worry about that impact of losing everything that was left behind.

So he established a system of mu'akha — that bond, the pledge of brotherhood — in which he requested some of the locals, the wealthy locals, those who could afford it, to embrace someone as their own, becoming like one of their blood relatives. So they were basically not just naturalizing them into the society — it was even like adopting them as part of the members of their own tribe and their own family. Those Sahabah, they were teaming up with each other. One Ansari and one Muhajir.

'Abdurrahman ibn 'Awf happened to be paired with one of those wealthy Ansari. So he came to him and said, "This is my brother. Allah blessed me with so much. I have so much wealth, alhamdulillah. I have so much money. I have so much land. I have, alhamdulillah, a successful life." And he even offered — if you want to marry, I will help you with that. Like basically, he said, you can re-establish yourself in an instant. He even said: I will split everything 50-50 between me and you.

Wow — at that level of generosity! 'Abdurrahman ibn 'Awf, may Allah be pleased with him, of course, could have taken advantage of that. He could have said, "Sure, let's do that." But instead he said: "May Allah bless you, bless your wealth and your family. Could you please just let me know where your marketplace is? Where is your business district? I want to go there."

What does that exactly mean? 'Abdurrahman had everything he could imagine to re-establish himself as a successful businessman. And he could have done it easily. He was successful. They said about him that he was so lucrative in his bargains, may Allah be pleased with him, that he could sell you the dirt of the entire desert as gold. He was so clever in his business. But he, instead of taking advantage of this brother, instead of depending on others for his individual success, he wanted to do it on his own.

So he said: "Keep your wealth with you, keep your family with you, just show me where the market is." And 'Abdurrahman goes to the marketplace.

A week later, the Prophet ﷺ meets 'Abdurrahman in the street. And he was dressed nicely, and he smelled nicely — which means, masha'Allah, he had excess wealth and money to buy a new thawb, and he even had enough money to buy perfume. Someone who just barely came from Mecca — and in one week, this man, masha'Allah, has a nice dress on him already, and he smells very nice.

The Prophet ﷺ says to 'Abdurrahman, masha'Allah, masha'Allah — what is this? Where is this coming from? He said: "I got married." In one week! He even established himself and established a family, on his own, in one week.

So the Prophet ﷺ, out of curiosity, said: "What did you give her as a bridal gift? What did you give her as mahr?" He said: "The weight of a date stone in gold." The weight of a date stone in gold — like this is excess wealth right now, that he could afford to give away as a gift. All of this was in one week. So Rasulullah ﷺ made du'a for him to be successful and put barakah in his life.

This man, 'Abdurrahman ibn 'Awf, as you can see — in matters of dunya, he took charge of his own life. He didn't sit there in Medina crying about the glorious time of his business in Mecca, how he was successful, how he could turn the dirt and the dust and the sand of the desert into gold. He didn't sit down crying at that. And when he was given an opportunity, he wasn't greedy either. Because he knew — I could have been successful with that, but that kind of success wouldn't mean much to me, because it wasn't my effort. It's just like when you're born with a silver spoon in your mouth.

So he didn't want that. He said: "No, no, no — I want to make it on my own." He had the skill, he had everything, he had Allah on his side, and he had the most important thing — the real meaning of tawakkul, true dependence on Allah.

'Abdurrahman ibn 'Awf and that simple statement has become, in the history of Islam, one of the proverbs for the real meaning of depending on yourself and individual responsibility. He took charge of his own life. He felt responsible for his own actions in both the dunya and the akhirah.

'Abdurrahman ibn 'Awf: Success in Dunya and Akhirah

So in dunya, he became very successful. Obviously in our time, when people become rich, they are afraid to lose their faith with it. That's the expectation. You become rich, you go away from the masjid, you start getting busy with making money and all that stuff. Some people sabotage their business, and others, subhanAllah, they just let go and forget about their deen.

But 'Abdurrahman ibn 'Awf — his success in dunya didn't take away his success in the akhirah. The Prophet ﷺ counts him as one of the ten people who will enter Jannah — the ten people guaranteed Jannah — 'Abdurrahman ibn 'Awf.

Being a busy and successful businessman, he was also a community leader. He always had time to volunteer and think about the community and help. To the extent that when 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, was stabbed and was on his deathbed, 'Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, assigned a committee of six people to select his successor, the next khalifa after him. And 'Abdurrahman was one of those six people. Not just one of the six — no, no, no. He played a major role in choosing the khalifa that came after 'Umar, may Allah be pleased with him — 'Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him.

The six people became three: 'Abdurrahman ibn 'Awf, 'Uthman ibn 'Affan, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with them all. He said to 'Uthman and 'Ali: "Listen, I'll take myself out of consideration" — but he basically gave himself the role of making the choice. And eventually, they did. 'Abdurrahman, may Allah be pleased with him, was successful in matters of dunya and matters of akhirah. And again, one major principle here is that he depended on himself for this kind of success.

Your Responsibility After Ramadan

Ramadan is over. We're always dependent on the masjid to create an environment for us. We're always dependent on salat al-Tarawih and 'Isha to bring that spirit up and high for us. We're always dependent on the masjid and the imams to create beautiful, amazing night activities on the weekend and also during the last ten nights of Ramadan. And when people come to the masjid, they're just like, subhanAllah, this is amazing, this is great, this is beautiful.

And then suddenly, once Ramadan is over, and these community services provided for us and the community are gone — or at least they're over because Ramadan is over — that responsibility of enjoying the same feeling and moment falls on me and you. It falls on us right now.

Meaning: waking up for Tahajjud — whose responsibility is that? Is it your wife's? Your husband's? Waking up for suhoor so you can fast the next day — whose job is this right now? Making sure that you still come for 'Isha even though the time is the same, 10:15, never changed since Ramadan — whose responsibility is it to come for Salat al-'Isha? All of these now come back again to us individually.

Many, many people, when it comes to after the month of Ramadan, we cry at the beautiful memories of Ramadan as if it's khalas — until next Ramadan, insha'Allah. Why? If you know that you need to move forward, then the main principle that will help you move forward is to understand and realize: it's your individual responsibility to keep moving forward.

A lot of people, unfortunately, they throw all the blame on others — whether it's a parent, or a spouse, or a friend, or work, whatever that is. Stop blaming others and make sure that you take charge of your life and you move forward.

The Blame Game: The Way of the People of Jahannam

You see, blaming others is actually the way and the path of the people of Jahannam. Allah mentions in multiple ayat — in Surah al-A'raf, Surah Saba', and others — the conversation that happens in Jahannam between the people of Jahannam.

One of these conversations, as Allah mentioned in Surah Saba', is about the disbelievers in dunya who said: "We will never believe in this Qur'an. We will never believe in what was revealed before the Qur'an." And if you look at the transgressors who transgressed against their own selves, they will be standing before Allah —

They are arguing among themselves, fighting over this issue. Those who felt that they were weak — the subordinates in this dunya, those who felt that they were controlled, they were oppressed — they will now blame the oppressor, they blame their leaders, they blame the celebrity, they blame the culture, whoever it is that they followed in this dunya. They say: "If it wasn't for you, we would have been believers — you got in our way."

But then those — the oppressors, their leaders — who are themselves in the Fire of punishment, they will tell those who thought they were oppressed: "Really? You blame us for stopping you from going to the path of guidance after it had come to you? No. It's your fault. You are the criminals. It is your own work, your own failure." That is what they are saying.

This kind of blame game that happens — it happens in Jahannam. And obviously, as you can see, they're throwing the blame on other people when it is too late. And we all know that it is going to be too late to blame other people on the Day of Judgment. It is clear in the Qur'an.

So if we already know that it's going to be too late to blame anybody else on that Day, then make sure you don't play that game today in this dunya. Whatever happened in your life — you might say, subhanAllah, I failed in my marriage, I failed in my business, I failed in school, I failed here, I failed — you know what? Fine.

If you look at the history of mankind, even nations failed at some point. But they recalibrate, they recover, and they move on. These so-called failures become learning experiences. We learn from them, and then we move on. And we make a commitment that we will never put ourselves in a compromising position like this anymore. And we put all our effort, our mind, our hearts into moving forward — and nowhere but forward.

Every Soul Is Held Accountable for Its Own Deeds

Knowing that Allah said:

That every single soul, بِمَا كَسَبَتْ, will only be held to what that soul had earned. Meaning: you are not going to be responsible for someone else's earning; you'll be responsible for your own earning yourself.

Self-Dependence Is Fitrah

And subhanAllah, depending on yourself — this self-dependence — by the way, it's even fitrah. It's natural to us as human beings: being self-driven, loving to have your own schedule and your free time and do things your own way. That's natural. If you have children, you know what I'm talking about. Little kids — they don't even know how to put two words together, but they still insist on doing things their own way. They want to eat; if you even try to help them, they will force their way to eat themselves. When you try to help them with something, they insist on doing it on their own. Why? Because it's fitrah. It's natural. We love to do things our way and on our own.

But then we teach our children in certain ways to be dependent on us. And that depends on the parent's lifestyle and also parenting style — how much emphasis they put on their children's dependence on them, versus raising them to be self-independent. Some families put so much emphasis on their children's dependence on the parents, and as a result, of course, when they grow up, they expect that other people will help them out.

But in reality, on the Day of Judgment, you will be standing with Allah alone. So waking up for Fajr, for example — when you become a teenager and you reach that age, it's your responsibility. Your parents' failure to wake you up at that age doesn't mean they are failing; no, they are letting you deal with it on your own. You are responsible for it now. Your full dependence on them to wake you up or remind you to do your salah or do this ibadah or that ibadah — that's not their responsibility anymore. It's your responsibility right now. Obviously there's a partial element to this because you're living with them at home, but still, it becomes your personal responsibility.

And for the brothers and sisters who are the grown-ups, those who have children — the same thing too. We always blame circumstances. We blame the market. We blame politics. We blame the culture. We blame this and that. But remember: on the Day of Judgment, nothing is going to help you other than your own records. And only your records will help you before Allah. So make sure that you prepare yourself for this.

Imam al-Shafi'i's Wisdom

Imam al-Shafi'i says — incorporating an Arabic proverb:

"Nothing will scratch your back better than your own fingernail." Nothing will get to that spot you need better than your own hand. And that's exactly the same thing in your life. No one would understand the value of your salah better than you. No one would realize the importance of you doing your religious duties and even your dunya duties more than yourself. So make sure to take charge of your life, and may Allah make it successful for us in the dunya and the akhirah.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ الْعَظِيمَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

Second Part of the Khutbah: We Are Still a Community

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ، صَلَّى اللهُ وَسَلَّمَ وَبَارَكَ عَلَى نَبِيِّنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيمًا كَثِيرًا، أَمَّا بَعْدُ

O servants of Allah, my dear brothers and sisters — as we tell people and encourage people to be self-independent, to do their things and take charge of their own lives, that by no means are we telling them to completely cut themselves off from helping each other. No. It is part of our religious responsibility to assist and help one another. Allah says in Surah al-'Asr:

That we have faith, we work upon this faith, we help each other and we assist each other to be patient as well. And Allah says:

Assist and help each other to do that which is good. There is no doubt about it. You need to assist one another — but not be dependent on one another. When it comes to assistance, that means you take charge of your life, and if there is anything falling short here and there, you have someone to remind you, someone to help you, someone to pick up the pieces after they've fallen. This is what it means to actually assist one another. This is where we come together as a community and help and assist one another.

But individually, you are responsible to do your part. As part of this community, we are collectively responsible to provide the environment, to provide the access, to provide the resources for each and every one of us, alhamdulillah, to enjoy their ibadah and also be successful in dunya and akhirah. But you individually — that is your individual responsibility to become part of the system. If you know that you have a religious duty towards your community, towards the masjid, towards your brothers and sisters, then it is your individual responsibility to come forward and help with that.

May Allah make us among those who listen to this speech and follow the best of it.

وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ