Jummah Khutbah - Lessons from the story of a forgiven monk

Jumu'ah Khutbah: Lessons from the Story of a Forgiven Monk

Come forward as much as you can, please. Make space for those that are coming in. May Allah bless you all and grant you all the good.

He is able to do everything. I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant, His Messenger, His Chosen One, and His Friend. He fulfilled the trust and conveyed the message and advised the Ummah.

He exposed the darkness and left us on the white path. Its night is like its day. Nothing escapes it but destruction.

So upon him is the best prayer. I submit myself to him and to his companion and to those who wait for his Sunnah until the Day of Judgment. O Allah, make us of them and of those who believe and do good deeds, and continue with truthfulness and patience.

I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan. I advise you and myself to fear Allah. He has commanded us to do the right thing.

O you who believe, 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, with whom you ask for mercy. Indeed, Allah is ever watching over you.

O you who believe, fear Allah and say the right word. He will correct your deeds and forgive your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has won a great triumph. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen.

Stories of the Monks of Bani Israel

Dear brothers and sisters, when we look through the stories that come from the nations that precede the nation of Muhammad ﷺ — the nation of Musa عليه السلام, the nation of Jesus peace be upon him, the nation of Ibrahim عليه السلام, the nation of all of these prophets and messengers that came before — each one of them had a set of circumstances and companions or disciples or followers, as well as good and bad that was found in their ummah. And many times we find stories in the ahadith of the Prophet ﷺ and his narrations that tell us about some of these stories.

Either that we may follow the example of a good person that has preceded — one of the awliya, the righteous pious servants of Allah — or to avoid the footsteps and the traps that those who preceded us fell into, either collectively or as individuals in some of the narrations that we find. So it's an interesting cluster of narrations that we find in the ahadith of the Prophet ﷺ, particularly about the monks from Bani Israel, about a person who would be called a rahib — which the most appropriate translation would be a monk, a person who is an 'abid, a worshipper, particularly dedicated to the temple or dedicated to what would denote a masjid at the time, a place of worship. And the Prophet ﷺ tells us about how some of these monks went astray, and he tells us about some of the success stories, some of the righteous 'ubad of Bani Israel, some of the righteous worshippers of Bani Israel.

The Story of Barsisa — A Warning

Amongst the most famous stories of a monk that preceded us, a monk from Bani Israel, one of the worshippers of Bani Israel, is the famous story of Barsisa. And that's not the topic of my khutbah — those of you that have heard the narration — but I'll quickly paraphrase his story. Barsisa is an example of a monk who was trapped by the devil and then went wrong.

He was a righteous man, the Prophet ﷺ mentioned — a righteous monk, a worshipper who dedicated himself to Allah. And some brothers went on a journey to travel, and they entrusted him with their sister. So they built a home, or they put her in a home right across from the masjid, right across from where he would worship, and every day he would slowly, slowly get more attached to her. So he'd take food to her, and then slowly he would get closer to her, and he started to develop these emotions, and then those emotions led to more contact and flirtation, and then he committed zina, he committed adultery. When he committed adultery, the girl became pregnant.

And so shaytan came to him, and instead of owning the mistake that he made, Barsisa kept digging himself deeper into the hole that he made for himself. So shaytan presented to him this idea that you need to kill the baby, you need to do away with the evidence, so he kills the baby. Then shaytan comes to him and tells him, well, how do you know that she's not going to talk? So he kills her too, and buries her away from the site. And then when the brothers come home, he tells the brothers that she died a natural death:

And he thought that he had covered up all of his tracks, and he thought that he was successful in escaping this situation. But the shaytan disclosed to these brothers in a dream what happened, and subhanAllah, this man ends up being crucified by his people. Not before the shaytan coming to him once again and telling him, "I'm the one who got you in this mess, I can get you out of it — prostrate to me, do sujood to me, and I will get you out of it." He goes down and he makes sajda to the shaytan, he prostrates to the devil. This man who spent his entire life worshipping Allah makes this prostration to the devil after committing adultery and murder of two people.

And shaytan turns his back on him and says:

"I have nothing to do with you, I declare my innocence of your crime." A sad story with many lessons in it. A man who went down a dangerous track. And the greatest of them is that in this situation, number one, he followed the footsteps of shaytan; number two, he remained in the web of shaytan once he recognized he was caught. He did not escape it once that consciousness came back to him — instead he continued to dig the hole deeper that he made for himself in the first place.

The Lesser-Known Story — The Monk Who Was Forgiven

There is another story, and this is the one that is the subject of the khutbah. It is a lesser-known narration which I found quite fascinating. It is a narration in Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah from Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله تعالى عنه.

(Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah — authenticated by Imam al-Albani and Shaykh Ahmad Shakir)

There was a man, a rahib, a monk, who worshipped Allah in his temple for 60 years.

Once again, this is a person who worshipped Allah for a very long time. The delusion that could happen to this person is a delusion that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned happened to some men who used to worship Allah exclusively their entire lives — which is that they start to become arrogant, and they start to think that their worship makes them immune to sin, and even if they have shortcomings, they can still lean on the huge amount of worship that they have put forth before Allah. This is a disease that can happen.

The Prophet ﷺ mentioned in another narration a man who worshipped Allah for hundreds of years, and then when the angel came to him, the angel told him to enter Jannah by the mercy of Allah. He said, "I want to enter Jannah by my amal, by my good deeds." And so Allah weighed the blessing of his eyesight — his basar — against his hundreds of years of worship, and the eyesight, that one blessing, weighed more than all of those hundreds of years. He was about to go to the Fire, and then he pleaded for Allah's mercy and he entered by Allah's mercy.

So the delusion, the ghurur, that could happen to anyone of us — this is a message to the Jumu'ah crowd, this is a message to the regular musalli — you might think of people that don't come to the masjid, that don't do what you do, and think, "Well, alhamdulillah, I'm not that bad." That's the first problem. You should be thinking that perhaps there is some good in them that you're not seeing, and there is some bad in yourself that is maybe being masked by your participation in these public acts of worship. So number one: humility.

So we go back to the narration. This rahib, this monk, worshipped Allah for 60 years in one place.

A woman came in his presence, and he started to develop an attachment to this woman, and he ended up committing adultery with her, and he stayed in that state for six nights. The narration explicitly mentions that this happened for almost an entire week.

Now what happened to this man as he came to that realization? Allah says about the people of taqwa:

Whenever these people of taqwa, people of piety, are seized by the shaytan for a moment, a day, a few hours, a week — but then suddenly, tadhakkaruu, suddenly they remember Allah, fa-idha hum mubsiroon — their eyes are wide open and they're paying attention now. And they say: "How did this happen? How did I get myself into this? It happens to the best of us. Where am I? How could I have fallen like this?"

So this man was not caught. The woman was not pregnant. He could have simply said, "Disappear, let's pretend this never happened," and worried about the people that might find out. Instead, look at the sincerity of his tawbah — the man himself woke up.

As the narration continues, after he committed that deed:

He ran away. But where did he go? You're going to run away — from a masjid? From the house of Allah? Where is that man going to go? Did he go home? Did he go to a friend's house? No, he went to another masjid. Ata masjidan — which is a very smart move. He understood:

You don't escape from Allah except to Allah. "I need to start over and I need to beg Allah for forgiveness, but I need to get out of here." So he went from his own masjid, the one that he used to worship Allah in, to another masjid.

He went to that masjid, and he took residence in it for three days, and he did not eat anything for three entire days. It's not that he was starving himself. It's not that he was trying to commit suicide. It's that he was so immersed in his repentance that he was not even eating or drinking — he wasn't paying attention to his food and his drink. Which is a testimony to the man's sincerity. He felt so bad about it, he wasn't even thinking about food and drink.

So as the narration continues, you think about this man sitting in the masjid now for three nights, crying over what he committed for six nights — not even thinking about the 60 years that preceded those six nights — because right now, those six nights obscured all of those years of worship to him. Begging Allah for forgiveness.

Some people noticed him in the masjid, and so they brought to him a raghif — they brought him a loaf of bread — and they told him, "You haven't eaten, go ahead and eat." So the narration says that the man took it and broke the bread into two pieces:

He gave one half of it to someone on his right, and one half of it to someone on his left. And the man continued to immerse himself in seeking forgiveness from Allah.

At that very moment, the Prophet ﷺ says:

Allah sent the angel of death in that moment to him and took his soul. So he died in the masjid, in a state of repentance, in the place where he started. But the narration gets really, really interesting at the end. And by the way, it is a sahih narration:

(Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah — authenticated by Imam al-Albani and Shaykh Ahmad Shakir)

Listen to what he continues to say:

Allah put his 60 years of worship on one side of a scale, and put those 6 nights of adultery on the other side — and the 6 nights were heavier than his 60 years of worship. Allah mentions:

Do not void your charity. Sometimes good deeds can be voided. So those 6 nights voided his 60 years. But then what happens to him? The Prophet ﷺ said:

Allah brought forth that piece of bread and placed it on the scale. And the raghif, the bread, outweighed his 6 nights of adultery — and it entered him into Jannah.

Lessons from This Story

This is a really interesting narration, and there are many powerful lessons to be derived. I recognize the shortage of time, so let's go through them.

Lesson One: His Sin Affected Only Himself, but His Good Deed Benefited Others

The ulama point out that his sin only affected himself, but his good deed affected others. When you commit a sin — and of course in the case of that woman, she also committed a sin — how many people are you harming with that sin?

Imam al-Shafi'i says:

Glad tidings to the one who dies and his sins die with him. The only sins you have are sins that are between you and Allah.

Allah can forgive all sins. You will meet only your Lord with your sins on the Day of Judgment — because you do not want your sins to involve other people. Allah's mercy will not stop Him from being just to those who were harmed. They too deserve His mercy. They too deserve justice. Glad tidings to the one who dies and his dhunub, his sins, die with him.

So the first lesson: how many people are affected by my sins? That doesn't mean that we belittle any of our sins. The Prophet ﷺ says:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 22937)

Beware of belittling sin. But ask yourself: how many people do I hurt with my sin? The flaws that I have, the faults that I have — are they between me and Allah, and am I actively working on them? Or are they affecting other people? And then look at your good deeds. The best good deeds are not just the ones that affect yourself, but that affect and benefit the people around you. The good deeds that transform you to make you a person who does more khair, more good, for the people around them. The qiyam that inspires you to charity, and inspires you to service.

And that is why the Prophet ﷺ mentioned:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2685)

The virtue of a scholar over a worshipper is like the virtue of the Prophet ﷺ over the lowest of this nation — because the scholar teaches people. The scholar does good not just for himself, but for others as well. They enable ibadah, they enable worship.

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2670)

The one who guides to good is like the one who does it himself. So his sin only impacted himself, but his good deed was for others.

Lesson Two: He Caught Himself Before He Was Caught by Others

We learn from this narration — unlike the story of Barsisa — that this man did not wait. It's fascinating: you have two monks, two narrations about monks from Bani Israel from the same nation, who both worshipped Allah for six decades, and both committed adultery. But one of them ended his life in prostration to the devil, with murder added on to his adultery. The other one ended his life in prostration to Allah and with charity that followed that adultery. Two almost identical stories — up until that point. But what is the difference? The man caught himself before he was caught. The man recognized himself before he was caught by others.

One of the greatest tragedies of sin is when you wait for someone else to stop you rather than stopping yourself. Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه — there is a story of a young man who was brought to him for stealing. And as Umar was about to punish him, he said, "Ya Amir al-Mu'mineen, it's my first time." He said to him, "You're lying — because Allah always shelters you the first time. Allah covers you the first time." And by the way, in the story of both of these monks, they were both covered by Allah initially — even in the story of Barsisa, he just chose to make the situation much worse in trying to cover his tracks. But Allah had covered them.

The young man was punished, and then he came back to Umar رضي الله عنه crying and said, "Ya Amir al-Mu'mineen, you were right. This was my 21st time stealing. I got away with it once, and I kept on doing it and doing it and doing it."

When a person commits a sin, the most powerful motivating factor to quit that sin needs to be Allah — and nothing else. It needs to be that, first and foremost. Not reputation, not even family, not yourself — Allah. "Allah did not put me here to do this." So you catch yourself. And in the situation of this man, he did not wait to be caught — he caught himself.

Lesson Three: The Good Deed Came After the Sin

The good deed that preceded his sin did not avail him any good on the Day of Judgment. The good deed that came after his sin did help him and made his case before Allah. And this is in a hadith we find from the Prophet ﷺ:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1987)

Follow the sin with a good deed and it will wipe it out.

Good deeds wipe out bad deeds. So make sure you follow up your sin with a good deed. Umar رضي الله عنه said: "If you disobey Allah in a place, do not leave that exact place until you've obeyed Allah in the same place that you disobeyed Him in. Replace it. Do something in its place."

Now shaytan comes to you to make you despair when you commit a sin, and he tells you one of two things. Either: "What's the point of doing good deeds now? You should just despair for the rest of your life. You're a filthy, horrible human being." Or even worse: "Why don't you just keep sinning? Sin to cover up your sin. Keep digging yourself into this hole — you're already deep in it." That's an added element of despair, to keep getting worse.

Allah calls you to His karam and jood, His generosity and benevolence, and His mercy. Even in your lowest moments, Allah does not turn away from you. Another story of a man from Bani Israel was the man who killed a hundred people but made his way to be forgiven. He wanted to change his life, started to turn towards a different direction, and Allah forgave him just for being on the way to his new destination. So Allah calls you to good after you commit your sin — no matter what, no matter how bad it was. Allah did not shut the door on anybody. Allah does not shut the door on you. Do not let the shaytan, or your lowliness, or your false sense of guilt lead to despair. Do not let it betray you. Instead, see what you can do now to compensate, to expiate for that which you've committed.

Lesson Four: Let the Beauty of Your Repentance Exceed the Ugliness of Your Sin

If there's one thing I want you to remember from this khutbah, it is this: always let the beauty of your repentance exceed the ugliness of your sin. We're going to make mistakes. We're going to falter. We're going to fall in the sight of Allah. We're going to do things that we may have previously thought ourselves incapable of doing. But let the beauty of your tawbah to Allah not just wipe it out in the mizan, not just wipe it out on the scale of good versus bad — but let it wipe out its effects. Let it be a beautiful repentance.

When you look at the sahaba of the Prophet ﷺ, you don't even consider their past lives because of the beauty of their obedience and service to Allah. It doesn't even bother you. You don't think about it — because of that which they have done of good after their sins. When you think of Khalid ibn al-Walid رضي الله عنه, you are instilled with pride for the great that he did. Let the beauty of your repentance exceed the ugliness of your sin.

Lesson Five: Allah Sets Up the Sincere for Good

We also see that Allah, out of mercy to this person, saw sincerity in him, and set him up in a situation where he could do some good. He didn't go out and look for sadaqah. He didn't go out and look for charity. But Allah pushed that charity towards him due to the goodness that Allah saw inside of him. Allah knew that this was a good man, a man who had messed up and who caught himself, and who was now immersed in repentance and remorse — but was so immersed in his remorse, he didn't even know what to do with himself. So Allah sent this goodness to him to open that door up for him.

SubhanAllah — you find some people that are given husn al-khatam, that are given a good ending. And the Prophet ﷺ said that when Allah loves a person, He guides him right before his death — and overlooks his entire life of disobedience. Some people have good in them but they don't have hidayah, they don't have guidance. The essential ingredient is missing. And Allah implants it in those last moments of their life in order to do away with everything that preceded it.

When Allah looks at you, you need to ask yourself: do I deserve husn al-khatam? Do I deserve a good ending with Allah? Do I deserve to have Allah push me to that khair, that goodness, in those last moments of my life? Because Allah knows what is in here. And Allah knows what I desire. And Allah knows what I want. And Allah will not set up a righteous servant who is truly righteous and sincere for failure. Allah pushed that good towards this man.

Were the 60 Years Useless?

Lastly, was the 60 years that came before useless? And this is probably the most troublesome part of this narration. How do you deal with the 60 years of worship? Meaning — is he in the same category as someone who would have disobeyed Allah for 60 years, and then just after committing zina for the last time, went to the masjid and gave that raghif, gave that bread in charity? Is he in the same standing as him?

And the ulama point out something very important here. The answer is no. Number one: it is because of those 60 years of worship that the man moved to repentance in the first place. The ma'rifah, the knowledge of Allah, was already inside of him. It was obscured by a temporary lapse. But at the end of the day, those roots were still there, and they came to fruition in those last moments of his life.

And this is a lesson for parents. May Allah protect our children — everyone say ameen. When you put in your children roots, good roots, and then they start to slip, and you say, "Ya Allah, where did I go wrong?" — bi-idhnillahi ta'ala, the good roots that you put there, they'll come back. They'll come back. It'll reel them back in, bi-idhnillahi ta'ala. Because those good roots do something to the engineering of the nafs and the heart — they instill that ma'rifah of Allah, that knowledge of Allah, that will hopefully catch them.

Closing Du'a

May Allah allow us to have our best of deeds be the last of them. May Allah give us husn al-khatam, a good ending. May Allah not allow us to fall victim to the despair of the shaytan. May Allah forgive us for all of our shortcomings and sins — the private ones and the public ones, the major ones and the minor ones. Allahumma ameen.