Jummah Khutbah: Should I Not Be A Grateful Slave?

Should I Not Be A Grateful Slave?

He narrates that he asked Aisha, our mother, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, a question, and he told her:

"Oh Aisha, tell us of one of the most strangest things you have seen from the Prophet ﷺ." And he says she paused for a minute — فَسَكَتَتْ — she paused and she remained quiet and she thought.

And then she says that when it was one of the nights, she says, the Prophet ﷺ told her:

"Oh Aisha, give me permission — allow me to worship my Lord tonight." So she responded by saying:

"I love you, I love your companionship — that closeness that we have. But I also love whatever pleases you, I also love whatever makes you happy." Because when you love someone, you will do things that may be at your own detriment for their happiness, for their pleasure. And so she says: I love you, I love your companionship, but I also love what you love.

And so she says فَقَامَ فَتَطَهَّرَ — so he stood up and he made wudu. And he began praying. And as he was praying, she says that he began crying so much until his beard was soaked in his tears — ثُمَّ بَكَى. And she says he then cried so much until the earth where he was standing, where he was praying, became wet from his tears.

And then she says, Bilal came to tell the Messenger of Allah about the time for Salat al-Fajr, and he also found him crying. So he says to him:

"Oh Messenger of Allah, why are you crying when Allah has already pardoned whatever has passed and what will come?" And he ﷺ responded:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 4837; Sahih Muslim, Book 4, Hadith 1828)

"Should I not be a very grateful slave to Allah?" And then he said: "Tonight an ayah was revealed — woe to the one who recites it and doesn't think upon it." And he mentioned the verse:

"That indeed in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of the night and the day, are signs for people of understanding."

The Prophet ﷺ Stood Until His Feet Split

In another hadith — a famous hadith that we've probably all heard before — Aisha, again our mother, narrates that the Prophet ﷺ stood up to pray at night:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1130; Sahih Muslim, Book 4, Hadith 1828)

Until his feet were literally splitting — meaning they swelled so much that there were cracks in the skin. And she told him the same thing: "O Messenger of Allah, why do you exert yourself to such a level when Allah has already pardoned what has passed and what may come?" And he again responded:

"Should I not be an abundantly grateful, a very very thankful slave of Allah?"

The First Step: Recognition

It's interesting — to get to that level, to that stage, the ulema talk about shukr and gratitude to Allah, and they say the first thing, or the first step in that process — that ultimate goal of where the Messenger of Allah ﷺ reached — is recognition. Is to recognize, as Allah says:

"Whatever it may be — whatever blessing you may have — it is from Allah."

I just had a conversation with a brother who — from the worldly sense, and mashallah may Allah increase him in his iman and his faith in Allah — but from a worldly sense he is very successful, very very successful in his business. And mashallah, what we see of him, and what I know of him, he's even better in his iman, mashallah. But when we were talking over dinner, he was saying subhanAllah: anybody who has had any sort of success in this world, they have to recognize that it is from the favor of Allah upon them. There's no difference between me and my classmate, or me and my fellow student in school, or fellow colleague at work — why I got the promotion, or why I got this or why I got that, why there was barakah in my business, why I got this contract. What is there? Looking back at your life, looking back at my life — what separates us? It's the fadl of Allah, the bounty of Allah that He has given us.

And that recognition is the first and key thing to understand and work towards — becoming grateful to Allah. Allah says:

"And Allah has given you whatever you ask for, and if you were to try and count the blessings of Allah, you wouldn't be able to do so." If we were to offer just our eyesight or our limbs or our ability to move or talk — how much would we pay for that? How much would we pay? We can't appreciate even one blessing of Allah, let alone all of them.

Musa ﷺ and the Question of Gratitude

That's why there is an interesting conversation. Allah, when He says in Surah Al-A'raf, He says about Musa ﷺ:

Allah says: "Oh Musa, I have chosen you with My message and My words, so take what I have given you and be amongst the grateful — be amongst the grateful." So you know what Musa ﷺ said? And this shows you the first step of recognition. He says:

"Oh my Lord, how can I possibly be grateful to You? And the smallest bounty You have given me — how can I be grateful when even the smallest bounty You have given me — all of my deeds, all that I have done — the Nabi of Allah from Ulu al-'Azm min al-Rusul, from the five greatest messengers — he says all of my deeds would not be enough to thank You for simply one, the smallest blessing upon me." And it is mentioned in this narration that it was revealed to Musa:

"Oh Musa, now you have given Me thanks." That recognition — وَمَا بِكُمْ مِنْ نِعْمَةٍ فَمِنَ اللَّهِ — whatever blessings you have is from Allah.

The Richest People in History Had Less Than We Do

One of the shuyukh posted this very powerful post — I thought — in which he said: if Kisra, the ruler of Persia, slept in your bed, what would he think of his bed? He slept with all the technology that we have in our mattresses — one side can be firm, one side can be soft, memory foam, all sorts of fancy coils. If the king of Persia slept in your bed, what would he think of his bed?

He said: if Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, simply walked into a jewelry store, what would she think of that collection of jewelry? If Caesar was impressed by himself sitting down with slaves fanning him on a hot summer day, what would he think when he comes to your home and sees your lazy boy recliner and the AC set at a cool 72? These are the richest people in our history — the kings and the royalty and those who have amassed wealth upon wealth.

What would the king of Arabia think with all his beautiful herds of stallions and horses, and as he's traveling in the desert, he sees a beat-up old Toyota Corolla driving next to him? Don't you think if that technology was there the kings would fight for that one Corolla to drive — sit comfortably and have AC? Yet we have riches well beyond — we have things at our service now well beyond what the kings and the queens of the past have had. Yet we find our hearts wanting more, and not pausing and reflecting and thanking Allah for what He's given us.

The Second Step: Thanking Allah with the Tongue

The second step in this journey of gratitude is to use your tongue to thank Allah. And that's what many of us perceive shukr — gratitude — to be: to say alhamdulillah wa shukrulillah. But first is the recognition, then second is using your tongue to thank Allah. Say to Allah: "Oh Allah, to You is thanks and praise. I was poor and You gave me self-sufficiency. Oh Allah, I was misguided and You guided me. Oh Allah, I was hungry and You fed me. Oh Allah, I was naked and You clothed me. Oh Allah, I was ignorant and You taught me."

These are all things that — subhanAllah — even the drop of water that we have from the faucet, wherever stream or river it comes from — that was written by Allah 50,000 years before the creation of the heavens and the earth, that that would be for you. That orange you buy from the store, that grew from some soil in Florida and was shipped over here over whatever period of time — and you open that orange and you gave one slice to your son and one to your daughter, one to your wife, and one to yourself — that one slice that your son ate, Allah had decreed and written that slice of the orange to be for him 50,000 years before the creation of the heavens and the earth.

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2577 — Hadith Qudsi)

"All of you are hungry except for those whom I have given food. All of you are without clothing except for those whom I have given clothing." So — recognizing with our tongue, and thanking Allah.

The Third Step: Gratitude Through Action

And thirdly — by action. Interestingly, Allah, after counting and mentioning the blessings of Allah upon Dawud ﷺ and his family and the Anbiya, Sulaiman ﷺ, He says:

"Oh family of Dawud, work — do gratitude, do gratitude — and how few of My slaves are those who are very thankful to Me." But what does that mean? Do gratitude. Go back to the narration that we started the khutbah with — the Prophet ﷺ is standing to a point where his feet are swelling. Why? أَفَلَا أَكُونُ عَبْدًا شَكُورًا — to give thanks to Allah. So it goes beyond just the tongue, but also in your deeds.

You know, the opposite of shukr in the Arabic language is kufr. And we know kufr to mean disbelief. And the greatest ingratitude is disbelief in Allah, and therefore the greatest gratitude to Allah is belief in Allah. And with belief comes the actions.

And when you find this — the Prophet ﷺ has mentioned that whenever good news would come to him, whenever he was given glad tidings, what would he do? He would immediately fall into prostration and give thanks to Allah. He would make sujud — not just say alhamdulillah — he would make sujud and thank Allah. There is action coupled with the tongue.

And it's this component that pushes us to be able to worship more. There is a huge difference between someone who wakes up for Salat al-Fajr because they have to — because they are fearful of the punishment on the Day of Judgment, or fearful of their danda from their mom, or fearful of getting slapped by their dad — and the case of someone who, when the alarm goes off, jumps up out of bed to worship Allah out of love for Allah, out of recognition of Allah's bounty upon him. It's a completely different parallel.

And that's why when you remove gratitude from worship, you lose the sweetness of worship. Do you think the Prophet's feet were not hurting when he stood that long? You better believe they were. Absolutely they were. If any of you have stood for tarawih or tahajjud in Ramadan, and the imam is praying a long prayer — 30 minutes, maybe 45 minutes, an hour for two rak'ahs — your back hurts, your legs hurt, your feet go numb. But what pushes someone to keep worshipping despite the pain?

If you play sports — basketball, soccer, cricket, whatever it is — in the course of the game you may get fatigued and tired. You're hot, you're sweaty, you're uncomfortable, you may sprain your ankle. But you want to keep on playing because of the competitive nature of the game, because you enjoy what you're doing. But the next day, if your mom asks you to wash the dishes — it's like the greatest musibah alive. And it's just cool water, maybe three spoons, that's all you have to do. But it's difficult. But playing basketball for three hours straight is very easy. It's that difference in our appreciation of what we're doing.

So how can we go to the point where, just like in our physical activity we may have pain but we keep doing it and we enjoy it, our worship is the same? Because once you have gratitude built in — and that love for Allah built in — then despite the pain, you continue to do what you're doing because you enjoy it so much. That's why Aisha preferred the Prophet ﷺ over herself — because she loved the Messenger of Allah. We love Allah. We will continue to worship Allah and improve in our worship of Allah and the quality of our worship of Allah.

The Story of Abu Qilaba al-Jarmi

There is a narration from Ibn Hibban, from Awza'i, from one of the Tabi'een. He was stationed in Egypt, in ribat, and he was going back to Medina. As he's going back, he comes across this tattered, broken-down-looking tent, and he heard someone from inside making du'a. And the du'a the person was saying was:

He heard this man making du'a, saying: "Oh Allah, I ask You to give me the ability to praise You — a praise that would encompass thanking You for Your blessings upon me, and that You favor me over much of mankind."

And so the man — curious, his name is Abdullah ibn Muhammad — the soldier, he goes and looks in the tent to see who is making this du'a in this broken-down tent that is his home. And he finds a man who has no limbs — his arms and his legs are lost — and he is blind. And he says salam to him, and then he says: "What are you thanking Allah for? What are you asking Allah to give you the ability to thank Him for His blessings upon you, when you live in the middle of a desert, in a broken-down tent, with no limbs and no eyesight?" The narration even says the man was hard of hearing.

And then the man responds, and in summary he says: should I not thank Allah for this tongue that I have, that allows me to make remembrance of Him — for simply having the tongue?

And then the man tells him — he says: "But, oh so-and-so, can I ask you a favor? My son takes care of me — you see me in my state — and he hasn't come home in three days. He brings water for me to make wudu, he feeds me when I'm hungry, and he gives me drink when I'm thirsty. But I haven't seen him in three days. Can you go look for him?" So he says: "Of course — there is no better reward than helping someone like this." So he goes to look for the boy, and he finds that the boy had been caught by lions and eaten.

And so he's coming back to the tent, thinking: what can I tell this man? What am I supposed to tell a person whose only companion is his son, and his son is now gone? And so he thought of Ayub ﷺ, the prophet of Allah — Ayub — who Allah tested in his wealth, his health, and his family. And he asks: أَأَنْتَ أَكْرَمُ عِنْدَ اللهِ أَمْ أَيُّوبُ النَّبِيُّ؟ — "Are you more honored in the sight of Allah, or Ayub ﷺ?" And he says: "Of course, Ayub." Then he says: "Did not Allah test Ayub ﷺ with loss of wealth, health, and family? And he lived in the outskirts of the town, he was kind of banished from the city." And he mentions all the tests that Allah put Ayub ﷺ through, and the man agrees. Then: "How did Allah find Ayub ﷺ?" And he says:

"He found him patient, grateful, and praising Allah — despite what he was going through."

And after continuing to build the man up, the man just said: "Look — just tell me, man. What's going on? What happened to my son?" And he tells him what happened. And so the man of the tent — and this is again, when you internalize that sense of gratitude — he says in response:

"I praise and thank Allah that Allah did not create from my progeny, from my children, someone who will grow up to sin against Allah and then Allah may punish him with the Hellfire." And then he let out a sigh, and he passed away right there.

And Abdullah ibn Muhammad says that now he's thinking — what do I do? The man is alone in the desert. So he covers the man's face and he's thinking, how do I bury him and wash him? And four other men come by from the Tabi'een, and he calls them down and tells them the whole story. They say: "Show us the person." And when they uncover the sheet from the face, they jump down from their horses and begin kissing the man — crying and crying — saying: "This is a man who, when he had eyesight, would spend his nights in sujood, crying to Allah."

And so Abdullah tells them: "Who is this person?" And they tell him that this man was Abu Qilaba al-Jarmi, rahimahu Allahu ta'ala. He was a student of Ibn Abbas. He was told to be a judge in Iraq, but he didn't want that, so he moved to Egypt. And Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz even said about him: "You will as an ummah continue to be in a good situation, so long as you have amongst you the like of this man."

So the four or five of them together buried him — they did the ghusl, they prayed the janazah, and then they moved on.

But subhanAllah — that night, Abdullah had a dream in which he saw Abu Qilaba. He saw him smiling and in beautiful clothes. And he heard the verse being recited:

"Peace be upon you for what you were patient in this world — and what a beautiful home you have now in the hereafter." And then Abu Qilaba — the man who died — tells Abdullah, the one who helped him and is now seeing him in the dream:

"To Allah belongs ranks — meaning Allah will give ranks to certain individuals — that will not be reached except by showing patience when you are tested, and by giving gratitude to Allah in times of ease, coupled with fearing Allah and being aware of Allah in both the secret and the public."

When the Heart Is Overwhelmed with Gratitude

When the heart is overwhelmed with gratitude to Allah and recognition of the gifts He has given you — again and again and again — then and only then, brothers and sisters, can we reach such a level of iman that we are pushed to worship Allah more. We worship Allah out of love and not out of fear. We worship Allah, and we long for those moments that we can worship Him.

Allah says:

Allah has declared: "If you give thanks to Allah, He will most definitely increase you." Increase you in what? Increase you in worldly bounty. Increase you in tawfiq to continue worshipping Allah. And increase you in tawfiq to keep giving thanks to Allah.

Second Part of the Khutbah

The Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2346; classified as hasan by al-Tirmidhi)

He says ﷺ: "Whoever amongst you wakes up that morning physically healthy, feeling safe and secure, and with food for that day — food for that day only — it is as if he has been given the whole world, as if he has been given the whole world."

Practical Takeaways

So brothers and sisters, let us take some practical tips home from this khutbah.

First: Ask Allah to Help You Be Grateful

Before even the shukr, we learn from the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ and from the Qur'an that Allah taught us to ask Allah to help us be grateful servants. When Mu'adh ibn Jabal was told by the Prophet ﷺ — "Oh Mu'adh, I love you" — and you see how he shows his love by giving him something of benefit for his akhira — he says: "So let me teach you these words. Don't let any salah come across you except that after the salah you say:"

"Oh Allah, I ask You to help me in remembering You, and being grateful to You, and in worshipping You excellently." So we ask Allah to make us amongst those who show gratefulness to Allah.

Second: The Three Forms of Shukr

As we talked about — the three forms, or three ways, in which we have to develop shukr in our lives:

Number one — the recognition that everything is from Allah.
Number two — with our tongues.
Number three — let our actions testify to the gratefulness we have to Allah by continuing to worship Him.

A Closing Hadith Qudsi

Ibn Taymiyyah also mentions this, and he mentions that it has come in some ahadith — a hadith qudsi — that Allah says:

"Those who remember Me are those as if they are in My gathering. Those who give thanks to Me — those I will increase. Those who obey Me are those who will get the blessings from Allah. And those who sin against Me — I do not ever make them despair of My mercy. If they turn to Me in repentance, then I am their most beloved. And if they don't turn to Me in repentance, then I am their Doctor, their physician" — وَإِنْ لَمْ يَتُبْ فَأَنَا طَبِيبُهُمْ — "I test them with some trials so that through these difficulties I will pardon their sins."

Du'a

We ask Allah to make us among those who are grateful to Allah, who recognize His blessings upon us, who don't use those blessings to sin against Allah, but rather use those blessings in worship and in increase of our deeds in this world.

Oh Allah, we ask You to make us among those who are thankful, who are grateful, who are workers in this world — those who seek to guide and those who are guided. Oh Allah, we ask You for blessings in this world and the hereafter, and save us from the punishment of the Fire.

وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ